"Are you saved?" is the central question of the Christian faith.

This question may cause you to ask several other questions like - "Saved from what?", or "Saved by whom?" or "Why do I need to be saved?"

From the Bible, there are two groups of people, the Lost and the Saved.

Lost people are those without a vibrant, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Saved people are those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives and are living in that relationship each day.

You may ask - What are we "lost" from and and what are we "saved" to?

The Bible states that "all" have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and are separated from God. The wages of our sin, or what we have earned because of our sin, is death (Romans 6:23). Not only have we earned death, but it is a death that seperates us from God for eternity. It is a death of judgment, and torment, and hopelessness. It is a death that places you into Hell with Satan and his angels and it lasts forever. The holiness of God is a characteristic of God not to be taken lightly. Lost people are those people who die apart from God through Jesus Christ. The really scary part of this is that everyone deserves this kind of death and judgment. (Romans 1).

There is nothing anyone can do to escape this kind of death by our own effort. You cannot do enough good to blot out your sin against the Holy God. But there is Good News!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whosoever believes IN Him, shall not perish, but inherit eternal life." (John 3:16)

The "IN" is capitalized above so that you will understand it is not believing the truths "about" Jesus that saves you. Your car will not stop just because you know where the brake pedal is located and how it works. Your car will stop because you trusted IN the brake pedal by pushing on it with your foot. Just knowing the facts about Jesus and the truths that He taught will not save you, anymore than knowing that fire is hot will cook your food. Once you truly believe, you will start learning to live the life of someone that is saved.

Believing "IN" Jesus is trusting Jesus with our lives instead of trusting ourselves with it. It is taking His truths, and His life into our hearts and allowing Him, by His Holy Spirit, to change us from the inside out back into the image in which we were created in ever increasing likeness. This is a process called sanctification. When Jesus is "IN" our hearts we love God more than we love the world, and we love God's word without compromising it with the world's standard. When you have confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will start living a life based on your love of God and departure from sin (whether its the sin in your life or in the world around you). That's when you know you are saved.