
It is important to rightly understand who Jesus is. If you do not approach Christ as your divine Lord, you will not receive the only means of salvation that is offered through Him. These are not minor or inconsequential details. If you attempt to find salvation in a Christ that is less than the Bible’s revelation of Him, then you are worshipping a false Christ that does not exist. And a false, non-existent savior cannot save you. To rightly understand the gospel message, you must rightly understand Him of whom the gospel speaks. Knowing this then, that Jesus is God, you need to understand why He is the only means of salvation.
You have all that you need to know of God’s existence. You have all of creation which testifies of a Creator. From the vastness of the universe to the intricacies of the atom, all creation works with a clockwork precision that can only point to an intelligent Creator who designed it all. No cosmic accident can truly testify to the wonders that we see with our very eyes. Additionally, you have something that the theory of evolution can never account for, a conscience. All of mankind has an innate understanding of right and wrong, of good and evil. While societies will seek to change and modify laws in order to permit things they know to be wrong, the very fact that you desire to see justice done speaks to the fact that you know morality exists outside of yourself. There is an outside moral law, a code of right and wrong that can only exist if there is a Person who has authored it. Absolute moral laws can only exist if there is an absolute moral Lawgiver.
Therefore, you know that there is an all powerful Creator who is interested in His created beings and that He desires them to know right from wrong, that there will be justice for those who commit acts of evil. No matter how you may seek to explain this away, you know that this Creator is God and that his moral law, the conscience He has given you, will one day be used to judge your life before Him.
God’s law is not simply a set of do’s and don’ts that He came up with. They are a very reflection of the character and nature of God. When we stand before Him, we all will be judged based upon how we lived according to His perfect righteousness. When we look at the Bible, we can see the moral law of God summed up in the Ten Commandments. Each law reflects the perfect nature of God. We are commanded to rightly worship the Lord and Him alone. As the perfect, all powerful Lord and Creator, there is nothing that deserves our love and adoration as He does. Anything less than wholehearted, perfect worship for the entirety of our lives is sin. Additionally, all mankind is created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, when we act in a manner that is not completely selfless toward others, we sin against Him who created us all. Anger, malice, lust, theft, murder, covetousness and more reflect a sinful attitude in which we elevate ourselves above others, believing we are better and more deserving than they. We are then sinning against He who commanded us to love the beings He created.
When we pass out of this life, we stand before the Lord our Judge, who will examine the books of our lives. Every lie ever told (white lie or deliberate, harmful deception), every lustful look and thought, every time you desired something that God had not graciously provided to you, each time you took something that did not belong to you, all hateful thoughts and words (even those spoken when no one could hear you), and each time you denied God by worshiping an idol created in the mind, or when you blasphemed Him by rejecting His existence, all will testify to your sinful heart and mind. The perfect Judge of the universe will examine all such things against His perfect righteousness and rightly condemn all who have rebelled against Him in lawlessness. Such sin against a perfectly righteous and eternal God can have only one punishment: eternal, conscious torment in the pit of Hell. There is no end, no early parole, and no pardon once a sinner is consigned to the lake of fire. It is eternal, without end, and no cry for mercy will be heard.
Yet, just as such punishment is for those who rebel against God, He has made a way of escape, a means of salvation for sinners. Man cannot atone for his own sins; he cannot absolve himself when he is already guilty. Nothing man can do will erase what he has already done. The wages of sin is eternal death in Hell. That is the legal requirement of God’s law. God cannot simply declare forgiveness without just payment being made for sin. To do would be capricious and unjust. Therefore, God satisfied the requirements of the law Himself. He paid the price sinners deserve so that the guilty might be set free.
God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in the form of Man, to fulfill all the requirements of the law. He lived in His earthly life in complete obedience to His Father in thought, word, and deed. There was never a time that Christ sinned in any capacity against God; He perfectly fulfilled all that the law required. In doing so, Jesus as our representative, lived the life that no sinner could. Then, Christ willfully allowed Himself to be arrested and illegally tried for crimes he did not commit. And He was voluntarily beaten, bloodied, and put on a cross where he endured the full wrath of God due to sinners. He was buried and on the third day, rose Himself from the grave, defeating the power of sin and death. In doing this, Christ satisfied the righteous wrath of God on behalf of sinners, yet provided a promise of eternal life for those whom the price was paid.
Today, God commands that all sinners everywhere repent, turn from their sins, and trust in the completed work of His Son for the forgiveness of sins. If you will do so today, God promises to send you His Holy Spirit and make you into a new creation. He will set you free from the bondage of sin and death. He will change your heart of stone to a heart of flesh. He will change your desires to satisfy your flesh and give you a desire to follow Him. Your sin will be put on Christ at the cross; His righteousness will be put on you. You will be seen perfect in the eyes of God and He will grant you eternal life in Heaven.
This is the most important message you can ever hear, that you can be cleansed of your sin, and that eternal life is available to you in Christ. Turn from your sins today and flee to Jesus, find forgiveness in Him today.
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