The Cross Alone! 2

We are all going to die. Only the person of Jesus Christ and His Finished Work on Calvary's Cross can save us from the wrath to come. There are only three possibilities with the Person of Christ for He called Himself the Son of God:

1. He was a madman.
2. He was a liar.
3. Jesus was the Son of God He professed to be.

Many people think that Jesus was just a good man, but they don't believe He was actually the Son of God - God manifest in the flesh. *I Timothy 3:16* There's a problem with that logic, for a good man doesn't walk around deceiving people by professing to be the Son of God.  A madman is not a man you can trust, and a liar is not a good man at all. Everyone talks about God, Jesus Christ, and the Gospel, but very few people today have heard and understood the true Gospel Message from the Holy Scriptures.

The main reason for your existence is the glory of God, but you have failed to glorify God. You only love yourself and are constantly disobedient to God's law. This disobedience is called SIN. Sin is when you want to do it your way instead of God's way. Sin begins in the little things - that little white lie, that subtle exaggeration, that second glance at that girl, taking that extra drink, one little compromise won't hurt - that is Sin. Instead of glorifying God, you have followed the ways of this world, Satan, and your own lusts. God is just and righteous. Every sane man prefers a God that is just, not unjust. Man always wants a judge to be just especially when he has been wronged.

Who wants an unjust God, or a bad God? Nobody! But the fact that God is just is your greatest problem. Your greatest problem is that God is just and holy. Why is that a problem for you? Because you are not just, for you have willfully sinned against God. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You have sinned against God's holy law, by lying, stealing, hating, lusting, envying, cheating, gossiping, and blaspheming. God knows all your thoughts and attitudes. Criminals hate good judges, that can't be bribed. God will soon call you to Judgment. If there was a DVD movie made of your whole private and public life and then played publicly in your home town theater for everyone to come and see, you would leave town and never come back. The public display of your every thought, word, and deed of every single day of your life would surely bring shame and guilt upon you. You have done things in private that you are shameful of. You don't want to even talk about your dark secrets with anyone, much less have them displayed publicly.

God is perfectly Righteous and He demands righteousness from you, but you have no righteousness to offer God, so you must go to Jesus Christ, the Righteousness of God Incarnate, and ask Him to give you His Righteousness as a free gift. Jesus will take your sins, and give you His righteousness, and you will be Born Again, completely forgiven, entirely saved, and made righteous in God's sight forever, this is called Justification.

It's very, very hard for human nature to admit it is wrong, and that all of your thoughts, beliefs, and efforts up to this point in life are all in vain. You've blown it, you've sinned so many times, you can't work your way to Heaven, because all your of past and future sins have to paid for by Someone. Stop striving to save yourself, you have to be Perfect to enter Heaven, and you can't make yourself Perfect, only Christ through His blood's saving power can make you Perfect and acceptable in God's sight. This is called being Born Again (John 3:7) and being Justified in God's sight (Romans 3:23-25). The moment a sinner is Born Again, the Righteousness of Christ is charged, that is - imputed or reckoned, to the sinner's account, and it is only on the ground of Christ's Righteousness alone that any sinner can obtain a righteous standing before the holy Creator God. Salvation is totally the work of God within a sinner's heart.

God is just and you have disobeyed Him and rebelled against your Creator's holy law and rejected His Precious Son's love and blood. There will be a day of Judgment where God will judge you out of the books that are the recording of all your life. These books are in Heaven according to Revelation 20. At the White Throne Judgment, God will give you what you really deserve, the Lake of Fire. But there is a way to escape the wrath of God on sin. Jesus Christ is God Himself, He came to this earth and took on human form, to be the Perfect Blood Sacrifice (Atonement) for your sins. Jesus took the hell, the wrath, and the punishment your sins deserve. The wrath of God was poured out on Jesus by God the Father. You must Repent - that is, you have to acknowledge and agree with God that Jesus Christ is the Creator and Savior and forsake your own righteousness. Be truly sorry that you have broken God's laws and rejected His Son, turn from your love of sin, and Trust wholly in Christ Himself for all your Salvation.

