Important time

On Friday afternoon, into Saturday morning, I attended the annual Women of Purpose conference.  One of the speakers shared the following thought, which stayed with me as I put a sleeping Toby to bed.

“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.”
John 3:16-17 NIV

I look at my only son and could not imagine giving him up for anyone.  Even the thought brings me to tears, so imagine sending your treasured son to earth specifically to endure the most undeserved and brutal death.

But that is why God deserves glory and honor.  He is not a distant, man-made God that exists to serve our needs, or requires us to strive to uphold a complex set of rules to appease his wrath.

Often people refer to the Ten Commandments or Old Testament laws as something God requires of us, but the truth is that while that IS his holy standard, he knew we would never be able to satisfy the law.  Revealing his standard was to allow us to see how far we fall short AND become aware of our need for salvation, which he himself always intended to supply.

Because God is perfectly just, he requires that the penalty of our sin and disobedience be settled.  However, because he is also perfectly loving and merciful, he himself provided the substitute for us.  The One who did not sin, but became sin for us.

Through his resurrection, Christ overcame death and therefore can offer eternal life.  We are not required to be "good" (Christ himself says that "no one is good, only God is good" anyway) - we are only required to believe, receive and relieve ourselves of the burden to be good.  We are instead to be obedient!

What does God ask us to do?  He wants us to love God with all our heart, body and mind, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

He gave his only Son over to death so that you and I, and ALL PEOPLE of every race, gender, economic group and language, could have abundant and eternal life.  THAT is the truth of the Bible. That is the truth the world needs. That is the LOVE that overcomes evil.

We can no longer pretend that "religion" does not matter.  It's not enough to bank on the good deeds in your life outweighing the bad (that is not biblical by the way, and nor is it logical!) - if there is a heaven, there is a god.  It's not plausible that all religions are true, in fact the God of the Bible is very clear that he will not tolerate our allegiance to other gods, including the god of wealth, the god of a quiet life or the god of others' approval.  

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:15