Day 52: Will You Say “Yes”?

By Stacy Tyson | 2024-04-30

1 Timothy 2:4
[God our Savior] wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Today, we discuss how the ways we can respond to the “Good News!” of the Gospel. Father God sent Jesus so that we can have life – new spiritual life now and forever life in His Kingdom. Father God desires that we say “yes” to His gracious gift!

What is Father-God’s Desire for Us?

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord does not delay His promise [the promise of His return], as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

The Bible makes it clear that Father-God desires for all of fallen humanity to come to Him, to receive the Gift He has given in His Son Jesus Christ. He desires to save the fallen family of Adam and to create for Himself a whole new type of humanity, truly displaying the goodness and glory of His love.

There are some people who think that they have to get their life cleaned up before they accept Christ. This is foolish from God’s point of view. First, there is no way we can “clean up” our lives without first being made spiritually alive by God’s grace through faith in Christ. Secondly, the real issue in salvation is not whether we are “good” or “bad” but whether we are “alive” or “dead.”

Will You Say “Yes” to Father-God?

John 1:12-13
But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

John makes it clear that your proper response to the Gospel involves your “receiving” Christ. So how do we “receive” someone that we have never met or seen? Notice what John says: by believing in his name. To believe in Jesus’ name means to trust the whole person. This is more than just believing things about Jesus or simply giving mental assent to some creed or doctrine about Jesus. Salvation is not about believing or practicing “something.” It is about believing, trusting, and receiving somebody—the Lord Jesus Christ. When we receive Christ, we become part of Father-God’s eternal family; we receive the greatest name we could ever be given: “children of God”—His beloved sons and daughters!

As we said at the beginning of this study, there are only two types of people: those who are still spiritually “Dead in Adam,” and those who are now spiritually “Alive in Christ.” Jesus came so that you and I might have Life. Who needs Life? Dead people! God’s purpose in providing salvation through His Son’s death, resurrection, and ascension is not primarily concerned with enabling you to escape Hell and go to Heaven when you die—although that is a great benefit!! The Gospel is God’s Good News about restoring life to the lifeless in the “here and now” and not just the “hereafter”!

The single greatest issue that we must settle is how we will respond to the gracious gift of New Life in Christ, freely offered to us by God in the Gospel. There are only two options: accept the gift, or reject the gift. The moment we acknowledge our spiritual deadness and our sinful condition as the fallen heirs of Adam’s terrible legacy, we should turn in humble gratitude to Jesus and willingly welcome Him into our life by faith. At the moment you do this, a wonderful thing happens! Jesus Himself–a Person–not a creed or a ritual–but Christ Himself comes to live in you. Jesus indwelling your heart through the power of the Holy Spirit is how God gives you a new and “eternal kind” of life:

Ephesians 3:16-17
I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit, 3:17 and that the Messiah [Christ] may dwell in your hearts through faith.…

In the course of this study, some of you may have clearly understood the real content of the Gospel for the first time. Becoming a Christian (a follower of Christ) or “getting saved” is not about creeds or sacraments and it is not about an endless list of “do’s and don’ts.” Getting right with God is an issue of Life and Death. It is not an issue of believing something; it is an issue of trusting somebody—Jesus Christ!

None of us could ever be good enough to earn or deserve God’s grace. God is not asking us to clean up our act before He welcomes us into His presence. Getting “cleaned up” is the result of what Jesus has done and is doing for us and not the result of what we do for God.

The Gospel is a Message that tells us what Jesus has done to make us acceptable to God, not what we must do by our own will and power to become acceptable. Remember, God is always near to us; in Him we move about and exist. God is always listening; if you don’t have a personal relationship with Him yet, all you have to do is say, “Yes, Father, I want to know you and Jesus whom you have sent to save me.”

On the next page we have a chart that represents all that we have been discussing and considering this week. Before you can make any real progress in your spiritual life, you need to know where you are. We hope that before you leave this last page that you will have settled the issue of your personal relationship with Father-God through your response to the gracious gift that is offered in His Son Jesus Christ through the work of His Holy Spirit.

John 10:10
[Jesus said,] “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they [everyone who belongs to Jesus] may have life, and may have it abundantly.” {ESV}