Salvation is the deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Jesus Christ.
Before I start, I was always reminded that I need to understand the BAD news before I can understand the GOOD news.
WELL, HERE IS THE BAD NEWS…..all human beings are born spiritually dead. What this means is, everyone is spiritually disconnected from God upon entering this world. God did not plan it that way though. Actually, God is grieved because of this. We are spiritually disconnected because of what happened in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. This is when sin first entered the world, and since we are descendants of them, we were all born with a sin-nature and the curse of sin. Refer to Romans 5:17. Sin entered the world by one man (Adam) and sin will be justified by one man (Jesus). Did you ever notice that no one has to teach us how to sin? Even when we are infants, we know exactly how to push to get our way which often results in sinning.
Because God is holy and perfect, He cannot allow sin into His presence and especially not into heaven. There is a gap in our relationship with God and no matter how awesome and perfect we think we are, we will never measure up to his holiness and perfection. God explains in Romans 3:23 that “we ALL have sinned and fall short.” All sin cuts us off from our holy God. All sin leads to death. God explains in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.”
Most people try to do good and believe that God will accept them. We also believe that if we do not commit any bigger sins (i.e.: murder, rape, adultery, robbery), then He will accept us, including allowing us into heaven. This is not what His Word (the Bible) says. He explains that everyone falls short – every single person….yes, including Billy Graham, Mother Teresa and your favorite pastor or priest. Refer to Isaiah 64:6 where God explains that all of our good deeds or righteous acts are like filthy rags. It’s not that He doesn’t appreciate us doing good, but that good is not good enough, perfect or holy. We cannot earn our way into heaven nor get spiritually reconnected with God on our own. We need someone or something to bridge that “gap” for us.
God created us to be spiritually connected to Him and to have a close, intimate relationship with Him. God gave everyone free will – the ability to make their own decisions. With God being our creator, He could have forced everyone to love Him, obey Him, and commit their lives to follow Him but He chose not to do this. Love isn’t real love when it’s forced. He chose to allow us to make our own decision to love Him. This is where faith comes in. Through our faith, believing that there is a God, He did create us and that we needed someone to bridge that gap, we can get spiritually reconnected to God. God did provide a way for that gap to be bridged and save us from eternal separation from God, dying in our sins and going to hell. This is where Jesus comes in. By the way, other names for Jesus are Christ or Lord.
HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS……many people have heard of Jesus and heard about Him dying on a cross for our sins but so many people do not fully understand what this means or what significance is held in this 'act of sacrifice' for them personally. God explained that He would send His son, Jesus, to bridge that “gap” for us. Jesus would die on the cross for ALL sins of ALL men and women. This includes everyone who has lived, those living now, and those yet to be born and live. Refer to Romans 5:8. So many people have also heard of the scripture that has been displayed in many places, John 3:16. Let’s read it: “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.”
This is where people get confused referring specifically to the word “believe” from this scripture. Well, when someone believes something, they should understand what they are claiming to believe, shouldn’t they? Some say that they “believe” in Jesus and that He died on the cross for their sins but they don’t really understand what this means and what significance this has on their lives. One must understand this to sincerely believe from his or her heart. Every single person needs a Savior to save them from having to deal with his or her sins.
Here is how I understand it: I needed a Savior because I was born spiritually disconnected from God due to the sins I committed. I could never make anything right about this situation on my own. I resolved myself to understand that I needed to accept the Savior that God sent - JESUS. I had to do this through faith and by God's grace, revealing to me His truth in this. God sent His son to die on my behalf and to pay the wages for my sins (wages of sin is death, as I mentioned earlier). Jesus loved me so much that He did this for me. He paid the price for my sins and died on my behalf so that I could be forgiven. Because of this and through my faith and by God’s grace, He saved me from continuing to be spiritually disconnected from Him and continuing to be eternally separated from Him forever. Jesus bridged that “gap” for me and is now my intercessor and Savior. It’s like Jesus is the filter for how God sees me. When God looks at me, He sees Jesus' perfect and holy ways and no longer sees me as a sinner because of His indescribable love and grace for me. By the way, we hear the word “grace” a lot. What does it really mean? It means unmerited favor – favor given by God that is not deserved at all. By God’s grace, He wanted to save all people, so He sent His son to die for us. How amazing is this - that He loved us that much?
