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Here’s
a condensed "Reader’s Digest" version of the gospel.
This is a nice summary that's not too difficult to memorize -- and
it provides you with a nice framework to use in sharing the
gospel with others.
1. Eternal
life is a gift from God -- we can’t earn it and we don’t deserve it
2. All of mankind are sinners and we can’t save ourselves
3. God is loving and merciful, but also holy and just -- therefore
He must punish sin
4. Jesus Christ is eternal God & He became a man & lived a
sinless life. He fully paid the penalty demanded by God for
all of the sins of His people
5. God’s gift of eternal life isn’t something we take – through
our own knowledge of the Bible or our own ability to trust in God for
certain things
6. Eternal life is given to us by God through another one of His
gifts: the gift of saving faith.
7. Saving Faith from God is having the ability to trust solely and
entirely on what Jesus Christ has already accomplished for our salvation.
That’s the
basic message of the gospel. Some readers may think they've done
too many terrible things in their life for God to care about them.
Some may think their past is too ugly, that there’s too many deep,
dark secrets in their lives and that they’ll just never be able to
overcome them to make it right. For some, maybe
they've tried very hard in the past but always come up short and
return to the old dangerous, destructive habits.
For me, my
conscience used to haunt me over the things I’d done -- maybe there are
some reading this today whose conscience bothers them
too. Maybe you feel that you’ve squandered too many
opportunities given to you by God. Maybe you find yourself knowing
the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong – knowing what path
God would have you take in a given situation, but then deliberately
choosing the other path…and then hating yourself for it afterward. I know
what I’m talking about because I’ve been down that road myself too many
times to count. I know how that makes you feel.
Perhaps you
feel like you’ve got this heavy baggage of secret and not-so-secret sins
that you’re doomed to carry around forever. And maybe you think
yours are just too awful and that there’s no way that God will ever
forgive you. Oh sure, He could forgive you if He wanted to
– you’ll acknowledge that -- but why in the world would He want to.
It may not
do any good for me or anyone else to say to you that that’s not
true. After all, why should you listen to me? Well consider
this: when it comes to our occupation, everyone must listen to and
obey the boss...right? Employees must listen to what the man in
charge has to say.
When it
comes to the things in our life that we hate, things that separate us
from our loved ones and ultimately separate us from God -- how much more
then should we be listening to what the ultimate Man In Charge has to
say!! I’m talking about God. Don’t listen to me or to this
blog…don’t pay a bit of attention to what we think -- listen to what God
says. What matters is what God thinks – and what He has to say.
As bad as
things may be in our lives right now, none of us has the right to feel
sorry for ourselves. I’ve dug some pretty deep holes in my life and
maybe you’ve got a hole that you feel is deeper than anyone else’s – and
there’s no way for you to get out.
There’s an
old saying that goes something like: Look around long enough and you’ll
always find someone who’s got it a lot tougher than you.
I’m going
to go out on a limb and say there’s probably no one reading this who’s on
Death Row. No one would want to trade places with the person taking
that final walk to sit down in the electric chair. So, things could
be worse couldn’t they? There’s no room here for pity parties.
I mention
that because this posting is going to discuss a couple of really bad
people. These were the Adolph Hitler’s, the Charles Manson’s, the
Usama Bin Laden’s of Jesus’ day. The Romans used the death penalty
a lot in the 1st Century – and it wasn’t carried out quickly like
today…it was carried out brutally by crucifixion. It was reserved
for the worst of the worst.
Jesus
wasn't crucified alone on Calvary, so let’s think a little bit about the
people who were crucified with Him. There were two others crucified
with Jesus. The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what they were guilty
of, but for the Romans to give them the death penalty, they did more than
steal some food or someone’s clothes. They were among society’s
worse criminals...and the Bible tells us that both of
them began insulting Jesus. In both Matthew & Mark we read about how
both the criminals hated Jesus and made fun of Him:
Matt 27:44 --
The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his
teeth. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.
But then,
if we read the Bible very carefully, we find in Luke that finally one of
these wicked criminals -- who deserved to be put to death -- repented and
turned to the other one and said to him:
Luke
23:40-41 -- But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not
thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed
justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath
done nothing amiss.
