ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST?
ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST?
HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN?
John 3:1-22 (NIV) Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?
11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
19 This is the verdict:
Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptised.
Adam, a perfect man without sin, sinned. In doing so, Adam brought sin to all mankind. Every man is born in sin, and starts sinning.
Psalms 58:3 (NIV) Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies.
Romans 3:23 (NIV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
1 John 1:8 (KJV) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
God is perfect Love. God is perfect Mercy. God is also perfect Justice.
In God's perfect justice system, a perfect man, without sin, was required to die as a sacrifice to compensate for Adam's sin (and humanity's), and balance God's scales of justice. No human, without the power of the Holy Spirit can live without sin. So, perfect justice required God Himself to come to earth, live a perfect life, and die as a sacrifice for man's sin, allowing man to be reinstated in a relationship with God. Jesus is God, and did this.
Luke 19:10 (NIV) For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Romans 3:22-26 (NIV) This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented
him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to
demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins
committed beforehand unpunished-- 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at
the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have
faith in Jesus.
Romans 4:25-5:1 (NIV) He was delivered over to death for our sins and was
raised to life for our justification. 5:1 Therefore, since we have been
justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, Romans 5:8-19 (NIV) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world.
But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many diedby the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The
judgement followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Romans 8:3 (NIV) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
1 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch
without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 15:2-4 (NIV) By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly
to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (NIV) For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (NIV) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Galatians 1:3-4 (NIV) Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Colossians 1:19-22 (NIV) For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.
22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV) For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.
Titus 2:11-14 (NIV) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
13 while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ,
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Hebrews 7:25 (NIV) Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to
God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Hebrews 9:26-28 (NIV) Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement,
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Hebrews 10:10 (NIV) And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
1 Peter 2:24 (NIV) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 3:18 (NIV) For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,
1 John 2:2 (NIV)
2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 3:5 (NIV) But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
1 John 4:10 (NIV) This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, and was sacrificed on the cross to cover man's sins with His Sacrificial Blood. All that is required to claim this unmerited favour is to believe in your heart that Jesus is God, believe that His
Sacrificial Blood has the power to cleanse you from your sins, repent of your sins, confess your sins in prayer to Jesus, and ask His forgiveness of them, comply with His law, which includes baptism, and ask Him into your heart and life as your God.