Bible has good news for all

In the Bible we see a term – ‘gospel’ which means ‘good news’. Yes, Bible has a good news for all. No matter who you are, where you are from, what you’ve been. Bible has a good news for you too. The reason why this is a good news is that there is a bad news associated with it – Sin. Sin is the root-cause of the greatest problem – Death.

God has a gift for you!

Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

“But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Isn’t wonderful? The gift of God is eternal life. If the result of sin is death which is the damnation of our soul eternally, then the gift of God is eternal life which is the restoration of our soul from that damnation. Yes, this is the good news of Bible – saving your soul from eternal damnation. In other words, living as immortals with God in heaven after our physical death on earth.

Why Jesus Christ?

“But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord“. Yes, we know that Jesus Christ lived on earth around 2000 years back, but why is his life still relevant? What role did Jesus Christ play for our salvation? To find answers to these questions we need to understand the attributes of God. Bible says our God is a righteous and loving God. He is righteous but at the same time a loving God. Being a righteous God, he has to punish the sin, he has to give death as the wages of their sins. If God does that, then how can God be a loving God? If God ignores people’s sin out of his love and don’t punish them for their sins how can God be a righteous God? (You punish your children and correct them when they go wrong. Don’t you?) In Jesus Christ, we see the greatest display of God’s righteousness and God’s love. God decided to put an end to the problem of sin and death by punishing the sin but at the expense of Jesus Christ.

Christ died for your sins!

Romans 5:8: But God commendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God sent Jesus Christ into this world to be a sacrifice for the sin, to take the punishment of sin – death. Christ came to this world, lived here for 33.5 years, and around AD 33 he had been crucified on a hill called Calvary. Even the judge who sentenced him to death, said “I found no guilt in him”. Yet it was the will of Father to crush His son Jesus Christ as a remission for our sins. God displayed His love towards us by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins and didn’t let us suffer the punishment of our sins. He displayed His righteousness by carrying out the punishment on Jesus Christ (by letting him to die the most brutal and shameful death) for our sins. Thus He displayed both righteousness and His love on that cross. So, there was a problem of sin and death, and God himself made a solution for this problem by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Does this mean that since Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world everyone will receive eternal life ? No. There is an action item on your side also.

What do I need to get eternal life?

Ephesians 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

Two important phrases to be noted in the above verse are ‘grace‘, ‘through faith‘. ‘Grace’ means the favour done to an absolutely undeserved or unworthy people. We were sinners by nature and were not worthy to receive the gift of God. But it was God’s will to open up eternal life to the people who don’t deserve it.

‘Faith’ – Through faith we are saved, not by works, not by your merits or not because of any of your qualities. Faith in Jesus Christ and his substitutionary death on the cross of Calvary. If you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, God raised him from death on the third day and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord then you are saved. This knowledge is not sufficient, but the faith and trust in this knowledge is what matters.

You have a choice

You have only two choices – either you receive Jesus Christ as your saviour and receive eternal life or reject Jesus Christ and receive eternal damnation. To those who have decided to reject this salvation, let me ask you one last question – Would you prefer to be in your death-bed with a feeling of fear, confusion, mental turmoil and sorrow or in a state of peace and happiness? To those who are in a confused state, not knowing what to do, let me tell you one thing, Hell has more qualified people than you. Try Jesus instead!! To those who have opened themselves to receive the gift of God – eternal life, please express your faith with the following prayer.

Express your faith through prayer

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Father, thank you for opening the way of salvation to me also. Thank you for sending Jesus Christ into this earth to die for our sins. Father, I believe that Jesus died taking the punishment of my sins, he was buried. I believe that you raised him from the dead and now abiding in Heaven and interceding for us. Please grant thy special grace and blessings to be strong in the faith. Amen

Those who have sincerely said this prayer, we will definitely meet in heaven if not on earth…