Did you ever wonder why God does things the way He does? I think all of us have, at one time or another.
I think it would be helpful if I could explain why God thinks and acts the way HE does. I hear someone say, “You can’t know that!” “Yes, you can know that!”
Why does God’s forgiveness of man’s sins and acceptance into HIS family have to be all about Jesus Christ? Why can’t we have a more reasonable way? And why does there have to be ONE WAY and no other way?
We will start with the nature of God. If you can’t or won’t believe in God – there is no other way. In the Bible, book of Hebrews, Chapter I, we see the explanation of the apostle Paul about God’s speaking to us humans. In time past, God spoke to man through the prophets. Now HE (GOD) speaks through HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.
If we do not respect God’s authority, we can never be part of HIS plan of salvation. Read the first 7 verses of Hebrews I, where God places HIS SON Jesus Christ above the position of the angels. God the Father speaks to The Son: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.” God the Father calls God The son: “GOD” And HE IS!!
God came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ to grow up as a man, witness, teach, heal and do every possible kind of miracle. Jesus had that authority and still has.
It is up to us, as sinners, falling short of God’s perfection, to be forgiven, God’s way – not some other way – not our own way. Not some way in which MAN is lifted high, but in a way where JESUS CHRIST is lifted high.
We read in Romans, Chapter 4, verses 1 through 3, that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. This is the righteousness of salvation, friends. This passage of Scripture deals with the life of Abraham, hundreds of years before the 10 Commandments were ever written.
Forgiveness and salvation must be all about GOD, with no merit to man. God has no credit or glory if man can be his own savior. Those who say there are many ways to heaven and forgiveness than through Jesus Christ, are glorifying man and his ingenuity rather than God.
Then again, we have another wonderful but startling truth – every sin committed against anyone, is a sin also against GOD, because GOD is the Creator of the universe. So the forgiveness for man must be forgiveness FROM the very One who has been sinned against. You would not expect a neighbor to forgive you for a sin against someone else, and not the neighbor, would you?
So, you see, there is really NO EXCUSE for anyone not to be saved – not to confess their sins before Christ and be forgiven, pardoned and healed – NO EXCUSE!
Now I am quite sure there may be some who will say I’m making it too simple. I’m not – because the idea and the very means to salvation is very simple for us to act upon, but also very profound and deep in its meaning and accomplishment.
How wrong people can be, and yet how close to the truth can they be? We see in Luke 5:21 the following: After Jesus had healed a man with the palsy (a shaking disease), Jesus said, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” Then the scribes and Pharisees said, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” These misguided leaders could not deny that healing had been accomplished, but they could downgrade what Jesus said.
They were correct in saying that only God could forgive sins. They were wrong because they did not acknowledge Jesus as God, since Jesus did the forgiving. So people can perhaps be right in a half-sense, but wrong in failing to acknowledge God in the process.
And since GOD, in the person of Jesus Christ died on the cross in Our Place, we the sinners, do not have to die for our own sins. It is simple, yet so profound!! Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” From many other Scriptures we learn that spiritual death is meant here, not physical death. We all will undergo physical death eventually. (Spiritual death is eternal separation from God.)
So salvation establishes our forgiveness for our sins, and we are drawn into God’s family – to enjoy a home in heaven – FOREVER!!