Since I was young, I’ve heard people talk about the “steps of salvation.” If we emphasize only the “steps,” we could miss the fact that the gospel is mostly about what God is doing in Christ. But there’s a reason this way of explaining the gospel has endured. If you take all six steps as the Bible describes, God will save you by grace. Each step contains meaning that requires a whole Bible to unpack, but you don’t have to understand everything to come to Christ. Here’s what you need to know and do for God to forgive your sins so that you can have eternal life. 

The Steps of Salvation

1. Hear — When we learn about God’s righteous way, we can grasp our failure to walk rightly. We’ve all failed to reflect God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). But we also need to hear what Jesus has done to change all that.  He entered the world he created (John 1:1-14) to live sinlessly (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). Christ did mighty miracles and taught wonderful things (Acts 10:38). But God’s eternal plan was for him to die on a cross as an atoning sacrifice (Rom. 3:23-25), bringing a surprising victory over the powers of darkness on our behalf (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14). After three days, Jesus rose from the dead. Hundreds saw the risen Lord before his ascension into heaven where he continues to reign as king (1 Cor. 15:1-11,25). His invitation to all humans is to reign with him as part of his righteous kingdom (2 Tim. 2:11-12).

2. Faith — Decide to give your trust and loyalty — your faith — to the Lord (Rom. 10:17). Believing Jesus is the King of God’s kingdom means more than accepting an idea. It means recognizing him as the rightful king of your life — that is biblical faith (Gal. 2:20)!

3. Repent — Change your mind about where you’re going. Turn away from your old ways and toward Jesus (Acts 3:19).

4. Confess Christ — Followers of earthly rulers sometimes pledge their loyalty aloud so everyone knows they stand with their king. And when we publicly declare our conviction that Jesus is the rightful Lord (the Son of God himself!), we express the truth we’ve embraced in our hearts (Rom. 10:8-10).

5. Baptism — People get dipped in water for lots of reasons. Faith makes it a saving baptism through the death and resurrection of Jesus. “Baptism…now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”  (1 Pet. 3:21). Some baptize for entry into a particular denomination, but in the Bible, baptism washes away sins (Acts 22:16). It’s the moment you’re born again of the Spirit and water (John 3:5). If you haven’t been baptized like that, there is a Biblical basis for being “baptized” again with proper understanding (Acts 19:1-5). Maybe you’re reading these verses now so that you can repent and go into the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38).

6. Faithfulness — The last step is walking with the Lord in obedience and trust until our death, even to the point of dying for him (Rev. 2:10). 

Steps of Restoration

What if you have taken the first steps but haven’t remained faithful? What if, as a baptized believer, you rebel against your king? A breach of trust breaks any relationship (Amos 3:2-3), but more so with God in whom “is no darkness at all” and who has no fellowship with those in darkness (1 John 1:6-10). So we can injure our bond with him through sin (Isa. 59:1-2). We’ve seen the steps of salvation, but there are also steps to restoration. We can get mixed up if we see them only as steps to rectify a legal problem. If you sin against a friend, how do you heal and reconcile? In your relationship with God, you are 100% of the problem. God reaches his hand to us. We must swallow our pride and deal with the situation we’ve brought between us. Imagine someone who loves you so much that as soon as you return and start apologizing, they hug you and move on. That’s how Jesus describes God (Luke 15:18-22; cf. Zeph. 3:17)! These steps work together naturally as we draw near him (James 4:4-8).

1. Confess Your Sin — Until you acknowledge you were wrong and “own up to” your sin to God, the restoration can’t even begin (1 John 1:8-10).

2. Repent— Seeing our sin leads us to a kind of sadness (2 Cor. 7:10). That sorrow leads to an inner change of direction, deciding to walk with God (2 Cor. 7:9-11). And a change of heart should lead to a change of life, the “fruit” of our inner change (Luke 3:8-14). Sinning again doesn’t invalidate your repentance — we can fail even when sincere. But use every resource God gives you as you battle the evil one (Eph. 6:10-18).

3. Ask for Forgiveness — Restoration requires the courage and love to humbly ask God to forgive us (Matt. 6:12; Acts 8:22).

4. Forgive Others — The Lord says if we forgive others, God will forgive us, but if we don’t, expect no mercy from our Lord (Matt. 6:14-15). “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13).

5. Trust — God has promised to forgive (Heb. 8:12). Hold onto that promise! To doubt it is to doubt him. Give thanks for his forgiveness and your restored relationship! “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself…not counting their trespasses against them…For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:18-21).