“Oh man, are you in trouble!” I was
terrified when I heard these words. They sounded like death to me. My best
friend had just reinforced the knowledge that my life was over. “When your dad
finds out . . .” Yeah, justice was going to be meted out – big time! Who would
have thought that such huge consequences could be caused by breaking that
little window in the neighbor’s garage door? Thankfully my dad turned his
disappointment (and Mr. Borrow’s righteous indignation of the little pest next
door) into a memorable father-son activity: he taught me how to replace a
broken pane of glass. It was a great life-lesson to learn on how to appease an
angry person and bring about the justification of a guilty one that he loved.
Do we ever take the time to realize that
this is similar (on a much bigger and deadlier scale) to the predicament that
our sin has placed us in? We are all of us guilty of damaging the life that God
has given us responsibility for. We have desecrated His masterpiece; we have
rebelled, transgressed, and severed His most loved possession from its
life-sustaining source; we have turned what He loves the most into a disgusting
mass of stinking, rotting filth. He hates sin so much that He has promised to
punish it decisively by banishing it from His presence forever. So now we have
become objects of His wrath (Romans 9:22; Ephesians 2:3).
But here’s the good news (gospel = good
news): God loved us so much that He Himself came here as one of us, and has
lived the life required by His holiness. As one of my teachers has said, “Jesus
has offered up Himself in our place, and has turned God’s wrath away from us.
Jesus put Himself in our place & let our sins be counted as His own. He
bore the guilt of our sins and the consequent penalty which they deserve; He
bore the wrath of God in our place satisfying the requirements of God’s law for
us” (Jack Cottrell, God The Redeemer,
p. 432-435).
Now all those who have been justified (declared
“not guilty”) by His atoning sacrifice (applied through our obedience in baptism)
have His continual help in getting rid of our sinful thoughts and actions –
almost as an act of restitution/restoration. And now that we have been forgiven
and God’s anger against us has been appeased we can be restored to His loving
presence. Good news! Amazing grace!
So do this as quickly as possible:
1.
Give up your sinful ways and be baptized into Christ.
He
will turn back God’s wrath from you;
He
will pay the penalty for sin that you owe, but can’t pay.
2.
Strive from now on to imitate Jesus in all you think, say, and do.
He
will help you clean up the mess sin has caused;
He
will continue to keep you clean in God’s sight.
3.
Live being prepared and confident for when He returns for you.
He
will protect you from the coming destruction;
He
will take you home to live in your palace within God’s house.
Honor God’s love for you by applying
Jesus’ selfless sacrifice to restore your soul.
Doug
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