The Gospel Light And Truth Crusade

Salvation is a sovereign act of God whereby He forgives our sins and grants us a pardon from the punishment for sin, which is eternal torment by fire in Hell. To fully understand the importance of salvation, it is necessary to first understand sin and the law.

Part I: Sin

Sin is the transgression (breaking) of the Law:

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

1 John 3:4

The History of sin

The first sin was committed in Heaven, when an angel named Lucifer became arrogant and wanted the throne of God for himself:

“How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou brought down to the ground, which did weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne against the stars of God, I will sit also in the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.”

Isaiah 14:10

Lucifer deceived a third of the angels of Heaven to follow him in a bid to take the throne of Heaven. The archangel Michael and his angels fought against Lucifer and his angels, and defeated them. For their rebellion, God banished Lucifer and his angels from Heaven:

“And there was war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon [Satan]; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore.”

Revelation 12:7-8

God changed Lucifer’s name (which means “light bearer”) to Satan (adversary) and the Devil (accuser, slanderer), and exiled him and his angels to the earth. The angels who rebelled became demons:

“Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

Revelation 12:12

The second sin was committed on earth by Eve, the wife of Adam, the first man. God had told Adam that they were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Genesis 2:16-17

But Satan, having taken the form of a serpent, deceived Eve into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge:

“Now the serpent…said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

“And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die…”

Genesis 3:1-4

Eve believed Satan, and ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, sharing it with Adam. As punishment for their rebellion, God cursed the earth:

“And unto Adam God said, Because thou hast…eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake…”

Genesis 3:17

And not only was the earth cursed, but so were Adam and Eve and all of their descendents. This is known as a generational curse. Consequently, every human being born on planet earth has inherited the sin of Adam and Eve:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” 

Romans 5:12

And we did not only inherit Adam’s sin, but also their sin nature. We will sin. For example, most everyone on earth is guilty of breaking the Ninth Commandment, which is:

“Thou shalt not bear false witness [lie].”

Exodus 20:16

Because we were all born with the sin of Adam and have all broken at least one of God’s commandments, we are all sinners: 

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Romans 3:23

That we are sinners is important, because the punishment for sin is death.

“For the wages of sin is death…”

Romans 6:23

Part II: The Law

“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”

1 Corinthians 15:56

The Law are God’s rules for perfect and upright behavior. In them, God tells us what He wants us to do, and what He does not want us to do. God first gave the Law to Moses as a template for His chosen people, Israel. The Law can be found in the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but the first part of the Law, called the Ten Commandments, is recorded in Exodus Chapter 20, verses 3 to 17 (Exodus 20:3-17) and are these: 

1. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (v. 3).
2. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them” (v.v. 4-6).
3. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” (v. 7).
4. “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy” (v. 8).
5. “Honor thy father and thy mother” (v. 12).
6. “Thou shalt not kill” (v. 13).
7. “Thou shalt not commit adultery (v. 14).
8. “Thou shalt not steal” (v. 15).
9. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (v. 16).
10. “Thou shalt not covet…any thing that is thy neighbor’s” (v. 17).

God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai, after he led them out of Egypt. As the Jews had been in bondage in Egypt for over four hundred years, they had forgotten God and how to walk in His ways like their father Abraham. Later, when the Jews were to enter Canaan, the land that God had promised them, God gave them the rest of the law to insulate them from the immoral lifestyle of the Canaanites, the land’s inhabitants. The Canaanites were seven nations who were the descendants of Canaan, who was a son of Ham, the youngest son of Noah. The Canaanites were an immoral, pagan people, who practiced idolatry, witchcraft, human sacrifice, and all manner of sexual perversion. 

The Law is important today because it teaches us about sin and its consequences. The world is so far from the knowledge of God, that most people have no idea that many of the things we do are sin in God’s eyes. For example, sex outside of marriage (called fornication in the Bible) is something God hates. The Bible says:

“But if they [unmarried men and women] cannot contain [keep their sexual urges under control], let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.”

