What do you think it means to be saved? You might answer that it means you have eternal life. It can mean joy, peace, hope, and God's blessing. Yet being saved is also a way of life. It means we become followers of Christ.
In Luke 18-19 we meet two men who share a common desire to meet Jesus. However, they respond very differently to the propect of being His follower - a decision that demands devotion and surrender to Him. Their compelling stories illustrate a timeless truth for us today: To be a Christian is to be a follower of Christ. In Him our values, our priorities, and our futures find lifelong transformation.
The scriptures below are from the WEB Bible.
Luke 18:18-20
18) A certain ruler asked him, saying, "Good Teacher, what do I do to inherit eternal life?"
19) Jesus asked him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one -- God.
20) You know the commandments: ‘Don‘t commit adultery,‘ ‘Don‘t murder,‘ ‘Don‘t steal,‘ ‘Don‘t give false testimony,‘ ‘Honor your father and your mother.‘"
Luke 19:1-10
1) He entered and was passing through Jericho.
2) There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
3) He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn‘t because of the crowd, because he was short.
4) He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.
5) When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."
6) He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.
7) When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, "He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner."
8) Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much."
9) Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.
10) For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."
The WEB Bible is provided by Public Domain.