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The SIMPLICITY of the TRUE Gospel of Jesus CHRIST!
Most people believe that they are basically good people, right? So are you good enough to make it to heaven? In other words, if you were to die suddenly without any notice would you go to heaven?
Most people, including even some Christians, will say that they hope that they will go to heaven but they are not absolutely sure that they will go to heaven. So my question to you is, “Do you want to be absolutely sure that when you die you WILL, WITHOUT FAIL, go to heaven?” Yes or no?
I think that most people who believe in God will say YES, I want to be absolutely SURE that when I die I will, without fail, go to heaven. If this is YOU then please keep reading as I explain how you can have this kind of assurance of being SAVED.
The first thing that you must do is to understand what being saved even means. And that starts with you understanding the sound Biblical meaning of the words LAW, CONDEMNED, JUSTICE, and PARDONED. I think that most people know that if they break the law and they get caught that there is a PENALTY of justice that must be administered when a person is found GUILTY of breaking the law and CONDEMNED with a PUNISHMENT as their penalty for breaking the law.
Now, with God, there is no such thing as getting AWAY with breaking his law. In other words, God knows everything that you do and say, so there is no such thing as NOT being CAUGHT breaking God’s law.
The Bible says that for breaking even ONE part of his law we are found guilty before him for breaking all of his laws. And that is why his penalty for even telling a LIE is DEATH.
Let us pause here for a moment so that you can read these things for yourself directly from the Bible itself. I will be using the Common English Bible translation because it is one of the easiest Bible translations to understand and still be pretty accurate to the original Greek text. But I will also be using the King James Version when it is easiest to understand.
Let us start with James 2:10, where breaking one point of the law is being likened to being found GUILTY of breaking all of the law of God.
James 2:10 from the Common English Bible (CEB)
“Anyone who tries to keep all of the Law but fails at one point is guilty of failing to keep all of it.”
That means that if you have told just ONE lie in your whole life then you are found guilty before God for breaking all of his laws. But there is GOOD NEWS. And that good news is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of our SALVATION to those who BELIEVE. In other words, the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us HOW we can be PARDONED by God and set free from being CONDEMNED to DEATH on the Day of Judgment.
Let us read in the Bible where it says that the penalty of sin is death. The word sin simply means that a person missed the mark or the standard that God has set as to how he desires us to walk or to live our lives. We will get to that verse right after we read Romans 6:23 which teaches us about the wages of sin or the penalty for sin.
Romans 6:23.
“The wages that sin pays are death, but God's gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In other words, if you have sinned just ONE time in your life then you EARN the wages of DEATH. Now, the Bible speaks of TWO deaths. The first death is our physical death. And the SECOND death will occur ONLY to those who are NOT SAVED. The first death is nothing to worry about IF you ARE SAVED and you are absolutely SURE that you will go to heaven when you die. For you see, the very moment that a person dies there is no chance of being saved and receiving eternal life when Jesus returns.
Now some may think that God is not being fair. I mean many of us as parents even give our children many chances to obey us before we punish them. So to some people, it may sound very harsh to condemn a person to death for just telling a LIE.
But, in truth, God chose to do things this way so that being saved would be EASY. And thus making it SIMPLE and fair or equal for anyone who chooses to accept God’s so great a salvation.
Let us read the following three verses and you will see what I mean.
Please read Romans 3:23-25.
“All have sinned and fall short of God's glory,
24. BUT all are treated as righteous FREELY by his GRACE because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus.
25. Through his faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where MERCY is found by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness in passing over sins that happened before,”
This means that God has provided a WAY for every person to have ALL of their past sins PARDONED and the record against them wiped completely clean just as if they had never sinned at all. Now, that is GOOD NEWS! But better yet, it does not cost anyone a thing because God wants to forgive us of all our sins as his FREE GIFT even though we do NOT deserve to be forgiven. This is called God’s GRACE and MERCY. All that anyone has to do is to BELIEVE in HIS plan or in his WAY of salvation which I will explain shortly.
