Heaven Is a Free Gift
Eternal life is God's gift. It cannot be earned by good works, religious effort, intellect, morality, education, or personal achievement.
A gift stops being a gift when it must be earned. Salvation therefore rests upon God's grace rather than human merit.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 2:8–9Salvation is received as a gift, not achieved as a reward.
Humanity Is Sinful
The problem is not merely that people occasionally make mistakes. Scripture teaches that all people are sinners by nature and by action.
Sin includes the wrong things we do, the wrong things we think, and also the good things we fail to do and the right thoughts and desires we ought to have but do not.
Simply put, sin is doing or thinking what is wrong, and failing to do or think what is right.
How many times a day do we do things like this? Suppose, very conservatively, that we sin only three times a day. That would amount to more than a thousand sins in a year. Over seventy years, that would be roughly seventy thousand sins.
Imagine appearing before even a limited human judge with seventy thousand violations on your record—even if they were only traffic violations. What would a judge do? He could not simply wave them away and pretend they never happened. In the same way, a holy and just God will not simply overlook our guilt.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23God does not measure us by comparing us with other people. His standard is His own perfect righteousness.
Because we have sinned, we cannot save ourselves. Even our best works cannot erase guilt already incurred.
Man is unable to earn eternal life because man is a sinner.
God Is Merciful and Just
God is loving, gracious, compassionate, and merciful. He does not delight in the destruction of sinners.
But God is also perfectly holy and just. His justice means that sin cannot simply be ignored.
“The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth... yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”
Exodus 34:6–7This creates the great human dilemma: God loves sinners, yet His holiness requires that we be judged.
God is both perfectly loving and perfectly just.
Jesus Christ Is God's Answer
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He lived the righteous life we have failed to live and willingly gave Himself for sinners like us.
On the cross, Christ bore the judgment deserved by His people. He died, was buried, and rose bodily from the dead.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”
1 Peter 2:24At the cross, God's justice is satisfied and His mercy is freely extended to sinners.
Jesus did what sinners could never do for themselves.
Christ Must Be Received by Faith
When we say that we believe in someone, we mean that we have confidence in them. Faith is not primarily about intellectual assent. For the most part, that is assumed. Believing in Christ means having confidence in Christ.
His extraordinary, world-changing life, His impeccable and truly beautiful character, His selfless and sacrificial death for His people, and His astonishing resurrection from the dead show that He is completely trustworthy.
Notice that this is not merely about facts. It is about seeing the person of Christ as He is revealed in Scripture and personally encountering Him.
Saving faith means transferring our trust to Him—placing our confidence in Christ rather than merely believing facts about Him. It is not simply believing that Jesus existed, or even agreeing that the claims about Him are true. It is personally relying on Him.
Think of sitting in a chair. As long as you're standing, you're trusting in your own legs. When you sit, you shift your weight from your legs to the chair.
Saving faith is like that. We stop trusting in our own morality or effort to make ourselves right before God and transfer our trust to what Christ has already done for us on the cross.
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
Acts 16:31“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:1Faith turns away from confidence in self and rests entirely upon Christ. Repentance and faith belong together: turning from sin and hopes of personal merit and turning to Christ.
Saving faith is transferring your trust away from what you can do and placing it in Christ Himself and what He has already done for you.
Come to Christ
The gospel calls sinners like you and me to turn and place our confidence Jesus Christ.
Do not depend upon your morality, your religious history, your education, your baptism, your talents—as great as those may be—or anything you have done or hope to achieve.
Come empty-handed to Christ.
Trust the One who died for sinners like us and rose again. Those who come to Him in faith are forgiven, justified, reconciled to God, and given eternal life. By His grace, we actually encounter Christ personally. Surprising, to say the least. Miraculous, if we are honest. Entirely life-changing.
“The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
John 6:37“For you granted him (Jesus) authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
John 17:2–3Christ—not our life and works—is the hope of us sinners.
A Simple Prayer
No prayer saves you. Words do not save. Jesus saves. But if this expresses the genuine posture of your heart—repentance and trust—you might pray something like this:
Thank You, Jesus, for dying in my place and paying the penalty for my sin and guilt.
I turn from trusting in myself and put my trust in You and in what You have done for me on the cross.
Forgive me, make me Yours, and change my life. Tell me what to do next.
Amen.
BTW, reading the Gospel of John and telling someone else who trusts Christ about your decision are two good places to start.