Download the latest sermonHow to become a Christian
The central theme of the Bible is God's love for you and for all people. This love was revealed when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world as a human being, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose from the dead. Because Christ died, our sins can be forgiven, and because He conquered death we can have eternal life. We can have an amazing hope and peace about what will become of us after we die.
You may have heard the story of God's love referred to as the Gospel. The word Gospel simply means Good News. The Gospel is the Good News that, because of what Jesus Christ has done, we can experience God's forgiveness and freedom from guilt.
This gift of forgiveness and eternal life cannot be ours unless we willingly accept it. God requires an individual response from us. The following verses from the Bible show God's part and ours in this process:
God's love is revealed in the Bible
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John chapter 3 verse 16.
God loves us. He wants to bless our lives and make them full and complete and He wants to give us a life which will last forever, even after we experience physical death.
We've blown it
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." [The Bible: Romans chapter 3 verse 23]
You may have heard someone say, "I'm only human-nobody's perfect." This Bible verse says the same thing: We are all sinners. We all do things that we know are wrong. And that's why we feel God is distant - because God is holy and good, and we are not.
Our actions have consequences
"For the wages of sin is death." [The Bible: Romans chapter 6 verse 23]
Just as criminals must pay the penalty for their crimes, sinners must pay the penalty for their sins. If we continue to sin, we will pay the penalty of spiritual death: We will not only die physically, but we will be separated from God for all eternity.
Jesus Christ has paid our penalty!
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." [The Bible: Romans chapter 5 verse 8]
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, has paid the penalty for all our sins. Many people believe that we have to lead a good life and do good deeds before God will love and accept us. The Bible disagrees and says that Christ loved us enough to die for us, even when we were rebelling against Him!
Salvation is a free gift
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." [The Bible: Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8-9]
The word grace means undeserved favour. It means God is offering you something you could never provide for yourself: forgiveness of sins and eternal life - God's gift to you is free. You do not have to work for a gift. All you have to do is joyfully receive it and believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ died for you!
Christ is at your heart's door
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." [The Bible: Revelation chapter 3 verse 20]
Jesus Christ wants you to know Him personally. Picture, if you will, Jesus Christ standing at the door of your heart (the door of your emotions, intellect and will). Invite Him in; He is waiting for you to receive Him into your heart and life.
We need to receive Him
"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." [The Bible: John chapter 1 verse 12]
When you receive Christ into your heart you become a child of God, and have the privilege of talking to Him in prayer at any time about anything. The Christian life is a personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ. And best of all, it is a relationship that will last for all eternity.
If you are making this commitment to Jesus Christ today, please let us know. We would like to send you some Bible study materials to help you grow in your new faith. It may well be that you have questions and we'd love to try and answer at least some of them, so please, get in touch.