How Does the Death of Jesus Save?

One way to understand the meaning of the death of Jesus is to imagine a courtroom scene in which we are on trial for our sins and God is the judge. Our sins against God are capital crimes. God Himself is our judge, and according to divine law our crimes deserve the death penalty. Death, in a spiritual sense, means eternal separation from God in unending torment. That's a very serious judgment.

By shedding His blood on the cross, Jesus took the punishment we deserve and offered us His righteousness. When we trust Christ for our salvation, essentially we are making a trade. By faith, we trade our sin and its accompanying death penalty for His righteousness and life.

In theological terms, this is called "substitutionary atonement." Christ died on the cross as our substitute. Without Him, we would suffer the death penalty for our own sins....

The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way: "And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22). For God to forgive our sins, His judgment had to be satisfied and that required the shedding of blood.

Some object, "Shedding blood seems so barbaric. Is it really necessary? Why doesn't God simply forgive us?" Because God is holy, He must judge sin. Would a just and righteous judge let evil go unpunished? At the cross, God poured out His judgment on His Son, satisfying His wrath and making it possible for Him to forgive us. That's why Jesus shed His blood for your sins, my sins, and the sins of the whole world....

God unleashed His wrath on His Son so that we might be spared that awful fate. This is the central message of the cross and the reason for our hope: God forsook His Son so that He might never forsake us. God assures us, "'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). Isn't that a wonderful promise?

Chuck Swindoll

Character

"Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed."
~Cavett Robert

How Can I Be Sure I'm Saved?

If we think the Bible teaches universal salvation, we may arrive at a false sense of assurance by reasoning as follows: Everybody is saved. I am a body. Therefore, I am saved.
Or, if we think salvation is gained by our own good works and we are further deluded into believing that we possess good works, we will have a false assurance of salvation.
To have sound assurance, we must understand that our salvation rests on the merit of Christ alone, which is appropriated to us when we embrace Him by genuine faith. If we understand that, the remaining question is, "Do I have the genuine faith necessary for salvation?"
Again, two more things must be understood and analyzed properly. The first is doctrinal. We need a clear understanding of what constitutes genuine saving faith. If we conceive of saving faith as existing in a vacuum, never yielding the fruit of works of obedience, we have confused saving faith with dead faith, which cannot save anyone.
The second requirement involves a sober analysis of our own lives. We must examine ourselves to see whether the fruit of regeneration is apparent in our lives. Do we have a real affection for the biblical Christ? Only the regenerate person possesses real love for the real Jesus. Next we must ask the tough question, "Does my life manifest the fruit of sanctification?" I test my faith by my works.

R.C. Sproul

Living Greatly

"The principles of living greatly include the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and trial with humility."
~Thomas S. Monson

The Christmas Heart is a Giving Heart

"Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart."
~George Mathew Adams

Who can add to Christmas?

"Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life."
~Corrie Ten Boom

The Real Spirit of Christmas

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."
Calvin Coolidge

We Need to Find God

"We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls."
Mother Teresa

The Life of a Man Consists of.

"The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Being a Christian.​..

"Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion - it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ."
~Billy Graham

What Message Did the Angels Bring?

We were on our way to a certain judgment, but God sent Jesus. Because of His death and His shed blood, we have now been reconciled with God.

That was really the essence of the angel’s message to the shepherds as they watched over their flocks on that first Christmas Eve. Part of that message was, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14 NKJV). A more literal translation of this statement would be, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among men with whom God is well-pleased.”

That is the key to peace on earth, peace between nations, and peace in a family: Peace on earth among men with whom God is well-pleased.

How do we please God? It is only through Jesus Christ, only through the way of reconciliation He has made available to us. So if we want to be reconciled to God and want to be reconciled with others, then it must be through Christ.

So many of us need reconciliation today. Husbands need to be reconciled to wives. Parents need to be reconciled with children. Sinners need to be reconciled with God. We all need reconciliation.

Sin is the great separator. Ever since it entered the world, it has divided people throughout human history. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, sin immediately began its work of separation. It separated Adam and Eve from God. It ultimately separated their sons, Cain and Abel. It was all because of the separating impact of sin.

But at the cross of Calvary, Jesus eliminated the wall that separated us from Him. He brought about reconciliation..

Greg Laurie

Your Relationsh​ip with Christ

"If you're married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love her' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity? And that's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life."

~Tim Tebow

 

Why Did Jesus Come?

