As a senior in high school, I felt like I had everything I needed—a great family, good grades, a nice job, but I still felt an unexplainable void. I did not understand why I would get depressed. I didn’t know what my life was for. I thought, “If this is all there is to life, this is pointless.” Somehow, I knew there was more to life. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I thought maybe God could answer my questions. I started to read the New Testament (the latter third of the Bible that starts with Matthew) that someone gave me. What I read was amazing! When Jesus spoke, it was like He was speaking directly to me. I began to realize that God loved me unconditionally and that He had a purpose for my life. I finally realized that God was the only one who could fill the emptiness in my heart. I didn’t quite understand everything about who God was, but I knew I needed Him in my life. Even though I wanted to know God more deeply, the temptations of this world distracted me from God’s truth. I felt so guilty about the sins that I wrestled with, and I didn’t think it was possible for God to still love me.
The good news is that God didn’t give up on me. When I started college at the University of Florida, I made some friends who were real followers of Jesus Christ. They helped me to understand what the Bible was about. They told me that every person has sinned and has not kept God’s standard of holiness. I knew that I had definitely sinned against God. They told me that because I had sinned, I deserved death. I could not live with the holy God in Heaven because I myself was not holy. That really troubled me, because I wanted to live for eternity in Heaven.
Then they told me about why Jesus came. He is God’s son who lived a perfect and holy life. He was born as a human, yet he did not sin. Since Jesus is sinless and holy, He could voluntarily die on the cross to pay the death I should pay. When He died on the cross, he died to pay for all of my past, present, and future sins. This was God’s gift to me and the rest of the world. I just needed to put my trust in this, so I did. I told God that I was sorry for sinning, and that I believed, by faith, that Jesus died and rose again to free me from the slavery of my sins and gain victory over death for me.
I realized that even though I was good by the world’s standards, I was not good by God’s standards. Up to this point, I thought that as long as I did more good things than bad, I would go to Heaven. This is not true, because God’s standard is perfect holiness. No amount of good deeds could ever make me perfect or pay for the sins I had committed. I could only be saved because God is graceful, as Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” I finally understood that I was not saved by my works.
This was so freeing to me! I no longer felt the burden of my sins and the immense pressure of trying to live a perfect life. Since the day that I believed in what Jesus did for me on the cross, my life has been an adventure. God has given me so much purpose and fulfillment. Even though I still sin (though this is not my desire), I realize that God’s grace is sufficient for me. God forgives me because I believe in His Son Jesus.
You can also live a purposeful, fulfilling, and eternal life by trusting in what Jesus Christ has already done on the cross, you just need to understand and truly believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection as the only payment for your sins.