How to Start a New Life with Christ

Author: Michael Gott

Carefully read and reflect on each statement and apply it personally.  Read the Bible verses very thoughtfully.

Realize that God loves you, and you are important and valuable to Him.

“But God showed his great love for us …while we were still sinners.”    (Romans 5:8)

Realize, in spite of that love from God, all of us have chosen to turn our backs on Him.  That choice is called sin.  We are all guilty, and it separates us from Him.

“Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal;”    (Romans 3:23)

Realize this separation from God causes what is called “spiritual death” with terrible and eternal consequences.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”    (Romans 6:23)

Realize that Jesus, nonetheless, loved you so much that He chose to suffer the terrible penalty on your behalf—He died for you!

“When we were utterly helpless with no way of escape, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners who had no use for him.”    (Romans 5:6)

Realize that each person must come to Jesus by faith and simply ask for His forgiveness based on His death on the cross and His victorious resurrection.  At that moment Christ gives forgiveness and eternal life as a gift.  It is a simple act of repentance and faith; that is, turning to Him and believing in Him.  He promises to accept each of us if we are sincere.  Confess Him openly as your Lord and Savior.

“9 For if you tell others with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord, and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God; and with his mouth he tells other of his faith, confirming his salvation.”    (Romans 10:9-10)

The Bible adds,

“For the Scriptures tell us that no one who believes in Christ will ever be disappointed.”    (Romans 10:11)

Other helpful verses might include these suggestions:

Consider the need we all have—

"5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. "    (I John 1:5-6)

"1     Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
       nor his ear too dull to hear.

 2    But your iniquities have separated
       you from your God;
       your sins have hidden his face from you,
       so that he will not hear."

(Isaiah 59:1-2)

"Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin."   (John 8:34)

Consider what God has lovingly done—

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."    (Matthew 1:21)

"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."    (I Peter 2:24)

"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,"    (I Peter 3:18)

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all."    (Isaiah 53:6)

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."   (John 8:36)

"who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."   (I Peter 1:5)

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength."   (Philippians 4:13)

Consider the cost of openly following Him—

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."    (Matthew 6:24)

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."   (Galatians 2:20)

Consider again the simple step of faith required—

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"    (John 1:12)

"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."   (John 3:16 )

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."   (Revelation 3:20)

" 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."   (I John 5:11-13)

Finally, Jesus made a very wonderful promise to each of us.  He said,

“But some will come to me … and I will never reject them … For it is my Father’s will that everyone who sees his Son and believes on him should have eternal life …” (John 6:37, 40)

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