Gospel Invitation

If you were to die today, where would you go? This question is something that makes a lot of us think about our choices here on earth and if we are truly living our lives in a right way that is honoring to God. Another way to ask this same question is: If God judged you today, would you be declared 100% righteous? According to God’s Word, nothing unclean can enter into the presence of God. How then can I be declared 100% righteous so that I can enter into the presence of God?

  Hebrews 9:27 “For all mankind is appointed to die once and then face judgement.”

We’d better make wise choices during our life in this earth while we still can because our judgement is what immediately comes after our physical death.

  Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

  Matthew 25:46 “The unrighteous will go to eternal punishment, but the righteous to   eternal life.”

We are all sinners and have broken God’s law. Romans 6:23 tells us that our rightful punishment for sinning is spiritual death or separation from God, which is another name for hell. But God loves you so much that he chose to make a way for us to be able to go to heaven and live with him. God chose to come to earth and take the punishment for your sins. That is why he died on the cross. Not only did He take your punishment, but he offers you this amazing gift of grace and forgiveness! Nothing sinful can enter into God’s presence. This means that we need to be 100% righteous and this can only happen if we are 100% forgiven of all our sins. How can we be declared righteous before God so that we can receive eternal life?
  
Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;”

If we are trying to prove our righteousness to God by bringing our good works before him, being the holy, sinless and perfect God that He is, he will look upon our righteous deeds like they are filthy rags. Our own righteous deeds have nothing to do with how we can become declared righteous and receive eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace that we are saved through faith. This is not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works so that no man can boast. We are God’s workmanship created to do good works.”

We cannot save ourselves to any degree. This means that we need someone to save us from our sins. If we sincerely put our faith in the one true Jesus, the work that He did on the cross for us, we will be forgiven of our sins.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

All we need to do is have genuine faith in Jesus and ask Him to forgive us of our sins, and He will forgive us. If our faith is sincere and we truly are sorry for our sins, we can approach God with a heart of humility and ask him for forgiveness. And here is the amazing part called grace kicks in: BEFORE doing any works…before doing any righteous deeds…immediately upon responding to the gospel message, admitting you’re a sinner, and accepting all that Jesus did on your behalf, you immediately receive ALL of God’s gifts of grace.

John 5:24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”

John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”

If you would like to receive the amazing gospel of grace, become justified, and become spiritually alive/born again, here are Biblical instructions to do so:

  1. Admit to God that you are an ungodly sinner who deserves hell for breaking His law (but thankfully Romans 4:5 says that God justifies the ungodly)
  2. Believe in Jesus, that he died on the cross for your sins and then rose from the dead 3 days later
  3. Ask God to forgive your sins
  4. Make a personal covenant with God, asking Him to change your heart to help you live for him for the rest of your life
  5. Immediately upon the profession and sincerity of your faith, you have now received God’s gift of grace which includes: full forgiveness of all your sins (past, present and future), being spiritually brought to life/born again, adoption into God’s family and church, declared 100% righteous, and received absolute assurance of eternal life and salvation!
  6. Live the rest of your life for Him and find a Bible based church that teaches to truth about Jesus. Your works and obedience will demonstrate if your faith in Jesus is real and living…or fake and dead.
  • It doesn’t matter WHAT church you are a member of…it only matters WHO you are a follower of. If someone tells you, “You must be a member and get baptized into our specific church organization in order to be on the right path to eternal life,” that is a big red flag. Leave immediately and join a different church. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and test the teachings. Pray for wisdom and study the New Testament so that you can learn to identify these kinds of red flags. People I suggest learning from would be: Mike Winger, Alisa Childers or Allan Parr. Each of these people are very Biblically sound and can be found on their YouTube channel.

    John 6:28-29 “Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
  • It doesn’t matter how unworthy you might feel. Just turn to God and feel His love and forgiveness wash over you. If you would like to receive God’s forgiveness of you sins and his promise of eternal life, you can just believe and pray to God something like this:

    “God, I know that I am a sinner and have broken your law. I know that I am unworthy of heaven and deserving of hell. But you love me so much that you died for me in my place on the cross. I believe that you rose from the dead and that you did all of the righteous works in my place. I ask you to please forgive me of my sins, Jesus. Please come into my life, give me your righteousness and change my heart. I am yours now and forever. Please teach me how to love and honor you all the days of my life. Amen.”

    If you have said this prayer and sincerely mean it, welcome to the family Your spiritual journey has just begun! And never forget that everything you will ever need is found in Christ. It is not found in a church nor in ourselves…Jesus all by himself is everything and he will always be with you, even in the worst of times. Please share this with other friends and family members who need to hear the good news of Jesus.
  • If you would like to dig deeper into this amazing gospel of grace, click on the “related” link below called, “Which Gospel Are You Under?”

