What is the Plan of Salvation according to the Bible?
According to Jesus in John 3:3-5, you must be born of the again of Water and Spirit to enter into the Kingdom of God. So the question becomes what does He mean by Water and Spirit. Well, the Water would be Baptism and the Spirit would be the gift of the Holy Ghost.
According to Peter in Acts 2:38, the plan of salvation is to repent, be baptized in Jesus Name for the remission of sins and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. That is directly in line with what Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Being born of the water is baptism, and being born of the Spirit is receiving the Holy Ghost. That would make plan of salvation as follows:
- Believe in the Lord Jesus
- Repent for your sins
- Be baptized in Jesus Name – click here
- and Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost – click here
According to Mark 16:16, you have to believe and be baptized to be saved. Acts 2:38 tells us baptism is for the remission of our sins. Looking further, 1st Peter 3:21 tell us baptism is part of what saves us, through the resurrection of Christ.
According to Acts 19:2, you can believe in Jesus, and not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. That is also true when we consider Acts 8:15-17. Whenever a person receives the Holy Ghost they began to speak in tongues. We see in Acts 10:44-47, that tongues is the sign that someone has received the Holy Ghost. The Jews simply knew that the gentiles received the Holy Ghost, because they heard them speak in tongues. Biblically speaking it is appropriate to ask someone if they ever received the Holy Ghost, and to know the exact moment they receive it. (Acts 19:2-6) Even in Acts 8:17-18, we find that you can see someone receive the Holy Ghost. What you would see is them speaking in tongues.
We ask that you sincerely pray and fast about this. It is dangerous to simply disagree with something that the Bible teaches. We should not only study, but seriously pray to God for truth. Many people’s relationship with God is based on what someone is telling them. We have to go directly to Jesus for Truth