What God Has Done for You

What actually happens when Jesus Christ comes into your life? First, he saves you from your sins and the punishment you deserve as a result of them—eternity in hell. This is called salvation, or regeneration, and has to do with what takes place in your heart: God gives you new life, a new perspective.
Second, he justifies you. Justification has to do with your standing before God and includes the complete removal and forgiveness of your sins. Think about it! When you receive Jesus Christ into your life, you are completely forgiven. God’s Word tells us, “Brothers, listen! In this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins! Everyone who believes in him is freed from all guilt and declared right with God (justified)—something the Jewish law could never do” (Acts 13:38-39). Speaking of our sins, God says, “I will never again remember (your) sins and lawless deeds” (Hebrews 10:17). What a wonderful promise!
Justification, however, is more than just the forgiveness and removal of the guilt and condemnation that accompany sin. While God has removed your sins and forgiven you of them, he has also placed the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ “into your account,” so to speak. You don’t have to earn it or try to achieve it; that would be impossible. It is yours as a gracious gift from the God who loves you. To understand justification more fully, read the following Scripture passages and notes below.*
1. God Promises Us His Gracious Forgiveness (see 1 John 1:9). The word confess means “to say the same thing as another” or “to agree with.” To confess means that we are agreeing with God about our sin. We are seeing it as he does. We know that God hates sin. Therefore, to truly confess our sin means that we essentially feel the same way God feels about what we have done. After committing that sin, we will be determined to put it out of our lives and never do it again. That is true confession in the biblical sense. The reason many believers are not experiencing the forgiveness and joy they desire is because they have not yet truly confessed! Once we have met God’s conditions, however, we will know his gracious forgiveness. We may not “feel” forgiven, but we are. We have his word on it.
2. God Has Balanced Our Moral and Spiritual Budget (Romans 5:1-2). When God makes us right in his sight, he does so by placing all of the righteousness of Christ to our credit. This balances the moral and spiritual budget for us. We now have sufficient “capital of character” to get on with the business of living.
Up to this point, salvation has been God’s responsibility. From this
point on, it continues to be his responsibility except that we are responsible for the wise investment of our “capital of character”—that is, we are responsible for living as God desires us to. It is as if your checking account were empty, but then someone made a $100,000 deposit. What you do with that money is up to you.
3. God Calls Us His Children (see Luke 15:11-32). This incredible story illustrates what happens when a person turns from sin and returns to God. First, notice that the father in the story did not give this prodigal son what he deserved—banishment. In the same way, we do not receive from God what we deserve—punishment for sin. Second, the young man was given what he did not deserve—the rights and privileges of full sonship. Likewise, although we are not worthy to be called children of God, he calls us sons and daughters. In summary, he doesn’t give us what we deserve (judgment). He gives us what we don’t deserve (forgiveness and justification).

Speaking of sons and daughters, read on to see how God has adopted you into his family.

©Copyright, Greg Laurie