Know that God loves you and has a purpose for your life.
We will never fully understand why God loves us so much and wants a relationship with us, but He does. He wants to help us on our journey through life and into eternity.
John 3:16
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Even though God wants to have a relationship with us, we by nature and choice have gone our own way and are separated from God. The Bible calls our action sin.
We are all sinners by nature and by choice.
Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
No matter how good a person is, every human being falls short of the complete perfection God requires. We all do wrong by the decisions we make, attitudes we show, and thoughts we entertain. We also sin when we fail to do the right things. Therefore, there is a penalty for our sin, and the Bible says that penalty is death.
We are separated from God,…
Romans 6:23a
“For the wages of sin is death…”
Wages are what you get paid for work you do. This Scripture is saying that our payment for the work of sin that we have done is death. First, the death we are more familiar with – death of our bodies. Before Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they were going to live forever. However, because of sin, they ruined their physical bodies. When that physical body wears out, gets too sick, or suffers a mortal injury, it dies. So far, the death rate for human beings is 1 to 1 – one death for every life. The second kind of death is spiritual death in our relationship with God. Sin separates us from God. It creates a giant divide between us, and none of us, on our own, can leap over that divide to get back to God.
…there is good news!
Romans 6:23b
“…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We earned death because of our sin, “BUT” God has given us a gift – the gift of living forever with Jesus! Because it is a gift, there is nothing that you can do to earn it. In other words, we can’t earn our way into heaven; we can only receive it as a free gift from God. Millions (and probably billions!) of people will live their lives here on earth and never accept the gift that Jesus bought for them. Maybe they think the gift is a trick or too good to be true or not worth having, so they don’t take it, and that’s a terrible shame, because Jesus was thinking about them when He bought it.
God demonstrated His love for us.
Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates his love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
We say the gift was free, but that’s not totally true. Someone had to pay for it. It’s free to us, but it cost Jesus dearly. Jesus came to live as a man on the earth. He had to become like one of us and live a life completely free of sin. That way, He qualified to pay our debt, because when He died, He didn’t have any sin debt of His own. He took our punishment of death. And the incredible thing is, He came and died for us while we were still sinning.
God loved us so much that He saw our sin, our pride, our selfishness, our betrayal, and He paid the ultimate price of death. All he asks of us is that we accept the free gift of eternal life that He offers.
We must trust and surrender to Jesus as Lord.
Romans 10:9,10
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ 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 confess and are saved.”
What Jesus did was a gift, and if you want to receive it, this is the way to do it: Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. That’s how you accept the gift of eternal life and are fully forgiven of your sin.
Are you willing today to trust in Jesus Christ and receive His free gift? If so, here is a simple prayer to express your desire to God.
A sinner’s prayer for God’s forgiveness
“Dear God, I know that I have sinned and need your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who died on the cross and was raised from the dead. I accept His death as payment for my sin and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Thank you for forgiving me and giving me eternal life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
CONGRATULATIONS!! If you prayed that prayer, or one similar to it, and meant it from your heart, you have just made the greatest decision of your life, a decision to follow Jesus! Rejoice in God’s forgiveness and eternal life through your faith in Jesus Christ.
Our assurance of salvation through Jesus
Romans 10:13
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
IF YOU JUST PRAYED TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST, OR WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH A MINISTER, COMPLETE THE INFORMATION BELOW, AND SOMEONE WILL REACH OUT TO YOU.