1 John 5:12-14 “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
Salvation is an “if / then” offer, which means that there is something for us to do in order to receive God’s forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, consecration, restoration, regeneration, adoption, and eternal life. Romans 10:8-10 asks, But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. It sounds too simple, but it is God’s requirements and qualifiers so are the way. Yet, it is very difficult to for many to understand and accept for many reasons. Why?
I have a relative who recently told me that he goes to church, believes in God, and believes in Jesus, but doesn’t know if he is going to Heaven or not. He state, “You don’t know all the bad things that I have done in my life, which I am ashamed of and should be punished for, so it is God’s choice whether He let’s me into Heaven or not.” I explained that because of sin in our lives, nobody is good enough to get into Heaven on their own; us all deserve God’s wrath as punishment. I read John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That, sure a holy and just God must judge and punish sin, but this loving and merciful God made the choice to sent His Son as a free gift [not earned, deserved and paid for by us] to take the place of any sinner who repents, accept and receives Him as their personal Savior and follow Him for the rest of their life as Lord.
That was God’s choice, but we have a necessary choice to make to either accept this gift of God given by grace, or reject Jesus Christ and not enjoy eternal life in Heaven. John 3:35-36 goes on to say, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” No matter how bad you have been in the past, it’s not about what we do, but about what we believe by faith in our hearts and who we choose or refuse that determines whether how we live today and where we go at the end of this life.
Ephesians 2:4-8 proclaims. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” God made the choice to save you; the question is “will you make the sacred choice to be saved”
In Christ, Brian
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