It's so exciting to start my first ever blog…. Systematic Maniac. I figured it would be a good way to correspond to friends, family, and acquaintances, about things that are important to me.
About the name… As some of you know me, you know that I can be crazy about making sure God's Word is rightly divided. There are so many false teachers out there nowadays. They promise prosperity, health and wealth, which just is not the true gospel. We have a wonderful gospel! Why would we want to water it down with “what's in it for me”. Until we realize we are not good people and our hearts are desperately wicked, the gospel will never make sense to us. The Gospel is not about finding your purpose in life, becoming a better person or having your best life now. It is most certain that you will have purpose in your life, and there are certainly going to be positive changes as a result of embracing the Gospel. Those, of course, are good things, but they are not by definition the Gospel.
The very core of the Gospel is summarized in 1 Corinthians 15:
“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-5, NASB)
Jesus came to earth as God in the flesh, lived a sinless life and was delivered into the hands of sinful men. He was mocked, beaten and crucified to bear the sins of man, died and was buried. He arose again on the third day to win victory over sin and death, reconciling us to God the Father, reigning triumphant over His enemies. While this is a brief summary of the Gospel, unpacking the meaning of Christ’s work on the cross is a treasure trove of truth that nourishes our soul and strengthens us.
At the very core of the Gospel, is the fact that Jesus came to die for our sins to pay the penalty that we deserved. We were completely separated from God, spiritually dead, indulging the desires of our flesh and were objects of His wrath (Ephesians 2:3). The work of Christ was to reconcile us to God (2 Corinthians 5:18). It was not to give us our best life now, or to merely provide us with purpose. Yet the Gospel that is often presented today is generally weak in emphasizing these crucial points. Repentance is downplayed or ignored altogether. It is sad that despite the crucial importance of these points, they are touched on very lightly or just ignored.
So what are sins? It can be very offensive if I come up to you and say you’re a sinner. To a normal person, they believe they are good. Comparing themselves to others around them (horizontally) they might be right. But when we look at God standards(vertically) this changes everything.
Let’s take a little test to see how we measure up to God standards.
"Have you ever told a lie?" (9th commandment),
"Have you ever stolen anything, no matter how long ago, no matter how small?" (8th commandment),
"Have you ever lusted, which Jesus called adultery at heart?" (7th commandment),
"Have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain, which is called blasphemy?" (3rd commandment),
"Have you ever hated, which Jesus called murder at heart?" (6th commandment).
"Have you ever stolen anything, no matter how long ago, no matter how small?" (8th commandment),
"Have you ever lusted, which Jesus called adultery at heart?" (7th commandment),
"Have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain, which is called blasphemy?" (3rd commandment),
"Have you ever hated, which Jesus called murder at heart?" (6th commandment).
"If God judges you by the 10 Commandments on the Day of Judgment, will you be innocent or guilty?"
"Based on that, would you go to heaven or hell?"
If God is a good God and a just God, he must punish sin. If he didn't punish sin he wouldn't be good or just. He would be corrupt. So this is what makes hell reasonable. If we break the laws of a infinite God the punishment must be infinite and God by his nature, being good and just, must punish sin. The Bible tells us that the place that he sends people who have broken his laws is Hell. According to the test we just took above, we've all broken his laws we are lawbreakers. We need desperately for someone to pay our fine. We can't pay it ourselves because the penalty is infinite. And asking for forgiveness doesn't work either. If I go to a courtroom guilty of crimes and I stand before a judge, can I ask the judge please to just forgive me? I can, but a good judge must see that justice is served. He would be corrupt if he let me go based on me asking for forgiveness. He would say “you should be sorry for breaking the law”.
Now, let's imagine a scenario where I'm in that courtroom guilty of breaking the law. My crime is serious. The judge says either I can pay this fine of $100,000 or I will have to pay the fine by life in prison. Knowing I don't have money there is nothing I can do but wait for him to send me to prison. Just as he is about to pass sentence, the doors of the courtroom are flung open in comes a man I don't even know. He goes right up to the judge and says “I have sold everything I have to pay for this fine”. “I would like you, good judge, to accept this payment for the law that has been broken.” I don't know about you, but I would be pretty excited after facing a lifetime in prison. I would definitely be very thankful for what this man has done. The price for breaking the law was satisfied with this payment. Justice has been served and paid for. The judge can let you go free!
This is what Jesus Christ did for you 2000 years ago. You broke God's law and Jesus paid the fine for your lawbreaking in his life's blood (John 3:16). This is the good news! We are set free by Jesus paying our fine. What we must do is repent(acknowledge we have broken his law, say we're sorry, and turn from our sins) and put our trust in Jesus Christ. To trust in him means we trust fully in him for our salvation. Just as we trust in a parachute. We trust that the parachute will save our lives when we jump from a plane. We trust that when death arrives, Jesus will save us from Hell. When you do this, God will make you a new person. The Bible calls this born-again (John 3:3). God will give you new desires and a new heart. You will want to serve him and live a life that's pleasing to him.
Here's some tips for those of you who have repented and put your trust in the savior:
This my friends is the true gospel! Not some man centered self-help. God can get all the credit and glory for saving a lawbreaker such as myself.
Good news indeed!!
Thanks again for joining me on the Blog!
First and foremost, I hope to glorify God in all I do! I look forward to sharing my thoughts and my life with you through this blog. If you have any questions thoughts or comments please contact me.
God bless you!
David
