Faith's Firm Foundation: I Love To Tell The Story: Manage It (Victorious in Christ) Monday

Jesus said we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength,

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."

Mark 12:30

Can anyone just decide to love the LORD, and to do what Jesus, and the Bible, says? Have you obeyed God's commandments in your life?

What Do You Think?

Let's look at a few of the 10 Commandments:

Have you ever told a lie? Even a little "white" one?
Have you ever stolen anything, even a pen or a paper clip?
Have you ever wanted (coveted) something that belonged to someone else?

If we evaluate our own life and experience, it will become obvious very quickly that we can't just decide to do the commandments, and "keep" them. We have all broken the 10 commandments (God's "Law").

In our evaluation of our life, (if we were honest) we admitted that we had lied & stolen...What do you call a person who has lied and stolen? We must confess that we are lying thieves.

God says if you break even

the smallest commandment,

then you are guilty of breaking them all.

(James 2:10)

What is the consequence of breaking God's Law?

These are the Facts

God is holy.
God is just.
Heaven is perfect.
God is perfect and holy, and cannot allow sin into heaven, His Holy habitation, therefore He cannot let us into heaven with our sins.
We have violated the Law which God, Who created the heavens and the earth, and all creation, established.
God established that the punishment for sin is death and hell. (Romans 6:23)
We are deserving of God's punishment (death and hell) for our sins.
God loved us so much that He made a way for us to have a relationship with Him forever, and live in heaven when we die, and yet for justice to be served--He (Jesus Christ) paid the penalty for our sins Himself, by dying on the cross.
All sin past, present, and future was paid for, and death and hell lost their power, when Jesus died on the cross and, after 3 days, God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
We can live forever in heaven with Jesus Christ, because of what He did for us, by believing in Him.

You would not want a murderer to walk away "scot free"! Your sense of justice would not allow it. And neither could a God of Justice allow us to walk away "scot free" with our sins unpaid for--justice had to be served.

Romans 5:8

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

God, at the ultimate cost to Himself, served justice, and showed His everlasting love for His creation--you and me--by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be punished in place of us. He took our punishment on the cross. He died for our sins. They are paid for by Jesus Christ. God showed that He accepted the payment by raising Jesus from the dead, and He lives today, sitting at the right hand of God the Father--in the place of honor.

²³For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up, from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God."

1 Peter 1:18-21

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Romans 10:17

What Happens When We Die

When we die, we will stand before God the Father and He will ask us (effectively), "Why should I let you into My Heaven?"

We trust that our sins have already been paid for by Jesus Christ--we trust in Him as our Savior from sin. We have faith that the work was finished on the cross, believing that Jesus Christ is Who God says He is: the perfect sinless Son of God: God Himself, Who voluntarily gave His life up to suffer and die for me so that I might live forever in loving relationship to Him and with Him in heaven when I die.

We say we don't believe in Jesus, or that He is God, or that He died on the cross, or that the work was finished--there must be "good works" that I have to do to make up the difference, and I have been trying to be good enough all my life.

There are only 2 answers: I believe in Jesus Christ (God's Way) or I believe in something else (my way).

If we choose #2, then God will say, the work was done by Jesus Christ and He is the Only One Righteous Who can pay for sins. If you trust in anything but the Perfect Lamb of God's blood shed for your sins, then you are choosing your own way. God, the Perfect Judge, set up the payment that would obtain Justice, and He paid the payment Himself!

Why would you NOT want to accept that? Why would you even try to pay the payment yourself, when it has already been paid?! When we face God at death, we will go to hell to pay for our sins ourselves if we do not believe that they have already been paid for by Jesus. And we can never pay for them, so we will spend eternity in hell being punished. It doesn't have to be that way. God does not want any to perish.
(2 Peter 3:9: The LORD "is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.")

If we believe, and accept this free gift from God--free to us, but bought at enormous cost to Him--we may spend our lives with Our Loving Heavenly Father, beginning eternity here on earth. He is LORD. He is God. Nothing less will do than surrendering every part of our lives in grateful, loving service and obedience to Him. We will spend eternity with Him in Heaven!

If you are not a believer, or are not sure,
Here is What to do:

Acknowledge your sin and its consequences

Repent (Turn completely around from your sin.)

Believe that Christ died for you and has already been punished for your sins.

Acknowledge Him as your Savior.

Give up control of your life to Jesus Christ, and surrender every part of your life to Him as Lord.