| ‘How Can I Make It Right With
God?’ |
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| By Rick Warren — Oct 25,
2015 |
“If
you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made
right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are
saved.” (Romans 10:9-10 NLT, second edition)
The Bible says in Romans 1:17, “The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself” (NCV).
How does God make us right with himself? This is called the Gospel, and there are three points.
First, we can’t make ourselves righteous.
Heaven is a perfect place. There’s no sin, sadness, evil, or injustice. But here’s the problem: We are imperfect, and God can’t
let sinful people into Heaven because then it would be full of sin, too.
Romans 3:20 says, “No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we
are” (NLT, second edition).
The only people who think they can keep God’s laws are those that
don’t know them, because God’s laws are perfection, and none of
us are perfect. We cannot be made right on our own. So God had to come
up with a plan.
Second, God sent Jesus to pay for our sins so we could be declared righteous.
When you break man’s laws, you pay man’s penalty. When you break
God’s laws, you pay God’s penalty, which is eternity in
Hell. Somebody has to pay for all the things you’ve done in life that
hurt other people, yourself, and God. God said, “I’ll send my
Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty. He will take your place so you don’t
have to go to Hell. You can be with me forever.”
Do you understand why the Gospel is called Good News? It means
everything you’ve ever done or will ever do wrong in life has already
been
paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. You have been made right with
God.
“[God] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5a).
Third, we have to accept by faith what God did for us.
To be made right with God, just believe and accept by faith that what
Jesus did on the cross paid for your sins. Then, you are a part of
God’s family. You can live the way he wants you to live now and then go
to Heaven in eternity. That is righteousness.
Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with
God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are
saved.”
Hallelujah! We can all be saved no matter who we are, what we’ve done, or how long we’ve done it.
Today is the day to settle this. If you are not sure if you are going
to Heaven when you die, please pray this prayer: “Dear God, thank you
that you made me, that you have a plan and purpose for my life, and that
you made me to know you. Thank you for the choice that you’ve given me
to accept or reject your offer of salvation. Today I humbly ask you to
save me — not based on what I’ve done but based on what Jesus
Christ did for me. I don’t understand it all, but as much as I know how I
want to put my trust in your Son. God, I want to get to know you. I
want to learn to love you. I want to hunger and thirst for righteousness
the rest of my life. I put my trust in your grace and in your
forgiveness. I
want you to be the Lord of my life. Amen.”
PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick
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