Are you a (morally) good person? This might be one of the most important questions you will ever be asked. Your eternal life is at stake.
“And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18)
Most consider themselves to be morally good people, but what is the standard of good? Let’s test that out by looking to the very standard of good, God and His Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-17) Be real with yourself, and look at these with a tender, honest conscience before God:
1. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Have you loved God above all else? Have you had other things take priority over God like certain events, hobbies, your cell phone, habits, friends, etc?)
2. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Have you ever made a god to fit your views or your personal beliefs, or bowed down to idols or statues?)
3. “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.” (Have you ever use God’s name as a cuss word or said the phrase: Oh my G..?, or ever walked unworthily of God’s name? Or do you claim to be a Christian while openly doing sinful things?)
4. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Have you faithfully rested the seventh day sabbath – Friday Sundown to Saturday Sundown – from all labor and abstained from your own pleasure on His set apart day of worship?)
5. “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” (Do you honor your father and mother by obeying them and showing respect to them and for them?)
6. “Thou shalt not kill.” (Have you physically murdered someone? Or have you ever hated someone? If you hate someone in your heart, you are also considered a murderer in God’s eyes. See: 1 John 3:15)
7. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Have you ever looked with lust upon another person? Jesus says if you look with lust upon someone, you commit adultery already in your heart. See: Matthew 5:28, or have you committed the act physically?)
8. “Thou shalt not steal.” (Have you ever stolen anything? And regardless of its value, like a paper clip or piece of gum? Or have you stolen God’s time?)
9. “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” (Have you ever told a lie? About anything, even if it’s considered a “little white lie” in your eyes? Have you ever forged a signature, claimed something was true when it wasn’t, or lied just to keep a secret?)
10. “Thou shalt not covet.” (Have you ever envied or had jealousy over someone else’s stuff, whether that be a house, car, clothing, spouse, job, health, looks, etc?)
If you have broken even one of these Commandments, you are guilty of breaking them all. James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” If you keep nine perfectly but break one, you are still breaking them all. For example: If I don’t steal, but I tell a lie, I am still guilty of breaking them all because each Commandment is directly related to each other.
What is it called to break/go against God’s Ten Commandments?
I am sure you have heard of it; it’s called sin.
1 John 3:4 says, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
God says that “there is none that doeth good, no, not one…For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:12,23)
And for those that believe they have not sinned, have no mistakes, or never have sinned, God says in 1 John 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Some think that God will overlook their mistakes and sins and allow them into heaven because He is a loving God. While God is loving and IS love itself, He cannot let anything that would corrupt or defile heaven, enter in. Otherwise, He wouldn’t be just, and there would be no holy standard. Sin must have a penalty; it must have a consequence. The wages or penalty for sin is death. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…”
Many also believe that because they have done good works and deeds God will look to those instead of the sins committed, that these deeds will outweigh or cover their sins, thereby, in result, letting them enter into heaven. But, that is not true at all – see the analogy below:
Picture this: If you’re in court for a terrible crime you committed, and the just judge says: “Your sentence is the death penalty.” Then you begin to repeat and recite all of your good deeds and good works (and good words) before the judge as an effort to appease or release you from the punishment that has been pronounced. The judge then says: “I’m not here to judge you for your good deeds, I judge based upon the crimes committed.” Your good deeds and actions have no bearing in outweighing or canceling the wages of your crimes. The wages have been justly dealt to you as a result of your crime. God says, “..for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.” (Galatians 3:21.) In other words, you cannot keep the law (ten commandments) or do good deeds/works to be saved. You can only keep the law and be obedient once God has given you a new heart.
We need to be saved from our sins, we need a way to be made right again with God, but the question then becomes how? God explains how to be made right. Romans 6:23, “..but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
About 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ of Nazareth came as God in the flesh to this earth as a ransom for you and I. He came to pay the wages of breaking God’s Law. He came to die on our behalf by suffering a horrible crucifixion on the cross, and then died the death we deserved. Jesus was in the grave for three days, and then He rose again from the dead the third day and defeated death itself. Many have heard of Jesus before, but they don’t understand what He came to do for them. 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 broke God’s Law, Jesus paid the fine. That’s what happened on the cross. It’s that simple.
So, what can I do to have SALVATION?
1. REPENT OF YOUR SINS (and ask God to remove them in your heart & turn from them)
2. FULLY TRUST JESUS CHRIST as your personal Saviour from your sins.
He will then grant you strength to walk in obedience to His Ten Commandments and His Word.
Salvation and eternal life are completely free. It has been given to us as a heavenly gift from God. No penance, specific act, creature/self merit, act of keeping laws or keeping the law, good deeds, ceremonies, rituals, or weekly church going can grant us salvation. We simply must accept Christ and His grace as He is. Salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
The three R’s of the Christian faith:
REALIZE that your sins have separated you from God, and that you’re a sinner.
REPENT of your sins to God. (Confess and Forsake them.)
RECEIVE Christ as your personal Saviour from your sins.
Many also believe that because Jesus died in their stead and fulfilled the Law, they no longer have to obey God’s Ten Commandments. They believe they can sin freely because Jesus “covered” their sins. Here is yet another fatal error. The Apostle Paul encountered this exact same thing, this was his response: Romans 3:31, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
Are we to continue in sin (break God’s Law), because we are under God’s grace? Of course not! God says in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” God also says in Romans 6:14-15, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.”
Being “under the Law” is being under the punishment of the Law. We are no longer under the sentence of condemnation from the Law when we stop breaking it.
Picture this: If a person robs a bank, he is arrested, handcuffed, and taken to prison. He is locked behind bars and cannot free himself. He is under the law. Then suppose he is pardoned and released from jail. He is able to go home to his family. He is now under grace. Is he now at liberty to go back and rob that bank again without punishment? Certainly not. In fact, because of the pardon he received, he is under even greater obligation to keep the law than before.
“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:19-20
Again, being “under the law” is being under the punishment of the law. We are no longer under the sentence of condemnation from the law once we accept Jesus’s payment for our sin. That is why Paul says “God forbid”. We must be obedient to the Ten Commandments and “establish the Law.”
Did you know over 150,000 people die everyday? Some in their sleep, in a car accident, heart attack, or walking down the street. We don’t know when we will die, we don’t even know if we have tomorrow. The point is that there is no time to lose, if we put off this important decision it could be too late. We do not know when our time on this earth is up.
Trust in Christ as your personal Saviour today, please dear friend, don’t wait!
Hebrews 3:15, “While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts…”
Find somewhere quiet and get on your knees in prayer.
Ask for forgiveness and confess, repent of your sins, and ask for a new heart. He promises to give you one: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put into you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
God will then wash away all of your sins and iniquities, and remember them no more:
“…saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:34
God will write His perfect Law in your mind and on your new heart: Hebrews 8:10, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:”
We are all on this earth for a very short time. James 4:14, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Let’s say even if you live to be 90 years old, still, in the scale of eternity, 90 years is minuscule – that is not even a dot on the graph of time. This life ends, but real life in eternity never ends!
GET RIGHT WITH GOD TODAY, before it is too late. He loves you dearly, and sent His only Son for you!
See how much your Heavenly Father loves you: The Father’s Love Letter to you!
God bless you.
Reach me at biblicalandfound@gmail.com, I would love to talk with you.