GOD LOVES YOU
God is love. It is God’s nature to love you. God loves you right now. He has always loved you and He always will. He loves you just the way you are. God loves you unconditionally. He cares about you and thinks about you all the time; just as if you were the only person on earth. God created you and He had a plan for your life even before you were born. Every good thing you have, even everything you take for granted, comes to you as a gift from God. And He has so much more that He wants to give you. It’s true that God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you the way you are, ( separated from Him ).
SIN SEPARATES US FROM GOD
Romans 5:12 “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought
death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned”. Death refers to
separation because that’s what death is. Spiritual death is separation from God. We are all born natural sinners. We were all born with a sinful nature. Therefore we are all born separated from God ( spiritually dead ). Sin also eventually brings physical death: separation from your body. Together these two deaths result in “the second death“: eternal separation from God. (Revelation 20:14–15 and 21:8)
GOD GAVE JESUS TO SAVE US
Jesus is the only way to God
John 14:6 “Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Acts 4:12 “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” 1 Timothy 2:5 “There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.”
Jesus died to save us
Romans 5:8 “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” I Corinthians 15:3-4 “ I passed on to you what was most important…Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.” 1 Peter 3:18 “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but He died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. “ 2 Corinthians 5:19,21 “God was in Christ , reconciling the world to Himself , no longer counting people’s sins against them .…so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” John 3:16-18 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”
What it means to be saved
Being saved includes many things. Here are a some of them. First of all, it means you are given spiritual life (no longer separated from God). This new life is given to us by the Holy Spirit, who indwells all true believers. It means we are forgiven of all sin— past, present and future; that Jesus took all our sins and gave us His righteousness. It means we are right with God, we have right standing with God, right relationship with God. It means we have eternal life (right now) and that when we die, we will go to heaven instead of hell. It means that we are a child of God and God is our Father. God wants us to be saved so He can have fellowship with us. He wants us to belong to Him and to be a part of His family.
I John 5:11-13
“And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.”
Jesus has done His part. He never forces anyone to come to Him. He gave everyone a free will to choose Him or to reject Him. (To make no decision is itself a decision not to choose Him.). You must make the next step.
WE MUST ASK JESUS TO SAVE US
You must ask Jesus to save you, believing that He can save you and believing that He will save you. Acts 16:30-31 “…What must I do to be saved? They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved…” John1:12 “But to all who believed Him (Jesus) and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” Romans 10:13 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Would you like to ask Jesus to save you right now?
Dear Jesus, I realize that I have been separated from you and now I know I need you. I believe you died and rose from the dead to pay for my sins. Today I put my trust in you alone as my Savior. I here and now call upon you to save me. From now on, I trust you Jesus, to be my friend and helper. Thank you for saving me. Amen.
Repeating a prayer does not save you. Trusting Jesus does. Did you trust Jesus to save you? If you did, you will go to Heaven when you die and nothing can ever change that. Ephesians 2:8-9 “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” John10:28 (Jesus said) “I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.” Romans 6:23“…the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”. Once you are saved (the Bible also calls it “born again” John 3:3-8) you need to grow and mature spiritually. II Corinthians 5:17, I Peter 2:2, II Peter 3:18. Find a church that
emphasizes Bible preaching and salvation by faith in Jesus alone. Then get baptized and confess your faith in Jesus Christ.
Learn to love God and hate sin by regularly doing the following
Read the Bible – Acts 17:11, 2 Timothy 2:15
Pray – Jeremiah 33:3, Matthew 7:7-8, James 1:5, Hebrews 4:14-16
Study & Memorize – 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Psalms 119:11, Joshua 1:8
Listen to Bible preaching and teaching – I Cor. 1:18, 21b, Romans 10:13-14, 17
Do things to help others – Matthew 7:12, Mark 10:44, Philippians 2:3-5
Three Tenses Of Salvation
PAST: We have been saved from the penalty of sin. (When we trusted Jesus to be our Savior.)
PRESENT: We are being saved from the power of sin. (As we obey the Word of God and the Spirit of God.)
FUTURE: We will be saved from the presence of sin. (When we die and go to Heaven or when Jesus comes back to take us to Heaven. John 14:1-6, I Thes. 4:16-17)
Resources
All verses are from New Living Translation.