The Most Important Thing In the World Page 3

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The Most Important Thing Cont'd (Pg 4)

Step Three
God's Bridge: The Cross

Two thousand years ago, at a specific point in time, Jesus Christ died on the Cross and rose from the grave. He paid the penalty for our sin and bridged the gap between God and people. This is the wonderful truth of the Gospel. ("Gospel" means the "Good News" of Gods amazing "way of escape" from the consequences of the sin and rebellion (a hostility or antagonism) found in each and every one of us against God. This is usually based on the confused understanding of the true nature and will of God that is so prevalent in the minds of many of us.)

The Bible says...

"For there is one God and one mediator (a mediator is someone who "mediates" or "bridges" a gap between people and finds some "common ground" upon which they can agree) between God and men, the man Jesus Christ." 1 Timothy 2:5

"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." 1 Peter 3:18
(Jesus is the "righteous" one, we are the "unrighteous" ones.)

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

God's Great Plan
God has provided the only way. It is helpful to note that God, who as God is, of course, all wise, provided the best and only solution to the great problem of reconciling sinful men with a righteous God. If there were a "better way" he would have adopted it. His love and his justice "meet" at the cross when Jesus "took upon himself" the punishment for our sin. He, solved the problem by becoming, himself, the sacrifice needed to satisfy the demands of justice. What an incredible demonstration of love and wisdom as he, the God who loves us and desired so passionately and so urgently to "save" his children from the awful consequences of their own wilful folly, steps between the demands of justice, which must be satisfied, and the demands of his measureless love, which must also be satisfied, and becomes, himself, the sacrifice for sin. Contemplate these stupendous words from the Bible, "He, who knew no sin", was, "made sin...for us...that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Corinthians 5: 21. And again, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." (2 Corinthians 5: 19)

Your Move
So now, each person must make a choice between their own "way(s)" and the way he has provided through Christ. In reality, however, the only real choice is Christ, because the sobering truth is that we have already chosen to go our own way. We started doing this the moment we were able to choose right from wrong. We may have made some right choices, but we have all made wrong ones from time to time. We have, as the Bible says, "all turned away (from God) and gone our own way". (Isaiah 53: 6.) Occasional right choices cannot cancel out or earn salvation because the consequences of our wrong choices remain. We are, already, going our own way and, unless we make a deliberate choice away from our way(s), and choose his way, then we have simply confirmed our decision to continue to go away from God and the true peace and contentment he died to provide.

The Next Step: Making the choice that leads to eternal life...

The choice that leads to eternal life...