One morning when Haley came down to breakfast Joe told her that he had to a meeting to go to and that he had to leave in about an hour, but first he wanted to talk to Haley about all the things she had learned about who she was.
Haley was excited! She poured herself a big bowl of cereal and filled the bowl up to the top with milk. She sat down on the chair across the table from Joe, but she missed the chair and fell to the floor! The bowl of milk and cereal turned upside down and landed on her head! She was covered with milk and cereal! Haley wanted to go take and shower and put on clean, dry clothes, but Joe said that there was not time. So, Haley got onto the chair and sat there dripping milk and cereal, but she did not mind too much because she wanted to hear what Joe was going to tell her.
Joe said, “When I started teaching you about who you are in God’s eyes, at first you learned things that were hard to accept. You learned that you were a sinner and that you cannot change that. No matter how hard you try to be good and perfect, you will never succeed. Each of us has a sin nature, and we do not have the power to overcome that nature. We are hopeless on our own! Our sin brings consequences in our life, and we deserve those consequences. We are separated from God, and we are spiritually dead and physically slowly dying! That is bad news! On our own, we are hopeless, and we cannot do anything about it!
The Good News comes from God! In the Bible in Ephesians 2:1-10 it says:
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil – the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
Because Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, anyone who believes in Jesus and asks Him to forgive their sins, come into their life and take over is saved!
Once a person is saved, everything changes! Now that person is accepted by God, and they are adopted into God’s family! It is incredible, but God Himself considers all believers to be His children, part of His family! A believer can call God their ‘Daddy’!
The sin that the believer has struggled with their whole life and will continue to struggle with until this life on earth is over, is forgiven and forgotten. God choses to forget our sins! When God looks at a believer, He does not see their sin, He only sees the righteousness of Jesus!
God gives us a new life, and we do not have to live this life on our own! God’s Holy Spirit lives in each believer, and Jesus Himself is our advocate in heaven. When Satan accuses a believer of any wrongdoing, Jesus Himself claims us as His own, and reminds Satan that He paid for our sins on the cross. We are no longer condemned; we are forgiven and free because of what Jesus did for us on the cross!
As a forgiven believer, we are to leave our old life behind, and God will work in us to renew our minds and to help us become more like Jesus Christ!
And the best part, when this life on earth is over, believers inherit everything! That is right, a believer is a co-heir with Jesus Christ Himself! Jesus was involved in the creation of the whole universe, He sustains the whole universe, and believers inherit all of it! We are not capable of understanding all of this, but it is going to be great!”
Joe looked straight into Haley’s eyes and said, “That is who you are! On your own, you are nothing but a sinner who deserves punishment and separation from God. When you invited Jesus into your life and asked for forgiveness all of that changed! Now you are part of God’s family, and that is the best way to live life on this earth, and heaven is going to be better than anything you can imagine! This is who you are, and it is so important to let your friends know about how they too can experience the forgiveness that Jesus provided by dying on the cross, so that they can have a life that is full of meaning and purpose, and be headed to heaven after this life!”