The Good News
The claims of Jesus are so simple and profound that the prolific confusion surrounding Christianity really perplexes me. At least it did until I remembered this passage from the Bible:
“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9 emphasis mine)
If ‘the devil, or Satan’ is present on earth to ‘lead the whole world astray’ then this rampant confusion and conflict surrounding religion makes perfect sense. There are many other passages of scripture that illustrate it. Indeed, many false teachings arose even as the Christian church was being established as recorded in the book of Acts. The intent was the same, to lead people ‘astray’—away from God—to divert their attention in any way possible away from the message of Jesus.
There are probably thousands of ways Satan does this. Many people have turned away from Christianity citing atrocities from Christians throughout history or in the much more recent history of their own lives. This could include literal abuse, theological debate, hypocrisy within the church, personal strife or a plethora of other things. Friend, I’m so very sorry if you’ve had to endure these types of things but please consider this:
It is not logical to reject something as valid based on the way that others abuse it. Consider alcohol. Many enjoy a casual, relaxing drink from time to time and the most current medical thinking is that moderate use can have some significant health benefits. Yet we all know the abuse of alcohol can be a devastating force in the lives of individuals who abuse it, as well as those who love them.
So today I am asking that you consider the possibility that all of the prevalent prejudices, animosity and confusion could actually be a deliberate, diabolical plot to keep you from considering the claims of Jesus. I am asking that you take some time from your busy schedule to at least hear those claims. I believe you will be amazed at how simple and profound they are and astounded by how they can slice through the confusion of our day to bring clarity. And even if you decide not to believe, you will at least have a better understanding of who Jesus is and how grossly misrepresented He is by religious and non-religious alike.
To understand the claims of Jesus, we will first need a brief summary of some Old Testament historical background that leads up to His birth that the people of His time were well aware of.
The Old Covenant
You’ve most likely heard of the Old Testament and the New Testament and understand that they are divisions of the Bible. The old starts with Genesis and the new comes afterward, beginning with the stories of Jesus’s life and ending with the book of Revelation. Another word for ‘testament’ is ‘covenant’. Testament is used a lot in the old King James version of the Bible from the year 1611. Most later translations of the Bible use covenant consistently.
A covenant is simply a binding agreement. Today, we would most likely use the word ‘contract’ and in biblical times it was sacred. One might even forfeit their lives rather than break a covenant or vow they had taken. There are many in the Old Testament. God made a covenant with Noah (Genesis 6:18) and one with Abraham (Genesis 15:18). People made covenants with one another as well. The main covenant though that the title ‘Old Testament’ refers to is the covenant of the law.
“Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets. And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 4:12-14)
So the Old Testament represents the old contract between God and the nation of Israel, whose people were referred to as Jews or Hebrews. If the people would carefully follow the laws that He gave them, God would bless them, protect them and lead them into the land that He had promised them—’the promised land.’ The new or current contract with God is different and is detailed in the New Testament.
We’ve all heard of the Ten Commandments. If you take a look at them in Exodus 20 and if you are honest, you will admit that you have broken some. Most of us have broken many. I certainly have. Under the old covenant, there were severe penalties for breaking God’s laws - for some, it was even death.
The Bible describes God as very loving but also as very just. He detests any violation of His law because He established it with good reason and purpose and for our ultimate good. ‘Sin’ is the term the Bible gives to any violation of God’s law. God is so perfect, holy and righteous that sin literally cannot exist in His presence. He abhors sin, as well as the falsehood and selfishness it stems from. He in no way tolerates or excuses sin. He demands that the penalty for it be paid. That penalty is death.
After describing many sinful behaviors, Paul writes:
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:32 New Testament)
Since man was unable to perfectly obey the law, God set up a system of sacrifice and accepted the death of animals as a temporary, substitutionary payment for the penalty of sin. This system was a part of the old covenant and maintained by Priests. God gave specific, detailed instructions for the sacrifices, the Priests that administered them, worship, festivals and the temple where most of these things took place. It is all recorded in the Old Testament as part of that covenant.
In the temple was an inner court and the ‘holy of holies’, the most holy place where the presence of God literally dwelt. Access to the most holy place was limited to the Priests and only at certain prescribed times. God also sent messages to His people through prophets.
