The Gospel
“Gospel” means “good news.” We need more of that in the world, don’t we?
In fact, the good news of the gospel is really the best news we could ever get. It gives us the answer to this question: “If you were to die today, are you 100% sure you would go to heaven?”
It’s something we can KNOW, not just hope for. The message of redemption runs throughout the whole Bible, but let’s look at just a few Scriptures that show us how we can know our home is in heaven.
Nobody’s perfect. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all sinned. “Little white lies,” losing our temper, complaining. . . This probably isn’t news to you.
Accepting we’re not sinless is the first step toward a relationship with Christ.
Then there’s realizing what that means: the first part of Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.”
While we’re not perfect, God is. Heaven is. God loves us so much that He wants us to be with Him forever, but we can’t make it to heaven on our own because of our sin.
Because we’re sinners, we deserve death.
But God doesn’t want that for us.
So that we could live, Jesus died in our place. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Your debt has been paid so that you could have a priceless gift—the gift of salvation.
The second part of Romans 6:23 says, “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The gift of salvation isn’t free, but Jesus already paid for it. All that’s left for you to do is accept that gift.
“But don’t I have to do good works to get to heaven?”
That makes sense to us because that’s how people think. But here’s what God says in Ephesians 2:8–9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
It’s not about being good or doing good. We couldn’t be good enough. (Isaiah 64:6 says “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”) But we can accept the gift of salvation.
Will you?
You can make that decision today by praying from your heart, something like this:
“Dear God, I know that I am separated from you because of sin. I confess that in my sin, I cannot save myself. Right now, I turn to you alone to be my Savior. I ask you to save me from the penalty of my sin, and I trust you to provide eternal life to me. Amen.”