A Message of SalvationWhen Adam ate of the forbidden fruit he became separated from God. Every since then all his descendants have also been separated from God. We are all born of Adam's seed. Because we are all from Adam, we all inherited that sin nature of Adam's. Not only did we inherit that sin nature from Adam, but God saw us with Adam when he disobyed, eating of the forbidden fruit (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:22). We can't help but sin, we are sinners. Not all of us sin in the same amount. Some people sin more than others. But everybody sins. This flaw is called a "sin nature." Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. He did not come from Adam's seed. Thus Jesus was sinless. He did not inherit this flaw from Adam. He did not have this urge to sin as you and I do. In the Old Testament God forbid human sacrifices for the payment of sin. Instead he told the Israeli's to only sacrifice clean animals, such as lambs. Because every human being inherited a sin nature from Adam we can never pay God enough for our sins. Instead our sins pay us the price of death (Romans 6:23). The lambs offered in sacrifice in the Old Testament all pointed forward to a time when Jesus, born without a sin nature, would pay for our sins in full. In the Old Testament people were saved the same way they are today: by grace (Habakkuk 2:4). God always is concerned about the internal, not the external. Jesus is our lamb. There are some religious groups who will say that Jesus' death on the cross was not enough to pay for all of your sins. They will say you have to meet him halfway to prove yourself worthy to complete your salvation. This is in contrary to Scriptures. Jesus, before He died said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Ephesians 2:8-10 says: 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 so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Christ died on the cross. It was a horrible death. He paid this price for you in order to bring you to a right relationship so that you would no longer be separated from him. To make sure he was dead he was pierced in the side and blood and water ran out (John 19:31-37) Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken 46 years to build this temple and you are going to raise it in three days? But the temple he had spoken of was his body. (John 2:19-20) Romans 4:25 says Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. When we understand that we cannot earn God's love with our deeds and that we deserve death we are beginning to understand our need for a Savior. Jesus paid for our past sins, our present sins, and our future sins when he died on the cross. He was buried and he rose three days later (1 Cor 15:1-11). When we truly believe this in our hearts our entire lives change. When we believe the gospel (1 Cor 15:1-11) we become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Christ lives in us (2 Cor 13:5) and we have a totally new outlook on life. Whereas before we thought nothing of certain sins, we are now repulsed by the thought of them. We have a peace that surpasses understanding (Phil 4:7).
Because
Christ is our peace (Eph 2:14) we have true fellowship with God. There are
times when we will sin after being saved. This does not mean our
salvation is lost. However, it does break our fellowship with our Father
in heaven. 1st John 1:9 assure s us that by confessing our sin that
fellowship is restored.
I pray you will consider carefully what has been presented. I also pray you will honestly consider the verses I have offered. Please write them down and read them in their context so you can be sure of the Truth of the Salvation which is in Christ Jesus. If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, please accept His free gift of salvation. |