Friday, August 2, 2013

Why will God judge me? Why do I need Jesus anyway?

The best answer to the first question, "Why will God judge me"? is found in Romans 1:18-32.  Here, the Apostle Paul spells out the total depravity of the human race.

Romans 1:18-23
-All of mankind from creation forward has suppressed the truth of who God is.
-They have rejected God.
-God has clearly revealed what can be known about himself to us so that we are without excuse and we have rejected it.
-Man did not honor what they knew of God and instead fashioned idols for worshiping in the form of creation rather than worshiping the creator.
-Consequently, God's wrath must be, has been, and will continue to be poured out against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness that is represented in the life of mankind.

Romans 1:24-27
-Man exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
-Because of man's continual rejection of God the creator and all of His majesty, glory, and awesome attributes, man was given over to their sins.
-Among these many sins are specifically mentioned the dishonorable passions of sexual sin to include homosexuality.

Romans 1:28-32
-Again, because man did not acknowledge God he gave them over to a debased mind inclined toward sin.
-Man is filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.  They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
-Man knew the decree of God, that all these things lead to death, and not only did they do them, but they approved of those who do them.

Any of this sound familiar?  Romans 3:10 states that "None is righteous, not one".  Paul sums it up in Romans 3:23 when he states, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God".

So again, why do we all face judgement?
We will all face judgement.  All of mankind from beginning to end.  We do not face judgement because we never heard of Jesus, nor because we denied Jesus.  The denial of Jesus simply perpetuates the fact that we are condemned to a judgement that will lead to eternal damnation because we rejected the truth about God and disobeyed his commands.

Why do we need Jesus?
That will not be fleshed out here entirely, but the basic truth is this:
-God must pour out his wrath in order to avenge his holiness and be true to his own justice.
-Someone must be the object of that wrath.
-Someone must bear the guilt and pay the penalty for the crime of defaming God's holy name and disobeying his commands.
-If not mankind then who?

I will go into further detail in future posts however, John 3:16-18 pretty much sums it up.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe, is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God".

Please understand, none of us is innocent.  We are all sinners.  The only difference is that by God's grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone(Ephesians 2), those of us who are truly converted believers have been born again (John 3).  Now, because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us, we no longer live for ourselves.  We live for the glory of God to be made manifest in all areas of our lives through holy living and Gospel proclamation.

If this is not a reality in your life, I pray it will become so.

In Jesus name,

Amen

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