The Gospel
Our greatest desire is for people to come to know God personally. The
simple truth is that there is a God who created you and loves you very
much. (Genesis 1:1) He gave us life and deserves our gratitude and love.
We, however, have chosen to disobey Him and sin against Him; all of us
have done wrong and failed to do what is right. (Romans 3:23) We may
not be more sinful than our neighbor, or we may be far worse than
anyone we know, it does not matter. Either way, we are guilty before
God. (1 John 1:8)
God is perfect, completely good, always right and fair. He cannot tolerate
sin. He cannot simply overlook the fact that we have chosen to disobey
Him. The Bible says "the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) This
means that the fair payment for our rebellion against God is death. It is
the punishment that we deserve.
Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to earth and lived a perfect
sinless life. He was crucified even though He was completely innocent.
He received the punishment that we deserved. He was the perfect
sacrifice, He was put into our place and took on Himself the sentence of
death that should have been ours. (Romans 5:8)
Jesus did not, however, remain dead. After three days, He rose from the
grave and later ascended into heaven. He will return for all those who
are trusting in Him as their Savior.
Jesus died for you. You can be saved by asking Him for forgiveness
from your sins. If you are willing to repent of your sin, He is waiting to
forgive you. It doesn't matter what you have done in the past, if you cry
out to Jesus for forgiveness, He will not reject you. The word "repent"
literally means "to turn away from." You need to look at your life, admit
that you are a sinner, genuinely desire to turn your back on that sin, and
ask Him to forgive you. If you do this, He promises to forgive you.
True Christianity is not about attending a particular church, or how your
parents raised you, or what country you were born in. Being a Christian
means that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is
your Savior. It's not good enough that your priest, pastor, mother, or aunt
knows Jesus, you must know Him for yourself. They cannot believe in
Him for you, you must believe for yourself. They cannot repent for you,
you must repent for yourself.
Jesus is everywhere all the time. He can hear you now if you ask Him for
forgiveness. Please turn your life over to Him now. Time slips by so
quickly, don't miss this opportunity. If you want to pray and ask Jesus to
be your Savior, you can say a prayer something like this:
"Jesus, I know that I have sinned against you. I know the truth is that I
have sinned by my own choice, and I am the one responsible for it. I
know that I have earned punishment from You, and that the fair
punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You died in my place.
Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover or take my sin away, I am relying
totally and only on You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject
my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life, take away my sin,
and show me how to live my life in a way that is right and pleasing to
You."
If you have prayed this, you are saved! You are now completely forgiven,
a new creation, innocent in the eyes of God. Welcome to the family of
God!
It is important for you to start to grow in your relationship with Jesus. Just
like any relationship, you need to spend time with someone if you want
to know them well. The way to know God is through the Bible. We have
a few different Bible studies here that will help you get going. It's also
important to find a church you can attend where they teach the Bible.
This will allow you to talk with a pastor who will help explain questions
you might have, and it will give you a chance to spend time with other
Christians who can encourage you.