"And the disciples went
everywhere preaching the Good News ........"
(Acts 8: 4)
This is an
account of the enthusiasm with which the first followers of Jesus Christ spread
the Good News from
This is
certainly the most crucial message from God for all mankind and the news is
good because it reveals how God Himself has provided the healing for the
terminal disease of sin that infects every member of the human race.
I pray that
the following pages will unfold to you the enormity of God’s love for you and
the price He was willing to pay to make the forgiveness of your sins
possible: conditional only upon
repentance, believing and trusting in what He has done for you.
This Good
News is summarised in two verses of Scripture in the Holy Bible:
Christ died for our sins according to the
Scripture and that He was buried and that He rose again
the third day according to the Scripture.
(1 Corinthians 15 : 3-4
THE GOOD
NEWS, OR GOSPEL, IS THAT WE DO NOT HAVE TO DIE FOR OUR SINS BECAUSE CHRIST DIED
FOR US.
Although
God did not create us to die but created us to live in an eternal loving
relationship with Himself, the entrance of sin through the disobedience of our
first parents, marred the Godly image in
which we were created and brought separation from God and death into the world.
The Good
News reveals how God has provided for that separation through sin to be
annulled and the eternal loving relationship with the one and only God our
Maker to be restored. This is the
absolute ultimate expression of good news made possible by the absolute
ultimate expression of love where God, through Christ, laid down His life for
us to atone for our sin and save us from eternal death. There is no better news
than this: there is no greater love than
this.
Sin is the
biblical term used to define a violation of the law instituted by God who has
created the heavens and the earth and all the things that are therein. By observing the world around us we can see
the tragic effect that our violation of God's law has brought upon mankind and
the world.
We may
think that we have led the good life and that sin is not our problem,
but God makes it clear in His Word, the Scriptures,
that all of us have inherited a sinful nature from our first father Adam :-
Wherefore,
as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
(Romans 5 :
12)
When a
lawyer asked Jesus Christ which is the great commandment in the law, He replied
:-
Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.
On these
two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22 : 37- 40)
Have we
always, without fail, perfectly observed these commandments which also include
commandments such as not taking the Lord's name in vain; honouring your
parents; not lying; not stealing; not
coveting ? Jesus went further to say
that if we hold hatred in our heart towards another, God sees it as murder or
if we look upon a woman lustfully He sees it as adultery. If we are honest we will admit that we have
failed miserably and other idols such as our career, possessions, pleasure,
sport, money or self have taken a priority in our lives far above our love of
God and so for a start we have violated the first and great commandment.
God gave us
these laws for our own good but no one has ever kept them perfectly except
Jesus Christ. As the scriptures say :-
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. (1
John 1 :
8)
For a true
exposure of human nature we need only consider our response to God's love when He sent His Son
into this world: we took Him and nailed Him to a wooden cross! For this heinous crime the whole world lies
guilty before an angry God. As Scripture confirms :-
For all
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3 : 23)
And :-
.......as
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: (Hebrews 9 : 27)
GOD'S LOVE COMES TO OUR RESCUE
But God, in His love and mercy, has opened a way for
us to be saved from our sin and its fearful consequence of eternal judgement
and separation from God in the lake of fire, which the Bible describes as the
second death, if we are willing to accept His provision. This provision is in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who in His love for us, took our judgement upon Himself when He bled
and died on the cross outside
For he
(God) hath made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5 : 21)
You may
ask, "Why is God so severe
regarding sin and admission to
His presence or kingdom?" The
answer is simple; would heaven be heaven
if sin were present ?
From the
dawn of human history, where the Christian faith has its origin, God promised a Saviour would come to free us
from the dreadful consequences of Adam's disobedience which brought a
separation between God and man.
(Genesis 3
: 15) .
The Hebrew
prophets of the Bible precisely foretold details of this Saviour (Messiah)
hundreds and sometimes thousands of years before His appearance and though many
false christs and false prophets and false gurus have arisen claiming to show
man the answer to his dilemma with their various religions, only Jesus Christ
of Nazareth conforms perfectly to the
very many predictions in the Bible
relating to The Messiah's appearance.
(Psalm 22 1000 BC etc)
MAN'S FUTILE ATTEMPT AT SALVATION
How foolish to imagine that sinful man can
show sinful man the answer to man's sin problem ! Man's religion always teaches that by
observing sacraments and rituals and good works we can attain a righteousness
acceptable to God. God tells us that
all our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight and unless we identify
with Christ and His righteousness we are lost.
