This is the most important Web page you will ever read.

Why is it so important? Well... each of us, barring illness or accident, is likely to live to be as much as 70-80 years of age, and if we take care of ourselves we might get to be ninety or one hundred or more years old. One hundred years on planet Earth. What then? Some people think that death is the end... after you die you cease to exist. I reject that idea; I think that human beings are immortal spirit beings, and that after our bodies die the essence of ourselves lives on. The question is this: what do we do then? What happens to us? I think we have a decision to make, and it determines if we spend that time in a place of eternal love and fellowship with God and other human beings, or if we spend it in a place where we are eternally separated from God... and since everything that is good comes directly from Him, I think I prefer to spend eternity with Him. This document is so important because it will outline plainly for you how to make that decision.

Here's what you have to understand in order to spend eternity with God:

  1. Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus is God. (Luke 22:70, John 1:1)
    Maybe this is the weirdest part of the whole thing... if you can accept this the rest is easy. Keep in mind that God is a spirit being like we are, but in many ways He is nothing like us... for one thing, He is Holy (sinless) and we are not (but I'll get to that in a minute). It is important to understand the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son in order for the next few points to hit home.
  2. Jesus willingly left Heaven and was born on Earth in a human body. John 1:14, Hebrews 2:14)
    It is central to understand that Jesus did this willingly; He was not coerced. He did it because He wanted to, because He loved and loves us. It is also important to understand that He had a human body just like yours and mine; skin, bones, blood, the whole thing.
  3. Jesus was completely sinless in His entire lifetime on Earth. Hebrews 4:15)
    He never committed a crime, even a petty one; He never entertained a sinful thought; He never did anything in His 30 years of life that God the Father saw as a sinful act. This was so He would be suitable to perform the act that was the purpose of His whole life on Earth:
  4. Jesus voluntarily died, and in doing so He took the punishment for every sinful deed ever committed. Matthew 26:50-54, Isaiah 53:4-6)
    As the Son of God, Jesus could easily have summoned angels to prevent His arrest, or called lightning down from Heaven to kill the soldiers who came for Him, or simply walk through the crowd as He had before. Instead He went calmly, knowing that he was going to be executed by the religious people of His day (technically the execution was carried out by Roman authorities, but the religious leaders pushed them to do it; Jesus was not guilty of any crime). When He died He took on Himself every committed sin, every moral weakness, every sickness and every sorrow... all at once. Imagine for a moment that one single man was suddenly afflicted with every sickness suffered by everyone in your city, all at the same time. His body would be completely mangled. Now imagine that this same man had the guilt of every sin... from shoplifting to child molestation... on his conscience at the same time. And all the grief that every person in your town was suffering, from the loss of a job to the loss of a loved one. Multiply that by every human being that has ever lived, and that's what Jesus suffered and that's how He looked. This was no "symbolic" death; Jesus had a flesh and blood body that experienced the pain of this punishment. The reason that Jesus did that was so that each of us would not be required to experience the punishment for our own actions if we would accept His death in proxy for us.
  5. Jesus was dead for three days. Luke 23:46)
    Jesus wasn't simply unconscious. He was DEAD. Dead like each of us will be if we don't accept Jesus as a substitution for us. It's important to know that Jesus had a real body, and that body was tortured and executed, and after that time that body was truly deceased. What's more, not only was His body dead... He was spiritually dead also. As a substitute for us, He was required to experience separation from God the Father just like we would have been. For three days, God was torn to pieces, separated from Himself! (I know it's mind-boggling... I don't understand it either. But it's what the Word of God says, so I accept it on faith)
  6. At the end of those three days, Jesus rose from the dead. Acts 2:32)
    Because He was a scapegoat for our sins, and was not truly a sinner, Jesus took the punishment and then returned from to grave to resume His place with God the Father. This is important to us because in that when we identify with His death, we identify also with His resurrection. We as spiritually dead (but eternal, one way or another) beings can identify with His death in sin, and then be resurrected from spiritual death to life!

Let's review for a second:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ [Jesus] died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures... I Corinthans 15:3-4

Here's what you have to do in order to spend eternity with God:

Read this passage: Romans 10:9-10
  1. Believe what you just read. Jesus is the Son of God who took on a human body, lived a sinless life, was executed as punishment for sins each of us committed, was completely totally dead, took that punishment in full, and rose from the dead.
  2. Say out loud that Jesus is your Lord. It may help you to say a little prayer; when you decide to begin your life with God you'll spend a lot of time talking to Him, so now's a good time to start. I'll supply a prayer for you, but it is by no means necessary for you to pray exactly what I've typed up here...

    Jesus, I know from what I've read today what You did for me... You were born into a human body and took the punishment for all of my sins on Yourself. I understand that You died, but then three days later God brought you back from the dead! I want to accept the sacrifice that You made for me and live forever in You. Please enter this place where I am right now, and then enter my heart and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. You are now the Lord of my Life! Jesus, You are Lord! Thank you for your salvation!
Prayer is a simple thing. Talk to God like you talk to anyone. Make up your own prayer if you like, but it's important that you acknowledge out loud that God raised His Son Jesus from the dead. That's all there is to it! Accepting the sacrifice Jesus made for us is such a simple process... it requires absolutely no advance preparation on our part, no nothing. You just do it. It is important to understand that after you have accepted this sacrifice, it is your duty to live your life from now on under the Lordship of Jesus. The first thing you should do is tell someone about the decision you have made... Jesus said this:
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in Heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in Heaven."
Matthew 10:32-33, NIV
Telling someone else about your decision will make it that much more real to you. They may say something hurtful to you about your decision, but remember Who is inside of you and what He has done for you. Next, get a Bible, preferably one that is easy to understand... I prefer one called the New International Version (the NIV), but if you go to a Christian bookstore they'll be able to help you out with that. Then find a church where what you hear preached is what you see when you read your Bible. Now that you have the Spirit of God in your life, you can be confident that if something wrong is going on, you'll instinctively know it... it's not "instinct", it's God speaking to your heart, but it seems like an instinct. Read that Bible. Talk to God often. Ask Him what He would like for you to do with the rest of your life (He won't ask you to do something that you're not able to do). I'll see you in Heaven! :->

(Don't miss the links below the copyright notice!)

If you just received Jesus, visit the What Now? Page and
The Second Most Important Page for even more great information!

written April 5, 1996
©Copyright 1996 by Michael Jones
All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations drawn from The Bible Gateway at Gospel Communications Network.

If you're still not convinced of the logic of this argument, take a look at this page.
And if you would like to see the same thing explained in a different way, look here.
Another good explanation, The Content of the Gospel, is right here.
There is another good page about receiving Jesus here.

more of my writings about God
index to my essays on the Web

return to QuirkyLand!

Scriptures Referenced:

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

One last thing: