Question: What is sin?  Back to Top

Answer: Sin is any thought or action that is contrary to what God, who is Holy and perfect, would have us do.  There is a clear difference between right and wrong, and it is when we choose to do wrong that we have sinned against God.  God allows us to know the difference between right and wrong by giving us a conscience, an inner voice, that tells us that what we are doing makes God unhappy.  However, at times we choose to ignore our conscience, and consequently, God's will for our lives so that we may please ourselves, instead of pleasing Him.  When Adam and Eve committed the first sin, that sin caused them to damage their relationship with God and also condemned everyone who was born after Adam and Eve to have to lose their lives for their sin.

Question: Why do we need to be saved?  Back to Top

Answer: We, as a cynical society, have rejected the ideas of good & evil, and right or wrong.  We also refuse to accept responsibility for our actions, especially when we think nobody is watching us, and therefore, believe we can get away with it.

God is watching us though, and because He is Holy, He cannot accept us when we are separated from Him by our sins.  With God, just as with everything else in life, we are rewarded for the good choices that we make, and must also pay for our bad choices.

Unfortunately, the price for our sins is so high, we can never hope to pay for them on our own.  What's worse is that if we do not pay for those sins in life, we must pay for them in death, and not only the death of our bodies, but also the death of our souls.

Question: If we cannot pay for our own sins, what hope do we have?  Back to Top

Answer: Fortunately, our hope is not in ourselves, or in anything we could do to pay for our sins, because there is nothing we can ever do to "be good enough" to deserve God's forgiveness.  The reason that this is fortunate for us, is that God knows this, and rather than condemning us to eternal death, He has made the ultimate sacrifice for us, so that all we have to do is trust in His sacrifice, and then, not only will our sins be paid for completely and forever, but our relationship with God will be restored, guarantying us eternal life.

Question: What is this great sacrifice that God made for us?  Back to Top

Answer: Though you may not know it when you first read this, the best news you will ever hear is that God allowed His only son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so that our sins can be paid for, completely and forever.  God did this because He loves us so much, more than any parent has ever loved their own kids, and does not want to see us suffer or allow us to spend eternity without Him. 

Jesus Christ was born and lived 33 years on earth, never sinning, and never disobeying His Father, even when it meant dying a horrible death that He did not deserve.  He did this for us though, because the price of our sin is death, and only through death can sins be paid for.  Had he not died for us, then every person who ever lived, would spend eternity suffering for the sins they have committed.  However, because He did die for us, we never again have to worry about "being good enough" or finding some other way to repair the damage in our relationship with God that sin has caused.  We will still die an earthly death, but Jesus' death, and resurrection will prevent us from suffering an eternal death, and will allow us to have eternal life in Heaven.

Question: Do we just need to know that Jesus died and was resurrected to accept His sacrificial dying in our place?  Back to Top

Answer: No, just knowing is not enough.  The one and only thing that Jesus requires from us, is belief in Him and His gift.  And this doesn't mean that we just say we believe that Jesus existed, but we have to:

• Accept the fact that we are sinners,
• Accept the fact that there is no way that we can pay for our sins without Jesus
• Believe that He died for our sins, and after rising from the dead, returned to Heaven to speak to God on our behalf
• Believe that God has accepted Jesus' sacrifice and through Jesus' death , sees us the way He originally intended to, perfect, just as He is perfect.

Question: Is this all we need to do to become "Christians"?  Back to Top

Answer: Yes.  All that is needed to be saved from eternal death is that we accept Jesus' gift, and believe in Him.  However, this is not all that is required to live a Christian life.  Anyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, must also accept Him as their Lord.  This means that we begin to use our lives to serve and please Jesus and our Father God, and that our focus is no longer on ourselves and our own sinful desires.

Question: After we accept Jesus as our lord and savior, will we still sin?  Back to Top

Answer: Yes, unfortunately, Jesus' perfect act does not make us perfect, nor will anything we do while we are still here on earth.  It is not until we die an earthly death and go to live in Heaven that God actually removes our desire to sin from us.  Until then, we will still go on sinning.  What we won't do, however, is be content to go on sinning and displeasing God.  Our sin will bother us just as much as it does Him, and when we realize that we are displeasing God, we will want to stop doing it and confess our sins to Him so that we may move past them.

Question: So what do we do now that we have accepted Christ? Back to Top

Answer: As mentioned earlier, we not only accept Christ as our Savior, but also as our Lord.  He is now in control, and expects us to live that way.  We accomplish this by being obedient to God's Word (obviously this requires reading the Bible), and by going to church where we can continue growing as Christians and preparing ourselves for greater usefulness to God.  This doesn't necessarily mean that we change everything about our lives (quitting our jobs for instance).  God may very well want us to stay where we are so we can be used for His purposes.  However, what it does mean is that we are willing to do what He asks of us, whether it is to share our testimonies with a co-worker, or actually quit our jobs and become  missionaries.  While we are waiting for His direction, the important thing to remember is that our behavior, good or bad, will have an affect on other people , so we will want to conduct ourselves in a manner that is pleasing to God and does not interfere with other people who do not yet know Him.

Question: How do we know what God plans for our lives?   Back to Top

Answer: The easy answer for this question is that He will tell us when He is ready.  We all want to be really useful, or have a high-profile assignment because it makes us feel valuable, but sometimes the purpose that He has for us seem very small.  This does not meant that it is not very important, and that it is not exactly what He wants for us to do.  But sometimes we get so caught up with our need to be important that we totally miss the big picture, and this may cause us to miss what He is actually telling us.

To answer this in another way, there are a few specific things we can do to know what God wants us to do with our lives:

• Be patient.  God's timing is different than our timing especially since he can see the big picture, and our vision (our ability to see the big picture) is limited by what we allow ourselves to focus on (which is usually just ourselves).
  
• Read the Bible.  Most of what God wants us to know now has already been written down.  There are certainly times when He may speak directly to us (and this does not mean in an actual audible voice) through prayer, or through other people, but He also wants us to refer to His word to find the answers that He prepared for us long before we were ever born.
  
• Prayer is another good way to find out what He wants us to do with our lives.  However, we need to keep in mind that prayer is not intended to change His mind or to make Him do special favors for us.  Instead, it is intended to change our hearts and help us focus our attention on Him as well as make us willing to do whatever He asks of us.
  
• Other followers of Christ, especially those who have had a relationship with God for some time, may be able to help when we are looking for direction for our lives.  Chances are they have been in the same position that we are in now, and went through the same struggles that we are facing. Their experience and wisdom can be invaluable.
  
• Trust God.  Even when things don't seem to be working out the way we planned, God still loves us, still wants what is best for us (for our long-term spiritual well-being) and still can use us regardless of our situation.  In fact, sometimes God allows us to face struggles hoping that the struggles will allow us to see we need Him and need to rely on Him.  Becoming a Christian will not make everything in our life perfect and easy, but it will help us to focus on what is really important in life, our relationship with God , and will give us the opportunity to truly experience God's love and compassion for this world.