**Announcing my new YouTube Channel!**
*It's still very new and not on a set schedule yet but please take a look!**
How 'good' are you? Most people will
respond by stating that they find themselves to be pretty alright.
It's natural to like yourself after all, and most of us like to think
that we're at least mostly okay. When you think about it, can our
goodness be measured anyway? Isn't everything just cultural and
societal distinctions developed over many years? Aren't we all just
products of our environments with our own particular moralities?
That is the commonly held belief, that there is no absolute good or
bad and it is essential to modern man's mental health. Without this
notion that we are free to define our own morality, we would be
forced to face the truth that lies in the shadow of our philosophy:
we are anything but good.
In order for anything to be truly good
or evil they have to objectively good or evil. This means that they
have to be good or evil regardless of anyone's belief; the good is
good even if everyone on earth thought that good was bad and vice
verse. Now, modern societies usually claim that there are no
absolutes and that everything is perspective. The problem with this
is of course its patent absurdity. There are certain truths that
just are: a normal human can't stop a bus without harm or jump off a
tall building and survive, humans need air to breathe, and light
makes things brighter. Even beyond that there is the fundamental
reality that every normal person recognizes the evil of certain
things. You'll find very few people that think it's okay to kill a
child or to rape someone. Some may even try and claim that don't
believe these things to be objectively wrong but they can't explain
away their visceral gut reaction.
The Bible tells us that God made the
rules for reality and these rules were not made out of nothing but
that they extend from the very attributes of God. Killing is wrong
because only God has authority over life and death and He has
declared the worth of man - creating him in His own image; rape is
wrong for similar reasons and because it perverts the gift that is
the sexual relationship between husband and wife, to lie is evil
because God is truth, and so on. Because God is over and above all
of creation, His rules are beyond any of us and we are all beholden
to them. They are objective. So take a look at yourself in light of
this information.
Do you think yourself
good?
Have you ever lied, even
once? - Well that makes you a liar.
Have you ever lusted after
another? - That makes you an adulterer in your heart according to
Jesus.
Have you ever stolen
anything? - That means your a thief.
Do we need to go on?
God is utterly perfect and
the only way to be worthy of eternity and heaven is to be perfect as
well. It takes only a moments perfunctory glance at ourselves to see
how unworthy we are. A single stain on a white cloth is all it takes
to ruin it. One lie, one moment of lust, one stolen candy bar, and
that's it. What is worse is that we are not only condemned by
ourselves but by our nature. When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden
he became tainted by that evil. Since that time that taint has been
passed down the line of humanity into all of us. We're evil from
birth and our actions play that out.
God however, had a plan.
He knew this would all happen, knew that we would need salvation.
God is just though and could never simply pardon evil, it has to be
dealt with. In His love He planned for a way He could deal with our
sin and evil justly and yet save souls from an eternity of damnation.
We needed a sacrifice, someone who could die in our place and who
could bear the weight of our sin on our behalf. The main problem
though is that no one would be worthy. Every human carries their own
sin and thus their death would never be sufficient would never even
be enough to pay for their own sins let alone a billion others. So
God sent His Son.
Jesus came down to earth
and took on a human nature. God became man so that man would have
the sacrifice we needed to be saved. Being God He lacked the sin
nature we all carry and He lived a perfect life without sin so that
His sacrifice would be sufficient for the cost. When He died on the
cross God the Father poured out His wrath against sin, all of His
anger against evil, onto Jesus. Three days later Jesus rose from the
grave and won victory over death and sin and evil. He died for us so
that He could lay His death, the death of an infinity valuable
person, onto the accounts of all who believe in Him. God could now
give us the righteousness of Christ in exchange for our sin and
pardon us from our just due without violating his justice.
That's what it took to save
us. A good man/a perfect God had to die. He left heaven and the
presence of God the Father to live on this dusty sinful ball and to
die a cruel horrible death, for you. For you and for me and for
everyone who will but call upon His name. The reality of our sin is
laid our before us, you know your own faults. Take that knowledge
and go to God, admit what you know and ask for His forgiveness.
Because of Jesus God can forgive your sins and give you a new heart
that loves what is good and yearns for righteousness. You can be
free from the shadows and the lies of this world, free to a future
without sadness or sorrow or death. What will you do?
"For
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.”
(John
3:16-17)
“For
there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over
all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "whoever calls on the
name of the LORD shall be saved."
(Romans
10:12-13)
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