05 08 08 What Does It Mean to be Saved?


“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
(Revelation 2:20 NIV)

Is this a verse for salvation? Was Christ giving the Laodicean church an invitation?

History and Bible scholars tells us those members of this church were indeed saved. We would like to believe that most members of our New Testament churches today are as well. First, if people have truly put their faith in Christ, and they understand that he alone can save them from their sins, then of course they are saved. The problem is that many people cling to the symbol but never understand the reality it is intended to represent. I myself asked for years; “WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SAVED?”

Most likely, tens of thousands of people have "invited Christ into [their] hearts," thinking that some warm and fuzzy feeling or even an emotional experience is what saves them. They go on their merry way, living their lives as they did before. If you were to ask them, "How do you know that you are going to heaven?" they would respond, "Because I invited Christ into my heart." But if you probe, there is nothing beneath the shallowness of that reply. They did what someone told them to do, but never really embraced the Savior. Many people have allegedly received Christ into their hearts without understanding what that means or what the gospel means. Salvation comes from placing one’s faith in a person, namely Jesus Christ (believing He is God and coming down from heaven in the form of a man, suffered a brutal death of crucifixion as a sacrifice for our sin, and then physically rose from the dead and assumed back into heaven). His gift of the Holy Spirit then indwells every believer to guide us in holy living.

Revelation 3:20 is addressed to the church—to believers. This is a call to fellowship with the Savior. As an invitation to all Christians, it’s a call to repent, as commanded in Rev. 3:19. It is a call for confession of one’s sins with a renewal of mind and heart to continue to draw upon the glorious life of Christ daily through walking by the Spirit and living in the Word. It means abiding in Christ, the vine (John 15:1-7). Many have the opinion that one is saved as prevention from going to hell. It’s not fire insurance as one of my teachers will say. To follow Christ is place a trust in the Savior, allow Him to be Lord over one’s life, and make a commitment to turn from the sins of which we seek forgiveness.

Because so many of us continue to live such a wretched lifestyle (while claiming Christianity) the world is confused and they ask: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SAVED? We as believers must first be able to explain the Gospel clearly, and then live a life that clearly reflects it. Here is Jesus’ prayer for every believer:

My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one,
Father––that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us,
and the world will believe you sent me.
(John 17:21 NLT)