Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.
He is God manifest in the Flesh, and He came to Earth through the virgin birth of Mary in the form of a human man in order to make the way for us to gain eternal salvation in heaven. The reason He needed to dwell among us within a human vessel, is because the wages of all sin is death, and God wanted to make the final payment for everyone's sin debt. God is also the final Judge of all things. God can't just wave away sin, because then that means he wouldn't be a Good God. Imagine if a Judge just lets a murderer go free because the murderer said "Hey judge, look. I know I shot and killed 4 women, but I'm so sorry and I will never do it again". If the Judge was good and just, that murderer must be punished to pay for the crime he committed. This is the same situation between us and God. Sin is the ultimate crime in the eyes of God, no matter how miniscule we may think that sin is. God being a perfect Judge HAS to judge us perfectly, fairly, and righteously (with no compromise of His Goodness). That means even if we sin once, we now have committed a crime punishable by death. The bible tells us that "the wages of sin is death;" (Romans 6:23). The payment of those sin wages? Hell.
Hell is an eternal prison of everlasting torment originally created for the devil and his angels. But once sin entered into this world through Adam and Eve, we as a human race became cursed with the punishment of sin. This is why the world is the way it is today. Our problems as a human race all stem from the original sin birthed into this world through Adam and Eve's disobedience to God. Hell is the only place sin can be sent to once we die.
We as human beings are triune beings, created in the image of God:
1. We are a spirit - This is your true, non-physical, and eternal body. This is your spiritual body that will live on in the eternal life, whether that place be in heaven or in hell.
2. We have souls - This is your mind, your will, and your emotions. This is what makes you distinguished from everybody else, and where our feelings and morals ultimately stem from.
3. We live in a body - This is the physical and temporary "flesh-vessel" that your soul and spirit dwell within until we complete the duration our carnal lives here on Earth. We operate and control this physical body using our spirit and soul, almost like a vehicle. We do this until the time comes where the physical body ceases to function properly, and dies. The very moment we physically die in this world, your spirit and soul will depart from your physical body to live on in the eternal world. Thus, leaving this physical body behind.
Your spirit, which lives in your body, is going to pay for these sins forever if they have not be paid for before your final judgement of God. God has to Judge us based off of the perfect moral Laws he created. These Laws being the 10 Commandments. I, speaking personally here, have broken each one of these commandments during my short life so far. Everyone has. Yes reader, even you have. If goodness in God's standards means perfection, NO ONE IS GOOD in his eyes. The bible tells us in Psalms 14:3 "there is none that doeth good, no, not one", and in another scripture it reads "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;" (Isaiah 64:6). Doing good things won't ever outweigh your bad, NOR can your good deeds bribe your way into heaven. God is good, He is just, and He is Perfect in his Judgement. Just like the murderer in court, the crime must be payed for and the criminal must be sent to prison. Imagine if the same murderer said to the judge, "But wait! look at all the good things I've done in my life! Can't you let me go? I've fed the needy! I've clothed the homeless! I've donated almost $300,000 to charity each year of my life! Don't my good deeds outweigh those 4 murders I committed?" If the Judge is good what is he going to do? The Judge is sending that murderer to prison because of his crime, it doesn't matter about how many good things he has done. We need to understand that good works or being a "good" person cannot save you. Listen again reader. In the exact same way I am not a good person, neither are you in the eyes of God. Your good deeds cannot and will not out-weight your bad deeds, contrary to what this world will have you believe. It's not enough to get to heaven. It won't ever meet the standards of moral perfection that God requires in heaven. It won't. Hell is the destination for all sin. One of my favorite scriptures tells us in Proverbs 14:12 that "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Even in Isaiah 55:8 it is spoken from God's point of view: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD." Although we may perceive ourselves or other people as good people, we have to see how God thinks and sees things. Not what we think and see.
Another great example is this: Heaven is a beautiful home. It's perfect, spotless, absolutely clean and 100% white. The owner also has children in His home that he loves, and must to take care of them. The requirements to enter into this house? Clean, mud-free feet and a good relationship with the owner. These aren't my rules, but the owners rules. Imagine if you owned a house that YOU built from the ground up, and then set your standards and rules of that house. How would you feel if someone came up to your door, decided to barge in YOUR home that you pay for and manage, and they decided to live doing whatever they wanted? Not happening, right? Therefore, If a stranger walks up to this house with mud on his feet, is the owner just going to let him walk in? It doesn't matter how much mud is on his feet, whether it be a little bit of mud or allot of mud, that owner will not let him in because he has a standard and a rule to keep his home perfectly clean. If he let someone with ANY mud on his feet in just walk in, eventually the entire home will be muddy just as it is outside, no longer making it perfect and clean. The owner is not going to compromise to a lesser standard than what he holds, especially if He has children to watch over in that home. Are you going to let a dirty stranger into your house near your children just because they say "they are good and clean?" Of course you wouldn't.
