Sooooo, ya think you can save your own soul, do ya?

Of course, you wouldn’t put it that way, but if you are depending on your “clean living, church attendance, Bible knowledge, staying sober, giving money to charity, being friends with religious friends, etc., to save you, and if you are stopping there, then you are appointing yourself your own savior.

One second after you draw your last breath on earth, neither your pastor, priest, rabbi, imam, etc. can do a single thing to save you. Nada.

Oh, they may wax eloquently at your funeral about what a good man you were in life. They may pray over your casket, sprinkle holy water on your remains, and hundreds of people may attend your memorial.

But NONE of that will mean anything TO YOU one second after you die.

The ONLY thing that will matter is your personal relationship with Jesus Christ that had been, hopefully, established by a personal act of faith in Him and commitment to Him, while you were still alive.

Otherwise, as written in Job 7:6-7:

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is a mere breath; My eye will not see goodness again.”

“Where O Death, is your sting?”

You see, Jesus Christ is the only authentic Savior who could do the heavy lifting of defeating the power of death over you.

Sooner or later, Death comes to everyone, like a mafia bill collector who lands on your doorstep to collect payment in full to settle your accumulated debts (through sin).

As explained in Hebrews 2:13-15, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself (Jesus) likewise also partook of the same (flesh and blood), so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Only the One, who thinks nothing of walking on water, can carry you across “the raging river (of death) and into the promised land (Heaven).”

But you have a critical part to play — you need to jump into His arms now, before it is too late. This calls for a personal act of faith in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, completely abandoning all hopes of saving yourself.

Even a lifetime felon can do that as follows in Luke 23:39-43:

“One of the criminals (who refused Christ) who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, ‘Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!’ But the other (who received Christ) responded, and rebuking him, said, ‘Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation (he confessed)? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes (he accepted God’s righteous judgment); but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 

And he was saying, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!’ And He (Jesus) said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’”

What Jesus has ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED FOR YOU.

Because many of us don’t understand the spiritual work on the cross already finished by Christ, we fall into the trap of thinking we must do something to “earn” our salvation. Big oversight!

Christians know that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day — Praise the Lord!

But there is even more to what He did for us. As I wrote in my book, My Origin, My Destiny, our “sin problem” goes way back:

“Cosmic Challenges: This was … a problem between God and the serpent, with man caught in the middle. While man opened the floodgates, he could never have the known the dimensions of the problem he created — a problem that locked cosmic superpowers in a duel to the death in which only one side could emerge the victor. This was winner-take-all, with no possibility of a negotiated settlement or of dividing up the spoils.”

“Adam was way over his head here, as evidenced by his belief that his fig leaves, hiding places, and blame-evasion schemes would have the slightest effect in such a war of the worlds. Consider the cosmic-scale challenges (brought on by Adam’s rebellion) that lay before him:

• Sin had to be put away.
• The evil serpent needed to be killed.
• God’s claims for righteousness had to be met.
• Death had to be abolished.
• Righteous authority needed to be re-established over the earth.
• Man’s conscience needed to be cleansed once and for all.”

How About You?

In view of the cosmic challenges above, which were all tackled brilliantly by Christ on the cross, do you really think you can afford to die (or live) without Him?