Friday, December 13, 2013

Someone Has to Die.. Someone Did...

Read God's Word...and believe...
Your sin incurred the wrath of our Holy God...and the penalty is death. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to appease Him. What little righteousness you may muster up will be considered filthy rags next to His holiness.

The attritubutes of God are immutable. He is holy...and the just response of holiness to sin is wrath. Wrath is a function of holiness. A Holy God cannot overlook sin. His respone to sin must be wrath...and it is a wrath that must be appeased by death.

The wage of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) The debt your sin has incurred requires the death penalty. Either you must die...or a righteous offering may be substituted in your place.

But this righteous substitute must first be willing to die in your place. And he must possess a holiness that reflects the very holiness of God...perfect, unblemished, sinless, divine.
Where can such an offering be found?

There is only One...and He can be found in the pages of God's Word. And the good news of the gospel is that almost 2,000 years ago, He offered His life as an atoning sacrifice for all who believe. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we could become the very righteousness of God. The divine Son of God was crucified as a criminal...nailed to a wooden cross. You are the criminal...yet He died in your place. And His death has the power to eradicate the debt of all your sin...past, present and future.

His atoning sacrifice is sufficient to save the world from their sin...and effective for all who believe.

His name is the only name by which you can be saved from eternal death...eternal torment in a hell reserved for God's enemies...those who refuse to believe. His Name is Jesus Christ. And He is the Son of the very God whose wrath demanded the death penalty in the first place.

God could not overlook your sin. But He could provide a substitute offering to satisfy its debt. And He did. He offered His own Son... It's difficult to fathom...but "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." (John 3:16)

Your ability to believe is determined by God. Only He can enable you to believe. But if He has chosen you to become His own, then you will hear the gospel and respond in faith. He will draw you to the cross. And through faith in Him, you will be justified...declared to be in right standing before your Holy God...

You can be saved... Saved from the penalty of sin... Delivered from the power of sin... And when Christ returns to judge the world who has refused to believe, He will remove you from the presence of sin...to live with Him for eternity.

Confess to Him that you are a sinner...
Repent, grieve the sin that masters you and makes you a repugnant stench before God...
Believe in Jesus as the unique Son of God, Savior and Lord over all...
And He will transform you.

You will become a new creation...
Imputed with His righteousness...and
Indwelled with the very Spirit of God who is the Savior's seal and depsit of eternity to come.

"Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering..." Romans 8:1-3

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:31-37

No comments:

Post a Comment