I spent some time with several friends last Sunday witnessing in down town Austin to people outside of the capitol.  With many visitors in town it provided a lot of opportunities to share the gospel.  I talked to some people who had already professed faith in Christ having previously repented of their sins and placing their trust in Him as their Savior.  Others I talked to had not done so.  Some did not believe God existed, others believed that there was some other way to heaven.  And while every single conversation was cordial, encouraging and engaging, my heart always grieves for those who do not know Christ as their personal Savior.

Many people have trouble with the gospel message because they don’t believe they need a Savior.  They believe that they’re a good person and because of that reason they think they deserve to go to heaven.  After all, they help old ladies cross the street, they take cookies to the orphanage, they do plenty of other good things and they genuinely feel like they are good.  And I have to agree that from an earthly perspective that is not a bad line of reasoning.  But I have to say that from a theological perspective that reasoning is flawed.  Jesus said in Mark 10:18 “No one is good except God alone.”  And Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  We have all have done things that should be considered bad.

Do we do good things?  Sure, we do some good things.  Some of us even do some great things but even those great things never erase our sin.  Trying to atone for our sins through good works does not work!  We can never cover our sin and we can never completely remove it.  No matter how small or insignificant we may feel our sin is, ANY SIN separates us from a holy and righteous God.  And one day when we die or (when the Lord returns) we will be judged for the sin in our lives.

When God judges us according to His perfect moral law, we will be found guilty because of our sin no matter how small or insignificant it seems to us.  When that happens, our sin which has broken our fellowship with God and caused us to be separated from Him, will then cause us to be separated from Him for all eternity.  The Bible describes an eternity separated away from God’s grace and goodness as an eternity spent in hell.  It is not God’s desire that any person should go there.  Jesus declared in Matthew 25:41 that hell was designed for the devil and his angels.  Because God doesn’t want people to go there He sent His Son Jesus Christ to come and live the perfect, sinless life and then give that life as Atonement for sin.  By doing so, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins through His death, burial and Resurrection.

If we repent of our sins and ask Christ to be our Savior, our relationship to God the Father is restored!  We are no longer separated from God.  We are no longer judged for the sins we have committed because Christ paid that penalty for us.  And then when God looks at us He sees the righteousness of Christ.  The penalty for our sin is paid in full.  I know I said that once before but I just had to say it again!  The penalty has been paid in full!  As Paul said in Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  When we ask Him, He forgives us!  That’s the gospel and that’s good news!  Oh, I love to tell people the good news!  I hope you do too!  Do you know Christ as your Savior?  If you don’t, why not confess your need for forgiveness and call upon Him today?  If you do know Him that is awesome!  That is great news…have you told somebody else the good news?

Until next time, stay strong in the faith.