Forgiveness: One moment before your last breath, one thing will matter more than anything else-whether you are dying forgiven or unforgiven.

Forgiven: Nothing matters more to any who have sinned-and God says all have sinned.

The peace you can have one moment before you die, is available on a daily basis, if you understand what God has done in Christ and if you choose to respond by faith to Him.

The first element of salvation, and maybe the most precious and cherished, is forgiveness.

As we open to Acts 26:18 we get the true picture of our condition as humans. We are each born spiritually blind, and grow up living lost, helpless, and hopeless in the darkness of sin; as sinners who have sinned even once in God's sight-we are guilty of breaking all of God's commandments (James 2:10). 

Thinking about ourselves from the Divine vantage point, as explained in the Bible, should make us see ourselves as worst than we think, rather than better; because Christ's death is only for the guilty, only for the hopelessly stained, and only for the helplessly lost. It is in that condition-that we find God's grace.

Listen now as Jesus explains the Gospel to the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road.

Acts 26:18 "to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me."

DO YOU SEE

YOUR CRITICAL NEEDS?

All sinners (so that means all humans that have ever lived on planet earth except Jesus Christ) have seven basic Biblically described critical and soul threatening needs.

God's Word describes all humans are hopelessly lost, sitting in the dark and awaiting destruction unless the elements of the gift of salvation. The Bible defines our greatest needs as:

1. FORGIVENESS

2. JUSTIFICATION

3. REGENERATION

4. RECONCILIATION

5. ADOPTION

6. REDEMPTION

7. SANCTIFICATION    

Only if we have received Jesus who came to save us from sin, do we really have anything in our possession that matters. Every other possession and gift can be stripped away from us by disease, disaster, or death.

Only Jesus will never leave us; only He can save and keep us forever.

Have you received the gift of salvation that you really need? With salvation comes the wonderful reality of forgiveness.

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