The Gospel

I ran across this bit on a website I was visiting, and I thought it was really good.

I like the analysis of all of us living as death row inmates. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Gospel

The Bible says the penalty for sin [pushback against God] is death, which makes all of us death row inmates.

The only way for us to be spared the death penalty is if someone else pays it for us. But sinners die to pay their own death penalty; only a sinless person can die to pay it for others. Since the latter does not exist, God in His love became man, lived a sinless life and then died on the cross to pay our death penalty for us.

The Bible says that those who sincerely believe having been thus purified go to heaven while those who reject Jesus' sacrificial gift go to hell, as follows:

"The wages of sin is death but, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

What about doing good works?

Christians do good works not to gain salvation but to obey, thank and honor Jesus for having saved us. Believing that good works saves is akin to death row inmates believing that good behavior while on death row will gain their freedom.

http://www.billionbibles.org/true-gospel.html