I don’t remember the names but one person, I assume to be a Christian, tweeted the question. “What do atheists use to determine good from bad?” He brought up a valid question, one that I have thought about before, and a point that C.S. Lewis talks about in Mere Christianity. We have the Bible to tell us clearly what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior.
Another person, again I don’t know the name but likely not a Christian, responded “If you need the threat of eternal damnation to tell you what is good, then you are not a good person.” Not an exact quote, but the same idea was stated.
I’m gonna say that both of these guys are right in what they stated or asked. We, as humans, are not good people. We are inherently bad people. In and of ourselves, there is nothing good that we can do. We are all sinners. Romans 3:23 states that more clearly than any other party of scripture.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” — Romans 3:23 NASB
Now, that verse in itself is very dark. I’m sure we all want to obtain God’s glory. We all want to “make it” into heaven. But we are sinners. We sin on a daily basis. Yes, we all do. Like it or not, we do. We cannot even come close to reaching salvation on our own. We can obtain Salvation on our own to the same extent that I can stand on my rooftop and touch the moon. Okay. It’s just not gonna happen. I can not, I am not able to, there is no way in which I can reach heaven on my own.
But I’m glad that the Bible doesn’t stop there. Just three chapters later, God gives us hope.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 6:23 NASB
God has offered us a gift. It has to be a gift because we cannot afford it. As individuals or as an entire working together, we cannot pull together enough wealth to buy this. Only God has it and only has the authority to spend it and give it away. That gift is eternal life.
We are sinners and that sin is rewarded by death and hell. That’s our paycheck, so to speak.
But God graciously offers us eternal life. Now you can ask, and it’s a good question, “How is He able to offer us this salvation?” Go back a chapter in the book of Romans.
“But God demonstrates His own life toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8 NASB
Christ’s death on the cross, described in the first four books of the New Testament, paid the ultimate price for us. The undeserved death of a sinless and perfect man is the only thing that can pay the price for our sins, and Christ paid it for all our sins. “Crist died for us”.
How can I make this personal for me? How can I achieve this eternal life? First thing we need to understand is that this is not of ourselves. “The only thing I contribute to my salvation is the sin that makes it necessary.” (Unknown writer) And Ephesians makes this clear as well.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” — Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB
There is nothing you can do to win eternal life. It is all God. What do we do? We simply accept the gift, fully understand what this gift does for us.
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” — Romans 10:9-10 NASB
We accept Christ’s salvation by Faith. Our faith and trust in Christ. My faith and belief in Christ’s grace and gift. It’s God’s gift to give. Apart from God, there is no hope for humanity. There is no hope for you, apart from God.
I know this one is longer than my normal posts, but this is serious. If you don’t understand this. If you don’t accept this truth from God’s word. If you ignore what I wrote about today, then everything else I write about is useless to you. Everything else the Bible talks about is useless to those who ignore God’s call to salvation.
If you don’t know that you are a Christian today, please reach out to me. If you don’t know where your spirit will go when you die, talk to me. I would love to talk to you personally and show you in further detail how you can make this gift from God more personal.
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