God Saves Sinners: How to be reconciled to God

1 Timothy 1:15 – “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners….”

John 3:17 – “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Luke 19:10 – “…..the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

“Our real [primary] problem is not our sins. If our sins were the problem, we might muster the will-power to pull out of this nose dive. But the good news of the gospel begins with some really bad news. Our sins only provoke a bigger problem: the wrath of God. Our real problem is not our sins but God. He is angry, He isn’t going away, and there is nothing we can do about it. If God is against us, who can be for us? But here is the good news. God has made God our salvation. He did it at the cross. God has provided a way of escape from God: in God. We run from His wrath by running toward His grace in Christ. And if God is for us, who can be against us?” – Ray Ortlund

THE RIGHTEOUS LORD OF GLORY

God is the great and glorious King, the holy and righteous Lord of eternity. To God belongs all wisdom and power. He is utterly holy, absolutely pure, and infinitely glorious in all His ways.
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” – Isaiah 6:3
“…He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” – 1 Timothy 6:15-16
“God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” – 1 John 1:5b

GOD IS THE GLORIOUS CREATOR AND RULER OF ALL THINGS

God is eternal, uncreated, all-sufficient, and complete within Him-self. God created the Universe for His own glory, not out of need.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1
God created mankind “in His own image.”
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27
This means that God created us to glorify Him by knowing, loving, worshipping, obeying, and delighting in Him as our Father, Creator, King, and Treasure, by loving others as fellow image-bearers, and by reflecting the goodness of His character in all that we do.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” – Luke 10:27
“Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.” – Psalm 29:2
“You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” Deuteronomy – 13:4
God created the first man and woman purely and simply “good.” They were innocent and pure, and happy to give God the perfect and unbroken love, loyalty, worship, obedience, and trust that He deserves – and rightly demands – from those made in His image.

MANKIND ARE REBELLIOUS, LAW-BREAKING SINNERS AGAINST GOD

Foolishly, the first man and woman rebelled against God, causing humanity to become sinful and rebellious by nature. God demands perfect righteousness, but in our rebellion we reject God, break His laws (lying, stealing, jealousy, failing to love God, etc.). We practice, approve of, and even often delight in sin. In our sin, even our best deeds are polluted in God’s sight and only add to our guilt, since we don’t do them by faith in God and out of love for God.
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” – Romans 3:10b-18

GOD IS THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE OF ALL MANKIND

God is righteous and just, and it is His laws that we have all broken. As the just Judge, He must judge and condemn the evil of sin. He would be unjust if He did otherwise. And the soul that sins against his/her Creator must perish and cannot live in God’s presence. (Ezekiel 18:20). For those who have broken God’s righteous law in their sin (1 John 3:4),Hell is the place to which they will be sentenced, a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28), eternal fire and utter darkness (Jude 7, 13), and endless torment (Rev 20:10). In hell, God will pour out His just wrath on lost sinners forever. God is eternal and infinite in His righteousness, and thus His just punishment against hardened unrepentant law-breakers is also eternal and infinite. The punishment matches the nature of the crime. So despite our human tendency to excuse and/or minimize the gravity and nature of sin, the reality is that sin is very serious, a diagnosis of sure death, a guarantee of sure conviction and condemnation in the courts of the righteous Judge of all mankind.
“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne… And the dead were judged… according to what they had done… And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” – Revelation 20:12-15
“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” – Revelation 14:11

SALVATION BELONGS TO THE LORD

While God is a just Judge, He is also rich in mercy. IN LOVE, God sent His Son into the world to rescue guilty sinners from the hell we all deserve, and graciously bring them to Himself.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

ONLY JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAVIOR OF SINNERS

“Jesus said….. ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’.” – John 14:6

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” – Acts 4:12

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” – 1 Timothy 2:5-6

GOD IN HUMAN FLESH AND NATURE

Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. God the Son joined Himself to our humanity so He could live righteously, die sacrificially, and rise victoriously for the salvation of all who truly believe in Him.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:1, 14

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS YOU NEED

As the God-man, Jesus lived the kind of perfectly sinless life that God demands from you, but which you have failed to live. He has what you need: the record of a perfectly righteous life before God.
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawless-ness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” – 1 John 3:4-5

A PERFECT SACRIFICE AND PAYMENT FOR SIN

On the cross, Jesus paid for the sins of His people. Stunningly, He Himself bore their sins “in His own body” (1 Pet 2:24) and suffered and died under God’s holy judgment in their place. He offered to God what you desperately need: a perfect sacrifice and payment for sin.
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:5-6

A VICTORIOUS RESURRECTION AND REIGN

Jesus defeated sin and death, and He proved He is the Son of God by rising from the dead. He now rules and reigns with God in glory as King of kings and Lord of lords, living Savior, and future Judge.
“… Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” – Romans 4:24-25

HOW MUST YOU RESPOND?