So through all of these means, God maintained a relationship with the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham.
The New Covenant
In many prophecies throughout the Old Testament, God promised that a Messiah or Savior would come into the world that would be a great deliverer. Many details about Him were specified hundreds of years before He came so that He could be recognize with certainty. He would take away once-and-for-all the sins that separated mankind from God and make a way for the people of all nations to come into a full, unhindered, intimate and loving relationship with God—the very thing He created us for. It would be a completely new covenant.
God’s Purpose
The historical background of the Old Testament shows us that God is holy, righteous and completely intolerant of sinful behavior but it also demonstrates that He is a God of great love and compassion. In spite of mankind’s rebellion toward Him, He still desired and provided a way to have a relationship with us. We are His own creation and precious to Him.
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (Psalm 103:8)
Our Problem
The Old Testament also demonstrated that we have a terrible problem that has broken our relationship with God—our rebellion against His laws—what the Bible refers to as sin. It is further explained throughout the New Testament as well, that this sinful state we are in falls far short of God’s standard of righteousness and holiness.
This is explained with great detail in the book of Romans, a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome. We were not able to become righteous through the Old Testament law but it made us conscious of sin and exposes our shortcoming. Recall that since God is so righteous and holy, there is no way to come into a relationship with Him or even enter into His presence unless the impurity of sin in our lives can somehow be completely removed.
After a description of some of the beautiful details of heaven, the book of Revelation says this:
“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful,” (Revelation 27)
And even worse than being denied entrance to heaven is that the alternative is to remain under the condemnation of sin (see John 3:18) resulting in death and damnation.
“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 14:40-43)
However, intensifying this sin problem is the fact that there is absolutely nothing that we can do in and of ourselves to alleviate it. The passages throughout the Bible that demonstrate that good works or deeds are completely insufficient to take away our sins are too numerous to list here. The book of Isaiah even says:
“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;” (Isaiah 64:6)
A prevalent misconception about Christianity is that it is a system of belief whereby you earn eternal life by observation and obedience to its rules, rituals and observances.
This fact that Christianity indisputably teaches that that there is absolutely no way to earn or perform your way into heaven or eternal life is one of the fundamental differences that sets it apart from all other religions.
All of this places us in a desperate, hopelessly lost position!
God’s Provision
Recognizing that desperate and hopeless position that we were in and because of the great love He had for us, God Himself intervened by sending Jesus to the earth on a rescue mission to save us.
”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 person, though for a good person 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, while 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 boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11)
Jesus came to the earth and was born through an earthly mother named Mary but she was a virgin. The Bible explains that Jesus was ‘conceived of the Holy Spirit’—the Spirit of God. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life in order to be the perfect sacrifice, sufficient to die as payment for the sins of all mankind.
Jesus began His earthly ministry at the age of 30 and began proclaiming the good news that salvation from sins was now available for all through Him. To give evidence that He was who He claimed to be and that His message was true, he performed many miracles—healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, enabling adults who had been born crippled to walk, casting out demons, walking on water, multiplying small amounts of food to feed thousands and even raising people from the dead.
Jesus said that He came to ‘seek and to save the lost’ and so that we ‘might have life and have it abundantly.’ In spite of the wonderful message of love, hope and redemption that He shared and the miraculous good works He performed, the religious leaders became very jealous of the large following He was gaining. They began to look for ways to entrap Him with their questions, to turn the people against Him. However, they were unable. His answers were so wise and profound that the effect was completely the opposite. The people marveled because He spoke as one ‘having authority’. Being publicly humiliated this way infuriated the religious leaders so much that they began to seek a way to have Jesus executed.
They found what they were looking for in some of the claims that Jesus was making. Jesus claimed to be the only way to salvation—God’s only provision to save people from their sins in order to restore their broken relationship with Him.
Jesus answered “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Many other passages in the Bible reinforce this claim.
This is one of the main reasons that many today disdain Christians and consider them arrogant or even bigoted. Popular thought in our culture dictates that anything exclusive is somehow discriminatory. Just keep in mind that it is a direct claim of Jesus and not something Christians have made up to elevate themselves above others. Consider also trying to look at it not from an earthly perspective in regards to other people and religions. Try looking at it from God’s perspective. If you were God, would you create multiple ways? Why? Obviously God would not create multiple ways that contradicted each other. From God’s perspective, it is not discriminatory or bigoted in any way. He has provided a way at great expense to Himself yet offers it freely to everyone.
