First let me say that since you are checking out this site, I am assuming that you are the sort of person who won't be swayed easily. I'm not trying to sway you. Those who come to Christianity must do so on their own terms. It's a lifetime commitment that changes your whole life - so you HAVE to do it on your terms. No one can coerce you. No one can make you. You have to choose it yourself. In fact, in the KEY CONCEPTS section you will find that this "choosing" is the very fabric of Christianity. It's the point.

So many people have been taught that God is watching our every move so He can catch us screwing up. At which point, He then flattens us with His huge gavel of judgement.

This concept is so foreign to authentic Christianity. God's whole purpose in sending Jesus was so He could take our sins upon Him. That means that every screw up we ever made, every sin we ever have or could commit, is washed away by His sacrificial blood, it's covered by His blood. He paid the debt of our sin.

What do I mean by "our debt?" Let me use a recent tv episode to illustrate. Several girls in college were raped by a single young man on campus. They all tried to get the authorities at the school and otherwise to do something about it, but to no avail. One of them wrote something on a bathroom wall and each of the other girls saw it. They began communicating about this. One of the girls was seen being raped by her 13 year old brother.

After much deliberation and planning the girls as a group decided to take the law into their own hands and kill this guy. They planned it out and proceeded with their plans, but couldn't pull the trigger. They threw the gun in the trash and left with him taunting them (after peeing his pants when he thought he was going to die.)

The 13 year old brother had overhead the plans and ended up getting the gun and shooting this guy.

The show was impactful in that the police system had to decide whether to press charges against this boy who was all grown up now for doing what he did.

There wasn't a single cop that didn't relate to the boy. Their job of course was to uphold the law. But they all thought they would have done the same thing had they been in his shoes.

It is justice that sins be paid for by blood. When someone kills someone and then gets to wait around for trial for several years, the family of the victim feels a true and devestating sense of injustice. When the killer is finally dealt with, in particular the death penalty, there is a sense of justice and closure.

Am I advocating the death penalty? I'm not talking about that. What I am saying is there are some situations that we can wrap our heart and mind around which scream for vindication.

This is the way it is with God. There is no restitution for sin except death. We are told in the new testament that the wages of sin is death. We will reap what we sow. In fact in our very first glimpse of God in the Old Testament He told Adam and Eve, "If you eat of this fruit you will surely die." It must be. It has to be. It is the only appropriate response from a just God. No other respose could He have. You can't look the other way like the police officers in the story above and hand down justice. The boy had killed the rapist. What about his rights? But it flies in our face somehow. Because it still isn't totally right. God demands that sin costs death.

Then, in His mercy, He created a way for someone else to pay that cost. That's what Jesus did. He came and died for you and I. He died in our place. Our sins were put on Him, He suffered our punishment, just as if someone paid our fine. We don't understand why they would do such a nice thing for us, but we don't owe it anymore. Just like the lady behind the counter saying, "Mam, I don't see that you owe a fine." It's a done deal. Jesus paid the debt. He paid it for every person. Sin is washed away in His blood. Now we are "justified" which means "just as if we never sinned."

He made a way for that to happen - but, we can refuse it. We can say - Hey! No way. What you want me to do to get that forgiveness is too much. I'm not going to do it.

Every human has that right. We have what's called free moral agency. We are our own moral agents. We can choose to be moral in and of ourselves, without His help. We won't make it. We will fail - in fact, have failed already. We have fines. We have warrents - but no thanks! I can take care of myself. And God says, Far out. Go for it. Rock on.

Really that's what it all boils down to. We can either be independant of or dependant on God. That's what the whole Adam and Eve thing was supposed to teach us. They only had one rule. Have you ever thought about that? They only had one rule and they blew it! And the Garden of Eden was Parasdise, right? Have you ever wondered why, in Paradise, the most wonderful place we can imagine, there existed the ability to fail built into it? The opportunity to choose? Because God wants us to want to be with Him. He doesn't make us. He's not like that. He's a gentleman. Paradise was not Paradise without that feature built in. It's part and parcel that Paradise have the ability to leave. You sure don't have to be there.

We can trust God and be dependent on Him and let Him have our lives in exchange for our forgiveness and debt being paid, or we can keep rockin' on. Doing our own thing. Being our own boss and have the results of our own choices. If you have ever kicked yourself for some bad choice you made, think of doing it forever! That's a crappy feeling! But you are entitlted. No one will deny that, not even God.

Salvation, then, is the forgiveness of our sins in exchange for becoming dependant on God. Letting Him be the boss of us instead of ourselves. Many will tell you that salvation is free, and it is. You can't buy it. And it is available to everyone. You don't get it by being good enough to earn it, which is what they are trying to say when they say it is free. But, food stamps are free, too. And they cost us a lot! We have to give up our time to go down and get signed up. We have to be re-evaluated. We aren't allowed to have more people living in our house than they say we can have. And it costs us some humility because it is somewhat degrading to go through the process. People sitting in there don't look at each other. It's humiliating somehow. Food stamps are free, but they cost something. Salvation is free, but it costs us something, too. Thankfully everything it costs us has a good return, as well, because God created a perfect system for us because He loves us so much. The Food Stamp office doesn't love us so much! And they didn't create their system to meet our needs!

Everything Christianity costs us has a reward both in this life and in the life to come. Oh, yeah, and we get to be forgiven, our debt is erased. And we get all the blessings of being in a relationship with the Creator of the universe. All His power is at our disposal. We are His now. Reinstated. Starting over. You're a new man or woman. And He helps us all along the way. Just as He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, God will walk with each and every one of us.