Over the last few weeks, I have rerun a series of posts entitled “Jesus Paid It All.” It has been designed to illustrate the total and complete sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross to atone for our sins.

Since the posts have been somewhat spaced apart and the entire message in them is extremely important, I have decided to do a final summary of all of them in one post.  Links to each of the articles are included, and I hope and pray readers, particularly unsaved readers, will take the time to read all of them in their entirety. More importantly, I hope and pray readers will take the time to read the Scriptures contained in them. Because what I have to say about the matter simply does not matter; what God has to say about it matters greatly and eternally.

We are all sinners by birth and by nature. Our sins have separated us from God and put a gulf between us that simply cannot be bridged by us. God has clearly stated what sin is, that we are all guilty of it, and what the penalty for it is. The prescribed penalty for sin is death in the form of eternal separation from God in a place called Hell. We can pay our own penalty if we so choose, but we do not want to and we do not have to.

Jesus paid it all. That is a very simple statement, with very profound implications.  Today begins a multi part series on Jesus’ payment. A good starting point is for us to discuss exactly what Jesus paid for. We will end with a discussion of why we really don’t want to make that payment ourselves.

What did Jesus pay for? Well he paid the necessary payment for our sins, of course. That seems fairly simple, yet the vast majority of the world fails to truly understand exactly what that means. The non believing world, as well as a large part of the “Christian” world totally fails to really understand what the Bible teaches about this issue.  Of course the non believing world simply dismisses the issue completely; and within the “Christian” world there are so many perversions and misunderstandings about this issue that they simply cannot be counted. Read Jesus Paid it All Part 1-You Really DON’T Want to Pay Your Own Way.

We know a penalty is due for our sin. The problem is, we desperately want to find some way to atone for our own sin. This is simply not possible. The Bible has clearly stated what payment is due; nonetheless, we have tried since the beginning of time to work our way to Heaven. The Bible teaches the total impossibility of this effort.

Aside from the obvious non religions like atheism, humanism and so forth, there are only two actual “religions” in the world.

The first is the religion of good works. Believers in this religion believe that there is something, somehow, that they can do to ensure their own entry in to Heaven. There are subsets of this religion: some believe sacraments and rituals, if done properly, ensure entrance into heaven. Some believe in the scale of justice theory of salvation, believing that if their good outweighs their bad they can ensure their entry into Heaven. Some believe that if they just do not do anything “really bad” they can ensure their entry into heaven. Adherents of this religion call themselves many different things: New Agers, spiritual, Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhist, and even Evangelical Christians. Some may call themselves Methodists, Baptists, or any other name one can call to mind. Read Jesus Paid It All Part 2-Your Payment’s No Good Here.

Jesus’ payment for the sin of humanity was sufficient for, and available to, all humanity. Jesus did not just die for a group of people He decided to save in eternity past. The only reason people end up spending eternity in Hell is because they reject Jesus, not because He rejects them.

When Jesus paid it all, He paid it for all of us. Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient to cover the sin of every human past, present and future.  Before readers get alarmed, please understand I am not saying that everyone from the past was saved, nor am I saying that all will be saved now or in the future.  In fact, the majority of people from the past, people now and those who live in the future will not be saved and enter Heaven. The sad truth is the majority of humankind will spend eternity separated from God in a place of torment called Hell.  So, please do not misunderstand; I am not espousing some form of Universalism, where everybody ends up in Heaven. Read Jesus Paid It All Part 3-The Payment Was Enough for Everyone.

Jesus is the only way. The Blood of Jesus is the only payment accepted by God the Father for the sins of humanity. Many religions teach many paths to Heaven, but they are all false paths.

Here is John 14:6.  Those were the words of Jesus Himself and sum up His thoughts about how a person comes to a relationship with God.  It seems like a fairly straight forward statement, really. Jesus did not say He was one of the ways, or one truth  or that there was any life other than Him.  He stated unequivocally that the only access to God the Father was through Him, God the Son.  Nonetheless, we live in a time where truth is considered relative, any belief is okay as long as it is sincere; to say there is only one way is considered hateful and exclusionary. Read Jesus Paid It All Part 4- The Blood Is The Only Payment Accepted Here.

If you have accepted Jesus’ payment and atoning death for your sins, repented of them and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, you are eternally secure in that salvation. Just like you could never earn it in the first place, you do not have to spend the rest of your life trying to keep it.

The question is often asked: Can a person, once saved, ever lose their salvation? The short answer is: NO. The Bible clearly and unequivocally teaches that a person who was truly saved and converted can is eternally secure in that salvation and will never lose it. This is referred to as the Eternal Security of the Believer, Perseverance of the Saints or “Once saved always saved.”

We are going to discuss a lot of material here, so this will be a longish post. We will look at the key passages that support this doctrine; we will look at how Security of the Believer flows naturally from other things we know about Salvation; we will look at at some arguments made against the doctrine and finally we will look at why proper understanding of our security in Jesus Christ matters so much. Read Jesus Paid It All Part 5- The Payment Was Permanent.

Are you lost? Are you a non believer? The above posts contain the essentials of what God has revealed to us in His Word to change that.

Have you been in church all of your life? Are you confused or uncertain about the eternal state of your soul? The above posts contain the  essentials of what God has revealed to us in His Word to change that.

Are you religious? Are you believing in something other than Jesus to save your soul? The above posts contain the essentials of what God has revealed to us in His Word to change that.