Before the Supreme Judge, Part Three
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Important messages
This is the last part of an excellent tool for evangelism. It
deals with the following issues… Condemned by our genes… The only remedy… Your
debt has been paid!... The need to be born again… God promises a new life… A
future without end… What are you waiting for?
If you want to give people something of value to read, you can
receive this and two other installments in the form of a small book. Simply
write us at loelmarga@telefonica.net .
A tract is all right, in order to get someone’s attention, but it gives little
information concerning salvation and the reason why it is needed. This little
book will inform them clearly about the righteousness and the love of God. I
really wish that many, who have a desire to evangelize, would use it.
Condemned by our
genes
The Word of God says that
the human being is dead in trespasses and sins. That is, as far as God is
concerned, he cannot move a toe in His direction, nor lift a finger to help
himself out of his sinful state. No human being on his own initiative can ever
launch an exploratory trip in an effort to rediscover his Creator and he is
absolutely helpless in reference to God.
Adam and Eve are the
source of all human nature and so, naturally speaking, we have no other
forefathers than they and possess no other genes. According to human possibilities,
we can be no more than they were. If they fell into a hopeless state of sin and
were separated from God, then we fell,
as well, and if they were condemned to death, that same condemnation rests upon
us. Though we have not chosen this state, we surely have inherited it, just the
same as we have not chosen the family in which we were born or the color of our
skins, eyes, etc.
For that reason, modern
teaching about picking up broken pieces and starting over are foolish and unbiblical.
They are bandages applied to a corpse. There is no fixing the ruined nature of
Adam. In order to be free from sin, we must be free from the old sin factory of adamic nature and receive
a new one.
The only remedy
Do you recognize that in
truth you are a sinner and that you need forgiveness from God? If that is so,
what do you think you must do? The only thing we can do, if we see that we
stand before an offended God, is to repent and place ourselves in His hands,
trusting that He will show us mercy and save us.
The only remedy is the
one that God Himself has provided, given to us through the death and
resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was much more that
a historical fact or a heroic act that we should remember. It is something that
goes beyond our ability to comprehend. The only hope of salvation and reconciliation
with God for the human being is in that cross, where God made man, Jesus, the
Son of God, not only challenged sin and conquered it, but also destroyed the
old nature.
Faith in His person and
in his work is the only way to assure our salvation, excluding totally any of
our own works or personal effort. “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, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Your debt has been
paid!
It is excellent,
comforting and hopeful news for the one who sees himself as a sinner, to know
that around 2000 years ago, his debt was paid. God Himself sent His Son from
Heaven as a unique sacrifice, the only one that could be offered for your sins
and mine. It had to be a perfect sacrifice, free from sin, in order to
die, not for His sins, but for the sins of others. Jesus was that sacrifice,
offered in our place, because there was no other acceptable substitute. The
righteousness of God is satisfied in His own Son.
Please understand! Each
one of us must see this very personally. When I contemplate Jesus dying on the cross,
I recognize that I am responsible for His sufferings. If it were not for my
sins, He would not have had to die, but because He did, now I am free from
guilt. He took my place and paid my debt. You also must see that He did this
for you: “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation (one
who appeases an offended person) in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:24-25).
Christ, after He became a
man, having lived in this sinful world and having offered His own blood and
life as a sacrifice for our sins, was accepted into Heaven. Although he was the
only beloved Son of the Father, He could not enter into Heaven with any trace
of sin left upon Him (see Hebrews 1:3; 9:25-27). Everything had to be perfect.
We can be thankful to God that He was accepted!! This tells us that His
sacrifice is effective,
even before the perfect
Judge. He took our sins and destroyed them completely on the cross.
As certainly as God is
God, this remedy is powerful; it functions and will do all that is necessary to
be done in your life. The sentence against every one of your offenses has
already been paid. Now, you can be forgiven and be presented before the just
Judge, as innocently and clean, as if you had never sinned. You must deal with
the Lord Jesus Christ right now! You must turn your back away from the
direction that your will and your choices for your life has led you. That way has
only produced in you the sins that have offended your God! You must surrender
and submit to His complete authority over your life, place yourself in His hands
and hope in His mercy!
The need to be born
again
However, you lack
something else, something that we have already mentioned, in stating the need
of a new nature. You need to be born again. The death and resurrection
of Christ accomplished another magnificent work that must be applied to your
life. It is the most wonderful part of this
remedy from Heaven and it has to do with a new life. The Bible says to us that “unless
one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God … you must be born again”
(John 3:3, 7).
The old nature, that has
been the cause of all our problems with God, has received a death blow through the
work of Christ on the cross, so that we can now be free from its enslaving
service. “Our old self (the nature that comes from Adam) was crucified with Him,
in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no
longer be slaves to sin… If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with Him” (Romans 6:6, 8).
When you submit to Him,
pray for his forgiveness and receive the resurrected Christ into your life, He,
who is alive today, will enter into it to stay. In that moment, He will impart
to you His life, a resurrected and eternal life that never dies, and so, His
own life becomes yours: “God has given us eternal life and this life is in
His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God
does not have the life” (1 John 5:11-12).
