Committing to Christ- involves surrendering our lives to Christ, turning our lives and will over to him; to be used for his glory and his purposes.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesian 2: 8-10 NIV).

United Methodists understand our salvation in terms of God’s grace, from start to finish.  Further, we understand our salvation to be an ongoing process – The greek verb  for “saved” (Sozo) used in the passage above (Ephesians 2:10) might be more correctly translated into English in the present perfect tense as;  “we are continually being saved by grace”.  We express this by describing God’s amazing grace in terms of; prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace.

Prevenient grace- God loved us even before we knew him.  “We love because God first loved us”.  “God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Jesus said that: “no one comes unto me unless the Father draws him.”  We believe that even before we knew Him, God the Holy Spirit, was wooing us, drawing us, inviting us to become involved with Him in an ever deepening love relationship which is real and intensely personal.

Justifying Grace- Today some express God's justifying grace as "conversion" or being "born again." When we experience God's justifying grace, we come into that new life in Christ.  Jesus told Nicodemus that: “no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. (John 3:3) explaining that: “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. John 3:6.  Paul is his second epistle to the Corinthians says that:…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
God has given us freedom of choice. We are free to either accept or reject God's gift of justifying grace. John Wesley emphasized free grace saying:
“The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is FREE IN ALL, and FREE FOR ALL.... It is free in all to whom it is given. It does not depend on any power or merit in man; no, not in any degree, neither in whole, nor in part. It does not in anywise depend either on the good works or righteousness of the receiver; not on anything he has done, or anything he is. It does not depend on his endeavors. It does not depend on his good tempers, or good desires, or good purposes and intentions; for all these flow from the free grace of God; they are the streams only, not the fountain. They are the fruits of free grace, and not the root. They are not the cause, but the effects of it.”
“The Romans Road -  Many people have found the following scriptures helpful in making the conscious, informed decision to turn their hearts minds and souls over to Christ, trusting Jesus for their eternal salvation.
Romans 3:10 “As it is written:  “There is no one righteous, not even one;”.   We can not live a perfectly righteous life.
Romans 3:23-24: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. We are all sinners and “miss the mark” of perfection.  We can not be good enough ever on our own to stand in the presence of a Perfect, Holy, and Righteous God.  However, because of what Jesus Christ did for us, dying the death that we rightly deserved ; i.e. dying in our place, thing have been made right between us and God.  We were “bought back” redeemed by the blood of the lamb, Jesus.
Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Jesus took our place.  He died for us the death that we rightly deserve.
Romans 6:23:  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  We deserve death because of our sinfulness, but God has given us the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus.
Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth that: “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  These verses describe all that is necessary to accept God’s free gift of salvation.
Romans10:13 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  This is God’s promise to all who believe in his son Jesus.

Sanctifying Grace– After we have accepted God's grace, we are to move on in God's sanctifying grace “going on towards perfection”.

Our faith is NOT just some “eternal fire insurance policy” that we carry around in our back pocket.  It is NOT a faith that really does not impact our lives, other than for an hour or so once a week on Sunday morning.  

Our faith is based upon our ongoing relationship with Jesus.  It is a journey which will last our whole lives long.  Our relationship with Jesus is “a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week, 365 day per year” thing; affecting every area of our lives, and all of our interpersonal interactions.
We cannot just sit on our hands, so to speak, claim God's salvation, and then do nothing. We are to participate in what John Wesley called “the means of grace”.  We are to continue to grow in the Christian life and in our relationship with Christ.
Paul in this letter to the Romans wrote these words:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  (Romans 12:1-2)
Our transformation is a work of the Holy Spirit.  But there are things we can do to participate in our own transformation.  These things are known as the Spiritual disciplines.  The Spiritual Disciplines include:
The Inward Disciplines
Meditation
Prayer
Fasting
STUDY

Outward Disciplines

Simplicity
Solitude
Submission
Service

Corporate Disciplines

Confession
Worship
Guidance
Celebration

Source: Celebration of Discipline     Richard Foster

Through exercising and participating in these spiritual disciplines we can “co-operate with the Holy Spirit” and actively participate in our own spiritual transformation; our own “spiritual growth”.
Some Christians tend to focus on God's justifying grace, but Wesley asserted that the Christian walk does not stop with acceptance of new life in Christ. Wesley said in his sermon, “On the Repentance of Believers:
It is generally supposed, that repentance and faith are only the gate of religion; that they are necessary only at the beginning of our Christian course, when we are setting out in the way to the kingdom.... And this is undoubtedly true, that there is a repentance and a faith, which are, more especially, necessary at the beginning: a repentance, which is a conviction of our utter sinfulness, and guiltiness, and helplessness.... But, notwithstanding this, there is also a repentance and a faith (taking the words in another sense, a sense not quite the same, nor yet entirely different) which are requisite after we have "believed the gospel;" yea, and in every subsequent stage of our Christian course, or we cannot "run the race which is set before us." And this repentance and faith are full as necessary, in order to our continuance and growth in grace, as the former faith and repentance were, in order to our entering into the kingdom of God.”