Every time I turn on my television I see adverts for face creams which will reduce signs of aging, alcohol which will lead me to a more exciting and fun life, holidays where I'll be so relaxed that life will be wonderfully good, beautiful home furnishings at huge discounts, (When will the DFS sale actually end!) dream houses, clothes, perfumes, foods, vitamins and so on.  The list is endless, and every product makes life better for me in some way or another, or so we're led to believe.

That, of course, is the purpose of advertising.  To make us believe that our lives would be so much better, so much more fulfilled with this or that product, that we immediately go out and buy it.  And some of them really do seem to work, to a degree.  We all have our favourite products, and our lives do seem to be better, even if its just a little better, for having them.

Advertising works because we're all looking to make our lives better.  If we could, most of us would probably opt for robust good health with limitless energy and the ability to resolve our problems.

Strange, then that so many people shrink from Christianity, since this is what Christianity offers.  Perhaps the difference between Christianity and all those products, which are advertised so successfully on our screens, is that they offer an instant fix.  But they probably hide our problems rather than resolving them.  Christianity is the other way round.  Christianity is no instant fix, its much more long term and therefore more difficult, but it does resolve our problems and change us from the inside out.

Well, perhaps Christianity isn't exactly difficult.  It's actually easy, but it does require endurance.  Paul summed it up in today's reading from Romans: if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

In the Old Testament, "to save" tends to mean to give help or protection, which is likely they way we would initially understand it.  But in the New Testament, "to save" comes from the Greek and means "to heal".  So another meaning of "salvation" is robust good health, inside and out. 

What wouldn't you give for all that? For protection in all circumstances and good health as well? But actually, none of us have to do or to give anything, for salvation is a free gift from God.  We simply have to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe it in our hearts.  God does the rest.

Once you know that what's on offer is constant protection and the best of health, salvation begins to sound very attractive.  But is it really true? Surely there are many Christians who are clearly sick, and surely accidents or worse happen to Christians just as much as they happen to everyone else? So where is our health and protection?

This is the point at which belief comes into its own, for salvation depends on belief.  If you don't actually believe that God can or will save you in the way just described, then it won't happen.  But if you do believe it and act upon it, then you will be saved. Doesn't that make it seem very clear cut!

Once we believe, says Paul, we are justified before God.  "Justification" is one of those words which has rather subtly changed its meaning over the years.  Nowadays "justification" means something like an excuse or an apology or a plea.  When I justify my actions, I'm usually making an excuse for my behaviour.

But that's not what it means in the New Testament.  When Paul used the word "justification" he meant that we're accepted totally and freely and unconditionally by God.  We're no longer regarded as sinners unfit to be in God's presence, we don't have to make excuses, give reasons or make apologies for the way we are.  We are now regarded as God's heirs, fit and ready to receive our inheritance.

And all that is free.  We simply have to believe.  And that perhaps is where the difficulty comes in.  "What, me? Jesus loves me? I'm not good enough! I don't deserve it" is a common response to Jesus' offer of salvation.  Of course, to believe genuinely and deeply and truly that Jesus is Lord requires some input from us.  We need to know something about Jesus and his life and death and resurrection if we're to believe what he says.

We also need to get to know the risen Lord personally.  How is it possible to believe in someone you've never met, in someone you just hear about from time to time in church? It isn't possible.  We have to get to know him so that he can build up a personal relationship with us.  So perhaps if we want to enjoy salvation we also need to be prepared to set aside some regular time to meet with him. 

Prayer and quiet time set aside for God don't provide an instant fix, we need to be prepared to stick with it, to endure even when the going gets tough and dry and dreary, and appears to be going nowhere and producing nothing.

When Jesus went on retreat in the desert, before he started his ministry, it was hopeless.  He felt cold and tired and hungry and dreary, and he thought of some good, quick ways of bringing in the kingdom.  Some instant fixes.  He could have for instance, changed stones into bread, which would have been a massively impressive miracle and would have solved his hunger problems.  But he had enough wit left to realise that it didn't feel quite right, so he rejected that solution.

And since he was very alone and it probably didn't feel much like God was loving him, he could have thrown himself off the temple, just to see whether or not God really loved him.  But that didn't feel quite right either. 

And he could have gone for material wealth, he could have put his faith in possessions, because it feels good and powerful to have good things and therefore the more you have, the better it feels.  But Jesus rejected that one too, because he knew that despite all the advertising in the world, there's no real and lasting salvation in possessions.

Whatever the adverts tell us, there's no instant fix to finding robust good health and constant protection, especially from shortcuts like possessions.  But there is an outstanding offer of two for the price of one.  Good health and constant protection can be yours.  Scientists have already proved that positive thought has a huge influence upon health, and I can assure you that genuine belief, sincere faith, has an even greater influence, because it brings the peace which passes understanding. 

When you're protected, you can give up fear.  Those who have burly bodyguards don't need to fear, because the bodyguards are watching out for them.  God is watching out for us.  He's our bodyguard, so we don't need to fear anything.  And once you've given up fear, the fear of what other people might think, or the fear of getting it wrong, the fear of failing, the fear of not measuring up in some way, then you're free to enjoy life to the full, to reach your own full potential. 

And once all that begins to happen, once you're lined inside with the peace which passes all understanding and God is protecting you, then you begin to enjoy good health inside and out and you begin to understand what salvation and eternal life are all about.