(5) When we believe in Him we are saved.

Then we saw what it means to be saved, under four headings :

Justification - God looks on us as though we are righteous.

Reconciliation - We are no longer enemies of God; peace has been made.

Redemption - We are freed from being servants of sin to serve God.

Forgiveness - Our sins are forgiven; we are no longer debtors.

We have looked at Romans 6:23 before, but have only so far read the first part of the verse. Now we must

look at the whole verse :

`The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord'.

Eternal life is a gift from God which we accept by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Read John 3:16 again.

The opposite of eternal life is `death' (in Romans 6:23) and `perish' (in John 3:16). There is no middle way, it

is either life or death. This has always been so.

In the garden of Eden there were two trees, the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Read what is said of these two trees in Genesis 3:22 and 2:17 :

`take ... of the tree of life and eat, and live for ever' (3:22).

`the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou

shalt surely die' (2:17).

Adam had a choice of life or death; he chose death. Each one of us makes a choice also. We choose either

life or death.

It may seem at first that all people will choose life, for surely nobody would choose death, but this is not so.

Read John 5:39,40 :

`Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And

ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life'.

Life can only be had in the Lord Jesus Christ, and here were some men who would not go to Him for life. They

refused to believe in Him. (Read verse 38). The question of having or not having life is put in 1 John 5:11,12 :

`God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath

not the Son of God hath not life'.

Our relationship to Adam means death. God has cancelled this death in Christ Who gives life. By accepting

Him as the One Whom God gave, we accept the gift of eternal life in Him. Not to possess Christ in this way

means not possessing eternal life for `He that hath not the Son of God hath not life'. Let us be sure that we

choose life in Him.

We have already said that God will not condemn a person for being a sinner because he has descended from

Adam. God judges a person by what he chooses to be, when he either accepts or rejects the Lord Jesus Christ.

If life can only be found in Christ, then he who rejects Him, rejects the only means of life. Read 1 John 5:11,12

In

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we would all die. Without light we could not live. This explains why one of the names of the Lord Jesus is `the

Light of the world'. Read John 8:12 :

`Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk

in darkness, but shall have the light of life'.