Excerpt of a Newly Christian
I was very confused when I started reading the Bible, I had no idea what was the difference between the Old and New Testament, so I tried to satisfy my curiosity by finding out about the points that concerned me the most.
“OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT”? Since I was serious about getting to know God I needed to know what these books that form the Bible are about.
In short, the Old Testament covers from the beginning of creation until Moses’s times and the life of the people chosen by God, the Father, as his people; the Jewish and the New Testament covers from Jesus’s times till the present, and the future of humankind.
Another very intriguing concept to me was the difference between the Jewish and the regular believer(Gentiles), so this brought me to the following question:
What’s a Christian?
The essential difference between Jews and Christians is that Christians accept Jesus as The Messiah and personal savior. On the other hand, Jesus is not part of Jewish theology. Amongst Jews, Jesus is not considered a divine being. Therefore all holidays that have a connection to the life of Jesus are not part of Jewish life such as Christmas, Easter, Lent, Advent, Palm Sunday, etc.
Judaism originates as a result of the covenant between God and Abraham. The Bible (Hebrew Bible which doesn't include New Testament for reasons stated previously) is our sacred literature. The relationship between the Jewish people and God is documented in the text. In the Bible, the history, culture, language, theology, and practices of the Jewish people are presented.
More importantly, I needed to know what are the implication of salvation? what should I do to be saved?
I found that the most important factor involved in salvation is that one must believe that Jesus is the son of God and that He died for our sins, therefore whoever believes in Him has his sins forgiven and can have eternal life.
A few Bible’s texts that mentioned this are:
1 John 5:11 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
John 5:24 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Romans 3:22 “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.”
Consequently, anyone who believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that He dies for us, so our sins are forgiven is immediately under the Grace of God, which is the most important concept in the Bible, Christianity, and the world. Then - What is God's Grace? In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who deserves the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves. Grace means God sending His only Son to descend into hell on the cross so that we guilty ones might be reconciled to God and received into heaven. ‘(God) hath made him be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him’" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
What does the Bible say? The best description of Grace is found in Romans 3:22-24 ”This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”.
And in (Ephesians 1:7) "In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace”.
(Ephesians 2:8-10) "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do".
In Summary, salvation means having all our sins forgiven at once REGARDLESS of the type of sins, ALL OF THEM WIPEOUT, it means having eternal life, it means we all can receive it REGARDLESS of our nature, and IT IS THERE, FREELY OFFERED for us to take it because Jesus already paid for it, ANYONE who believes can be saved ...
Anonymous.