Peace with God
Faith that Jesus Christ paid the debt for all the wrongs you’ve committed (past, present, and future), then choosing to turn away from sinful behavior, is all one needs for forgiveness, peace with God during this life, and acceptance into God’s heaven when you die. But for those who are more analytical and deliberate, a slower process often takes place as follows…
After performing your own due diligence and coming to believe that: 1. There must be a God, as nature is far too complex to have arisen from nothing. 2. Of all the faith systems out there, only Jesus Christ came down to us claiming to be God in the flesh and proving it, and that all other faith systems require mankind to work his way up to God 3. The bible is reliable and is indeed a supernatural message from God to man from outside our time domain (40 human scribes writing down what God revealed to them, in 66 books over thousands of years without contradiction) (see prior post ‘You Must Choose a Belief System’ addressing the above faith journey steps), then, on the confidence of this foundation, one can then study the bible to discover what it says about what happens after human death.
We will get to what it says about LIFE (and experiencing it more abundantly) in other posts, but for now, what happens four minutes after your final heartbeat should be your first concern, as that can happen at any time. Do not delay addressing this question and getting at peace with God.
Recall that of all the faith options out there, only Christ came to us to bridge the gap to God we could not bridge ourselves. No other faith system that believes in a higher power has the primary ‘messenger’ of the faith do this. Not Mohammed, not Buddha, not Krishna, not Joe Smith of the Mormons, not Mary Baker Eddy of the Christian Scientists, not Baphomet.
Most people believe that if there is a god, it will weigh one’s good works and good intentions against one’s evil deeds and intentions, and most believe that they will be found on the ‘plus’ side after this ‘weighing’, and therefore will have earned the right to enter whatever eternal reward whatever god may exist may offer.
If nothing else, they hope the god grades on a curve, and as long as one is in the ‘top half’ of humans, they will be chosen. OR, they plan to vigorously argue with the god about why the god’s system is not fair, and foolishly suppose they will come out victorious in that argument.
Our sin separates us from God. Sin is ‘undeserved pain’ we have inflicted on another (including God Himself).
Building up a case of ‘good works’ is like standing on a mesa, and thinking of how one can reach another mesa, half a mile away, as that is where salvation in the afterlife lies. There is a bridge already built for you in the shape of a cross. But if you’re of the camp that believes in good works for salvation, you reject this bridge because it requires you to humble yourself before the one who suffered and died on that cross in order to make use of it. Instead, you attempt to build another bridge of your own design, based on plans given to you by an angel of light who coaches you from your mesa. You may realize that your constructions are not adequate to securely span the gap without collapsing, so instead opt for another strategy.
You decide to build up, rather than across, and in so doing, elevate yourself far above other people on your mesa (our world), who, the higher you build, become lower to you. Your hope is that when the judge from the other mesa comes calling, He will not judge by who crossed the bridge, but how high one has elevated himself above others on the first mesa.
And so you build, lifting yourself up far above the more common people, chasing money, fame, political power, public affirmation, good looks, and /or selfless acts, climbing as high as you can. From this height you can look down on those who aren’t trying as hard or otherwise not climbing as high as you on their own towers and perhaps you feel smug. And those on the ground look up to you with envy thinking that because you are high up on a tower, you have really accomplished something. You revel in their envy.
Then that stubborn question of reaching salvation/ eternal security returns.
Perhaps if you build high enough, you can topple the tower over to span the half-mile gap to serve as a bridge. You hope that even if that fails, the Judge will admire your good intentions, but instead the Judge calls you a fool, for being too proud to take the bridge the Judge has already built.
‘But that bridge is blood stained!’ You complain.
“If you refuse to bathe in the purifying blood of the One who died on that cross, then you are not worthy to enter my kingdom.” He replies.
‘But that’s not fair – that’s not inclusive. It leaves out those who might disagree or have a different opinion on the matter than you.’
‘The truth is always exclusive of those who refuse to accept it.’
‘But why would you make it so hard to get across?’
‘Hard? Are you kidding? My Son did all the hard work. Here – watch for yourself.’ And you are then treated to watching eight hours of horrific torture and dying of God Himself. ‘The only hard part left for you to do, is to humble yourself, and admit that nothing you ever do will be good enough to erase your sin debt, and qualify you to cross over to My mesa.’
‘No thanks, I will just keep building my tower of good works taller on this side, and that will win your favor, when you come to your senses. I will be kind to strangers. I will carefully recycle and use solar power. I will not murder anyone (though I will let myself get angry enough to think about it). I will not have sex with anyone other than the one I am committed to at the time (that’s equivalent to marriage, right Judge?) , I will take in homeless animals and even give now and then to beggars on the street. All of this must count up to some really good treasure and bridge building material.
