Two Choices

People often today don’t want to hear truth. They want their “truth.” I don’t know how many times I’ve heard, “that might be your ‘truth’, but that’s not my ‘truth’”.

“When we look at God’s law and say, ‘I want it my way not Yours,’ that’s what evil is all about, that’s what sin is all about.  You will never come to Him until you have come to yourself and seen how despicable and how weak your heart is.” –Ravi Zacharias

The fact that we even want separate truths is proof that we are sinners in need of a Saviour.  We like ourselves.  In fact we love ourselves.  It’s so easy to want to just continue doing whatever we want to do. But truth is not ours to determine.  Truth is God’s alone.

So this is the truth.  We are all sinners in the eyes of a righteous and holy God.  The punishment for sin is death.  There is a consistency to the fact that all are sinners deserving of death because we all die.  Our physical bodies will not be here forever.  Once we die, our life here on earth will be over.  Our decisions are final.  Our monetary accomplishments, everything we’ve worked so hard for…none of that will matter anymore.  We will leave it all behind.

  And the reality is that when (not if) when we die our bodies will return to dust and eventually even the memories of us will fade away with time.  

That was the bad news.  It’s bleak.  But really the bad news can get worse.  If we die without Christ we will be separated from him for all eternity with no hope of ever being able to turn to him.  We will burn forever in Hell.  Always burning, but never burned up.  You’ll be stuck in a never ending agony begging for even a drop of water to quench the horrible thirst, but by then the choice has already been made and it will be too late. 

But there is good news, actually fantastic, marvelous, wonderful, amazing news!  I hope you are still reading.  God sent his only son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin with his death on the cross.  Jesus was crucified, and when he was crucified, the sins of the whole world were laid on him.  He died an agonizing, slow, and painful death that day.  He was buried in a borrowed tomb, and the tomb was sealed.  That is not the end of this historical and biblical event.  On the morning of the third day the ground shook, the stone was rolled away, and Jesus himself walked out of the tomb ALIVE!  He had conquered death, and with his sacrifice he claimed victory for you and for me. 

  We do not have to die in our sin.  We do not have to be separated from Christ for all eternity, and we do not have to burn in Hell.  We can live forever in heaven with the Creator of the Universe, our Maker, and our King!  

There is not but one way to heaven. I cannot be a great person and go to heaven. I can’t do good works all day every day, and earn my way to heaven. I can’t “nice” my way into heaven. There is one and only one way to get to Heaven. This isn’t my opinion or “my truth.” This is THE TRUTH.

We must believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross.  We must admit that we are sinners, we must turn from our sin (repent), and we must believe on the name of the only begotten son of God, and receive Him as our own personal Lord and the Saviour of our lives.  We give him our heart, our very being, our lives.  We turn it all over to Him!  Salvation is a wonderful free gift, and we don’t have to do anything other than accept it.  

Once you have accepted Christ as your Saviour you can begin to cultivate a relationship with God himself.  You can read the Bible (God’s instruction book for life).  You can talk to God (pray).  And you will be a new person in Christ.  Imagine knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt where you will spend eternity.  Imagine the peace that comes from knowing deep in your soul that God loves you, that he formed you in his image for a special purpose, and that he loves you so much he sent his only Son to die for you.  Imagine sleeping deeply each night, safe and secure in the arms of God!  

As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.  Rom. 3:10

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  Rom. 3:23

Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.  Rom. 5:12

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Rom. 6:23

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  Rom. 5:8-9

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.  Rom. 10:9-10

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  Rom. 10:13

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.    John 3:16-17

GA

and continuing…

“I believe one reason

Why the church of God

At this present moment has

So little influence

Over the world

Is because the world has

So much influence

Over the church.”

~Charles H. Spurgeon

I have been disturbed lately by the lack of confidence in Christian people sitting in church pews. I see people (and this is more than ever in my lifetime) trusting that their goodness and their good works are going to get them to Heaven. We have been hearing a lot lately about government entities not allowing churches to meet properly because of Covid-19, but the church has been letting modern culture take over the runnings of churches for decades now.  We don’t want government to run our churches, but it is ok if new cultures invade and take over. Yep, I guess that is right, because we have freely allowed that to happen. 

   I recently saw a post from someone that said, “As I Christian, I am offended by the reasoning that we seem to think that Christianity is the only religion that can get you to heaven.”

   My, oh, my!

   When I saw that my heart literally sank. I know why Jesus looked out over Jerusalem and cried: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” – Matthew 23:37

   I think I sort of feel the same thing in a way. I wish that there was something I could do to change such thinking in today’s world.  The thing I can do is to pray that something that is said in some of these blogs could possibly get to someone’s heart in time.  As I said in the first blog article, we do not have much time left. Where will you choose to spend eternity? Is what you are believing in something that is based on God’s Word?

   To go back and answer the question is Christianity the only religion that can get you to heaven: the misnomer in that is Christianity is not a religion. No religion can get you to Heaven. Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ – a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe and everything therein! Not any good works I do can get me there, only the fact that I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior will get me there.

   For those of you that are reading this and it does not sound familiar, let’s take a little road trip and do some soul searching. I know when I am confronted with something new or different I like to take a little walk to clear my head. So, let’s take a little trip down the Romans road.

   No matter how good we are, we cannot obtain salvation on our own merits:

   “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:” Romans 3:23

   God, thru his Son, Jesus Christ, offers you a free gift – eternal life:

   “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

   We are all natural born sinners. If you die a sinner, it is eternal punishment, through the love of Christ it is eternal life:

   “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23

  All we have to do is believe, trust, and confess our sins:

   “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.”  Romans 10:9-10

   And no matter what your past is, whatever you have done, anyone can do this:

   “For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

   Romans 10:13

   There is one more question that I think needs to be answered before we try to end this conversation. I hear a lot that God is love, he would not send anyone to hell. He is not sending you to hell – you are choosing to go. Christianity, again, is not a religion – when it becomes just another religion that is where all the arguments come in. Jesus himself said that if you follow him, you would have troubles, it will not be all fun and games. He said once you follow me you will be hated of all men.

   “And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.”

   “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

                                                                               Matthew 10:21-22a

   One last thing, if this has affected you in any way, and you would like to settle where you will spend eternity, I ask you to please pray right now, that you would accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. You can pray in your own words if you would like, but here is a small prayer if the words will not come to you and you do not know how to pray yet.

My prayer:     

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, 

and I ask for your forgiveness.

I believe that you died for my sins and rose from the dead. 

I turn from my sins and invite you into my heart and life. 

I want to trust you as my Lord and Savior.

Amen

   If you have any questions about salvation you can ask them here, and we will be sure to respond.  I also suggest that you find a Bible and read the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  These four books of the Bible document the life of Christ from the perspective of four different men who journeyed with Jesus during his life on earth.  I challenge you to think deeply about where you want to spend eternity.  I’m so thankful that God has given us His word where we can discover truth for ourselves.  Dive deep into His word, and learn more about his redeeming love!

AE