October 2002
Last revised November 2005
Dear Friend,
"God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16.
Do not think that God could not want you because of what you may have done in the past. "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8 Of course you don't deserve another chance. None of us do. But Jesus, the one who did deserve to live, came and died as a sacrifice for us, cleansing us from our sins so that God the Father can accept us. Because he did not deserve it, death could not hold him down. He lives again. If we have faith in the one who deserves to live, he has promised that he will cause us to rise from the dead to new life as well. By the great mercy and grace of God it is possible to escape death and the punishment that he has ordered for those that have sinned. What? God wants to save us from himself? Paul writes about himself, "For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." 1 Corinthians 15:10. And again, "I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things." Ephesians 3:7-9.
"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:22-24. Adam sinned and passed the sin on to all of us that came after him. You cannot have something clean from something dirty or something perfect from something imperfect. Also, anyone that has done anything wrong, and we all have, cannot be with God. God cannot tolerate anything or anyone near him who is not holy, that is anyone who has been dirtied with sin. Jesus came to us to show us the way out of this hopeless situation. He himself has died in our place, has traded places with us, taking away our sins and heaping them on himself. "God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind." Numbers 23:19. God is always faithful to what he has said and given. He will never take back anything that he has said or done. Any promise that he has given us will come to pass 100% of the time.
Read these Scriptures and look them up in context:
1 John 4:15: "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God."
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 4:13,14: "Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"
Luke 11:9,10: "So I say to you; Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Revelations 3:19-22: "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Romans 10:8-10: "'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' (Deuteronomy 30:14) that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
John 14:6: "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"
Acts 4:12 "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
You may have seen or heard these passages hundreds of times but I urge you to consider them here afresh. Look at them together. See how they connect. Savor their flavor. Maybe you never understood their full content. Think about them.
If you attend a church and have already heard a lot of this but not quite in this way and have never confessed with your mouth that you believe these things it could be that you are not a Christian yet. Baptism, Confirmation or the reception of the Eucharist is not a ticket to heaven. The Holy Spirit is the proof, and those whom he has entered know it beyond a doubt. I don't remember the date that I believed, confessed and received the Holy Spirit, I didn't look at the calendar that day, I am not even certain of the year, but that moment is etched on my memory forever. It was not an emotional moment but a revelational one. My being was changed to the core in an instant and no one can overlook or forget such a thing. Indeed, nothing can compare to it. Without Jesus we are all condemned from the start. Jesus said about himself, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3:17,18.
God showed his love for us by sacrificing his only Son for us two thousand years ago instead of demanding death from each and every one of us. But we cannot enter his love until that moment when we confess our faith. He bought us back out of slavery to our sinful human nature with the blood of his own Son. Why should we reject freedom? "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death; blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live." Deuteronomy 30:19.
"Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit.'" John 3:5-8.
"If you love me you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him." John 14:15-17.
If you understand these scriptures and see the truth in them then I encourage you to say the above scriptures out loud, if you believe them. I ask you this question. Do you believe what you have just read? If so, answer with,"Yes, I believe what I have just read." If the belief is genuine, Jesus will send his Holy Spirit to you to be with you and help you; you will become a son of God. "If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17.
If you have answered yes, and the Holy Spirit has entered you, you are now a son of God. Although you are a son you are also a servant. Everything in the universe was created to serve God. Even Jesus, by becoming human, became a servant. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:5-8.
Accept no other spirit than the one you are receiving now. Accept no other "truth". The gospel of God is God-centered not man-centered as you will see if you keep reading. Paul scolds the Galatians, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!" Galatians 1:6-9. Paul also warns the Colossians, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation - if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." Colossians 1:21-23.
God bless you,
Carmen
Now before you go anywhere else go to the Crash Course for New Christians and at least save it to file to read later if you are in a hurry. It will contain the text found here and much more to get you started. I don't pretend to know everything but if you want to e-mail me at jamesfiv@jamesfive19.com then go ahead. I would be happy to know whether you have faith because of the content of my site.
Also visit my page containing a warning to my brothers and sisters in Christ about false movements within the Church.
All scriptures were taken from the NIV of 1983 for the sake of understandability. For just about everything else that I write in English I use the King James version. I recommend it not always for readability but for accuracy of scripture. It contains important doctrinal passages that are altered in newer versions or that they no longer even contain.