Why Can't I Help? 1

Man 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. You must renounce all your self-goodness. You can't be good enough, you can't join any church, 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 human merit.

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.  You must be made a *new creature* within by the power of God (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, and God only gives His Faith to sinners in need of a Savior.

Real Faith looks up to Christ Jesus, God in the flesh who 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 Himself came down here as a Jewish man to you, poor sinner, that He might take you up to Himself in glory. The Son of God bled for every human sin. His griefs and sufferings were not for Himself, for in Him is no sin at all. God suffering instead of sinful man, that the justice of God might be fully satisfied, and the mercy of God might be freely bestowed on needy sinners.

Think much of the Savior, picture His wounds, look only to His blood, see your Creator bleed. 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 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 all 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 against God. 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. 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.