How To Be Made Right With God

In review of Romans 10:9-10 it says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”

Bottom Line:

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.

What this means to me:

I was saved when I confessed that Jesus is Lord and believed in my heart that God raised him from the dead. It is by faith that I am made right with God; it was my confession of this that save me.

I’m reminded this morning that, it is through the Good News message that I am shown how to be right with God.  Romans 1:17 says, “The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself” (NCV). God does this via these three points.

First, none of us can make ourselves righteous. Heaven is a perfect place. There’s no sin, sadness, evil, or injustice. Unfortunately, I’m imperfect, and God won’t let sinful people like myself into Heaven because then it would be full of sin, too.  Romans 3:20 says, “No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are” (NLT).  The only people who think they can keep God’s laws are those that don’t know them, because God’s laws are perfection, and none of us are perfect. We cannot be made right on our own. So God had to come up with a plan.

Second, God sent Jesus to pay for our sins so we could be declared righteous. When I break man’s laws, I would pay man’s penalty. When I break God’s laws, I would pay God’s penalty, which is eternity in Hell. Somebody has to pay for all the things I’ve done in life that hurt other people, myself, and God. God said, “I’ll send my Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty. He will take your place so you don’t have to go to Hell. You can be with me forever.”  The Good News means that everything that I’ve ever done or will do wrong has already been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. I have been made right with God by Jesus action. “God saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5a).

Third, in order to obtain this, I need to accept by faith what God did for me. To be made right with God, I just needed to believe and accept by faith that what Jesus did on the cross paid for my sins. When I did, I became part of God’s family. I can live the way he wants me to live now and then go to Heaven in eternity.

Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”

The Good News is for everyone, it's not exclusive to me. Anyone can be saved no matter who they are, what they done, or how long they’ve done it.

If you are reading this, today is the day to settle this for yourself. If you are not sure if you are going to Heaven when you die, you can pray this prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you made me, that you have a plan and purpose for my life, and that you made me to know you. Thank you for the choice that you’ve given me to accept or reject your offer of salvation. Today I humbly ask you to save me — not based on what I’ve done but based on what Jesus Christ did for me. I don’t understand it all, but as much as I know how I want to put my trust in your Son. God, I want to get to know you. I want to learn to love you. I want to hunger and thirst for righteousness the rest of my life. I put my trust in your grace and in your forgiveness. I want you to be the Lord of my life. Amen.”