Salvation
How do I get saved?
How do I know if I will go to Heaven when I die?
These are the most important questions you could ask in this life, because their answer has an eternal impact.
(Please read to the end)
When Jesus is asked how to receive eternal life, He responds by telling us to keep these two commandments:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself”
“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” -Luke 10:25-28 NIV
The problem is, that we cannot possibly perfectly do this.
To receive eternal life, we must be perfectly righteous by His standards. If we fail to keep these commands, even once, then we have sinned and fallen short of His standards. Sin is going against the standards God has established and asked us to follow. God Himself is the standard for righteousness and we can define righteousness by looking at Him. This means that we must be perfect in every area of life including our character, actions, attitude, and words, just as God is. Since we will never be able to achieve that standard, we cannot possibly become perfectly righteous and thus go to heaven by our own doing. Our sinful nature keeps us from achieving God’s perfect standard.
Our sin keeps us from achieving God’s standard and makes us unqualified to be in His Holy presence. This would mean eternal separation from God. Separation from God—the giver, maker, and sustainer of life—results in eternal spiritual death. Just as physical death separates our souls from our earthly body forever, spiritual death separates our soul from our Holy God forever, unless we can atone for our sin sufficiently.
The only way to gain access back to God’s eternal and Holy Kingdom is to atone for all of our sins, every. single. one. Our sins must be atoned for eternally, because God is an eternal being and the wages of sin is eternal death and separation from our Holy God. Since Jesus is fully man and also fully God, He is the ONLY one that could atone for all sins, past, present, and future, because He is an eternal being. All other sacrifices would be finite and limited in their ability to atone, which is why the sacrifices in the Old Testament were done on a continual basis.
God in His love for you, sent a way to bring you back from death to life in His eternal presence. He sent Jesus, His only Son, to be born as a man, live a perfect life, die an undeserved death on a cross, and be raised from the dead for the sins of all humanity. Jesus is the only sacrifice acceptable to God as an eternal atonement for our sins. When you accept Jesus as your Savior, God no longer sees your sins, but the righteousness of Christ washed over you. Since you have been given the righteousness of Christ, you can now share in the eternal life and glory that heaven offers.
There is no need to strive to earn your salvation. The work for your salvation was finished on the cross. All you have to do is accept the sacrifice made for you and follow Jesus. The first step to showing your love for God is to accept the gift of salvation He gave you through Jesus. You can do so by sincerely praying the prayer below:
“Dear God, I know I am sinful and I humbly ask for Your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son and that He died for my sins. I believe that You raised Him to life on the third day so that I could enjoy eternal life with You. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as Lord, from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will. Give me a heart for You. I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.”
