In His final visit with the disciples before His crucifixion, Jesus addressed several topics that the disciples would need in the days and weeks ahead. Unfortunately, like some church members, they slept through the sermon.

Fortunately, we can review His lesson where He outlines the three things that anyone needs to know to share the Gospel with someone (John 16:8-11).

STEP 1: Explain the issue of salvation: BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ.

When asked how to be saved in Acts 16:31, Paul told the Philippian jailer to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” What does that mean? To put it simply, it means that you and I (and every human being who has ever lived other than Jesus Christ) will fail to live up to God’s standards for us…these failures are called “sins.”

Those sins are a spiritual debt that must be paid by one of two options.

• Option #1 is paying the debt with a sinless blood payment. (Animals were not sinless; the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were essentially dress rehearsals for the perfect sinless blood payment that was required.) Option #2 is experiencing eternal separation from God. (Physical death is also known as the first death; this eternal separation is the second death.)

• Option #2 sounds like something anyone with any sense would want to avoid. Of course, Option #1 is not practical since we clearly can’t make the SINLESS blood payment for our own sins. In other words, we lost that option when we sinned in the first place.

Therefore, we needed a substitute…we needed a rescuer…we needed a Savior. As He explains in John 3:16, this is why Jesus came to Earth was to take our place.

All that you and I have to do is to BELIEVE that He did that for us. You must realize that “believe” is a transitive verb (a verb that has to transfer its action to some object or recipient). For example, if I walk in and announce “I slept,” you may go on with your life without a care. If I walk in and announce that “I hit,” you immediately want to know who or what I hit and is your car okay. “Hit” is one of those transitive verbs.

So, why the grammar lesson? Understanding the words helps us to appreciate the implications. Because “believe” is a transitive verb, it is not the AMOUNT of believing that is crucial. Instead, it is the OBJECT OF YOUR FAITH that does all the work.

This is why we say that our faith is “non-meritorious”…it is worthless…the worth is found in the object of your faith. Think about a winning lottery ticket or a ticket to a sporting event or to a concert. The paper ticket is worthless; it is the object for which you exchange the ticket that is so valuable.

A few months ago, a friend of mine from college made the state newspaper for rescuing a drowning victim from the Arkansas River…the focus of the article was not the victim or the conditions or the river…the focus was on the rescuer. The victim’s “wisdom” to let himself or herself get rescued is non-meritorious. The rescuer is the focus.

Let’s see if this makes sense now. Imagine two skydivers in a plane wearing their packs.

The first man jumps out with an enormous amount of faith in the stack of bricks that he loaded into his pack. His enormous faith is going to do him no good because the object of his faith is worthless.

The second man jumps out with a little faith in the well-packed, structurally-sound parachute…he faces the same fate as the brick user UNLESS the second man has enough faith to pull the cord and let the parachute do its job.

In the same way, you do not have to understand every word on every page of the Bible to be saved. You simply have to have enough faith to let Jesus be the One Who rescues you. He already paid your debt; you simply have to trust Him.

STEP 2: Explain the principle of salvation: by GRACE are you saved.

So, why would God do this? The simple answer is stated in John 3:16 again…He loves us.

John 3:16 and Romans 5:6-11 describe this type of love for us. This is not a “I love you because of what you can do for me” type of love. This is not a Valentine’s heart or school-age crush type of love. This is actually “I love you in spite of” type of love. God cared about us even when we were His enemies–when we are the very reason why Jesus went to the cross to pay a debt that He did not owe Himself.

This is why we use the term, “grace,” to describe this type of gift. Jesus was not trying to find a way to avoid the cross; He came to die on that cross for our sins. Salvation is a gift–you cannot earn it; you cannot repay it; you should simply be wise and accept it.

Fortunately, God does not collect on that sin debt as soon as we owe it because all of us would come up short. Instead, He designed the rescue plan long before we even needed it (Genesis 3:15-21).

It is so easy to accept. Jesus explained that accepting the gift of salvation is like drinking a fresh cup of water or eating a piece of good bread or walking through an open door or being rescued when you were lost. It is easy and makes good sense.

As if that is not enough, His grace is exceeding. In other words, He provides more than enough. He covered 100% of the debt. There is nothing that you or I should do (there is nothing that you or I are capable of doing) that will save us. That is why I grew up under a pastor-teacher who frequently used the phrase, “Believe + ___________” [nothing].

If someone tries to convince you that joining a church or reciting a certain prayer or getting dunked, sprinkled, or sprayed with water are necessary additional steps, then I challenge that person to give me the breakdown of God’s grace and those other steps. Did Jesus do 75% of the saving at the cross and leaves the other 25% up to us?

Of course not! Jesus paid it ALL; He accomplished it all at the cross. We couldn’t do anything to cover our sin debt. Our best attempts would be like offering God a handful of filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

Please realize that some of those other items are legitimate steps of proclaiming the gift that you accepted or of identifying publicly with Jesus Christ. However, they do not do the saving. After all, if it requires church membership or water baptism, then Jesus must have been mistaken when he spoke with the thief on the cross during the crucifixion. Of course, Jesus was NOT mistaken.

If it was “believe + _________” [fill in the blank with those other steps], then it is not much of a grace gift. Accept that salvation for what it is: His sufficient, abundant grace gift.

STEP 3: Explain the alternative to salvation: receive JUDGMENT.

Well, there is a choice to be made…accept the gift…or reject it.

There are consequences for the choice that you make.

If you accept the gift, then you shall not experience eternal separation from God but will spend eternity with Him.

If you reject the gift, then you have aligned yourself with Satan who has already been tried and convicted for his rebellion. He has been sentenced; it’s just that his sentence doesn’t begin until the end of the Tribulation (Revelation 19).

As the saying goes, “misery enjoys company.” Satan will let you throw away the grace gift of salvation. He wants you to do that; he laughs when you do that. He considers us to be inferior creatures. Why would he want anything good for us? In fact, he is simply bitter and spiteful because he made his choice (the wrong choice) long ago.

Some folks only like to focus on the positive aspects such as going to heaven, seeing loved ones again, being face-to-face with Jesus, and spending eternity with God. However, I would be remiss if I omitted the other option.

Basically, it boils down to this: Jesus paid for your sins (plural) whether you accept the payment or not. The one sin (singular) that He could not cover was your rejection of the gift of salvation.

Like all of His created beings (including Satan before he rebelled), you have a volition. So, God will not reach inside you and force you to accept His grace. However, you also have a responsibility. If you say that you do not want to choose, then you have chose to reject God’s offer by default.

Again, let’s use an easy illustration. You get a call from the bank that someone donated a cashier’s check worth $1,000,000,000 was deposited at the bank in an account for you. The only stipulation is that you must accept it and spend it.

You run up a lot of bills but refuse to use the account. You end up in court for bankruptcy and failure to pay your taxes. You explain to the judge how you didn’t use the money in that account. You proclaim how you did the admirable thing by relying on your own abilities…even though that landed you in court.

The judge says, “You rejected the gift. You opted to pay the price yourself. By doing so, you chose to face the penalty yourself even though you had access to the resources to avoid all of this.”

Then the judge adds, “By the way, I was the donor who deposited the check.”

In the same way, God is not impressed by folks who arrogantly or foolishly reject His gift. He will have no recourse but to execute the sentence for the sin debt. The saddest part of all is that He made the way to clear the debt for whosoever would accept His payment.

Fortunately, as long as you can read and comprehend this, you have a chance to change your mind about Jesus Christ.

The message of Jesus is clear: BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ…be saved by His GRACE…or…reject and receive JUDGMENT.