I am increasingly asked about my faith - what I believe, and why. It's hard to explain in a message or even in person for me (because I go off on tangents! No, really!). I thought this would be a good forum to put my thoughts out. So, here goes...
The Bible declares that God ("the Father")has a standard holiness against which will all be judged. His standard includes our actions, but also attitudes, our heart is really the issue he's trying to get to.
The penalty for not meeting God's standard is eternal separation from Him. As the Bible states, this world will pass away, leaving only Heaven (with God) and hell (eternal torment). We will all be in one or the other.
But my God, the God of the Bible, is compassionate, loving and merciful. He does not strike us down with the first sin (many of us wouldn't have made it to adolescence!). Rather, he says that he will wait, for as long as we live, before he will judge us for our sin. (Unfortunately we may still experience the negative consequences of our sin, or someone else's, but it's not actually "punishment from God. Often the consequences are punishment enough in the short term.)
Once we sin, what can we do to make it better, atone for our sin? Well, pretty much nothing! The Old Testament details an extensive list of rituals and sacrifices of blemish free animals, but I know there's no chance I could keep that perfectly. I can't even balance a checkbook every month!!
And this merciful, loving God (who, by the way created us for relationship with him, for love) knows that we can't keep the laws perfectly. So he made another way. One so simple, so easy, but so painful for him.
The penalty for not meeting God's standard is eternal separation from Him. As the Bible states, this world will pass away, leaving only Heaven (with God) and hell (eternal torment). We will all be in one or the other.
But my God, the God of the Bible, is compassionate, loving and merciful. He does not strike us down with the first sin (many of us wouldn't have made it to adolescence!). Rather, he says that he will wait, for as long as we live, before he will judge us for our sin. (Unfortunately we may still experience the negative consequences of our sin, or someone else's, but it's not actually "punishment from God. Often the consequences are punishment enough in the short term.)
Once we sin, what can we do to make it better, atone for our sin? Well, pretty much nothing! The Old Testament details an extensive list of rituals and sacrifices of blemish free animals, but I know there's no chance I could keep that perfectly. I can't even balance a checkbook every month!!
And this merciful, loving God (who, by the way created us for relationship with him, for love) knows that we can't keep the laws perfectly. So he made another way. One so simple, so easy, but so painful for him.
He sent his son, who though he was fully God, allowed himself to be subjected to the same (and worse) temptations and trials that we all are, and because of his heart for us and knowing without doubt what his obedience (or disobedience) would mean for us he was able to endure it all, to the point of a brutal, humiliating death.
This is where it gets really "spiritual"! Because Jesus had not fallen short of God's standard, he was not sentenced to the eternal separation in hell that we are. So he came back! And then he returned to heaven, fully alive, to be seated at the right hand (the seat of power) of God's throne. The Bible also tells us he is there to intercede for those who follow him - he stands up for us with God, asking for more mercy and grace on us.
Since we have all sinned and face this eternal death, Jesus is the deciding factor of our eternity. If we fully accept our guilt for sin, and simply ask Jesus to forgive our sins, he is quick to cover our sin, our guilt, with his holiness, so that when we finally do die, we will be judged as if we lived Christ's perfect life, and not the messy, dirty life we actually had.
When Jesus forgives, he forgives our past, but also our future. He knows we are not LITERALLY made perfect in this life (that's right, Christians sin - but you knew that!), and his forgiveness covers our future mistakes. It's not good works, charity or even penance that increase God's favor - the Bible is clear, we are forgiven because God is good and loving and merciful. He is just waiting to be asked. No sin too great, no person too small to be forgiven.
So why do Christians even try to be "good" if our salvation is based completely on grace? The apostle Paul answers this perfectly:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:1-2, 21-23 NIV)
I believe this to be true. I have read the testimonies in the Bible, I have heard the testimonies of people I know and respect greatly. But I have experienced the transforming power of taking the step of faith, to put your hope and future in God's hands, to trust him enough to do the right thing even when it's hard and I am so thankful that I want to use the rest of my life to serve him and please him - which thankfully includes having a family and meeting awesome people!
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