But first, read Romans 11:23 from the King James Version so that you can see the SIMPLICITY of God’s plan of salvation.
Romans 11:23.
“For God has CONCLUDED them all in unbelief, THAT he might have MERCY upon ALL.”
In other words, God came to a DECISION as to the best way to make it FAIR and as SIMPLE as possible for everyone to be saved and still accomplish what needed to be done. And that decision was to conclude that all are LOST no matter how good or bad a person is. And God did this so that or in order that God could have MERCY upon ALL.
Now, let us read Galatians 3:22 from the King James Version.
“But the Scripture has CONCLUDED ALL under sin, THAT the promise BY FAITH of Jesus Christ might be GIVEN to them that BELIEVE.”
In other words, God loved us WHILE we were yet sinners and he provides us a WAY to be set FREE from the penalty of the second death to be given eternal life in the world to come so that the second death will have no more power over us. But this PROMISE of eternal life can ONLY be RECEIVED by those of us who BELIEVE. In other words, the promise is GIVEN or made available for ALL to receive but ONLY those who BELIEVE in Jesus as their Lord and Savior RECEIVE the PROMISE to obtain eternal life in the world to come.
So then, what must we BELIEVE in order to be SAVED so that we can RECEIVE the promise of the GIFT of eternal life in the world to come?
Please read John 3:16-18 from the King James Version.
“For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER BELIEVES in him should NOT perish, but have everlasting life.
17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18. He that BELIEVES on him is NOT condemned: BUT he that believes NOT is condemned ALREADY, because he has NOT believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
So then, the SIMPLICITY of the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes down to does a person truly and sincerely BELIEVE with all their heart that Jesus is the Son of Almighty God who laid down his life to suffer and die on the cross for our sins of his own free will and that God raised him from the dead after three days and three nights.
And if a person chooses of their own free will to NOT believe that Jesus is the Son of Almighty God who died on the cross for their sin will remain condemned in their sins BECAUSE they have NOT believed in God’s so great a salvation.
So if you want to be saved, as in, being FORGIVEN of all your past sins and made perfect in the eyes of God so that you can receive the promise of eternal life in the world to come then you MUST BELIEVE in the ONLY NAME given among mankind whereby we MUST be saved.
Please read Acts 4:12 from the CEB.
“Salvation can be found in NO ONE ELSE. Throughout the whole world, NO OTHER NAME has been given among humans through which we MUST be saved.”
In other words, the NAME of JESUS is the ONLY name given to the entire human race whereby we MUST be saved if a person does NOT want to be cast alive in the lake of fire to be destroyed on the final Day of Judgment and they want to receive the promise of ETERNAL LIFE to live forever without pain or suffering ever again in the worlds to come.
WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?
Please read Acts 16: 30-33.
“And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I DO to be saved?
31. And they said, BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house.
32. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. (Or they preached some MORE of the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ to him and to those of his household)
33. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; (Speaking of the guard washing the wounds of Paul and Silas first as his way of thanking them for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to him and his family) and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.”
Now, some church denominations leave out BAPTISM by submersion in water as being a part of the Gospel of SALVATION and they claim that water baptism is NOT a requirement to be saved. In other words, they will just quote verses 30 and 31 and leave out verses 32 and 33.
But when I read the Bible for myself, I find that in almost every place where someone asks if they can be saved there is always water baptism that is included with what we must do to be saved. Now, I myself was not taught about water baptism by the church denomination that I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. But rather I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior first and then six months later I read in the Bible, on my own, about being baptized in water. So it was the Holy Spirit who led me to obey the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ and get baptized in water by submersion.
So I know that I was truly saved for six months without water baptism. And IF I would have died BEFORE being baptized in the water I would have still been saved without water baptism. But in my case, I never knew that God wanted me to obey his word to be baptized in water for the remission of my sins until I read it for myself. And that is one of the reasons why I teach my readers to read and study the Bible for THEMSELVES to see if they are being taught the true and FULL Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let us now read Romans 10 where we are taught the FIRST STEP of what we must do in order to be saved.
