| 1.
|
Recognize your sin: There is no one righteous, not even one. – Romans 3:10
|
|
Understand it is your sin that separates you from God: Your sins have cut you off from God. – Isaiah 59:2
|
|
Realize that the penalty for sin is death: The wages of sin is death. – Romans 6:23
|
2.
|
We try to connect with God by doing such things as praying, reading our Bibles, going to church, doing good deeds. But realize that although these are all good things, they can never mask our sinfulness. They can never enable us to enter the Presence of a pure, holy, perfect God. And they do not pay the price God demands for our sins. All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
– Isaiah 64:6
|
|
3.
|
But God loves us so much that He made a way for our sins to be forgiven, and for us to enter His Presence, to connect with Him on earth and
to spend forever with Him in heaven. That way is the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for our sins by His death
on the cross.
|
|
|
"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." – John 3:16
|
|
|
The only way to God is through Jesus. |
|
|
|
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." – Jesus' words, in John 14:6
|
|
|
4. |
What does "through Jesus" mean? "Through Jesus" involves repenting, grace, faith, and surrender.
|
| • |
Repenting of your sins
|
|
|
"Unless you repent, you too will all perish." – Jesus' words, in Luke 13:3
|
|
|
Repenting is leaving sin behind, a deep heart change that results in a change of your thoughts, feelings, attitudes, words, actions. It is accepting Jesus' redeeming work on the cross as payment for your sins.
|
| • |
Grace and Faith
|
|
|
|
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9
|
|
|
|
Grace is a free, unearned, undeserved, gift from God. Jesus died in our place, simply because He loves us.
|
|
|
Faith is believing something so deeply you live like you believe it. If we repent, and truly deeply accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it will be evident in our lives: we will be doing what Jesus is doing.
"Anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing." – Jesus' words in John 14:12
|
| • |
Surrender
|
|
|
Surrendering to God is giving God control of every aspect of your life – money, school, work, relationships, time, status, possessions, reputation, dreams, plans. It is choosing to live for His vast eternal plan, His Kingdom, His purpose for you in this world, instead of living for your own dreams and wants and desires. |
|
|
|
And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. – 2 Corinthians 5:15
|
|
|
Is God calling you right now? If you are ready to repent of your sins, to accept God's grace of forgiveness of your sins by Jesus' redeeming work on the cross, to surrender everything to His control, to put God above everything else in your life, to live for Jesus and not for yourself, to believe, to have faith, to do what Jesus was doing, I invite you to pray this prayer right now:
Oh heavenly Father, I see so clearly my sins, and I choose to completely leave them behind. All my good deeds can never make up for my sinfulness, and I ask You for forgiveness and accept Jesus' death on the cross as the payment for my sins. Thank You, heavenly Father, for your overwhelming mercy and grace. I surrender everything to You, I give you control of every single aspect of my life. You have offered me a choice, and I choose to believe, to have faith, to give my life over to You, to do what Jesus was doing, to no longer live for myself, but to live for my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
|
| If you have given your life to Jesus for the first time, please contact us so we can encourage you and pray for you.
|
|
|
