How does a person become right with God, become adopted into the family of God? What does a person have to do to be accepted by God? What has to be done to overcome ungodly attitudes and failures in the past, even up to last week?

Something tells you that you cannot fool God, so if these are your questions, they are good ones.

Let’s begin with some things Jesus said as recorded in the Bible. The Apostle John heard Jesus say, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”1 Jesus also said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”2 This same Apostle John, after Jesus returned to heaven, saw Jesus in a vision saying to those in his churches, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”3 Yes, some churches actually need to let Jesus in. But, every individual who hears that soft tap on the door of his or her heart can decide to open it or to retreat to a distant room in the house and keep the lights out. Yes, Jesus is not dead. And, he is nearby.

Let’s make sure we’ve got the right focus here. God created man, man rebelled and severed the close relationship, and God moved ahead to make a way back for us. That way is Jesus. Jesus became the door for us through the event of the Cross. God provided his Son as the perfect sacrifice for us. The idea of a sacrifice is not that we give up something, but that God judges something (someone) else with the judgment we ourselves deserve. So it was in ancient Israel that they brought the lamb to express their faith in the truth that they were hopelessly unholy, repetitively sinful, and had no other hope of acceptance by a holy and righteous God other than their faith in God’s truth and love. God hasn’t changed, of course.

With this tiny bit of background on Israel, that nation which God chose to be the original light to the entire world, you would now greatly benefit by reading through the book of Hebrews in New Testament. It is a pretty exciting book about Jesus kicking the existing Jewish faith into overdrive, once and for all. You’ll read about the soul rest that God can give, and you’ll see the word faith a lot. Take the challenge. Read through Hebrews! [Note to self: find a Bible and look up Hebrews, and read it.]

Moving right along now, you’ve been given several invitations by Jesus (recorded in the Bible) to enter into the life you were meant to know. In one instance Jesus called out, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”4 Throughout Jesus’ days on earth he was constantly looking for faith—faith in God first, then faith in himself as God’s Sent One. He often found faith in the unlikeliest places, and rarely among the religious elite of his day. That is what Jesus is still looking for today as his message falls upon your thinking and your heart. You are not too unlikely for Jesus.

Speaking of yokes, you’ve already got the yoke of the world around your neck telling you how to think, act, and conform, and then beating you up when you turn your back. Jesus invites you to take his yoke and describes the life in his yoke: a gentle and humble master, a giver of soul rest, and of a conformity to the kingdom life of Jesus that is easy and light compared to the yoke of the world. Does that tug on your heart?

So, forget special formulas of words or prayers. Forget turning over new leaves by the bushel basket. Forget trying to make up for your past with solemn promises. Just take Jesus’ promise, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”5. It is simply a heart thing. You know if your heart is saying, even through nagging doubts about all this new stuff, that you really do want to come to God, and you understand that faith in Jesus is the way. So, whatever you’ve been putting faith in to get through life, and hoping to maybe, just possibly, luck out and get into heaven on some shoestring you can’t identify, switch your faith to Jesus, Lamb of God.

If that is your heart, find some words of your own to tell that to God right away. Here’s what Jesus promises, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”6

And here is a clarification by the Apostle Paul, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”7

[Note to self: This is probably as good a time as any to get serious and get alone and pray out of my heart and out of my mouth so I can hear myself put my faith in Jesus.]

“Whew! Okay, now what?” I hear that. Glad you were wondering. Well, the absolute first thing [make another note to self] is to get in touch with the person who has been telling you about Jesus and his Gospel. No need to be embarrassed. Your news of putting your faith in Jesus by praying your own prayer is probably what they’ve been praying for as they’ve talked with you.

Next, and this could be a tough one. Find a gathering of God’s people. Big, small, doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is a growing place for God’s people. We all need to grow in the knowledge of the Bible, and we need help from other experienced followers of Jesus. Remember, Jesus was knocking on church doors because some churches had strayed from what they should be. Same today. Keep at it. Find one that is serious about helping followers of Jesus grow spiritually.

Worshiping, mixing it up with believers, digging into the Scriptures with them or under good teachers and preachers is essential. You’ve been getting your indoctrination from the world up until now. Time to switch the major influencer of your thinking. Church is the hangout for what you are going to need the rest of your earthly life. [Note to self…okay, okay.]

Doug Bastian

1John 10:9, 2John 14:6, 3Revelation 3:20, 4Matthew 11:28, 5John 10:10, 6John 6:37,

7Romans 10:9-10

These notations for the above quotes tell you where they can be found in the Bible. All the quotes I’ve used are found in “part two” of the Bible which is called The New Testament. The number before the colon is the chapter, and after the colon is the verse.

Aren’t we glad a couple of cool guys (Langston & Stephanus) stepped up and helped us out? Langston began the chapter divisions for the Bible in the 1200’s. Stephanus added the verse numbering in the mid-1500’s, and printed the first “study Bible”. These identifiers help us in Bible study groups and in church to be “on the same page” as we study.

P.S. There are tons of statements by Jesus recorded in the Four Gospels, and many more clarifications by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. These are just a small sample. The texts quoted here are from the New International Version Bible.