Romans 10:1-13.
“Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire is for Israel's salvation. That's my prayer to God for them.
2. I can vouch for them: they are enthusiastic about God. However, it isn't informed by knowledge.
3. They don't submit to God's righteousness because they don't understand his righteousness, and they try to establish their own righteousness.
4. Christ is the goal of the Law, which leads to righteousness for all who have faith in God. (In other words, the Law of Moses was temporary. It was a schoolmaster used to lead the children of Israel TO Jesus but many of the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah or Savior when they heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ)
5. Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from the Law: The person who does these things will live by them.
6. BUT the righteousness that comes from FAITH talks like this: Don't say in your heart, "Who will go up into heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down)
7. Or "Who will go down into the region below?" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart (that is, the message of FAITH that we preach).
9. Because if you CONFESS with your mouth "Jesus is Lord" and in your HEART you have FAITH that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10. Trusting with the heart leads to righteousness, and confessing with the mouth leads to salvation.
11. The Scripture says All who have faith in him won't be put to shame.
12. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek because the same Lord is Lord of all, who gives richly to all who call on him.
13. All who call on the Lord's name will be saved.”
So then, if you truly believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the SON OF the living God then CONFESS that out loud to Almighty God right now.
STOP AND PRAY TO GOD RIGHT NOW TO SAVE YOU!
CONFESS to God that you have heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
REPENT of all your sins.
REPENT of not knowing that you were being deceived by a false gospel in the church denomination that you were in.
Ask Jesus to baptize you in the Holy Spirit so that you will be able to live your life pleasing to God.
And if you also sincerely believe in your heart that the Son of man named Jesus suffered and died on the cross for YOUR sins then CALL upon his NAME right now and ask him to forgive you of all your sins.
CONFESS to God that you believe in His Son, Jesus, as your Lord and Savior right now.
THANK Jesus for suffering and his suffering and dying on the cross for your sins. And not only give thanks TO Jesus for him for your sins but also for Jesus dying for the sins of your entire family. And not only for their sins but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now ASK Jesus to help you live your life as a life that is pleasing to him and to Almighty God who is now your heavenly Father.
If you have done this from the sincerity of your heart to REPENT of all your sins to truly desire to live a life pleasing to God then you ARE SAVED right now. In other words, you are BEING saved as you CONTINUE to REMAIN in the FAITH of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
God has forgiven you of ALL your past sins. God has CLEANSED you of ALL your unrighteousness. God has created in you a new heart. You are a new creation of God created in Jesus Christ. God has given you an EARNEST of His Holy Spirit to come and DWELL IN you to EMPOWER you to overcome sin. And God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in you will lead and guide you into all truth as YOU OBEY the leading of His Holy Spirit you will be doing the WILL of God.
What that means is that IF you were to die BEFORE you can be baptized in water by submersion you are still saved. And IF you were to die BEFORE you sin again then you will receive eternal life in the world to come.
And that means that AFTER we are initially cleansed of all our past sins there now comes our WALK of OBEDIENCE to the REST of the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to receive eternal life in the world to come. But God has promised in His word to never LEAVE us nor forsake us. God has given us His Holy Spirit to dwell in us as our HELPER to empower us to OBEY the teachings of Jesus under the NEW COVENANT written in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. So read and study the New Testament every day. STAY IN the New Testament until you become rooted and grounded in the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, if you ask someone to HELP you carry something that is TOO heavy for you to carry alone then that does NOT mean that your HELPER will carry that load for you without you doing YOUR PART. And your part is to BELIEVE in the PROMISES written in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. So when God says that He will NOT allow you to be tempted above that which you are ABLE to BEAR then BELIEVE that PROMISE of God! Do NOT say that you cannot resist any temptation because it is too hard to bear. That is what Satan wants you to believe and confess so that he can overcome you. Stand FIRM on the promises of God and God's Holy Spirit will empower you to overcome any and all sin in your life.