Before Jesus died on the cross, He claimed that He would be raised from the dead three days later. This was in fact what happened many years ago and has been proven. This is when we celebrate Easter Sunday. Jesus died on Good Friday and three days later, He rose from the dead. The significance of this is that Jesus did what He said He would do, death could not hold Him, and He was resurrected for all people and is alive again today. This does take faith to believe and understand all of this, as I mentioned above. If you refer to Romans 10:9-10, you will see that “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 confess and are saved.” So, what does this really mean? It means that you understand what Jesus did, why He did it, what it means to you, that your sins are now forgiven because He died for them, and that you are now saved from dying in your own sins apart from God. Jesus took the punishment of your sins that you deserved – which can I remind you was “death.” It’s so difficult to fathom this indescribable act of unconditional and perfect love.
What happens now….God says that when you humble yourself and do those things mentioned above by exercising your faith, you will be made spiritually alive and re-connected back to God. There is no longer a gap between you and God. This is where the “born-again” saying comes from. You are not born again in a physical way because you never died physically. You are spiritually born again – into God’s kingdom and are now considered a born-again, spiritually alive Christian. If you hear anyone say that “they are a Christian but not one of those born-again kind,” they are not truly saved and do not fully understand what Jesus did on their behalf. They still do not understand their need for a Savior. God also promised to fill each person who is now a born-again "follower of Jesus" with the Holy Spirit. Refer to Romans 5:5. God has given us the Holy Spirit (God’s power) to live within us to help us live for Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our counselor, someone to help us hear from God, and make right decisions to obey. You may have heard that someone was filled with the Holy Spirit. That means that the person is a born-again Christian. This follower of Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit upon their conversion - dead to their old life and alive in their new life in Jesus. God also reminds us that those who are followers of Jesus are guaranteed eternal life (will live with God forever) as promised in 1 John 5:13.
All of the above is considered the “gospel.” The gospel is the GOOD NEWS.
Many people believe in their RELIGION and do not understand the gospel. The majority of people live their lives for their religion – obeying religious laws and rules according to their church. Those who are saved realize what Jesus did for them and their faith is now in a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus. God is not interested in a religion, religious acts, laws or just working to do good. Once saved, life is about living for Jesus and committing your life to becoming more like Him. Remember what Jesus did for you? He died for you and saved you from going to hell. Once you are saved, you will be going to heaven – for sure!! No more working to get there. The saved person typically has a strong desire to please the Lord because of this. Therefore, the saved person feels indebted to Jesus and wants to do anything to please Him.
Something to consider…..think about if someone died on your behalf – maybe a best friend jumped in front of you while crossing the street when a car was coming and saved you from dying. Then God raised this person from the dead and this person now lives amongst you. Wouldn’t you feel so strongly in love with this person that he or she was willing to die for you? Wouldn’t you feel so indebted to this person for the rest of your life? Wouldn’t you want to do whatever you could for this person? Well, that is how I feel about Jesus. It's not that I have to do good but that I have a new desire to do good. Of course, Jesus did a lot more for me by taking the punishment for all of my sins, and through my faith and by His grace I will be spending eternity with God and miss living in hell when I die. Nothing even comes close to this comparison but I just wanted to convey something for you to try to relate with to help you understand this supernatural longing.
So, now that I’m saved, what’s next? It is now God’s strong desire for us to be transformed and our minds renewed everyday to become more like Jesus. This is a lifelong transformation, slowly being transformed everyday. Read Ephesians 4:22, Ephesians 5:8, and Ephesians 5:10. We are to learn what pleases the Lord and begin to do that so that we can live the abundant life that Jesus died to give us. No more having to always feel guilty, live in bondage to sin, allow our past to dictate our future, etc. This is why we want to do good – not just to get into heaven but to fulfill our purpose for God’s kingdom and earn rewards for when we do go to heaven. When we begin to live the way God designed, we live with incredible freedom, peace, and complete satisfaction and are truly fulfilled. Disciplining yourself to read the Bible everyday is the best place to start – to learn what pleases the Lord. This needs to be a priority! We often desire to be blessed and live a full life but are not willing to learn what pleases the Lord. We must read the Bible, study it, meditate on it, memorize it, and obey it. I usually pray everyday that God helps me with the: DISCIPLINE to get into the Bible, WISDOM to understand it and interpret it just as He intended, ABILITY to apply it to my life, and the POWER to obey it! HE loves to answer this prayer!
If you haven't made the commitment to "ACCEPT JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR," today can be the day. Please click the button below to be taken to a prayer that you can pray to accept Jesus as your personal SAVIOR. This is the MOST IMPORTANT decision you will EVER make! God bless your decision!