1 Corinthians 7:9

Some don’t know how God feels about sex outside of marriage, while others do know, but do it anyway. But whether we sin out of ignorance or out of rebellion, God will still punish sin. However, because He is righteous and just, God will not punish us for committing sin, unless He has first given us the knowledge of sin. That is the purpose of the Law:

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

Galatians 3:24

Did hear that? The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified, that is, declared righteous, by faith. That means that we are not supposed to keep the law, because we can’t. Only one man managed to keep the law. The Lord Jesus.

There are many who believe that they can be saved if they keep the law. Seventh Day Adventists, for example, believe that in keeping the Jewish Sabbath (going to church on Saturday rather Sunday), they are pleasing the Lord. But they fail to understand that absolutely no one can keep the Law, because even if by some miracle, we manage to keep nine of the Ten Commandments, we would still fail to keep all ten. And Scripture says to fail to keep even one commandment, is to break them all:

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

James 2:10

They also fail to see that God will not accept anyone because of his own righteousness as Scripture says:

“Therefore by the deeds of the law [good works] there shall no flesh be justified.”

Romans 3:20

Part III: Death, Hell, and the Lake of Fire

Man is a two-fold creature. Besides having a physical body, we also have a spiritual body:

“There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”

1 Corinthians 15:44

Our spiritual body is called our soul. The soul doesn’t have a heart, lungs, or any of the organs that our physical body has; but it is still alive, and can feel all the sensations that our physical body does. The Lord Jesus, when the telling the story the rich man and Lazarus, gave us a little insight into the nature of the soul.

The soul feels pain:

“And in Hell [the rich man] lift up his eyes, being in torments…”

Luke 16:23

The soul feels thirst and heat:

“And [the rich man] cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented if this flame.”

The soul even retains our memory of the things of this life:

“Then [the rich man] said, I pray thee therefore, father [Abraham], than thou wouldest send [Lazarus] to my father’s house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”

Luke 16:27-28

But, unlike our physical body, the soul is eternal: it never ceases to exist.

When God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of the tree of knowledge, He was talking about the death of the soul as well as the death of the body. Death of the soul, or spiritual death, is described as “separation or alienation of the soul from God; being under the dominion of sin, and destitute of grace or divine life” (Webster’s Universal Unabridged Dictionary). Before Adam’s sin, God walked in the Garden with him and Eve. They knew Him personally, and there was nothing that came between God and them. But after Adam’s sin, God no longer walked with them. God is holy, and can have no dealing with sin. Their sin separated them from God.

Because all of mankind has inherited the sin of Adam and Eve, we are not only born with their sin, but also with their death sentence:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” 

Romans 5:12

Like Adam and Eve, we will die physically; but more importantly, like Adam and Eve, we will die spiritually too. This spiritual death has consequences in this life and in the life to come. In this life, because we are separated and alienated from God, sin will have dominion over us; and we will be destitute and alienated from God. After we die, our soul, which cannot die, will continue to exist in this state. It cannot remain on the earth, because it no longer has its material body; and it cannot go to be with the Lord, because God will not permit sin in Heaven. Where, then, will we go?

Hell

“And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…”

Luke 17:24

When a person dies in his sins, lost and separated from God, he goes immediately to Hell, a temporary place of punishment where he will be tormented by flame until the final Judgment, which will take place after the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. The Bible teaches that God originally created Hell for the Devil and his angels:

“Then shall He [Jesus] say also them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devils and his angels.”

Matthew 25:41

But after God gave Moses the Law, departed souls who did not do the things God prescribed for them to do to temporarily atone for their sins (like offer animal sacrifices), or who broke the law by committing idolatry or some other sin prohibited by the law, went to Hell.

Hell is real!

Some believe that Hell is not really a place of eternal punishment, because of Psalm 16:10:

“Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell…”

Psalm 16:10

In this passage, David prophesied that Jesus went to Hell after he died. But Jesus did not go to Hell, because the Lord never sinned. The “hell” of Psalm 16:10 is the Hebrew word sheol, which means “a place of the dead” and has been likened to Hades. But the Hell that Jesus preached about was not Sheol, but gehenna, which means a “place of punishment.”

