That’s a big statement. But what does it mean? It means that God, in His love, has provided something for you that you don’t deserve. But before we dive into what God’s love is, I want to first explore what God’s love is not. The fact that God loves you does not mean that God loves everything you do. If you have children you understand that even though you love your children you do not love everything they do. Even at a young age children fight, they take things that aren’t theirs, they lie. We don't love everything our kids do, but we still love them. God does not love everything that we do, but He still loves us.

Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. Everyone has sinned. To sin means to miss the mark, to do something that God does not like. More specifically, sin is anything we think, say or do that breaks God’s law. When we break God’s law, we fall short of who God is. We fall short of God’s glory. God’s glory means to give the right opinion of who God is and the truth is that God is totally perfect and there is no sin in Him whatsoever. Do you believe that you can live up to the standard of total perfection? No, you and I have missed that mark because of our sin. Have you ever lied? We all know that’s sin. Have you ever taken something from someone else regardless of how valuable it was? Have you ever looked at another person with lust? Have you ever had a time where you weren’t content with what you had? We all have and God, in His law, calls that sin. Galatians three and verse twenty-two says, “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin” Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”

We are all sinners, and sin is not without consequence. Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages (or consequence) of sin is death.” Because of our sin, we have earned the sentence of death. Now, death in the Bible is not annihilation. Death in the Bible is separation. Physical death is separation of the body and soul. Spiritual death is the separation of our soul from God. If you have committed a sin, even just one, God tells us in His word that we are separated from Him. Because of your sin you are spiritually dead.

The book of Hebrews tells us that “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” You might not like to think about it, but one day you are going to die. After that you will stand before God under His judgement. And God will judge righteously because God is a good judge.

If you rob a bank and in the commission of the crime you shoot and killed a small child. You get caught, and it’s obvious that you’re guilty, and you are standing before the judge. While standing there you petition the judge. You ask the judge to let you go, because even though you did break the law you tell the judge that you’re a good person. You volunteer at the local homeless shelter, you donate a portion of every check you get to charity, and you regularly help elderly ladies cross the street. Would that judge be a good judge if he just let you go? Of course not. You have broken the law and you must be held accountable. God is the same way, when you stand before God you might try to tell Him all the good things that you’ve done, but God can’t just let you go. God is holy and just. God will punish sin. If you die physically while you are dead spiritual, then you will remain spiritually dead. You will remain separated from God for the rest of eternity in a place called hell.

Even though you’re a sinner and  you deserve to be separated from God for ever, God does not want to you remain separated from Him. God does not want to punish youl. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God does not want you to remain separated from Him and that is why God, in His love, has provided a way that you can have your sins forgiven. He did this through sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a Roman cross. Jesus Christ was not just any ordinary human. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He was born of a virgin over 2,000 years ago and he lived on the earth for 33 and a half years.  While Jesus was on the earth, He never committed a single sin. He never thought one wrong thought. He never said one wrong thing. He never did one wrong thing. Jesus Christ lived perfectly. But then at the age of 33 He allowed Himself to be taken by Roman soldiers and  nailed to a cross where He died.

Did Jesus deserve to die? No. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death and since Jesus had not sinned, He did not deserve to die. That is the good news! He did not die for Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Jesus Christ died for us. He died for you. Jesus died to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind. His death paid your penalty.

Jesus did not stay in the grave. We learn from the Bible that Jesus Christ rose from the grave after being buried for three days. And when He rose again He was seen by many different people including 500 people at once. Jesus Christ is alive, and because He’s alive He is offering forgiveness to all those who will trust in His death to take the place of their death. Jesus is not asking you to work for it. In fact, the Bible says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” The Bible calls it a gift because there is nothing that we have to give and in truth there is nothing that we could do to be saved and earn eternal life. Earlier we quoted Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death” That is not the entire verse. The verse goes on to say, that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” When we come to Jesus Christ, we simply come to Him in repentance and faith. In Mark 1:15 Jesus Christ Himself said, “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel.”

To repent means to change your mind. Have you ever made a wrong turn going the wrong direction. You can continue on that road but you’re not going to get to the right destination. You can continue on road of religion or self-righteousness or good works but you’ll never get to heaven. Luke 13:3 and 5 say, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Change your mind about baby baptism. There is no place in Scripture where it says getting a baby wet gets a baby to heaven. Change your mind about communion. 1 Corinthians 11:26 says, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.” Jesus told us to do that to remember what He did for us, not to save us. Communion cannot save you. Change your mind about how good you think you are. Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” You can’t change your life, but you can change your mind. Jesus said repent. Agree with God about your sin. God hates your sin and you should too. Jesus also said believe. Instead of trusting in yourself or in someone or something else you need to put your complete trust in the payment that Jesus Christ made by dying on the cross.

John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The word believeth there means to be persuaded. It is a belief that changes your actions. Transfer all that you have been trusting in and place your trust onto the one who is trust worthy. Come to Jesus for who He is and what He’s done.

Now you might be thinking, “I believe that Jesus died, was buried and rose again.” That’s great, but did you know that Satan believes that? You don’t go to heaven because of historical facts. Just because I know that a chair can hold me does not mean that I am trusting it to hold me. But once I sit down I go from simply a factual knowledge of the chair to an actual trust in the chair.

Today you have a choice. That choice is whether or not to trust Jesus Christ to forgive your sin. We have all done wrong and sinned against God. There is nothing we can do to pay our penalty ourselves. Jesus loves you so He paid your penalty by shedding His blood on the cross. He died so you don’t have to. Will you place your trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God today?

Now you might say, “Well, I don’t know how?” Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That word call means to to make an urgent request; to appeal to. If you believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is and that He died on the cross to pay for your sin then you simply need to make the appeal to Him. If you were drowning in the middle of the ocean and you saw someone in a boat. Wouldn’t you call out to them to save you? You are a sinner and because of your sin you are on your way to hell, but God, through Jesus Christ has provided a way to be saved. Call out to Him, confess your sins, and trust Him to forgive you. It is that simple.

If you have trusted Christ today can I encourage you to go tell someone else.