Also consider this: In the book of Matthew, Jesus, in full knowledge that He was about to face a cruel and painful death, told His disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” He then went and prayed three different times ‘for this cup to be taken away from Me’ if it was possible. The book of Luke records that He was in such anguish over this that he sweat drops of blood. But ‘the cup’ He spoke of was not taken away from Him. He went on to suffer a cruel, painful death. If there were any other way, would God have required Jesus to suffer and die this way? Of course not.
Shortly after this prayer, one of His own disciples, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Jesus by taking the religious leaders to Him to arrest Him. Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver for his betrayal.
They took Jesus, tried Him and found Him guilty of ‘blasphemy’ because He openly claimed to be the Son of God. Blasphemy is the crime of ascribing to oneself the rights or qualities of God. Their custom was to revere and respect God so highly that when they heard His words, they literally tore their clothes.
But Jesus kept silent and the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God."
Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN."
Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!"
Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, and said, "Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?" (Matthew 26:63-68)
Blasphemy was punishable by death under their law but not under Roman law. They took Him to the Roman official but he did not find that Jesus had done anything deserving of death, yet the Jewish religious leaders incited a large crowd to demand His death and the Roman official relented to keep peace. The soldiers made a ‘crown’ of large thorns and beat it into his head. They made fun of Him, struck Him in the face and pulled out His beard. He was beaten with a whip that ended in multiple strands, each of which had some sharp glass or metal at the end that cut open the flesh. It’s most likely that He was so covered in blood that He was no longer recognizable. They made him carry a large wooden cross but He fell under the weight of it and someone else had to carry it the rest of the way. They then nailed his hands and feet to the cross, lifted it and dropped it into a big hole where he could hang there on the cross. He bled and suffocated to death there on that cross. It was the Roman form of capital punishment called crucifixion.
Matthew records that at the moment Jesus died ‘the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.’ That curtain separated the people from the holiest area of the temple where the presence of God dwelt. It was no longer required. The temple and the sacrificial system gave the Jewish people limited access to God. Jesus had completed the work the Father had called Him to do. As the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God, he bore the sins of the whole world. He paid the penalty for us so that we would not have to pay it ourselves. He established a new covenant of grace. The old system of sacrificing animals was no longer necessary. He had made a new way of unlimited access to God and the new temple where the presence of this holy God dwells is now amazingly in the hearts of men and women and boys and girls who enter into this new covenant.
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:15)
I know it’s hard to believe the story gets even better—better than all of mankind being offered full fellowship with the God of the universe—but it does! They took Jesus’s body down off the cross and buried Him in a tomb. However, He was innocent not only of the charges against Him but He was innocent of ANY sin. Because of His complete innocence, death could not hold Him. He defeated it. He had said plainly that He would rise from the dead. The Old Testament foretold it as well. The Romans even placed a seal on the tomb and placed guards there so no one could come and steal the body and claim He had risen but on the third day there was an earthquake and an angel came, rolled the stone away and sat on it. The guards were so terrified they ‘became as dead men’. When some women came that day to visit the tomb, it was empty and then Jesus appeared to them. He appeared to His disciples several times after that and instructed them. Then one day before their very eyes, he was taken up into the sky and disappeared into a cloud. An angel came and told them He would come back in the same way they had seen him go into heaven.
All that Jesus did was to purchase your salvation from sin with His own blood so that He could offer eternal, abundant life to you as a free gift. He established the new covenant of ‘grace.’ Grace is simply ‘unmerited favor’—when you receive something that you did not earn or work for in any way.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Unfortunately we’ve often been so ingrained through the years, through so many various sources to believe we must do good and be good to earn God’s favor in order to get to heaven, that this can be difficult for some to accept. God came up with the plan, carefully implemented it, did all the work and went to great lengths to ensure it was communicated and that undeniable evidence was given and preserved to prove its authenticity. In fact, God did so much at such great expense that it all screams of the intense love that He has for us. You are precious to Him! He does not want a single one of us to perish!
