23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We have fallen short of how good God is. Not a single one of us is able to reach God on our own by doing anything that is so called "good." We have all fallen short of the glorious standard of goodness that God has set by being the definition of what goodness is. You murder? You have sinned. You steal? You have sinned? You have thought wrongly about someone? You have sinned. With God there is no "greater" sin than another in terms of salvation; sin is sin.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because we have acted wrongly, sinned, we are paid a wage and that wage is death. We see death every single day, but this death is more than the physical body. This death is the spiritual death, the separation from God Himself. We see this because sin is simply turning away from God and the way we were meant to live in His image. When humanity turned away from God they introduced death and sin into the human race. God took a risk by giving humanity free-will, but He knew that it was worth it to make beings that could choose for themselves and not be programmed like robots.
Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God knew that free will was risky, and God never designed us to fall from His perfect love and grace, but we fell and we fell hard. But God loved humanity so much (John 3:16) That he was willing to take our punishment of death upon Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Because our wage is death, and we must die because of sin, Christ's death applies to that very concept.
Romans 10:9-13
9 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. 10 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. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Because Jesus Christ, who was God, died and because we choose to put our lives and faith in Jesus Christ, we no longer have to suffer that complete spiritual death because Christ suffered it in our place. The Bible says that we are placed into Christ's body (figuratively) when we decide to follow what Romans 10:9-10 say above. When Jesus was hanging on the cross on the day of His crucifixion, God separated Himself from Jesus and allowed all of the sin and wrong doing of the entire world to be put upon Jesus; Jesus went to the Hell that we deserved because He, God, loved us that much to take it upon Himself. No matter how great you think your sin is, or how small you think your sin is, this salvation is for everyone and this message applies to everyone.
Romans 5:1
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Since we are now in Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled back to God. We are no longer separated from God due to our sin because Jesus nailed our sin to His cross when we place our faith in Him (Colossians 2:14). We cannot be justified by doing good works and we cannot have peace with God by trying to show Him that we are "good." This justification and peace with God come only through faith in Christ.
Romans 8:1
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
No matter what sin you commit after placing your faith in Christ, you will no longer be seen as separated from God. You are sealed in Christ (Ephesians 1) forever and there is no longer any punishment for the sin that you commit in regards to your salvation. Once saved, forever saved.
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The love that we can experience by placing our faith in the king of all kings and Lord of all Lords, Jesus Christ, is unimaginable. The greatest things of this world, and even the greatest things of the worlds that we cannot see, have absolutely no authority over how much Christ loves us and how much love He will continue to show us now that we have placed our faith in Him. By grace we have been saved and by grace God will shower us with His love and many blessings. Even though our physical bodies will die, we will continue to live on in new bodies as who we are here. Our identity still remains, but it becomes perfected. Not even death can separate us from continual life with God through Christ. You will be perfected, while still having a knowledge of everything on earth that happened in your lifetime, and live with God in the new Earth for all of eternity.
I urge you, if you have not made this decision to place your faith in Jesus Christ, consider what it is that God is offering you at this very moment. Consider what it means to throw away religion and grab on totruly knowing God by relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
You don't have to wait, you can make this decision anywhere you are, at home, in bed, on the phone, anywhere. Just tell God that you have fallen short of His standard and that there are no amount of good things you can do to get to Him. Tell Him that you believe that Jesus Christ died and rose so that He could pay for your wrongdoing and so that you could be with Him forever in eternal communion with God.
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