We need to be one hundred percent sure that we have "locked
on" to the true Christ otherwise the result for us will be catastrophic.
In the
words of one writer who has so aptly
condensed the Gospel message into a few short paragraphs :-
"On the cross, God
treated Jesus as if He had lived your life so He could treat you as if you had
lived His life: that's
justification: that's imputation and any
adulteration of that is an adulteration of the Gospel. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ as
Lord and Saviour, He is fully the substitute for your sins - all your sins
placed on Him - all His righteousness placed on you.
That's why God can accept you
into His heaven, because He treats you
as if you had lived Christ's sinless life.
That's justification, that's the Gospel.
If you do not understand the
Gospel you cannot put your faith in Jesus Christ. If you cannot do that you cannot be
saved. This all occurs by faith.
On the cross Jesus was not a
sinner but God treated Him as if He were.
And you are not righteous but God treats you as if you are - if you
believe."
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4 : 5)
In response
to our belief, God justifies the ungodly
and man's attempts to justify himself apart from Christ are futile. There follows then this glorious truth, that if there is a willingness to accept
God's conditions there is hope for the moral as well as the immoral sinner and
that encompasses everyone without exception.
This certainly then is Good News for you and me because the Bible
clearly states that it is totally
impossible for any of us to
attain a standard of righteousness acceptable to God by our own works.
The divine
currency which paid to God the debt for our sin and makes us acceptable to God
is the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, all that stands between a believer
and the judgement of God is the blood of Jesus Christ and that alone. Nothing else can cleanse our sin and make us fit to enter God's presence.
And almost
all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood
is no remission. (Hebrews
9 : 22)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God through
His holy apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit. In them God tells us that His Son the Lord
Jesus Christ, for whom and by whom we were created, demonstrated His love for
us by coming to earth in a human body to take upon Himself the out pouring of
God's righteous judgement against our sin by suffering and dying the death of
crucifixion in our place on
the cross
of Calvary at
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends. (John 15 : 13)
GOD'S GIFT TO MANKIND
The Lord
Jesus Christ laid down his life for you and for me. The great Creator became our Saviour if we
are willing to receive him.
Our
eternal destiny hinges upon our reception or our rejection of God's gift of the Saviour, Jesus Christ,
and on that alone.
We are told in the scriptures
that,
..... the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 6 : 23)
The Bible also goes on to say,
He that hath the Son hath life (eternal); and he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life.
(1
John 5 : 12)
Like any
gift which is offered to us we have the choice to either accept the gift or to
reject the gift; a personal response on
our part is required. If we do nothing
it indicates that we do not want the gift and failure to respond is
automatically taken to mean the rejection of the gift.
Whereas, reaching out and taking possession of the
gift is clearly an indication of acceptance of the gift.
We can
reject God's gift by not receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour and so
isolate ourselves from the protection of
Christ's sacrifice. By doing this we
expose ourselves to the full wrath of God's judgement of our sin where the
verdict will be, "guilty'' and the sentence eternal punishment.
On the
other hand we can repent or change our direction and accept God's gift by
receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour.
By doing this we effectually shed or crucify our old Adamic nature which
is under the curse of God's law through sin and we become a new creation in
Jesus Christ with His Spirit indwelling us.
That is why
Jesus made the paradoxical statement :-
For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose
his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke
9 : 24)
GOD HAS GIVEN
Here The
Lord Jesus Christ tells us that we can choose to save our fallen Adamic
nature and go into eternal separation from God in hell or we can choose to lose
our Adamic nature by receiving Christ's righteous nature and go into eternal
union with God in heaven. That is the solemn reality of our situation according
to Scripture. That is the simplicity of
the true Gospel. We are warned not to
give heed to the false gospel that we arecan be
saved by fulfillingjustifying
ourselves by religious works and sacraments.
How do we
lose our lives you may well ask ? We
lose our lives by identifying with the Lord Jesus Christ through baptism into
His death, burial and resurrection:-
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6 : 3-4)
Jesus
Christ, the sinless Son of God, died for the sins of the whole world. By the blood of His sacrifice He made
salvation available to all people everywhere conditional only upon
believing. Christ’s death, burial and
resurrection becomes our death, burial and resurrection.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: ( Galatians 2 : 20 )
When we
believe that God has justified us with the blood of Christ’s sacrifice God
imputes His righteousness to us and seals us with His Holy Spirit by whom we
are born again. Jesus describes this
in His conversation with Nicodemus, the learned Jewish Rabbi:-
Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the
By making
Christ our choice we come under the protection of Christ's sacrifice; we are
delivered from the coming judgement of God and receive the gift of
eternal life.