Before I start, I was always reminded that I need to understand the BAD news before I can understand the GOOD news.
WELL, HERE IS THE BAD NEWS…..all human beings are born spiritually dead. What this means is, everyone is spiritually disconnected from God upon entering this world. God did not plan it that way though. Actually, God is grieved because of this. We are spiritually disconnected because of what happened in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. This is when sin first entered the world, and since we are descendants of them, we were all born with a sin-nature and the curse of sin. Refer to Romans 5:17. Sin entered the world by one man (Adam) and sin will be justified by one man (Jesus). Did you ever notice that no one has to teach us how to sin? Even when we are infants, we know exactly how to push to get our way which often results in sinning.
Because God is holy and perfect, He cannot allow sin into His presence and especially not into heaven. There is a gap in our relationship with God and no matter how awesome and perfect we think we are, we will never measure up to his holiness and perfection. God explains in Romans 3:23 that “we ALL have sinned and fall short.” All sin cuts us off from our holy God. All sin leads to death. God explains in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.”
Most people try to do good and believe that God will accept them. We also believe that if we do not commit any bigger sins (i.e.: murder, rape, adultery, robbery), then He will accept us, including allowing us into heaven. This is not what His Word (the Bible) says. He explains that everyone falls short – every single person….yes, including Billy Graham, Mother Teresa and your favorite pastor or priest. Refer to Isaiah 64:6 where God explains that all of our good deeds or righteous acts are like filthy rags. It’s not that He doesn’t appreciate us doing good, but that good is not good enough, perfect or holy. We cannot earn our way into heaven nor get spiritually reconnected with God on our own. We need someone or something to bridge that “gap” for us.
God created us to be spiritually connected to Him and to have a close, intimate relationship with Him. God gave everyone free will – the ability to make their own decisions. With God being our creator, He could have forced everyone to love Him, obey Him, and commit their lives to follow Him but He chose not to do this. Love isn’t real love when it’s forced. He chose to allow us to make our own decision to love Him. This is where faith comes in. Through our faith, believing that there is a God, He did create us and that we needed someone to bridge that gap, we can get spiritually reconnected to God. God did provide a way for that gap to be bridged and save us from eternal separation from God, dying in our sins and going to hell. This is where Jesus comes in. By the way, other names for Jesus are Christ or Lord.
HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS……many people have heard of Jesus and heard about Him dying on a cross for our sins but so many people do not fully understand what this means or what significance is held in this 'act of sacrifice' for them personally. God explained that He would send His son, Jesus, to bridge that “gap” for us. Jesus would die on the cross for ALL sins of ALL men and women. This includes everyone who has lived, those living now, and those yet to be born and live. Refer to Romans 5:8. So many people have also heard of the scripture that has been displayed in many places, John 3:16. Let’s read it: “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.”
This is where people get confused referring specifically to the word “believe” from this scripture. Well, when someone believes something, they should understand what they are claiming to believe, shouldn’t they? Some say that they “believe” in Jesus and that He died on the cross for their sins but they don’t really understand what this means and what significance this has on their lives. One must understand this to sincerely believe from his or her heart. Every single person needs a Savior to save them from having to deal with his or her sins.
Here is how I understand it: I needed a Savior because I was born spiritually disconnected from God due to the sins I committed. I could never make anything right about this situation on my own. I resolved myself to understand that I needed to accept the Savior that God sent - JESUS. I had to do this through faith and by God's grace, revealing to me His truth in this. God sent His son to die on my behalf and to pay the wages for my sins (wages of sin is death, as I mentioned earlier). Jesus loved me so much that He did this for me. He paid the price for my sins and died on my behalf so that I could be forgiven. Because of this and through my faith and by God’s grace, He saved me from continuing to be spiritually disconnected from Him and continuing to be eternally separated from Him forever. Jesus bridged that “gap” for me and is now my intercessor and Savior. It’s like Jesus is the filter for how God sees me. When God looks at me, He sees Jesus' perfect and holy ways and no longer sees me as a sinner because of His indescribable love and grace for me. By the way, we hear the word “grace” a lot. What does it really mean? It means unmerited favor – favor given by God that is not deserved at all. By God’s grace, He wanted to save all people, so He sent His son to die for us. How amazing is this - that He loved us that much?
