Now the normal response when that question is asked is usually a purely academic response that goes something like this. Of course I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I asked Him into my life when I was 5 years old and I believe that Jesus Christ is The Son of God. I believe in the Trinity. I believe that Christ died on the cross for the sin of the world and that He rose again from the dead. All of this is true and biblically correct, but here is the problem….the devil believes that as well.
The Bible tells us that “with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” To believe with the heart, or to be born again means to believe with my entire being. As Jesus said, eternal life is loving God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength. The net result of that belief is that you deny yourself, forsake living for the world and purpose to line your life up with the teaching of Scripture, regardless of the cost or the consequences.
This is what it means to walk on the narrow path that leads unto life. This is what it means to build your life on a solid rock and not sand. Every human being has biological life. Many people have religious or spiritual life. Few people have eternal life.
Let me say something that is very heavy on my heart these days. When it comes to the proclamation of the gospel, the only thing that I can tell you with absolute certainty is this: If you truly repent of your sin and trust in the atonement of Jesus Christ, and by that I mean that you are trusting His death, burial and resurrection from the dead as full satisfaction for your sin, then you will be forgiven and your name will be found in that Book of Life.
- I cannot tell you if you come to Christ today that the rest of your life will be pain free or care free, because that would not be true.
- I cannot tell you that if you come to Christ today your unsaved friends or family members will accept you and stand behind you, because they may reject you and want nothing more to do with you.
- I cannot tell you that you that if you come to Christ today you will never be sick another day of your life, because that would not be true.
- I cannot tell you that if you come to Christ today your unsaved spouse will immediately come to Christ as well or never leave you, because that would not be true.
- I cannot tell you that if you come to Christ today all of your children will walk with Christ and never stray from Him. I cannot tell you that you will never lose a job. I cannot tell you that if you come to Christ with a mound of debt that the mound will go away overnight or ever go away. I cannot promise you any of those things you because that may or may not be true.
But I can tell you this: if you come to Christ today with a broken and a contrite heart, He will forgive you of your sin, He will give you a new heart, He will make you a new creature, He will give you new desires and delights that you never had before.
Jesus Christ will be with you always, through thick or thin, good times and bad times. Though others may leave you or forsake you, Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you.
I can promise you a love that is so strong that the Apostle Paul describes it this way:
Romans 8.35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
