The Choice.

Have you ever noticed that good news is not ordinary news.  Whenever anyone says, ‘I’ve got good news for you’ or even ‘do you want the good news or the bad news’ it is usually something elevated from the normal course of your day.  And it always –  at least, that is the intention of good news – brings joy.

The Gospel – Good News – of Yeshua the Messiah is the message from God our Creator and heavenly Father to the whole world.  It is intended to  bring true and everlasting joy to anyone who will receive and believe Him.  Let me tell you why…

Our default position – that is, all humanity  – is that we are in deep trouble from which there is no possible way out, except through the Way who God gifts to us.  The Holy Scriptures – the word of God to us all – tells us why.  The Bible tells us the history of mankind from the beginning of time, the great trouble of mankind, the great rescue of God of mankind and the future of mankind.  It tells us there is a loving God who created all things and that His original creation was good (Genesis chapter 1 verse 31).  He created all things, including this beautiful planet we inhabit and enjoy.  Look around at the natural world some time– see the wonderful colours and vast array of amazing designs; feel the differing textures, hear the various natural sounds, smell the beautiful scents of woodlands, seas, flowers.  The God who took the trouble to make such a thing of beauty and then created mankind to experience His glorious creation and to know Him, demonstrated from the beginning that He is a God who is love (1 John 4:8, 16).  He is God who deeply cares for and about mankind.

The first man and woman were made by God without sin and were to go on to populate the world after their own kind – good people, without sin in loving relationship with their God and Creator and one another, living forever in the wonderfully ordered world God created for them.  From the beginning God created living beings with free will – clearly, He did not want robots mechanically programmed to love and obey Him.  That is not real love – the ability to choose is one of the key components of love.  God has never taken away our free will – we all have the ability to make a choice, and I invite you to set that thought at the forefront of your mind as you read on.

Before the man and woman had any child – and again, please carefully note that point – the most catastrophic event ever to befall mankind happened.  The Bible reveals that there was a rebellion in Heaven (see e.g. Isaiah 14:12-15) and one of the most powerful and influential beings, an angel called Lucifer, rebelled against God’s authority and rule and as a result of his sin, lost his position and became Satan (which means the Adversary or Accuser) and in revenge went after mankind.  Why? Probably because mankind was created after God’s own image (Genesis 1:26-27) and Satan hates God and all associated with Him.  The catastrophic event was instigated and caused by Satan when he deceitfully and deliberately approached the woman to deceive her into disobeying the one commandment of God that would bring about their destruction.  The woman having been deceived then convinced her husband to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree and when the man listened to the woman rather than what God had directly commanded him and ate, the destruction Satan intended took effect.  Please take time to read Genesis, chapters 1-3 for the whole account of this matter but briefly, Genesis 2:16-17 states this: ^‘And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God’s word never returns back to Him void without accomplishing the purpose for which He sent it (note Isaiah 55:10-11). Its effect was immediate! Disobedience to God and His commandments is called sin and the consequence of sin is death – spiritual death (see e.g. Ephesians 2:1) and physical death (see the nearest graveyard!).  The first was instant, the second began to slowly and gradually take effect from the moment the man sinned.  As a result, Satan became the god of the present world system and has kept mankind bound and blinded by his fearsome power intending to take as many as possible with him to his everlasting damnation in the lake of fire (see e.g. John 12:31, Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 6:12, Matthew 25:41, The Revelation of Jesus Christ 20:10-15).

The question has been asked by others: have you ever told a lie? Most, if not all of us, if we are really honest would have to answer ‘yes’ to that question.  The question which then follows is: ‘what do you call someone who tells a lie?’.  The only truthful answer is ‘a liar’!  Unfortunately for us all, there is where our trouble began!  The man and woman would indeed go on to have many children, who would have children, who would have children and so forth, continuing on in our day.  If you did read Genesis chapters 1-3, you would have read that God created living beings to produce after their own kind (Genesis 1:20-31).  Just as one who tells a lie is a liar, when the man and woman sinned, they became sinners and it was in this fallen state they had children, producing after they own kind and so the pattern followed thereafter.  Someone once illustrated the problem in this way: imagine you have a cake tin to bake cakes with and it’s the only one available; you make the cake batter, preheat the oven to the right temperature and all you need to do is put the cake batter in the tin.  Before you can do this you accidently drop the tin and is suffers a large dent. That cake and every cake baked in that same tin will each come out with the same dent in the same place every time.  This is our trouble – everyone born after the man and woman fell into sin, is born a sinner, separated from God spiritually and trapped in the process of physical death from the moment of birth, and after that face judgment.  Have you noticed – everyone dies at some point, sadly even babies.  Did you ever wonder why?