For as in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15 : 22)
And the promise of God to all that believe :-
Thou wilt
shew me the path of life: in thy (God's) presence is fulness of joy; at
thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm. 16 : 11)
God, who
knows our every thought, is awaiting our
response to His message of Good News:
to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour or to reject Jesus Christ as
Lord and Saviour. These are the only two
options open to mankind.
God tells us that we have no other options.
All the evidence that we need on which to base our
decision is found in the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Holy
Bible: God's revelation to mankind. As our eternal destiny hinges upon our
response to this provision of God's love and mercy it is surely our first
priority in life to study the evidence
for ourselves and not to entrust the eternal destiny of our
souls to a church or priest but to Christ alone.
THE PERFECTION OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE
Jesus
Christ by his own will laid down His life for you and for me when
He died on the cross :-
By the
which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.
But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat
down on the right hand of God;
For by one
offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10 : 10 -12 - 14)
What an affront
to Almighty God for man to imagine that a priest can supplement the finished
work of Christ's perfect sacrifice by perpetuating this once for all
sacrifice through religious sacraments
or by using good works as a means of self justification and thus denigrate
Christ's sacrifice which in itself was sufficient for the sins of the whole
world.
As Christ died on the cross His final utterance
was 'It is finished' and He gave up the ghost.
When Jesus
therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he
bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19 : 30)
Everything
necessary for man's redemption had now been finished by His life, death
and resurrection, a perfect work of redemption had been accomplished. God's righteousness and the demands of God's
law in respect of sin have been satisfied.
Finished means finished and it is not for man to use religious
trappings to tamper with or to try and supplement a work which is perfect in
the sight of God and which carries the stamp of God's approval by His
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead.
Do we
respond to Christ's love and receive Him as our Saviour, or do we despise His
love and reject Him as our Saviour ?
The
inescapable fact is that one day we will all stand before the Lord Jesus
Christ, whom God has appointed the judge of all men, and on that day we will either know Him as our Saviour or we shall know Him as our
Judge. We do well to ask ourselves,
"Which will it be in my case ?"
"WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED ?"
There is a
passage in the Scriptures where a man cries out, "What
must I do to be saved?"
"Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved....."
God's plan
of salvation has not changed and it is still the same today for you and for me.
"HOW DO I BELIEVE ON
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST ?"
·
BELIEVE
THAT GOD LOVES US. IT IS NOT HIS WILL
THAT WE PERISH.
John 3 :
16
For God so loved the
world, (that's you and me) that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever (that's you and me) believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.
2
Peter 3 : 9
The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
·
BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN OF THE
VIRGIN MARY.
Matthew
1 : 23 Behold, a virgin shall be
with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is, God with us.
Matthew 1 : 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on
this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came
together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
·
BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD.
Luke 1 :
35
And the angel answered
and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
John 19
: 7
The Jews answered him, we
have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son
of God.
·
BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS GOD THE SON.
Colossians
2 : 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness
of the Godhead bodily.
Philippians
2 : 5 - 8 Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus: who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
·
BELIEVE HE BLED AND DIED ON THE CROSS FOR OUR
SINS.
Colossians
1 : 20 - 22 And, having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by
him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of
his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable
in his sight:
·
BELIEVE THAT CHRIST'S SHED BLOOD HAS
PURCHASED GOD'S PARDON FOR OUR SIN.
Hebrews
9 : 22 And almost all things are
by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
remission.
Romans 3
: 23 - 26 For all have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God; Being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus.
·
BELIEVE THAT APART FROM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
THERE IS NO OTHER SAVIOUR.
Acts 4 :
12
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.
John 14
: 6
Jesus said to him,
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the
Father, but by me........ "
1
Timothy 2 : 5 - 6 For there is one God, and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all,
·
BELIEVE THAT CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS,
DESCENDED INTO THE HEART OF THE EARTH AND ROSE AGAIN THE THIRD DAY.
John 19
: 33
But when they came to
Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
Matthew
12 : 40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights
in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth.
Mark 8 :
31
And he began to teach
them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the
elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed,and after three
days rise again.
·
BELIEVE
THAT HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN AND WILL RETURN AGAIN TO ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM
OVER ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Acts 1 :
9 - 11
And when he had spoken
these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out
of their sight. And while they looked
stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in
white apparel; which also said, Ye men
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
him go into heaven.
Matthew
25 : 31 - 32 When the Son of man shall come in
his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne
of his glory:and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall
separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the
goats:
"WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE ?"
Is it
logical to refuse the grace and free pardon offered us by our Creator and
choose instead the fearful consequences of isolating ourselves from His mercy
to face the full force of God's immutable law under which the whole world lies
in condemnation and whose verdict for sin is the penalty of death ?
Isaiah 1
: 18
Come now, and let us
reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be
as wool.
Deuteronomy
30 : 19 I call heaven and earth
to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life.
God's will is that we choose life
When that fateful day
comes and we
step through into
eternity
and the stark truth of God's word confronts us, will the anguished cry of many
be,
"WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME ?"
You can
thank God that this does not have to be your cry.
“THE CHOICE IS
LIFE OR DEATH”
Before
making your decision carefully consider the disciplines that the Lord Jesus
Christ requires of His followers. This requirement is a switch of motive from
living under the control of self to a motive of living under the control of
Christ. Jesus warns against making a hasty decision to become His
follower before carefully counting the
cost. Consider again the three elements
of the gospel:
For I
delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received, how that:-
(1) Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures; (2) And that he was buried,
(3) and that he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15 : 3 - 4)
The Lord
Jesus Christ took upon Himself our human nature yet without sin by virtue of
the virgin birth: His holy blood was not contaminated by the sin of Adam. Then at His crucifixion he took upon Himself
the entire sin of the world and consequently suffered the penalty of God’s
judgement for all mankind thus making God’s forgiveness of our sins possible
without compromising His righteousness.
We receive this forgiveness by believing the truth that God has provided
our justification by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice. After believing we
identify with Christ’s sacrifice by
being baptised into Christ where we
acknowledge that our sinful nature has been put to death and buried and we have
risen from death with the new life of Christ within us. Those who believe and receive Christ as
Saviour are able to say:-
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2 : 20)
As Scripture
says:-
I am crucified
with Christ (Galatians
2 : 20)
Buried with Him
in baptism (Colossians 2 :
12)
Risen with Him
in newness of life (Romans 6 : 4)
Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5 : 17)
Again, the
question we must ask ourselves, 'Do I choose to save my fallen Adamic nature,
be my own master and go to a lost eternity or do I choose to lose my rebellious
Adamic nature by obeying the gospel, submit to the Lordship of Jesus
Christ and gain an eternal heaven ?'
This is truly the
greatest decision ever to face each one of Adam's fallen race.
And Jesus
said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and
looking back, is fit for the
WE ARE GOD'S AMBASSADORS TO YOU
Now then we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray
you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
(2
Corinthians 5 : 20)
If you have
determined to choose life and to receive
Jesus Christ as your Saviour, Jesus
tells us that your decision has repercussions in the heavenly realm :-
Likewise, I
say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth. (Luke
15 : 10)
He also
gives you the further assurance that your approach to Him will not be rejected
under any circumstances.
All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out.
(John 6 :
37)
MY DECISION TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST
AS
MY SAVIOUR AND MY LORD
"HOW DO I ACTUALLY RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS MY
SAVIOUR ?"
We sometimes hear the remark, "I receive
that" as an indication that a particular statement has been believed
by the one addressed. In like manner receiving
Christ as Saviour is by believing God’s word stating that Christ’s
sacrifice has provided justification for all who believe. Receiving
is by believing.
God's Word makes
this statement :-
But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Chist died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
(Romans 5 : 8 - 9)
The statement of this verse tells us that
while we were unsaved sinners God, in His love for us, provided for our
justification by the shedding of Christ's precious blood. Justified means to be made as though we had
never sinned.
God's Word makes this statement :-
But to him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for
righteousness. (Romans 4 : 5)
The statement of this verse tells us that
when we cease from striving to justify ourselves by our own works and simply
accept by faith the truth that God alone has justified us at the infinite cost
of the sacrificial blood of His beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ, God then honours that believing faith by
imputing His righteousness to us as a gift.
We, by grace, become the recipients of God's righteousness which He
freely bestows upon those who believe: a holy righteousness without which we
dare not and could not enter into the presence of the holy and righteous God. We
have thus passed from a state of being unrighteous to a state of being
righteous. We have passed from a state
of being without Christ to a state of having received Christ.
We have passed from a lost condition to a saved condition. We are no longer separated from God by sin
as we were by nature but have been reconciled to fellowship with God and have the joy of knowing our sins are
forgiven. We know the joy of having our
relationship with God restored and that
we are no longer His enemies as we were by nature but are now adopted into His
family as His children; His sons and
daughters. We have passed from death to
life: as we keep the faith through this
life we are saved for all eternity.
God offers no other means by which we may
be saved other than believing that He alone has justified us. Our exercise of this belief is the only
ground upon which God will impute to us His righteousness. Making a decision for Jesus Christ in itself
does not make us righteous. Asking
Jesus into our life does not of itself make us righteous. It is when we by
faith believe that God has paid for our justification and made atonement for
our sin through the shedding of His beloved Son’s precious blood and that we of ourselves can do nothing
to justify ourselves we then, by God's grace, become the recipients of God's
righteousness. The provision of
our salvation is entirely the work of
God. The receiving of this salvation is entirely conditional upon our repentance and believing the Good News.
(Gospel)
To believe or not to believe, that is the
question that will govern our eternal destiny.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be
blotted out …(Acts 3 : 19)
Furthermore, as
believers, we are no longer
under the condemnation of sin but have been reconciled
to God by faith and made perfectly righteous with His righteousness we now know
a peace with God we had never known before:
Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5 : 1)
This marvelous truth inspired the hymn
writer to pen these beautiful words as the chorus to a hymn:-
Oh, the peace my Saviour gives,
Peace I never knew
before,
And my way has brighter grown,
Since I learnt to trust
Him more.
We see then that our salvation is entirely
of God and nothing of ourselves. It is
totally a demonstration of God's love for mankind.
Not only are we reconciled to God by His
grace but when we receive or believe or trust or keep God's Word in this manner
God indeed puts the seal of His Holy Spirit within us as a guarantee that we
are His people under His care and under His protection.
In whom ye also trusted, after that
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1 : 13)
This truth is further borne out by the Lord
Jesus Christ :-
Jesus answered and said unto him,
If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we
will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14 : 23)
When we by
faith believe God has justified us by the shedding of Christ's precious blood
and thus have God's righteousness imputed or accounted to us we are keeping the
words of scripture as stated in the
above verse from John's gospel and thereby receiving the Lord Jesus Christ who,
with God the Father, will make their abode with us.
The apostle
Know ye not that ye are the
What more could we ask of God and what more
could God do for us ? The simple and
obvious answer to this question is, 'Absolutely nothing.'
The
emotional impact of knowing God's forgiveness and His peace and presence in our
hearts can be quite profound.
Nevertheless, we do not walk with
God by our emotions but by faith; that
is, by taking God at His Word. Not to do
this is the sin of unbelief: the
submitting of our will to Satan's lie rather than God's truth - man's original mistake in the Garden of Eden
!
For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The
just shall live by faith. (Romans 1 : 17)
A simple
prayer such as the following is sufficient to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour :-
A PRAYER OF REPENTANCE AND RECEIVING JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOUR
Almighty
God I confess that I am a sinner and that I have violated Your laws. I ask Your forgiveness as I now strive to turn from all sin.
I
believe your word that in your love for me you have saved me from my sin by
taking it all upon yourself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and suffering the penalty in my place by
your death on the cross.
I
believe your word that whilst in my lost ungodly condition you have justified
me by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice and on the grounds of my belief you have
imparted the gift of your righteousness to me and sealed me with your Holy
Spirit thereby making me your child and a member of the family of God.
In
obedience to your word I will be baptized into Christ Jesus my Lord and in
accordance with your word I will seek to be guided by your Holy Spirit to do
your will on earth as it is in heaven.
28
"LORD, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME TO DO
?"
Having committed yourself as a follower of Jesus
Christ there are certain disciplines which Christ requires of His disciples.
Without doubt your most important discipline is to
apply yourself to the study of God's word, the Bible. For English language readers the Authorised
Version - King James Bible is recommended due to its superior textual
background and translation technique.
Begin with the New Testament and then make it a regular practice to keep
reading the Bible right through from beginning to end.
As newborn babes, desire the
sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby:
( 1 Peter 2
: 2 )
But he
(Jesus) answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.
(Matthew 4
: 4)
God's
word, which is Spirit and Life, is our spiritual food. Neglect it and we will
die spiritually just as neglecting natural food will cause us to die
physically.
·
TELL
SOMEONE YOU TRUST THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOUR
Romans
10 : 8-10 The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and
in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
·
ASSEMBLE
WITH GENUINE BIBLE BASED BELIEVERS. MANY
Hebrews
10 : 24 - 25 And let us consider one
another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner
of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching.
·
BE
BAPTISED INTO CHRIST BY TOTAL IMMERSION
Romans 6:3
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Galatians
3 : 27 For ye are the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ.