Meet Jesus

God Made a Covenant with Man
Eternal Life

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.”
Titus 1:2

God made a promise, a covenant, with man before He even created us.
Contracts can be broken with a small penalty or fee to pay; but if a covenant is broken, it often involves a life-long curse or penalty of death.
God’s oath in the covenant was to give man life eternally; man’s oath in the covenant was to live in fellowship and subjection to his Creator.

Man Broke That Covenant with God
By his sin

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world…”
Romans 5:12a

Because of one man’s sin, we are all born with a sin nature; One man broke the covenant with God for all mankind.

You Have Sinned
Our Sin Separates Us from God

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23

Because of our sin nature, we have given into temptations such as lying, disobeying, homosexuality, and maybe even murder in some cases to name a few; and because God is full of righteousness and glory, we cannot be present with Him in our sinful state.
Because God is righteous and just, judgment MUST come where sin is present. Therefore…

There is a Price to Be Paid for Sin
Death is the price that MUST be paid

“…and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Romans 5:12b

“For the wages of sin is death…”
Romans 6:23a

A wage is something we earn for the work that we do. The works we have done is sin; and the wages we earn for our sin is death and Hell. That’s what we’ve earned, that’s what we deserve, and that’s bad news. But sometimes, we need bad news in order to appreciate good news! Read the next column…

God’s Love Restored That Covenant
Biblical Love is Sacrificial Love

“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.”
John 3:16

“…but the gift of God is eternal life…”
Romans 6:23b

God loved us so much, that He couldn’t watch His creation perish; and God by His very nature, as the Covenant-Keeper, cannot break His oath in the covenant so He had to make another way to redeem fallen man and give him eternal life… So He gave His Son, Jesus!

Jesus Paid the Price
The price had to be paid at the expense of the creation or its Creator

“…through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:23c

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew know sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
II Corinthians 5:21

When someone gives you a gift, you didn’t have to pay anything for it. No! The price was paid in full at the store. All you have to do is receive it. The same is true in the gift of eternal life. The price was paid in full by God at Calvary, and Jesus was the payment. All we have to do is receive the gift! Jesus was God made man so He could be the perfect sacrifice to pay the price no man could pay for himself.  Isaiah 64:6 tells us that our righteousness is as filthy rags. Nothing we do is good enough because of our sin nature. We can never live a life without sin, so Jesus had to live a sinless life for us, being tempted at every point we are, to become the perfect sacrifice for all of mankind so that, in Him, we may be made righteous through His mercy!

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”
Titus 3:5

What Can We Do?
Nothing Ourselves

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Ephesians 2:8, 9

Nothing we can say or do can allow us to enter into Heaven, to enter once again into that covenant with God giving us eternal life. We are lost, helpless, and hopeless without the blood and broken-body of Christ Jesus. All we can do is accept and receive the gift.

How Do We Accept the Gift?
Believe with ALL Your Heart

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Romans 10:9, 10

“And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, If thou believest with ALL thine heart, thou mayest. And the eunuch answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 8:36, 37

In this story, it wasn’t baptism that saved the eunuch, it was his belief with his WHOLE heart, not holding anything back, and his confession with his mouth of his belief in Jesus, the Son of God.
It’s not a prayer that will save you, it’s not baptism that will save you, it’s not works of your own that will save you. It IS placing your trust fully in Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen again, then proclaiming and professing to someone else of that belief!