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How to Have a Saving Relationship with Christ

A = Admit you are a sinner and you can’t be perfect and holy enough in God’s eyes to be right with Him on your own. Turn away from your sin. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23

B = Believe that Jesus (God in the flesh) died on your behalf to pay the price for your sin and to give you a way to be right with God – to be forgiven. He lived the perfect life you couldn’t live. He died the death you deserve and rose from the dead in victory over sin, death, and the grave on your behalf! “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord.” Rom. 6:23

C = Confess that Jesus is your Lord – this means, Jesus is now your Master and you live your life for Him and His glory rather than for yourself. You say it out loud to others and you live it from now on. You lay down your will and your desires and follow Him, inviting Him to direct and use your life for His will. “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.” Rom. 10:9-10

WHAT IS SIN?

Sin means – “missing the mark” of the holy standard of God. It is an archery term that means that the arrow missed the target. If the arrow missed the target by half an inch – that is a sin. If it missed it by 500 yards – that is a sin.

There are many sins:

Greed, selfishness, lust, idolatry (loving something or someone else more than God), stealing, gluttony, addictions of every sort, un-forgiveness, envy, taking God’s name in vain, adultery, lying, rage, slander, gossip, pride, self-righteousness, divisiveness, vanity, refusing to help those in need, apathy, hatred, bitterness, grudges, unbelief in God, disobeying God’s Word by doing something against it or by not doing something He asks us to do….

They all separate us far from the one and only holy God of the universe the big and small ones.

WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT OUR SIN?
HOW DOES HE DEAL WITH IT?

God is a holy God

Yes, He is Love – but He is also holy. He is pure and undefiled by sin. He cannot tolerate being in the presence of sin. It is completely filthy to Him

We wouldn’t be okay with even “just a little poop” being in the cake. Whether it was 2 pounds or 1/4 of a teaspoon – we would still be completely repulsed – as we should be. That would be disgusting! We would all want to start with a whole new uncontaminated cake before we would be willing to eat the smallest bite.

I know that was graphic – but God has a similar revulsion to sin. Although it is even nastier to Him than this illustration would be to us. Even “just a little” sin in our lives is a big issue for Him. He wants to start with a whole new life for us.

God is perfectly just

He must demand proper payment for wrongs that have been done. He will not allow or ignore injustice. This is a HUGE problem for all of us! None of us are able to be good enough to impress God and earn our way to be with Him in heaven.

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” Isaiah 64:6. Our best behavior on our own is literally like “filthy, bloody menstrual rags” in God’s sight. He cannot overlook any sin. He cannot ignore it.

Someone must pay the price for each sin.

The Bible says:

  • ”All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
  • “For the wages (paycheck that is earned) of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
  • “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works (good deeds), so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
  • Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
  • If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” Romans 10:9-11

Only God is good

We are not good in and of ourselves. We are all contaminated with sin apart from Jesus and helpless to be holy on our own. God loves us and wants to be in close relationship with us. But for Him, only perfection will do.

That’s why we need His incredible gift so desperately. When we accept Jesus’ gift of forgiveness and payment for our incalculable sin debt, it creates gratitude and humility in our hearts – and those qualities are very beautiful in God’s sight.

THE HOLY HERO

When we were unable to do anything about our sinful and wretched condition and still dead spiritually in our sins, Jesus was willing to set aside His glory as God, take on a human body, live as a man, and come to rescue us in our distress:

  • He lived the perfect life I could not live. (A brand new cake)
  • He died the awful death I deserved. (got rid of my old contaminated cake)
  • He took all of my sin onto Himself and paid for it in full.
  • He offers to exchange all of His goodness and righteousness for all of my sinfulness.
  • God counts Jesus’ death as my death and His life as my life if I will receive it.
  • He gets what I deserve and I get what He deserves. That is not fair at all. That is GRACE!
  • He gave all for me.
  • Now I give all of myself to Him in gratitude to live the life He can empower me to live – He is now my Master. He is in control, not me. I seek His will far above my own in every area of my life daily. That is what it means for Him to be LORD.

If we will but accept His gift, put our trust and faith in Him, love Him with our whole hearts and live our lives surrendered to Him, we can become adopted, beloved children of God.

We can’t earn this relationship! Neither can we walk down an aisle, fill out a card, pray one prayer and then live however we want to live.

This is a matter of me giving my whole life to Him to be used for His purposes from this point on.

He gave all for me. He is willing to take our sin and the death we deserved in exchange for giving us His life, His right relationship with God, His holiness, His power, His heaven… WOW!

HIS LONGING FOR US

  • He longs for us to love Him with all that we are – to worship Him as the Lord of our lives – the One Who is in charge. He longs for us to follow Him, delight in Him, praise Him, thank Him, worship Him and reverence Him every day of our lives.
  • He desires to love us, lead us, cherish us, make us more and more like Him, to be one in Spirit with us, to know us intimately, for us to know Him deeply and to prepare us to be His radiant, sinless, spotless bride in heaven (Ephesians 5:27) – where a great wedding feast awaits all who love and trust in Him!
  • But He will not force us to love Him. He is a Gentleman – and He gave us a free will so that we can choose to love or reject Him and His gift of life forever with Him as His bride.

There is no sin that Jesus’ blood cannot cleanse from our souls. I pray that you might repent (turn completely away from sin and toward Jesus) and believe Jesus’ gospel and live for Him from this day on!! This is how we throw off the weight of sin that entangles us!

Jesus is Real Love and He is Real Life.

He is MORE than enough!

RELATED

“I Said the Sinner’s Prayer – So I am Going to Heaven. I’m Good with God Now, Right?”

“I Prayed to Receive Christ, But I Was Not a Believer”

The Blessing of Knowing about Hell

What Is Lordship Salvation? – by www.gotquestions.org

What Is the Gospel? – by www.gotquestions.org

David Platt “Who Is God?”

David Platt – “Radical” www.radical.net