I’d like to start by asking you two important questions. If you were to die tonight, do you think you’d go to Heaven? Perhaps if you’re a Christian, you will say yes, but what if you have no church background or education, an agnostic or atheist, or maybe you grew up in the church and have strayed. Will you go to Heaven? Perhaps you’d answer with logic like I’ve been a pretty decent person. I’ve always held the door for strangers, I always worked an honest 8 hours a day, I give to charity, I’d like to think I’ll go to Heaven. Or maybe you say I don’t know, I think I’m a good person, but I tend to fight with my mom a lot, I feel bad about that, I don’t know if I’d go to Heaven. Or maybe you’d outright say no, I’ve been lazy, angry and selfish. I don’t think I’d go to Heaven.
But let’s elaborate a little more. If you were to die tonight and you were suddenly standing before God and He asked you, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” What would you tell Him? Maybe you answer with the same logic as the first question. My pastor told me of a woman he was visiting and he asked her this question. She said, “I would tell him how I always took in stray animals, hurt animals sometimes, and I’d care for them back to health, and I always fed those strays and tried to find them homes.” He asked her again, “But would God let you into Heaven?” She paused, and then said, “I don’t know.”
When we imagine death, we often imagine being in a hospital bed, surrounded by loved ones and saying our goodbyes then we close our eyes. We think, I’ll go to church when I settle down or when I have some free time. But sometimes life is over in the blink of an eye. We’re driving and all of the sudden there’s an accident or perhaps there’s an ailment in our body that we don’t know about until it’s too late. Now suddenly we’re before God. What do you tell Him? Do you deserve to Heaven?
We have a problem. The problem is we are sinful. And if we have committed one sin we fall short of the glory of God. What God requires is that we are Holy. Leviticus 19:2 says, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Think of all of the sins you’ve committed in your life, think of all the sins you’ve committed today. Have you ever been mad at somebody? Jesus says to love God by loving your neighbor perfectly, in Luke 10:28 He says, “Do this and you will live.” The equation below shows what God requires, the way we ought to be.
To get into Heaven and have eternal life we need to have holiness, which is achieved by having no sin. The way we ought to be. Unfortunately the way we are falls short of the glory of God. In fact Romans 2:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So what does this mean? Isaiah 59:2 says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God” and Romans goes on to say in chapter 6 verse 23, “The wages of sin is death.” Death in this case meaning eternal separation from God. So what does God see when He looks at us?
God as our judge takes a look at us and He see no holiness, with sin, which means damnation. So what do we do now that we know we have to be holy and without sin. Sometimes we come up with manmade remedies for our problems. We say, “I’ll try to do more good things than bad things.” I cursed in traffic on the way to work, I’ll buy the office donuts to make up for it. But as humans we sin often, and it’s hard to make up for everything. Sometimes we have quick sinful thoughts, sometimes we don’t even know we’re sinning. “I’ll try harder,” we say. Now I count to ten when I’m angry, but I still got angry didn’t I? “I’ll compare myself to others.” I might have cursed in that traffic jam, but Tom, that guy’s got a wife and a girlfriend, I’m a good family man. But I still swore didn’t I? Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” These things may boost our self-esteem but they still don’t make us holy. In fact in James 2:10 we read, “Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it.” If we have ever sinned, and we have, we have completely broken God’s law and are not holy.
But God has a solution, the great exchange. Jesus. “The Lord our Righteousness” as referred to in Jeremiah 23:6. Our righteousness. Jesus is God, putting aside His full powers and living a perfect life so He may be a sacrifice for us. 1 Peter 1:9 tells us Jesus is, “A lamb without blemish or defect” and 1 John 5:20, “The true God and eternal life.” Jesus gives us eternal life. How does He do this?
Jesus died on the cross taking all sin with Him by living a perfect life. When we take our sins to the cross, we receive Jesus’ holiness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” So through Jesus, when God looks at us He sees:
Jesus has taken away our sin which makes us holy and now we have life through Christ. John 1:29, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus suffered death and conquered sin that Good Friday almost 2000 years ago so that we could be without sin in the eyes of the Father when judged. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
That’s God’s promise to us; eternal life through Jesus. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And it’s so easy to receive. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”(Acts 16:31) So when we think back to our manmade solutions that fall short of God, we realize that it’s nothing we need to do, or for that matter can do, but through Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Even if you’re not Christian or well-studied in your Bible, I’m sure you’ve seen John 3:16 before, maybe you’ve even heard the verse. It shows that this great exchange is a loving gift from God. “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.”
Now we can safely answer that question; we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Grace is an undeserved gift of love. So if you were to die tonight and you were suddenly standing before God and he ask you, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” What would you tell him? In faith, point to Jesus and say, “Your Son lived for me and died for me. He took away all of my sins and made me righteous. He is my Savior, and in him I have eternal life.”
And with this faith in Christ we have God’s blessings with a new life. First we have a complete life. John 10:10 says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” God gives us answers to problems, in Psalm 50:15, He says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.” We have the blessing of Christian fellowship. Ephesians 2:19 tells us, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” We will receive comfort from God. Probably my favorite Bible verse comes from Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Putting our sins at the foot of the cross and turning to Christ gives us spiritual character. Galatians 5:22 describes what these are, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” And with good Christian character from God’s blessing gives us Godly goals. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” Christians don’t do good works to get saved, they do good works because in Christ Jesus they are saved.
I pray that these words were educational and that you may be able to put them to use with people you know, be it family, friends, neighbors, coworkers or anyone else in your life that you love and want to share eternal life with. I believe this is a good place to start with great talking points to help point your loved one in the right direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment