2007-01-20 - Basic Beliefs
Part 13 - Based on The Apostle's Creed
"The forgiveness of sins"
This is probably the most bottom-line belief of our Christian faith. WIthout
belief in the forgiveness of sins there is no Christian faith. As I sat down
to write this devotional - I realized that through the years I have heard
sermons about this topic over a hundred times. Countless articles and songs
have been written about forgiveness. Books and movies have treated the subject
as well.To me - one of the most poignant treatments of the subject was the
popular movie "The Fisher King" which starred Robin Williams.
It's not likely that I will have anything original to say.
But as we hear many times in the Bible - we are to retell the stories of
God's providence. We are to share them not only with those who have not yet
heard - but also to repeat them to those who are already familiar with them.
In fact one of the reasons we have the Bible as we know it today is the oral
tradition of retelling the stories.
Many of us memorized in childhood a Bible verse that summarizes the Christian
Gospel of forgiveness in a nutshell:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son - that whosever believes in Him shall not perish but shall
have everlasting life.
Let's lay out the facts of the case:
-
We - every single one of us - are sinful. We are born that way
(Romans
3:23;
Psalm
51:5).
-
Left to our own devices we would be spending eternity in Hell - because only
the sinless and pure will be able to spend eternity in Heaven with God
(Colossians
1:21-22).
-
We cannot earn salvation; it's completely a gift. We have no bragging rights
in the matter
(Ephesians
2:8-9).
-
God intervened and provided a perfect Sacrifice in His Son - to become our
righteousness. If we depend on Christ's sacrifice for our salvation - we
are assured that we will spend eternity with God
(Hebrews
9:11-28).
So simple that sometimes we tend to overcomplicate it; we just can't believe
anything can be that simple - or that free. Should we do good works? Absolutely
but that doesn't have anything to do with earning our salvation.
Normally a good guideline in life (and especially online) is "if it seems
too good to be true - it is." It's a scam. But in this case - it really is
"too good." "What you see is what you get."
To be continued.
Jan
cfdevcfpray@yahoo.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org |