My Faith In A Nutshell Mankind, originally created to have fellowship with God, (Gen. Chapters 2&3) has a sin-prone nature. (Romans 3:23) God cannot fellowship with sin. (I John 3:5,6) He has pronounced a death sentence to sin. Those who sin have earned the wages of sin, which is death (not only the physical death, but eternal torment in the Lake of Fire). (Romans 6:23) (Matthew 25:41&46) God is a righteous God and will punish every sin. (Matthew 25:41&46)(II Cor 5:21)God is also a loving God and wants to have fellowship with His creation, mankind. (John 13:34)(John 14:21&23) In order to have this fellowship, He took upon Himself the body of a man (the Lord Jesus Christ) and lived a perfect life. (2 Cor. 5:21) Then willingly accepted upon Himself the punishment reserved for sin. (2 Cor. 5:21) His sacrifice, His life as a man here on Earth, and the death by torture, was given to satisfy the death judgement we have earned, and is given to “all who believe in Jesus and confess Him before others.” (Rom 10:9,10)(I John 1:9)In taking upon Himself this Death Sentence (our sins), Jesus gave His own perfection to those who believe in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21) His perfection is not given to non-believers, who will experience the eternal torment in the Lake of Fire. (Matthew 25:41&46) Believers gain perfection in God’s eyes because of Jesus’ sacrifice for them. (I John 1:7,9) Believers will still experience the death of their physical bodies, (I Thess 4:13-17) but will not see the second death ... the Lake of Fire. (Rev 20:14,15)So, to fulfill the prophecies of ancient scriptures, (Matthew 1:22; 2:15,23; 8:17; 12;17; 13;35 ;21:4; 27:35 etc) and to do the will of God the Father, (John 4:34) Jesus (God the Son) was born into this world to live a perfect life, (I John 3:5) (2 Cor. 5:21) and to offer salvation to all who will believe. (Matt 18:11)(John 1:12)(Acts 16:31) He arose from death, (Matt 28:1-7) appeared to many, and ascended to the right hand of God the Father (Mark 16:9-19) where He makes intercession for His own. (Heb 7:25) He will return to claim His own. (John 14:2,3)SalvationSo what is it that we need salvation from?
Our sinful nature (Rom 3:23) and its inevitable result! (Matthew 25:41&46)
How can one be saved? What’s the term “born again” mean?
The term “born again” is synonymous with being saved. The first 21 verses of the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, explain it. Jesus had been talking to a leader of the Jews named Nicodemus, who had admitted to Jesus that He was a teacher from God, because no one could do the things that Jesus had done unless God were with Him. Jesus told him, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Upon further questioning from Nicodemus, Jesus explained that what is born of flesh is flesh, and that one must be born of the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God.
Jesus further elaborated that the new birth, salvation, was obtained through belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Is Jesus the only way that anyone can be saved?
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
“let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the Stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the Chief Cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12)