The only life that is acceptable to God, is, in one Word: JESUS! The Word of God, the Law of God, acceptable life with God, is summed up in living a life in, with, and for, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough for you to believe that you must confess your sins to God, forsake sin and self, believe in Christ, and live a life of loving sin-free obedience to Christ according to the Bible. You must KNOW JESUS, Biblically and personally (in a greater, closer, more intimate, manner, than you know your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, and even, yourself).

You must KNOW THE KNOW THE LORD JESUS because He is the Only Begotten Son of God, the Only Sacrifice Acceptable to God for your sins, the Only Person who ever lived on earth Who never sinned, and, therefore, was able to die on the cross as a Substitute for you, bear in your place the punishment that you should have borne for your sins, rise from the dead triumphantly over sin and satan, and ascend into Heaven, where He now sits at the Heavenly Father’s Right Hand making intercession or praying to the Father, on your behalf, that if you forsake sin, put your faith and trust entirely in Him (not the catholic or protestant “church”, confession to priests, sacraments, relationships to parents or friends, money, economic status, social status, trying to be a “good person”, trying to “improve your life, or moral conduct”, etc) to save you from your sin and its penalty of eternity in the Lake of Fire, personally ask and invite Him (remember, He is a Real Person, not just a “religious idea, ideal, ideology, figurehead, metaphorical concept, abstract symbol of goodness, or some other secular concept, etc) to come into your life and take control over it as your Savior and Lord and Master, and surrender your existence to loving, living for, and obeying Him according to His Word, the Bible, that your past sin will be washed away (by the Blood that He shed to bear the penalty of your sin), that you will be translated from under the dominion and kingdom and lordship of satan (because of your choice to serve him, through your selfishness and sin), into the kingdom of God, under the Dominion and Lordship, of Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of Lords.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can wash away your past sins. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can provide a Satisfactory Sacrifice to God for the punishment for your past sins. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can reconcile you to the Holy God that you offended and angered through your past sins. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can give you eternal life, make you a “new creature” (a new person, beginning to live a new life with and for Him), make you “born again” (with your past life of sin dead, and a new life with Christ beginning), fill you with His Holy Spirit (with the initial physical evidence of speaking in unknown tongues [Mark, 16:15-20; Acts 1:8, 14; 2:1-4, 10:44-46; 19:1-7], in order for you to be empowered to share the necessity of forsaking sin and believing in, surrendering to, and obeying Christ, with everyone that you meet [Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 24:45-49, Acts 1:8] - family, friends, strangers- etc), and give you His Grace and Strength to help you resist future temptation to sin, and live in loving, Biblical, sin-free, obedience to Him.

The Lord Jesus Christ IS Salvation and Eternal Life! He is the Only Way to God. He is the Only Way away from sin, satan, selfishness, and the Lake of Fire. The Lord Jesus Christ IS TRUE LIFE!

So, honestly, personally, and with a heart of compassion, concern, and good will, I ask you, DO YOU YET KNOW JESUS, PERSONALLY? I ask you this, because this is what all of existence comes down to - personally believing in, knowing, loving, and obeying, the Lord Jesus Christ, for His Intrinsic Value, according to His Word, the Bible.

If you don’t yet, personally, know the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible, the first steps to Biblically knowing Him are:

1. Confessing all of your sins and selfishness to God.

2. Forsaking all of your sins and selfishness, before God.

3. Believing that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross as an Acceptable Substitute to God for your sins, rose from the dead, and is alive in Heaven, soon to return to judge mankind according to His Word, the Bible.

4. Asking the Lord Jesus Christ to wash away your sins, come into your life, live in you, and take full control of your existence.

5. Surrendering your entire existence to the Lord Jesus Christ, to live, moment by moment, in loving, faith-filled, sin-free, obedience to Him, according to His Word, the Bible.

6. Asking the Heavenly Father to fill you with the Holy Spirit, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the initial physical evidence of speaking in unknown tongues, (Acts 2:1-4, 10:44-46, 19:1-6; 1 Corinthians 14: 2, 4, 5, 14, 15, 18, 39, Jude 20, Isaiah 28:11-12, Luke 11:9-13) ,in order for you to receive power to tell others about their need for repentance from sin and faith-filled Biblical obedience to Christ.

7. Being baptized in water (fully immersed beneath the water, as an act of faith-filled, Biblical obedience to God, symbolizing that you have chosen to die to sin –as Christ died and was buried for your sin –and are choosing to rise and live a new life of loving faith-filled Biblical sin-free obedience to Christ –as He rose from the dead after triumphing over the penalty and power of sin, for you), in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the Name of Jesus.

8. Daily prioritizing your existence around the Lord Jesus Christ, through frequent prayer (talking to the Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus: 1 Thessalonians 5:17, John 16:23), Bible reading and studying (please start in Matthew, read through the New Testament, go to Genesis and read the Old Testament, then begin the cycle again from Matthew –God and His Wisdom are Infinite; He has chosen to reveal Himself and His Wisdom to us, through His Word, the Bible; because God and His Wisdom in His Word are infinite, we can never exhaust the Wisdom available to us through God’s Word, irrespective of how much we read it [in fact, the more that you read and learn, the more you will discover how little that you really know, from God’s Eternal Perspective]), telling others to repent from sin, believe in, and Biblically obey Christ, and living moment by moment in loving sin-free Biblical obedience to Christ.

9. Finding a group of Biblically obedient followers of the Lord Jesus Christ to regularly assemble with (not your typical “catholic” or “protestant” “church”). Perhaps you might call in the phone book to find a basic “Bible teaching, Bible obeying, Christ-centered, Holy Spirit filled, Gospel witnessing, fellowship or “church”, and begin to regularly meet with them.

10. Purposing with your heart, mind, will, with the Eternal Help of the Holy Spirit, that you will Biblically love, believe in, completely obey, live for, the Lord Jesus Christ, until you die., Christ, Himself, said, in Matthew 24:13 “But whosoever endures to the end, the same shall be saved”. It is not enough to, at one point in time, turn from sin and self, believe in Christ and His Atoning Death, Burial, and Resurrection, as a Satisfactory Substitute for your sins, ask Christ to save you, be filled with the Holy Spirit, be baptized with water, begin living a life of Biblical loving sin-free obedience to Christ, and then return to your former life of sin and selfishness. Turning back to and remaining in sin, after having turned from sin and lived for Christ, will result in you being cast in the Lake of Fire for eternity, unless you repent and return to Biblically following Christ. Remember, regardless of how much persecution you face for living and preaching Christ (and persecution will come, if you live for, and like, Christ), regardless of whether your spouse, children, family, friends, forsake you, regardless of whether or not your boss fires you, or whether you are imprisoned, or beaten, or mocked, regardless of whatever may befall you in your new life with the Lord Jesus Christ, YOU MUST NEVER LEAVE HIM! Following Christ is a life-long commitment ratified in blood –both His and yours. He was –and is- faithful to you until His Death. You must be faithful to Him until yours. The only alternative to this is choosing to return to sin and your deserved place in Hell. The Good News is, however, that “He is able to keep you from falling and present you before Himself, faultless, with exceeding joy” (Jude 24), “His Grace is sufficient for you, for His Power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9), “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4), and “He will be with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). As long as you choose to remain with the Lord Jesus Christ, He will choose to remain with you. And He will strengthen you to resist all temptation to sin, and live in Biblical loving obedience to Him.

Always remember, the Lord Jesus Christ is Infinite and Eternal. He is our Creator, our Sustainer, the Perpetuator of our existence. He is the Maker of all life in the universe, the Maker, Sustainer, and Perpetuator of the universe itself. He is the Creator, Sustainer, Perpetuator, of all existence, spiritual and physical, visible, and invisible. He is Life. He is Truth. He is Wisdom. He is Meaning. He is Existence.

If you choose to personally turn from all sin, self, societal enticements, invite Him into your life, and surrender your existence to Him, you will never reach the end of knowing Him. Even all through eternity, we will never get to the end of knowing Him, the Truth that He is, and the Truth behind all existence that has ever been. He is Life. Life is growing to know and love Him, more and more. When you begin to personally and Biblically know Him, you will no longer want to sin against Him, because you have glimpsed how Wonderful, Loving, Holy, Perfect, Just, Righteous, Patient, He is, and has been with you, and –seeing your past sin and selfishness, juxtaposed with His Sinless Selflessness, how you deserved death and Hell, but how He suffered death for you- you will desire to do nothing except to please Him, out of gratitude for Who He is, and all that He did.

Because personally and Biblically and continually and increasingly KNOWING THE LORD JESUS CHRIST is of such vital importance, I have included below a teaching that I long ago compiled to assist those who chose to follow Christ, in Biblically knowing Him (the information is by no means exhaustive, but it gives foundational Biblical Truth concerning Who Christ is; I encourage you to save the document and look up and study the Scripture references for your growth in knowing the Lord; additionally, I refer you to our website [www.soul-winners.org] for further information about Christ and living for Him.

Living the Christian life, the Biblical life, the acceptable life in the sight of God, is being Biblically, and truly “born again” –having died to your old life of selfishness and living to please self and society- and having started, through Christ, a new life of living only to love and obey and please the Lord Jesus Christ, according to His Word, the Bible, simply because you realize that He deserves your loving and obedient service, and you love Him so much that you willingly and joyfully desire to eternally please Him.

Also, be assured, that, if you choose to turn from all sin and selfishness, surrender to Christ, and begin following Him by living in prayerful reading of and obedience to His Word, He, through His Holy Spirit, will answer many of the questions that will naturally arise in your mind, through the Truth that He has revealed in His Word.

May God bless you, as you choose to Biblically love, believe in, completely obey, serve, and live for, our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Bible.