True Christianity begins
in anyone’s life, when that one receives Christ; not just His teaching, not His
rules or His ideals, but His person. At that point we become sons of God,
through a miraculous divine birth. “As many as received Him, to them He gave
the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name, who
were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man,
but of God” (John 1:12).
A Christian is born, not
made. A reformation of thinking and lifestyle will never do. That is a path of frustration
and disappointment. The characteristics inherent in the old nature are totally
at odds with this new way. It is only compatible with another nature and unless
that nature is engendered in a human being, walking in the new way is an
impossibility. The effect of the cross must come into play in each individual
life.
These vital necessities
are greater than any other need that exists on this planet. The need of health,
social security, financial funds, family relationships, intellectual and
spiritual education, are not to be compared with the need of receiving that,
which God has promised to give.
Over anything else in
this world, what a human being needs is the forgiveness of God and a new birth.
Forgiveness is for all his misdeeds and new birth is to guarantee the beginning
of a new life, with a new nature inside that is in agreement with that of God.
This birth gives you the possibility to live from the heart a life that pleases
your Creator.
God promises new
life
It seems impossible,
doesn’t it? But it is a promise about which the prophet Ezekiel wrote thousands
of years ago, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Since the gospel began to be
announced by Jesus and His disciples, each true Christian has experienced it.
Nevertheless, because of unbelief, millions of
people that call themselves “Christians” lack it and cannot even imagine what
it means to possess it. However, for the sake of anyone who longs to benefit,
here is the promise: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness… I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause
you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to
observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
This experience will give
you a nature totally compatible with that of God, helping you to do the things
that please Him and to avoid those that irritate and anger Him. You will be
born again and begin a life that you cannot even imagine possible at this
moment. Willingly and from your heart, you will offer yourself to Him. I assure
you that this has taken place in many who, as you, have offended God and had no
possible way to change themselves.
As you read these words,
someone at this moment in some part of the world is experiencing it. These are
a testimony to the 21st century of all that we have written here, eliminating
every kind of excuse that this cannot be possible or that it is too good to be
true. The Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!” What
He has done in the past, he is doing today, and His faithfulness and the
reality of His presence in someone today, guarantees that person’s future
forever.
A future without
end
The life that you receive
when you are born again is forever and cannot be destroyed. The purpose of God
in creating man was not that he should live 70 or 80 years in a world without
purpose, a life of vain cycles. Think about the normal human life. A man arises
in the morning, breakfasts, goes to work, takes a break for lunch, returns to
work, goes home, has dinner, watches TV for a while, and goes to bed. Why? So
that he can repeat the same the next day. Why? So that he can be free for the
week-end or spend time on vacation. Why? So that he can return to work
afterwards. Why? So that one day he can retire and do what he wants. Why? So that
he can soon die and lose all that he has gained during his entire life on
earth, just as has been done by generations before, by his great-grandparents,
his grandparents, his parents…
Is this why human life
exists? Is this all that there is for him? If that is so, then all is vain and
we have every right to consider ourselves the most miserable and deprived
beings in the universe. But it is not so! Man has been created to enjoy an
intimate fellowship with his Creator and to rejoice in
His person, not only in this life, but forever.
Christ came to save us
from the life of routine and give to us a life that has no end. However,
eternal life means more than marking an interminable period of time. It signifies a quality of
life, beyond what our imagination can capture. Upon being born again, an
individual receives heavenly life and converts into a citizen of a perfect
homeland, where he longs to go. Even though, on this earth he experiences and
enjoys love, a peace and a joy that he did not know existed, the world is no
longer his home. It has become for him a battleground, a proving ground that
prepares him for his true destiny. He endeavors only to help other people enter
the same happiness that he is enjoying.
What are you
waiting for?
“All these died in
faith… having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth…, they
desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:13,
16). The Bible teaches us that the
heaven and earth that we now know will pass away. Nothing will be left of them and,
at the same time, it tells us of a totally new place, a city with characteristics
that are very different from that which we have known until now. Even though it
is very difficult for minds like ours to capture it, we know that it will be
infinitely incomparable to anything that we have seen or experienced. I think
that any intent on my part to define or explain what awaits us there, would be insufficient.
So I will limit myself to a description about this place that was revealed to a
man, because God willed that we should know of it, who then wrote what he saw
in a book, the last book in the Bible, called the Revelation.
“He will dwell among
them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. And He
will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any
death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (21:3b-4).
“The city has no need
of the sun or of the moon to shine on it , for the glory of God has illumined
it… there will be no night there; its gates will never be closed” (21:23-25).
“Then he showed me a
river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God…” (22:1)
“There will no longer
be any curse… and His bondservants will serve Him; they will see His face… (22:3a-4a)
“There will no longer
be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light
of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them… (22:5).
The joy of being
eternally in His presence, to see things as they really are, and to be able to
enjoy them, just as He has designed and teaches in His Word, is something far
beyond our ability to comprehend now, but by no means less real. It is the pure
reality of that, which awaits us and which those, who have by faith received
salvation through Jesus Christ, will experience forever.
Don’t miss the
opportunity to experience it and enjoy it yourself! Don’t wait! Leave behind
all, in which you have put your trust until now. Crown Jesus as King and Master
of your life. No other, not even you, can rule it rightly. Trust the One, who
died to save you. Receive him through a simple prayer from your heart, surrendering
all that you are to Him.
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