Death

The difference between Sheol and Gehenna is this: The Bible teaches that death was in the world from Adam’s transgression until God gave Moses the Law:

“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression…”

Romans 5:14

But, because God is not only Just, but merciful, He would not condemn a man for his sins before giving them the Law:

“For until the Law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”

Romans 5:13

Because God hadn’t yet given man the Law (and thus, the knowledge of sin), He wouldn’t send them to Hell. But, because Scripture says, “the wages of sin is death,” (and Scripture cannot be broken), instead of Hell (Gehanna, the place of torment), the dead went to Death (Sheol, the place of the dead).

Death is real!

Yes, Death is a place, distinct from Hell:

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them…”

Revelation 20:13

“I [Jesus} am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Revelation 1:18

So, when the Bible says that the Lord Jesus went to Hell, it means that the Lord went to Death. He did this in order that Scripture be fulfilled. The Lord never sinned, so He couldn’t to Hell; but because He became sin for us, taking our sins upon Himself, the Lord obeyed the Scriptures and went to Death, because “the wages of sin is death.”

While in Death, the Lord preached to the souls there about righteousness, and about the fact that He is the Christ. These souls had gone there, because at that time, the Law had not come:

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins…being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison…”

1 Peter 3:18-19

Notice that the Apostle Peter said that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison, not torment. Peter is talking about sheol (the place of the dead) and not gehanna (the place of torment).

The Age of Reason

There are some who teach and believe that even babies and little children can go to Hell. The Roman Catholic Church calls this doctrine the Age of Reason, which it describes as:

“The age at which a child knows the difference between right and wrong and must answer for what he does. Seven is years of age is usually considered the age of reason.”

A Practical Catholic Dictionary, p. 17

Former Roman Catholic turned Protestant evangelist Monica Farrell verifies this. She wrote in her book, From Rome To Christ:

“[S]even years of age is a most important time in the life of a Roman Catholic. Seven years is the age of reason. Roman Catholics believe that from then upwards a child is capable of going to hell; hence the necessity for children of seven years to make their confession. As a tiny child, I dreaded coming to the age of seven. I was terrified that I should die and go to hell…I tried repeatedly the think of a way to escape this awful judgment.”

From Rome to Christ, pp. 23-24

The teaching that children can go to hell is unbiblical. Though born into sin, babies and little children are not under condemnation, because they are too young to understand and sin and its consequences. Since they can’t understand sin and its consequences, they couldn’t possibly understand the importance of the Law. Remember: sin cannot be imputed when there is no law (or you can’t understand the law). God is not only Just; He is also merciful. 

When God declared His Name to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, the first word He used to describe Himself was “merciful”:

“The Lord, the Lord God; merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…“

Exodus 34:7

Before God is anything else, He is merciful. He will not condemn a baby or a child to eternal flames. He knows that babies are innocent of any crime, and children are not yet old enough to understand the concept of sin and its consequences. When a baby or child dies, therefore, they do not go to Hell, but to Heaven, where they are forever with the Lord.

Here is biblical proof from the Old Testament. When the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, God had sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan to survey the land. He did this to test their faithfulness, because up until this time, all Israel did was complain. God knew there were giants in the land, but he wanted the people to have faith that He would protect them. But they didn’t. So, when the spies returned and gave their evil report, all but Joshua and Caleb said that they should not go into the land, because of the giants. And the people listened. For their lack of faith in Him, God made the Israelites wander in the desert for forty years, until all of those who believed the evil report had died off.

But get this: those who were nineteen years old and younger were spared:

“Your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness…from twenty years old and upward…but your little ones, which ye have said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.”

Numbers 14:29-31

Twenty years old is repeated time and again in the Bible:

“Every one that of passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.”

Exodus 30:14

“From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.”

Numbers 1:3

“And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families…from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.”

Numbers 1:18

“For by the last words of David the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and above.”

