Someone has said, "Knowing Christ died--that's history. Believing He died for me--that's
salvation." A personal relationship with
Christ
begins at the moment of our salvation. Jesus
referred to this event as a second birth (John
3:3). Only when we are born spiritually into
God's family do we become His children, His
friends, His servants, and members of His
spiritual kingdom.
While we may not know exactly when this new life
begins, we can understand the steps we need to
take to begin this relationship.
FIRST STEP: We need to admit our lost condition.
All of us are born to the parents of a fallen
humanity. We come into this world separated from
the life of God and absorbed with an interest in
finding satisfaction, significance, and personal
independence on our own terms. In the process, we
don't show a natural desire for the kind of God
who made us for Himself (Romans 3:11-12).
While we may look good to ourselves as long as we
measure ourselves by ourselves, Jesus Christ
showed us our sin. He is the One who showed us
what it means to have a personal relationship
with God. He is also the One who said that He
didn't come into this world to help good people,
but "to seek and to save that which was lost"
(Luke 19:10).
The Bible says we all come into this physical
world physically alive but spiritually
dead--missing out on the quality of life for
which God made us. The apostle Paul wrote, "All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
(Romans 3:23), "There is none righteous, no, not
one" (Romans 3:10), and "The wages of sin is death"
(Romans 6:23).
SECOND STEP: We need to know what God has done
for us. The word gospel means "good news." The
gospel of Christ is that God Himself loved us
enough to send His own Son into this world to
rescue us from ourselves and our sin (John 1:1-4;
3:16).
The good news is that Jesus lived the quality of
life that God intended for us to live. Without
flaw, He loved His heavenly Father with all of
His heart, soul, and mind. Without fail, He
showed us what it means to love our neighbor as
ourselves.
Then, to solve the problem of our lost
relationship with His Father, Jesus died in our
place, offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice to
pay the price of sin. Because He was not only man
but God our Creator as well (John 1:1-14), His
death was of infinite value. When He rose from
the dead, He proved that He had died in our place
to pay the price of all sin--past, present, and
future. With one sacrifice, He paid for the
least--and the worst--of our sin.
THIRD STEP: We need to personally believe and
receive God's gift. While we all have earned the
wages of spiritual death and separation from God
(Romans 6:23), no one can earn a relationship with
God. It is a gift of His love and mercy--not a
reward for our effort. No one is saved by trying
to be good. We are saved by trusting in
Christ.
This is why the apostle Paul could write,
This may sound too simple. But it takes a miracle
of God's grace to break our pride and
self-sufficiency. It takes God's Spirit to draw
us into this kind of personal relationship. If
this is your desire, this is how you can begin.
The actual words we say to God to receive this
gift may vary (Luke 18:13; 23:42-43). What is
important is that we believe God enough to be
able to say, "Father, I know I have sinned
against You. I believe that Jesus is Your Son,
that He died for my sins, and that He rose from
the dead to prove it. Now I accept Your offer of
eternal life. I accept Jesus as Your gift for my
salvation."
If this is the honest expression of your heart,
welcome to God's family! By simple, childlike
faith you have entered into a personal
relationship with the One who made you and saved
you for Himself. "For
by grace [undeserved favor] you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should
boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9; see also Romans 4:5; Titus
3:5).