FORGIVENESS: 5 What Must I Believe about Jesus to be Forgiven Forever?

Chapter 1.5

What Must I Believe About Jesus Christ

to be Forgiven Forever?

Romans 3:22

Week 2

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. (Romans 3:22)

You read in the previous chapter: “No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands” (Rom 3:20). This means you cannot earn the Father’s forgiveness with good deeds. How then do you obtain God’s forgiveness? The main point of this chapter is:

You are forgiven forever if you trust that Christ’s death paid the penalty for your sins.

This is the Gospel, the good news about forgiveness forever through Jesus Christ!

A) Admit you need a Savior

Unfortunately, if you refuse to believe the bad news about the punishment your sins have earned, the good news about God’s forgiveness will mean nothing to you. The bad news is that you have disobeyed God and earned the penalty of His punishment. But if you refuse to believe this, you will not believe you need to be forgiven by God.

Likewise, if you believe you can earn God’s acceptance by doing good deeds, you will not care that God had His Son die to pay for your sin.

Imagine that you had cancer and there was a cure for it. If you refused to believe or admit you were deathly sick you would not value or pursue the cure because you do not understand or admit your need. Just the same, if you do not believe you need to be rescued from the wrath and punishment of God because of your disobedience to His laws, then you will not value the cure for sin that God offers through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, if your conscience and the Holy Spirit are convincing you that you are a sinner deserving God’s judgment, then the forgiveness of God is good news! In fact, the very best news you will ever hear. The Bible says, “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” (Rom 3:22). You are forgiven forever if you trust that Christ’s death paid the penalty for your sins.

B) Trust that Jesus Christ paid for your sins

The Bible says:

God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 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. (Rom 3:24-25)

What is God’s forgiveness based on? Jesus Christ has done everything for you. He lived a pure life for you. He paid the death penalty for you when He died on the cross. The Bible says, “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Cor 5:21). Also, “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God” (1 Pet 3:18). God has allowed Jesus to pay the death penalty for your sin. God has offered to transfer Christ’s holiness to you!

In the previous chapter you learned that no human can be good enough to be forgiven by the Father. But God the Son was good enough. And as God in a human body, He alone could be good enough. This is why Jesus said this about getting to Heaven: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Imagine that you are in court before a judge to pay a fine for breaking a law. But you do not have enough money and will therefore be put in jail. The judge could justly require you to pay the penalty for your crime. But instead he stands up and removes his robe, comes around to your side of the judge’s bench, and gives you money to pay the fine. Then he returns to his seat, accepts the payment he gave you, and sets you free. This is what God has done through Christ for those who will receive His gift.

Some people struggle with receiving the Father’s forgiveness because they feel unworthy. No one has ever died for them like Jesus did, or forgiven them like the Father desires to. They are so aware of their sins they doubt the Father could completely forgive them. But remember, even the Apostle Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- and I am the worst of them all” (1 Tim 1:15).

The blood that God the Son shed for sin is precious and powerful enough to pay for any amount of sin. God’s love is big enough to cover and forgive your sins. The Bible says to Christians: “He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross” (Col 2:13-14). When you become a Christian, God erases any record of your sins because His Son already suffered for them.

The Bible says, “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” (Rom 3:22). You are forgiven forever if you trust that Christ’s death paid the penalty for your sins.

C) Trust in Jesus Christ as your only Savior and King

How do you obtain this wonderful gift of forgiveness from God? As discussed in chapter 1.2, the most famous statement that Jesus Christ ever made was: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). What does it mean to believe? It means to trust. You really do not believe something or someone unless you trust. You receive the Father’s gift of forgiveness by trusting in the name of Jesus Christ.

What does the name Jesus Christ mean? Jesus (Hebrew: Joshua) means Savior. Christ (Hebrew: Messiah, “anointed one”) means King. Trusting in Jesus as your Savior means you depend on Him to rescue you from the penalty for your sins. Trusting in Christ as your King means you gladly agree to follow Him and obey His commands. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot be divided. You cannot trust in Him as only your Savior and reject Him as your King. In fact, as discussed in the next chapter, obeying Christ as your King is the only sure proof that you have truly trusted in Him as your Savior.

