I want to take a moment to share with you what I have already received...forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  This is the most important message that I will ever post on this blog.  The most important decision a person ever makes is the decision to either recieve the gift of salvation that God offers us, or to reject it. 

Please read this post carefully and thoughtfully.  Consider this question...If you were to go to bed tonight, and never wake up again, where would you spend eternity?  In order to know the answer to that question you need to know what the Bible says about where you stand with God.

First of all we must all realize that we are a sinner. Even if we believe ourselves to be a good person we still have sinned. The Bible says: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23.  If we have ever told a lie, hated someone in our heart, or taken something that didn't belong to us we have sinned.  The list of sins can be long...murder, adultery, coveting (desiring something that someone else with evil intent), drunkeness, etc...the list goes on.  If you have broken even one of the 10 Commandments you have sinned.  We have to understand that we have all sinned.  Do you believe that you have sinned?  Our sins separate us from God because He is Holy and cannot allow sin into His presence.

Because we are sinners our punishment is separation from God for eternity (which the Bible calls "death" referring to spiritual death).  The Bible says:  "For the wages (payment) of sin is death." Romans 6:23.  That simply means that our sin must be punished by death.  Another verse says "...it is appointed to men once to die (that means physical death), but after this comes judgement"  Hebrews 9:27.  This means that we will be judged for our sins after we die physically. 

The good news is that because God loves us so much and doesn't want us to suffer the punishment for our sins  ("God shows his love toward us in this way, even though we are sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8).  He made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins.  That way was when Jesus Christ, the Son of God (who never sinned), died on the cross.  While he was suffering physical pain on the cross he also suffered spiritually because God punished Him for the sins of all mankind, including you and me (that's the part of the verse that says "...Christ died for us" ).  Jesus knew that He was going to take the punishment for all of our sins on the cross, and He did it willingly because He loves us so much.  It was his blood that was shed on the cross that cleanses us from sin.  The Bible says "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission (forgiveness) of sin" Hebrews 9:22.