Switching Seats with Jesus Isn't Easy in Mid-Air, But It Is Possible

In the 1980s I traveled across parts of the American West with my grandparents to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I saw bumper stickers everywhere I looked: "Jesus is my copilot." Not in my grandfather's Ford truck, though. The bumper sticker on his dashboard read, "If I disappear while driving, calmly grab steering wheel and apply brake. I've been raptured."

That bumper sticker kept me awake and my head on a swivel.

Late one evening, driving through Texarkana, a big crow flew into the windshield of the truck with a sudden and loud thud. I thought the trumpet had sounded announcing the rapture! After a quick check on my grandparents, I figured we all were left behind. I expected me and grandad to miss the ride; after all, we had pulled a pretty bad prank on my grandmother in East St. Louis. But I figured Nanny would be one of the first to go.

Scary stuff for a kid.

But it all came together to bring me to a place where I began seriously considering just what it meant to be saved. I spent a great deal of time thinking about this. In fact, when grandad passed rather suddenly one spring night, me and my cousin Robin talked a lot about what happens after death, how and when one gets to heaven, and that sort of thing.

We realized that both of us grew up Baptist - she in Albuquerque and me in Shelbyville - and neither of us felt well-equipped in this area. There is nothing like death to bring up the doubts and questions.

I bet I'm not the only one to wonder about that trumpet, the rapture - and what it means to be saved.

How does scripture answer this? Let's look at what Jesus says.

John 14:6, NIV

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

This points to an exclusive path to salvation - Jesus and Him alone.

The first thing to understand about salvation, then, is that there is not a plurality of paths; there is one path. Jesus.

This path is not difficult to find. In fact, throughout the gospels Jesus seems more than happy to give us the GPS coordinates.

John 3:1-3, NIV

"Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. [2] He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” [3] Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Jesus tells a proud and well-known Jewish leader that the only way to see the Kingdom of God ("being saved" in our terminology) is to be born again. Nicodemus pushes back, because he is looking at this through a physical understanding of what it means to be born. But Jesus is using a metaphor of a human experience (human birth) to make a spiritual statement (spiritual birth).

John 3:5-6, NIV

"Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. [6] Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. [14] Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, [15] that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

The birth Jesus speaks of (we call it being saved or being born again in church language) is done by the Spirit, not by human effort. It is a God thing.

John 3:14-18, NIV

"[16] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."

Being born again is a matter of the heart and the head coming together so that a person looks to Jesus for his or her salvation and believes in Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

Further in the gospel of John, Jesus points to Himself as the exclusive path to salvation.

John 10:7-10, NIV

"Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. [8] All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. [9] I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. [10] The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Jesus is the gate. When a person turns to Jesus, believes, and enters into salvation through Him, that person is saved.

In Acts 16 we read the account of the apostle Paul and his buddy Silas in prison, basically for preaching the gospel. Because of faith, God shows up and something supernaturally amazing occurs.

Acts 16:25-30, NIV

"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. [26] Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. [27] The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. [28] But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” [29] The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. [30] He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Because Paul and Silas stayed, they were able to answer the jailer's question about how to be saved.

Acts 16:31-34, NIV

"They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” [32] Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. [33] At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. [34] The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household."

Turning to Jesus is the starting point for salvation. Always is. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot do enough good things to save ourselves. We cannot be compassionate enough to save ourselves. We cannot be baptized enough to save ourselves.

Jesus alone saves us.

So, we look to Jesus. We recognize our need for Jesus. We recognize that our sinfulness keeps us from being able to walk with Jesus and our lack of belief keeps us from the Kingdom of God.,

We believe that we are lost and in need of a savior (Romans 3:23- 25, Colossians 1:13-14).

We agree with God that sin is wrong, and that Jesus forgives us, cleanses us, and makes us right with God. This is called justification.

John 5:24, NIV

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life."

When we are made right with God, we are saved. We cross from death to life.

Colossians 1:13-14, NIV

"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Why do we need to be forgiven and saved?

Romans 6:23, NLT

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

Our sin earns us death, but God gives us eternal life through Jesus. This is the point of the crucifixion and death of Jesus on the cross. Jesus sacrificed himself to pay our sin debt.

Once we turn to Jesus and believe, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in what God wants to do in our lives. In other words, we switch seats with Jesus.

We recognize that Jesus can never be our co-pilot. Jesus pilots the plane of our lives.

If we tell Jesus, "Get in and ride along in my life," we miss the point. Jesus doesn't sit in the seat beside us ready to take the wheel when we want Him to or need Him to. Following Jesus means we give up the control seat of our lives and ask Jesus to show us where to go, how to go, and when to go.

How do we do this? By daily turning to God through prayer and by studying the written word and the Living Word.

Jesus saves us and justifies us, and then we cooperate with God through prayer, bible study, and obedience to become more like Jesus. This is called sanctification.

John 17:15-19, NIV

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. [17] Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. [18] As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. [19] For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified."

Being a Christian means that Jesus directs and pilots our lives, not us. So, allow me to ask, in what areas of your life are you refusing to submit to Jesus and to become obedient to Jesus? We all have these areas where we like to hold on and keep control. But when we read scripture, we see that what we are doing is refusing to allow Jesus to wash us and cleanse us in these areas that we withhold.

It is difficult, for sure, to switch seats with Jesus in mid-flight of our lives, but it is possible. And it is necessary for us to grow and to become more and more like Jesus.

And remember that bumper sticker, "If I disappear while driving, calmly grab steering wheel and apply brake. I've been raptured?" As I gain a deeper understanding of salvation and what it means to follow Christ, I don't worry about what that bumper sticker means. I trust Jesus to bring me home in His time and for His glory.

What about you?