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)
Our Response
Don’t we have to do anything? We do. Obviously, if there were no requirements at all, everyone would be going to heaven. Every contract (or covenant) has terms for both parties but God has made it as simple for us as possible. He’s done all the work and made the necessary payment to offer eternal life to us as a free gift.
Jesus explains, as do many other passages in the Bible, the two simple requirements to come into relationship with Him and with God the Father.
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)
Repent
‘Repent’ is a Bible word that simply means ‘to turn from’, to turn from the direction you are going and go in the complete opposite direction. In reference to the New Testament teaching of salvation, it means to turn from a selfish, sinful life to follow Jesus and His teachings which is always the completely opposite direction, one of selflessness and the pursuit of righteousness. No one actually attains perfection in the practice of righteousness until they get to heaven. However, it is when we make the firm, conscious decision to become a follower of Jesus that the pursuit of righteousness can begin with His help.
Of course you can’t actually do that until you acknowledge your own sin. This means more than just acknowledging the fallen state of mankind—that all have sinned and broken God’s laws. It means acknowledging and confessing your own personal sins. ‘Confess’ literally means to agree with God about it. Similar to how an alcoholic cannot begin recovery until he confesses that he is an alcoholic, you cannot receive God’s salvation until you acknowledge your need of it because YOU have willfully sinned and broken your relationship with Him.
The Bible says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But just like a swimmer does not call out to be saved from drowning until they realize they are in trouble, neither does a sinner sincerely cry out for God’s salvation until they realize and acknowledge their lost and desperate state.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (I John 10:8-10)
Jesus illustrated this principle with a simple little story:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)
You may have come across a Christian that you considered presumptuous or even arrogant because of comments they make about how sure they are that they will go to heaven. You may even be able to list some of their faults and think, “I’m every bit as good as them.” You would be right about that, however, if they are true Christians, they have come to this place of genuine repentance that is the opposite of arrogance. It is the epitome of humility! Their confidence is not in themselves—to earn their way to heaven. It is in the complete work of Jesus that they can be so confident in. It’s incredibly liberating! There’s no pressure to perform. Good works flow from a thankful, joyful heart. There is no shame from past behaviors. All is forgiven.
Believe
You must believe the message and story of Jesus. But this ‘belief’ the Bible is speaking of goes far beyond the way we think of belief in our culture—acceptance of the facts as truth. It means to also demonstrate your belief with your actions. You can observe a chair and conclude that it is very sturdy and will support your weight. However, when you go and sit down in the chair, fully resting your weight on it, is when you actually demonstrate your belief with your actions. When you do that, you have demonstrated genuine ‘faith’ in the chair.
You rest the responsibility of your eternal destiny solely in the hands of Jesus, having faith that He will cleanse you of all sins and give you the free gift of eternal life.
An important thing to remember is that these two elements of repentance and belief are completely interdependent. Belief is not really genuine if not accompanied by repentance and vice versa. They are actually two elements of a single act. It is sometimes described as being like two sides of a single coin. They are both used interchangeably throughout the New Testament in reference to salvation.
Rebirth
This is the most exciting part. When you are genuinely convinced that the claims of Jesus are true (belief) and you recognize your own sinful state, you have a decision to make. It is to turn from your sins and become a follower of Jesus (repentance) or to continue in your own way.
For those who choose the latter, the outcome is grim. You see, if you have not yet chosen to follow Jesus, He explains that you are already under condemnation. Remember, He came to rescue from it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)
I have to be completely honest about this because a lot of churches are just leaving this out now. As a result of God so often being portrayed in the past as completely mean and vengeful, they have rebounded to the opposite extreme. God is loving but He is also just and those attributes are not contradictory. When we choose to continue in our own selfish way with full knowledge of all He has done for us, He sees it as direct rejection and rebellion toward Him. This rightfully makes Him angry.
A passage from the book of Hebrews describes this perfectly:
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:26-31)
But listen friend, I have good news about death, judgement and hell. Because of what Jesus has done, no one has to experience any of these. When you choose to turn from your sins to become a follower of Jesus, something miraculous happens. Jesus called it being ‘born again’.
John 3:3
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
The book of Titus gives a great summary of the whole process, referring to it as the ‘washing of rebirth’.
