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While you are here, let me
just go ahead and answer that question for you too. A lot of people may
feel that they are doing okay so why do they need Jesus anyway.
If the only reason a human being ever needed Jesus was to be happy and a
person is already happy without Jesus, then they certainly don’t need
Jesus. The New Testament indicates, however, that there’s another reason
you or somebody else needs Jesus. There is a God who is altogether holy,
who is perfectly just, and who declares that he is going to judge the
world and hold every human being accountable for his or her life. As a
perfectly holy and just God, He requires from each one of us a life of
perfect obedience and of perfect justness. If there is such a God and if
you have lived a life of perfect justness and obedience—that is, if
you’re perfect — then you certainly don’t need Jesus. You don’t need a
Savior because only unjust people have a problem.
The problem is simply this: If God is just and requires perfection from
me and I come short of that perfection, and he is going to deal with me
according to justice, then I am looking at a future punishment at the
hands of a holy God. If the only way I can escape punishment is through a
Savior and if I want to escape that, then I need a Savior. And that
Savior of course is Jesus Christ. Some people will say that we’re just
trying to preach Jesus as a ticket out of hell, as a way to escape
eternal punishment. That’s not the only reason I would acclaim Jesus to
people, but that
is one of the reasons.
I think that many people in today’s culture don’t really believe that God
is going to hold them accountable for their lives—that God really does
not require righteousness. When we take that view, we don’t feel the
weight of the threat of judgment. If you’re not afraid to deal with God’s
punishment, then be happy as a clam if you want. But, personally I would
be living in terrible fear and trembling at the prospect of falling into
the hands of a holy God, not having believed upon and received Jesus
Christ.
Why do you need Jesus? Because He is the
Savior, the only Savior, and through Him, and because of Him and what He
did at the cross, and His resurrection, you and I can be made righteous
before our holy God.
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It is my personal belief
that the most important message that could ever be heard is the Gospel.
But the problem that I see so often is how this powerful message is so
over simplified and distorted. People think they’re preaching the Gospel
to you when they tell you, “you can have a purpose to your life”, or that
“you can have meaning to your life”, or that “you can have a personal
relationship with Jesus”, or the classic “you need to get saved.” Yes, all
of those statements are true as well as being important to hear and to
tell, but none of them get to the very heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the "good news" because it addresses the most serious
problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply
this: God is holy and He is just, and we’re not. And at the end of my
life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged.
And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness - or lack
of it - or the righteousness of another. The good news of the Gospel is
that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to
God, not for His own well-being but for His people. He has done for me
what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that
life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to
satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
It seems in our society today that people have this misconception that God
doesn’t care about protecting His own integrity. That He is this kind of
indecisive, wavering God who just passes His hand of forgiveness over
everybody. No, this is not the case. It is a very costly matter for God
to forgive you. This great cost was the very sacrifice of His own Son.
He felt it was so valuable that he proclaimed it by raising Him from the
dead. God the Father gave His Son, Jesus to die for our sins, and raised
Him from the dead for our justification (God’s declaring of us just before
Him).
How do I get this justification? The Bible
makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts,
not by our deeds, but by faith - and by faith alone. The only way you can
receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death and resurrection is by
putting your trust in Him - and in Him alone. You do that, and you’re
declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of
all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.
So as you see, the Gospel is not just “You have a purpose,” it’s so much
more powerful and costly than that. |
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I can’t imagine anybody not
wanting to receive, accept and believe upon Jesus Christ as his or her
Savior and Lord. I just can’t imagine it. Hey, it would be easy for me to
play the game of not telling you all the truth, and just making God into a
mushy God who doesn’t care how we live, so that you might like me better.
But, I have learned in life that real friends, in a situation like this
will be honest and tell the truth. And as for being a believer myself, I
have to be true to my belief in what I know to be true about what the Word
of God says about true salvation and eternity. And what you have read is
the real truth. Like me or not, to be your friend I must tell the whole
truth on this subject. |
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