...that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16
This is the solution!
Because God is holy, sin has SEPARATED us (humans) with God. We live in a world of relationships. There's a relationship between God and humans too. Simple. Think of the relationship between a child and his parents. It was great in the years of his childhood. Obedient, happy, loved parents and parents loved him. But, all sorts of bad influence came to him during his adolescence. As you could have guessed, he started to become disobedient, had bad company, fought with parents and finally left home. Broken relationship. Broken hearts. Can you imagine how the parents felt? Relationship is something very real, very true. The description was talking about disobedient (sin), broken relationship and finally,- separation. It applies to all kinds of relationships and when we talk about the relationship between human and God, it's the same story (see Genesis 3). So in a nutshell of Genesis 3, God made Adam and Eve, happily at first (because they were in the dwelling of God), then the serpent (devil) came to deceive, they chose to disobey (because God created men in such that they have FREEWILL instead of being a 'robot'), that led to the terrible consequence of SEPARATION.
You see, humans have choices. We can choose to do or to have whatever we want, making decisions. But, there must be consequence(s) and we have to bear it ourselves, whether good or bad.
We can do nothing about redeeming ourselves by doing charity, meditation, donating blood and so on in order to 'cover' our sins. Sin is sin. And there's no way to keep it from coming to us by ourselves. Bear in mind that the consequence of sin is going to a very hot, fiery, horrible and definitely unfriendly place called the Hell. Hey, I didn't 'create' this term myself. It's in the bible (see Revelation 20:11-15). I want to make the point here by an illustration, a common situation. Let's say a man who was once righteous and good but evidence has shown that he committed a murder against his wife's boyfriend. He went up to the judge and said, "I was a good man. I gave so much to the charity and contributed to the country. What I did was out of anger." Do you think the judge would release the man because of the 'good' things he had done in the past? So, my point is God is holy and righteous. Everything we do has consequence(s). The consequence of sin is death and hell.
But God is God. So, if God is God, there's nothing too difficult for him or anything that he cannot do. And whatever he does, it is done because he loves us so much, SO MUCH that no one can ever describe.
So, more than 2,000 years ago, he came out with this idea that since we could not redeem ourselves from sin, he would come to redeem us HIMSELF. OK, I cannot die for your sin because I myself have problems (sinful). You also cannot die for my sin because you have the same problems as I. So, the only way was that God, being the righteous and holy, die for our sins. Yes, the whole idea is "God died for our sins". Wait, I haven't finished with the story yet. The man (murderer), sure was going to get his penalty according to the law. He was surely going to die. But, lo and behold! The judge was the man's father! Finally, the judge stood up and said, "Yes, surely he's going to get his death penalty. But, I'm going to bear the penalty for him." Do you know what it means? It means that the judge (father) was to die for his son (murderer). Again, I want to stress that there's nothing impossible with God because he is God.
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. - Matthew 1: 18-25
Jesus' birth was a no ordinary birth because he was conceived of a VIRGIN and was from the Holy Spirit (God). This means that, God who was eternal and so BIG, humbled himself to become a foetus and eventually a baby human. This means that the Lord Almighty came to the earth to live a life of an ordinary man but SINLESS because he was God, in order that he could sacrifice his life and died on the CROSS, so that the blood that he shed would wash away our sins. This is redemption. But that was not the end of it. On the third day after Jesus died, he rose again (he was resurrected-see Matthew 28:1-10). In this way, sinful men who were supposed to die and be thrown into hell eternally will live an eternal life in heaven with him IF we believe in Jesus Christ, to restore the relationship with God, even when we are dead physically (our soul and spirit is saved). Because of the restored relationship, God could do amazing things in our lives beyond what we could imagine and comprehend.
Romans 5:6-11 says:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 10:9 says:
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - John 14:6
This is the GRACE of God. Grace is something given to us free eventhough we did not deserve it. Take a look at this situation. An Indonesian maid was alone at home doing her household chores as usual. She was wiping the master's antique vase when suddenly she got loose of it and the 500,000 dollars vase fell onto the floor and was broken into pieces. Terrified, all she could do was to stare helplessly at the shattered pieces of clay for a moment. She thought to herself, "That's it. Not even my whole life of work will I be able to pay."
The master came back. Still trembling, the maid told him what happened and apologized. She could feel her heart leaping with joy and was overwhelmed with great relief when her master told her that she was forgiven and that she didn't need to compensate.
So, in other words, grace is like a free gift. But in fact it is something more than a free gift, of course. We might have received many free gifts from dealings but which one of them was without any condition? For instance, there were times when I drove recklessly and nearly killed myself and others in just a split of a second, but somehow I escaped any tragedy. So, this is grace, because I was supposed to die for being reckless. But now, I'm sitting in front of this machine composing about God's salvation which I hope through this, God would touch your heart and let you know that he loves you too, so much.
God knew that we are all sinners. He knew that there's no way we could go except to hell. We did not deserve eternal life because we were against him in the first place. But, he loves us so much that he gave himself as a sacrifice in order for us to have life.
If you asked me, "How could it be so simple and easy that by just believing in him, we could have eternal life in heaven?"
Well. Just believe. Because the redemption had been done. Say it simple and easy as you want but I would always remind myself that such grace had cost him his life.
So, by FAITH we are saved. Faith is something that we cannot see but we believe and know it is there. It is just like a friend gave me a present, a small box wrapped nicely with colourful wrapping paper. It was not my birthday or Christmas. So, I would consider the present as grace because I didn't deserve it. Apparently, I didn't know what was inside the box, but I believed that it was something sweet and nice. So, I would consider my belief as "by faith". But that's not the end of it. In order for me to receive the present, I had to open my heart and be WILLING to accept the gift. Well, you know some people would go, "Aiyah...no need lah, don't want lah." Finally, I had to stretch out my hand to receive it and say "Thank you."
Do you want to believe in Jesus today and accept him as your personal Lord and Saviour? If you're willing, simply say this prayer:
"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen."
You can always talk to God anytime, anywhere in your own language through prayer because he is a God who listens and answers.
If you've said the prayer above, Congratulations! You are now a Christian.
I'm more than willing to hear from you and to get to know you. You can e-mail me at chewphuiyee@gmail.com
