Firstly, congratulations on your decision to accept Jesus into your life and to follow Him. The Bible says there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when one sinner repents. Heaven celebrates the decision you have made, and we join in that celebration.
Welcome to God’s family!
For the next five days we want to give you some understanding, guidance and encouragement about the decision you have made. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have as you begin your journey with God. And note this, there is no such thing as a dumb question!
So here is a question:
“Why do we need a Saviour; why do we need Jesus?”
As we journey through life, we can easily see that there are a lot of things not right with this world. More importantly, there are things not right with you and me too. The Bible calls this Sin. Sin is what separates us from God, separates us from all that He is. Sin is the reason why we live in a broken world and see so much hurt and wrong around us.
Some might say, “Look, I’m not such a bad person. I do the best I can. I don’t deliberately harm anyone. Isn’t that good enough?” The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory or God’s standard. Some may think that they are a ‘good person’, but compared to God’s standard no one is good.
The 10 commandments give a synopsis of God’s standard:
(you can find these in Exodus chapter 20)
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Nothing must ever take God’s place in our lives.
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Honour those who care for you.
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Jesus said anger or hatred in our heart towards someone is counted as murder.
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Jesus said to even look with lust at another person outside of marriage is adultery.
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Have you ever taken something that is not rightfully yours?
Something small? Something on line? Have you ever taken something that is not rightfully yours?
Something small? Something on line?
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There is no difference between small lies and big lies.
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Have you ever yearned for something that belongs to someone else, and you cannot have?
How do we measure up to this standard?
An honest appraisal would be “Not very well”.
That standard is too difficult to maintain all the time.
Too high. Unreachable. Impossible!
Yes. That’s where Jesus comes in.
If we do a job we get paid wages for it. That’s what we deserve.
The Bible tells us “The wages of sin is death.”
Another way of saying this is: the penalty of sin is death.
That ultimately means physical death.
But also spiritual death, which means separation from God.
Standing accused before a holy and righteous God the verdict would be:
Guilty as charged.
You might say, why doesn’t God just overlook our sin, just ignore it?
That’s because God is perfect and just, holy and righteous.
God is a good judge, and because God is a good judge He cannot let the crime of our sin go unpunished.
That’s why we need a Saviour.
That’s why we need Jesus.
Tomorrow we will look at how Jesus has freed us from the punishment and power of sin.
Here are some questions to help you journey through what has been shared above.
If you have been given a Bible in your New Christians Gift from Twin Rivers you can refer to the page number to help you find the Scripture references. Feel free to highlight or underline the verses in your Bible so you can find them later on.
QUESTIONS TO THINK ON
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You can find the answer in Romans 3:22-24
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You can find the answer in Ephesians 2:1
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You can find the answer in Romans 6:23
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You can find the answer in Hebrews 9:27
APPLICATION & REFLECTION
God takes sin very seriously. What about you?
What do you think you deserve for your sin?
