Welcome to the Family of God

A miraculous event has just happened to you!

By placing your faith in the shed blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sin, you have been born again!  Your name has been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Luke 10:20. "...rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven." 

And even the angels rejoiced as you were welcomed into the family of God
Luke 15:10. "In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The fact of your salvation goes much deeper than the sense of joy and peace you feel at this moment, Though God's plan of salvation now appears so simple, you know that it is also very personal for the acceptance of it came from deep within your heart;
Romans 10:9-11. [NASB] 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.". 

Let us take a closer look at this beautiful event and examine all that it is and all that it will mean to you through the rest of your life--and through eternity! 

The New Birth Explained - Your Discovery of Need as a Sinner 
Perhaps the first realization that your life needed something or someone more than yourself was through a failure.  Maybe it was a tragedy or a severe trial.  Conditions in the world, your home, at work or concerning your health may have made you wonder about the future.  You might have been a person who had accomplished all that you had set out to do in life--perhaps you even attended church regularly!  Yet, deep inside, you realized that something vital was missing.  You simply did not feel the sense of fulfillment you thought you would.  Whatever the reason, thank God for it.  He is faithful, and brings each of us into circumstances, which prepare us to receive His Word.

After coming to this realization, your next logical question was probably, "why?"  Why did this situation arise?  Why did you not feel fulfilled?  The answer is that, in and of ourselves, we are sinners--unrighteous, and unworthy of God's love and blessing.  We cannot achieve heaven, or merit God's favor on our own.  Self effort - even self-righteousness - no matter how honest or pure the intent, simply isn't enough, Romans 3:10 tells us that in God's eyes "...None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one."

The only way we are saved is by grace, which is a gift from God to us:
Ephesians 2:8-9. [NASB] 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Titus 3:5. [NASB] He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,, 

The progression of sin in the world since the fall of Adam and Eve is clearly explained in God's Word:

Romans 5:12 [NASB] Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. 

Something vital was lost in the fall of Adam and Eve.  That something was a right relationship with God--a relationship which would allow man to have communion with Him and partake of His love, His knowledge and His power!  This separation from God has been passed down through the ages to every human being including yourself.  And, had you continued on along your self-sustaining pathway your end would have been even worse than the life you had been experiencing.  Before you received Christ as your Savior, you were on your way to eternal separation from God! 

Romans 6:23. [NASB] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Revelation 20:14-15. [NASB] hen death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Your Discovery of Christ as Saviour 
Sometime after you realized your lost condition as a sinner, you made another important discovery.  This fact was that in spite of all you were, and all you had done.  God loved you and had given His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for your sins.  What a wonderful gift God gave to us! 

Romans 5:8. [NASB] But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 1:7. [NASB] But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 

1 Peter 2:24. [NASB] and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 

Hebrews 10:10. [NASB] By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

The Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt of sin to God for you.  He shed His blood that you might live eternally.  Even after all your years of running from Him and rejecting Him, He still stretched out His arms to you and called for you to come to Him.  In John 15:9 Jesus Himself said: "I have loved you, just as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love" 

The realization that Christ was your answer comes to us in many ways.  Perhaps it was through the sermon of a minister of God's Word, through reading a Gospel tract or through the faithful witness of a concerned Christian who was burdened for your soul.  Whatever the case was, we know that the grace of God came forward to lead you to salvation. 

Titus 2:11. [NASB]  For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. 

Your Exercise of FAITH 

As you pondered these new found truths about yourself and about the Savior, you felt a tug within--something the Bible calls the drawing of God.

John 6:44. [NASB]  No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day

Even though you may have at first been unwilling to admit it, deep inside you KNEW God's Word was true, that God loved you and had sent His Son to pay for your sins.  You realized that to be at peace with Him - and with yourself - you must obey His command and, by faith trust Him to do what He said He would do
Romans 6:23. [NASB] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

So, perhaps at once or perhaps a little later, you of your own free will acted upon your heart's belief, willingly turned from self, sin and shame and poured out your heart to God. 

You told Him of your need and totally trusted in His promise:
John 6:37. [NASB] All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 

You then admitted that you were a sinner:

Romans 3:23. [NASB] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

You acknowledged and confessed Jesus as your personal Savior and believed in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead: 
Romans 10:9-10 [NASB] 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

You called upon the name of the Lord to be saved:
Romans 10:13. [NASB] for "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.".

Perhaps your prayer went something like this:
"Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you just as I am, a sinner.  I willingly turn from my sin and unbelief to you.  By faith I trust you to save me through your shed blood and to guide me in the Christian life, for I will live for you, Amen:'
(If you have read to this point and realize that you have not come to Christ in this way, won't you bow your head and ask Him to save you right now?) 

Just saying the above words will not save you.  Believing in your heart that this is God's one and only way of salvation, and that He will keep His promise to save you when you call, is what accomplishes the transaction.  When one freely and honestly gives himself to God through Christ, God in turn freely gives him the gift of eternal life through Christ.  The moment you repented of your sin, believing that God could and would save you, and the moment you confessed both your sin and belief to God, YOU WERE SAVED!

Now you understand the meaning of faith.  It is simply trusting God to do what He said He would do and accepting the fact that He has done it as His Word promises. And you can rest in the hope of eternal life because if God says it you can believe it, God cannot lie:
Titus 1:2. [NASB] "in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago."

Hallelujah!  The moment you believed and called upon the Lord you were saved and placed into the family of God through the work of the Holy Spirit:
1 Corinthians 12:13. [NASB] For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Your Next Step (click Link):  The New Birth Examined

(Source: First Steps in a New Direction, JVIM)