Who Is Your Personal Mediator?

The bishop plays a critical role in the LDS Church and in lives of those who are striving to repent of their sins. Bishops often have members of their congregation confess private and personal sins to them. Why exactly do LDS members feel the need to confess these sins specifically to their bishop rather than some other godly role model in their life?

According to the official churchofjesuschrist.org website, I believe that it is abundantly clear that LDS Church doctrine states that if you commit a serious sin (breaking the law of chastity), that you are then required to confess that sin to your bishop. And only after doing so will God forgive you of that sin.

Imagine that a faithful member of the LDS Church committed a serious sin and felt great sorrow for disobeying God. This person confesses their sin to God. They also confess to their close friends and ask for prayer, support and accountability. The articles above are clear that even though this person is sincerely repentant of their sin, they would still not be forgiven because they have not confessed their sin to their bishop.

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A mediator is someone who is “in between” you and God. He is the one who can reconcile your relationship with God and declare that you are clean and forgiven. We have all broken God’s law (Romans 3:23; James 2:10). According to God’s Word, who must we confess all of our sins to as our personal mediator in order to become forgiven of our sins?

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

According to God’s Word, who do we need to confess our sins to? The one who is faithful and just to forgive us. Jesus alone is the only mediator between man and God the Father. A personal/direct mediator is someone who you can directly approach. By confessing our serious sins directly to God and God alone, we can find forgiveness. If I am required to confess my serious sins to my bishop, who has then become my personal/direct mediator?

James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

We read here that it is good to confess our sins to one another. The purpose is for accountability, prayer, and support. Is it good to confess our sins to one another to help us overcome them? Absolutely! Are we required to confess our sins to a specific individual on earth before we can receive God’s forgiveness? Absolutely not!

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Let us remember what Scripture has stated: that we can go directly to God alone as our mediator, confess all of our sins directly to Him and he will personally forgive us of all our sins and unrighteousness. There is no one else that we are required to confess to in order to receive forgiveness of sins.

This privilege of being able to have that direct access to Jesus by going directly to Him in prayer as our personal mediator and laying down all of your sins (regardless of how serious they are) at the foot of the cross is what it means to have a personal relationship with Him.

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In general, the more we talk with someone, the stronger that relationship becomes. Prayer is how we talk to God. The more we talk with God, the stronger that relationship becomes.

John 14:14 “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

We also see an example of Stephen the martyred apostle pray to Jesus in Acts 7:59

“While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

This faithful apostle who gave up his life for the gospel clearly prayed to Jesus. And Jesus himself said that we can pray to him and ask him for anything. Why then does the LDS Church teach that we can’t pray to Jesus? Can you honestly call Jesus your “best friend” and “personal” savior when you are not even allowed to pray/talk to him?

Growing up, Michael Jordan was my favorite basketball player. I remember having a Michael Jordan basketball card collection with over 50 different cards. I looked at his statistics and read books about him as well. Today, I feel like I know a LOT about Michael Jordan…but it would be delusional for me to ever say that I have a personal relationship with Michael Jordan. In the same way, just because I might know and read a lot about Jesus from the Scriptures, that doesn’t automatically mean that I have a personal relationship with Jesus. If I am never praying/talking to Jesus, then it would also be a mistake to believe that I have a strong, personal relationship with him as well.

Believe it or not, focusing on a personal relationship with Jesus has been strongly discouraged by the LDS Church when apostle Bruce McConkie said:

“It is no secret that many false and vain and foolish things are being taught in the sectarian world even among us about our need to gain a special relationship with the Lord Jesus. . . . In an attempt to be truer than true [Christians] devote themselves to gaining a special, personal relationship with Christ that is both improper and perilous. . . . Another peril is that those involved begin to pray directly to Christ because of some special friendship they feel has been developed. In this connection a current and unwise book, which advocates gaining a special relationship with Jesus, contains this sentence—“Because the Savior is our mediator, our prayers go through Christ to the Father, and the Father answers our prayers through His Son.” This is plain sectarian nonsense. Our prayers are addressed to the Father and the Father only. They do not go through Christ. (Bruce R. McConkie – Quorum of the 12, Church News, 3/20/82)

The primary concern is that in general, Latter Day Saints are missing out on this personal and intimate relationship with Jesus. My sincere hope is that one day you will have a relationship with Jesus (right side of the picture above) where you can pray directly to him and lay all of your sins at the foot of the cross with no one else being involved for the forgiveness of your sins, regardless of how serious they are. This is what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus as your personal mediator and direct Savior. Praying to God the Father is great! But let’s remove the prohibition from praying to Jesus as well. I invite you to ponder and pray about these things, and most importantly to look to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles for guidance.

Please let me know your thoughts, things you appreciated or things that you disagreed with in the comment section below. Thank you for reading and God bless!

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