The natural man always wants to do his best to get rid of his own sin. The natural instinct of mankind is to 'work' on behalf of their own cure. Human nature naturally wants to help God provide the solution to its sin problem. But there's no human remedy for sin, none. Religion and human nature doesn't want to admit that, but it's true. You must renounce all your self-goodness and religious pride. You can't be good enough, you can't join any church, no church's baptism can help rid you of your sin, you are cursed with Sin, you're a sinner, you must give yourself over to Jesus Christ completely, and He must give you Free Eternal Life, without any of your human merit. The blood of Jesus Christ is the only antidote for the love of sin.
Every sinner by nature is entirely lost and full of sin. There is no hope of you being saved by your own righteousness, because it is unrighteousness. There is none righteous, no, not one. Human nature despises Christ because of Satanic pride. Man goes to go hell because he loves his sin and prefers his righteousness to Christ's righteousness. You must be made a *new creature* within by the power of God alone (John 1:12), not by your own human works.
"What must I do to be saved from *the love* and penalty of sin?" What is your answer to this all-important question? Mankind is asking this question today, and there are many different answers that the world throws at lost souls groping in the darkness of sin. Well, the Holy Bible's answer to being saved is this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31)." Believing on Christ is simply trusting to *HIM*! That is, Trusting only in His Great atoning sacrifice for miserable sinners. Believing is relying upon, or trusting. Sinner, only trust in Christ. True Faith is the gift of God, true faith doesn't come from man, it comes from the Holy Spirit, and God only gives faith to miserable sinners in need of a Savior.
Real Faith looks up to Christ Jesus: God in the flesh dwelt among us, He lived selflessly on earth, He was crucified for sinners, He offered up Himself for all of us upon the tree of Calvary. Jesus did all this out of pure love to His enemies. God Incarnate, He that made the heavens, veiled Himself in manhood. God came down here as a man to you, poor sinner, that He might take you up to Himself in glory. The Son of God bled to death for every human sin. His griefs and suffering were not for Himself, for in Him is no sin at all. God in the flesh suffering instead of man, that the justice of God might be fully satisfied, and the mercy of God might be free to needy sinners. Think of the Savior, picture His wounds, look to His blood, see your Creator bleed for you. Jesus died especially for you, and on the Cross He shed His blood, from Sin to set you free. Only Jesus can forgive all your sins. Have done once for all with all reliance upon human feelings or doings, and Rest yourself on the sinless Blood Atonement and Righteousness of Jesus Christ.
But what does it mean to 'Believe'? "Believe" means to "to place all your trust in the finished cross-work of the Lamb of God - Jesus Christ." Believing is to fix your entire dependence on the sin-atoning work of Christ Jesus, to make HIM your soul's only object of Trust. Fix your eye on the fact that God Incarnate bled and died for your sins. Christ's blood and righteousness is completely sufficient for your eternal salvation from sin. In other words, it is not Jesus 'plus' something else; it is not the Cross 'plus' human works; it is not anything plus - it is Christ Jesus alone that saves real sinners, Period.
Self-righteous human nature wants to try and PAY for its sins by self-atonement. Self wants to suffer and work in some way to help atone for its own sins. Self is just too stinking proud to give up trying and working, and simply trust in the finished sinless work of Jesus Christ for the total payment of all your sins. If you try to PAY for any of your sins with your works, you will have to PAY for all your sins in Hell. Either Jesus will pay for all your sins, or you must pay for all of them. This is not a "hope so" or a "think so" salvation, or "I'll give it my best shot".
All the worldly religions teach that you must PAY for your sin-debt in some way or fashion by the completion of some undefined amount of good deeds, but the Glorious Gospel of Christ teaches that Christ Jesus bore all your sins and paid it all with God's Blood that flowed from His veins on Calvary's Tree. Jesus cried, "It is Finished!" from Calvary before He died for your sins. God's divine justice was completely satisfied by Christ's sinless blood-shed and death on the Cross. We know that for a fact, for Christ Jesus rose from the dead three days later according to the Scriptures, proving that God the Father accepted His payment for man's sins.
The man-made false gospels teach that salvation is a *process*, that is, you believe, and you get baptized, and take the ordinances or sacraments, and make confession, and do your dead-level best to help God out. Men naturally seek salvation by human works, they refuse to surrender to the grace and righteousness of God, and try to hide themselves behind their own sham righteousness. Man's false gospels say, "You must hang on until your last breath, because you might not get in, if you mess up along the way. Your lifestyle on earth plays an important part in your self-salvation. You have to live IT, you know. You cannot depend exclusively on a merciful God who died for you. If you're good enough, you'll get to go to Heaven, *maybe*."
