Being right with God is more than a self-help project. There needs to be an inner transformation—a restored relationship between you and your Creator that has been broken by sin. The good news is that God wants to have a personal relationship with you, has accomplished all that is need for that relationship and even explains it all in his book, the Bible.
We find these crucial truths in God’s Word:
God has a created each of us for his purposes: Each of us was born with a God-given “job description.” The Bible clearly teaches that the Creator God designed you and me to reflect his glory with all that we are, with all that we have, and with all that we do in life (Isaiah 43:7). He created us to find our greatest joy in seeking his smile and his honor in all things.
Not one of us, on our own, has done or can do what God created us for: Even though God designed us to seek his glory in all that we do, we have selfishly sought our own honor instead. Even though God created us to find our greatest joy in him, we have ignored him and sought our happiness in our own possessions, power and pleasure. Isaiah 53:6 reminds us of this painfully honest diagnosis of our condition before God: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” Jesus Christ has been the single exception to this failure, and there has never been another sinless person since sin entered the human race at the time of our ultimate ancestors, Adam and Eve. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
God has every right to condemn us to eternal punishment because of our willful rebellion against him: Our rebellion against God – seeking our own glory instead of his, seeking our own happiness in the things of this world instead of in him as the Creator – is inexcusable. Our rebellion separates us from our loving Creator. This is not merely a matter of ignorance as if we just didn’t know. God has made his identity and power clear through what he has made in creation (Romans 1:19-20). No, our problem with God is more than a lack of knowledge. The shameful reality is that we’re separated from God because we don’t want him in our lives. Our refusal to honor God and find our joy in him is open rebellion against our Creator. The Bible calls that rebellion “sin,” and sin rightfully earns God’s condemnation: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And, the ultimate death is to be eternally separated in a place of real, conscious torment known as hell or the lake of fire. The Bible gives this horrifying pronouncement about those who refuse to turn from their rebellion against God: “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
We do not have the ability to fix our own terrible dilemma: God’s standard of acceptance is perfection – sinlessness. The Bible teaches that God is so pure, so holy, that he cannot tolerate sin in the slightest (Habakkuk 1:13). Yet, we’ve all sinned. No amount of good intentions or religious devotion or benevolent deeds can compensate for or eradicate our sin and its guilt before the perfectly holy God who created us and holds us accountable. In fact, even our vain attempts to justify ourselves before God are offensive to him. He considers our feeble efforts to make ourselves presentable before his holy throne “like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). We cannot work our way out of our guilt and into God’s good graces. Is our situation hopeless? No.
God himself has provided the only solution to our dreadful predicament: The bad news is that we are undeniably helplessly guilty before the holy God who made us and to whom we are accountable. The good news is that what we would not do and could not do, God did. The Bible tells us, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4). Jesus Christ, God’s unique Son, came to the earth to keep all of God’s laws perfectly. He did for us what we should have done but did not and could not do by ourselves. He perfectly and consistently glorified God the Father. Then Jesus also solved our horrifying sentence of guilt by taking on himself the wages of sin that we had earned by our rebellion. He did this by dying on the cross as a substitute for guilty sinners, such as you and me. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). As living proof that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for us satisfied God’s holy requirements, God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus was “raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25).
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross opened the door for us to have a right relationship with God: God graciously calls us to repent of (turn from) our sin and all of our attempts to justify ourselves in his eyes. If we ever want to be right with God, we must put all of our hope in Jesus Christ alone. The Bible categorically declares, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). God’s Word also promises, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame’” (Romans 10:9-11).
How will you respond? Is God stirring your heart right now? Do you sense your sinfulness before the holy God who made you? Do you want to be right with him? Why don’t you talk to God right now, asking him to forgive your sin and make you his child? Trust in Jesus Christ and what he accomplished on your behalf through his life, death and resurrection. He will save you. He is gracious beyond your wildest imagination. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). Isn’t that amazing?
God wants you to grow in your relationship with him: If you have put your trust in Jesus Christ in order to have a right relationship with God, let me encourage you to follow through with some helpful steps. First, begin reading God’s Word on a regular basis. That’s how you get to know him better and understand how you can live for his glory. The Bible is a big book. Not sure where to start? Maybe start with the Gospel of Mark. That’s the second book in the New Testament. Second, get into the wonderful habit of talking to God each day in prayer. You don’t need fancy “religious” words. Just talk to him as your Heavenly Father. And third, get plugged into a local church that is faithful in preaching, teaching and living out the Bible in a way that honors Jesus Christ. Tell some of the leaders of the church what God has been doing in your life and ask for their guidance. Welcome to the family!