WHAT YOU MUST DO TO OBTAIN THE REMISSION OF YOUR SINS

 

 

 

You are in debt to God, your Creator, for you have violated His law. His law commands not to kill but you have killed; it commands not to steal but you have stolen; it commands not to commit adultery but you have committed adultery; it commands not to blaspheme the name of God, but you have blasphemed His Holy Name; it commands not to bear false witness against your neighbour, but you love and practice falsehood; it commands not to covet any thing that is thy neighbour’s but you have coveted your neighbour’s goods; the law of God forbids you to make for yourself any carved image - any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, and to serve them, but you have made for yourself idols in the form of men, women, and even animals, and you worship them, you pray to them and you serve them in various ways. The law of God commands you to honour your father and your mother, but you dishonour them.

Therefore, before God you are guilty. You experience the sense of guilt inwardly, for your conscience continually rebukes you by attesting that you have acted sinfully toward your neighbour as well as toward God even though you don’t know Him.

Maybe sometimes you try to silence your conscience by doing some good, by giving alms, but it keeps rebuking you, and you know very well this even though you do not want to recognize it. Somebody told you to go to confess your sins to a priest for he has the divine power to remit sins to men. And you did what he told you, you went to a confessional box and after you confessed to him your sins he absolved you. For a moment you thought that your conscience would no longer rebuke you for your sins, but what you thought did not happen for the inner voice that only you can hear keeps accusing you vigorously.

You are desperate, you don’t know what to do to get rid of that frustrating sense of guilt, you don’t know how to obtain the remission of your debts; all remedies have proved vain. Maybe you even thought that only death could expiate your sins, so it is better to put an end to this life; do not commit that act for it would be useless, rather you would increase your sins because you would kill yourself and besides this you would go to hell with all your sins, where there is no chance to be forgiven.

You will say: ‘What must I do then to obtain remission of sins and to get rid of this sense of guilt which is pursuing me day and night?’ Here is what you must do. First of all you must repent of your sins you have committed against God and against your neighbour, that is to say, you must be sorry about all the sins you have committed and you must forsake them. After that, you must believe with all you heart in the Gospel, which is the Good News that God in the fullness of the time sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in this world to make atonement for our sins, that is, to bear our sins upon His body and to die in our place so that He might reconcile us to God. For the Bible says that Christ died for our sins and more than that He rose again for our justification (Romans 4:25). Therefore if you believe in Him you will receive the remission of your sins, as it is written: “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43 - NIV).

You may ask me why it is sufficient to believe in Jesus to obtain the forgiveness of sins; well, the reason is that according to God without shedding of blood there is no remission ( Hebrews 9:22). That divine principle was revealed by God under the Old Testament, for He commanded the Israelites to sacrifice some animals for their sins, that is, as a propitiatory offering for their sins. However, the blood of those animals did not take away sins because it was just a shadow of the true blood that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, would shed at the end of the ages. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins from the conscience of men (Hebrews 10:1-4), only the blood of a perfect human being like Jesus Christ (He was found in appearance as a man, however He was also God) could take away sins from their conscience.

Therefore, the blood Jesus Christ shed on the cross, was shed so that our sins might be blotted out from our conscience. Do not think that God is a cruel God for acting in that way, for God did that just for the opposite reason, that is, because He is good and merciful.

Whoever you are, that’s what you must do to receive the remission of your sins and to live a life at peace with God. Know this, that there is no other way to be forgiven! Do not deceive yourself any longer, you have been deceiving yourself for a long time, stop deceiving yourself. Now, wherever you are, repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain for the remission of our sins, and you will immediately taste the goodness of God and His mercy, for you will obtain a conscience purified from the dead works of which you are a slave. The peace and the joy of the Lord will enter you and you will be born again; the sense of guilt and condemnation will disappear and you will have the assurance of being forgiven and reconciled to God. You will no longer feel the wrath of God upon you, nor will you be any longer on the way to hell, for in Christ Jesus you will be a son of God and have eternal life. Yes, because besides the remission of sins, through faith in Christ, you will obtain also eternal life, as it is written: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). Therefore you will be sure you will go to heaven when you die. At the present you deserve to go to hell and if you die you will go there, but once forgiven you will have assurance that you will go to heaven by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Do not hesitate to take such important decision, such a vital decision. Do not boast about tomorrow, for you don’t know what a day may bring forth. Many people before you heard this message and thought they had a long life before them and did not obey to it immediately, but they suddenly died and in a few moments they found themselves in the unspeakable torments of the fire of hell. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart: he is calling you to repentance, do not ignore His call.

 

 

 

 

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