What does it mean to be "saved?"

Take a moment and imagine this:

You're hanging out with your best friend, just enjoying some slurpies and corndogs, when he turns to you and says, "You're lucky I'm here, I just saved you!" Suddenly, your mind starts turning...

"Where did that comment come from?"
"What is he talking about?"
"Should I not finish my corndog?"

All of these are valid questions, but I'm guessing the first one you're gonna ask him is, "From what?"

You see, when somebody saves you it generally means that you were saved from something. When Christians use the term, they're talking about being saved from an eternity of turmoil and devastation, an eternity separated from God, an eternity in a place called Hell.

In the Bible, Paul tells us that everybody has messed up, disobeyed God, and sinned. In other words - nobody's perfect! (Romans 3:23)

That's not surprising news. Take a look around at your school, in your neighborhood, and even into your own past, and I'm guessing you'll see evidence that no one has it all together.

The bummer of it is that, in the same book, Paul tells us that everyone who messes up earns spiritual death. (Romans 6:23) This is different from physical death. Spiritual death is eternal separation from God and anything good. It means spending forever in Hell, a place of torment and torture without hope of any comfort or release.

But this ugly cloud has a silver lining, and Paul doesn't wait even a breath to share it with us! Right after he tells us that sin earns spiritual death, he shares the great news that God offers us the gift of Eternal Life through Jesus Christ! We are saved from this eternity of spiritual death because of the sacrifice of Christ, the one person in history who:
never messed up...
never sinned...
never dropped the ball...
never earned spiritual death!

But He willingly died on the cross and came back to life three days later so that He could beat death, and save us from it!

However, like almost every great thing, there is a catch. Christ is too much of a gentelman to force us to be saved. He waits until we ask for it. He waits until we're ready to be rescued from death. All you need to do is believe in Him, come to Him, and ask to be saved. (John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, Romans 10:13, Ephesians 2:8-9, Revelation 3:20)