“Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38………………..
“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.” Romans 10:9-10……………..
I do streets ministry, so I see it all. From prisoners to the homeless, from the rich to the poor, to the highly successful in society’s eyes to the total failures according to the world’s standards, to people of all backgrounds, with all sorts of stories, to those who have been abused to the abusers themselves, to the sick and dying to the athletes and truck drivers, to long-time followers of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who haven’t the faintest idea who He is to young people to the retired to Americans and those from abroad and on and on. If there’s one thing I can tell you that is common to every single person I come across, and to every human being on this planet that ever was, is, and will be, it’s this.
We are ALL sinners against God, we ALL fall short of His glory (Romans 3:23), NONE of us is righteous (Romans 3:10), NONE of us can earn God’s love and forgiveness and the promise of a relationship with Him on earth and forever in heaven, ALL of us because we’re sinners and God is perfectly holy can’t have a relationship with Him and be in His presence on earth or in heaven and deserve and face the curse of death, hell, and the lake of fire, also described as eternal torment apart from God, and the ONLY WAY to be forgiven by God and to receive the promise of eternal life most importantly including an everlasting relationship with God almighty is through the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6), Son of God, God in the flesh, who came to this earth, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross to bear God’s wrath at us for our sins and the accompanying punishment as the perfect atonement for our sins before He was raised from the dead so we can be offered forgiveness and eternal life. NONE of us deserves or can earn God’s love, forgiveness, and eternal life, including forever in heaven with Him, but God loves us so much He offers it to us. Absolutely undeniably awesomely astonishingly amazing, isn’t it? That Jesus Christ died in our place so humanity has an opportunity to avoid hell and spend forever with God instead.
But this Gospel message of God’s sovereignty, of His love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and forever fellowship comes with an IF. Do you know what that IF is? That IF is this. God’s love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and a forever personal relationship with Him are a GIFT FROM GOD, and gifts have to be RECEIVED, don’t they? So how do we RECEIVE this gift? We need to RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. How do we RECEIVE the Lord? We need to repent of our sins, acknowledging we are sinners, confessing our sins, being truly sorry over them, and turn away from our sins and turn to Christ as Lord, believing He is the Son of God, died on the cross for us and was raised from the dead, that He is Lord, placing our trust in Him and committing ourselves to Him, devoting ourselves instead of any longer to the world’s ways to God and His ways instead, literally changing the direction of our hearts and lives, from the world to God and His Word, submitting ourselves to Christ’s lordship over us, and receiving all that this entails including receiving God’s awesome love, and the endless spiritual blessings He has for His followers, and entering into His forever Kingdom, and into His forever glorious fellowship.
There is NOTHING we can do to earn this gift; the IF is that we need to RECEIVE this gift. And we RECEIVE this gift by turning our lives over to God. Turning away from this world and its ways and from self and sin and turning to the Lord God almighty with our hearts and lives truly dedicated to Christ and following Him. There is no greater gift in the universe than to receive Christ as Lord and a forever relationship with God. This is being born again, spiritually, with a clean slate, with a brand new start in life. With this gift we are sealed with God’s Holy Spirit who comes to live inside us. Can you imagine a greater gift than this? There is none!
Have you received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of your life? Do you believe the Gospel message, and have you genuinely entrusted your life to Him? If not, let this be the day! And if you have, may you spread this most amazing Gospel message to others. All for the glory of God most high and almighty!