Dear Friend,
I’m sorry about this, but I need to tell you something that you don’t want to hear, or consider, or talk about. Can I get very real with you for the next few minutes?
I have already written about the fact that God is revealing Himself to you and continues to do so in various moments of your life. I’ve tried to warn you about the misconception that a person gets to heaven so long as they are basically “a good person.” I have set out the Bible’s clear teaching that if we have sinned in the least part, we are guilty of it all. Because God is absolutely holy and perfectly just, the penalty for our sin is death and we are unable to save ourselves from that righteous punishment. In other words, no amount of good actions will make up for one minor sin.
So since we have all sinned at some point in our lives, we are all facing the death penalty for that sin. This is terrible, depressing news. It should cause the unsaved soul to despair. And because it is so horrible to imagine, humans have a natural tendency to try to soften it up or not think about it and so we make up for ourselves a spirituality that allows us to escape by “being a good person” and we delude ourselves into thinking that we fit that criteria. But we don’t get to make up the rules – the bottom line is that we have a terminal disease called sin and there is nothing that we can do about it.
But as horrible as that news is, it makes what Jesus did for you and me that much more glorious and wonderful.
The Bible explains that Jesus, who was fully God and fully human, was born on earth and lived a completely sinless life. He was arrested although he had committed no crime, he was beaten, mocked, spit upon, and then he was nailed to a cross to be executed. While he was dying on the cross, he took on himself the guilt for all of the sins of the people of the world – past, present, and future – and his death paid the penalty that was owed for those sins. God through Jesus made a way for us to be forgiven.
I’m a lawyer, so the following courtroom metaphor speaks to me the most vividly. Imagine yourself in a courtroom. Satan is the prosecutor (this is the part I don’t particularly like as a former prosecutor myself) and he is pointing out all of your sins and shortcomings. God, of course, is the righteous judge and enters the only appropriate verdict (guilty) and punishment (death). It is at this point that Jesus steps forward and takes your place. You get to go free and He dies in your place. That is what happened on a hill outside Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago.
Three days later, God raised him from the dead as proof that the penalty had been paid and death was no longer the inevitable end to the story.
All you have to do to take advantage of this is believe it to be true and ask Him to save you.
Admit that you are a sinner, believe that Christ has paid the penalty for those sins, and ask Him to forgive you and become the Lord of your life. That’s it. Many people do this by praying a simple prayer. The links on the right hand side of this page will get you started.
Sadly, many people will never believe this truth. They would rather make up their own solution to the sin in their life and either deny the existence of a life after death or simply hope that they get into heaven. They raise all sorts of objections and questions – all of which could be answered if they were interested in searching. Please don’t fall into these traps and don’t put off your decision. God loves you and He has given you a tremendous gift.
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