Before we became Christian’s sin in our lives caused us to die spiritually (Rom 6:23; Eph 2:1) and separated us from God (1 John 1:6-7; 2 Cor 14-15). Jesus told a Pharisee called Nicodemus that he needed to be born again spiritually (saved) to have his fellowship with God restored (John 3:1-7). How do you become born again or saved? “That if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9; WEB). Well, that’s quite straight forward.

To make Jesus Lord in our lives is to make Him our “master” (MSG) or allow Him control of our lives. Jesus died on the cross and paid the price for our sins so we could be forgiven (Eph 1:7) and saved. The Greek word translated believe in Romans 10:9 above is derived from the Greek word for faith and also means to be fully convinced of Jesus, to adhere to or stick to Him, rely on and trust in Him. This trust is to the extent of our submitting to Christ in obedience to His Lordship in our lives. In many verses in the Bible, it simply says to believe in Jesus and you will be saved (e.g. Acts 16:31). In all cases the Greek word used for believe is the same as described above. We can safely conclude that to be saved we must submit our lives to Jesus in a simple sold-out faith and desire for Him to come into our lives and have His way. The exact words we use are not so critical, God knows our hearts.