The Unfiltered Jesus on Salvation & Discipleship

Why aren’t we paying a great deal more attention to what Jesus has to say about salvation?

What is the definition of salvation for most, if not all Christians? Simply stated, it is being in the presence of Jesus in heaven for the rest of eternity when our mortal lives are completed. The problem we run into is how to attain this salvation, and how we can be assured of retaining it. There are twenty centuries of solutions for this problem, but the human condition usually buys into the one that requires the least from us: a three-point prayer that leads to irrevocable salvation. Lots of Christians are taught that good works don’t count toward our salvation. Lots of Christians are taught that the Old Testament Law doesn’t matter anymore. We are taught that if we will just focus on Jesus, everything will “reveal itself,” and we’ll be fine! So, if we’re really going to focus on Jesus, we’ll need to take a much closer look at the things he has to say about salvation!

Since Jesus was a Jew, we need to look at what Jesus says about salvation from a Jewish perspective. Remember; when Jesus was active in ministry for three years, he had not yet gone to the Cross. What we call “Cross and Blood Atonement” wasn’t accomplished yet. As Christians, we tend to look at Jesus from a “victor over the grave; anyone who believes in him will be victorious too” standpoint. This is the truth, for sure! Unfortunately, we don’t spend much time with how Jesus teaches belief, salvation, and assurance. This requires us to closely examine what Jesus teaches us prior to the Cross. He has lots to say, and the balance of our eternal security lies within the scales of his teachings. If we follow only the teachings we like (cherry-picking), we do so at our eternal peril. But if we’ll thoroughly study them, we’ll have more hope and joy in Jesus than we’ve ever experienced before!

Imagine trying to get to know the Jesus who lived twenty centuries ago. He never wrote anything himself that we know of, but people have been writing about him for two thousand years. Sometimes what Jesus said becomes an old-fashioned game of “Telephone;” where kids sit in a circle, and one kid whispers a message to the kid on her right, and by the time the message gets whispered to the twentieth kid, the message is completely changed from the original one. Imagine now, instead of it being a circle of twenty kids, it’s a circle of twenty centuries of Christians arguing over who Jesus is!

How many different theologians, doctrines, and denominations have arisen over the course of Christian history? How many different interpretations of what Jesus said are there? How many different languages and scriptural translations are there? Several times over the centuries, when a theological doctrine or movement began, a contrary theological doctrine would arise within a century or so. The point is this: even if you could narrow Christian thought down to only two new movements per century, it would add up to forty opinions since Jesus spoke!

There are children’s books which have pictures of places that are crammed with people, cars, and other objects. The challenge for the children is to find a dog or a cat in the picture. Think about what it would be like if the picture was of all the theologians, popes, denominational leaders, and countless others after twenty centuries. But this time, instead of “Find the cat, or dog,” the task would be to “Find Jesus!”

Imagine that you are participating at an archeological dig. You know the object you’re looking for; but you’re hoping to find the spot where it’s been buried for centuries. Then the wonderful day arrives when you know the object will be in your hands. But as you get closer to the object, you discover things that you didn’t know about it. As it finally comes up out of the ground, you “dis-cover” that the object is more magnificent than you imagined it to be. You were satisfied with what you thought the object was, but now you are totally amazed with what it actually is. Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to finding treasure or a very valuable pearl (Matthew 13:44–46), and making sure it doesn’t get lost!

What didhe say directly about Salvation? This book is an attempt to discover what Jesus taught about attaining Eternal Life! There are no footnotes, no academic language, and no quotations from anyone other than Jesus. Just biblical quotations from him, without twenty centuries of conflicting opinions.