And this is the promise that He promised us: eternal life. ―1 John 2:25
God has promised eternal life for those who are saved in Jesus Christ.
for, 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 (Romans 10:9)
When we’re saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we’re born again.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We grow spiritually from infants to maturity in Christ. When we believe, we turn from wrongdoing and begin our journey of faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. (1 Peter 1:14)
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. God offers salvation freely to every human being through his word by the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Jesus. What God has offered freely, the life-giving water, he gives to those who believe in Jesus Christ, who suffered and shed his blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
Whatever sins we’ve committed in our past are forgiven through the blood of the Lamb. Jesus Christ was the sinless, once-for-all sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus died for every human being:
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:15; see 1 Timothy 4:10)
Because Jesus died for every human being, every human being has the ability to believe and be saved. Those who perish do so by unbelief and disobedience. God has reconciled us to him by the death of his Son:
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God is beseeching through us. We implore on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)
But what if someone claims to believe in God, but not in Jesus Christ?
11 And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12)
If we don’t have Jesus Christ, we don’t have God. If we don’t have the Son, we don’t have the Father. But who is this man Jesus that we should believe in him? Jesus Christ is God in human form. Who else would we have salvation from?
There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
When we say, “The Father,” we’re referring to the infinite, invisible God. When we say, “The Son,” we’re referring to God as a man. How could God judge the human race fairly and justly if he hadn’t been a man?
And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. (John 5:27)
The Father has handed judgment to the Son:
He came and received the scroll from the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. (Revelation 5:7)
Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life and suffered the worst, most painful death ever on the cross for doing nothing wrong. Every human being who has ever lived fits somewhere in this extreme. None of us have been without sin, and none of us are going to die that bad, especially for doing nothing wrong.
We must repent and believe in the gospel. It takes time to break with sin, and God knows this. If we sin from human weakness, we go to Jesus to ask for forgiveness (see 1 John 2:1-2). As we grow to maturity in Christ, our sins should become less and less, and we should never deliberately sin. Let’s listen to the apostle John:
For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)
Let’s read the greatest commandment:
37 Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Love fulfills the law. This is the golden rule—do to others as you would have them do to you.
There’s only one God, and he promises eternal life for those who are saved in Jesus Christ. This is the only way to be saved. We can only avoid the penalty of eternal hell by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. In these last days, let’s do the right thing in life by practicing righteousness. Let’s love God and our fellow human beings and receive God’s promise of everlasting life through Jesus Christ our savior.
Futile World 