Roman 6:23 (NIV)
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of GOD is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.
Romans 3:23 (NIV)
For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of GOD
So technically, every one of us deserves death. Aside from death in the sense of losing our breath or our hearts stopping to beat. There is a second death of eternal damnation. Revelations 20 explained this in detail how this death or second death will be.
Revelations 20:15 (NIV)
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
If you will ask how can we save ourselves from this eternal damnation? And the answer is we simply just can't. We can never pay for our sins because we ourselves are sinners and blemished. Without blemish in terms of righteousness. GOD requires that the sacrifice is without any blemish therefore is righteous. To simply put it, we are blemished and cannot even sacrifice ourselves to save ourselves.
Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags, we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Since we cannot save ourselves, GOD sent his unblemished lamb to save us.
Hebrews 9:22 (NIV)
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
2 Thessalonians 1:6 (NIV)
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.
Jeremiah 17:10 (NIV)
"I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve."
John 3:16 (NIV)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 3:24 (NIV)
and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Now we that we know from what we are saved from, we can look closely on what salvation is for us Christians.
Salvation for us Christians is being reconciled with GOD. It's like in the movies where the children gotten separated from their parents. The children being lost wandering around the earth having their own way drifting further and further away from their parents towards their own destruction. Until the parents rescue them.
The separation between us and GOD is not physical so any physical effort will not get us anywhere closer to GOD. The separation we have from GOD is moral. Sin has made us drift further and further away from GOD.
Isaiah 59:2 (NIV)
But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
HE is holy and we are not. HE is good and we are not. We are surely headed for damnation. But GOD love us so much and HE wants to be with us because we are his children. So even just after Adam and Eve took a bite of the fruit of tree of knowledge of good and evil, GOD has already laid the plan to rescue us.
Genesis 3:15 (NIV)
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
I don't know how to stress how important this is but it is GOD who REACHED OUT TO US, not us to him. A very big difference from my previous belief where it is I who should reach out to HIM to be accepted and saved (If you are born in a Christian family, good for you). A good father wouldn't do that to his children what more GOD.
He planned, provided and did everything that it is needed to bridge the moral separation between HIM and us. That is how much GOD loves us. HE swapped HIMSELF with us so HE became the sinner and we became righteous. HE got punished and we got holiness.
Hebrews 9:26-28 (NIV)
Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Because of this sacrifice by JESUS Christ that we will no longer receive condemnation, but instead gained a relationship with GOD because we are now his sons and daughters. We can talk to HIM, cry out to HIM and receive HIS blessings. All of these benefits because of what JESUS did.
John 3:16 (NIV)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Ephesians 1:5 (NIV)
he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will
Ephesians 1:3 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
With all of this, all we have to do is to receive HIS gift with all our hearts. Declaring HIS love to everyone. Receiving all the love that he lavish us and forgetting our pride. This is simply because there is no other way to be saved and have a relationship with GOD but through the blood of JESUS Christ.
Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Talking to GOD
...because praying is simply having a conversation with GOD.
Agenda:
- Give HIM praise that he is a loving GOD
- Admit the moral separation between HIM and us is our fault.
- Admit that the sins we have committed are all our fault and no one is to *blame but us.
- Admit that because of our sins, we have hurt and disappointed HIM.
- Ask and **BELIEVE for forgiveness, through the blood of JESUS Christ, for all the sins we committed against HIM... in JESUS' name
- Ask for cleansing through the blood of JESUS Christ.
- Ask for strength and guidance to turn away from all the sins... in JESUS' name
- Thank HIM for our LORD JESUS Christ.
- Thank HIM for the Salvation through JESUS Christ.
- Thank HIM for all the blessings through JESUS Christ.
- Thank HIM for the adoption and relationship through JESUS Christ
* Please don't blame the devil because no matter what temptation the devil has bait us, at the end of the day the choice was ours to sin or not.
** Fully accept without any hesitation
Mindset Tuning
- I am 100% sure I am saved because JESUS Christ has already paid for my past, present and future sins.
Credits : Victory Christian Fellowship - One2One Booklet
Please tell us what you think!
Please tell us what you think!
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