1 Chronicles 23:27

Twenty years old, then, is the so-called age of the reason: the age when a person is held accountable for his actions, including sin. Twenty years makes sense, because a person should know better by then. A seven year old child doesn’t know anything, especially sin.

God, therefore, will not condemn babies and children to Hell, even though they are born into sin, because…

“The Lord is long-suffering [patient] and of great mercy…”

Numbers 14:18

The same goes for a person with Down’s Syndrome, a person with autism, or a person that has any other illness that affects their cognition. They can’t understand sin and its consequences, and therefore can’t understand the importance of the Law. Most of us have never heard this because the religious establishment has gone to great lengths to suppress this information. By making God look like a merciless tyrant, they have managed to keep people in fear and bondage, from the cradle to the grave. And they reap great profits. What, for example, would a loving parent be willing to do to keep their baby from going to Hell? What would an impressionable child be willing to do? Can you imagine the potential for abuse?

There is no bail in Hell

Hell can be likened to what happens when a person in the United States is charged with a crime. After a person is first arrested and charged with a crime, he is consigned to a prison until he can appear before a judge and the charges against him are formally read. This is known as an arraignment. At the arraignment, the accused is asked to plead “guilty” or “not guilty” to the charges, and the judge gives him a date when he must again appear in court. This is known as a preliminary hearing. In some cases, the person may be allowed to go free until the hearing, provided he pays a sum of money determined by the judge. This is known as bail. If he is unable to pay the bail, or if the judge determines he should not be allowed to go free, then he will return to jail until his preliminary hearing. If ultimately the person is found innocent of the crime with which he has been charged, then he will be set free. But if he is found guilty, he will return to prison and immediately begin serving his sentence. Additionally, in America, the accused also has the right to an appeal: a re-trial in which previously unknown evidence is heard. If successful, the prisoner can go free.

Unlike the criminal justice system, when a person dies in his sins, there is no preliminary hearing. There is no opportunity to post bail. There is no appeal. A condemned soul will be found guilty and be sent to Hell, and where he will remain imprisoned until the Great Judgment. 

Why would a loving God send us to Hell?

Some cannot understand how a God who loves us would also punish us by sending us to Hell. God doesn’t want us to go to Hell. The Bible says:

“The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9

God does want to us to die. God did not even want Adam and Eve to die, which is why He forbade them to eat of the tree of knowledge, and warned them that they would die if they ate of it. If Adam and Eve had not died, then they would have lived forever; because since they could eat of every tree except the tree of knowledge, they would eventually have eaten of the tree of life, because it was right next to the tree of knowledge!

“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” 

“But of the fruit of the tree [of knowledge] which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”

Genesis 2:9, 3:3

If Adam and Eve had not died, then they would have lived forever. If they had lived forever, then we would have lived forever. And if we had lived forever, then would have lived forever in sin for all eternity. We could never be reconciled to God.

The Lake of Fire (The Second Death)

After the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus on earth, the Great Judgment will take place. Everyone will appear before God, both the saved and the unsaved. The unsaved (the condemned souls that were in Hell) will be found guilty and thrown into the Lake of Fire where they will be tormented by flame for all eternity. 

“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…”

Revelation 14:11

God understands how tough it is to resist sin. But though He loves us, and doesn’t want to punish us, His just nature calls for sin to be punished. We can’t understand this, because unlike our Creator, who is holy, we are sinful creatures. 

Part IV: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God

“The next day John [the Baptist] seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

John 1:29

Thankfully, God is not only just, but He is also merciful. In His love for us, God provided a way to both satisfy His just nature and be merciful unto us. His solution was brilliant. In that God is not one person, but, in fact, three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7), one of those persons would come into the world as a human being for the sole purpose of sacrificing Himself in order to accept our death sentence in Hell. He would be our Savior. That person was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Second Person of the Holy Trinity:

“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.”

John 3:16

The Atonement

When the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for us on the cross, He accomplished what the Bible calls the Atonement.

“[W]e also joy in God through our lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement.”

