Believing in Him who justifies the ungodly

Romans 4:4-5
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness

GOD: He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He has formed you in your mother's womb in His own image. God has given you life, and everything you have. He sustains your life, and in Him you move and have your being. He is the King and the ruler of the universe, and all things exist in obedience to His will.

YOU: You were made by God to give glory to Him. You were made to love Him. That is your purpose in life. However, you have spent the life God has given you for other things. You have loved the things God has given you more than Himself. You have lived your life against the will of your Creator. You think God exists to serve you, when it is you who were made to serve Him. You haven't thanked Him for all the things He has given you, but give yourselves credit for things you have received. You hate God, and wish He was dead, and indeed, in your own mind you consider Him non-existent. Yet you know that He exists, but you don't bother to seek Him nor find out about who He is. Your mind is filled with desires that are hostile to His good and perfect ways. You have done and thought things that are so evil that you would be ashamed to tell them to your closest friend.

RESULT: Since you have used your life which God has given you for evil when you should have used it for God, the consequence of your rebellion is death. And since you were made to last forever, after death you will spend an eternity in Hell, both in your soul and in later in your resurrected body (Matthew 10:28, John 5:28-29, Revelation 21:8). In Hell you will not enjoy any of the good things God has given you in this life. Just as you have been negligent of God in this world, God who provided for you in this life will be negligent to you for all of eternity. All pleasure that you have misused in this world will be taken from you, and there will be nothing but endless suffering and torment.

GOOD NEWS: But God has still provided a way for you to be right with God. It is by what God has done for you through Jesus Christ, His Son. God sent His only begotten Son into the world, to be born of a virgin, to be born as a human being. Jesus lived the perfect life that you couldn't live, living always according to the will of God. Never once did He disobey the commandment of God. Never once did an evil thought enter into His mind. He did good toward man and glorified God all his life. But men did not believe in Him, but crucified Him even though He hadn't done anything wrong. But through this act, they carried out the will of God planned from before the foundation of the world:

God laid on Jesus Christ the sins of the world and killed His own Son by the hands of men. Jesus became our sin and our curse on that tree, and all the just anger and wrath that should have fallen upon you, fell upon Him. All the shame you should have received for your sins, Jesus publicly suffered for you. God did it to show His righteousness, to show that He has never left sin unpunished. God did it so that He may now be just to forgive you, since the price of sin has been paid. Jesus Christ did not remain dead, for He Himself never sinned, but He was raised from the dead on the third day by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the Good News that God wants you to believe (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Romans 1:16). He ascended to heaven and now the heavens must receive Him until the Day when He shall come back in His glory to judge the mankind for their sins.

YOUR RESPONSE: You can try two things to be right with God. You can work hard for your own salvation. You can do good things, and try your hardest not to sin, and hope for the best on Judgment Day. But beware, the Jesus warns you that salvation is impossible with man (Mark 10:26-27). Even though you do good, the fact is you have already sinned before you began doing good. You have already committed crimes that demand justice. And all the good you have ever done was to please yourself. In fact, you'll find that the more you try to be good, you become more evil. This is because you are by nature a slave to sin, and you can do nothing but sin (John 8:34, Romans 7:18). Worst of all, if you try to work for your salvation, you offend God by saying you DESERVE heaven, when you know deep inside you deserve nothing but death. You are wanting glory for your own salvation, when God said He will not share His glory with anyone (Isaiah 42:8). You will never be justified in God's sight by your effort (Galatians 2:16). There is NOTHING you can do to make yourself right for God's judgment.

However, what is impossible with man is possible with God. God has made a way for you to be saved by what Jesus Christ has done. It is by faith, by trusting in GOD to save you because of what JESUS has done on the cross. The bible says God is able to make you right before Him if you believe in Jesus Christ as the only way for you to be right with Him. Trust God that He is able to justify you because of Christ. God can now count the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to be yours, if only you will believe. God bought forgiveness and grace for you when He killed His own Son on the cross. Throw yourself into the arms of God's grace. Though you are a sinner, God is able to save you, because Jesus died for your sins. Grace is getting something you didn't work for, something you don't deserve. God is able to give you eternal life, even though you have done nothing but sin. What God has done for you alone is enough to get you to heaven.

Trust in God's grace and believe what His Son has done for you. Do this today, because God has not promised tomorrow to you. God is waiting for you to turn from your own ways to throw yourself into His arms. God is a good God. He doesn't want to see you go to Hell. The door to heaven is open, if you only come by faith in the Son of God. There is no other way for you to be right with God but through faith in Jesus. God is waiting for you. Believe in Him through Jesus today!

Mark 1:15
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel."

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

John 19:30
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Hebrews 2:3
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?