Salvation is a gift freely offered to whosoever will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, with no strings attached. Acts 16:30: And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31: And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved .... A gift is something that is paid for by the giver, not the receiver. The free gift of salvation was purchased by the sufferings and the shed blood of Jesus when he died on the cross to pay for our sins and then rose from the grace in three days. We cannot in any way at all earn or deserve to go to heaven. Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans 5:15: But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. This means many were made sinners because Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden when he ate the forbidden fruit. We have now inherited a sin nature and everyone in the world ever born is a sinner, as the bible says in Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The bible says sin must be punished, so if we had to pay for our own sins we would have to go to hell forever because God is a just God and cannot allow sin to go into heaven. But God loves us so much that he didn't want us to pay for our own sins and go to hell, so he sent his only begotten son, Jesus, to earth to live a perfect sinless life and pay for our sins through much mocking, scourging, and enduring the cruel cross in torture and agony. No one ever suffered like Jesus. He didn't deserve the sufferings he went through because he never sinned, but he did it for us. He was taking our punishment for us. Jesus paid the full price for our salvation. That is why salvation is a free gift to us because he paid for it. A gift is paid for by the giver, not the receiver. A person only needs to put their full trust in Jesus' sacrifice and what he did for us on the cross, and how he rose from the grave, to receive this free gift. John 1:12: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Jesus wants to save you, but he will not force you to receive this free gift of salvation. God loves you and has already done everything he can do to save you. There is nothing else he can do. You have to decide for yourself whether you will receive salvation or reject it. It has to be one or the other;. There is no other way to have your sins forgiven and washed and to spend eternity in heaven. John 14:6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Being saved by grace means we receive something we didn't earn or deserve, but was given to us freely as a gift, and mercy means we don't receive what we do deserve, which is an eternity in hell. Titus 3:5a: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us .... Titus 3:7: That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
You may think that just believing on Christ is too easy and there must be something else a person needs to do to go to heaven, but it truly is easy to get saved because Jesus did the hard part for us. To clarify what believing on Jesus means, it doesn't mean to just believe about him or believe he was the Son of God and that he died on the cross. To believe on him means you put all your faith in him and what he did for you. You must trust in him alone completely and rely and depend on his sacrifice and shed blood as your only hope of redemption and going to heaven when you die. Jesus paid it all. You have to apply Jesus' payment to your own heart personally and have zero faith in anything you do. All our own self righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6: But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. When you put your total faith and trust in Jesus to give you the free gift of eternal life, that is when you become born again, because no one is just born believing on Jesus as savior. Some people will say "I've always believed in Jesus", but that is not true. There has to be a time in your life when you realize you are a sinner that deserves to go to hell and that Jesus loves you and paid for your sins and you put your faith in everything Jesus did for you to keep you out of hell. John 3:3: Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
There are many people and false prophets in the world today, who say well, sure you have to believe in Jesus, but you also have to do good works for Jesus too; that is so false. You cannot be saved if you are trusting in yourself one iota. It has to be 100% total faith in Christ, and 0% yourself. It's a free gift. If you had to pay one dime for it, then it wouldn't be free. Galatians 2:21: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. That means if there was anything we could do to help save ourselves, then Christ died for nothing. Why would Jesus go through all the suffering he went through if we could be saved by doing anything additional to get saved, like good works, etc. If you think you have to do something else other than only fully trusting Christ, that is like saying Christ's payment was not enough and was not sufficient, but it IS sufficient. There is absolutely nothing to be added to it or subtracted from it. Jesus is enough period, he paid it all.
Some will say you have to serve Christ faithfully and make him lord of your life in order to go to heaven, but that is not true either. If that was the case, then going to heaven would be a reward instead of a gift. After you get saved you can choose to serve Jesus with your life if you want to try to get other people saved and to receive the free gift that you have received, and the bible says there will be rewards in heaven for that, but actually getting saved is an unearned, undeserved merciful gift, by the grace of God.
All you have to do to receive the free gift of salvation is to admit you're a sinner who deserves to go to hell, but you will now put all your faith and trust in what Jesus did for you when he paid for your sins on the cross and rose from the grave in three days.
God's Simple Plan Of Salvation
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