God is the Owner of Heaven. Mud represents sin. The strangers represent the lack of a relationship with God. Our God who owns heaven gave us rules, standards, and expectations to meet in order for us to be able to get into heaven. We can't disregard those laws and standards because we want to live by our own rules. It is foolish to believe that we can live our lives sinfully, disobedient to God, and selfishly, then expect to just walk into God's clean house all dirty with no relationship with Him. Sorry, not gonna happen. You would do the same thing if you owned a house. Sadly however, we have all walked through the mud in our lives, and we all have decided to sin against Him at one point or another. If God compromised and let any amount of sin into Heaven, it would become corrupted. Thus becoming no longer a place of Perfection, but a place just like Earth (death, sicknesses, murders, lies, etc.)
So.. It sounds like we are all on the way to hell, doesn't it? How can anyone get to heaven?
Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.
God knew the issues of sin. He isn't clueless. Even before God created the Heavens and the Earth, God had a plan of salvation for us all. God truly does love every last one of us more than ANYONE could ever love ANYTHING. The Bible says "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9). It is written "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13). God does love you reader, regardless of what you've done. The fact that you're reading this proves that God is calling you to this message. God saw that we were bound for hell because of Sin, and so He decided to pay for our sins Himself. The only payment for sin is death, and because God is a Spirit, He needed to die in a physical TEMPORAL body in order to pay the debt. Remember, Spirits are eternal, and cannot die. So, he manifested a human body to dwell within inside the womb of a virgin named Mary, and she gave birth to that vessel into this world. The name of that baby was Jesus Christ.
By God choosing to live amongst us as a human being, he came to show us a perfect example on how we are supposed to live as human beings. Also, He lived as a human so that when you die, you can't accuse God of not knowing what it was like living in this world as a human. Jesus was tempted by Satan himself in Mathew Chapter 4, yet NEVER sinned. But the main purpose of God living as a human being, was to live perfect and to never sin, even once. Did you know that Jesus said that if you look upon a woman to lust after her, you commit adultery in your heart? And if you become angry with your neighbor without a cause you commit murder in your heart? (Mathew 5:28 and 5:21) No Murder and No Adultery are 2 of God's 10 commandments. Even a foolish thought is sin. (Proverbs 24:9). Jesus lived 33 YEARS WITHOUT EVEN COMMITTING A SIN IN HIS HEART AND MIND! This would create the perfect sacrifice for all of humanity if God could do this. Jesus Christ lived His entire life on this earth perfectly, never sinning once, setting the perfect example for all humans to follow, and willingly chose to die and bear the sins /curses of everybody (past, present, and future). He did this by sacrificing Himself on the cross to die for us. By completing of these promises He made to us, Jesus was able to pay the outstanding debt of the Sin we all have been charged with. Without the Blood of Jesus washing away (paying for) your sins, God cannot allow you into heaven.
I am going to heaven not because of my good works. Not because God will just let me in even though I've sinned. Not because of living righteously. NOT BECAUSE OF RELIGION. I'm going to heaven because when I stand before God, I know that Jesus has paid my fines for me. When God judges me, he isn't going to judge me according to how lived. He is going to judge me based off of how Jesus lived. Because Jesus lived perfectly, he is able to get into heaven. When we are covered under the Blood of Jesus, God sees us as Jesus as well, because we chose to believe and accept in the sacrifice He made for us. The bible tells us in Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;". Meaning without accepting the sacrifice of Jesus, you choose to go to stand before a Holy, Just, and Perfect God who must punish all sin with Hellfire and you are without the proper form of payment to be release from your sins. The bible tells us in John 3:16 "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." We must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ alone to be saved. That is how we get to Heaven my friend. Through the work, grace, love, and perfection of Jesus Christ, God Almighty.
This is crying out to God in the name of Jesus. Repentance is admitting to God all of your sins, your willingness to completely forsake and turn from these sins, and your need of his forgiveness.
You must understand that we all have sinned and come short of His Glory, and we are not perfect. In his standards of what good is, no-one is good, because God's standard of goodness is perfection. Repenting and asking for forgiveness is humbling yourself before God, the start of a relationship with God, and the Bible tells us that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
This is believing in your heart that Jesus Christ has died for all of your sins. This is believing that we have redemption through His Blood that he shed for us on that cross. This is believing that through His sacrifice, our sins have been paid for.
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Some of my worship music.