Salvation

In the last lesson on Faith (Faith 3)we looked at the verse, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. We focused on who Jesus Christ is. In this lesson, I want to talk about the word believe. In the earlier lessons on faith (Faith 1 and Faith 2), I talked about believing, or trusting, in something or someone even if you cannot see them. The subject of our belief, in this verse and throughout the Bible, is Jesus. If you have any questions on believing, look back at the lessons: Faith 1 and 2. Notice the last part of this verse, you shall be saved. Why do we need to be saved?

Let me ask you some questions. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever taken anything that didn’t belong to you? Have you ever disobeyed your Mom or Dad? Those things: lying, stealing, and disobeying are called sins. A sin is any thought or action against God. God says in His word that we should obey our parents. We should not steal, kill, lie, or think evil of anyone. God has 10 Commandments that He gave Moses in the Bible for His people. A commandment is a firm law or instruction we need to follow. You can see the 10 Commandments in Exodus chapter 20.

God is Holy. Holy means perfect and without sin. Heaven is the place where God dwells. It is full of angels praising Him. It is a beautiful place where Jesus is waiting for the time we can come and join Him there. Golden streets, a beautiful river, flowers, trees, mansions, and many more wonderful things fill heaven. Jesus said He was building a place for us there. You may know someone who trusted Jesus as their Savior and later died and is now in Heaven. Heaven is a Holy place that is filled with God’s glory because God is there.

God cannot let sin into his presence in Heaven. This makes a problem for us. We are sinners. At the beginning of this lesson I talked about sin. We have sinned. I've lied, stolen, and disobeyed. This makes me a sinner. You also have sinned. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means every person ever born. Because we have sinned, we cannot come close to the glory of God.

So, the day in November years ago when I was born, I was born a sinner. Even though I was extremely cute, I was still a sinner. That means I cannot, on my own, make it into heaven. You, cute as you were on the day you were born, were also born a sinner and cannot make it into heaven on your own. We can never be good enough or do enough good things for the perfect God.

What does that mean? What shall we do? If we cannot get into heaven on our own, what can be done? God knows what had to be done. God knows everything. God knew this was a problem even before He made Adam and Eve. God knew that people would sin, and sin had to be paid for. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Wages are payment. Let’s say I asked you to mow my lawn. When you were finished mowing my lawn, I would be in debt to you until I paid you for that job. Payment to you would be your wage. Sin is a debt to God and needs to be paid.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, God made it very clear that when sin was committed, it needed to be paid by something dying. Blood needed to be shed to cover that sin. God created Adam and Eve. They were the very first people ever to live. He created a beautiful place for them to live in called the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by disobeying God. God told them not to eat from a particular tree. God said they could eat from all the trees except for one. They ate from that tree, disobeying God. The sin had to be paid by something dying and spilling its blood. God killed a lamb as payment for their sin. The blood of the lamb was shed as a picture to cover their sin. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:22c …without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Remission is another word for forgiveness.

Our payment for our sin is death. That means someone has to die for my sin, your sin, and everyone’s sin. That someone needs to be without sin, or perfect, for the payment. How can sin pay for sin? It can't. If I died for myself, that wouldn’t work because I am not without sin. The person paying for my sin has to be without sin. That Person is God the Son, Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. Jesus, being God, is perfect. He is without sin. He never told a lie, stole, or disobeyed His parents. He never did anything wrong. He never sinned. When Jesus Christ grew up and became a man, He took all our sin on Himself. He died for that sin on the cross.  His perfect, sinless blood was the payment, the wage, for our sin. Wow! He died for my sin. He died for your sin! He died for everyone’s sin!

Jesus also conquered death. After He died, He was buried. He was placed in a grave, and on the third day, He arose!  He walked with His friends on the earth. That means He is alive! Then, He went to Heaven to sit on the right side of God. He is in Heaven waiting for us. He loves us so much that He did all those things for us.

There is only one thing you can do about all of this. That one thing is to believe, or trust, in what God did for you on the cross to forgive your sin debt. When I was a little girl of five years old, I asked my daddy, “How can I go to heaven?” He explained to me that I was a sinner. I needed to have someone pay for my sin. Jesus paid for my sin on the cross. I needed to have faith, to believe in him to take away my sin. That day, I asked Jesus to be my Savior. I thanked Jesus for dying for my sin. Because I did that, one day after I die, I will be in heaven. I did what the verse at the beginning of our lesson says. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” Earlier I mentioned a verse, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The last part of the verse talks about the gift from God is eternal life. The word eternal means forever. If we trust Jesus for what He did for us on the cross, we get the free gift. The free gift is to go to heaven someday and live with Him forever.

Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you have faith in him? I hope so because I want to meet you in heaven someday! 

If you need to do this, ask your parents or Pastor and they will be able to help you.  I am praying for you. If you have a question for me, you can write it in the comment box at the end of this or any of the lessons.

Memorize:  Acts16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

If you already know that verse, pick another one from the lesson to learn, and say it to someone. If you know all of them, then say all of them to someone.

 Verses in NKJ unless otherwise stated.