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There was a reason why the Son of God had to take human form, suffer and die at the hands of the people He had created. When He was facing death in Gethsemane, He wished He could achieve the Father's goal some easier way. But that was the only way He could save us. He gave His life, suffering our punishment, so that He could offer salvation freely to us.

Salvation is free for us in that we do not have to earn it through rituals, sacrifices, good works or any such things. No one can. However, because it is free, many people treat it as if it is cheap, available for everyone without any conditions. Some even go to the extent of thinking that since God is love, He will finally save all people and no one will be punished. Others think that when God saves someone, nothing he does will affect his relationship with God. But those who preach this false gospel will surely have the blood of many people on their hands (Ez.3:18). This is to completely misunderstand the Gospel.

God loves everyone He has created and does not want anyone to be lost. But He knew that He could not simply decide to ignore everyone's sins and take them to be with Him, because God's justice demands that our sins must be punished. That was why Jesus had to die in our place. At the same time, just because Jesus has died for the sins of the whole world, everyone does not get saved automatically. Only those who recognise their need for a Saviour will go to Jesus and get saved.

When we unpack this, what we see is that first we need to see ourselves as sinners in God's eyes, who deserve His judgment of hell. When we see that it was our sins that caused Jesus to die, we not only feel remorse for the sins we have already done, but we also get a desire not to sin again. It is such people who see Jesus as the Saviour who not only took our punishment, but as One who will help us to overcome sin in our life. This is what is involved in repenting from sin and believing in Jesus.

But the preaching of the Gospel these days has been configured to make things easy for everyone to be 'saved', even without true repentance or faith. There is no talk about sin for fear that it may upset someone. As a result, a large number of people have been led to believe that they have become children of God, headed for heaven, even when others can see that there has been no real change in their lives.

Many take some experience with God such as healing, a miraculous answer to prayer or even the excited feeling in a worship meeting as a sign of relationship with God. But without repentance there is no forgiveness, and without yielding to Jesus as Saviour, no deliverance from the power of sin.

The time is short before Jesus will return to judge the world. We have the responsibility now to make sure that our salvation is genuine, and we must share the Gospel with love and without compromise. The dying world needs the life saving truth that Jesus has come to save us from our sin.

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