The greatest problem in the Scriptures is this:  How can a just God forgive an ungodly sinner and still remain just? This is the greatest problem in all the Bible. Here's an illustration: If a thief broke into your home and killed your daughter, and the police caught him, and he was arrested and then made to appear before a judge for his heinous crime. And then the judge says to this criminal that killed your daughter, "Look, I am a loving judge, so I am going to overlook your crime.  I am kind and merciful, that's the reason why I forgive you. You're free to go." How would you react to his ruling? You would surely be very angry and outraged. You would write everyone including the President complaining that this judge is more corrupt than the criminals he forgives. Now think - If God is just, He HAS to satisfy His divine justice somehow. And the only way that that is possible is by punishing you, or a Substitute, for all your guilt and crimes.

The Bible also says that God is Love. So God in His wisdom and love made a way to satisfy His justice against you and also to rescue you from your sins. Salvation is only through faith in the sufferings and shed blood of God's Son Jesus Christ. On the Cross, Jesus Christ was more than just a Jewish man, He was also the eternal Son of God who became a man through the incarnation when He was born of a Jewish virgin named Mary. Jesus was God in human flesh with God's blood running through His veins. He walked on this Earth and lived an absolutely perfect life, He was without sin. Then Jesus was delivered up to Pilate by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, He was taken and by wicked hands was crucified and slain on Calvary's Cross especially for you.

But what really happened at the Cross?  When the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to the Cross, He bore your sins, He actually became Sin incarnate (II Corinthians 5:21).  God the Father laid on His sinless Son the iniquity of us all.  Jesus was God in the flesh, and He lived His life in the power of Holy Ghost. He always lived purely and only for the glory of God. But Jesus bore the sins of the whole world in His body and paid the penalty for sin with His own blood. All human guilt was charged to Jesus, and He was treated as guilty and cursed. God's divine vengeance and wrath was satisfied and appeased at the Cross. Jesus was treated as guilty in your place. This is called the Atonement. You can only be acceptable to God by trusting in the merits of what Jesus did for you on the Cross.

While Jesus was hanging on the Cross, He cried out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" What was happening in that moment of time at the Cross? Jesus, the only begotten Son of God is dying for sinners, and His Father forsakes Him. But why? Because when Christ was on the Cross, He bore your sins, and the Father is HOLY, and He cannot tolerate even to look on Sin. The Father forsook Jesus on the Cross, and all the justice of God that your sins deserve fell upon Jesus. And when Jesus died, He cried, "It is Finished!" He paid the full divine penalty for all your sins. Jesus paid it ALL, so you could saved freely without your works.  Then three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead. And now you can be saved freely through the Faith which is in Christ Jesus. Many people today say they believe the Bible is the word of God, but when the Bible is preached in truth, they think it is foolishness.

Many people think that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming soon, but they are not truly interested in preparing for His return. Many people believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but they live as though Jesus has never come to earth. The true God so loved you that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus into this world to pay for your sins. The moment you repent (forsake your own righteousness and your love of sin) and simply trust in Christ's finished work on Calvary's Cross, you are legally declared completely righteous before God.  Jesus' Righteousness makes you entirely right with God when you trust only in HIM. You can now receive the forgiveness of sins from Christ Jesus Himself and live in the newness of life. Christ Jesus and His Gospel can only be understood and received through God's words and the Holy Spirit.

You will never be content with your money, power, pleasure, possessions, popularity, or immorality. Your soul will only find Rest and be content when you receive eternal life from the Person of Jesus Christ alone. If you sense your guilt and danger, ask God to give you Repentance, turn from your love of sin and self-righteousness, ask God to give you true Faith, and put your full trust in God's Blood that was shed by Jesus Christ on the Cross. Put your full, personal trust in the Person and Finished Work of Jesus Christ. Look to Jesus now by faith in His Blood, and you are saved instantly, freely and forever.