More of our Message
It's all good news!
The Bible tells us that God wants everyone to have life-- life to the full-- lived with him both now and forever. This "life" means that we enjoy the kind of relationship with God that we were always meant to have: we know him personally and he knows and loves us; he lives with us and invites us to participate in his life and purposes forever (Rom 8:17; 2 Pet 1:4).
It may seem arrogant to claim this kind of eternal life with God now and in heaven. Yet the Bible has been written so that we can know with certainty how we can have this eternal life (1 Jn 5:13). At St Marks and St Davids we want to help you discover this reality.
Think for a moment about your relationship with God. Are you sure that you could confidently approach the gates of heaven? What would you say to God's face if he asked you why he should welcome you into his heaven?
If you are at all unsure of your answer, or of God's response to your answer, then we have some very good news for you.
This kind of life-- life to the full-- is a free gift (Rom 6:23). It is not earned or deserved. In the book of Ephesians, it says this:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no-one can boast. (Eph 2:8-9).
So no matter how good or religious we are, no matter how many good things we may do in life, we are not "saved" (that is, given this "eternal life") on account of them. If eternal life was earned on account of these good works, then we would have something to boast about. But this is not the case. Instead, the Bible tells us that it is all undeserved gift from God. It is no more earned or merited than our own birth.
The extent of God's generosity in giving us eternal life as a gift becomes clearer when we understand what the Bible has to say about us.
God created men and women as stewards or managers of his creation. They were made "like God" and their autonomy was limited only by their responsibility to God. However, men and women chose to reject God's authority, and decided instead to do things their own way. This refusal to acknowledge or obey God is the essence of sin.
We see the effects of sin in our own lives every time we choose to ignore God. Sometimes this rejection takes an active form-- when, for example, we chose to deceive, steal or scorn. At other times this rejection is more passive-- when, for example, we choose to disregard what God has said, or we neglect to do what we know we ought to. Each of these kinds of "sins" stems from our basic problem of rejecting God's authority.
The inevitable result of each person's sin is personal and spiritual death (Rom 3:23). Since each one of us has sinned in some way (no one is perfect!), we already show the power of sin to be active in our own lives, and therefore we are already spiritually dead to God. Our problem is that once we are dead in this way, we are unable to make ourselves alive again. In short, we are incapable of saving ourselves.
We can illustrate our predicament in this way. Suppose for a minute you were going to make an omelette to serve up to a friend for dinner. After cracking a couple of good eggs into a bowl, you crack another egg into the mixture which is rotten. How would your friend respond if you went ahead with making the omelette? Of course you wouldn't serve it up-- its corrupted and unfit to eat! In the same way, even though our lives may contain many good things, the presence of just a little sin means we are unfit for God. But, being honest with ourselves, we are not just "a little bit" sinful. Even if we were really good and only sinned 3 times a day, we would still have a 1000 sins on our record for every year of our lives.
By now we can see why it is impossible for us to make ourselves right before God on our own merits. We are unable to save ourselves. Yet when we look at what the Bible has to say about God, there is good news.
In the Bible God tells us that he is both just and merciful. Our sin deserves his due punishment of death yet he loves us and his purpose from eternity has been to save a people for himself (Rev 5:9).
God's justice and mercy are seen most clearly in the person of Jesus Christ. Even though he was fully God and the co-creator of the universe, God's plan was always for Jesus to become fully man as well. As the perfect God-man, Jesus Christ's death on the cross therefore took on tremendous significance. He did not die on account of his own sins-- he could not because he was without sin-- but he died on account of our sins. God actually poured out all his righteous anger at our sin on Jesus Christ when he died on the cross, so that he would not have to punish us! (Isa 53:6; Rom 3:25; Gal 3:13;1 Pet 2:24). The apostle Paul explains it this way:
God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2Cor 5:21).
So Jesus' death on the cross was no mistake. God had always planned that it would provide the just means for our problem of sin to be dealt with once and for all. In addition, Jesus' physical and actual resurrection from death then confirmed the success of God's plan and demonstrated the new life that had been purchased for us.
Now that we have seen how God has provided forgiveness and new life for us, one important question remains. How do we personally and individually receive this gift now? That is, how does what Jesus has done get applied to me? The simple answer is "by faith". We receive God's gift of eternal life by faith.
Our problem today is that many people have a confused understanding of what the bible means by this 'faith'. That is because everyone has faith-- of some kind or another. We have faith in bus drivers every time we get on a bus because we trust that they will drive us safely along the agreed route to where we plan to go. We have faith in elevator companies every time we get in a lift. (Of course, if our trust in elevator companies is misplaced, we may plummet to a sudden and catastrophic death!) This kind of faith-- trust in some one or something-- is what the Bible means by faith. It is not 'blind faith' which has no real object, a kind of 'hope against hope' that things will work out OK in the end. Instead, the kind of faith which is effective in receiving the gift of eternal life is placed in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection for us.
This kind of faith is more than just believing God exists or agreeing with certain statements about Jesus. The bible tells us that even the Devil believes in God (Jas 2:19). Putting our faith in Jesus' death and resurrection as our only means of receiving eternal life also means no longer trusting ourselves to get us into heaven. We radically turn away from self-reliance and begin to live under his authority now. The faith which brings new life-- life to the full-- requires a personal and intentional commitment to trust in Jesus Christ and live with him.
Now this information may leave you with some questions. You may want to find out more. You may even want some help in taking some steps towards receiving God's gift of eternal life. At St Marks Avalon with St Davids Palm Beach, we would like to help you discover and enjoy life lived to the full, just as God always intended it to be. Please contact us now. We'd love to help.