“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” [2]
Do you feel condemned by God due to your sins? Do you feel His wrath?
Faith in Jesus Christ as one’s atoning sacrifice for sin is God’s answer. God’s Son Jesus took the wrath your sin deserves on the cross so you would not have to bear it anymore.
God’s condemnation of sin and His wrath against it is well established by the testimony of the Scriptures. God allowed Israel to be conquered and its people to be scattered to the wind like chaff when they refused to believe His Word and when they embraced other gods. He allowed them to be defeated by armies smaller than their own due to their betrayal of Him.
Praise God! He is very merciful. Moses wrote that if a husband divorces his wife, and she becomes the wife of another man, and if that other man divorces her or he dies, the former husband must not remarry her. “Her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.” [3]
Yet, the Lord was willing to take Israel back after He divorced her, and she chose to become the spouse of other gods. “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return to Me, says the Lord.” [4]
The Lord allows U-turns. He is gracious. Paul wrote of the Lord, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” [5] In other words, God has more grace than we have sin. But we need to believe in Jesus Christ as the One and Only acceptable sacrifice to God for our sins. Nothing else we can do will remove our sins. Only faith in and profession of Christ!
Thus says the Lord, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” [6]
To have faith in God’s Son, Jesus, is to have the truth. To have faith in God’s Son, Jesus, is to have the light. We can come to God and be received by Him. “He who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” [7]
We do not need to fear to pray to God when we do so in the Name of His Son Jesus. Jesus is our atoning sacrifice. God will not condemn us. He will receive us and we will receive His help in our time of need. God’s throne is a throne of grace for all believe in and profess Jesus Christ.
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” [8]
We are in a time of need. We never know when we will breathe our last breath here on earth. Someone told me recently of a string of deaths among their acquaintances. Deaths that they did not expect to happen! Jeremiah the prophet spoke of death as a robber creeping in through windows. [9] We need to be ready to meet our Maker at all times.
And we need to pray for all people everywhere. We are one race of people. The human race! We all need to believe in and profess Jesus Christ as our Savior to be saved. Only Jesus lived a sinless life on this earth. Only Jesus is God’s designated sacrifice for our sins. It is by faith in Jesus that we live under God’s grace and not under His wrath.
[1] John 3:18
[2] John 3:36
[3] Deuteronomy 24:4
[4] Jeremiah 3:1
[5] Romans 5:20
[6] John 3:16-17
[7] John 3:21
[8] Hebrews 4:16
[9] Jeremiah 9:21
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