God's Plan of Salvation

Would you consider yourself to be a good person?

Many of us believe that we are generally good people. We know that we all make mistakes and do things that we regret, but we try to make up for those in many ways such as giving to charities, or doing a good deed, or by apologizing if we hurt someone. And we can always find someone who is way worse that us and convince ourselves that we are certainly better than that other person. We feel that we intend to do good things and that most of the time we are good so overall, we are good people.

But the reality is that is our standard. Two people can look at one object and be thinking completely different things. So just because we think that we are a good person doesn't really hold much weight. The opinion that matters is God's opinion. He set forth commandments for us to follow and most of us know them well. So we should ask ourselves, "Have we ever lied?", "Have we ever stolen?", "Have we ever used the Lord's name in vain?". The answers to these questions are most likely all to be yes. Regardless of the number of times we've broken a commandment, it makes us guilty. We are liars, thieves, and blasphemers, and those are only three of the ten commandments.

Some of us might say that was a while ago and we have changed our ways and we don't do those things anymore. But the fact that it was done even one time makes us guilty. If we murder some one once, even if it's a long time ago, we are still a murderer. No amount of time erases the fact that we are guilty of a crime. God's standard is perfection. James 2:10 says, "He who follows the whole law, but stumbles at one point, he is guilty of all". Only one infraction against God's commandments is the same as if we had broken every law He set forth.

The Perfect Judge

Now when we die, we will face God on judgement day. So, will we be innocent or guilty? If you are realistic with yourself, you realize that you are guilty. So what? God is very clear in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death". The death referred to is punishment in hell for eternity. So now, you have realized you are guilty of sinning against God, breaking His commandments. Will you go to heaven or hell?

If you think you God will overlook your guilt because He is a loving God and send you to heaven anyway, despite your guilt, than imagine yourself in a courtroom guilty of a serious crime. You stand before the judge facing the penalty for your crime. Will the judge overlook your crime because He is a nice person, or because you are sorry? Of course not. He is a just person and He must see that you serve the punishment for your crime. The same is true of God. He is loving, but He is also just and He will punish sin. So based upon your confession of breaking God's law, you are guilty and sentenced for the punishment, which is eternity separated from God, bound for hell. Does that concern you?

The Good News

If so, than there is good news for you! You may think that you are hopeless and there is nothing to do, but God provided a way for you to avoid punishment and to be completely forgiven of your sins. God sent his Son to take the punishment for you sins and mine. He did this out of love because He knew that you could not keep the commandments on your own power. Jesus came to this earth and lived a sinless life, without blemish. He died on the cross and took your punishment upon Himself. He then rose from the dead and He is alive and stands at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.

What God requires of you is this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). You need to put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ and believe that He died on the cross and that if you ask Him, He will completely forgive your sins. When you profess Jesus Christ as Lord and humble yourself and ask forgiveness for your sins, He is faithful and will forgive you of your sins.

There is nothing outside of this that you must do to be forgiven of your sins. It is God's work and His grace that forgives sins and saves people. His Word says in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast". God gave His one and only Son as the perfect sacrifice to take our punishment. If we only believe, we are saved by His grace. What an awesome and wonderful God we have to do that for us!