It starts here. And “here” is the point I realize I have blown it. I have messed up. I have lived my life on my terms and in my way. God calls that sin. Sin means I have missed God’s standard of living and God’s standard is perfection. Perfection is living every moment the way God would live it… in perfect love and in perfect truth. I have not done that and I can’t do that because I was born living my life my way, not God’s way. No matter how good I have tried to be, I have missed God’s standard of perfection and I will never be able to achieve it.

So that means I have not lived right (even my best efforts), I have lived wrong and that has separated me from God. That is the bad news… I’m separated from God.

But there is good news. God loves me so much that He does not want me to be separated from Him. So God came up with a plan. If God could find a way to pay the price for the wrongdoings (sin) of the whole world, He could forgive that sin (take it away) make us right with Him. Since all sin ultimately ends in death, something would have to die. And if this death is going to pay for the sins of everyone who has ever lived (and all of their sins) and for everyone who is ever going to live (and all of their sins)… it would take an enormous death sacrafice to pay for all of that sin.

That sin debt is so large it would take the most significant death that could ever happen in order to pay the price for that much sin. It would take the death of God… the ultimate death sacrifice.

But here is the problem… God can’t die.

But God had a plan. God would step out of heaven and put on the flesh, blood, and bone of His creation man. And that is what God did at just the right time according to His calendar. God became a man and His name is Jesus. Jesus is fully God (absolutely perfect and sinless) and at the same time fully man (so that God could die). And it was Jesus who predicted His death and predicted His resurrection from death… all so He could pay for the sins of the world. And that is exactly what Jesus did. That is the good news.

Now we can be forgiven. Now we can be made right with God. Now we can be connected with God, in a real relationship, forever.

Here is how…

We are made right by God’s grace alone… Through faith alone… In Jesus alone.

But what does that mean?

We are given a right relationship with God by God’s grace alone.

That means we can’t do enough good to ever earn it. It is impossible for us to earn it or deserve it. We are dependant upon God’s grace… which is His unearned kindness and love. If we could work hard and earn our way into a right relationship with God, we wouldn’t need God, we wouldn’t need Jesus and we could pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. But we can’t earn it, even if we work for it our whole lives. Once we miss His standard, we will forever miss it (unless we accept God’s grace where He met the standard for us through Jesus alone).

We are made right by God’s grace alone.

Now let’s talk about… Through faith alone.

This is one of the questions of the ages, “Am I saved by faith/believing in/following Jesus plus adding to that… I have to do certain things like being good, doing good, doing special religious things? And the answer is no. We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone.

I know it can be confusing becasue the New Covenant Scriptures talk about faith and works. But we must clearly understand one saves us (faith, believing in, following Jesus) and the other (being changed and doing good things) is just proof that the saving is actually taking place.

If a person claims to be a believer in/follower of Jesus, but has no good works in his/her life, then he/she likely does not have genuine faith in Christ (James 2:14, 17, 20, 26). Being changed by Jesus is proof that we have been saved through Faith in Jesus.

We hope it is making more sense. We are made right by God’s grace alone… Through faith alone… In Jesus alone.

It is not Jesus plus another person or another god (little “g” god… Becaue God says he alone is God)…

It is not Jesus plus me having to do certain things…

It is Jesus alone, no additives needed.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

By grace alone… through faith alone… in Jesus alone.

Romans 3:21-25
21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.
22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
24 Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

Jesus died… Just like he predicted and prophets predicted thousands of years before. And Jesus walked out of that tomb alive after three days… Just like He predicted and prophets predicted. Jesus really was God’s plan to make us right with God.

1 Peter 1:18-21
18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver.
19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.
21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

Is there any reason why you would not be willing to follow Jesus right now? If so, please know that you are choosing to not be connected with God because Jesus is the only way we can connect with God. But God gives you that choice. We have the free choice to follow Him right now or walk away from Him.

If you are choosing to follow Jesus… It is by God’s grace alone, through your faith alone… in Jesus alone. And that means you are transferring the ownership of your life from yourself to Jesus. Because He paid the price to to buy us back from sin and separation from God… He will be the owner of your life as you are choosing to follow Him forever.

The choice is yours.

#YouBeforeMe … Jesus started it. Now, if we follow Him, we keep it going.

If you are choosing to follow Jesus… we are so excited for you… so let us know below.

Get more info and connect with us at www.StuttgartHarvestChurch.com or www.TheChurchInMalvern.com

Stay tuned… more to come.