Has life put a lot of mileage on you? Are you weighed down by the toll it has taken? Are you weary? Are you troubled? Do you feel hopeless? Do you feel trapped in things you are doing or things done to you or things you have done? Do you feel condemned by your sins? Do you feel condemned by other people? Do you feel the sharp criticisms of your critics? Do you feel the pain of rejection and loss? Do you feel the agonizing loneliness of being human and misunderstood? Or, do you feel proud and self-justified? Do you think you are right and everyone else is wrong? Do you feel angry at the world and anyone who gets close enough to you to matter? Are you unsure where to turn?

Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn away from all the sin and pain and judgment and condemnation and run to the One who took all the sin, pain, judgment, and condemnation at the cross, paying the penalty for all your sin. There is new life and forgiveness in Jesus because He purchased His people from the slave market of sin so that they would no longer be slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness.

Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day.
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. (Acts 2:22-24).

The truth is, apart from Christ we are lost in sin and burdened with shame. Yet God took our sin and shame and nailed it to the cross. In Christ there is new life. This is not a repackaged, reimagined, redefined Christianity. This is biblical Christianity from the beginning of time. Anyone who has ever been saved from the wrath of God justly aimed at their sin has been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone.

All the answers are in God‘s perfect Word. It tells you what you should do. “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for (because of) the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Jesus said to those who had believed in Him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32). “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John‬ ‭8‬:‭34‬-‭36).

God doesn’t bait and switch us or sugarcoat it, He tells us straight up what the truth is.

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭21‬-‭26‬)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 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 if 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.” (Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭11‬)

You don’t need cheap substitutes. You don’t need New Age sub-Christian ideas written with the liberal slant of progressivism that ignores the real issue which is the heart. You don’t need feel-good relativism. You don’t need deceptively fuzzy re-definitions of confession and repentance and salvation. You need to know what it really is. In confession you admit your sins and your need of Christ. In repentance you think differently about God and your sin, such that you you now hate what you once loved (your sin), and you love the one you once hated (Jesus Christ). Therefore, you repent, you change your mind, you acknowledge that your sin is bad, damningly reprehensible and that Jesus is good, delightfully righteous. You hate your past sins and you love God.

You need Him who is the Way and the Truth and the Life. You need to acknowledge there is no other way to be right with God than through Jesus (John 14:6). You realize you need to follow Him worshipfully and obediently with His people with all their flaws, knowing that all who come freely to Christ are freely forgiven by a God greater than all of their sin. And the reason why is because Jesus substituted Himself in our place and took the punishment our sins deserved. He satisfied the holy wrath of the one true only sovereign God, and offers new life to everyone who will come to Him.

Hope of forgiveness is real. God doesn’t wink at your sin. He sent Jesus to the cross for your sin. He doesn’t just let it go and say it was no big deal. He pays the complete cost and carries it all so that you receive forgiveness freely at God’s expense. The cost was immeasurable. For you to be freely forgiven infinite cost was paid. Precious blood was spilled.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬-‭5‬)

The cross-work of the Lord Jesus Christ gives freedom and victory. He gives blessed hope of eternal life and the resurrection. You believe that one day Jesus is coming again and will gather all His people to Himself, and from that moment on we will always be with the Lord. Until that time, He is with every true believer. He is with His Church, His family, adopted, forgiven, redeemed, kept forever secure in His great love, immeasurable mercy, and glorious grace.

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬-‭21‬)

Has life put a lot of mileage on you? Are you weighed down by the toll it has taken? Are you weary? Are you troubled? Do you feel hopeless? There is hope of forgiveness in Jesus.

This is why you need to commit your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and wake up each day resolving to serve Him with every ounce of your being. You need to serve Him with the strength that He supplies. You need to do so with your household, in fellowship with a local church where there is a plurality of elders keeping watch over your soul, and a group of people that want to worshipfully and obediently follow Christ together, making disciples and baptizing believers, remembering the Lord‘s death and resurrection at the Lord’s table. You need to celebrate your salvation and give the gospel to everyone, and sacrificially serve Jesus, and above all, seek God’s glory over all.