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3-7)
In this rebirth, the very thing that separated us from God—our sin, is completely removed. That’s what it means by the ‘washing of rebirth’.
The book of Corinthians describes the person who has been born again as a ‘new creature’.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ. (II Corinthians 5:17-18)
When a person is born again they are ‘reconciled’ to God. We were unable to be in relationship with God because we were separated from Him by our sin. However, when we are born again and the sins are removed, we experience complete reconciliation and come into full relationship with God, the very thing that we were created for. This is why it brings such utter joy and fulfillment. So much so that it is indescribable. I do not have the words for it. It is only seen and realized through experiencing it. It is not of this world. It is completely within the spiritual realm.
I’m probably one of the more logical, analytical and skeptical people on the planet but I’m telling you that this rebirth is real. I have experienced it and it has drastically changed my life. I could write an entire book on the ways that I am different because of it. You may have considered some Christians as fanatics. That’s understandable. This experience is dramatic and the change is drastic.
When a person is born again, they have been ‘redeemed’. If something was stolen from you and the police investigated, apprehended the suspect, retrieved your property and returned it to you, you would say that your stolen item had been redeemed.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:1-5)
The ‘ruler of the kingdom of the air’ in this passage is Satan. So before being cleansed of sin by the rebirth, a person is under the rule of Satan. We see this confirmed again when Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus and calls him to join His mission of redemption.
I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:17-18)
So when you are born again, you are redeemed from the kingdom of Satan and returned to the kingdom of God for which you were originally created. You are reconciled to God—your broken relationship with God is fully restored. This is why Jesus literally defines eternal life as knowing God.
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (Jesus speaking in John 17:3)
The book of I John echoes the same.
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (I John: 5:11-12)
Wow! It doesn’t get much plainer than that, does it? Eternal life is not found in a system of belief or a rigorous adherence to rules, regulations or rituals. It is in a person—Jesus. It is to ‘know’ or be in a relationship with God and He has provided Jesus as the way into that relationship.
In John 10, Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Chances are that if you get a knock on your front door, you're not going to let the person in if you don’t know them. Jesus said that He has gone on ahead of us to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house (John 14:2). Neither will He let you in if He doesn’t know you.
In Matthew 7, Jesus describes how many will come to Him on that day, speaking of the many works that they did in His name. Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you. Away from me ye that work iniquity.” ‘Iniquity’ is an older English word for sin. They still had sin in their lives because they had not genuinely repented and been washed clean through the rebirth. They falsely believed that their good works would earn them passage into heaven.
If you stood before Jesus today, what would you say? Would you start telling Him about all the good things you’ve done? Maybe you would say that you always tried to be fair and honest and good to others. I’ve heard many say that they’ve never done anything ‘bad enough’ for God to punish them. I can tell you by the authority of God’s word that all of these answers and many similar ones will not be adequate on the day of God’s judgment.
Perhaps you already believe the message but have simply never put all the pieces together in the right order at the right time until right now. You’ve had a longing for some time, knowing that there is more to life and you’re overwhelmed right now because you know deep in your heart that this is it—it’s a real relationship with God that’s been missing. Friend, this is God’s Spirit reaching out to you and drawing you to Himself because He loves you and longs for your redemption.
If this is where you’re at, I want to encourage you to call out to Him in prayer to forgive you, cleanse you of your sins and give you the new, abundant life He purchased for you with His own blood. It is an utterly miraculous, life-changing choice. If you do, you can stand before Him and confidently say like the old Christian song, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine.” If so, you can be confident that you will hear a wonderful response from Him when you stand before Him. It will be more like, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”
But perhaps you’ve not yet come to the point where you can’t honestly say you believe. I appreciate that honesty. I was the same way. I’m a skeptic. I need some proof to be able to draw a conclusion. Most assume that any religion requires a completely blind faith—accepting it with no proof at all. You may be amazed to learn as I did that this is simply not the case when it comes to the claims of Jesus, there are multiple categories of compelling evidence. In my next message I will introduce you to some of them and point you to some of their sources. You will be able to decide which of these categories resonates with you the most. From there, you’ll be able to strike out on your own quest for truth. I hope and pray that you will rise up to that challenge. There is absolutely nothing in your life more important. If the claims of Jesus are indeed true, your eternal destiny depends on it.