Do I have to be saved to be a Christian?

‘Being saved’ is pretty much the same as ‘being born again’ in Christian jargon, I think. Both of them sound a bit like religious gobbledy-gook and can get over-used, but both of them have a genuine Biblical meaning which is important.

Both of them refer to a person making a genuine, personal choice to follow Jesus, and what He does for us when we make this choice.

When we say sorry to Jesus for the things we’ve done wrong, and ask for His forgiveness, and accept Him as our Saviour and our Lord, then we become Christians. Through Jesus’ death on the cross for us, God is able to forgive us and we are ‘saved’, meaning, I suppose, that we are saved from the punishment for those sins I.e. Hell. We are also ‘born again’ as children of God, filled with the Holy Spirit so that we now live in His strength rather than our own.

So my answer to the question is that everyone who has repented and accepted Jesus as their Saviour and Lord is both ‘saved’ and ‘born again’.

It’s perfectly possible to go along to church and believe in a lot of Christian-type stuff without having made this personal committment to Jesus. I guess that’s why some peple make being ‘saved’ as the marker for actually being a ‘Christian’ - the people who like the social life and the morality of church aren’t necessarily truly following, or saved by, Jesus.

I went to church for the first 18 years of my life before I was ‘saved’, although that’s not usually the phrase I would use.

The problem with using these phrases is that although they represent the truth of our relationship with God in Jesus, sometimes they can be used to divide us in very human ways. Churches can sometimes fall into the trap of saying ‘you’re only ‘saved’ if you believe what we believe, or worship the way we worship’.

I believe that the truth is in Jesus and the Bible, not in one particular church. Each person needs to come to Jesus for themeselves - turning to Jesus is what being ‘saved’ is.

I clicked on this post to try to give a logical and loving answer, but when I read Flossheal’s answer I thought “there’s no way I can touch that” and I don’t think anyone else can or needs to. YOU GO GIRL!!! Grace and Peace to you all from God our Father and The Lord Jesus Christ.

is that the same as asking if you have to be christian to be saved?

Here is a pretty good explaination of it. . . http://christianresources.i8.com/save/how.html

Yep that’s all part of the plan.

What does that mean?