Trusting in Jesus as our Savior and Lord is our response to Jesus being God and demonstrating His love to us.
Jesus claimed that He was God and He stated that His mission was to reestablish a relationship between God and anyone who would trust in and follow Him. The reason Jesus needed to reestablish our relationship with God is because our sin has separated us from God.
Jesus came to live the perfect life we are unable to live and to give His life and die for the payment of all mankind's sins. This is the penultimate display of God's love for the world. Jesus loved the world so much that He didn't want to punish the world but take the punishment of our sin upon Himself by sacrificing His life so we can have life.
But it would not mean anything if Jesus didn't come back to life. Jesus' resurrection proves that He is God and that He finished what He came to do—bring us life. We can trust in Jesus' resurrection because Jesus' closest disciples saw Him alive again. They even died for their belief in Jesus because they saw a resurrected Jesus. In a letter to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul says there were over 500 people who saw Jesus alive. (1 Corinthians 15:6) This is remarkable evidence to the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection from the dead means our relationship with God can be restored by trusting in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Jesus is the only one who can give us a relationship with God.
We can't be good enough for God, or make up for our sin, on our own. Only by trusting in Jesus can we receive the greatest gift of salvation.
This is why we believe everyone needs to trust in Jesus.
This is why our mission at Westside centers on Jesus. Our response to Jesus loving us is to live our lives loving Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and sharing Jesus.
Jesus is not only the center of our mission; we believe that Jesus is the center of history. At just the right time in history God sent Jesus, born of a woman, so that He could restore all who were far from God and bring them into God’s family.
Trusting in Jesus for our salvation:
Is recognizing that, without Jesus, we are far from God. Because our sin separates us from God we must confess that we need a Savior who can save us from sin’s punishment.
Is trusting that Jesus is alive.
Is trusting that Jesus is our Savior who gives us life. We can receive the amazing gift that Jesus offers us. That gift is Himself. When we put our trust in Jesus as our Savior, we receive Jesus' life that makes us new on the inside.
Is trusting that Jesus is our Lord. We trust in Jesus as our Lord by following Him.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18 (NIV)
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:10-11 (NIV)
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” Romans 10:9-11 (NIV)
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. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)