Trusting in Christ as your Savior and King includes believing in His resurrection. The Bible says: “He was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 1:4). Therefore, the Bible also says: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved [from being punished for your sin]” (Rom 10:9). When God raised Christ from the dead it was proof that He is the only one that can rescue you from the penalty of sin which is death. It was also proof that God has crowned “the Son of God” to be your only rightful Lord.

The Bible calls Jesus “Savior” only about ten times, but calls Him “Lord” about 700 times! If you want the Father’s forgiveness you must trust that Jesus saves you from the penalty of your sin and that Christ is the King you will obey. The Bible says, “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” (Rom 3:22). You are forgiven forever if you trust that Christ’s death paid the penalty for your sins.

D) How can you trust in Jesus as your Savior?

You can understand all the truth necessary to be a Christian and still not be a Christian. Mere knowledge of the Good News about Jesus Christ will not get you to Heaven. What is necessary is to trust and even love this Good News. The Bible speaks of “those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them” (2 Thess 2:10).

How do you go from merely knowing the Good News about Jesus, to dearly loving and personally trusting in that Good News? GOD HAS TO HELP YOU.

Any human can logically understand what the Bible says about Jesus Christ. But it requires a MIRACLE from God to enable you to personally trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and love Him as your King. This is the kind of believing that saves you from God’s punishment for your sins. The Bible says that humans are not naturally born with the ability to trust and love Christ in this way.

Therefore, it is important to understand that becoming a Christian is not merely making a decision. It is not choosing to change religions or join a group. It is not choosing to change certain bad habits. Likewise, being born into a Christian family does not make you a Christian either. Why? The Bible explains:

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God [like the truth about Jesus] but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (1 Cor 2:14 NIV)

The Holy Spirit of God must give you the ability to correctly evaluate and trust in who Jesus Christ really is. Why is this? Because there is another spirit at work in the world. The Bible says:

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God” (2 Cor 4:4).

People are born into this world being spiritually blind about “the glory of Christ” and who He really is. This is why the Bible says this about Christians: “God . . . has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 4:6). The Holy Spirit must fix your spiritual “eyes” so you can see and trust in who Jesus Christ really is.

The early Christian historian Luke describes an example of the Holy Spirit doing this very thing in the Acts of the Apostles:

On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there. One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God.

As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying [about Jesus]. She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” (Acts 16:13-15)

Notice some things about Lydia. First, she “worshiped God” and believed in God, but did not trust in Jesus Christ. Many people are like this. But it is not enough to believe in God to be forgiven by God. You must trust in His Son that He sent to die for your sins.

Secondly, notice that “the Lord opened her heart” so “she accepted what Paul was saying” about Jesus. That must happen for anyone to accept and trust that Jesus is their Savior and King.

Finally, notice the result of Lydia’s trusting in Christ. She obeyed Jesus’ command to be “baptized” (cf. Matthew 28:19) and was kind to the Christians. As we will explain more in the next chapter, when a person truly trusts in Christ as their Savior and King, it radically and permanently changes their attitudes, desires, and lifestyle.

Like Lydia, God needs to work in a person’s heart before they can truly trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior and King. Jesus talked about this when He said:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me. . . The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe me. . . That is why I said that people cannot come to me unless the Father has enabled them. (John 6:63-65)

How do you know if God’s Spirit is drawing and pulling you toward Jesus? Do you sense an emptiness inside of you that only He can satisfy? Are you feeling guilty about your sins against God and want to be forgiven? Are you afraid of being punished in Hell? Does the Gospel, or Good News about Jesus Christ seem true to you? Can you see and trust Him as your Savior and King?

Then God has drawn you to His Son and enabled you to trust Him. Express your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and King right now. The Bible says: “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). If you sincerely believe in your heart that Christ is your Savior, then God wants you to verbally profess that He is your Lord. You can pray that to Him right now. He is listening.

The Bible says, “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” (Rom 3:22). You are forgiven forever if you trust that Christ’s death paid the penalty for your sins.

► If you are not a Christian, complete Project 1.A on the next page.

► If you are a Christian, complete Project 1.B on the following pages.