Romans 3:11

To atone is “to make amends or reparation, as for an offense or a crime” (Random House Dictionary). When the Lord Jesus shed His blood, He made amends for our sins. The Atonement involved three things: redemption, remission, and reconciliation.

Redemption: Jesus bought our sin debt from God.

To redeem means to “buy back” or repurchase. In order for the Lord Jesus to pay our sin debt, He had to first buy our sins from God. He did this by doing what we could not: keeping the Law and living a perfect and sinless life.

Remission: God pardoned our sins.

When the Lord Jesus bought our sins, God freed us of our responsibility to pay for that sin. This is known as remission. To remit means “to refrain from inflicting or exacting punishment.” In essence, to remit is to pardon. The only way God would remit our sin was through the shedding of blood:

“Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

Hebrews 9:22

When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, God pardoned our sin, and took us off Death Row. This allowed the Lord Jesus to complete the final act of Atonement, which was:

Reconciliation: Jesus paid the penalty for our sins.

Having bought our sin debt, the Lord Jesus died on the cross, in accordance with Romans 6:23, thereby paying our sin debt in full. In financial terms, this is known as satisfaction, restitution, or reconciliation. Satisfaction is “settlement of debt.” Restitution is “reparation made by giving an equivalent or compensation for loss, damage, or injury caused.” And to reconcile means “to cause to cease hostility or opposition [peace].” The Lord Jesus accomplished all these:

• Satisfaction (settlement of debt) When the Lord Jesus shed his blood on the cross, he paid our sin debt in full, completely satisfying the debt.

“God hath set forth [Jesus] to be a propitiation [satisfaction] through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past…“

Romans 3:25

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

1 John 4:10

• Restitution (to give an equivalent) When the Lord Jesus offered himself for us, he took our place, and died the death we should have died.

“[Jesus] gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God…”

Galatians 1:4

“I live by the faith of [Jesus], who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20

• Reconciliation (to bring peace) When the Lord Jesus paid our sin debt, he made peace between God and us.

“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ…”

2 Corinthians 5:18

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Romans 3:10

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5:1

“For He [Jesus] is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.”

Ephesians 2:14

Jesus’ Trial and Condemnation

Jesus was falsely accused of sedition (inciting rebellion against the authority of the state) by the Jewish religious authorities, who were jealous of His power and authority. At that time, Judea was part of the Roman Empire, and the Jewish religious hierarchy had only limited authority. They could stone a person to death who was guilty of breaking the Law of Moses; but, though they tried to stone Jesus, they could not, because the people would not allow it. They therefore seized the Lord by night and held a secret trial in the early morning hours. Bringing in false witnesses, the Jews found Jesus guilty of heresy and condemned Him to death (Matthew 26:66). They then brought Him before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent (Matthew 27:18, 27:24), and tried three times to set Him free. But when the Jews implied that they would accuse Pilate of treason if he were to let Jesus go (John 19:12), Pilate reluctantly condemned the Lord to death by crucifixion. 

Jesus’ Crucifixion

Crucifixion was a method of execution whereby a person was fixed to a wooden cross by driving nails through his hands and feet. He was then left there to die. Death in this manner was excruciatingly painful, slow, and cruel. As the position of the person’s body made it extremely difficult to breathe, the victim usually died of asphyxiation (lack of air). The Lord’s suffering was compounded by the fact that before He was nailed to the cross, He had been beaten, savagely whipped, and made to carry His own cross to Calvary.

Jesus’ Suffering and Death

It is important to note that the Lord’s suffering and death were necessary to redeem us from sin. We are all sinners, so we deserve to go Hell to be tormented forever for our sin. The Lord Jesus, however, never sinned, because He never broke the Law. Because He never broke the law, He could not go to Hell. And because He could not go to Hell, then He could not to be punished. And since the the Lord could not go Hell to be punished, He had to suffer on the earth. Likewise, all who accept the Lord’s sacrifice, will not die and go to Hell to be punished, because the Lord Jesus already died and was punished for us! Hallelujah! Had not the Lord Jesus given Himself as our Substitute, we would be lost in our sins to this day, and God would have no choice but to send us to Hell. But because the Lord willingly sacrificed His life for us, we are no longer under condemnation. 

