Wait, what?
“What do you mean, ‘I don’t have to go to hell’? What in the world are you talking about? What kind of a person do you think I am?”
Perhaps you thought something similar when you saw the front of this pamphlet. To be honest, it is somewhat jolting and offensive to be told that you can avoid a punishment you never thought you deserved.
But, you see, that’s just the problem. Most are completely oblivious to the fact that they are sitting on “death row” awaiting judgment.
Consider this well-known Bible verse:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life....He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but He that believeth not is condemned already.” (John 3:16, 18)
According to this verse, all of mankind in its default state is condemned, and if something doesn’t change before the day they die they will perish.
How did that happen?
Your sin has earned for you a severe sentence.
It’s like this—we’ve all broken God’s law. That’s what sin is, by the way (see 1 John 3:4).
Just like in the game of basketball, when you cross certain lines on the court, the whistle blows and a penalty’s coming. Likewise, when you cross the line and break God’s law, you’ve sinned, and there’s a penalty coming.
That means that whenever you use God’s name as a cuss word, whenever you look at another person with lust, whenever you hate another human being, whenever you treat your parents like trash, whenever you take something that doesn’t belong to you, you’ve broken God’s law (see Exodus 20 and Matthew 5) and there’s a penalty coming (See Romans 6:23).
Just imagine if you got a job and worked hard for your paycheck and at the last minute your boss decided not to pay you—ever. I think most of us would rightly say, “That’s not fair!”
Don’t miss this—just like you would demand justice when it comes to your paycheck, God demands justice when it comes to your sin.
And here’s the worst part of it all—what we deserve for our sin is to die and to go to Hell forever—that’s what we deserve. God’s not being mean; He’s being fair.
Your Savior has provided a simple solution.
So, going back to our main point, though Hell is what you deserve, you don’t have to go there! And here’s why.
God loved you so much that He sent His Son Jesus on a mission to rescue you and the rest of mankind. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, was born into the human race. He never sinned, not even once, and He completely fulfilled God’s law —something you or I could never do.
In addition, Jesus allowed Himself to be taken by His own people, to be unjustly accused, beaten, mocked, whipped to shreds, and finally nailed to a rough, wooden cross. On that cross, as the blood flowed freely, Jesus suffered as our substitute and satisfied the justice and wrath of God. Don’t miss it—Jesus got what we deserved on that cross!
That’s what the prophet Isaiah was talking about when he foretold this moment and its significance for all of us: “But he was wounded for our transgressions....The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6). Jesus took our crimes, our guilt, and our punishment all upon Himself. He literally suffered our Hell so that we don’t have to.
Jesus’ payment for you and me was complete and His resurrection from the dead proved it.
So does that mean we're all going to heaven?
I sure wish it did, but it doesn’t. What it does do, though, is it opens the possibility to anyone.
According to John 3:16, the verse we looked at earlier, there is a response you must make in order to benefit from His sacrifice. That response is described as believing in Him. Whoever believes in Him won’t perish, but will have everlasting life. If you believe, you won’t be condemned; if you don’t, you’re already condemned, so nothing has changed.
Sounds like we better understand what it means to believe in Him, doesn’t it?
To believe in Him isn’t just to believe that He really existed or that He did what the Bible says He did. It’s to depend on Him to do something for you, to count on what He did to rescue you from the consequences of your sin.
To believe in Him is to be willing to count on His sacrifice alone—not Jesus plus your baptism, your good works, or your church attendance. To depend on Jesus plus anything for your eternal life is to say that Jesus didn’t do enough and to miss the promise of eternal life. You must depend on Jesus and Jesus alone.
When you believe in Jesus like that, God forgives your sin and gives you everlasting life!
Ok, how do I do this?
It’s really not that complicated. You need to switch what you’re counting on for forgiveness of sins and eternal life to Jesus alone (See Romans 3:28 and 4:5). That’s it!
But let me make this clear: if you put this pamphlet down thinking you have eternal life because you said a nice little prayer or because you’re going to try to do better, you missed it—you’re still depending on the wrong thing, and you’re still condemned to Hell.
The key that makes the difference is counting on Christ alone to save you. That means that you need to stop counting on other things so that you can rely on Jesus alone to do it all.
So why don’t you right now bow your head and depend on Jesus alone to rescue you. God’s promise is clear: ”Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31)!
Did you make the decision?
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