Posts Tagged ‘sin’
Podcast 17 – Love and Salvation in Philippians 3
Rich and I go through the 3rd chapter of the book of Philippians… eventually. We also talk at length about how short we fall in our attempts to have a righteousness of our own making. It is very easy to take pride in our standards of morality and our seeming superiority over others in the world. What we forget is that our ultimate yardstick upon which we should measure our righteousness is Christ and against that yardstick we fall so completely short.
As I mentioned in the podcast, if you want to learn how to be saved you can find more information from our friends at BlueLetterBible.org. As always if you have questions or comments please send them to us at show (at) dontblamejesus (dot) com or post them in the comments section of this post.
Podcast 15 – Why do we need a Savior
This week Rich and I talk about our master plan for a 3 hour show every day. Just kidding, we are actually looking at salvation and our desperate need for it. We so often forget just how much we need salvation because we tend to buy into the world’s thinking that people are basically good. The reality is that if we take an honest look at ourselves against the standard of a Holy God, we fall so far short.
Get your Bibles ready in 1 John 2:1-2 and Psalm 22 as we look to the scriptures for a true picture of our predicament and our only hope, salvation through Jesus Christ.
As we always say, please feel free to email us your comments or questions to show (at) dontblamejesus (dot) com. We also would like to pray for you and answer any questions you may have. We are here to serve.
The Truth Will Set You Free…
“The truth will set you free.” That is one of the most misused and misunderstood passages in the whole Bible. It is a statement so often taken out of context that its true meaning has been masked. It’s a shame because this is one of the most powerful scriptures in the whole Bible.
So many people will say the truth will set you free but what they mean is if you will simply be honest with yourself you will be free to live however you wish. Even those people who are sinning in the most blatant ways will misuse this passage to excuse their lifestyle. That is not at all what Jesus meant.
The truth will set you free, but only the actual authentic truth has that kind of power. What if you are trusting in some sort of false hope? How can anything that is not truth accomplish in you what only the truth can? You see, if we continue to accept something less than the real truth in our lives how can we expect to get the real change that only the truth can bring? It reminds me of the passage in 2nd Timothy 3 where it says:
But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these.
Repudiate means: to reject as having no authority or binding force. You see, they have some kind of outward appearance that suggests religion but have denied that there is any power there to make real change. If they deny the power, or the central truth behind it, then what do they expect?
There is a deception out there, and it is growing. It is like the powerful delusion spoken of in 2nd Thessalonians 2. Why? Because men would not love the truth and instead embraced a lie. So God will give them over to a lie, and they will love the lie and hate the truth. But what is the true truth?
When Jesus said in John 8:32 “and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” what truth was He talking about. Fortunately He tells us later in John 14:6 when he said “… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. I just don’t know how He could make it any clearer. But what is the problem that He is offering to set us free from?
Sin is standing between you and God, a barrier that prevents you from being able to come to God. In all honesty, if the experience in Isaiah 6 is any indication, you wouldn’t want to come face to face with God in your sinful condition. Isaiah is undone before the Holy God, he realizes that he is unfit and destroyed, his lips stained with sin. God actually separates us from Himself because we simply couldn’t take His glory while we are corrupted. Jesus is the sacrifice that pays for your transgression and makes you clean, acceptable to come before God. Not that you stop doing wrong and are instantly made sinless, but by acknowledging your sin and accepting the sacrifice of Christ you will be declared righteous, and when you die you will be resurrected into a new body, no longer subject to sin, and death, and separation from God.
There are false teachers out there who will tell you everything is fine. You are alright. God is love. Jesus would never send anyone to Hell. My friends, the truth is that Jesus doesn’t send anyone to Hell, we do that on our own. How? By rejecting the offer, the amazing offer that He has made us, purchased by his own blood. He will forgive us, cleanse us, change us, take us forward and continue to work in us until He completes this work in us.
“But Jesus IS love, He wouldn’t send me to Hell, would He?” someone may ask. Let’s think about this for a minute.
Imagine if you were in need of a kidney. You were on dialysis and heading for an early grave. But I heard about your need as as it happens I am a perfect match. I go into surgery and give up one of my kidneys. It is now on ice in a little red cross ice chest waiting for you to come to the hospital and get into surgery. But you say no?! What am I to do? How am I to feel? Can you be healed without a kidney? No! There is no healing without a kidney. But you have rejected my gift? You say you want to use positive thinking and crystals to grow a replacement kidney for yourself.
Now I don’t mean to impose my pettiness upon Christ, He is superior to me in every way. His resentment is not the same as mine. I am flesh and He is God. Yet, His sacrifice for your salvation was vastly more costly than my hypothetical kidney would be. There is no healing for you apart from Him. He gave up His life for you… will you say no?! What do you think you can find apart from Him to give you salvation. You have a need. He is the fulfillment of your need. You have a problem. He is the solution to your problem. You have a disease. He is the cure for your sin. There is no other. In John 6:68 & 69 when Jesus asked His disciples if they wanted to leave Him Peter answers, “… to whom would we go? You [alone] have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!”
The Holy One of God is the Hebrew way of saying, Jesus was the Savior that had been promised from the beginning. He was the Messiah who was to come. He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus himself said in John 5:39 & 40, “You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.” The whole Bible is a testimony about Jesus and if you come to Him you will have life. He is the truth that will set you free. Will you accept His offer and let Him set you free?