My intention for this blog is that it be eclectic in nature. That is, it will cover a gambit of subjects which may or may not be related. To some it will no doubt seem to be just a hodgepodge of rumblings. However, the title says it all . . . . . it is what’s on my mind at any given time. Some stuff is serious, some lighthearted and some nostalgic. There are tributes to friend and political opinions. What the all have is that at some point they were on my mind and I wrote them down.
The Universal Problem:
The universal problem of mankind and its solution, namely what the Bible calls SIN! Now hear me out. Sin is behind everything that is bad and evil in our world. It is one of the few things that the Bible says has infected every single person who has been born of man.
The Apostle Paul in Romans gives a long litany of sins all of which he says are the product of a sinful core in man himself. Now, my more Liberal minded friends take issue with that list depending where they fall on the sin list. They focus on their particular place on that list to the degree that they miss the underlying truth that the Apostle is declaring. He summarizes that list by saying, “All have sinned.” Paul is not creating a pecking order for ranking our sin. He is simply casting a net to demonstrate that we are all sinners.
People are not sinners because the commit sins. We are sinners and therefore we commit sin. Sinful actions are the product of a sinful nature. The theologian John Walvoord once said it this way: “The testimony of the Scriptures is clear that men are sinners by imputation, by nature, and by choice.” Psalm 51:5 states that we all come into the world as sinners: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” The Apostle Paul stress the same idea in Ephesians 2:2 where he says that all people who are not in Christ are “sons of disobedience” and again in Ephesians 2:3 saying that we are all “by nature children of wrath.”
There is a Biblical truism that asks, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” In the Garden of Eden, before man was cast from the Garden the Scripture says that God walked with man in the cool of the evening. Then somewhere in that journey man disobeyed God and his relationship with God changed . . . they no longer walked together. The problem did not lie with God or His actions but with Adam and Eve’s (mankind) so the Prophet in Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
Let me assure you that God has gone nowhere. He is still present and He is still loving but man, including all of us, has broken our relationship with God. It is no longer that peaceful and blissful walk with Him in the pleasantness of His garden. Our sins not his action has separated us relational from God. The entirety of the Bible is about God making it possible to restore that relationship. This is the whole idea behind Paul’s statement in Romans 5:19 were we read, “For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”
The Universal Solution:
You say, wow! That’s not good news. No it is not good news but it makes the good news especially new. Here is the good news “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who 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 has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”(John 3:16-18)
In Titus 3:5-7 we read, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” That mercy was expressed through Jesus the Christ, God’s unique Son’s, sacrificial death and resurrection.
So what was out of our reach because of our sinful nature is now within our reach because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even Jesus said as the addressed the weeping sisters of Lazarus, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (John 11-26-27)
So what we couldn’t do for ourselves Christ has done for us. He has paid the price of our sinful nature. The blood of Christ, which He shed for us on the cross was enough. It was sufficient to redeem us all. To reconcile every fallen piece of creation to Himself and restore that perfect relationship He designed from the beginning. Once we are covered by the blood of the sinless, spotless Lamb of God we can come into the presence of Almighty God and stand before Him completely clean! “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
So here is it clearly stated in scripture : That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9). It is important that you understand neither we or Scripture is saying that because Jesus paid the price for the sins of the world everyone will be forgiven and delivered. Not so. What we are saying is that God’s grace and Christ’s sacrificial death and glorious resurrection is sufficient so that IF everyone repents and believes (declares, “Jesus is Lord”) they will be saved. There is no deficiency it God’s provision. However, that declaration of faith must be genuine and not just convenient or superficial. It begins in the heart (a person’s core) and is expressed in the world through the declaration that Jesus is Lord (ο Ιησούς είναι Κύριος). So that “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Those who do not believe in the heart in the sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of Jesus will not confess Him as Lord will not be saved in the end. Now understand they have not been rejected by God. Instead, they have rejected God’s offer. A gift rejected is a gift not received not a gift withheld .
The Universal Result:
Now we have seen that the Universal Problem of man is SIN and that the Universal Solution is Jesus what is the Universal Result? The answer to that question is wrapped up in the words of Jesus to Martha and Mary, “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.”
What that means is that those who in the core of their being believe that Jesus Christ is the sinless son of God who died on a cross for their sins and rose from the grave to justify will declare him as their Lord, the one who saves them. This salvation package includes a number of elements. It includes the forgiveness of sin and a home in Heaven with God and Jesus when we die. It includes the indwelling Holy Spirit to enable us to life a life pleasing to and in keeping with the moral and ethical standards of Scripture. It includes inclusion in the Household of Faith, the church (a body of believes who sustain and pray for one another) and the privilege of sharing what God has done in Christ for you with those who have not claimed Him as their Lord and Savior. Or as someone has said, “all this and heaven too.”
What this means for those who reject God’s offer is nothing special. First, they receive none of the above. God has made no provision for them. Instead, He simply borrows what He prepared for the disobedient angels, namely what we call Hell. The worst part of Hell is that the love, mercy and grace of God are not present. It is the repository of everything evil from all the ages. It is so grotesque as to be described as a place of weeping, wailing and the gnashing of teeth; a place where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies; a place of torment and thirst. Jonathan Edwards described the plight of the sinner outside of Christ as hanging “by a slender thread, with the flames of Divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder. . . . It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity.”
God’s invitation to you is “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Jesus stated, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:27).So how do you come to Jesus . . . . You come just as you are right now.
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
To rid my soul of one dark blot;
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt;
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Sight, riches, healing of the mind;
Yes, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
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