Jesus’ Resurrection

The Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the third day as He said He would. His resurrection is important because it is proof that He committed no sin. It is also important because if the Lord Jesus could raise Himself up, then surely He can raise us up as He promised. 

Jesus, the Last Adam

The Bible says that Adam was not deceived by Satan:

“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”

1 Timothy 5:14

Adam didn’t eat the fruit out of disobedience, but because he loved his wife. Adam knew Eve was doomed, so he chose to share her fate. Likewise, the Lord Jesus was innocent of any sin, yet allowed Himself to be punished for our sins, because He loves us. For this reason, Jesus is known as the Last Adam:

“[Adam] is the figure of Him [the Lord Jesus] that was to come.”

Romans 5:14

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Jesus] was made a quickening spirit.”

1 Corinthians 15:45

Part VI: The Blood of Jesus

The Bible teaches that only the shedding of blood can redeem us from sin:

“It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.”

Leviticus 17:11

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” 

Hebrews 9:22

In order for our sins to be redeemed, someone had to shed his blood. But the person had to meet two very specific criteria: the person had to be a man, and he had to be sinless. Adam was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14), but Eve’s sin was attributed to him, because he was responsible for his wife. Because Adam was a man, sin had to be redeemed by a man, in order to satisfy God’s sense of justice. Remember how God said “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?” Well, a man for a man:

“For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one [Man], Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5:17

“Therefore as by the offense of one [man] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [Man] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”

Romans 5:18

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [Man], shall many be made righteous.”

Romans 5:19

NOTE: Roman Catholics believe that the Virgin Mary redeemed us to God. They believe that because Eve was a woman, sin had to be redeemed by a woman. But this is biblical. The Bible clearly teaches that though Eve sinned, Adam was responsible for his wife. Thus, her sin fell on Him:

“Because thou hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, curse is the ground for thy sake.”

Genesis 3:17

Because Eve’s sin fell on Adam, his sin had to be redeemed by a Man:

“For as in Adam [not Eve] all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

1 Corinthians 15:22

But there was still one very important criterion that the redeemer of mankind would have to fulfill: he had to be sinless. This is because just as a penniless person cannot pay another person’s monetary debt, a sinful person could not pay our sin debt. The Lord Jesus was uniquely qualified to fulfill this criterion, because He was the only man in the history of the world who kept the Law: the Lord Jesus never sinned:

“[A]nd in Him [Jesus] is no sin.”

1 John 3:5

“For He [God the Father] hath made Him [Jesus] to be sin for us, Who knew no sin.”

2 Corinthians 5:21

“[Jesus] did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.”

1 Peter 2:22

The Lord Jesus was sinless for two reasons: first, He was not born with the sin of Adam. Every person on earth was conceived through the mingling of the seed of a man with the egg of a woman, whether naturally by sex, or through artificial insemination. Because the sin of Eve was attributed to Adam, sin is passed down through the male. All humans are therefore said to be born of a man. But Jesus was conceived neither naturally nor artificially. Jesus was conceived super-naturally. His mother Mary was a young virgin, and His Father was God. Because there was no man involved in His conception, the Bible says that the Lord Jesus was “made of a woman”:

“But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

Galatians 4:4

Second, the Lord Jesus was sinless because He was the only man in the history of the world who kept the Law. Jesus never broke even one commandment, though He was tempted like everyone else:

“But He [Jesus] was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Hebrews 4:15

Because the blood of Jesus was perfect and sinless, God would only accept the shedding of His blood for the redemption of mankind.

“Thou art worthy…for thou was slain, and has redeemed us to God by the blood…”

Revelation 5:9

Part VII: The Judgment

Every person who has ever lived will stand before the Lord Jesus at the Judgment, where he will be judged for the life he led while on the earth. The Bible says:

“When the Son of man shall come into His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations...”