There is more….

The Bible tells us that not only is God love, He is also a just Judge (see e.g. Genesis 18:25, Isaiah 33:22; Psalm  9:8; Psalm 96:13, Daniel 7:9-10; Revelation 20:12).  Since this is so, God cannot let sin go unpunished nor will He allow it to continue indefinitely for it can never be reformed – it only gets worse as time goes on.  I invite you to skim over the newspapers over even the past 100 years, or 50 years, or 25 years or just day by day to see things are going from bad to worse.  For all the achievements of man, not one has been able to deal with the problem of death – everyone still dies, sin is therefore still in operation despite the various “labels” we tend to hide this under these days!

The Bible tells us that our loving and just God created a place of eternal judgment called ‘the lake of fire’ into which all unrepentant and therefore unforgiven sinners who die will end up in when hell itself will be cast into it (see e.g. The Revelation of Jesus Christ 20:12-15).  The word of God clearly tells us that our loving God and Creator did not create this dreadful place for mankind but rather for Satan the Devil and his angelic associates which joined him in rebelling against God (Matthew 25:41).  That judgment is certain, non-negotiable and will happen.

Although it seemed as though Satan pulled a master stroke in getting mankind to fall into sin with him and therefore be subject to the same rule for sin and sinners, because of His great love with which He loves mankind, God intervened to save us.  It is of His own goodness that God has given us His unmerited favour in holding out to us the greatest gift He could give fallen mankind: the gift of Yeshua (Jesus) His Son.  His very name – Yeshua – tells who He is and what His purpose is.  That purpose is salvation.  In and through His Son Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ), God holds out to whoever will accept it, the gift of being saved from the judgment that is coming to all the world.  That gift is far more than being saved from coming judgment – it is also a new life through a second (spiritual) birth (see John chapter 3), eternal life (see John  17:2-3) and everlasting life in His coming everlasting kingdom (see e.g. Matthew 25:34).  As it is written at Romans 6:13, ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

You may ask how can this be?  How can God’s perfect justice, righteousness and holiness be reconciled with our sin and sinful state when we, in our sin, can never attain to perfect, sinless holiness and thus be acceptable to God?  How can sinful man reach a holy God?

The Good News is this: God reached down to us.  God became Man in the Person of Yeshua the Messiah, who, in a human body created by the Spirit of God in the womb of a virgin, Miriam the Jewess (commonly translated as Mary) was born into this fallen world (Luke 1:26-38).  He was fully God (see e.g. John 1:1, Colossians 1:13-20; 1 Timothy 3:16, The Revelation of Jesus Christ 1:10-18 ) and fully man (see e.g. Luke 24:36-43, 1 Timothy 2:5,1 John 1:1-3).  Only an all-powerful, merciful loving God could do this! Hallelujah!  Yeshua the Messiah of Israel, demonstrated by His manner of life (sinless obedience and righteousness, see e.g. John 8:29 and 1 John 2:1), His teaching (speaking the words of God see e.g. John 12:49-50), the miracles He performed (making the blind to see – Matthew 9:27-30; the lame to walk –  Matthew 9:2-7; the deaf to hear – Mark 7:32-37; cleansing lepers – Luke 17:11-16; casting out demons –Matthew 8:28-32;  forgiving sins –Luke 7:36-50; healing the sick – Luke 7:2-10; raising the dead – John 11:1-44, were all to show us that truly Yeshua is ‘God with us’ (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:18-23).

