Your One and Only Life #5: Calling to Salvation

There are only two callings. The first is God’s invitation to receive salvation; the second is God’s summons to engage in service.

Calling to Salvation: An Invitation to Come
The first calling is the universal invitation to receive salvation through Jesus Christ. God first calls us to Himself by inviting us to Come to Him. Both the Old and New Testaments focus on God’s invitation to come. Isaiah wrote, “Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.”1 Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”2

God longs for a personal, intimate, and moment-by-moment relationship with us. It’s almost beyond comprehension that the God of the Universe, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, wants to be our best Friend.

But there’s a problem. God is perfect and without sin3; we are imperfect and sin all the time.4 To sin is to fall short of God’s standard of perfection.5 Committing even one sin separates us from God.6 There’s no way we can enter His Presence,7 much less be with Him in heaven forever.

Although He is a God of love, He also is a God of justice. Someone must pay the penalty for our wrongdoings.7 There is no way we can pay the price for our sins, and we can’t earn our way into heaven. We are in a hopeless situation – drowning in a sea of sin, going down for the third time, and in need a Savior to rescue us.

At just the right time God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place on the Cross. He lived a perfect life and is without sin8; therefore, Jesus Christ alone is able to pay the penalty for our sins that we rightfully should pay ourselves. However, when we acknowledge our sins, and ask that Christ’s death on the Cross apply as to us personally, we receive God’s forgiveness as a free gift by grace through faith.9

When I was 24 my pastor gave me a booklet How You Can Be Sure You Are A Christian.10 I must have read it 10 times before I realized I’d left out an important step. From childhood I believed that Jesus was God’s Son and died for my sins, but I had never asked Him into my life so His payment for sins would apply to me personally.

In the quiet of my Living Room I bowed my head and prayed a simple prayer. “Lord, I admit that I’m a sinner and will never be able to earn my way into heaven. I ask You to come into my life as my Savior and Lord. By faith I believe that my sins have been forgiven because of what You did on the cross. Thank You that I’m now part of Your family. Amen.”

If you have never prayed a similar prayer, I invite you to bow your head and repeat the words above. The Bible promises, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”11 If you prayed that prayer honestly and sincerely, you now have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and have become a child of God. Be sure to tell another believer – right now – the wonderful thing that’s happened in your life.

ENDNOTES
1. John 1:12
2. Hebrew 4:15
3. Romans 3:23
4. Psalm 51:3
5. James 2:10
6. Ezra 9:15
7. Romans 5:8
8. Hebrews 4:15
9. Ephesians 2:8-9
10. Bright, Bill. (1974) How You Can Be Sure You Are a Christian. Orlando, FL: Campus Crusade for Christ.
11. John 1:12 (NLT)

This blog post © 2013 Designed to Serve®

An excerpt from the upcoming book Your One and Only Life, © 2013 Steven A. Lake. All Rights Reserved. May not be reprinted, reposted, photocopied, distributed or sold without the expressed written consent of the author.

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