Matthew 25:31

“And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away…And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God…”

Revelation 20:11

Then the Judgment will begin:

“And the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

Revelation 20:12

The Lord will divide those whose names were written in the Book of Life from those whose names were not written:

“And He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep [those whose names were written] on His right hand, but the goats [those whose names were not written] on the left.”

Matthew 25:32

To those on His right hand the Lord will say:

“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…“

Matthew 25:34

But to those on His left hand, He will say:

“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Matthew 25:41

They will be thrown into the Lake of Fire…

“And whosoever was not found in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”

Revelation 20:15

…where they will be tormented forever.

“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night.”

Revelation 14:11

Justice vs. mercy

In a court of law, justice is served when the guilty party receives the punishment he deserves. If he receives the maximum punishment permitted by law, he is said to have been punished “to the full extent of the law.” Sometimes, however, the guilty person may acknowledge his guilt and ask the judge for leniency. This is known as “throwing oneself on the mercy of the court.” If the request is granted, the judge may impose a lesser punishment than the guilty party deserved, and he will not be punished to the full extent of the law. He will receive mercy, which he did not deserve; and not justice, which he did deserve.

When we accept the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus as full payment for our sins, we throw ourselves at the mercy of the court. We acknowledge that we deserve to die and go to Hell for the sins we have committed, and we ask God to show us the mercy that we did not deserve, and spare us the justice that we do. And this He will do. When we reject the sacrifice of Jesus, however, and try to make it to heaven by our own efforts, we tell the Lord that we would prefer justice to mercy, and that we would like to be punished to the full extent of the Law. And this He will do. 

Part VIII: How To Get Saved

If you would prefer God’s mercy to His justice, you need to get saved. In order to get saved, you must:

1. Hear the gospel.

2. Repent.

3. Believe on the Lord Jesus.

4. Get baptized.

Hear the Gospel

“Howbeit many of them which heard the Word believed…”

Acts 4:4

The Gospel is everything we have discussed unto this point, which is this: We are all sinners who deserve to die and go to Hell. But Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, died and shed His blood on the cross to redeem us from sin. If you accept His sacrifice as full payment for your sins, then you will be saved from Hell and the Lake of Fire, and will be granted eternal life.

Repent

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted…”

Acts 3:19

To repent means to regret having sinned against God and to turn away from sin: to do a 180 and run from it. Repentance is so important that the first word that both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ spoke when they began to preach was “Repent!”:

“Repent: for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17

“Repent ye: for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Matthew 3:2

(Matthew 3:2, 4:17). Repentance happens in the heart. When we repent, we acknowledge that we’ve done wrong and we resolve to turn from our evil ways and live as God intends.

Believe on the Lord Jesus (Be born again)

When someone believes on the Lord Jesus, he is said to be born again. The Lord Jesus said:

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3

As Jesus explained, to be born again does mean to crawl back into our mother’s womb, and be born again a second time. To be born again means to die to self and born again unto God. To be born again is to die the cares this world be born again unto God’s care. But, more importantly, to be born again means to die to the Law of works (the Ten Commandments), and to be born again under the Law of grace.

“Repent, and be baptized…for the remission of sins.”

Acts 2:38

The Bible says that after we get saved, we must get baptized out of obedience.  Please read this post on the significance of baptism.

Confession before baptism

If you are a Roman Catholic, your baptism into the Roman Catholic Church does not count, as infant baptism is unbiblical. The Bible makes it clear that a person must believe in Jesus to be saved:

“If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.” 

Romans 10:9-10

If one must believe in Jesus and confess this belief to be saved, then Roman Catholics have a problem, because babies don’t believe or confess anything.

The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch from the Book of Acts proves the importance of confessing the Lord Jesus before one gets baptized. It happened like this: the disciples of Jesus flee Jerusalem due to the persecution of the Church following the martyrdom of Stephen. Only the apostles remain. On the road, the Apostle Philip encounters an Ethiopian eunuch, a proselyte to the Jewish faith, returning home from Jerusalem. The Holy Ghost directs Philip to go and talk with the man, who just happens to be reading from the Book of Isaiah the prophet. Philip asks the eunuch if he understands what he is reading, and the man admits that he could use a little help. He asks Philip to whom the prophet was referring when he wrote:

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb opened He not His mouth: In His humiliation His judgment was taken away: and who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken from the earth.”

