Throughout history man has looked heavenward and wondered about life after death.  Is there a life, is there a resurrection, is there something out there other than a meaningless emptiness or nothing?  Do we live now and then nothing?

And if there is an afterlife, then how do we obtain it?

The Apostle Paul had a conversation with a Philippian jailer, who had asked:

Acts 16:30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

And that is the quick and brief answer, and a complete answer, for that matter, of how a person can be saved.

There are many religions out there in the world, but they all reject or ignore Jesus Christ.  

Christianity is the only faith, the only philosophy, the only religion (if you are going to call it that), that promotes the truth, which is, Jesus Christ is God.  Jesus Christ came to this earth and became a man.  And, being true humanity and true deity, He is both God and man in one person, the unique person of the universe.

Romans 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 3:15-17

15 that whoever believes  in him  may have eternal life.

16 "For  God so loved  the world,  that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not  perish but have eternal life.

17 For  God did not send his Son into the world  to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.    ESV

Because God is perfection, and fair, then He applies His perfect Righteousness and Justice to all of life.

Man is a sinner and imperfect.  Something that is imperfect cannot have a relationship with something that is perfect.

And certainly nothing that is evil, sinful, criminal, self-righteous and so forth can raise itself up to a level of perfection, which is sin free.  And God who is perfect is not going to lower His perfect standards, is not going to allow sin or arrogance, or lust or anything which is imperfect, to enter into His policies of perfection.

There are many religions out there, where Paradise is represented as some form of reward for sinful or criminal activities.   However that is not so.  Man is imperfect and imperfection cannot gain access to perfection by means of more imperfection.  One cannot commit a social or criminal act and expect to be justified by that act.

That leaves man at the mercy of perfection, and God has found a way to pay the price of sin and death, and thus relieve man of that burden.

Jesus Christ came into this world to save mankind, by going to the Cross and paying the penalty of sin and death in our place.

Without some form of reconciliation, man would be forever separated from God, and man cannot discover or obtain that reconciliation.  Only God is able to do that.

And Jesus Christ accomplished that very objective, while hanging on the Cross.

Therefore, since God did all of the work for salvation, it leaves nothing for man to do, but to believe in what God has already accomplished.

So, in your very own mind, all you have to do is think, ‘I believe in Jesus Christ.’

From that thought, God the Father will do all that is necessary to record and secure for you, forever, your salvation, which is your freedom from an eternal separation from God.

Being a sinner, you are faced with eternal separation from God, who is life.  And eternal separation from life is the most horrifying death existence, even beyond what you can imagine.

God is life and God sustains life.  You cannot do that.  You cannot control the growing hairs on your body, the beat of your heart, the weather, nothing. You are in this world courtesy of the grace of God.

And without God in your life, you are totally alone.  And when death overtakes you one of these days, then you will be lost to eternity, alone, hopeless, helpless, suffering a terrible and horrifying existence, forever.

There is no reincarnation or a second try at life.  There is no reward in Paradise for living a life of sin.  There is nothing you can do on your own, no religion or philosophy which you can invent and make convenient to how you want life to be, that will accomplish what Christ did not the Cross.

It takes only a moment to think those little words, ‘I believe in Jesus Christ.’  It doesn’t hurt you one little bit. 

And by resisting to think those little words, which takes a huge effort, if you are going to reject Christ all of your life, then that alone should tell you something. 

Your effort to reject the same person that all of the world rejects, and does not want you to get to know, should tell you something as well.

Faith, which is believing in Jesus Christ, is the one and only way to be saved.  Christ who is God, did all of the work, and it is now for you to benefit from His effort by believing in who He is and what He did.

And with that simple thought, you will have received the greatest victory for your life.

End Of Lesson

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.