How can a person know for sure that they are going to heaven?

How can a person have their sins forgiven?

How can I get a “new start” with a better life?

            Sometimes, people refer to this religious “experience” as “being saved”; other times you might hear phrases like “born again”, “redeemed”, or “getting things right with God”.  However, the phraseology is not as important as the simple truth that any person CAN have their entire life turned around and be offered a brand new chance at a new life by believing what the Bible teaches about “salvation”.

            Here is (in a nutshell) “God’s Simple Plan of Salvation”:

The Bible teaches that every person born into this world is a sinner. 

Roman 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Regardless of how good and moral a person may be, the fact is, that we all have missed the mark of perfection.  No one is perfect.  Some may “miss the mark” only slightly, and others may miss the entire target, but we have all sinned against a holy God.

Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

The Bible also teaches us that God is holy and completely righteous. Nothing short of absolute perfection will satisfy His demands.  He cannot just “look the other way” from our sins.  Because we have sinned, we must be punished.  Every payday you receive “wages” that you have earned.  In much the same way, every person will one day stand before God and receive the “wages” of their sin — which is death.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  The price tag for our choice of sin is death, both physical death of our bodies and eternal death in hell.  That sounds like an awful price for a “few mistakes”, but in reality we’re not near as good and moral as we think we are; and sin is a horrific, unspeakable offense against the holy God Who created us.

For example, if you and I only sinned once each day since childhood (say from age 12 for instance).  (I mean we’re only counting just one sin each day!)  In just one year, we would have accumulated 365 crimes on our record against God.  In a lifetime (just say we live to be 70), we would have over 21,000 crimes on our record.  Now can you imagine someone going into a courtroom anywhere in America and telling the judge that “I’m not so bad” when they have a record of 21,000 offenses?!

The truth is; however, that even one sin would disqualify us from heaven forever, because God demands complete righteousness.  Habakkuk 1:13a says this: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:” Also, Psalm 5:4-5 tells us... “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”Another common error that we sometimes hear is that maybe it is possible for a person to do a lot of good to erase the bad that they have done, or, possibly, I’ll still be okay as long as my good outweighs my bad.

            The biggest problem with this idea is that it would mean that somehow or another God would simply ignore my past sin.  Suppose a man works his whole entire life in education; working for low wages; sacrificing just to help children learn and do well in life.  He seems to accumulate a lot of “good” on his account.  But suppose that same man, after doing good for 35-40 years, were to molest a student.  Would not society judge the wrong?   Would any fair judge say to the parents “Well, we’ve weighed his good deeds against his bad deeds and this one offense just really doesn’t mean much so we’re going to ignore it because of his good record”?  How could we possibly expect God to ignore even one sin? No amount of good can cover or erase even one sin!

Isaiah 64:6 teaches us that “...we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags...”  Good deeds never give us credit with God.  There is no scale in heaven upon which to weigh our good and bad deeds.  God is keeping an accurate record of each person’s life on earth and each person’s record either still has their sins recorded there or they have gotten their account of sin forgiven.

The bad news is terrible: All have sinned – and that includes you and me.  Because we have sinned we must pay the price for sin – “death”.  Because we have sinned we will stand before God condemned and damned to hell, and there’s no way God’s righteousness could allow Him to ignore the wrong we’ve done.

But the Good News is that there is a provision for forgiveness from God!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-17)

The Bible teaches that God, Himself, became a man, Jesus Christ.  He was born of a virgin; that means He did not have sinful, tainted blood like ours from the first man, Adam. Jesus lived an absolutely sinless life; so therefore, He did not have to die.  (Remember: “the wages of sin is death”) When Christ died on the cross He became our Substitute.  He died in the place of you and me so that we might be forgiven. 

Romans 5:6-8 explains this clearly....“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus Christ suffered horribly and died for the sins that we committed. God loves you so much that He was willing to suffer in your place: the Innocent for the guilty.  Believe me – no one ever loved us that much!

So what do we have to do?  Did you know that there was a man in the Bible who asked this very question?  Acts 16:30-33 records the question and the answer.  “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

To believe on Christ is different than believing in Christ.  A lot of people believe all the facts of history and even the Bible stories, but that’s not the same as placing your entire faith and trust in Christ as your Lord and Saviour.  Did you know that even the devils believe in Jesus?  James 2:19 makes a facetious statement: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”

When we come to a time and place where we really understand we are a condemned sinner before God, we will begin to hate the sin that has caused this separation from God so much that we are willing to repent and be turned away from it forever.  This “repentance” is a change of mind and heart about living life without God.

When we come to the place that we really believe that Jesus Christ lived and died in our place, and we are willing to commit our entire lives to Him because of what He did for us, then (and only then) can we just simply pray and ask Him to forgive us and save us.

Romans 10:9-10 & 13 explains exactly all we have to do: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation....For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

It is as simple as calling (praying) upon God for forgiveness. 

I’m sure there have been incidents in your life where people have wronged you and then later apologized for it, but you knew that it was at best a half-hearted apology – simply because they still treated you the same way as before.  They said the right words, but they really didn’t mean it in their hearts.  In the same way, it is not so important what words we say to God when we call upon Him for forgiveness because the most important thing is whether or not we are sincere in our hearts.

Listen friend,

            Do you admit you are a sinner before God?

Do you understand that no amount of good works could ever clear your past record?

Do you believe Jesus Christ lived and died for you as your Substitute?

Are you willing to do anything – and give up anything (if necessary) -- to come to God?

Are you willing to commit the rest of your life to God?

If you can honestly answer each of these questions affirmatively, then why not kneel down right now wherever you are and call upon God to forgive you and save you.  He has promised that He would forgive if you will call – and mean it from your heart.

Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Did you call upon the Lord?  Please let us know of your decision.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at (804) 526-8189. 

            May the Lord richly bless you.  We hope to see you at church this coming Sunday!!

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                Pastor Gene Ballance