What does man have to do to be saved? You do not have to confess every sin that you have ever committed to be saved. How could you remember them all?

You must be willing to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. That is the good news for the world today. The Bible says,

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
(Rom. 10:9-10,13)

In the plan of redemption, God took the initiative, while we were yet sinners, and through Jesus Christ He took our sins, our sicknesses, our curse, and our death. He cancelled them and restored us to favor with Himself! He has already done this.
The answer to every person's problem is found in Jesus Christ.

You are not saved just because God has forgiven you. You must be born again and become a new creature in Christ Jesus. You must go from one family, which is of the devil, and be born into the family of God (Eph. 2:2). 

Colossians 1:13 says, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

The good news is not that the sinner is going to hell. Of course, without God, he is going to hell.  But most of the time the sinner already knows that.

The good news is that God has already reconciled every person unto Himself. All things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation - that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him.

It was God (personally present) in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them]; and committing to us the message of reconciliation - of the restoration to favor.

So we are Christ's ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ's personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God.
(2 Cor. 5:19-20 AMP)

In his sermon, "The God Men," John G. Lake recounts the following story that illustrates the ability of God to change man.

A man came to me one day and said, "I am almost ashamed to call myself a man, because I have simply indulged the animal of my nature so that I am more a beast than a man. You say, 'Why don't you quit such a life?' I have not the strength of will to do so. Unless something takes place that will deliver me from this condition, I do not know what I will do."

I tried to show him what the Gospel of Jesus Christ was. I tried to show him that through living in the animal state, surrounding himself with beastly suggestion, and contacting the spirit of beastiality everywhere that that element had taken possession of him so that it dominated his nature. 

I said, "My son, if the Gospel means anything it means there shall be a transference of nature. Instead of this living hell that is present in your being, the living holy God should flow into your life and cast the devil out, dispossess the beast, and reign in your members."

We knelt to pray, and a few days later he came back with tears in his eyes and said, "Mr. Lake, I feel I can shake hands with you now. I am a beast no more. I am a man."

Ephesians 2:1-3 says, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were BY NATURE the children of wrath, even as others."

Before man is born again his spirit is dead. The devil is his father (John 8:44). His understanding is darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him because of the blindness in his heart (Eph. 4:18).

Romans 5:12 tells us, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

The same spiritual death that Adam experienced when he sinned is inherited by every human being. A child left to his own ways will not, of his own accord, serve God. It is natural for the unregenerated man to serve the devil. 

Without spiritual rebirth, every person's father is the devil. Spiritual death includes disease, sickness, trouble and sorrow.

God's plan of redemption was to bring a human being into this world who had no spiritual death in his spirit. Every human being that had ever come into this world after Adam had this spiritual death in his spirit. To redeem mankind, God had to bring Someone divine and human into the world. That Someone is Jesus Christ.

John Osteen Publications
All rights reserved. Used by permission.