The only thing you have to do in order to be saved from sin is to believe in God's love for you, Jesus's sacrifice for you, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. So many people believe only two out of three because they can not accept that they're lovable or worth dying for. They believe Christ died on the cross and that God raised him from the dead, but cannot believe it was for them also.
Jesus didn't come into this world to condemn this world. He came into this world to save people from sin, make the Holy Spirit available to all as a teacher, comforter and guide and to defeat death. Jesus is our propitiation for sin. And even though people have no problem believing in Christ it is hard for them to believe he died for them also.
We all sin. We all come up short on the scales. We all deserve to pay for our sins. None of us is good enough for the Son of God to die for. But he did. He sees our value. He knows our worth. He has bought us with a price and wants to present us to God as the priceless jewels that we are.
God created us for himself. He wants to have a personal, deep, open, honest relationship with each one of us. He created each one of us with gifts, talents, and with a plan for each one of us.
We are no accident. Our mistakes do not define us. We learn from our mistakes and become better people because of them but our mistakes are not who we are. Maybe you can't love yourself right now.
You aren't required to love yourself to be saved. That will come as you learn who you are in Christ, how God sees you, and that you're a joint-heir with Christ. God is not a liar. He nor Jesus wants for any of us to die in sin and eternal death. Trust in God's unconditional love for you and accept Jesus as your Savior. Start life over new. Remember, when you get saved your become a new creature, washed from all your sin, set free from bondage, healed and made new and upon asking to receive the Holy Spirit are filled with the Holy Spirit.
I warn you, do not let your old ways hinder you. You will have to take one day at a time, learning God's ways, learning how to be a better person. Sin can no longer separate you from God. Sin and darkness will try to suck you back into your old lifestyle, your old way of thinking, you're old habits, your old way of seeing yourself.
Study the Holy Bible, read it daily. Memorize one verse a day. Use scripture to defeat the enemy who wants you to believe that you're no good; cling to Jesus and his love for you. Constantly renew your mind by thinking on how God loves you unconditionally, Jesus gave his life for you when you were up to your eyeballs in sin, you are washed clean, made new, God has separated your sin from you as far as the East is from the West, your sin was erased from the book of life to be remembered no more. Eat the word of God. Digest it. Believe in your God given right to stand before God without any sense of sin, guilt or condemnation.
Do not let self condemnation come between you and your adoption into the family of Christ. You belong to Christ now. Believe it. Live it. Be it.
Lisa
Scripture:
For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. He who believes in Him [who clings to, trusts in, relies on Him] is not judged [he who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation–he incurs no damnation]; but he who does not believe (cleave to, rely on, trust in Him) is judged already [he has already been convicted and has already received his sentence] because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ's name.]
John 3:16-18 AMPC
