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24HourForums.com > The Top 10 Supported Forums > The Christian's Straight and Narrow Path > But, I’ve been a Good Person! |
| Moderated by: JustifiedByFaith, 1jester |
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DesertRat Forum-Blogger© Pioneer100© Member 
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A man dies and finds himself facing God who asks him “Why should I let you into my heaven?” The man replies "I gave to charities when I could, I’ve was always faithful to my wife, I volunteered at the local library and helped tutor underprivileged kids, I never drank to excess, never smoked and never cared for R rated movies. I led a good wholesome life, was always kind to others never a burden on society in any way. I tried to always obey the law and my good deeds far outweighed any bad deeds. In short, I was a very good person all my life and that’s why I should be allowed to enter heaven." And God answered - …‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matt 7:23) So many times I hear people say that they believe that if there is a God and he is indeed a loving God then he would look at how they lived their life and would see that they were basically good, law abiding citizens and that alone should be enough to get them into heaven. How wrong, so sadly wrong they are! Being a good person and obeying the law is not enough. For one, we ALL have broken the law, every one of us. “What do you mean?” You ask. “What laws have I broken?” Well, let’s look at the laws of society first. Have you ever driven your car in excess of the speed limit? If so you have broken the law. Have you ever taken office supplies purchased by your company (pens, pencils, paper clips, etc..) home from work and never returned them? Ever jaywalked? If so, you have broken the law. These may seem like small insignificant things but they do in fact constitute breaking the law. “But they are ridiculous things that do not affect society in a bad way and besides, everyone does those things so what’s the big deal?” You may say. The big deal is that regardless of how insignificant they may be, you have still broken the law. Let me put it to you this way; You’re driving down the freeway and the speed limit is posted as 60mph. You are doing 70 and look in your rearview mirror and see flashing red and blue lights. You pull over and the officer approaches your window and asks “you know why I pulled you over?” “I guess I was going a little fast officer”, you reply, “but hey, it was only 10 mph over the limit and besides everyone does it, it’s not like I robbed a bank or set fire to a house or killed someone.” You see how that sounds? You are basically saying I broke the law but I’m going to decide which laws are worth abiding by and which laws are not. The “law” is an all encompassing set of rules society has agreed to live by and breaking one is the same as breaking all. The only difference in breaking societal law is that the punishment varies in relation to the seriousness of the crime. Now let’s look at God’s law. If you think it is impossible to abide by the laws of society how much harder then for us to abide by the laws of God? I won’t make this run on too long but let’s look at one of the most simple of God’s laws; that of bearing false witness or lying. Have you ever run into an acquaintance suddenly and said “it’s great to see you” when it wasn’t? Have you ever answered the phone and told the person calling “I was just about to call you” when you weren’t? Ever told the bill collector the “check is in the mail” when it wasn’t? How about the age old question of “honey, does this dress make me look fat?” Ever gossip about another person behind their back? You see what I’m getting at? We are born as sinners and as such it is 100% impossible for use to abide by the law in its entirety and the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law.’ Different from breaking societal laws, breaking any of God’s laws results in death. God, our creator is a perfect God and from the moment sin entered this world with the fall of Adam and Eve, we have been cursed by sin. God abhors sin and as such we can never enter into His presence while stained with sin. So why was the law given to us? Our first exposure to “law” was when we were children. When you were a child, how did you know that doing something was wrong? You were usually told by an adult “No! That’s wrong, don’t do that!” at which time you realized that what you did was wrong and something not to be repeated. The point being that the reason God gave his law to the people of Israel was to expose them to the knowledge of their sinful nature. In Galatians 3:19 Paul tells us it was given because of transgressions, that is, the Law was given to be a means for checking sins. It served as a restrainer of sins by showing them to be transgressions of God’s Law which would incur His wrath (1 Tim. 1:8-11). Second, the Law was temporary and served until the Seed (the Messiah; Gal. 3:16) came, after which it was no longer needed. We see this evident in Paul’s letter to the Romans in (Rom 7:1) - What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said,“You shall not covet.” Paul also tells us in (Rom 6:14) that we are not “under law but under grace” To be “under law” means that we must do something for God; to be “under grace” means that God does something for us. So if being good is not enough to get us into heaven and if being a law abiding citizen cannot get us into heaven, then just how do we gain salvation? That is an easy question to answer. Paul asks this question himself in Rom. 7:24 - O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? The answer is through the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ. God provides salvation for us in His mercy through the grace of Jesus Christ. Mercy can be described as lenient or compassionate treatment or not receiving the punishment which deserve (eternal separation from God). Grace can be described as receiving the reward we do not deserve (eternal salvation). Like the man at the start of this Bible study, too many people (Christians included) are burdened with rules and regulations and good resolutions, not realizing that it is impossible to find holiness or salvation through their own efforts. How especially tragic is it to see Christians living “under law,” striving in their own efforts to please God? God in His infinite wisdom knew that we could never keep His law and that we could never overcome our sinful nature on our own. So He sent us a mediator, His Son, Jesus Christ. God in human form; Born without sin and sent to take our place and become the pure and perfect sacrifice on our behalf for our sins. In the gospel of John, chapter 14 we see in verses 5 to 7 the apostle Thomas asking the question and Jesus answering him. 5 Tomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” As you can see above, there is only one path to eternal salvation; Jesus Christ. Being good is not enough. Living a clean life is not enough. Being kind to others is not enough. Those are all noble endeavors but without the salvation given through Jesus Christ they are nothing more than noble efforts. Perhaps the most famous verse in the entire Bible holds the answer; The ONLY answer. John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. If you are a Christian you already know the way but if you are reading this and are not a Christian and have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, I invite you to do so now. It is not complicated, hard or time consuming. Just search your heart and take that leap of faith to accept Christ as your savior. All you need to do is ask and he shall enter and take the burden of sin away from you and put it on His shoulders. In one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible (Matt 11:28-30), Jesus says - 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” All you need is Jesus. If you do not know Jesus Christ I encourage you to say this prayer, right where you are and ask Jesus Christ to come and take over you life. “Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.” Last edited on 06-08-2008 05:20 pm by DesertRat |
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1jester Pioneer100© Member  Pilgrim Sojourner
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Danny, thank you for an excellent post!
 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. -Matthew 22:37-39 |
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JustifiedByFaith Pioneer100© Member  Enduring to the end...
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Yes, that is a wonderful illustration of the purpose of the Mosaic Law with it's legalism... to the New Covenant and God's grace... from chains to freedom in Christ and from bondage to peace with God! Thanks!
Jesus said, "Take heed that no one deceives you." Matthew 24:4 |
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24HourForums.com > The Top 10 Supported Forums > The Christian's Straight and Narrow Path > But, I’ve been a Good Person! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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