Isaiah 53:7-8

Philip begins at that very same passage of Scripture and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ to the man. As they continue on their way, they pass a body of water, at which point the eunuch says to Philip:

“See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”

Acts 8:36

Evidently, Philip had explained the importance of baptism for a believer. Philip replies:

“If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.”

Acts 8:37a

The eunuch then makes this confession:

“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Acts 8:37b

Philip then baptizes the man, who continues on his way joyfully praising God. Note that Philip did not baptize him until he confessed his belief in Jesus. This is consistent with Romans 10:9-10.

Part IX: Important things to know

Only Past Sins Are Forgiven At Conversion

It is very important to remember that when we get saved, the Lord Jesus forgives our past sins only:

“God hath set forth [Jesus] to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”

Romans 3:25

This is a supreme act of mercy. Instead of requiring us to remember every sin we ever committed and confess them all, the Lord Jesus gives us a one-time across-the-board Get Out Of Jail Free Card, forgiving every sin we have ever committed, from the cradle to our salvation. But He will only do this once, because Jesus died only once.

Future Sins Must Be Confessed

Any sins we commit after we get saved have to be confessed as soon as possible. The Bible says:

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins [to God, NOT to a priest], He [Jesus] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:8-9

Notice that the passage says all unrighteousness. There is no sin so bad that Jesus won’t forgive it.  You might think you have done the worst thing in the world, but God has seen a lot worse.  As long as you ask for forgiveness (and mean it), Jesus will forgive any sin you commit.  Murderers, thieves, kidnappers, idolaters, pimps, prostitutes, adulterers, homosexuals, drug dealers, drug addicts, child molesters, child abusers, witches, Satanists, sexual perverts; the list goes on and on.  All have asked for forgiveness, and Jesus has forgiven them all.  And the Bible says that once God forgives you, He will never remember your sins again (Hebrews 10:17).  What a blessing! God is not like us, and, boy, am I grateful.

If we don’t confess our sins, it will be as though we sinned on purpose, and the blood of Jesus will not be applied to those sins:

“If we sin willfully after that we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.”

Hebrews 10:26

It will be as though the Lord Jesus didn’t die for those sins.

No Priest Can Forgive Sins

If you confess your sins to a priest, those sins WILL NOT be forgiven, because no priest can forgive sins:

“And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”

Hebrews 10:11

Only the Lord Jesus can forgive sins:

“But this man (Jesus), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God.”

Hebrews 10:12

So, if you’re ready to ask the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, just repent of your sins, believing that Jesus died to take away your sins, and openly confess Jesus before the world. If you want, you may also ask Jesus to forgive your sins and to be your Lord and Savior.  But this is not necessary. The important thing is to believe that Jesus died and shed His blood for you and accept what He did. 

There is no set prayer. 

Whatever you pray, God will accept it, as long as you mean it.  The Bible says:

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Romans 8:26

What this means is that since we don’t always say what we mean (because we don’t always know what we mean), the Holy Spirit does that for us. He literally translates our prayers to God, because He knows and understands what is in our hearts.  So talk to God in the best way you know how. To make Jesus your Savior means to accept His sacrifice on your behalf, and to make Jesus your Lord means to let Him be the Master of your life. You want to do both.

If you do these things and really mean it, then you will begin a wonderful new life with Jesus.  You will be saved, and Heaven will be your inheritance. 

Rejoice!

Eternal life is yours!

The Bible says:

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” 

1 John 5:13

Amen! Once you are saved, you will live forever. Your physical body will still die, but your soul will be saved, and you will miss Hell and the Lake of Fire. In the Resurrection, the Lord Jesus will raise you up, and you will never die again. For this reason, the Lord Jesus says that Christians do not die, but sleep.