However, Yeshua was born for one purpose: to redeem lost sinners from their sins by paying the ransom for our souls in taking the punishment for sin upon Himself in order to reconcile us to God our Creator and loving heavenly Father.  That ransom price was the sacrifice of His sinless perfect life which He lay down when He suffered and was crucified on a Roman cross.  You can read about that price in more detail at Isaiah 52:13-53:14 and also in the Gospels accounts at Matthew chapters 26-28; Mark chapters 14-16, Luke chapters 22-24 and John chapters 18-21 – please take the time to do so.  Yeshua the Messiah’s death on the cross was an atoning, sacrificial and substitutionary death which He chose to do for us.  It is atoning in that, it takes away our sin (see e.g. John 1:29).  It is sacrificial because Yeshua Himself never sinned and therefore was not a sinner and so did not have to die – He chose to die for our sins, not His. (For a more in depth understanding of why Yeshua, though fully Man did not inherit the sin nature through Miriam see Was Jesus the biological son of Mary? If so, how did He not inherit a sin nature? on Got Questions website, Was Jesus the biological son of Mary? If so, how did He not inherit a sin nature? | GotQuestions.org).  Furthermore it is substitutionary because Yeshua took the punishment that we deserve when He took upon Himself the judgment of God for sin as He hung upon that cross. As Isaiah 53:5-6 states:

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

But Yeshua did not stay dead – indeed ‘it was impossible for death to hold Him’ (see e.g. Acts 2:24-28).  After His death through crucifixion, Yeshua’s body was buried but on the third day He rose from the dead and many witnesses, including those who wrote the original Gospel accounts saw this, the greatest of all miracles in the history of mankind – so far!  The resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah declared that Yeshua is who He said He is, God the Son of the living God and declares that His sacrifice for our sins was accepted by God the Father.  Yeshua satisfied the perfect and righteous justice of God requiring sin to be punished by bearing it for us all and now, in Him and through Him, we can receive forgiveness for our sins, salvation and a new life in Lord Yeshua by the Spirit of God coming into us.  When we turn from going our own way in order to turn to God by believing Yeshua and following Him, God promises us salvation and we, continuing in faith and obedience in Him, are saved, are being saved and will be finally saved from the judgment to come on the great and terrible Day of Judgement.  As it is written, Lord Yeshua said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).

Here’s the thing…

It’s not an automatic thing! Remember: God has given us free will and has never taken it away.  We have to make a choice – and this is it:

We can choose to be saved from this awful Day of Judgment, when God will judge all sin and sinners, by accepting His gift of salvation now– His rescue from everlasting judgment – in and through believing God’s own testimony concerning His Son by turning to Yeshua the Messiah who is Lord. This means recognising and acknowledging your sin and plight and therefore turning from your way to God and believing upon Yeshua with all your heart that He died for your sins and rose from the dead.  Lord Yeshua Himself said: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).

Or…

We can choose not to be saved from this awful Day of Judgement, when God will judge all sin and sinners, by continuing to ignore and/or refusing to accept the testimony of God concerning His Son Yeshua the Messiah and therefore refusing the only means by which anyone can be saved (see Acts 4:10-12).  Let’s be clear here about what you will be choosing in this case: it is written at John 3:36 that ‘He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’  So you see, in this case you will be choosing to remain in your sin and the condemnation that goes along with it, which will seal your fate at the moment of your death, with no hope thereafter.  To choose not to be saved is to choose to end up in the eternal lake of fire in everlasting judgment for your sins – which God neither intended nor desires for you.

The choice is yours – and consider this, seriously:  the moment and manner of our death is generally not known to us and can come unexpectedly at any time.  The Bible teaches that ‘it is appointed for men to die once but after this the judgment’ (Hebrews 9:27).

You can choose to cry out to God right now, right where you are, to call upon Yeshua to forgive you and save you from your sins.  You don’t have to wait.  God sees you, He sees your heart and will know if you truly mean it – and He will answer you.  Yeshua who died for our sins and rose from the dead to save all who will believe, will also return to this Earth and present world for it is He Himself who will sit as Judge.  He invites whosoever will come to come to Him now – settle the matter today.  Consider His own word, as recorded at Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Finally, I urge any who read this and who have chosen not to receive Yeshua the Messiah, please, consider again the amazing grace and love of God towards you, put in this way:

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die;
yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
(Romans 5:6-8)

 I strongly urge you to read through all the Scripture references mentioned above – if you do not have a bible, these are readily and freely available online.  Alternatively please get in touch and I will do my utmost to get one to you.  If you have any questions on any of the above, please also get in touch by email at Selahwithes@gmail.com

Yeshua the Messiah is the Good News from God the heavenly Father to all mankind.  Will you receive Him today? The choice is yours!

‘Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’
(Romans 15:13).

 

Amen.  God bless you.