The disciples of Jesus asked the question, “Who then can be saved?” And Jesus answered, “With men it is IMPOSSIBLE. But WITH God all things are POSSIBLE.”
So always remember that God is WITH you and never against you. And it is only us who can walk away from God because HE will never leave us nor forsake us. So if we CONTINUE to BELIEVE on Jesus as our RIGHTEOUSNESS and we OBEY his teachings under the NEW COVENANT written in the New Testament unto the end of our physical life or until Jesus returns then we WILL, WITHOUT FAIL, receive eternal life in the world to come to rule and reign WITH Jesus for 1000 years.
Again, what this means is that the very moment we SINCERELY BELIEVE in our heart that God has forgiven us of all our past sins then God creates in us a new inner man and we are given God's GIFT of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Please read Romans 5:17-19 from the Common English Bible translation.
“If death ruled because of one person's failure, (Speaking of the sin of Adam THEN) those who RECEIVE the multiplied grace and the GIFT of RIGHTEOUS (Meaning that those who BELIEVE in the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ are GIVEN the FREE GIFT of God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS the very moment that they BELIEVE in Jesus as the atonement or the SACRIFICE for their sins to be forgiven. And since death REIGNED because of sin then true born-again Christians) will even more certainly rule in life through the one person Jesus Christ. (This means that we have been set FREE from the ruling dominion of sin and sin has NO MORE DOMINION over us)
18. So NOW (Meaning right now, as in, the very MOMENT that you BELIEVE in the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ) the RIGHTEOUS REGUIREMENTS NECESSARY for LIFE are MET for everyone THROUGH the righteous act of one person, (Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And, therefore,) just as judgment fell on everyone through the failure of one person.
19. Many people (Speaking of ONLY those of us who BELIEVE in the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ) were MADE (Or CREATED) RIGHTEOUS THROUGH the obedience of one person, (Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ) just as many people were made sinners through the disobedience of one person.”
THINK about this until it sinks into your heart. You can NOT get any MORE RIGHTEOUS than being CREATED by Almighty God HIMSELF into HIS very OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS by His GIFT of grace that can only be RECEIVED through FAITH in His Son, Jesus who suffered and died for your sins. And that means that the very moment we BELIEVE in the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ we are MADE PERFECT in the eyes of Almighty God.
And, THEREFORE, to ADD even ONE SINGLE WORK to try and please God is the same as saying that you do NOT believe that God's GIFT of righteousness is GOOD ENOUGH the save you. And that is WHY the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and any other church denominations that ADD ceremonial WORKS that are required to receive eternal life are a SLAP in the FACE of Almighty God.
The ONLY way to be TRULY saved is by FAITH. So IF we sin AFTER we first believe then the ONLY way to be forgiven and RESTORED to the very righteousness of God is to BELIEVE that when we CONFESS our sin God is always faithful to forgive us of all our sin and CLEANSE us again from all our unrighteousness to be MADE PERFECT once again in the eyes of Almighty God and his Son, Jesus. And the ONLY way to overcome sin so we do NOT sin anymore is to BELIEVE that we CAN and WILL overcome sin through FAITH in the PROMISES of God written in his word. Please read the study “HOW TO LIVE YOUR LIFE FREE FROM SIN!”
Now, in part 2 of this study called “FOR NEW BELIEVERS IN JESUS”, I will explain some Christian TERMS so that you can understand God's so great of a plan of salvation even better. I will explain things like why will there be TWO judgment days? Why will there be TWO resurrections of the dead? Why are there TWO deaths? And many other things that once you understand them you will also understand why God chose His firstborn Son named Jesus as the ONLY NAME given among the human race whereby we MUST be saved.
Thanks for reading and may God bless you richly as you continue to walk in faith and in obedience to the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ. To learn more on how to be saved, why you need to be saved, and how to live a sound Biblical Christian life that is pleasing to God please read all the studies under the heading >>>WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?<<< And I suggest that you read them in the order that I have listed those studies because each study builds upon the previous study.
Your brother in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Brother Mark.
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