This
convicted thief who was moments away from death repented and turned to
the Lord Jesus Christ and said in the next verse "Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom." He recognized that
Jesus was the Savior, and that Jesus was God. But the other thief
continued to revile and insult Jesus -- right up until his own death.
So you say,
“Good story, but what’s it got to do with me?”
Here’s what
we'd like for you to think about: these two criminals, in a real
sense, represent all of us. “There is none righteous, No not one” -- we all
start out in our lives as sinners under the wrath of God. We all
are in open rebellion against God, just like these two thieves.
They broke the law and were given the death sentence. We’ve broken
God’s law and we’re facing the ultimate death sentence – an eternity
forever separated from God in hell as payment for our sins.
Some will
go to their death continuing to scorn God, continuing to be antagonistic
toward His Law, continuing to turn a deaf ear to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Some will remain unsaved, never repenting and never even wanting
to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. They’re symbolized in the Bible as the
thief that continued to taunt Jesus until he died.
On the
other hand, we have the story of the thief who, after initially taunting
Jesus, was finally moved to turn to the Lord Jesus. And Jesus tells
him those wonderful words, “Today, thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”
This thief
is a picture of those of us who finally, by God's grace alone, have our
spiritual eyes opened. We finally see that Jesus Christ is the
Messiah – maybe after a long life of taunting Him -- and God gives us the
gift of saving faith to turn to Him as our only Lord and Savior. If
we are saved, then when we die we go to be with the Jesus Christ in
Heaven.
When you
hear the Gospel but aren’t willing to surrender to its claims, then
you’re like the thief on the cross who continued to curse Jesus – and he
went to his death cursing Him. This man was in the presence of the
Gospel, with Christ Himself being next to him. And yet he went to his
death continuing to hate Jesus. Is that you?
But don’t
forget there was another thief there also – and let's not lose sight
of the fact that he was among the worst criminals of his time just like
the other one. He wasn’t any better than the first guy. Only
the Lord knows how many wretched things he had done in his life…how many
terrible sins he had committed against innocent people and maybe even
against his own family. By God's grace, he responded to being in
the presence of the very Word of God. By God’s grace, he recognized that
Jesus was the Savior. When he was saved, Jesus said to him,
"Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise."
Think about
what that means: when we are saved, all of our sins are completely
covered!
Even though
Jesus saved this criminal, the man still had to deal with the
consequences of his actions. He was living the life of a criminal
and he got caught. Remember Baretta: Don’t do the crime if you
can’t do the time. When God saves us, does that mean our life will
be a bed of roses? Of course not!
We may have
committed certain crimes in the past that we are still paying for.
We may have abused our bodies through drugs and alcohol – and we’ll have
to deal with the consequences of what that means for the rest of our
lives. We may have done other things that have brought disease into
our life, and now we have to live with it. Or we may have committed
a crime that has brought us before a judge, and we may have to spend
time in jail.
But what is
most important is where are we going to spend the next Trillion-Billion
years. Then after that, the next Trillion-Billion centuries! And
that’s not even the blink of an eye compared to eternity!
The answer
to life's problems is found not in drugs, alcohol, sex, money, power, or
prestige. No matter how much we have, we’ll always
want and need more. We’re never satisfied because that's
the insidious nature of addictive sins.
The answer
to life's problems is found by resting our whole lives on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That’s where we find the kind of satisfaction that lasts.
When we are
resting in Him, when we know our sins are covered, then God enables us to
crawl up out of that hole we’ve dug for ourselves. We begin to live
a more abundant, obedient and victorious life. Our
consciences can finally be clear. All the excess baggage we’ve been
lugging around is gone – forever. All the mistakes of our past are
covered by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's all forgotten and
forgiven.
All of us
are represented by one of these two criminals…think about which thief you
are. If you don’t like the answer, then cry out to God – just like the
one thief – ask Him to open your eyes and to allow you to seek Him in
true repentance and faith.
Jesus
didn’t ignore the thief when he called upon Him in true faith – and He won’t
ignore you either.
To God Be
The Glory!
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