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This is me, one woman's plain-language plea for those who read this blog who are unsaved to believe in the Gospel.
We can see God plainly because He has made Himself plain in creation. (Romans 1:19). He has set eternity in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We know it, but we suppress it. Why? We're sinners.
Because we're all born sinners and do wrong from even in the womb, (Psalm 51:5), we can't go to heaven after we die. There IS a heaven, and after-life that lasts forever. So heaven exists but what would make it heaven if we're all there acting like we are here? It would not be heaven.
Only God is holy, that is, without sin. He does no wrong, He does not lie. He is perfect in righteousness...and we're not. (1 John 1:18, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:10).
Therefore humans have a problem, don't we? We can't do right, having a sin nature, and God is righteous and the bridge is so wide. A great gulf is fixed between us and Him...except that Jesus came to be that bridge. He lived a sinless life as a man, in the days of His flesh He was tempted as we are but overcame it all. He died on the cross as a criminal who had done no wrong, and took on all of God's wrath and punishment for our sins.
It is true, God is angry with you for sinning. God hates sin. Hates it. (Psalm 5:4). He has wrath about it. He was pleased to crush His son (again are you shocked at this language? It came straight from the bible, Isaiah 53:10). Then, pleased with His Son, God raised Jesus from the dead, and brought Him to glory. Now Jesus is not only the bridge, but the door we can go through to get to heaven.
Picture a car wash. The car is put on the tracks and goes through the building with powerful washing, and emerges the other side sparkling clean. Scrubbed from top to bottom. We don't get out and scrub the car, it is automatically scrubbed while we do not contribute to the work. Jesus's blood washes our sins away and if we go through Him we emerge clean by His works and we can go on to heaven.
But how do we get to the car wash? How do we get clean?
Repent.
That means hating your sins and asking Jesus to forgive them. He can and He does. He lived the life on earth and resisted performing even one sin, even one thought of sin. He is qualified to forgive us because He has triumphed over sin, and He took your punishment for them.
If you do not seek Jesus and repent of sins, believing He is qualified to forgive you because He is the resurrected Son of God, then God will reject you when you die and come asking to get into heaven. Those who reject Jesus will be rejected in turn. If God was pleased to crush His sinless Son, (Isaiah 53:10) do YOU think you'd fare any better standing before Him pleading your own sinful case?
It might sound shocking to hear of things like God hates sin or being rejected or crushing His Son. The world certainly teaches that God is [only] love and that heaven is open to all. But I go back to the original, if you go to heaven like you are now, and so does everybody, what makes it heaven? Earth is a terrible place, full of murderers and liars and child molesters. Even if you are not those things, you're a greedy, coveting, lying, cretin who doesn't do good and has poison in your heart. If you have ever even had one malicious thought, you're a sinner. So again, what makes heaven, heaven, if YOU'RE there?
I was a sinner too. I still am, but I asked Jesus to forgive me (Romans 10:9) and in His mercy, He did. He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell me so as to help me resist sin. I still have that sin nature but I am a new creation in Christ. I am IN Christ. You see, once we emerge from that car wash, the track leads straight to Jesus's arms and He enfolds us to Himself and He is in us and we are in Him. There is no better place to be, than in the One who is righteous, sinless, holy, living and perfect. He will never forsake me nor let me go. No one or nothing can snatch me from his hand.
He will give you the desires of your heart. Your desire is to sin. If you reject Him and won't repent, He will allow you to fulfill your desire to sin, but that disqualifies you from entering heaven. When you die, you will get your wish to be apart from Jesus forever. You will got to hell. Hell is real and at this very second it is full of people who thought they were saved because they were good. Thought they had the right religion. Thought there was no God, or hell, or heaven.
So repent while it is the day and not the night. Your foot shall slide in due time. Jonathan Edwards described the enormity of an eternal hell:
It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"
This is the Gospel from the bible:
The Resurrection of Christ
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me." (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
We can see God plainly because He has made Himself plain in creation. (Romans 1:19). He has set eternity in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We know it, but we suppress it. Why? We're sinners.
Because we're all born sinners and do wrong from even in the womb, (Psalm 51:5), we can't go to heaven after we die. There IS a heaven, and after-life that lasts forever. So heaven exists but what would make it heaven if we're all there acting like we are here? It would not be heaven.
Only God is holy, that is, without sin. He does no wrong, He does not lie. He is perfect in righteousness...and we're not. (1 John 1:18, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:10).
