Why do I need Jesus (Y-shua) to be saved anyway? If I am a good person won�t I make it into heaven? Since you all like fighting each other who cares about your theology, I man why Jesus (Y-shua) what makes him the final authority can�t I just be a good person? I mean really what makes this Christian stuff true anyway?
I would have to ask what it means to be saved in the first place. Many Christians would tell you that it means something like accepting Jesus as your savior, believing Jesus died for your sins and making Him the King of your life, or whatever other miscarriage of truth they might conjure up.
The Scriptures uses the word in 47 verses (KJV). It usually means to be saved to live or to be set free.
The New Testament uses it 57 times., (KJV) It almost always means to deliver or protect.
Why were the apostles wondering about who would be saved before Jesus died and rose? Mat_19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
What did the crowd at Jesus' crucifixion mean when they shouted, "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him." Mat_27:42 and in Mar_15:31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Luk_23:35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
How were these people saved and from what were they saved? What made the disciples or the mockers think Jesus had saved anyone when He hadn't died on the cross yet?
Joh_3:17 "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." Is this a different "saved"?
According to Christian doctrine we need Jesus to be saved because our salvation is dependent on the shedding of His blood and His resurrection from the dead. Of all the writings in the New Testament only Paul talks about this. Peter and Jude do not mention the blood at all.
Acts16:31 " And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Salvation has to come through believing ON Jesus not IN Jesus. According to the Greek in these verses this would mean that our faith should be toward, or resting upon, Jesus. In the OT vernacular our tent is pitched toward Jesus as opposed to toward Sodom for example.
So regardless of what we think about what saves us, how we are saved or when it happens to us, we must, in one way or another, include faith toward or upon Jesus. I believe this is referring to the teachings of Jesus and not in whether or not we believe He died for our sins. I say this because people who put their faith in His teachings and in Him prior to His death were also saved, including the thief on the cross next to Jesus and they hadn't heard about the blood of Jesus being shed for their sins.
And let us not confuse salvation with redemption. The blood of Jesus was not shed to save us but rather to redeem us back to the Father. It is the fact that we are redeemed that we are saved from the coming wrath of God so technically we are "saved" by the blood but that is not the true purpose of it. Jesus paid the price that Adam should have paid in the garden when he encountered the serpent after Eve had eaten the fruit but he failed to do so. As much emphasis in Christian doctrine is put on salvation through the blood of Jesus only Romans 5:9 has the words blood and saved together and that from the future wrath of God. No verses have blood and salvation in them nor do any have the words blood and saves in them.
Rev_5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and HAST REDEEMED us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (10) And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Why do we need Jesus? He paid a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay.
As for what makes it true, well you have to put your faith somewhere. I think it's best to put it in what you can believe in with your spirit, heart and mind. The Spirit will lead us into all truth if we are listening. There is a resonance of the Spirit of God in the universe. When you seek it, find it, feel it, hear it and know it you will undoubtedly follow it to the Truth of Y-shuah. You will learn to walk in it and to never leave it.
As for the Christian stuff, well, it has little to do with anything really. Lots of semantics and religious score keeping and plenty of room to err. Stick to faith on Jesus and His words and the prophecies of the Scriptures. Put your faith on Jesus not on Christianity.
I would say that it's because we absolutely cannot be good of ourselves, especially not the kind of "good" that God wants. Paul was a pharisee of the pharisees, blameless when it came to keeping the law and avoiding sin, but He did not have the heart that God wanted him to have, and that heart was the one that Christ offers to us by His example. We cannot save ourselves and work our way into heaven, we are sinful from birth, we have lost the connection to God and only Christ can restore it, only Christ can put His mind in us and reconcile us to God.