We marvel at the fact that God humbled Himself and was born in a cave. But why did He come?
First, Jesus Christ came to proclaim good news to the spiritually hurting, to preach the good news to us. He came to heal the broken-hearted. Medical science has found ways to reduce and even remove pain. But there is no cure for a broken heart.
Jesus came to set people free who are bound by sin. Jesus came to open our spiritual eyes to our spiritual need.
He came to lift up those who are crushed by life. He came to give us abundant life. Jesus came to lift us from the physical realm of the senses to the spiritual realm to show us that there is more to life.
He came to give His life for us. Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He came to die. Jesus Christ came to this earth to seek and save those of us who are lost, just as a shepherd seeks a lost sheep.
So in all of this hustle and bustle, wrapping paper, mistletoe, and brightly colored lights, let’s get down to the bottom line. Christmas is about God sending His Son to die on a cross. He was born to die, to give us abundant life, to give us a life that is worth living.

Greg Laurie

Holiness Is the Strength of the Sou

"Holiness is the strength of the soul. It comes by faith and through obedience to God's laws and ordinances. God then purifies the heart by faith, and the heart becomes purged from that which is profane and unworthy. When holiness is achieved by conforming to God's will, one knows intuitively that which is wrong and that which is right before the Lord. Holiness speaks when there is silence, encouraging that which is good or reproving that which is wrong."
~James E. Faust

Christmas Means...

"Christmas means 'giving,' and the gift without the giver is bare. Give of yourselves; give of your substance; give of your heart and mind. Christmas means 'compassion and love' and, most of all 'forgiveness.' How poor indeed would be our lives without the influence of His teachings and His matchless example.
He whose birth we commemorate this season is more than the symbol of a holiday. He is the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace."
~Gordon B. Hinckley

Meekness Is Vital

"Meekness is vital to becoming more Christlike. Without it one cannot develop other important virtues. . . Acquiring meekness is a process. . . More meekness does not translate to weakness, but it is the presentation of self in a posture of kindness and gentleness. It reflects certitude, strength, serenity; it reflects a healthy self-esteem and a genuine self-control.
~Neal A. Maxwell

Gratitude through Prayer

"Prayer is an essential part of conveying appreciation to our Heavenly Father. He awaits our expressions of gratefulness each morning and night in sincere, simple prayer from our hearts for our many blessings, gifts, and talents.

"Through expression of prayerful gratitude and thanksgiving, we show our dependence upon a higher source of wisdom and knowledge—God the Father and his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ". 
~Robert D. Hales

Gratitude = Humility

"Our society is afflicted by a spirit of thoughtless arrogance unbecoming those who have been so magnificently blessed. How grateful we should be for the bounties we enjoy. Absence of gratitude is the mark of the narrow, uneducated mind. It bespeaks a lack of knowledge and the ignorance of self-sufficiency. It expresses itself in ugly egotism and frequently in wanton mischief....

"Where there is appreciation, there is courtesy, there is concern for the rights and property of others. Without appreciation, there is arrogance and evil.

"Where there is gratitude, there is humility, as opposed to pride." 
~Gordon B. Hinckley

How Can I Have Eternal Life?

Each of us faces the same dilemma. We have a sin debt that we owe to God but no way to pay for it. None of our solutions - living a moral life, being religious, or doing more good deeds - can take care of our problem.
God Himself has provided the solution - one that both satisfies His justice and grants us mercy. He sent His Son to pay the penalty we owed. Jesus was qualified to be our substitute because He never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21). He willingly took our place on the cross and experienced the full measure of the Lord's wrath against our sinfulness. In dying for us, Christ secured our salvation by paying the debt for all our past, present, and future sins. When we trust in Jesus and surrender our life to Him, He becomes our personal Savior and Lord.
The great tragedy is that many have heard the gospel and rejected it. Some are like the rich ruler who placed his trust in material possessions and turned his back on the truth. Others have refused to even listen. Another group is convinced they are heaven-bound, based on erroneous confidence in their own good deeds. Only those who have entered into a relationship with Jesus through faith in Him will be welcomed into heaven.
If you're wondering, How can I have eternal life? there is only one answer: through faith in Jesus Christ (John 14:6). We have an Enemy who actively seeks to blind people to the truth (2 Corinthians 4:4). Pray that many who are separated from the Lord will trust in the Savior and gain everlasting life.

Charles Stanley

How Would Your Life be Different if....

"How would your life be different if...you began each day by thanking someone who has helped you? Let today be the day...You make it a point to show your gratitude to others. Send a letter or card, make a call, send a text or email, tell them in person...do whatever you have to do to let them know you appreciate them."
~Steve Maraboli