:: THE GOOD
NEWS FROM THE BIBLE
"For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son
into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not
believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light
has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the
Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the
Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his
deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:16-21)
:: GOD
BECAME FLESH
"…who, although He
existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to
be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and
being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross." (Philippians 2:5-8)
"In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)
"And the Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only
begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
:: NO OTHER
NAME
"And there is
salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that
has been given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
:: NO OTHER
WAY
"Jesus said to him, 'I
am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me.'" (John 14:6)
:: A SAVIOR
IS ANNOUNCED
"She will bear a Son;
and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from
their sins." (Matthew 1:21)
:: PROPHETS
BEAR WITNESS
"Of Him all the
prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him
receives forgiveness of sins." (Acts 10:43)
:: A
MEDIATOR
"For
there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus..." (1 Timothy 2:5)
You are unable to save yourself from
the just penalty of sin no matter how many good, religious deeds you
accomplish. In response to this situation, which God foreknew would
happen before He created the world, God created the world through
Jesus Christ, His divine Son, in order to redeem it through Jesus
Christ: the only acceptable substitute for the penalty of sin (death
and separation from God for eternity).
…namely that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself…
(2 Cor.5:19a)
He (God) made Him (Jesus Christ) who
knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him (Jesus Christ).
(2 Cor.5:21)
This reality is revealed from the first
page of the Bible to the last page of the Bible. The seed that will
crush the serpent’s head in Genesis 3:15 is Jesus Christ.
You are a born sinner because of Adam’s
sin. When Adam sinned, a sin nature passed down seminally throughout the
generations, thus rendering every descendant of Adam, a born sinner.
Furthermore, you abundantly contribute your own personal sins to your
record throughout your life by thinking, speaking and doing things that
are contrary to God’s holy character.
The penalty of one or more sins is
eternal death and separation from God, referred to as the lake of fire
or Hell, because a sinner cannot be in the presence of a holy God who
resides in Heaven (while being omnipresent as well).
Because of your sin nature, you are
imperfect and thus you cannot produce “good deeds” to pay for your sins
because an imperfect being has only access to imperfect ways of
producing deeds and therefore all the resulting deeds are imperfect by
essence. To be acceptable to God, a deed and its source (man) must be
perfect because its destination (God) is perfect.
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and
all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment
(rag). (Isaiah 64:6)
Religions, being systems of works and
deeds, cannot be the solution for the problem of sin. The only solution is that God reaches
down to you, rather than you attempt to reach Him through “good deeds”.
He reached down to us by offering us a solution that satisfies the legal
demands of His righteous character.
The solution is that someone else dies in
your place, and be separated from God (the penalty of sin), thus acting
as a substitute. This substitute must satisfy the legal requirements of
God’s righteous character, thus why the animal sacrifices of the Old
Testament and modern day religions cannot meet this standard.
…Sacrifice and offering Thou (God) hast
not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me (Jesus Christ); In
Whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no
pleasure. (Hebrews 10:5-6)
The only acceptable legal substitute is
Jesus Christ, who is the second person of the One God. He took the form
of flesh and lived a perfect humanity without sin (impeccability), even
though He was tempted in every way (in His humanity, not in His deity).
And the Word (Jesus Christ) became
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld (saw) His glory, glory as the
only begotten (unique, one of a kind) from the Father, full of grace
and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus Christ agreed willfully to go to
the cross, die (in His humanity) and be separated from God as a
substitute for you, so that you, a lost and hopeless sinner, can have
access to Heaven without contradicting God’s justice.
After Jesus Christ died on the cross (in
His humanity), He was raised to life on the third day and received (in
His Humanity) eternal life, and a resurrection body that will never
perish, a Gift from God.
As a sinner, because Christ has already
paid for your personal and inherited sins (past, present and future),
the moment you believe that Jesus Christ did this for you and that His
death alone is the only way you can get into Heaven, God freely gives
you eternal life and you are then found “not guilty” in God’s court
room. All you have to do is believe.
When you are saved from the penalty of
sin, it doesn’t mean that you are automatically saved from the power of
sin. You will still commit sins but you will not be condemned for them.
You will be held responsible for them, thus you do not have a license to
sin but how you are held responsible for your future sins no longer
involves death and separation from God. This is what is called
progressive sanctification. (past, present and future)
Thus it is the sole belief in what Jesus
Christ accomplished for you at the cross that saves you and allows you
entry into Heaven. When you believe this, legally, you are declared not
guilty and the righteousness of God is credited to you as a gift because
payment has been made on your behalf by an acceptable substitute, Jesus
Christ.
…knowing that you were not redeemed
with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of
life inherited from your forefathers, but by precious blood, as of a
lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:18-19)
It
is only belief in this that can save you. Believing this but also adding
your deeds to this belief will not save you. Thus a Catholic, who
believes in Jesus Christ but also adds a total of 7 sacraments to the
list of required things to be saved, cannot be saved. The concept of
religion automatically implies deeds added to faith and thus all
religions are disqualified as a means of salvation, even religions that
center on Jesus Christ.
It is faith alone in the work of Christ
alone accomplished at the cross on your behalf that saves you. Not faith
plus sacraments like baptism, for example, because if it were the case,
that would imply that God accepted an imperfect work as part of the
salvation process.
For by grace you have been saved
through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as
a result of works, that no one should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Baptism is something you do AFTER you are
saved to give a public testimony that you WERE saved from the penalty of
sin by grace and not by works.
When I understood this, I believed that
Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins as a substitute for me and
this substitution satisfied the righteous demands of a holy God in His
court room and as a result of trusting solely in the act Jesus Christ
did on my behalf, I now have eternal life.
Once you are saved from the penalty of
sin, you can then begin the journey of being saved from the power of sin
until, ultimately, God will save you from the presence of sin by giving
you a glorified and resurrected body, after you die or when Jesus Christ
returns, all depending which event happens first.
…who (Jesus Christ) will transform the
body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory,
by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to
Himself. (Philippians 3:21)
Ask
yourself the following question:
“Do I believe that it is 100% sure that I will go to Heaven even though
I am a sinner and as a sinner, I cannot be in the presence of a perfect
and holy God unless my sins are paid for and I know that the penalty of
sin is eternal death and separation from God?”
I can answer YES to that question. Can you?
The solution is not religion or deeds. The solution is the free gift of
eternal life from God through Jesus Christ. Are you willing to accept
this or would you rather try and work your way to Heaven, which by
definition is impossible?
Believe as I did and receive the free gift of eternal life.
This doesn’t mean your earthly life will be easy and full of fortunes
such as a nice car, job, house, or bank account. What it does mean
however is that you will have eternal life and the riches of Heaven.
For more information about salvation,
please take the time to read the following article:
Riding the Death Train.