You see, your poor soul needs insurance, but you can't afford the payments, you're broke and in serious debt because of your continual sinning. You know that insurance isn't cheap. You have your home and car and dog insured. You probably even have your physical life insured, so that there will be financial provision for your family when you are gone. But what you need most, is to have your immortal soul insured with Christ's free divine, eternal INSURANCE. When you Believe on Christ and receive His free soul insurance, you will have real assurance of safety from sin, death, and hell. As the old song goes, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine."
But what does it mean to believe? To believe means to completely stop trusting in yourself, and completely trust in Christ Jesus Himself. There are only two steps to Heaven: Step off of Self and on to Christ. Then step off of Christ and into Heaven. Believe means to trust your never-dying soul into the hands of the Crucified and Risen Savior for eternal safekeeping. Only by the mercy of God can you be Born Again. Never trust yourself at all, only trust Christ. Men do not understand the way of trusting. They want to see, to reason, to argue; but to simply trust in "God in the flesh, living, bleeding, dying, buried, risen, gone into the heavens, and coming again", they do not like that. Believe is not 'doing' anything; it is to leave off doing altogether; it is just believing that Christ Jesus did it ALL! You have nothing to work for, nothing at all sinner, Jesus did everything for you, He did it ALL, long, long ago.
You must be Born Again, because you were born into the wrong family. See Romans 5:12. You were born into the fallen human family of Adam (by nature, you are the devil's child spiritually), and that is the wrong family to be a part of, if you ever hope to have 'eternal life'. Our original father Adam was a criminal, and he was given the sentence of death. That death sentence is yours also, and you'll prove it one day soon by dying. We're all condemned because of our sin. That is very bad news. The world is already under judgment, Jesus came to save sinners from Judgment. The world desperately needed a Savior. Jesus was not just a judge, a teacher, a healer, a philosopher, a moralist, or a founder of a new religion. Jesus was the Savior of the whole world - He came to seek and save that which was lost in sin. The whole world is perishing in sin. Every member of the human race will die and face their Maker in their sins, unless they trust the Savior, and give Him their sins.
Now understand - You must be born again. Why? Because your first birth placed you into the a deadly family. So now must be supernaturally birthed into a new family by the power of Christ Jesus (John 1:12). You must be freely adopted into the right family by God's rich grace. A miracle from God must take place that rebirths you into the 'God's family'. You need a supernatural second birth - Ye Must Be Born Again.
There's no Grace in Buddhism, you PAY, their false new birth is called Reincarnation. By being reincarnated, you pay and pay and pay throughout many lives here on earth for your bad deeds until you reach a state of Nirvana. Buddhism teaches you have to PAY. But reincarnation is only a fatal delusion and a diabolical lie right out of hell. There's no Grace in Hinduism, you have toPAY. In Islam, you must PAY for your sins, Allah never promises the sinner free and eternal forgiveness.
Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven from earth; He said so Himself in John 14:6. There are not many roads to God, there is only ONE - His name is Jesus Christ. The Incarnate God said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by ME." This is the offense of the Cross. Jesus Christ is right, and everyone else is wrong. He is the WAY, and everything else is not the way. The Gospel of Christ is Truth, and all other worldly religions are a lie. Jesus is the way to Heaven, and every other way is the way to Hell. Jesus Christ is LIFE, and all other man-made religions will take you straight into eternal death - the Lake of Fire. Man never treats any other truth or science like he seems to treat spiritual and eternal truth. Man always wants to deal with facts and reality, except when it comes to his soul and his eternal destiny. Sinful man is insanely self-destructive and suicidal with his soul. See John 20:31; I John 5:12-13; John 3:7,16-18,36; Romans 5:8-12. You're as full of sin as the ocean is full of salt. Sin saturates your entire life. Regeneration occurs instantaneously, justification and forgiveness of sins occurs as swiftly as a flash of lightning. There is no good thing whatsoever in you, vile and dirty within. You life is a vain bubble, and it shall burst directly.
You are full of sin one minute, you look to Christ, and then it is all forgiven in an instant; all your sins, past, present, and to come, are all cast behind the Lord's back. Jesus saves the sinner who trusts in Him immediately. You have no good works in which to trust, no self-righteousness on which to rely, cast away your boastings, come to Christ as a poor, guilt, helpless sinner. Believe in Christ's Blood Atonement alone. You are full of sin, ye must be born again from above.
Salvation is not a process of a combination of good works and faith, but a supernatural transaction that takes place personally once and for all between you and the living Savior. This transaction is called the New Birth - Being Born Again. Fix your attention fully on Christ dying for your sins and then rising from the dead - Meditate on His bleeding love for your sins. Jesus paid the full penalty for all your sins, there's nothing left for you to do. You cannot work your way into His acceptance of you. You can't help Christ save your soul. Stop loving your sins. Believe on Christ now - Lost sinner, come just as you are and trust Jesus - Look completely to HIM alone for all your soul's needs. The very moment you do that, you are Born Again. After you trust Christ, start striving against your sin by the grace of God, and tell some other sinner how Jesus saved you from the love of sin.
