Monday, May 17, 2010

The Gospel and How to be Born Again

Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. It is through Him and Him alone that one can have forgiveness of sin and eternal life (Matt 16:15-17, John 14:6, Acts 13:38, John 3:16).

God, the creator of heaven and earth, is a holy God (Gen 1:1, 1 Peter 1:15-16). He is a just God and demands that sin (disobedience to Him) be judged and the one who commits sin be punished (Rom 2:11-12, Rom 6:23).

He demands that all in His presence be without sin (Heb 12:14). That, of course, is humanly impossible to achieve because as Romans 3:23 states, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

God prepared hell, a place of torment, for Satan and his angels (Matt 25:41) because they rebelled and sinned against God. All people who die in their sins will also go there for all eternity as punishment for having rebelled (sinned) against God (Matt 25:41, Rom 6:23).

God does not desire that for you. He wants you to be with Him. God made a way for you to be forgiven of your sins so you can be with Him for all eternity. (Rom 5:8, John 3:16)

Since God is a just God and demands that sin be punished, He chose to have His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to take God's judgment for your sins. In other words, Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sins so you would not have to (Heb 4:15,1 John 2:2, 1 John 3:5).
God did not leave Jesus dead; He rose Him from the dead (1 Cor 15:4) and He sits at the right hand of the Father.(Acts 2:32-33).

You can have forgiveness of sin and eternal life if you

1) BELIEVE that Jesus died for you and rose from the dead.(John 3:16, Rom 5:8, Rom 10:9-10).
2) RECEIVE (accept) what Jesus did for you (John 1:12).
3) CONFESS this to God in prayer (Rom 10:13) and publicly to man (Matt 10:32).
4) OBEY God [Lordship] (Heb 5:9)

Every person who has ever lived, lives now, or will live will stand before God and give an account of their life to Him (Heb 9:27, Rom 14:12).

If a person dies in his/her sins because he/she rejected Christ then he/she will be judged a sinner and cast into the Lake of Fire to suffer conscious torment day and night for all eternity (Rev 20:10,15).

If a person dies in the Jesus, meaning that he/she has believed on and received Jesus as Savior and Lord, then he/she will inherit eternal life where he/she will be in God's presence forever and will know without measure the love of God (1 Cor 2:9).

Have you been born-again? If not, do you want to be? If you do, you can be.

Do you believe in your heart that you are a sinner? That Jesus died for your sins to satisfy God's judgment for your sins? Do you believe Jesus rose from the dead? Do you want Jesus to save you from the penalty of sin (hell) and to give you eternal life? If you do, then turn to God in prayer and confess that to Him and ask Him to save you.

Here is a sample prayer:

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner deserving of God's judgment and punishment. I know that you died for my sins so I could be forgiven and that You rose from the dead. I ask that you forgive me of my sins, come live in my heart, and be the Lord of my life. Thank you for saving me and helping me live the life you would have me to live. Amen."

If you have done this from your heart, then God will come live inside of you. He will change your heart and give you a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Everyday pray and read God's Holy Word, the Bible (KJV).  Ask God to lead you to the Church He would have you be a part of.  Let the Pastor and Church congregation know that you ask Jesus to save you.  Be water baptized.  Seek God's will for your life and walk in obedience to Him.
 

2 comments:

A Child of God said...

I often think that my story is very ordinary—nothing eye-popping or earth-shaking. Yet the truth is that every story of a life touched by the God of the universe is extraordinary. Whenever God reaches out to work in the life of an individual human being, it is remarkable—a story worth telling and hearing, similar to billions of others but at the same time totally unique.

As a freshman in college, I considered myself a Christian—after all, I wasn’t Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, or any of the other religions found in the campus religious life center. One night I went to hear a talk about “Evidences for the Resurrection.” The talk made sense, as the speaker presented facts that pointed to the overwhelming probability that Jesus Christ did, in fact, die and then come alive again. What didn’t make sense was when the speaker invited us to pray a prayer to receive Christ. I had been to church all my life, but I didn’t know what he was talking about. I had more or less tried to live by what little I knew of Jesus’ teachings, but “receiving” Him was a foreign concept to me.

Over the next few weeks, I came to understand that I really didn’t know God; in fact, I was separated from Him because I didn’t come close to living the kind of life that would let me have a close relationship with a holy God. Not that I was all that terrible, as most people would think of those who are really rotten. I had never been arrested for doing anything wrong, I tried to be a nice person, and if I ever did tell a lie or miss church, it really didn’t hurt anything. Nevertheless, any violation of God’s law is a sin and it keeps us apart from Him. Like an all-powerful, all-righteous king, He is so pure that no one can stand before Him.

What about the “God is love” part? I had heard “God is love” and “Jesus loves me,” but now I understood that God isn’t a mushy, pushover granddaddy type who gives us anything we want. His love caused Him to find a way to allow us to become much more than subjects of a king—He makes us His own children, like the king’s little child who can come right into the throne room and be received with delight. God found a way for His love and His justice to meet—He became a man, entered our world, lived among us, and went through all the trials that we face, yet without ever sinning. Then He took for Himself the punishment that we deserve for our sins; He Himself paid the price that He demanded as payment for sin.

When the speaker talked about “receiving” Christ, he meant that I couldn’t just stop at believing that the evidence for Christianity is pretty strong; if God really did come to earth, die in my place, and come to life again, then those events of two thousand years ago have profound implications for my life now. I could not escape the fact that, if He rose from the dead, He is still alive, and if He gave up His life for me, He expects me to give my life to Him. I asked Jesus to let His sacrifice pay for my sins and to make me His child and His friend. He did let me into His family and He gave me delight at being able to run into His presence like a child coming to her father.

As I learned more about God and His purposes, it all made sense to me. Christianity explained all the big questions like “Where did we come from?” “Where are we going?” “What is our purpose on earth?” Today, decades later, in some ways life makes less sense to me; I understand that there really are no neat and tidy answers to the questions of life. But I am more convinced than ever that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

A Child of God

Pat said...

A Child of God

Thanks for sharing.