Where It All Begins

All existence and life begins (and ends) with a person: an amazing, living, loving, powerful, perfect, and good God who is – in His being and essence – true, beautiful, strong, infinitely wise, and compassionate.  He is everything our hearts long for, the only one who can genuinely satisfy our deepest longings.  All other things, and all other relationships, will disappoint at some point; they will fall short of bringing the joy and life that our souls innately crave.

But God will never disappoint nor let you down.  He never changes in His perfect nature, and He diligently and actively pursues to have a relationship with you; from His loving heart He longs for you to taste and to know His goodness, His healing, His freedom, and His love.  He wants you to have abundant life.

Houston, We Have a Problem

But there is problem, a BIG problem. We each are messed up, tainted, and defective.  We all have something inside of us, something branded upon our nature, which leads us away from God.  We turn to other things, and other people, to satisfy the longings of our heart that only God can fulfill. In other words, we are sinners – all of us.  Romans 3:10-18 states it this way:

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Because of this propensity to turn away from God, we are eternally separated from Him and condemned to death (Rom. 6:23).  Our sinful nature keeps us from being able to have a relationship with God, to enjoy the incredible benefits of being close to Him.  Instead, we are objects of His wrath, filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice (Rom. 1:29-30).  All that we need and desire is out of our reach, and we are ultimately hopeless and powerless (Eph. 2:12; Rom. 5:6) to save ourselves.

God Shows Us Hope: Jesus Christ

At just the right time, God becomes flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:1, 14).  Though fully human and fully divine, Jesus set aside his divine prerogatives and heavenly place to live a perfect and sinless life on earth.  That sinless life led to a humiliating, unjustified death upon a Roman cross.

But His death upon that cross was not the end of the story.  Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave alive and victorious over death.  In His death, Jesus took on our sin and suffered the due penalty for our sinfulness.  But in His resurrection, He overcomes death and the grave as a substitutionary, sacrificial atonement for us.  On our behalf, he satisfies the just requirement of God for our sin by suffering in our place.

This is GOOD NEWS!  This is GRACE!  This is the gospel of Jesus Christ:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:6, 8).

Through the person of Jesus Christ, we can be restored in our relationship with God.  We are once again free to draw near to God, to know His love, to walk in the wonder of His goodness. We can now experience healing and freedom from the mess and wounding our sinfulness has caused.  Our deepest longings can now be truly satisfied.

The amazing thing is that this salvation, this restoration to fellowship with God, is completely and utterly free.  You cannot earn it or buy it.  It is only by God’s grace that you are saved, through faith (Eph. 2:8-9).  In fact, God intended it this way so that we cannot boast in anything, except in the cross of Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14).

We receive this gracious gift of salvation by believing in Jesus and surrendering our lives to Him:

If we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 10:9).

At the moment we confess our sins and turn to Jesus with hearts of full surrender, some astounding things instantly take place:

1. We are born again (regeneration) and become new creations (John 3:5-6; 1 Peter 1:3-4).
2. We are united with Jesus Christ; we are now in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) just as He is in us (Gal. 2:20).
3. We receive the Holy Spirit, who dwells inside of us (Eph. 1:13-14) and who counsels, teaches, convicts, empowers, and guides us towards all truth (John 14:25-26; 16:13).
4. We receive “right standing” before God (justification), which entails both the removal or covering-over of sins and the aversion of God’s wrath (Rom. 3:25).
5. We receive forgiveness of sins and redemption (Eph. 1:7-8).
6. We begin a lifelong process by which the Holy Spirit progressively transforms us (sanctification) into the image of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29), reaching its fulfillment when Christ returns.

The Next Steps

If you sense something deep within you longing for more, longing for hope and freedom, longing for forgiveness and redemption, then you are likely ready to take the next steps of following Jesus Christ.  Right now, right where you are at, you can confess your sins and turn to Jesus with a heart of full surrender.  It doesn’t take a priest or pastor – you can simply talk to Jesus like a close friend or confidante.  He hears you, and He will respond.

Once you have done these two things, the door is wide open to begin walking in the newness of life that God has just given you.  You can take full confidence in the fact that you are now SAVED and have full access to an incredible, loving God.  We strongly recommend you contact one of our pastoral staff about what comes next and about how to begin to grow and learn more about Jesus Christ.