God loves you very much and has provided a wonderful plan in order for you to be restored to a right relationship with Him. There are 4 simple truths that God wants you to understand.

1. We are all sinners.
Romans 3:10 states, “There is none righteous, no not one”.

Righteous means to live right. God is saying that none of us have lived right.

Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”.

The reason we haven’t lived right is because we have chosen to sin and break God’s commandments. God commanded us not to lie. Have you ever lied? Since we have, then we have been liars. God commanded us not to steal. Have you ever taken anything that didn’t belong to you, regardless of the price? Since we have, then we have been thieves.

We’ve also broken God’s commandment not to covet (desire to have) anything that is thy neighbors. (Before we've stolen something, we've first coveted it.) God told us not to commit adultery. Jesus told us if we lust in our hearts, we are adulterers in our heart and guilty of breaking that commandment.Have you broken this commandment?

God told us not to have any other gods before Him. Have we always kept God first in our lives and loved Him above everyone and everything else? Since we haven’t, we are guilty of breaking this commandment too.

Have you ever used God’s name in vain? Vain means to use it in an empty way, without meaning it. Have you ever used God's name to just fill up a sentence, with out even thinking of Him? The Lord will not hold him guiltless who uses His name in vain. These are just some of God’s commandments that we’ve broken. Surely, we are guilty before Him!

2.  There is a penalty for our sin.
Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

Since we are sinners before a holy and just God, He must punish us for our sin. God created a beautiful and perfect world at the beginning, but since we have sinned, death is now a part of it. We have earned death for our sins. Death also includes the second death, which is the Lake of Fire. Yes, hell is an awful reality (Rev. 20:14). If we get justice from God, we will be cast into hell forever.

3.  Christ paid the penalty for our sin.
Romans 5:8 states, “But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us".

God loves us so much that He allowed His Son to pay the penalty of our sin for us. He now offers us the gift of eternal life if we’ll receive it.

By way of illustration, imagine yourself before a judge guilty of crimes. He sets the penalty at 6 months in jail or a fine of $10,000. Let’s suppose you don’t have the money, so you are facing the 6 months. To the amazement of everyone in the courtroom, the judge stands up and takes his robe off. Now in regular civilian clothes, he walks down several steps and across the courtroom to the clerk. Pulling out his own credit card he says, “Charge the $10,000 to my account”. He then, with receipt in hand, walks over and offers the full payment as a gift to you. If you receive it, you can leave debt free. If you refuse it, you can choose to pay it yourself, by going to jail for 6 months. That is exactly what Jesus did for you!
The Lord in heaven has judged each one of us as guilty of sin. The penalty is hell. Jesus took off his royal robes of glory and came down to where we were. He looked just like any other man, but was actually God in human flesh. He then went to the cross, paid the penalty for our sins, and rose again.

4. We must personally receive Christ and His payment.
Romans 10:9 states, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”.

 God promises to save us if we will acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord God who became man, and if we will believe (Trust, cling to, rely upon) that He paid for our sins on the cross, and then rose again from the dead. If we’ll trust His payment on the cross as the full payment paid for our sins, then He will save us.

Romans 10:13 states, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved”.

God made it so simple. If we’ll just forsake everything that we have been trusting in outside of Jesus (good deeds, church membership, baptism, etc.) and trust in Him alone, then He will save us.

You may want to pray something like this to God:

God, I know that I’m a sinner and because of that, I deserve hell. I believe that Jesus died and paid for all of my sins and then rose again from the dead. I do now receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I trust His death and resurrection as the full payment for my sins, so I don’t have to pay for them. Please save me. In Jesus name, Amen!