Basic Faith
- "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." Romans 3:23, RSV.
- God created man, but man disobeyed God's one command - "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Genesis 2:17, RSV.
- This happened despite the fact that they knew God.
- "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Genesis 3:8, RSV.
- "For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened." Romans 1:21, RSV.
- God allowed them to choose their own way, despite the consequences that He knew were there.
- "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." Romans 1:28-31, RSV.
- This happened despite the fact that they knew God.
- Every human since has fallen into the same trap of disobeying.
- It is natural for us to disobey anything that someone tells us to do. That does not make it right in God's sight, however.
- Even inward thoughts can be disobedience.
- "But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:28, RSV.
- "But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire." Matthew 5:22, RSV.
- Even doing nothing can be disobedience. "Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." James 4:17, RSV.
- No one can completely follow God's commands. "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." Romans 3:23, RSV. "As it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one.'" Romans 3:10, RSV.
- God created man, but man disobeyed God's one command - "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Genesis 2:17, RSV.
- "For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23, RSV.
- "But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." Romans 2:5, RSV.
- The only punishment that is fit for disobedience to God is death - not only the death of our bodies, but also the death of our souls - forever in Hell.
- "Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" Matthew 25:41, RSV.
- "And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Matthew 25:46, RSV.
- "...but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23, RSV.
- Is there any hope for anyone getting to Heaven? You bet!
- "While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man - though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8, RSV.
- "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." John 3:16-18, RSV.
- God knew that we had no way of getting to Heaven by ourselves. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to take the punishment we deserved - death and Hell - so that we could be with Him forever in Heaven if we accept Jesus Christ. He sent Jesus as a life raft to save us from death - but we have to get on.
- "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." Romans 5:19, RSV.
- "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1, RSV.
- "Because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9, RSV.
- "He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life." 1 John 5:12, RSV.
- "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9, RSV.
- All we need to do to believe that Jesus died for our sins, admit that we were wrong and have disobeyed God's commands, that we are desperately in need of a Savior, be committed to stop sinning (with God's powerful help), and ask God to take control of our lives and clean us up.
- Is there any hope for anyone getting to Heaven? You bet!
Do you trust in Jesus for your salvation? Is He the Lord of your life? Is He your very best Friend? Please, be very honest when you answer these questions. Do you know without a doubt that you will be entering Heaven's gates when you die and not Hell's flames? Do you realize the completely horrible situation we are in - all of us, you and me - are in until we accept Christ? We are all completely separated from God without Christ as our Friend, Lord, and Savior. Do you see the dirty soul, filled with sin, that you have - until you ask Jesus to come in and clean it up?