Before Jesus died on the cross, He claimed that He would be raised from the dead three days later. This was in fact what happened many years ago and has been proven. This is when we celebrate Easter Sunday. Jesus died on Good Friday and three days later, He rose from the dead. The significance of this is that Jesus did what He said He would do, death could not hold Him, and He was resurrected for all people and is alive again today. This does take faith to believe and understand all of this, as I mentioned above. If you refer to Romans 10:9-10, you will see that “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 confess and are saved.” So, what does this really mean? It means that you understand what Jesus did, why He did it, what it means to you, that your sins are now forgiven because He died for them, and that you are now saved from dying in your own sins apart from God. Jesus took the punishment of your sins that you deserved – which can I remind you was “death.” It’s so difficult to fathom this indescribable act of unconditional and perfect love.
What happens now….God says that when you humble yourself and do those things mentioned above by exercising your faith, you will be made spiritually alive and re-connected back to God. There is no longer a gap between you and God. This is where the “born-again” saying comes from. You are not born again in a physical way because you never died physically. You are spiritually born again – into God’s kingdom and are now considered a born-again, spiritually alive Christian. If you hear anyone say that “they are a Christian but not one of those born-again kind,” they are not truly saved and do not fully understand what Jesus did on their behalf. They still do not understand their need for a Savior. God also promised to fill each person who is now a born-again "follower of Jesus" with the Holy Spirit. Refer to Romans 5:5. God has given us the Holy Spirit (God’s power) to live within us to help us live for Jesus. The Holy Spirit is our counselor, someone to help us hear from God, and make right decisions to obey. You may have heard that someone was filled with the Holy Spirit. That means that the person is a born-again Christian. This follower of Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit upon their conversion - dead to their old life and alive in their new life in Jesus. God also reminds us that those who are followers of Jesus are guaranteed eternal life (will live with God forever) as promised in 1 John 5:13.
All of the above is considered the “gospel.” The gospel is the GOOD NEWS.
Many people believe in their RELIGION and do not understand the gospel. The majority of people live their lives for their religion – obeying religious laws and rules according to their church. Those who are saved realize what Jesus did for them and their faith is now in a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus. God is not interested in a religion, religious acts, laws or just working to do good. Once saved, life is about living for Jesus and committing your life to becoming more like Him. Remember what Jesus did for you? He died for you and saved you from going to hell. Once you are saved, you will be going to heaven – for sure!! No more working to get there. The saved person typically has a strong desire to please the Lord because of this. Therefore, the saved person feels indebted to Jesus and wants to do anything to please Him.
Something to consider…..think about if someone died on your behalf – maybe a best friend jumped in front of you while crossing the street when a car was coming and saved you from dying. Then God raised this person from the dead and this person now lives amongst you. Wouldn’t you feel so strongly in love with this person that he or she was willing to die for you? Wouldn’t you feel so indebted to this person for the rest of your life? Wouldn’t you want to do whatever you could for this person? Well, that is how I feel about Jesus. It's not that I have to do good but that I have a new desire to do good. Of course, Jesus did a lot more for me by taking the punishment for all of my sins, and through my faith and by His grace I will be spending eternity with God and miss living in hell when I die. Nothing even comes close to this comparison but I just wanted to convey something for you to try to relate with to help you understand this supernatural longing.
So, now that I’m saved, what’s next? It is now God’s strong desire for us to be transformed and our minds renewed everyday to become more like Jesus. This is a lifelong transformation, slowly being transformed everyday. Read Ephesians 4:22, Ephesians 5:8, and Ephesians 5:10. We are to learn what pleases the Lord and begin to do that so that we can live the abundant life that Jesus died to give us. No more having to always feel guilty, live in bondage to sin, allow our past to dictate our future, etc. This is why we want to do good – not just to get into heaven but to fulfill our purpose for God’s kingdom and earn rewards for when we do go to heaven. When we begin to live the way God designed, we live with incredible freedom, peace, and complete satisfaction and are truly fulfilled. Disciplining yourself to read the Bible everyday is the best place to start – to learn what pleases the Lord. This needs to be a priority! We often desire to be blessed and live a full life but are not willing to learn what pleases the Lord. We must read the Bible, study it, meditate on it, memorize it, and obey it. I usually pray everyday that God helps me with the: DISCIPLINE to get into the Bible, WISDOM to understand it and interpret it just as He intended, ABILITY to apply it to my life, and the POWER to obey it! HE loves to answer this prayer!
If you haven't made the commitment to "ACCEPT JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR," today can be the day. Please click the button below to be taken to a prayer that you can pray to accept Jesus as your personal SAVIOR. This is the MOST IMPORTANT decision you will EVER make! God bless your decision!