This is a great question and is the start of any person’s walk with God. You cannot earn God’s forgiveness. You just have to ask. There are a few steps.
- Admit you are a sinner
- Believe Jesus Christ, God’s only Son died and rose for you. He took the penalty for your sins
- Accept Jesus into your heart as Savior
Now I know I made this sound really simple. The action in and of itself is but getting there can be difficult.
1: Admit you are a sinner. All of us are sinners. In Romans 4:23 it says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Psalms 14:1-3 states it this way: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside…no one does good, not even one.”We are all sinners but we have to acknowledge that we are to God for Him to begin to open our heart.
2: Believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son died and rose for you. He took the penalty for your sins. God is Holy. God is also just. This means that he has to judge and punish sin. If Jesus had not come, lived a perfect life as a human, and then died for our sins and taken our penalty onto Himself, we would not be able to be come to God without some sort of sacrifice. And that sacrifice would have to be perfect to atone (substitute) for our sin. We would be judged according to our sins and we are not perfect so we could not atone for them. Jesus literally stands between God and us and has taken the penalty of all of our sins, the past, present and future sins. Therefore, when God looks at a Christian, He sees Jesus, His perfect Son, and is able to pardon the sin and commune with the Christian. He no longer sees our sins once we have accepted Jesus. The Bible says it this way: Romans 5: 6-11, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ Died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For is while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
3: Accept Jesus in your heart as your Savior. Now perhaps this is what we really want to know. Your thinking, “how do I do this?” If you have taken the first two steps, I would like to congratulate you. Those first two steps are often the hardest. This step is really quite easy. Find someplace that is comfortable for you. You can be with somebody, a friend, teacher, parent or by yourself. It is simply a sincere prayer, out loud. This is what Romans 10: 9-10 says: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified , and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” You don’t have to shout this truth out loud, but you have to physically and verbally acknowledge God and your sin. There is no wrong way to admit you’re a sinner and ask Jesus to be your Savior. Any variation, as long as you are sincere, will be sufficient. Your prayer could simply be this:
“Dear God, I admit that I am a sinner and that I have sinned against you. I want to be forgiven and acknowledge that I need a savior. I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son, Lord, and that He died on the cross. I believe that through his death and resurrection he has saved me from my sin. I ask that Jesus would come into my heart as my savior and forgive me of my sins. Thank you for your sacrifice Lord and for your grace. Amen.”
If that seems too long for you this could work as well:
“God, I admit that I am a sinner. I need a Savior. I believe Jesus is your Son, and died for my sins. I accept Jesus into my heart as my savior and Lord. Please forgive me. Amen.”
If you do this, sincerely, God will not only forgive you but open and clean your heart. He will give you a new life. I hope that you will seek God and ask Him into your heart.
