If you want to become a child of God and experience the better life (which lasts forever), you must be saved. (John 3:16-17)
Why do I need to be saved, and what do I need to be saved from?
Every human has broken God's moral law (sinned) and therefore lacks God's approval. We've fallen short of his glory. Furthermore, sin has power over us. Sin has the power to deceive us and cause us to trust in ourselves rather than God. Sin has made us spiritually dead. This means that we lack a proper relationship with God and are unable to realize it. We are blind to the truth, but even if we could see the truth, we are utterly helpless to change our situation. (Romans 3:23, Romans 3:9-10, Galatians 3:22)
Unfortunately for us, the penalty for sin is death, not just physical death but the lake of fire as well. So, every human has to be saved from the power and penalty of sin. (Romans 6:23, Revelation 20:15)
Who does the saving?
God does. Because of his great love, he sent his only son, Jesus, to the earth to die as a perfect sacrifice approximately 2000 years ago. Fortunately for us, Jesus Christ voluntarily gave himself up to die on the cross, bearing our sins in his body. He paid the penalty so that we wouldn't have to. (This is what Good Friday--the Friday before Easter Sunday--is all about.) (John 3:16, John 10:18)
I'm confused...if Jesus paid the penalty for my sins a long time ago, doesn't that mean I'm good to go? Doesn't that mean I no longer have to worry about the power and penalty of sin?
No, it doesn't. Jesus' death made it possible for every person to be saved, but his death didn't automatically save us.
So how do I get saved?
God loves all people and his Spirit enables every person to see the truth even though we are spiritually blind. God’s Spirit enables us to know that God exists and to recognize our hopeless condition. We must then choose to repent (Acts 3:19, Luke 13:5).1 Repentance involves a change of mind which results in a change of action. We must recognize and abandon the false belief that we are the Lord (master) of our life and admit that Jesus is Lord; the result is that we will obey what he commands. In order to admit that Jesus is Lord, we must have faith in God. This means that we judge God faithful. In this case, we believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord of all. In fact, God has given Jesus all authority, including the authority to judge the living and the dead. Notice that this belief is from the heart; it must be more than just head knowledge. It must be the kind of faith that causes us to stop sinning and start doing good works in obedience to our Lord and King Jesus Christ (Christ means “Anointed One”). (Acts 26:20, 2Co 7:10, Acts 2:36-38, Romans 10:9, Matthew 28:18, Acts 10:42, James 2:17, John 3:36)
Ok, so let's say I change my way of thinking and recognize Jesus as my Lord knowing this means that I must now live my life in obedience to Him. If I do this because I really believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord over everything and everyone, will I be saved?
Yes! The Bible says that when we do this...
- we are justified. Justified means we are declared just, or righteous, by God. ('just as if we had never sinned') Romans 5:1
- we are redeemed. Redeemed means 'bought back.' The death of Jesus purchased us from slavery; we are no longer slaves to sin and death. Romans 6:16, Titus 2:14
- we enter the kingdom of God as his children. He has promised that we will reign with him forever. Romans 8:15
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[1] In his natural sinful state man has no desire or ability to repent. (John 6:44) We know from the Bible that only those who are drawn by God can repent and come to Jesus in faith and have eternal life. The great news here is that God wants all men to come to repentance, so the Spirit of God draws all men! (Acts 17:30, John 12:32)
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Supplement A
"According to the Bible, God's nature is both perfect justice and perfect love. Both of these are equally powerful, and neither can be compromised.
But this is precisely the problem! For God's justice exposes man's inadequacy. The Bible says that every person has failed to live up to God's moral law and so finds himself guilty before God. The Biblical word for this moral failure is sin. The Bible says that 'All persons are under the power of sin. None is righteous; no, not one; all have turned aside, together they have gone wrong. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Rom. 3.10,12, 23).
We thus find ourselves under the law of divine justice: You reap what you sow. The Bible says, 'Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. The one who sows to please God's Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life' (Gal. 6.7-8). The prophet Ezekiel declared, 'The soul that sins shall die' (Eze. 18.4), and the apostle Paul echoes, 'The wages of sin is death' (Rom. 6.23). You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow. This is justice in its purest form.
The only problem is, nobody measures up! So, if we rely on the justice of God, we're sunk! There is nobody here who deserves to go to heaven. Nobody is good enough! So if we depend on God's justice, we've had it. It's all over.
Therefore, we must cast ourselves on God's mercy. Even though we are guilty and deserve to die, God still loves us. Listen to what the Bible says, ''Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?,' says the Lord God, 'And not rather that he should turn from his way and live? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,' says the Lord God. 'So turn and live! Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. For why will you die?''' (Eze. 18.23,32; 33.11).
Here God literally pleads with people to turn back from their self-destructive course of action and be saved. And in the New Testament it says, 'The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance' (2Pet. 3.9). 'He desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth' (1Tim. 2.4).
Thus God finds himself in a kind of dilemma. On the one hand are His justice and holiness, which demand punishment for sin, rightly deserved. On the other hand are God's love and mercy, which demand reconciliation and forgiveness. Both are essential to His nature; neither can be compromised. What is God to do in this dilemma?
The answer is Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of God's justice and love. They meet at the cross: the love and the wrath of God. At the cross we see God's love for people and His wrath upon sin.
On the one hand we see God's love. Jesus died in our place. He voluntarily took upon himself the death penalty of sin that we deserve. The Bible says, 'In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins' (1Jn. 4.10).
But at the cross we also see God's wrath, as His just judgment is poured out upon sin. Jesus was our substitute. He tasted death for every human being and bore the punishment for every sin. None of us can imagine what he endured. Jesus endured hell for us, so that none of us would have to endure it ourselves. That's why Jesus is the key, and life's supreme question becomes, 'What will you do with Christ?'
In order to receive forgiveness, we need to place our trust in Christ as our Savior and the Lord of our lives. But if we reject Christ, then we reject God's mercy and fall back on His justice. And you know where you stand there. If we reject Jesus' offer of forgiveness, then there is simply is no one else to pay the penalty for your sin—except yourself.
Thus, in a sense, God doesn't send anybody to hell. His desire is that everyone be saved, and He pleads with people to come to Him. But if we reject Christ's sacrifice for our sin, then God has no choice but to give us what we deserve. God will not send us to hell—but we will send ourselves. Our eternal destiny thus lies in our own hands. It is a matter of our free choice where we shall spend eternity."
~William Lane Craig