Gal 1:8-9) But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
According to what Paul stated twice in Galatians, we must not add to or take away from what is written in God's word. So we must examine the scriptures to find all that is written about salvation. Here is I found that leads to our salvation as I find it in scripture.
(Jn 3:16) "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
(Lk 13:3) "I tell you, no; but unless you repentyou will all likewise perish.
(Rom 10:8-9) But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
(Jn 3:5) Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
So according to what Jesus told Nicodemus, he needed to be born again. How could that happen?
(Rom 6:1-11) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be [in the likeness] of [His] resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For [the death] that He died, He died to sin once for all; but [the life] that He lives, He lives to God.
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus and Paul was blinded. Jesus told him to go to Damascus and he would be told what he was to become. Do you think Paul believed in Jesus at the point, but was he saved? Ananias told Paul this after Jesus had spoken to him on the road to Damascus.
(Acts 22:16) 'And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'
(Jas 2:19) You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!
Believing in Jesus Christ is essential, but as we see with the demons, just believing is not enough. We must take all the verses on a topic and add them up, to make sure we have the whole picture, in order to find out how we find our salvation.
We hear the word, we then believe in Jesus Christ, we repent of our sins and from our past ways, we confess that Jesus is the Son of God before men, and then we are baptized, we are immersed, we are buried with Him in the watery grave of baptism so that we die to our sins, which that burial is a likeness of His death, then as He was resurrected, we rise up out of that watery grave to walk in newness of life., just as Jesus told Nicodemus, we are now born again.