You don’t deserve and cannot earn God’s mercy. No amount of good you can do can undo or cover for your sins against the living and holy God. But the righteous God who justly pronounces judgment against law-breaking sinners like you also freely grants salvation from His condemnation as a free gift to be received through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
“Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying,
‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” – Mark 1:15

“….Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

So agree with God concerning your guilt; confess your sins to God and repent of your rebellious thoughts, words, and deeds (sins) against God’s righteous character and law. Speak to God as His servant, David, did, saying “…My sin is ever before me. Against You [God], You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment.” – Psalm 51:3-4. Cry out to God for mercy, and trust in Jesus, who “delivers us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thess. 1:10). Look to Jesus as your Savior and rest your faith and your hope of salvation on His perfect life and redeeming death on behalf of sinners. Resolve in faith to turn away from loving and living in spiritual darkness and sin, and in faith turn toward God to live in newness of life and the light of truth. He is able and willing to you give you all needed grace to help you follow Him. So commit yourself to follow Jesus Christ and to walk in faithful fellowship with God’s redeemed family, the Church. In short, receive Jesus Christ (John 1:12) and believe the gospel! The Gospel is the wonderful news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” – 1 Timothy 1:15
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” – Acts 16:31; “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation….For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” –  Romans 10:9-10, 13.

THE GREAT EXCHANGE

THROUGH FAITH, you are united to Christ, and everything He did for sinners becomes yours! God forgives you of your sins based on Christ’s sacrifice, and counts His righteousness as your own!
Through faith in Christ, God extends to you forgiveness of sins based on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross:
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” – Colossians 2:13-14
And through faith in Christ, God counts the righteousness of Christ as your own.
Abraham “believed the LORD, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” – Genesis 15:6
“I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” – Philippians 3:8-9

JUSTIFICATION and PEACE WITH GOD

God can therefore forgive us, dismiss His case against us, and declare us to be righteous in His sight. Fear of God’s judgment is removed. Instead, through Christ, we have perfect PEACE with God!
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” – Romans 5:1-2

A NEW FAMILY

True believers are counted as God’s children, having received new (spiritual) life from Him. They know God’s Fatherly love, mercy, comfort, care, attention in prayer, instruction (in the Bible), and loving discipline, and they receive a new family – the family of God.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” – John 1:12-13;  “So Jesus answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life’.” – Mark 10:29-30; “…..the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named….” – Ephesians 3:14b-15

A NEW DIRECTION

In salvation, God restores us to the purpose of our creation. While far from perfect, true believers love, worship, trust, and obey God as their Father, Creator, King, and Treasure and Christ as their Lord and Savior, and love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

A GLORIOUS DESTINY

All who die without trusting Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord will justly bear God’s condemnation and wrath forever in hell; But all who receive and follow Christ in true faith will ultimately inherit God’s perfected new creation, the heavenly homeland, country, and city of God (Hebrews 11:10, 13-16), the kingdom of “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17) where God is all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28b). a sinless, painless, joyous, eternal fellowship with God and one another.
“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” – Revelation 21:3-4

Christ Jesus, the unique and blessed Son of God, came into the world to save sinners so that God will be glorified and redeemed/restored sinners will have eternal life and joy in God.

If you have already received Jesus Christ as Savior from your sins and King of your life, we rejoice with you. We would like to get to know you better, as fellow heirs of the grace of eternal life and as beloved members of God’s family. Please reach out to us.

If you have not yet turned toward God in faith and cast yourself fully upon Jesus, why not? What is keeping you from turning from your sins and trusting in Jesus to save you to the uttermost? Arise, and run to Jesus. Call on Him right now where you are, and He will hear and answer you. He will fully forgive your sins, cleanse your conscience, give you a new heart, and send you His Holy Spirit to dwell in/with you forever. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” – 2 Corinthians 6:2b 

If you have acted in faith to receive and follow Jesus, the Son of God, you will now need to get to know Jesus’s disciples, the family of God. (Matthew 12:48-50) Please share your new faith in God with us, and come worship the living God with us.

WE ARE RESURRECTION CHURCH

Resurrection Presbyterian Church exists to know, worship, and serve Jesus Christ — the Son of God, Sovereign Savior, and Lord of all — so that He is honored and His reign is powerfully proclaimed in Central Illinois and beyond for generations to come.

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