You’re important. Genesis 1:27 reads, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” You have a soul and body that will live somewhere forever, and God has a purpose for you. Psalm 139:13 is true for everyone and reminds that your arrival here was not an accident: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” The God who created you is an amazing God: “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without sin, just and upright is he”(Deuteronomy 32:4).
So God is great, and every person has value; but we all have a problem: “Your sins have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear”(Isaiah 59:2). God is too holy to allow sin in his presence. Paul reminds us in Romans 3:10,12, “None is righteous, no not one. . . . No one does good, not even one.” Romans 6:23 begins with our rightful penalty: “For the wages of sin is death.” Eternal death in hell is what we deserve. The remainder of that verse, however, reads, “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 1 Peter 3:18 tells us about this gift: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”
Christ died on the cross almost 2000 years ago to pay the penalty for your sin—no matter what you’ve done—because he loves you, loves you as no one else ever has or ever will. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”(2 Corinthians 5:21). He who was perfect took the sins of the world on his shoulders, sin which God the Father could not look at, causing the Father to turn away from the Son in his darkest hour: “’My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”(Matthew 27:46). The Bible verse most quoted around the globe spells out this beautiful story: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”(John 3:16).
The Savior died for you, but he did not remain in the grave. He rose from death, proving that he is God. Paul wrote, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”(1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
If you have accepted this gift of salvation, remember its value and determine anew to live in gratitude for the Savior and share the good news with others.
If you’ve never accepted this gift, admit you’re a sinner and recognize that in order to escape your rightful penalty, your sin needs to be paid for. Then accept Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross as his personal gift to you, and you’re saved from eternal death. No physical action can earn this gift, only your admission of guilt and acceptance of Christ’s death as payment for your sin.
