Jesus Christ: Our Passport to Eternity Matthew 7:11; Romans 5:6-21; 1 Timothy 1:18-20 We try to give presents that are meaningful but we arent always successful. However, God’s gift—His Son Jesus—is always the right one for everybody. This gift is: Heaven sent. Jesus was sent to earth from the heavenlies in order to fulfill God’s plan (John 6:38). Every aspect of His life—from His birth as a little baby to His death on the cross—was part of the Father’s gift to us. Needed. God gave His Son to us because of our desperate need for rescue. Sin ruined the human race (Rom. 3:23) and placed us all under divine condemnation (5:18). Since we are unable to pay the price justly demanded by God for our sin, our greatest need has always been for a Savior who could pay our sin debt for us (6:23). Only Jesus qualified because He was without sin. He became our Redeemer, reconciling us to God (5:10). Sacrificial. God sent Jesus to die in our place so that we might become part of His family. The Son deliberately sacrificed His life to accomplish the Father’s plan. Perfect. Jesus was God in human flesh, walking among mankind. His character and will are flawless, and He works perfectly on our behalf (8:28-29). Precious. Jesus Christ can do for us what no material thing or other person can. In Him, we become new creations belonging to God (2 Cor. 5:17). God wrapped His special present to us in human flesh so we might know Him and identify with Him. How closely intertwined is Jesus’ life with yours? Jesus is God’s precious and perfect gift to us. Heaven sent, the present was willingly given at great cost because we were in desperate need. This remarkable gift from God is . . . Universal and Personal. Through Jesus, the Father offers salvation to the entire world, one person at a time (John 3:16). Whoever receives the Son discovers His unlimited worth. Preventive. When Jesus becomes our personal Savior, we are granted forgiveness and are set free from condemnation for our sin (Rom. 8:1). This divine gift prevents us from having to face eternal death, which would mean permanent separation from God. Eternal. What Jesus brings us lasts forever. From the day of salvation, Christ’s Spirit indwells us and remains with us. As permanent members of God’s family, we have an inheritance in heaven that can neither spoil nor perish (1 Pet. 1:3-5). Full of Love. Unconditional love is what motivated the Father to sacrifice His Son in our place. None of us deserved it. At some point, weve all sinned (Rom. 3:10)—we have turned away from God to follow our own desires. In spite of who we are, God set His affection on us and proved it through the life and death of His Son. By His love, weve been rescued from bondage to sin and are being transformed into the people He designed us to be. If you haven’t accepted God’s offer of salvation, today can become your spiritual birthday. If you already belong to God’s family, you know the value of the gift. Won’t you tell someone today about this marvelous present? The apostle Paul wanted his young charge Timothy to grasp the basics of keeping the faith. So he wrote about two men who ignored their conscience at great peril. Their example shows that without an understanding of what this gift from God is, we run the risk of capsizing our faith. Many people mistakenly think of the conscience as God’s voice instead of God’s gift. We were created with an “inner monitor” that acts as a moral compass for life; it points to a standard of right and wrong that can guide our decisions. But the conscience, like everything else in us, is fallen and in need of redemption. Depending on how it has been programmed, our conscience can nudge us in the wrong direction. Paul himself is an illustration of this. His formal education as a Pharisee had taught him that Christians were a threat to God and the Jewish faith. His conscience had been programmed to see killing them as service to the Lord. So he passionately hunted down believers without tripping an alarm on his moral compass. Only after the risen Christ met him on the way to Damascus was his conscience transformed and his life altered. Unless we let the Lord redeem us fully, our decisions can prove as destructive as if we ignored our “monitoring system” altogether. By understanding the divine gift of conscience, we stand a better chance of staying on course and away from trouble. What’s more, if we submit our conscience to the Holy Spirit, we will find safe harbor when storms threaten our faith or future.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 08:41:07 +0000
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