If My Parents Are Saved…

Here is a question that everyone who is born of Christian parents should ask themselves. If my parents are saved, doesn’t that make me saved? To answer this important question, let’s take a look at a verse found in the book of John.

John 1: 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

What about this verse? What does it say? Well, let’s look at it a little closer….

The start of this verse is very, very specific. It talks about all that received Him…He gave the right to be become children of God. Now one thing to notice in the context is the term “all”. It does not say “all men” but it says all who received Him. Meaning limited to the specific people that believed in His name. That means not all men believed in Him.
But the ones that did and do believe, have been promised something to happen to them in that they become His children. Other wise, we would have what we call a universal salvation. In other words, every one is saved because Jesus died for everyone. This is not true since some people, unfortunately, have gone to hell and many are still going. That would make Christ’s sacrifice on the cross useless and void.

Now on to verse 13…

The text speaks of Children of natural descent and we could provide a modern understanding of this by saying that this means if your parents are saved, that doesn’t mean you inherit salvation through them. You are their descendants, I agree with that, and maybe there are many things in your culture or tradition that states that you will inherit because you may be the first born in the family. But the one thing that is certain, is that you will not gain life eternal due to them being Christians. You have to get right with God yourself.

The second part is human decision. You CANNOT choose God yourself, for salvation. A great example of this , is when you were born, you had NO say in where, when, what family, what country, what status of society, what color hair, boy or girl, who your parents were going to be, poor, rich, royalty, and the list goes on. You were born because your parents brought you in the world based on THEIR actions and decisions. Same for your eternal birth, you had NO say in it. God had EVERYTHING to do with it, this is why it is called grace. It was completely undeserved and unmerited.  The cross was not your plan, Jesus was not your plan, the perfect sacrifice was not your plan; it was the creator’s decree.

The third part is the will of man. How many churches have you gone to that the preacher, minister, priest, or pastor has tried to save you or convince you that Jesus loves you as you are? They walk you through some prayer.

1. Do you know you’re a sinner,
2. Do you want to go to heaven
3. Let’s say this prayer so you can repent of your sins
“Dear Jesus, I regret the sins I have done before you, I pray that you could come into my heart so that I can have eternal life”
4. Were you sincere
5. If you were sincere, you are saved

Now let’s look at a few issue with this. First of all, you are depending on the prayer the preacher or witness for Christ is telling you, you are depending on your sincerity. You are depending on whether or not you have the right words. There are many many factors that are dependent.

Let’s look at a true gospel verse. Acts 16:14

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul

In this verse, it was not Lydia that opened her heart to accept Christ but notice that it was God that did it. God had to do it because from Lydia’s own power, she was a sinner that could never have accepted Christ.
Many times Revelations 3:20 is used in the gospel for a sinner to open his/her heart to let Jesus in. We are told that Jesus is knocking on the sinners heart and that He wants to come in. The context of this verse has nothing to do with salvation. It’s talking about a wayward church.

Dear friend, if you are convicted of your sins, pray to God, but not to accept Him in your heart. Pray to Him for His mercy. Pray and beg Him to show you His Son on the cross. That He might reveal that work of the sacrifice to you and show you that He had to die for your offences and sins toward Him.
Once again, this sermon is not taken lightly. It is for the salvation of lost sinners.