What is True Life?
God offers an infinitely superior true life to all people. Every person is born without a relationship with God which is a requirement for possessing true life, or, in the words of the Bible, eternal life. Obtaining eternal life is not automatic even though every person has the right to receive it through Jesus Christ. Below is a prayer with which you can receive this gift of eternal life.
The Pervasive Problem
God offers true life to all people that is infinitely superior to that into which they were born naturally. The problem is that ever since the first disobedience to God’s instructions (what the Bible calls “sin”) all people on earth have been fundamentally separated from God. In the Garden of Eden, God said to Adam and Eve, “Do not eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because in the very day that you eat of it, you shall certainly die” (Gen. 2:17). The death spoken of here is separation from God, who is the only source of life in the universe. Adam and Eve’s disobedience—their sin—brought about their eventual physical death and also a curse on the entire world. Thereafter, every person born into the world was deficient—without a relationship with God.
God’s Eternal Solution
The good news is that God has always had a plan to rescue all people for all time from eternal separation from Him, should they choose it. People’s choice allows them to relate to God as a true Father, as it was in the beginning. The plan was conceived by God already before the world existed. It was an expression of God’s great love for humanity. God’s plan was to have Jesus Christ, God the Son, take the place of all humanity and suffer the consequences of sin. Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit by means of sperm that originated from heaven so that his humanity would be uncontaminated by the sin of the human race. By offering His own perfect life as a natural-born human being, shedding his own blood, and dying on the cross, He satisfied God’s requirement for justice as a complete payment for all of the sins of humanity for all time. Upon His death, He went to hell for us and took the keys of death and hell from Satan. Showing His complete satisfaction with the payment, God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and exalted Him as Lord over the entire universe. From that time and on, every person on earth has had the right to choose to have a Father-child relationship with God and receive true life or, in the words of the Bible, eternal life.
Here’s the Catch
Here’s the catch: obtaining God’s life is not automatic even though every person has been qualified for it by Jesus Christ. Just as Adam and Eve’s disobedience was a deliberate choice, so every person’s obtaining God’s eternal life must be a deliberate choice. Jesus Christ made eternal life abundantly plain when he said to the Jewish religious leader, Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Being “born again” is the most amazing and important experience that any person can possibly have. This occurs when a person places her or his trust completely in Jesus Christ as the giver of eternal life and Lord of all. This act requires faith—true belief, not just intellectual agreement—and a deliberate choice by means of a verbal declaration, which is, in fact, a prayer of acceptance. The words of this prayer are not an incantation, and they are not a set recipe. They should, however, communicate a heartfelt acceptance of eternal life as provided through Jesus Christ. Below is a model declaration prayer for the acceptance of Jesus Christ.
Your Participatory Response
Please, make this declaration out loud. It is a prayer directly to God the Father.
Dear God, I believe that Jesus Christ took my sin upon himself on the cross. I believe that you raised Jesus Christ from the dead. I accept your forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ. Jesus is now my Lord. Thank-you for accepting me as your child. Amen!