Are You Saved When You Are "Born Again"?

Are You saved, when you are born again?

There is so much controversy over salvation, what it is, how to receive it, is it forever, can you lose it?

Most churches and most professing to be Christians equate being “born again” with salvation..

Most people have been taught that water baptism is a public show of their faith.

Many people are taught and even more people believe that water baptism is not necessary.

And then very many have been taught to not believe in the baptism in the holy Spirit or that He is not for today..

Some churches teach you cannot lose your salvation.

Some churches teach you can lose your salvation.

Since there is so much confusion, lets see what scriptures have to say about this doctrine so we can know the truth.

Ye Must Be Born Again

The bible tells us that in order to enter the kingdom of God one must be born again. So in order to become a Christian, a Christ follower, then we must be born again.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

You must believe in Him

The first step is to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the Savior of whosoever will. That you are a sinner in need of a Savior. This means that not only do you believe He is the Son of God but that you are willing to follow Him

Mark 1:14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,

Mark 16:15-16

5 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved;

You must Repent

After you believe you must repent, be truly sorry for your current and past sins and ask to be forgiven.

When you ask, He forgives you and cleanses you from all your unrighteousness so now you stand before God as a righteous son.

Matt4 :17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Mark 1:14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You must be baptized in Water

Next you must be baptized by immersion in water. A local,pond, a lake, a river, a swimming pool, it does not matter where, but you must be, preferably right away by the person responsible for your conversion . There are two reasons for this baptism in water. One-- Scripture requires it and two- Your hard natural heart of man is circumsized during the baptism, allowing it to receive the things of God,

John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

Mark 16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved;

Acts 2: 38 "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins;

Col 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcizion of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

You must be Baptized in the Holy Spirit

The next step, being baptized in the Holy Spirit usually takes place after, but can take place at the same time as water baptism, and can occur before. If it occurs at the same time as water baptism they will come out of the water speaking in tongues. We must have this baptism, because it is at this time that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. He comes then to live in us. Two things happen, (Acts 1) He gives us the “power” to be a Christian and He will teach us ALL truth.

Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;

Are we ”saved” Yet ?

Here are some of the scriptures that talk about who is “saved. If you will notice all but one say will or shall be saved. And the other one Acts 2 vs 47 talks about those that are being saved.

All three of these words refer to salvation as a future act, will, shall and are being. So lets look at the Greek words for these 3 .

Interestingly all three of these are from one greek word.

NT:4982 sozo (sode'-zo); from a primary sos (contraction for obsolete saoz, "safe"); to save, i.e. deliver or protect (literally or figuratively):

This word means to save, deliver or protect. Can you be saved , delivered or protected from something that does not exist? Can the phrase endures to the end have a different meaning? Its clear and there are more scriptures than these here that say that.

Matt 24:13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Mark 13: And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Mark 16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved

John 10: 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved,

Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.

Acts 2:47 And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Acts 11:14 who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.

Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they."

Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,

Rom 5:9 having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Then we have these scriptures , what are we to do with them? They clearly say we are BEING SAVED.

Mark 13:20 And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

1 Cor 1:18 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

2 Cor 2:15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing

I cant find scripture to say that anyone is yet “saved”. I find a multitude of scriptures that say we are being saved, that we shall be saved and that we will be saved, if we endure to the end. But there are none that say we have been saved and we will always be saved, and can not lose it.

Conclusion

So what can we conclude from this look at scripture? I cannot see how we can reach an other conclusion but that there are steps to salvation and it is a process that goes on throughout our lives. And if we take advantage of these steps, which make us into Spiritual people, with the ability to receive the things of God , the power to fulfill them and the ability to understand ALL truth, when we die or if the Day of the Lord comes during our lifetime, and we endure until the end,we will, no, we SHALL be SAVED. But also we see that being Born again is not being saved, it is the first step towards our eventual salvation.

Note- I don't know if a deathbed salvation is valid or not, it appears that it may be, but we do not have a direct answer on that. Why would anyone want to take a chance on that. I hope it is, I will continue to work toward that if it is the only option, but I cannot guarantee anyone that it is in fact true.

BUT if you follow the steps above and endure to the end I can guarantee THAT YOU WILL BE SAVED, because GOD SAYS so.

I would also ask can you lose something you have not yet received?