“Okay, I will give you triple the normal credit for all your good works, your efforts to be a good steward of the planet and animals I made. Let’s see – all that traded in gets you a total of one hundred yards of sturdy bridge toward my mesa. But you’re still 780 yards short. But the part you have built is very nice, nicer than many of those who have taken the cross bridge. It’s quality certainly stands out compared to others. But as nice as it is, it is not long enough.’
‘Well that’s not fair! After a lifetime of good works, that’s all the credit I get?’
‘Well I had to deduct for the bad things you did.’
‘But the ones who took the cross bridge had bad things too!’
‘Yes! And they admitted those things and left them at the foot of the cross. All their bad things were washed in the blood on the cross – see – their filthy clothing turned to white when they crossed over!’
‘Okay, you want to argue? Why did you create sin then? Why did you create evil? You are all powerful and all knowing, and if you allowed evil to exist, that’s the same as creating it, right?’
(So now you’ve abandoned your first attempt to enter God’s kingdom by good works, and have changed tactics to argue your way in on God’s faults and how unfair He is, but He has heard this over seventy billion times already from those deceased humans who have already tried it, and He gives the same answer.) (By the way, the answer is ‘evil is just an absence of love, just as dark is just an absence of light and cold and absence of heat’.)
‘If you had really sought Truth, really thirsted for Truth, then I would have revealed Myself to you and the truths about these things you complain about. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.’ (see prior post for verse references regarding God revealing Himself to diligent seekers).
‘But you were smug in your arrogance that others had already formed the arguments you’d need to defeat Me, to argue that I didn’t exist, and if that failed, then your good works were a backup plan. You never truly lost sleep searching for the truth, crying out ‘if there is a higher power, please reveal the truth to me!’ I would have shown up, like I always do for those who diligently seek Me. But you didn’t.’
No, sin is not God’s creation. Sin originated with Lucifer lifting his heart and dreams above God’s throne (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28). He then spread that evil imagination to mankind. It is mankind’s choice to go against God, a rebellious nature we inherited from the first humans. But we have made the same choice for ourselves. God gave us free will and if He interfered with that, our devotion to Him would be that of an automaton. Hear what God has to say about these things….
Romans 3:23 – ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’
Romans 6:23 ‘ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
John 3:16- ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’
I John 1:9 ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
John 1:12,13 ‘But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’
Colossians 2:13,14 ‘And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Romans 10:9,10, 13 (Joel 2:32) ‘that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation…. ‘For whoever will call upon he name of the Lord will be saved.’’
Philippians 3:7-11 ‘But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.’
Hebrews 11:6 ‘And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.’
John 3:3 ‘Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’
John 14:1-3 ‘Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.’
2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.’
2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.’
Acts 13:38,39 ‘Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.’
Romans 5:8,9 ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.’
Jeremiah 17:9 – ‘the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?’ (man is incurably wicked)
Acts 4:12 ‘And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.’
Isaiah 44:22 ‘I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.’
Salvation is by his grace, not our works….
Ephesians 2:8,9 ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.’
Titus 3:5 ‘He saved us, not on the basis of deeds we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,’
Matthew 7:21-23 – ‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name peform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
(In other words people will say, ‘God, didn’t we do many wonderful works?’ and God will reply ‘It wasn’t enough’.)
Daniel 9:18 ‘ O my God, incline Thine ear and hear! Open Thine eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Thy name; for we are not presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Thy great compassion.’
Phillipians 3:9 ‘…and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,..’
*Christ is not an addition to a life, He is a transformation of a life.
*It is simple to become a Christian, but difficult to follow Jesus.
Friend, if you agree with God that all your good works will never be enough to make up for all the bad things you’ve done, then choose now to nail those bad things to the cross of Christ. Let Him bear the shame for what you’ve done. You certainly can’t. Accept His forgiveness and enjoy the benefits of being His child. You can say something like this..
‘God, I know I am a sinner and need your forgiveness. I believe your Son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins and rose from the grave, defeating death and sin. I turn away from all those things I do that make you unhappy. Come into my life and make me a new person under your lordship. Thank you for making me your child and giving me eternal life in heaven.’
Friend, if you prayed that prayer and meant it deep inside, Christ has forgiven you and given you a place in heaven. Your name has now been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. You will likely slip up from time to time, and fall for the enemy’s deception, but God promises that you will not lose the gift of salvation He has just given you.
Now your new faith needs to be properly nurtured. Read and study the gospel of John first. I also suggest getting a copy of Ralph W. Neighbor Jr.’s ‘Survival Kit for New Christians’ and going through it while praying for God to lead you to a church family.
Welcome to the family!