This is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of my book Rapture 911: What To Do If You’re Left Behind. Chapter 11 expounds on these truths. To aid you in sharing the gospel, you may share the text on this web page with others you care about.
God loves you and wants to spend eternity with you. But there’s a problem, and it’s called sin. Sin is doing and even thinking anything that isn’t perfect and holy. Every single one of us commits sin. We can’t help it; it’s our nature. It doesn’t matter what your sin is or how big or little you perceive your sin to be. It could be lying, lust, pride, or murder. Any sin is sin in God’s eyes.
There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one. (Romans 3:12 WEBP)
God is perfect and sinless and righteous in every way. Thus so is where he lives, heaven. Sin is the opposite of God. Sin cannot exist in heaven. Since people are inherently sinful, no one can live with God unless the sin problem is taken care of first.
Case in point: Adam and Eve. They lived in the garden of Eden with God. They saw God every day. Heaven is wherever God is, so they essentially lived in heaven. After they sinned and ate from the forbidden tree, they got kicked out of the garden. They couldn’t live with God anymore. This Scripture records that event. God sent “him,” which is Adam, out from the garden.
God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:23-24 WEBP)
Here’s the good news: God has a solution for the sin problem. He demands a perfect and spotless sacrifice to atone for sin. When Adam and Eve first sinned, God killed an animal to clothe them and atone for their sin.
Yahweh God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21 WEBP)
In the Old Testament times before Jesus came, God’s people sacrificed animals to atone for their sin.
If anyone of the common people sins unwittingly, in doing any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and is guilty, if his sin which he has sinned is made known to him, then he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without defect, for his sin which he has sinned. He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. (Leviticus 4:27-29 WEBP)
Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. (Hebrews 13:11 NLT)
Don’t run off to find an animal you can sacrifice to atone for your sin. God’s already taken care of the sacrifice offering permanently for you. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus, his perfect and sinless and righteous son, down to earth to live as a man. Jesus was then sacrificed for you. He was crucified to atone for your sin. We know this worked, because Jesus isn’t dead. God raised him from the dead. Then Jesus appeared to hundreds of people in his risen state. All you have to do now is believe.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16 WEBP)
Belief. It seems too simple doesn’t it? But that’s the irony, it’s not simple at all. In fact, belief is really hard. The Bible says the path to God is narrow and most don’t find it. That’s because we’re accustomed to striving for what we want down here on earth. The harder we work, the more we get. We love to boast about our accomplishments. We love to be in control. That’s not God’s way. God is in control, and it’s about what God did, not what you’ve done. His solution is a gift. He gave his son as a gift to you. You just have to accept it.
But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—… for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8 WEBP)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 WEBP)
You see, it’s God’s grace that saved you. As sinners, we are doomed to an eternal life far removed from God. That’s God’s rule. Grace is God demonstrating his love for us by pardoning us based on us believing Jesus died for our sins. God treated Jesus the way we deserve to be treated. Jesus was crucified. God did that so he could treat us the way Jesus deserves to be treated. Jesus is now in heaven with God.
A person who believes what they cannot yet see has faith. They believe God and that Jesus died for their sins. Have faith.
Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1 WEBP)
Here’s what you must come to believe.
You recognize that you are a sinner.
You don’t want to be a sinner anymore. You ask God to forgive you.
You want to live with God for eternity in heaven.
You know that you can’t save yourself.
You believe that God sent his son Jesus to atone for your sin by dying on the cross.
You believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and that Jesus reigns with God in heaven.
You surrender your salvation to Jesus and ask him to come into your life.
Now you can’t just go through the motions and say these things. You have to actually mean them, deep down from your heart. That’s what faith is all about.
This is the good news of the Bible. That Jesus, the son of God, died for your sins, rose from the grave, and reigns from heaven with God.
Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 WEBP)
If you truly believe all those things, then tell God. That’s what praying is, just talking to God. Tell him you believe each of those truths and ask him to come into your life. And he will indeed!
It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2:21 WEBP)
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 WEBP)
Here’s an example prayer you can say to God:
“Lord Jesus, I know that I’m a sinner and that I need your forgiveness so that I can live with you for eternity in heaven. Please forgive me. I believe that you are the son of God and that you died on the cross for my sins. I believe that you rose from the grave! I want to turn from my sins and trust and follow you as Lord and Savior. Please come into my heart and life. In Jesus’s name, amen.”
Here are some additional Scriptures you can read to learn more about salvation:
Adam, Eve, sin, and Satan – Genesis 2-3
We’re all sinners – Romans 3:9-23; 1 John 1:8-10
What is sin – 1 John 3:4; Galatians 5:16-26
Satan is your accuser – Job 1
Sin keeps you separated from God – Isaiah 59:2; Revelation 21:27; Romans 6:23
God’s love for you – Romans 8:35-39; John 15:9-13; Ephesians 2:4-6; Romans 5:6-8
Jesus is God in the flesh – Hebrews 1:2-6; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9; John 1
Jesus died for your sins – 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:15; Hebrews 2:14-16; Titus 3:4-7; Romans 8
Crucifixion of Jesus – John 19; Luke 23; Mark 15; Matthew 27
Jesus’s resurrection – Matthew 28; Mark 16; John 20; Luke 24; Romans 1:2-5; Acts 2:23-24; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Saved by grace – Ephesians 2:8-9; John 20:31; 1 Corinthians 15:2-3; Romans 3:25; John 14:6
Sealed by the Holy Spirit – Ephesians 1:12-14; John 16:7-15
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