Who trained you to sin?
Your mom didn’t teach you how to steal, you wanted to have something that was not yours to take, even though you knew it was wrong, and when confronted about it, you tried to hide it by lying.
Do you realise you’re a slave to sin?
Have you ever tried to go one day without sin? Unfortunately, sin has a hold on us. Even when we think we’re so good because we have no sin, we step into the sin of pride or self-righteousness.
Do you realise you have broken God’s law?
Have you lied, stolen, or used God’s name in any context apart from glorifying Him. Jesus mentioned that even our thoughts are sinful, e.g. lust, anger, and coveting in our hearts will be judged as if we’ve already committed adultery, murder or theft.
Don’t you see you need help, forgiveness and freedom?
If you failed to keep God’s whole law by stumbling even at one point, you’re guilty of breaking all of it.
- No amount of good deeds can rectify the wrong.
- Asking for forgiveness does not exempt anyone from their punishment.
Only if someone pays your fine can the Judge let you go.
Jesus (the Son of God) became a man (took on human flesh) and lived a holy and righteous life to become the atoning sacrifice (paying the fine) for our sin (saving us from eternal punishment)
What now?
Jesus has paid the fine for our sins, but that does not automatically guarantee salvation for all. He continually taught that only those who endure to the end will be saved. It starts with entering through the narrow gate (Believing that Jesus is the only way to the Father) and following Him and His ways. Jesus preached a holy lifestyle, repentance, baptism and an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He also demonstrated precisely this: He lived a Holy life, was Baptised in water and received the Holy Spirit.
Have you repented and turned away from sin to follow Jesus?
Some of the first words Jesus preached were “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” and “Come follow me”. Therefore, we need to leave our old sinful life behind and pursue a Holy and righteous life that we can only achieve in and through Jesus.
Have you been baptised into Christ Jesus?
Leaving the old life behind can be a difficult task since we’re born with a sinful nature, but by being buried through baptism into Jesus Christ, as we read in Romans 6, we put away the old self and experience freedom from the power of sin as we are reborn a new creation united with Jesus.
Have you received the Holy Spirit?
God reveals to us in Acts 19 that we don’t automatically receive the Holy Spirit when we believe, but that it comes through the laying on of hands or asking persistently, as Jesus describes in Luke 11. We also read that receiving the Holy Spirit was often accompanied by signs, e.g. speaking in tongues and prophesying.
And then…
Before Jesus ascended to the right hand of God, He left us with a commission (a task/job) to go to the ends of the earth and make disciples, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead as we proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.
One day
Jesus will come back to judge the living and the dead and separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep are those who kept the faith and endured to the end, bearing fruit in obedience to the teachings of Jesus. They will inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. The goats will go into eternal punishment, an eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.
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