Believing in God is important. By believing in and understanding that God is holy and just, we can understand what we need to do to spend eternity with Him.
God gave us the Ten Commandments to point out to us that we all have sinned and that our sins separate us from God. God is holy and sin can not enter into His presence. We have all sinned. You...and especially me. Every person that has ever lived with the exception of Jesus Christ the perfect Son of God. Jesus is God incarnate. Being God, He was able to be the required atonement for sin. He alone can pay the price that God demands for our salvation.
If we believe that God is who He says He is...then we must also believe Him when He says who we are and what we must do to live in His presence.
God gave a list to Moses that outlines His laws.
Exodus 20:2-17
- “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
- “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
- “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
- “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
- “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
- “You shall not murder.
- “You shall not commit adultery.
- “You shall not steal.
- “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Pretty clear. These are specific things, but they also are an indication of the heart. Try as we might...we can not keep even these 10 commandments of God's.
So what is step two? It is knowing, and admitting that we have sinned against God. No one...no matter how good they believe themselves to be can honestly look at this list and say....Yes...I have always kept these commandments.
We have discussed that you believe God, and that God says that we have all sinned. We looked at the list of commandments and we know that we have broken many if not all of them.
Romans 3:23 Tells us that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
This means that our sin separates us from God. God is holy and pure, He can not and will not allow sin in His presence.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. Wow...He even said the "wages" ...we worked for it...we earned death because of our sins.
Death here means spiritual insensitivity. When we are still in our sin, we have no life with God. We are alive physically but dead spiritually. If we continue in that condition, we will be separated from God for all eternity.
The wages of sin is death. but God's free gift is eternal life. While wages are earned, a gift is offered... no strings attached. God says He will give us eternal life - life with Him - in the place of sin's payment of death.
How can God remain true to His holiness and forgive unholy sinners?
Because Jesus, His Son, has paid the price for sin by His death on the cross.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God through Him."
Jesus arose from the grave to conquer sin and death for all who receive Him as God's free gift.
"For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."
- Romans 10:13
How can you receive God's free gift of love and life?
Romans 10:9-10
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a
person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he
confesses, resulting in salvation."
A person receives God's free gift of love and life by placing faith in Jesus Christ. To believe is simply to take God at His word. With our heart (whole believing) we believe that Jesus is God's Son who died for our sin on the cross and arose from the grave to live in us as Savior and Lord.
To believe in Jesus will result in confessing that faith with one's mouth.
Do you acknowledge that your are a sinner?
Do you believe by faith that Jesus, God's Son, died for your sin on the cross?
Will you now confess Him as your Savior and Lord?
Romans 10:13
"for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."
This verse says that any person who will call upon the name of Jesus, the Lord, shall be saved.
To call means simply to ask in prayer. The verse does not require one to know more... do better... clean up one's life... or in any way try to add to what Jesus has done for us.
Will you now call upon Jesus to save you from your sin so that you can know God's love and forgiveness?
Pray like this: "Dear God, I confess that I am a sinner, and I am sorry. I need
a Savior. I know I cannot save myself. I believe by faith that Jesus, your
Son, died on the cross to be my Savior. I believe He arose from the grave
to live as my Lord. I turn from my sin. I ask You, Lord Jesus, to forgive my
sin and come into my heart. I trust you as my Savior and receive you as
my Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me."
When anyone calls on the Lord in this manner, that one is saved according to God's Word. If you pray a prayer of repentance and faith, you are saved.
You have God's word on it.
If you have any questions, please let me know. I will be happy to talk to you one on one and answer your questions to the best of my ability.
Nothing will give me greater joy than to know one day, we will spend eternity together with Christ.
