I’m going to just lay it all out for you in this short message. So if you read nothing else that I share, please read this.
There is a God, Who created everything that exists. There is a creation; so there must be a Creator. With complete sincerity and sanity, I can say that the mainstream messages of a “big bang” and “evolution” are total nonsense because they attempt to remove God from the story. If you don’t believe me, go to AnswersInGenesis.org, they have scientists on staff who will back me up on this.
I can also say, with equal veracity and conviction, that ANY religion that tries to accomplish its goal through human effort will get you nowhere with your Creator. He is not impressed with our “goodness”. In fact, it’s a bit appalling to Him.
We are all infected and impure with sin.
Isaiah 64:6, NLT
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy [menstrual] rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,
and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
Because we are unable to appease God through our “goodness”, which is a joke to Him, literally EVERY religion on the planet does nothing to improve our standing before Him. This is because every religion uses human effort as its basis.
Christianity, if understood, does not rely on human effort at all to make us “right” with our Creator. Therefore, Christianity should not be used as a religion (a system of performance and reward); rather, it should be the relationship that God wants it to be.
Christians should not be whacking people over the head with our “values”. Instead, we should be letting others know that we are no better than they are, and that our salvation is a gift, not a reward for our “goodness”. This is a huge difference in how believers should interact with unbelievers, as opposed to how they are and have been interacting (to a large degree).
As a race, we humans have been infected with something that our Creator cannot tolerate in us. Just like the DNA that we carry, which defines us physically, we are in a state of corruption at our very core.
The only solution for this state of imperfection, that we can do nothing about, is to allow our Creator to repair us, to restore the relationship between us. He did this through becoming one of us, in the form of Jesus, Who is God in human flesh. He is fully God and fully human; the God-man.
When our Creator made the flesh that Jesus entered into, He did it without using the same DNA that had (and has) been handed down throughout all of humanity from Adam and Eve. Why? Because their DNA became corrupt and thereby corrupted every other human who ever was conceived.
In a state of perfection, Jesus was able to take God’s vengeance that is due upon the human race as a member of the human race. He was the only person who ever lived or ever will live who could take God’s punishment and get back up again. No one else would be able to do so, due to their imperfection and guilt.
This is the Good News! It is good news because it means that our relationship with God can be restored. It’s good news because we don’t have to do the heavy lifting; in fact, we can’t. It’s good to know that we don’t have to live by man’s rules and regulations in order to please someone’s concept of a “higher power”. This good news tells us about the real, living, loving, caring God Who has already done it all for us. All He wants in return is for us to accept His terms and give ourselves back over to Him. His rules for life are simple:
- Love Him and give yourself to Him
- Treat others the way you want to be treated
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13, NLT
…Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
God’s terms for restoring ourselves to Him are just as simple:
- Acknowledge Who He is: The Creator of life. Loving. Knowing. Powerful. Good. Present. Perfect.
- Acknowledge who you are: Imperfect. Nasty to the core in God’s eyes (Isaiah 64:6).
- Admit: You can’t save yourself or repair the relationship with Him yourself.
- Admit: You want to be with Him in a state of perfection (which comes when Jesus returns).
- Believe: Jesus paid your debt. It’s enough. It will work. It’s the only thing that will work.
- Give yourself over to Him in return. Let Him be the Master over you that He is.
Each of those 6 things is necessary and crucial. Not one of them can be ignored or left out.
The Good News is that it is real, it works, and your afterlife will be amazing forever and ever. Just accept His terms and then,
“…love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength…” [And] “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mark 12:30-31, NLT ~ excerpted
If any other way than the cross of Christ would restore you to your Creator, then why did Jesus have to die?
Drop the religion; take up the relationship.
In His love,
Gary
