God wants you to seek him because he is seeking a relationship with you.  Did you realize that God loves you and wants to be your Father?

He created us with freedom of choice and he wants us to choose to love him.  The problem is that we choose sin and this is something that a holy (sinless) God can’t be part of.  Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities (sins) have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

Because God is holy and he can’t dwell with sin, our sins must be paid for.  The apostle Paul said, “…all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)  So God had to do something to enable us, as sinners, to come back to him and have a relationship with him.

That’s where John 3:16 comes in, “For God so loves the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  God offered a way for “the wages of sin” to be paid by the death of Jesus rather than our own spiritual death.

Jesus declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6

We can’t earn it, because our “wages” should be death.  He saves us because of his goodness not ours.  Ephesians 2:8-9 points out that “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Grace is the free gift from God to save those who believe with all their heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  As we accept that truth, we must also accept his requirements to receive that free gift.  The gift is free, but like any gift it’s only a gift if it is accepted and received.

The very first time the saving message of Jesus was preached, the crowd interrupted the speaker, who was Peter, and asked what they needed to do to be reunited with God.  Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  After hearing that about 3000 men were baptized (immersed/buried) into Christ and God added them to the church.  (Acts 2:37-41)

Following their decision to become Christians, those same people who were now the first church, met together and did things to help build one another up and help one another stay faithful to God.  (Read Acts 2:42-47)

That’s what the first Christians did and that is what we need to do today.  With the Bible as our only guide and authority, we find that every person who came to Jesus followed the same pattern.  They came to believe that Jesus was the Son of God and the resurrected Lord.  They confessed him as Lord and repented of their sins (Repentance is a heart-level sorrow and the commitment to not sin any more). And every one of them where immersed in water through baptism to symbolize being united with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  (See Romans 6:3-5; Galatians 3:27)

Each new Christian then joined with a group of other Christians to help each other grow spiritually and learn to become more like Jesus.  The goal of every Christian is to act, talk, and even think just like Jesus.  (See Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21;  Philippians 2:5-11)

Want to read more about it?  The New Testament explains God’s plan for redeeming man back to him from our sins.  The four Gospels, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell us who Jesus was and show us why we must believe in him as the Son of God.  The book of Acts is the story of the beginning of the church and what those first Christians did to spread the message of Jesus.  The other books or letters in the New Testament are encouragements and insights into what God wants his children (Christians) to do to grow and remain faithful to him.

If you are interested in further study, please come to one of our Bible classes.