Monday Devo.. Long read but worth it... This is a great read... I have tried to condense it without much luck. Most seekers I talk to come from this perspective when it really gets down to it, I am sure some can relate. Warning .... the below text mentions sin, If you are one that believes there is no such thing, are you sure? No one commits sin? evil? murder? etc...( Oh well there goes half of the audience.....lol) Wont a good, moral life get me to heaven? The centrality of sacrifice in all human religious thinking points to an unmistakable reality: that humans instinctively know, or at least suspect, that there exists One to whom they are accountable for their behavior. They also assume, or know, that they have fallen short of what that higher being (or beings) requires of them. There is a universal sense that God is not pleased with me. So a third feature of worship is universal guilt. People worship because they feel guilty. They feel this guilt because they perceive they have fallen short of the standard that God, others, and they themselves require. The general, world-wide assumption is that, when we die, our good deeds and our bad deeds will be placed on the divine scales and weighed to determine if we go up or down. However, from Christianitys viewpoint, this is a great, global heresy. This is what religionists believe about God. They say things like, Well, it really doesnt matter what you believe. Whats important is that you try to do your best and be sincere about it. After all, were all trying to get to the same place; we all worship the same God. But in the Genesis account of Adam and Eve, we encounter something very different: in fact, we discover that there are two possible approaches to God, but only one is acceptable. After Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, they immediately hid in the bushes, took out needle and thread, and began sewing fig leaves together to cover themselves. God came and found them in the bushes--flunking the first home economics course ever offered! God looked at the clusters of fig leaves they had hastily sewn together, and He was not pleased. In fact, He scolded their efforts and their conduct. Adam and Eve not only had to admit their guilt and disobedience, they also had to acknowledge their inability to make things right through their own efforts. They could not cover, or atone, for what they had done. The account goes on to say that God had to take the initiative to adequately clothe them. He killed some animals and made garments from their skins for a covering. All philosophy, philanthropy, asceticism, religion, ethics, and all other systems which seek to gain the approval of God through human self-effort are the fig-leaf approach. This method is at the heart of what we call religion, mans best effort to reach up and find God. But the problem every worshipper encounters when climbing the mountain is an impenetrable barrier which denies all further advance: it is the barrier of Gods holiness and perfection. Each individuals personal sin and imperfection prevents him or her from coming any closer. When the word sin comes up in a conversation, most people look as though someone just slipped them a mildewed fig! I am not saying that there is no good at all in people. There is a great deal of good. Humans are not as bad as they could be. The point is simply this: if our premise is that to get to heaven one has to be good, then how good is good enough? Many will say they try to live by the Ten Commandments or by some other rule of life, such as the Golden Rule. And yet, if we are honest, each of us discovers we have violated our own standards at some point. This is what Paul meant when he said, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). the Ten Commandments can only reveal to us the condition of our lives; they cannot heal us or cover our sin. When my wife Carol and I travel, and I discover Im lost, I really hate for her to make her classic statement, Youre lost. Why dont you ask for directions? In my case, the issue is always my male pride! With the Pharisees, it was religious pride, as it is for all who would seek heaven on the basis of their own merits. We have sought to arrive at a biblical answer to the question, Will a good, moral life get me to heaven? We have examined the bankruptcy of every attempt by people to reach that goal through any and every means of self-effort. We have discovered that the salvation offered by Christianity is uniquely opposed to all human efforts to secure it by working ones way into Gods good graces. In fact, if God expected us to attain our salvation through good deeds, then God made a terrible mistake. He allowed His only-begotten Son to come to earth--robed in human flesh--and die a horrible death on a cross for our personal, eternal benefit. To choose a good works path to God is to negate the total significance of Christs death, making it meaningless and unnecessary. So how does this apply to you and me? Simply this: Everything that needed to be done for your salvation and mine was accomplished the moment Christ died on the cross. The penalty has been paid and Gods righteous demands satisfied. God is now free to extend eternal life as a free gift. He declares, The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). Gifts, of course, must be received. For that reason, Jesus said, He who believes has eternal life (John 6:47). Believe means to trust or depend on. God is asking each person to come to Him as a sinner, recognize that His Son died on the cross of us, and trust His Son alone as our only hope of heaven. In reality, every human being is just a prayer away from receiving the grace and forgiveness of God and the promise of heaven. But it has to be the right prayer, based on the right facts: that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, not Do-Gooders: I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners (Matthew 9:13). JAMES F. WILLIAMS If we really get this then why wouldnt it spir us towards God? Wouldnt we want to commune with Him more? Feel free to message me if this spoke to you. SELAH
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 02:16:43 +0000
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