The Bible is God’s word, revealed to us. And in the Bible we learn that there is a God that created us as well as everything that exists. I was an evolutionist, but I realized two things; firstly, something cannot come from nothing, so either God is eternal or matter is eternal. This a whole other topic, but suffice it to say it makes far more sense to have an eternal God, and it requires less faith to believe in a creator in my opinion. Secondly, mathematically and statistically, life could not have evolved. There just has not been enough time, and there could never be enough time because time and chance are not real forces. Again, a whole other topic.
Once it was clear that a God had to exist, I soon realized that the Bible is the sole revelation of that God. Why not the Koran or other so-called sacred writing? Well, I learned that there are really only two religions in the world. Yes, only two! There is the religion of “man-achievement” and the true religion of “divine-achievement”. I noticed that every other religion is basically man working to impress God. These religions require man to achieve some sort of perfection to win God’s favor. Within this list of religions are several perverted denominations of Christianity. They require good works, kindness, pilgrimages, religious rites, sacraments, confirmation, or acts of charity and on and on. The Bible, and therefore Christianity, is unique because only it teaches divine achievement.
True Christianity is based on divine achievement. God knows that we will never earn his favor because, as the Bible tells us, our righteousness is as filthy rags to God. See, a common misconception is that our spiritual welfare is based on a comparison with our neighbors - other humans. Many believe there is this cosmic scale. Hitler falls on one extreme and Mother Teresa on the other. If we fall more on the Mother Teresa side, we have impressed God to where He loves us, and lets us into Heaven. But the Bible teaches differently. We are compared only to God himself! And the Bible tells us “there are none righteous, no not one.” “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.
We all have this problem. It is called sin. Sin is the Biblical word for not measuring up to God’s absolute perfection. We are born with sin. We inherited it from our human father Adam. Adam disobeyed God and broke the relationship humans had with their Creator. Because of this, we all are born spiritually dead. We are sinful and headed for hell. The Bible teaches that we are not innocent until corrupted, but corrupted totally from birth. Lying, pride, arrogance, selfishness, bad motives, not doing good when you know you should, gossip, slandering – all these things and many more are what prevent us from knowing God and going to be with Him after our deaths. If you think you’ve got those under control, there are sins described in the Bible that will condemn even the most self-righteous person. For instance, “love the Lord with all thy heart and all thy soul and with all thy mind.” I know I haven’t done that every second of my life since birth. Have you? I didn't think so.
So if the story ended here, we would all be in trouble. But thankfully it didn’t. God established a pattern throughout the Old Testament and Judaism of a system of animal sacrifices. These didn’t achieve the forgiveness of sin, but were an indication of the heart of the one making the sacrifice. More importantly they established that God demanded the death penalty for sin. The Bible says with out the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. And it wasn’t just any animal; it had to be the most perfect animal in the flock. These sacrifices set the stage for the supreme, one-time sacrifice. God sent His son to earth to be born as a human. Jesus Christ. Christ was fully God and fully man. He felt all the temptations that you and I feel, He was tempted to sin in every way, but He never did sin. And in not doing so, He lived a life of perfect obedience and righteousness before God the Father. Out of all the people that have ever lived on earth, only Christ’s life of obedience was good enough to gain entrance into heaven. He perfectly met all the standards.
Here is the amazing part of the story. God arranged it so that you and I could be credited Christ’s perfect life! Here’s how he did it.
Christ began to teach about God and His standards when he turned 30 years old. He also did many miracles like walking on water and raising the dead and healing many sick people of life-long ailments. As it became clear that Christ was indeed God in the flesh, the religious leaders of the day became increasingly unsettled by Christ’s presence. Once it was clearly established that He was claiming to be God, they saw to it that He was crucified. That was the human reason for the crucifixion, but God the Father was actually superintending everything to arrange the execution of His son. Like the animals of the olden days, God was going to sacrifice His own son on the cross of crucifixion to arrange a substitution. This is why Christ is called the “Lamb of God”. God loves us very much and wants to make a way for us to be reconciled to Him. So He took all the sin that you and I will ever commit and He placed it on Jesus. How He did this is a spiritual mystery. It’s like a bank transaction. God emptied our account of sin, and transferred it to Christ’s account. Once Jesus had the sins of the world upon Him, He was whipped, beaten, spit upon, He had his beard ripped out, he had a crown of thorns shoved down over His head in mockery, then He was brutally crucified with spikes through His hands and feet. But the worst pain He bore was that God, His father, rejected Him. He was forsaken because of the ugliness of the world’s sin that lay upon Him. The other side of the equation is that God attributes all of Christ’s righteousness to the believer just as if we had never sinned! This whole deal is called the substitution.
It should be clearly understood that this transaction is not automatically made for all humans. You must repent of your sins. That means you must have earnest, godly sorrow for your rebellion toward the God that created you and gives you life, sunshine, blue skies, good meals, loving family, your health and every other thing you’ve experienced in your life. You must see how you have tried to be the god of your own life, denying Him and all that He is, and has done for you. You must ask Christ for forgiveness. Simply ask Him to make that wonderful substitution of your sin for His righteousness. The Holy Spirit will come to live within you. He will illuminate the Bible to you, convict you of your sin, show you where you are going astray, cause you to have love for other Christians as well as the lost. Because His Bible is the means by which He communicates Himself to us, a Christian should and will want to read the Bible. It becomes like a love letter to be voraciously consumed – not some old dusty book of stories. When these things take place in your life; the substitution has been made, your sins are forgiven, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you and makes you spiritually alive, you are honestly repentant of new sins, you have a new love for God, His people, and His Bible, this is what is called being “saved” or “redeemed” or “reconciled” or even “closing with Christ in all His offices”. (This new love for Christ, the Bible, and other Christians is not generated by you. nor does it contribute to your salvation. It springs out of you as an evidence of your rebirth on the inside.)
Now when you die and stand before God, you are washed clean in Christ’s righteousness. You now meet God’s standard (which is Himself) and you are called a child of God and welcomed into Heaven! God has gone to great lengths, and has demonstrated supreme love to save you, to deal with your sin. God raised Christ from the dead to prove that He was indeed God in the flesh. He is the only one ever to come back from the dead and remain alive forever. Buddah and Mohammed are dead and in their graves.
Please consider His invitation to believe and come to Him. Read the Gospel of John in your Bible. Then read the book of Romans and you will see it there for yourself. Find a healthy church that preaches the Bible unashamedly. Or send me an e-mail if you would like more information on what it means to be saved.
You have everything to gain and nothing to lose but your sin.