Yup gents, it's exactly as you say.
Instead of trying to be perfect (we can't, that's why Jesus came), we need to instead focus are efforts, on what
He is working through us...
1 John 4:9
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
And that tis the biggest issue with "new christianity", among many other things. If one thinks that all Jesus came to do, is too give you a "prosperous" life, then one is missing the whole reason to why
He came,
He lived,
He was crucified,
He rose back to life, and went back up to heaven, where
He is now waiting for us, to come home.
We are all fallen human beings, in rebellion, against
GOD are creator.
Nothing we can try to do, can justify us to
God. Every one of us, is lost, on the road to the lake of fire. And we all deserve to be sent there, because we all are incredibly wicked beings.
But, out of
His, beyond understandable love for us wretched humans,
He became a man. Who lived a
perfect life. Was wrongly accused, beaten; had a ring of barbed wire jammed onto
His head. Was then nailed with rail spikes to a telephone pole, hung up there naked, for half a day. All while
His family stood by, helplessly watching. And if being put to death, in the
worst possible way us humans
have ever devised, wasn't enough. The people who put
Him up there, stood by, ridiculed, and made fun of him all the while. All in front of his loved ones.
One can not even imagine, how terrible it must have been, for the savior of the world.
But, when
He gave up his life (he gave it up willingly) there was a massive earthquake (prophesied hundreds of years before), soldiers then speared
His side to make sure
He was dead (also prophesied about).
Hisfamily, and disciples then took
Him down, wrapped
Him in linens, and a wealthy business man, offered them his brand new tomb to bury
Him (again prophesied hundreds of years before).
After then laid
Him in there, the authorities were scared
His disciples would steal
His body (because
He earlier for-told, that
He would be raised from the dead). So they put a heavy guard, of the very best soldiers round
His tomb, each sworn on pain of death, and rolled a flat bolder in front, for double security.
Well, that should've been the end of that story...
But,
On the third day of his death,
He rose from the grave!
Bolder was rolled away by an angel,
He walked out of his tomb, on
His own two feet.
His guards were scared out of there wits, they ran as fast as they could back to home base, reporting to their bosses, what happened (remember, they were best of the best, i.e. Marines, and doubly under pain of death).
Well, from then on, we all know everything else that happened, up until
He left this earth, by way of going up into the clouds, and back to Heaven whence
He came from.
And everything we read in the Bible, is eye-witness accounts, not just some made up stories. This all actually happened, back 2000 years ago in
actual history! Let that settle in for a bit...
So when one has the proper grasp, of the magnitude of Jesus, then one
knows what salvation truly means.
Think of this, as just the first paragraph, of War in Peace, it's that big.