Therefore humans have a problem, don't we? We can't do right, having a sin nature, and God is righteous and the bridge is so wide. A great gulf is fixed between us and Him...except that Jesus came to be that bridge. He lived a sinless life as a man, in the days of His flesh He was tempted as we are but overcame it all. He died on the cross as a criminal who had done no wrong, and took on all of God's wrath and punishment for our sins.
It is true, God is angry with you for sinning. God hates sin. Hates it. (Psalm 5:4). He has wrath about it. He was pleased to crush His son (again are you shocked at this language? It came straight from the bible, Isaiah 53:10). Then, pleased with His Son, God raised Jesus from the dead, and brought Him to glory. Now Jesus is not only the bridge, but the door we can go through to get to heaven.
Picture a car wash. The car is put on the tracks and goes through the building with powerful washing, and emerges the other side sparkling clean. Scrubbed from top to bottom. We don't get out and scrub the car, it is automatically scrubbed while we do not contribute to the work. Jesus's blood washes our sins away and if we go through Him we emerge clean by His works and we can go on to heaven.
But how do we get to the car wash? How do we get clean?
Repent.
That means hating your sins and asking Jesus to forgive them. He can and He does. He lived the life on earth and resisted performing even one sin, even one thought of sin. He is qualified to forgive us because He has triumphed over sin, and He took your punishment for them.
If you do not seek Jesus and repent of sins, believing He is qualified to forgive you because He is the resurrected Son of God, then God will reject you when you die and come asking to get into heaven. Those who reject Jesus will be rejected in turn. If God was pleased to crush His sinless Son, (Isaiah 53:10) do YOU think you'd fare any better standing before Him pleading your own sinful case?
It might sound shocking to hear of things like God hates sin or being rejected or crushing His Son. The world certainly teaches that God is [only] love and that heaven is open to all. But I go back to the original, if you go to heaven like you are now, and so does everybody, what makes it heaven? Earth is a terrible place, full of murderers and liars and child molesters. Even if you are not those things, you're a greedy, coveting, lying, cretin who doesn't do good and has poison in your heart. If you have ever even had one malicious thought, you're a sinner. So again, what makes heaven, heaven, if YOU'RE there?
I was a sinner too. I still am, but I asked Jesus to forgive me (Romans 10:9) and in His mercy, He did. He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell me so as to help me resist sin. I still have that sin nature but I am a new creation in Christ. I am IN Christ. You see, once we emerge from that car wash, the track leads straight to Jesus's arms and He enfolds us to Himself and He is in us and we are in Him. There is no better place to be, than in the One who is righteous, sinless, holy, living and perfect. He will never forsake me nor let me go. No one or nothing can snatch me from his hand.
He will give you the desires of your heart. Your desire is to sin. If you reject Him and won't repent, He will allow you to fulfill your desire to sin, but that disqualifies you from entering heaven. When you die, you will get your wish to be apart from Jesus forever. You will got to hell. Hell is real and at this very second it is full of people who thought they were saved because they were good. Thought they had the right religion. Thought there was no God, or hell, or heaven.
So repent while it is the day and not the night. Your foot shall slide in due time. Jonathan Edwards described the enormity of an eternal hell:
It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"
This is the Gospel from the bible:
The Resurrection of Christ
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me." (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
Comments
Can the dead revive themselves and be saved/born again?
ReplyDeleteJOHN 3:6
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
ROMANS 5:12
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”
ROMANS 3:10,11
"...as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;…"
PSALM 14:2,3
The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
Can a dead person repent?
JOHN 6:63a
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.
See JOHN 11 Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
JOHN 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Most are on the broad path that leads to darkness.
MATTHEW 7:13,14
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."
Those on that broad path are not drawn to salvation because they love their sin and hide in darkness. It is the LORD who knows the heart and grants repentance accordingly.
JOHN 3:19,20
"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil."For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.…
See Parable of the Sower MATTHEW 13
Shannon asked "Can the dead revive themselves and be saved/born again?" and of course the answer is no. The eternal interplay between man's responsibility for his sin and the complete INability of man to effect his own salvation, thus relying completely on the effectual call of the Spirit, is a mystery.
DeleteWe know salvation has two parts, the Holy Spirit's drawing of man and man's repentance. Without faith there is no salvation- yet man can't generate his own faith. Yet there is also a necessary repentance, which the Spirit gives also and man continues in after salvation. These things are reconciled in God's mind, and when we get there we'll perhaps see more fully how it all fits.
Such a necessary and timely post Elizabeth. It certainly appears that we are nearing the end of the age of grace and it becomes very urgent for people to hear and heed this message.
ReplyDelete