Mankind is always looking for someone to take us to the beyond and help us realize the innate potential that seems just out of our human reach. Whether it is a political leader, entertainer or sports hero, we identify with those individuals for a while until we recognize they too are flawed and see their fleshly reflection in the mirror just as we do.
As a person reads through the four Gospels, they reveal a Man who is no ordinary man. With an honest reading, you encounter a Man who is beyond the scope of human explanation. One who is captivating, yet disarming.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
My goal here is not to persuade you or emotionally tug at your heart regarding the truth of Jesus Christ. Only the work of the Holy Spirit of God can truly draw people to Him. I am, however, going to provide Scriptures from the Bible which I believe as God’s absolute truth, showing why a person needs Jesus Christ as Redeemer, Lord and Savior. Obviously, I will be working from the presupposition that certain facts are absolute truth and self-evident – i.e. God exists, etc.
The Need:
The Scriptures clearly states that man is flawed and carries the weight of a sin nature as part of his being and can do nothing to rid himself of the persistency and consequences of sin. As humans we were born into that sin nature and obviously we have all exercised that nature to some degree or another during our lives. It is the issue we constantly stumble over and it not only causes us to be separated from intimate fellowship with God but hinders our human relationships too.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8 ----------- If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:10 ----------- for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God .... Romans 3:23
If we compare our lives to God’s moral law (the Ten Commandments), any rational person will see they have broken at least one of those laws which requires death as the penalty to pay for the sin debt (the wages of sin is death – Romans 6:23) . No matter how good of a life you have lived, how many good deeds you may have done, perfection is still out of our grasp. But sin goes deeper than the pure action, sin begins in the heart of mankind and resides in our very being.
The God of the Bible is a Holy God and because of that holiness He requires a perfect standard of righteousness and no man can offer that perfection except One.
The Person:
Mankind needed that solution to rescue him from the grip of sin and reconcile us to God. And it was God who took it upon Himself to provide that way of deliverance and reconciliation. The central figure to accomplish the plan and subsequent liberation was Jesus Christ. It was His suffering and death on the cross that became the required payment for sin for all mankind including yours.
God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) ------------ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:17 ------------ He (Jesus) is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 ------------ For it pleased the Father that in Him (Jesus) all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Colossians 1:19-20
Jesus Christ accomplished for us what no ordinary man could because He had no sin Himself as the Holy Son of God. But He became sin for us taking our sins upon Himself to the cross. This was all part of God’s supernatural grand rescue plan to send His only begotten Son into the world so we would have eternal life as a gift from Him. Salvation through Christ is solely a gift of grace and cannot be earned in any way.
The Solution:
So what does God ask from us? Like any gift you should receive it but this one you must receive by faith. God is asking you to believe in His Son, trust in His finished work on the cross and call upon Him as your Savior and Lord. It will then be your faith in Christ that will put you in right relationship with God; in other words, declared righteous!
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 ----------- ... if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Romans 10:9-11 ------------ For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13
God asks us to confess by faith that Jesus Christ is Lord and was raised from the dead as the only way to heaven and reconciliation with the Father.
The Bottom Line
In a bold statement by Jesus Christ, He lays down the gauntlet of His supremacy as the Son of God and the exclusive way to eternal life. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6
This is a statement by Jesus Christ that cannot be ignored. It’s exclusive nature and boldness demands a response. How we respond to the claims of Jesus Christ will set our course for eternity.
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis
Additional Resource Link on Faith in Jesus Christ: Who Do You Think I Am?
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