For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3 v 16)
This is probably one of the most commonly known verses in the bible. This verse so explicitly explains God’s love and purpose for every single person. The bible says that God is Love. He is the perfect expression of Love and He has shown how much He loves us by sending Jesus to teach us the way to love, and by showing that to love means to give. So much so that he gave us the life of His son, so that we can have a life with him. Gods love for you is so complete and perfect, that he has put into place a plan that if you follow will allow you to live in his presence after you die.
All of us will one day face death. It’s not something we want to think about, or even consider, but I’m sure we all know of friends, relatives and loved ones who have passed away. Death is something that haunts all of us. The reason why we are so afraid of it is because of our uncertainty of what happens after you die. Many people believe in the concept of Heaven. If there is a heaven, that’s where I want to go. A lot of people believe that they are going there. However let’s just think for a minute about the other side. Every coin has 2 sides. If there is a heaven that we all believe in and want to go to, then there must be a flip side. There must be a hell. If our notion of heaven comes from the bible and it must do otherwise we would have no concept of heaven or angels or our loved ones being there. All these images and thoughts come from the bible! If this is the case then our notion of Hell must come from the Bible and it is only in the Good book that we can find what we have to do to attain one, and avoid the other.
The Bible talks about Gods love and His forgiving nature. However it also talks about His wrath and justice. God is going to reward the good or righteous with heaven. He is also going to punish the wicked with hell. When we were children growing up, we would be praised for the good we have done, but also punished for the wrong. God operates in the same way. He is willing to reward us for the good we do in this life. The problem is that none of us can do enough good to earn a place in heaven. Sin or disobedience to God is what will prevent us from entering heaven. All of us have at some stage in our lives sinned against God. Swearing, Stealing, getting drunk, telling lies. The list can go on. All of us at some stage in our lives have sinned against God and in doing so have disqualified ourselves from entering heaven.
Sin is something that God will not allow into heaven. It’s kind of like us having a nice home, beautifully fitted with cream carpets and someone with muddy shoes wanting to come in and walk around. Even if they only had a little small bit of mud on their shoes, you still wouldn’t accept that. God is not going to accept sin in His house. In His eyes, we all have muddy shoes and must clean them before we enter His house. The Bible states that we all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. (Romans 3 v 23) It also says that the payment for those who sin is death or separation from God.(Romans 6 v 23) In other words it means that those with sin cannot go to heaven where God is. So seeing as everyone has sinned (whether you want to admit it or not) no-one is then able to enter heaven unless they clean their shoes!
If we fail to do this we cannot go to heaven. The only place left for us then is hell. God does not want any of us to go to hell. In fact God does not send anyone to hell. We choose to go there. How? Well its all about choice isn’t it. We all have to choose whether we are going to do what God has asked in order to go to heaven or accept the punishment for failing to do so. Hell is as real as Heaven and should be avoided at all costs. This is the reason why God sent Jesus. He wants everyone to enjoy eternity with Him. That’s right! For God so loved the World. That means every single human being. That means you! For God so loved you that He sent Jesus to show how we can cleanse ourselves and be fit to enter Heaven and in the same process avoid hell.
Jesus lived a perfect life without sinning once. It may be hard to believe but it’s true. He never sinned; he never did anything against God. He gave up his perfect life to die for our sins. In other words he took our payment for sin. He took our punishment and in doing so provided a way for us to clean our “muddy shoes” and be fit to enter heaven. By us believing in him and accepting that he did die for us, we make an exchange. We give Jesus our sins, and he gives us his perfect and sinless life. Not only did Jesus die for us, but to prove that what he says is the true way to heaven, God raised him from the dead 3 days after he died. That’s right; Jesus died, but rose to life again. In the same way we will raise to life after we die if we believe in him and obey his commands. By the shedding of his blood and the giving of his life, we are made clean and sinless and fit to go to heaven.
This is the plan that God has put in place to make it possible for us to go to heaven. Doesn’t that scripture start to mean so much more now? God loved us so much that he sent His one and only son Jesus to give his life as payment for our sin, so that if we believe in him we will not go to hell, but will enter heaven.
Remember what was said earlier about giving to show love? God shows His love for us in that even though we are sinners, Jesus died for us. God has done his part, but what about our part? What must you and I do to be cleansed of our sin, or to clean our shoes?
Well the verse at the beginning says that we must believe in Jesus. After all he is the one that paid the price for our cleansing or salvation. We have to believe that he died for us. We have to turn away from those things which muddy our shoes and ask God for forgiveness. This is known as repentance. After we have made a life changing decision to turn away from sin, we must be willing to state or confess our belief in Jesus. Jesus said if we confess him before men, he will confess us before His Father. Confessing Jesus is to make a bold announcement that we believe in him. The final thing we must do to fully accept Gods offer of salvation is to be baptised.
Baptism is the act of being immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins. This act indicates our willingness to bury our old life, and arise out of the water to a new life. Baptism is the point where your sins are forgiven, where your shoes are made clean through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross when he died. When we are baptised we are accepting Jesus’ death and resurrection, and being cleansed of our sins that we may be fit to enter heaven.
This is Gods plan for all of us. He wants us to come to know his Son Jesus. To believe in him, and in believing in him come to desire a new way of living. To turn from our past sins and be baptised for God's forgiveness and have a more meaningful life.
It’s not that hard. Jesus did the hard part. He gave his life FOR you. Will you give your life TO him in order to receive everlasting life?
For God so loved YOU that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3 v 16)