The Path to New Life
To respond to God’s call to a new life you have to accept what has been shown to you above namely: You like me have fallen from God’s glory, we have sinned and as a result we come under the judgment of God as law-breakers. Recognising this is the first step.
The second one is linked to it, you need to turn away from this life of sin and accept God’s gift which is Jesus. This is the only means of you restoring a relationship with God because only Jesus has been able to pay the penalty for your, my and the world’s sin. This rejection of the life of sin is not an easy step. It is not asking you to try to become perfect first, it is a rejection of the sinfulness of the past.
Thirdly you must Jesus as the means to restore this relationship with God. You do this as Romans 10 verses 9 & 10 say ‘That if you confess 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 it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.’
We need to unpack this a little. Confess means to speak it out. Verbalising your faith is important it is a declaration. ‘Jesus is Lord’ This means that you are trusting Jesus with your life and you desire to follow Him from now on. You are in effect saying, ‘He is my Lord, and I am placing Him as the first in my life.’
Jesus was raise to life three days after being offered as a sacrifice on the Cross. The fact of Jesus being raised means that He has defeated death and demonstrates to you and me that eternal life is a reality to us and for us. You must be clear about this because it is central to the belief in eternal life
‘Believing in the heart,’ is again really important. It is not just blurting out the words I believe in Jesus but it is rooted in you that Jesus really is the one who gives you a new life.
