God's Plan in God's Own Words
Romans 3:23 "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."
All means all and our sins have consequences.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Dispite our sinfulness, God loves humankind so much that He sent His Son to die and pay the price for our sins.
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Each of us has earned the consequence of eternal death. Yet, God offers us eternal life for free. We don't earn it, deserve it, or work off our sin debt. Because of Jesus, your salvation is free. But you do have to accept the gift before it becomes truly yours.
Romans 10:9-10 "...that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
To be saved, you must confess [a public commitment] Jesus as Lord. We are committing to what is holy rather than what is sinful. We will live by God's standards of right and wrong; not by our own. "AND" is an important connecting word. We must have a genuine commitment AND a right belief to be saved. We must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is proof that Jesus is who the Bible says He is. We call this, the resurrection. You must have both.
Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Once you are saved, you never fall out of God's love. He will never abandon you and He will always love you. You will always be His child.
