Omya,
I do love my God, and because of this love, I don't lie, don't kill, don't steal,...etc. Do you think I have any hope in the life after?
Remember wat Jesus said, He didn't command me to believe in his crucifiction for the sins of all poeple to be saved...did he?
Omya you are so right.. he didn't ask you to believe in his death for the sins of all people, but only for your own sins.. yet, he also asked the most sinful (by human standards) person to believe that He died on the cross for their sin too.
You do love your God and you live a life which is as much the life He wants you to live as you can possibly live. You are very religious and following God as much and as best as you know how.
now let me introduce you to (or remind you of) some other people in the New Testament who also were congratulated for their faith
In Acts 8:26-40, an evangelist named Philip met an Eithipian who was going to Jerusaleum to worship in the temple. (he was a gentile believer in the Jewish God). He was reading from the book of Isaiah about the one who was to be led as a lamb to the slaughter. Philip asked the Eithiopian if he understood what he was reading. The Eithiopian responded with questions and the request to have the passages explained.
You see, the Eithiopian sincerely believed in God and sincerely wanted to follow Him, but when the old testament prophecies concerning the messiah was explained to him, his immediate response was to be baptised. He realised and knew that whilst he was sincerely following what HE KNEW about God, He needed someone else to explain what he knew was lacking in His faith.
Then look at Acts 17.
Paul this time was speaking to the men of athens, who were worshippers of many gods. Paul never once said that their faith was wrong. On the contrary, Paul said to them..
"Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious". He acknowledged their gods, though never once said he believed in them, but then he turned his attention to the altar to the unknown God. This was the God he said He Paul worshipped. (verses 17:23)
Paul took what little knowledge they had of God, and He told them the whole gospel and some believed.
The Bible tells us that no matter how hard we try, we will never meet the demands of a Holy God. Against His Holiness, all our good deeds are like filthy rags. This is not to say that in themselves they are not good, it's just that against the standard of holiness, none of us meet the mark. Yet, in our hearts, we yearn for God. We desire intimacy with Him, and we follow after Him in the way we know best.
He is no man's debtor, and He will honour that desire. But, it still remains, that we have now before us the full story of salvation. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, died for our sins, to make us acceptable to God. It's not just our sins that nailed him to that cross, it was the stamp of sin on humanity which made it impossible for us ever to become good enough to meet the standard of a holy god, no matter how many commandments we keep, how often we pray, even which religious book we choose to follow.
God provided the answer by Himself becoming Man, and dieing in our place. Omya, there is a lovely verse in the Bible John 3:16 which says,
"For God so loved the world he gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" That can be read in this way too..
"For God so loved Omya, He gave His one and only son, that if Omya believes in Him, Omya would not perish, but have eternal life" .
Yes.. you love God and you follow Him as best you can. He honours that.. and He tells you how much He loves you.. by Himself coming and dying for you and taking your sin and giving you instead the promise of eternal life with Him.
All the words, all the arguing, everying we do in this forum leads to this wonderful, awesome and most humbling of thoughts. God loved me enough to die for me!