Ceaseless Decision.

It's funny that humans respond so perfectly to definite incentives. For example, if you were told that if you study exactly this much, you would score exactly this high. You work your job because you know for certain that you receive payment for the exact hours of work completed. Then when your manager tells you you'll receive a bonus for this amount of work and no more, you'll stop at that amount of work and not go beyond. Very few would work at a job that 'might' pay them.

By the same standard we Christians have been given a definite incentive. If you believe in Christ, you will receive eternal life- no added works will save you, and no matter how much you love God, he will return to you love that is unchanging and the same set of grace between all mankind. So you can believe in Christ, but not do what he says - as it seems we all do - and heaven is still in our inheritance. That's easy. But let me ask you bluntly then: do you believe? Is there full confirmation in your veins to say that there is but one true God and you believe in the great resurrection following a insurmountable sacrifice for the world? If so, congratulations you're saved!

Or is there more to it? It never said that we would have to be Jesus' disciples to be saved did it? Perhaps we missed some fine print. Undeniable is the fact that we can never earn our salvation by works. Yet Jesus seems to ask a lot out of us. Believing seems to entail more than simple trust and thoughts. Believing in Christ is not just believing that he died for you, but in what he says. If you are able to be apathetic after belief in regards to what Christ has suffered for you, I'm not sure whether you are to be pitied or admired. Because to ignore such a love offering calls for a great arrogance or a belief that you never needed it. I ask again then. Do you believe?

It seems so that we all too often execute actions that relay the contrary of belief. We act as if we own the world; we defy our God to commit the very sins that nailed His son on the cross; we live our own way as if there were no other. To truly believe is to follow. Not once, but a perpetual commitment unless we stop believing. I see people that just pick up their cross to follow Christ once, but then they put it back down to think that they've done enough to earn their salvation. That's exactly it, they think that this bare minimum is all that is required to earn their eternal key. I tell you Jesus said otherwise. He said he wouldn't even recognise you. I thought all we had to do was believe!

That belief isn't a one time thing but a never-ending choice.  Every day we choose to believe. Every day when we belief we are called to act. Jesus said to take up your cross daily to follow him, not to watch him hang there. That is what true salvation is. Not your life, but to save your soul.