Jesus Christ came to save the world from their sinful nature that had been handed down through the ages from Adam. Will everyone be saved? No, because not everyone wants to be saved. There are many who will hear the message of salvation and reject it because they don’t want to be saved or they don’t think they need saving, like the Pharisees and the Priests of Jesus’ day.
God loves humanity and He did choose the Jewish nation in particular. Why? Because He is God! My point is that He has known since before He created the Earth that human beings would rebel against His rules and His wisdom. He has known that some will gladly accept His wisdom and His rules once they realize where they will spend eternity IF they don’t! That is why Jonathan Edwards sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” caused a massive revival when he was preaching. The link that I have shared is from Yale University where Jonathan Edwards got his theological training. He preached this sermon in 1741 and It caused a revival to break out.
My point in showing this is this: God loves humanity, not just one class of people or one nation but God keeps us from falling into hell by His will and purpose, not by anything that we do. It is by His pleasure and love for us that we get the chance to come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I know that this small message would not be a welcome one in many churches today but the fact is that God places each of us in a place to accomplish His purpose. When the Holy Spirit touches our heart during a sermon or a radio broadcast or even through talking to someone about salvation, it is at that point that we realize just how much we need Jesus as our Savior. The thread that keeps us from falling into hell is God’s purpose and pleasure and once we find that we truly need Him to show us the way to live by following Jesus’ example…we should do so with as much passion as we can until our life is over.
Each of Jesus’ disciples told people about their Savior from the day of Pentecost until the day they died. Each one of them took His message to as many as would receive it until all of them were martyred except for John. John is the only disciple of Jesus who died of old age at the end of the first century. Your purpose and mine are bound together with those disciples because we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior for all of mankind. Your skin color doesn’t matter, Your culture doesn’t matter and neither does your nationality. The only thing that matters for this tiny space of time that we have on Earth is this: Who is your Savior?
Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven and belief in Him is the only way that your heart can be changed. Following Him from that point every day of your life is the only way to take His message to a dying world. Ensure your eternity and destination in it while you can because this life is the only time you have to make that decision. I pray that all who read this or hears this will make the decision to give your life to Jesus and ask Him to come into your heart so you can be saved. All of us have an eternity ahead of us when we die, but your decision about your salvation will determine where you spend eternity.
There are many layers of truth in the word “difference”. A difference between one person and another can be shown to be based on their culture or their skin color or their race as some relate to it. The human race is only one race but the shades of color that all of us share on the surface of our skin have been causing divisions between people for thousands of years. Some of us have very light skin color, some have different shades of brown or tan or even skin with a yellowish tint to our skin and there are others that have very dark skin even almost black. God caused this to be this way to protect us from the intensity of the Sun’s light in the area that we live in. At least that is what science has told us. The culture that we grow up in can cause many problems between people who don’t share the same culture.
Yes, we have many differences and at times it is those differences that cause much of our problems in every country not just our country.
The differences between religions meaning what or Who they worship or what they believe has caused so many divisions between churches even in the same denomination. Sometimes a church has even split over the color of the carpet on the floor! We have so many options and different ideas that can get in the way of our living the way that God has called us to live. All that we have to do to be His children is to believe in Jesus and follow Him for the rest of our lives. It sounds easy doesn’t it? But following Jesus every day during your life is not easy. Remember what Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow Me”. Your cross is where you nail your old way of living to it every day!
You have to choose to put your old problems, your sins, your addictions, your fears, your family or your career on that cross and give it to Jesus. Leave them on the cross and don’t take them back. Walk with Him, learn from Him because He doesn’t care about your skin color or the culture that you come from but He does care about your eternal soul and where your eternity will be spent! God doesn’t care how famous you are or how much money you have. He doesn’t care about your politics or your previous life but He does care about you. Give your heart to Jesus, ask Him to come in and change you into the person that He knows you can be. The Bible says that when He comes into your life and changes you, then you are a new creation. Your old life and ways are in the past and everything from this point on is new!
The change that comes into your life when the Holy Spirit comes and changes you makes your whole outlook different from what you had before. You are not the same person. You look the same from the outside but your heart is more like Jesus’ heart and it will become more like Him if you feed your mind on the Word of God every day. It sounds boring, I know. But when you have been changed like this, your mind is changed as well. The Bible won’t seem like an old boring book. It will be full of wisdom and stories about God and His power and creativity and His love. Ask Him to show Himself to you while you read His Word and He will do it!
There will be a difference in your life that people can see and it won’t have anything to do with the color of your skin or your culture or the church that you attend. It will be a reflection of Jesus that is shining through you and it will get brighter every day as you learn more and study more about Him in His Word.
Have you ever been told that before? Whether it is referring to achievement in school or something that your parents think you can’t do, it is humiliating and degrading. I once read a “fortune cookie” statement that said, “A great pleasure in life is doing what others say you can’t.” It is true of our Christian walk with Jesus too. Many people think that they have to clean themselves up or get “better” before they can come to Jesus and ask for His forgiveness and for Him to be their Savior. That is not the way Jesus worked when He called His disciples and He doesn’t work that way today.
Truly, we can’t be saved without the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sins. But we cannot save ourselves except by the Holy Spirit and belief in Jesus Christ for our salvation. Also…belief is not the only way to salvation. Your belief is not the only part of your requirement for maturity in Christ. We have to follow His example during the rest of our lives. Learn about Him through studying the Bible. Not just the New Testament but the Old Testament too because Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament.
The early church for the first two or three centuries after Jesus’ crucifixion only had the Old Testament to read. They did have the letters that Paul wrote to the churches that he started but they had to be copied to be sent to others who wanted to read them. There were letters that John and Peter wrote and a few others but until the New Testament was canonized in the fourth century but for many years the Old Testament scrolls were the only written Word of God.
Following Jesus is not easy because today much of what is taught from the Bible is considered “hate speech” because it has passages that go against the sins that most of the world enjoys today. We need a moral compass that is undeniable. The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit so it is the written, inspired Word of God written down by men who were listening to God’s Holy Spirit. Many people think that it was written by a bunch of “old men”. Well, it likely was written by some old men who had given their hearts and lives to serving God but consider this: the forty-odd men who were involved in writing it all told some part of Jesus’ story!
He is pointed to from every book of the Bible. The Old Testament has 39 books in the English translation and every one of them has a prophecy or a “type” of Jesus Christ in their words. He is the Seed of the Woman in the early part of the book of Genesis. Later He is referred to as the Angel of the Lord. In Exodus, He is the Pillar of Fire by night and the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Rock which gave them water in the wilderness. Jesus is referred to in every book of the Bible, of course, He is in every part of the New Testament but that is to affirm and testify to the prophecy from the Old Testament.
God has done so much in our lives and in the world for all to see yet many still refuse to believe in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. Is it because they don’t want to see or understand? Partially. The other reason is that Satan is blinding them to the Truth that is found in Jesus Christ. He causes many people to believe that they have plenty of time to make that decision or even that they can get to Heaven on their own merit. I can tell you that you can’t do it! If we could there would’ve been no reason for Jesus to die on the cross and be raised to life on the third day!
You can’t save yourself and I can’t either but salvation from the eternity of hell only comes through following Jesus and giving your heart to Him. Some of you might say that the thief on the cross had no time to follow Him yet Jesus told him that he would be with Him in paradise today because of his belief that Jesus was the Christ. That is all that was needed. Believe in Jesus for your salvation so that you can follow Him from this point on in your life.
The Living Message of Christ 