Thursday, March 1, 2018

Yes, God is Love



“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.”   1 John 3:23

My thoughts:
Don’t you realize that I have done all of these wonderful things for others?  I have given to charities, worked at the food bank, taken in strangers from the street, and helped the widows and the orphans.  I have been to Haiti, Uganda and China to help those who are famished and dying.  I have loved everybody for who they are and accepted them without judgment and asked nothing from them in return.  I am peaceful, gentle, loving and merciful.  Do you mean to tell me that your God is going to send me to Hell, just because I don’t believe in Jesus?  Really?

This type of statement is all too common in today’s world.  Now some will say that the Bible itself is just a fable and therefore have no interest at all in God or an afterlife.  Based on their refusal of God, our belief; as Christians; is that on judgment day they will be cast into the lake of fire.  But then there are many, genuinely loving people, who do not know or refuse to accept Jesus Christ, as their Savior and Lord.  What they fail to realize is that even though they are loving, charitable and compassionate, they are still filled with sin.  Based on the fact that we are all direct decedents over 100’s of generations from Adam and Eve.  Therefore the blood that runs through our veins comes from their original sinful action and separates us from God’s eternal presence.

Because of our sinful nature, we must be reconciled to God’s perfect righteousness.  This requires some level of atonement, or sacrifice, as it was with the children of Israel in the Old Testament.  The spotless, perfect lamb was offered once a year as a sacrifice for the sins of their family.  Under the new covenant, God sent His own Son, whose blood was pure and righteous from the Father above, to be the final sacrifice for all of mankind.  He provided the only path of reconciliation and atonement of our sins, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Despite how perfectly loving and generous we believe we are living our lives, we cannot eliminate the sinful blood that runs through our body.  This sin prevents us from entering into God’s presence and therefore unless we know of another way to cleanse that from our lives and atone for every single sinful act we’ve ever committed, then accepting the gift that God, Himself provided in Jesus Christ is the only way to avoid an eternity in Hell.  Regardless of how good we think we are, or how many people have been helped through our generosity and love, without Christ as our Savior and Lord, we will end up in the lake of fire along-side of those that refuse to even acknowledge that God even exists. 

Be Blessed,
Rich

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