But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
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He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:3-12)
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Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
…For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
(Romans 5:12, 17-18)
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My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (I John 2:1-2)
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The Bible is very clear that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). So how does one get to heaven and commune with a perfect, just God? Well, there’s nothing we can do to achieve the kind of righteousness His just nature requires. We can, however have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15) imputed unto us by faith in Jesus as the son of God.
Nothing we can do — no good deed, sacrament, or anything else — can negate our burden of sin. Jesus paid the penalty for that sin, however, “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). We need only to accept the free gift mentioned in Romans 5:15.
There are millions of people out there trying to work their way into heaven. The fact of the matter is that the price of our salvation was paid once for all when Jesus died on the cross and rose again. We need only to put our faith in him rather than ourselves or any earthly institution. That’s why eternal salvation is referred to as a “gift” by Jesus himself and apostles Peter and Paul. My wish this weekend is that everybody reading this would take those Bible verses to heart, do some Bible reading on your own to see that the verses quoted above are only the tip of the iceberg, and accept that free gift of eternal life through the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.