Top 7 Bible Verses About Salvation

What are seven of the most powerful Bible verses about salvation?  What are ones you might include?   Here are some of the best Bible verses about salvation.

Saved from What?

We are saved or born again but what exactly are we saved from?  The fact is that we are not just saved from going to hell, we are not saved only from our sins, but we are actually saved from the wrath of God.  Paul wrote that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18).  Jesus warned that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).  There is a day coming when God will come “out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain” (Isaiah 26:11) and He will “execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them” (Ezk 25:17). That is why we should “not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28).

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

When I give the Sunday morning message, I must rely on God’s Word when I speak about salvation because “the power of God to salvation [is] for everyone who believes,” and does not depend upon human power. If I relied only on human power, then there would be no real power in the message about salvation.  God gives us His unconditional promise about His Word, saying, “My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

One thing I never noticed much about these verses is the fact that we have no right to boast.  I am thankful that our salvation doesn’t depend upon works because I would still be lost for I could never do enough good to save myself.   When I received a birthday present, it was a gift. I did nothing to earn it. I didn’t cause my own birth and so I couldn’t boast or brag about being born, so in the same way, we are saved by God’s gift. We couldn’t have ever earned it.  We didn’t have to work for it, therefore that leaves us no room to brag. The only thing that I could have ever produced by works is self-righteousness, which to God is a bunch of filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

Romans 10:9-10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

There is one thing that we do bring to our salvation.  Our sins!  Other than that, we can only confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead and only then are we saved.  It is because of our “mouth confession is made unto salvation” and our mouth confesses this publicly.  We are not commanded to be underground Christians or be a secret agent believer but we must confess Him as Lord to everyone we know.  Why is this confession with the mouth important?  The reason is made clear by what Jesus said: “whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 10:33), therefore our mouth must declare to all that “Jesus is Lord” for with our “mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Malachi 3:6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”

At first glance, this verse might not seem to be about salvation but the fact is that God does not change His mind  about us once we are saved (Rom 8:37-39; John 6:37, 39, 10:28-29).   He is not like a man who can change his mind and break his promise. Once God saves, they stay saved, and God’s promises are sure and He cannot lie.  We can trust God in what He says because “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill” (Numb 23:19)?  It is “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail” (Lam 3:22).

Second Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Imagine how God saw us before we were saved.  Our hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9) and we were “following the stubbornness of [our] evil hearts instead of obeying [Him]” (Jer 16:12), however once we repented and put our trust in Christ (John 3:16) God then saw us as having the same righteousness as Jesus Christ.  We had imputed toward us Jesus’ own righteousness and so when God looks at us now, after being born again (John 3:3), He sees us as having the same righteousness as Jesus has.  It was because Jesus became sin for us so that we could “become the righteousness of God in [Christ].  This is the only way that God will accept us for no unclean thing will ever enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Eph 5:5; Rev 21:27).

Acts 16:30b-31 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

This is a question that all of us who are saved must have once asked and I hope that those who are not yet saved will ask someday.  If somebody asked you how they might be saved, would you know what to tell them?  What Bible verse would come to mind?  The interesting thing in these verses is the often overlooked word “believe” which comes from the Greek word “pisteuō” and means “to be persuaded, to credit to,” or “place confidence” in the thing that you believe in.  To believe is to trust in, to acknowledge Him, and then place that trust or credit to Him in whom you believe with confidence.

Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

It is most certainly not politically correct to think that Jesus is the one and only way to be saved, but don’t be as amazed that He is the only way but that there is even “a” way to be saved.  Sorry Buddha, sorry Mohammed, sorry Gandhi, sorry Confucius, you are all wrong and only Jesus is the way.  I could believe that 2 + 2 = 5 but there is only one right answer, regardless of what I believe.  Jesus said that “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He is not one of the ways, He is not one of many ways, nor is He a way.He is the one and only way to the Father Who is in heaven.  This is why we can only “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matt 7:13=14). Notice that the gate to the Father is narrow but the path that leads to destruction is easy to take and that’s why it’s so wide and “those who enter by it are many.” Conversely, the way to the Father is narrow, hard, and only a few will find it. There are not many paths to God; there is only one path and it must be through Jesus Christ because there is no “other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be [or can be] saved.” Even if I concede that there are two ways to God then let me factually tell you; one is to the New Jerusalem (Rev 21, 22) and the other is to the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-15).

Conclusion

I left out so many important verses like John 3:16, John3:3, Romans 6:23, 2 Cor 6:2 and numerous others.  These above verses and those in this article would be great ones to commit to memory so that when someone asks you “What must I do to be saved?”  you can tell them, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon