Romans 3:10,23 There is none righteous, no, not one...All have sinned & all fall short of the glory of God.
None of us can make it on our own. Our good works are not good enough. We are spiritually dead in our trespasses & sins.
There is only one way to be made righteous in God's sight & be forgiven of our sins & reconciled to the heavenly Father.
Acts 4:10-12 Let this be known to all of you & to all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
John 14:5,6 “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way & the truth & the life. NO ONE comes to the Father EXCEPT THROUGH ME.
Luke 9:23-26 Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself & take up his cross daily & follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his own soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me & My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory & in the glory of the Father &of the holy angels.
Luke 14:28 "Suppose you want to build a tower. You would first sit down & figure out what it costs. Then you would see if you have enough money to finish it. Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’ In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.
Acts 17:27-31 God intended that they would seek Him & perhaps reach out for Him & find Him, though He is NOT far from each one of us. ‘For in Him we live & move & have our being.’
As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’ Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill & imagination.
30Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now COMMANDS ALL MEN EVERYWHERE TO REPENT. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Romans 10:1-10 Brothers, my heart’s desire & prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.
3Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness & sought TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN, they did NOT SUBMIT to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, to BRING RIGHTEOUSNESS TO EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES.
5For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or, ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH, “Jesus IS LORD & believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you WILL BE SAVED. For with your HEART YOU BELIEVE & are justified & with your mouth you CONFESS & are SAVED.
