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How to Receive Eternal Life
Making sure that you will spend eternity with God is THE most important thing you will ever do in your life! "Being saved" means to make sure that you will spend eternity with God because you have had your sins forgiven and have received credit for Christ's righteousness. Trust me... you want to spend eternity with God. The only other option is to stand in judgment for your sins. Is that something you really want to do? Maybe you think that you are a pretty good person, but that is because you are measure yourself against other people--or just people worse than you--rather than comparing yourself to God's standard of goodness.
Let me explain... If you're going to believe that Jesus is your Savior, you first need to accept the fact that you're a sinner, you deserve to be condemned by God as a sinner, and you desperately need a Savior! The problem is that we don't really think that. We know we're "not perfect" but we're pretty sure that God grades on a curve. Nope. If you wanted to earn your way to heaven, you would heave to be exactly as perfect as Jesus Christ was Himself, and He was completely sinless and absolutely righteous. Us on the other hand... when we honestly compare ourselves to God's rules, we fall way short. If you don't think so, read Matthew chapters 5-7 and honestly ask yourself how well you measure up.
There is a chasm between us and God because of sin that is so wide that there is no way we could cross it. Even the "best" and "most holy" person couldn't jump across the chasm any better than the worst sinner. I don't care how good of a jumper you are, you can't jump across the Grand Canyon! Now... this is a big big problem. You see, God is holy. God is the prefect judge of the universe. God must judge sin. God is utterly opposed to all sin and evil. Romans 1:18 says that, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." God lets us know, through the Bible, that He is a God of wrath against sin and evil. This is a good thing! God should be the enemy of evil. This would be a good thing for us... if we weren't sinners. But, we are. Romans 3:10 says, "There is no one righteous, not even one." Isaiah 53:6a says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way." Isaiah 64:6 says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Because of this, what we deserve is the wrath of God; we deserve eternal death. God could have just left us in the situation, and we would have all gone to hell. It would have been perfectly fair for Him to do that. Even a "small" sin that we commit is huge because it rebellion against an infinitely great and holy God. (And we know this deep inside.) But... God loves us! John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." The passage continues, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him... Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:17, 36)
Christ went to the cross to pay for our sin. Even though He was God, perfect and had never sinned, He went to the cross and took the punishment that we deserve. He absorbed all that infinite punishment while He was on the cross. He paid our debt for us. He paid it ALL. He paid it in full. We're saved by "grace." Grace means "free, undeserved gift." Salvation from hell isn't something that we have earned or something that we deserve. Ephesians 2:8-9 specifically says that salvation is NOT something that has to do with our works (being good.) We can't pay one penny towards buying it. (Christ paid it all!) The gift is free, but we have to receive it. This is important! If someone gives you a present, but you refuse to take it, you don't really have it. The Bible says that we receive this gift through faith alone. To have faith means to "trust" or "depend" on Christ alone as your savior from hell. You can't trust in your own goodness, your church attendance, your baptism, some special ceremony you went through, your good deeds, your minister or priest, saints, Mary, or anyone or anything other than Christ. Only Jesus is the one who paid the debt, so you need to trust in Him alone. (Think of what an insult it would be to Him for someone to trust in anything else IN ADDITION to Him alone!)
The Bible promises you that if you admit to God that you are a sinner in need of a savior, and that you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone as your substitute and savior, then you can know for certain that your sins (past, present, and future) are forgiven. Then, you can know that when God looks at you He sees the righteousness of Christ instead of your sin, and that you are promised that you will be with God forever when you die. Now, if you didn't have your sins forgiven, being with God would be the worst thing imaginable. But when Christ repairs our relationship with God because of the cross, God becomes our ultimate treasure... beyond anything else we can imagine in this world or the next!
Wouldn't you like to know for sure? What are you waiting for? Christ has already done the hard part! He already paid it all. There is nothing you can add. The only thing left is for you to receive this gift by trusting Him. You can do that right now. In your heart, tell God something like this. (It isn't the prayer that will save you, Jesus saves you. You don't receive His gift of forgiveness by saying magic words, but by truly trusting Him in your heart.)
If you just prayed that and meant it from the heart, God promises that you are saved forever! Based on the promises of the Bible, you can now know for sure that no matter what happens, you will be in heaven with Jesus when you die! Now you can start your new life with Christ. Instead of trying to be good to earn your salvation, now you can live for Jesus out of thankfulness for what He has done for you and expectation of the fulfillment and happiness that comes from getting closer to God. "Being Saved" isn't just for the next life. The instant you entrust yourself to Christ, you are made alive with Him in this life already. Although the best is yet to come, God wants to give a sneak peak of His Kingdom through your life on earth. Being a Christian means to become a follower of Christ, and when we follow Him, He makes our lives whole. This doesn't mean that we escape our troubles. Far from it... God says we should expect troubles. But we have God's promise that He will use everything in our lives to achieve His purpose for creating us... to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
written by Nate Archer
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