John 3:16-18 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Your sin is gone and there is no more condemnation. People talk about John 3:16, but they forget to talk about John 3:17.

God doesn’t want “get us” (condemn us for our sins), he wants to win us back to Him. If God wanted us to die in our sins, he doesn’t have to “get us,” he could simply not send Jesus to die on the cross. It’s obvious that through God’s sacrifice that He wants us with Him.

When you really believe in something, you get on board. Like the ability of a plane to fly. You don’t need to know how it works, you just have to trust that it will stay in the air. It’s the same with God… you don’t need to know how He does, but that He can.

Romans 10:9-12 - that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

By our nature we don’t want to serve God. But, when we accept Christ, His nature starts to become more like Him. We will find that we start wanting to serve God. God will change us from the inside out. We are transformed into His nature… some quicker than others.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

Once you come to Jesus, your sins are not yours to pay… that debt has already been paid. In Christ, those sins are washed away and we become as righteous as God.

Galatians 2:20-21 - I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

When you’re baptized, being dipped in the water itself is not doing much. However, it’s a symbol of our baptism in Christ. We were dead and buried as Christ was. It’s an outward symbol to the world of the commitment that is made to Christ.

Galatians 3:22 - But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

We were under sin, but Jesus removed sin and we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness.

You cannot earn salvation. All you can do is accept the gift that was given and accept it.

We are crucified with Christ… and yet we live. Though we all have sinned, we can all receive the gift.

Colossians 2:12 - buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Romans 6:3-5 - Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

When Christ died on the cross, it was just as good as if we died for our sins… with the exception that we would die in our sins. Because of Christ we live. Jesus died for our sins so we could have everlasting life. He wants us in His presence.

So we’ve been baptized into Jesus. We died with Him, we were raised with Him, and we live through Him.