A Matter of Life and Death

Read | Romans 5:6-19

There’s a issue of supreme importance that we often forget about in the busyness of life and the daily challenges of relationships. It is the question of where people will spend eternity.

Looking at the human race from a divine viewpoint, we understand that at the end of time, there will be two groups: those who will live forever with God and those who will experience eternal death, separated from Him. Every living person’s final destination will hinge on the simplicity of receiving God’s forgiveness for his or her sins.

Nobody—saved or unsaved—deserves God’s mercy. No amount of good deeds, religious activity, or church attendance can earn the free gift of forgiveness and eternal relationship with our Maker. From the kindest to the cruelest, we each inherited the sinful nature of “the first Adam,” who was the first man to know the Lord and also the first to rebel against Him.

Without God’s gift of grace—namely, a new spirit, made possible by Jesus’ substitutionary death and resurrection—we could never be washed and made clean. Through a simple act of faith, we receive God’s offer of total pardon and a completely new spiritual nature.

Everyone is born into the world with a “flesh” nature bent away from God, (Rom. 8:7-8), and spiritual death can be avoided only through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that He offers. Have you received Him as your personal Savior? If not, pray right now, sincerely asking for salvation. God wants you to receive His free gift of eternal life, perfect righteousness, and adoption into His family. -Charles Stanley