A Big Favor

Now note this - Every one of us by nature is dead in our sins, without hope, and a child of the devil.  Sin doesn't give life, it takes life. God has been very good to you, He has spared your life.  If divine justice had been executed, you would have been in Hell long ago. You have provoked God so many times, you can barely stand to be provoked for ten minutes, but you have provoked your Maker for 20, 30, 40, 50 years with your sins, negligence, unbelief, and despising. You have stuck your finger in the eye of God when you have rejected His Son and chose your sins instead.  You have ridiculed the Bible, yet God has spared you for years and given you many comforts and blessings.

We all have to be born again by the Holy Ghost and receive Jesus Christ by faith in order to become the sons and daughters of God. *John 1:12* God must justify us by Jesus Christ's Righteousness, or we are eternally condemned in His sight.  Man attempts to cover over his guilt with good works and self-improvements, but his sins still remain on his soul.  Man-made efforts cannot quiet a guilty conscience.

The best deeds we can do are only dung in God's sight.  We cannot make our soul "Good" within by doing some deeds of kindness to others. The only person who is "Good" in God's sight is Jesus Christ.  Human nature says, "I want to do it my way, and approach God with what I have produced." Never forget - Religious works and systems cannot satisfy divine justice. There's only one way to God, and man didn't come up with it.  *John 14:6* The only way to safely approach the Holy Creator God is by Christ's sinless atoning blood.

The Innocent One dying as a Substitute for the guilty. Jesus paid it All; everything else is self-righteousness. At the Cross, the Blood of an innocent Man permanently atones for the guilt of human sin.  Only the satisfactory, atoning work of God manifest in the flesh on Calvary's Cross can satisfy God's divine justice.  One sinless Lamb of God bore the sins of the whole world and laid down His life for us all.  God Incarnate dwelling among sinful men, working out a perfect Righteousness for us, and making Atonement for human sin by giving Himself up to a bloody death on Calvary's Cross.

You can never be "Good" in yourself, for you are a sinner.  Sinners are not good at all.  There is none that doeth good, no, not one. *Romans 3:12* This truth is contrary to all of man's religious thinking today. The word "Good" in the Bible means to be Perfect and to be absolutely, infinitely, immutably Righteous as God is.  The man Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, came down to Earth to rescue of from the damnation we deserve.  We weren't looking for Jesus, but He came to seek and save us.

The Gospel will not let you gloat about your salvation, but you can only be grateful to your Merciful Maker for His so great Salvation. You can never work enough to buy yourself out of the slave market of sin.  The unregenerate man feeds upon his sins with pleasure. I know it is so of a truth:  but how should man be just with God?  God declares us Righteous when He imputes Christ's Righteousness to our account.  Jesus has paid for the record of sins that we committed against God.  All the evidence and guilt of our sins is transferred to Christ's account.  Christ's Precious Blood erases our sin's penalty from our eternal record.  Admire that the eternal God would ever deal graciously with someone as sinful and rebellious as you.  Adore the Savior for His goodness and mercy toward you.

You've committed many crimes all through your life in God's sight in thought, word, and deed.  But in Mercy, Jesus takes your criminal record and erases your name, and writes in His name over the list of your crimes. Then He pays the fine and adds your criminal history and penalty to His record, and then you get to have Christ's spotless record, because He never broke the Law one time. This is called Imputation and Justification in the Bible.  This is how a holy God has Mercy today on a guilty sinner. God miraculously switches the names on the rap sheets.  Christ's name was written on the top of the volume of all your sins.  Jesus becomes the condemned criminal, and you are made Righteous with His perfect record credited (imputed) to your name.

Jesus takes our vileness and perversion upon Himself, and gives us His virtue and purity.  Jesus takes our record of sin, and gives us His record of sinlessness. Jesus bore the wrath that was reserved for me. Christ replaces our sins with His Righteousness and all the charges brought against have been thrown out of God's courtroom.  God can no longer find any record of your sins because Jesus' blood washes, cleanses, blots out, and takes away your transgressions. Your record is spotless and clean in Christ. God's redeeming grace does you a big favor the moment you trust to Jesus' Atoning Blood.