Smoodock's Blog

After reading in my previous blog that God places no difference between the most immoral and the religious elite, one my wonder if there is any benefit at all to being a Christian. Well, there are great benefits. First of all, God has entrusted us with his word and to preserve it for succeeding generations, and I believe for the most part we have been faithful to this trust. Secondly, Jesus has entrusted us with reaching the world with the Gospel, and the fact that so many in the world know who Jesus was is a testimony to our faithfulness to this commission. So what, if some of us have been unfaithful, causing the world to hate God; this doesn’t mean that God will be unfaithful to us. His word is true no matter what men do or say. In other words, his promises to us will not fail. God will not allow the unfaithfulness of men to thwart what he desires to do.

Knowing this, some argue that if God is still faithful even when we are not, isn’t our unrighteousness causing the beauty of God’s righteousness to appear even more clearly and more gloriously? If this is so, how would it be fair to judge mankind, since even our unrighteousness has brought God glory (Romans 3:5)? Indeed, some men have sought to label the Gospel in such a way, saying we should keep on sinning in order to bring God more glory. When this occurs, it is evident that these folks have missed the point of the Gospel entirely.

The point of the Christian message is that as far as a relationship with God is concerned no one has the advantage over the other—not moral people, not religious people. Whoever trusts God will be drawn near to him. It makes no difference how great one’s sins are. The Law, itself, was given to point out our sins, so how could it justify any of us when it condemns us all? No one has an advantage over another when it comes to believing God, and even faith itself is a gift from God. All it takes is a willingness to test his faithfulness to us. God will respond to that by giving that one the ability to believe, and faith, if it is used, will draw us into his presence.

Where does this leave us? It leaves us at the foot of the cross. We are brought into the presence of God taking upon himself the condemnation that is rightfully ours. He has paid the price we justly deserve. We are faced with the unfathomable love of God for mankind—there at the foot of the cross. Do we believe? Can we trust our lives to a God who loves us this much? Is he worthy of our trust? These are the questions we need to answer, and they are answered at the foot of the cross. There is no relationship with God without coming here.

We are justified by the blood of Jesus who purchased our salvation (Romans 3:24). We are saved, not through our own efforts of morality or religiosity. We are saved by God’s grace. What does this mean? Grace is like getting a warning ticket when we deserve a $100 fine and a suspended license. But there is even more! We are saved by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus our Savior.

Redemption is the price that was paid to release us from the bondage in which we were held captive (Mark 10:45). Christ became our equivalent ransom (1Timothy 2:6). That is, he was the price God paid so that we could be free of our sins and the guilt we feel over what we have done (Acts 20:28).

What’s left for us to do? Nothing! That is, nothing except to receive the Good News (Gospel) that Christ has set us free. Believe it; trust God loves us that much. Faith is simply responding to what God has already done for us in Christ, Jesus, our Savior. Folks, we don’t have a death penalty hanging over our heads anymore. We aren’t even on parole. We have been fully pardoned for all we have ever done in our lives. Isn’t this worth a response from our hearts?

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