Before you can be saved, you need to realize you are a guilty sinner. Because quite naturally, if your not a guilty sinner then there is no need to be saved.
It is important to understand that we are spiritually dead. (alienated from a relationship with God)
—Ephesians 4:18–19 NKJV “having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
—Ephesians 2:2–3 NKJV “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
—Romans 8:9 NKJV “… Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”
Guilty Through Adam
The human race has been identified with Adam and condemned. It is sin and our sin nature that puts a barrier between us and God. When Adam rebelled against God by eating fruit from the forbidden tree we lost are standing with God.
—Genesis 3:17–19 NKJV “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it’: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.””
Through our association with Adam, we lost our standing with God, which ultimately resulted in the punishment of death.
—Romans 5:12–17 NKJV “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)”
Our sin keeps us separated from God. As long as sin mars us we cannot have a relationship with God. A Holy God can not be tainted by sin, so our sin keeps us at a distance. Also, being a just God, he must uphold the punishment for sin which is death.
As you can see the result of our sin nature has put us under the sentence of death.
—Romans 6:23 NKJV “For the wages of sin is death”
—Romans 3:23 NKJV “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
God is Rich in Mercy
Thankfully, God is rich in mercy and love. Instead of the death and punishment we deserve, God was reconciling us to Himself through Christ.
—Ephesians 1:7 NKJV “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”
Through Christ’s death we can be identified with Christ.
—Romans 3:24–26 NKJV “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
—2 Corinthians 5:16–19 NKJV “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
—Ephesians 2:4–9 NKJV “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
God’s Love for a Guilty Sinner
If you have not done so before, please reflect on your standing with God and recognize that you are a guilty sinner in need of a Savior. If you acknowledge your sinful condition, now through Christ, the chains of death binding you can be broken. God sent his Son to die our death on the Cross so that we could be reconciled to God and have a right relationship with Him. I hope you now understand your lost condition and will accept Christ as your savior!
—Romans 5:8–11 NKJV “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”