Salvation in Christ Alone

Salvation is God's greatest gift because it shows God's forgiveness to save us from hell. Those who are saved by Christ do not deserve this salvation. It is only by mercy, and by grace, that God chooses to forgive.

For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8) Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not even see Him now, you believe and trust in Him and you greatly rejoice and delight with inexpressible and glorious joy, receiving as the result [the outcome, the consummation] of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1Peter 1:-8-9)

Jesus said to him, I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)

God accomplished salvation through the work of His Son Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is faith in God the Father.

Therefore, the one who confesses and acknowledges Me before men [as Lord and Savior, affirming a state of oneness with Me], that one I will also confess and acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven. But the one who denies and rejects Me before men, that one I will also deny and reject before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

The only way to salvation is acceptance of Christ as Savior. The way to Hell is rejection of Him. Those who reject Christ as the path to God will stumble over Him. He is either the way to God, or the obstacle that prevents one from reaching God.

He who believes and trusts in the Son and accepts Him [as Savior] has eternal life [that is, already possesses it]; but he who does not believe the Son and chooses to reject Him, [disobeying Him and denying Him as Savior] will not see [eternal] life, but [instead] the wrath of God hangs over him continually. (John 3:36).

Among these [unbelievers] we all once lived in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by the sinful self], indulging the desires of human nature [without the Holy Spirit] and [the impulses] of the [sinful] mind. We were, by nature, children [under the sentence] of [God’s] wrath, just like the rest [of mankind]. But God, being [so very] rich in mercy, because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us, even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace--His undeserved favor and mercy--you have been saved from God’s judgment. (Ephesians 2:3:5)