Something Everybody Should Know

Are you worthy enough for Heaven?
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mat. 5:48)
"Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only thosewhose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life." (Rev. 21:27, NIV)
My dear reader, please read the verses above and assess yourself. Are you good enough that God will let you enter Heaven when you die? The Bible says nothing impure will ever enter it. Are you pure? Are you perfect? Here's what the Bible tells of all humans:
"If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (Psa. 130:3)
". . . as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one. . .  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:10, 23)
"For the wages of sin is death. . ." (Rom. 6:23); "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." (Rev.20:14)
    Clearly, if we are to appear before God and present Him our works, even our best works, we will never earn His approval. No matter how kind we are towards our neighbor, no matter how often we pray and go to church, whatever pious things we have done, these won't change the fact that we are sinners, and we sin against God from time to time (cf. Ec. 7:20). We are in great trouble because of our sins. Being totally unworthy to appear before our Just and Holy Creator, we need someone to save us! We can't save ourselves!


    God's Solution To The Problem

    The good news is that God has sent someone, 2 thousand years ago, to provide Salvation for those who will put their trust in Him alone as their Savior and Lord. He is none other than JESUS CHRIST--the Son of God!
    "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (Jn. 3:16-18)
      JESUS CHRIST came in the likeness of sinful flesh and obeyed God's law perfectly "to the point of death, even death on a cross" (cf. Php. 2:8 / Mat. 5:17). Why? So that by believing in His name our sins may be forgiven by His blood, and that we may be counted righteous in God's sight based on His own righteousness, not ours since we can't do enough to obtain eternal life by our own works:
        ". . . and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. . ." (Rom. 3:24-25)
        ". . . so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. . ." (Rom. 5:19)
        "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:21)

          What Must I Do To Be Saved? 

          Trusting in CHRIST alone for Salvation is all we need to do to receive God's gift of eternal life. When the disciples were asked by a certain jailer as to what a person must do to be saved, this was their outright response:
          "Then he brought them out and said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' And they said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.' " (Acts 16:30-31)
          Believe, and be saved. You might say, "Well, I believe  already!" But may I know what kind of faith is that you claim to have? There are two kinds of faith:
          1. mere mental assent to facts concerning CHRIST's person
          2. wholehearted dependence/trust in CHRIST alone for Salvation
          The first kind of faith, namely the "mere mental assent"-faith, is the kind of faith which cannot save anyone. This doesn't mean that correct knowledge about CHRIST is inessential. Of course in order to be saved, one has to have a right understanding about the person and work of CHRIST, which are as follows:
          1. that He is God's Son
          2. that He is Lord over all
          3. that He is God incarnated in the flesh
          4. that He lived a perfectly sinless life on behalf of those who would trust in Him
          5. that He died on the cross so that by His blood sinners may be forgiven through faith
          6. that He rose again in the third day as an assurance that His sacrifice of atonement was accepted by God
          7. that He ascended unto Heaven & will return soon to Judge the dead and the living
          But the kind of faith the Bible speaks of as the sole means through which sinners are saved by grace is more than just mentally assenting to these facts. Even the demons believe and shudder! (Jm. 2:19).

          Saving faith involves the admission of your own sinfulness before the Lord and your utter insufficiency to do anything without God's grace working in your life (thus rejecting the idea that you can save yourself by your own abilities and efforts). Saving faith, then, is a wholehearted dependence in the finished and complete redemptive work of JESUS CHRIST for Salvation (cf. Rom. 3:25, 10:9-11).
          "Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD." (Jer. 17:5)
          "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 6:23)
            Do you have this kind of faith? Search your heart, my friend. You've got no way of knowing what will happen to you tomorrow. Do not delay a minute in crying out to God for mercy!

            Repent of your sins and trust upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved!
            "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified. . ." (Luk. 18:13-14)
            "And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:21)
            ". . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." (Rom. 10:9-10)
            (If this post helped you in any way, or if you have questions or in need for further spiritual counseling, please do not hesitate sending me an email to jeph_sgcer@yahoo.com)

            -Jeph
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