On this blog, you'll see a lot about writing...and also a lot about Christianity. Maybe, just maybe, you're reading this and you don't know what the Christian faith is all about. I'd like to take this opportunity to share that with you (all Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Version).
The first thing you need to know is that God loves you. John 3:16, the most well-known verse of the Bible, says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Basically, Jesus came to save us because of God's great love for us. But why was a Savior necessary in the first place?
Romans 3:23 clears that up by telling us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." All of us have, at some point or another, done something wrong, something that God defines as sin. Even if you think you're a "basically good" person, there has been a time when you've told a lie, done something out of anger, etc. Even if we were to live our entire lives and only sin once, we would still fall short of the standard set by God's holiness.
What's the penalty for that? According to Romans 6:23, "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." If we all got what we deserved (i.e., earned) for our sins, then we would face eternal dying in Hell. However, God offers us the gift of salvation through Jesus. There's nothing we can do to earn this...we simply have to accept the gift. After all, no gift is truly yours until you accept it from the giver.
How do we know that this salvation is a gift from God rather than something we have to earn? Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." This wasn't something God did for us after we'd done something to counteract our sins; He put this in place beforehand! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid the penalty for our sins by dying on a cross for us. If we accept that, then our penalty is paid and we can have eternal life.
How do we accept Christ as our Savior? The answer is in Romans 10:9-13: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation....whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."
If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, let me encourage you to do so right now. There are no "magic words" to say. Just pray to him, confess that you are a sinner and that you need a Savior, and ask him to be the Lord of your life. It will be the best decision you'll ever make.
