The Benefits Of Becoming A Christian

The Benefits of Becoming a Christian 1. Salvation from God's Wrath "He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power" 2Thessalonians 1:8,9

The Bad News God created people to have a relationship with Himself. We were made in the image of God, but "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 Man is sinful but God is holy and so there is a separation between the two. "Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 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 This separation ends in judgement and death, both physical and eternal. "For the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23a "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Revelation 21:8 There are various ways in which people have tried to bridge the gap to return to God, but all fall short.

The Good News "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This

righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:20-24

"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 By dying on the cross, Jesus Christ satisfied the demands of God's justice that sin be payed for. So you can either pay for your own sins in hell, or you can accept Christ's substitutionary atonement as payment to God on your behalf. For through Christ God now offers your sins to be freely and graciously forgiven.

2. An Intimate Relationship with God "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."John 17:3 "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest." Hebrews 8:10,11 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:3 This relationship is defined in different ways.

A. Sonship "To all who received him (Jesus Christ), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." John 1:12

One aspect of this sonship is the promise of an eternal inheritance: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade— kept in heaven for you, 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." 1Peter 1:3,4 Another aspect is obedience and conformity to the Father's will "as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." 1Peter 1:14-16

B. A Marriage God designed marriage itself to be a reflection (or a shadow) of the relationship between Christ and the Christians. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery— but I am talking about Christ and the church."Ephesians 5:31,32 Notice the similarity of role relationships between a marriage and that of the relationship between Christ and his Church: "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior." Ephesians 5:22,23 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Ephesians 5:25-27 God even speaks of having divorced his people who were disobedient. "I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries." Jeremiah 3:8 One effect of this intimate relationship is the God hears us when we pray. He takes action on our requests. Secondly we have a perspective on our proper role as subservient to the LORD. "he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." 2Corinthians 5:15

3. A Global, Eternal Family "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household" Ephesians 2:19

4. Freedom from Sinfulness unto Godliness While the forgiveness of sins Christians refer to as "justification", the process of becoming free from sinful behavior unto godly, holy behavior Christians refer to as the process of Sanctification. Those born of God do not live a lifestyle of sin because of the nature of the rebirth: "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."1John 3:9,10 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1Corinthians 6:9-11 This effect of being born of God as includes one's perseverance in faith "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us." 1John 2:19 And also the development of a character of Christian love. "Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." 1John 4:7 The primary example to follow of which is Christ's sacrificial love. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 1John 3:16 "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." John 3:16

5. Treasures in Heaven "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19,20

Some of the treasures in heaven stored up for us are mentioned above concerning the inheritance we have, and freedom from death, sorrow and pain. And there are futher unspecified benefits for good behavior.

6. An Eternal Purpose and Enduring Legacy