In this chaotic world, have you ever wondered if love is real? Is there hope? Can I find God? Learn about Jesus’ love!
God’s Love and Purpose
God created us to have an eternal, personal relationship with him.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
God desires all be saved, but we broke that relationship, causing separation between man and God.
What is causing the separation?
Our Problem: Separation and Judgment
Sin separates us from God.
As sinful beings, our nature is corrupted by sin. As such, we willingly choose to disobey God and, instead, choose to sin.
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Because of our sins, we cannot get into heaven.
God said only those with “clean hands and a pure heart” are able to get into heaven (Psalm 24:3-4).
Sin makes our hands dirty and our hearts impure. Therefore, we are not able to get into heaven.
For the wages of sin is death, . . .
Because of our sin, we deserve punishment.
God wants to forgive you, but he must also punish sin.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
In order to be forgiven, punishment must take place, and God provided for that.
What is God’s provision for punishment?
God’s Provision: Christ
God provides a way to satisfy both justice and his desire to forgive you.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave to pay the penalty of sin.
Jesus bridges the chasm separating us from God.
God provided the only way to be saved!
The only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. The good news is that this gift is offered to whomever will accept it.
This gift is given freely out of God’s love and grace.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
. . . but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We cannot earn this gift. We don’t deserve it.
However, we can have it if we accept it.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
How do you accept God’s gift?
Our Response: Repent and Believe
You can be forgiven and be saved if you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as your savior.
God promises that whoever confesses and believes in Jesus will be saved.
How to receive Christ:
Admit Your Sins
You must repent of your sins. This admitting your are a sinner and turning away from them.
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
Believe in Jesus
You must believe Jesus is God the Son who paid for your sins. You must also confess that he rose from the dead.
because, 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 with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Call on Jesus
Through prayer, ask Jesus to forgive you and put your faith in him alone for your salvation.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
What should you do now?
What Now: Start Attending Church
If you accepted Christ as your savior, the next step is to start attending church so that you can grow in your faith in Christ.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
