How Will You Plead?

 

Late Sunday afternoon I accepted a friend request on Facebook. It came from the husband of someone I went to seminary with. Shortly after accepting the request I got a private message that said, “Hi. How are you doing?”

Hmmm, thought I. This has the sound of a hacked account. For whatever reason I’ve received and accepted a number of these kinds of requests in the past two months. They come from people I know, they seem to be legit, and I can’t recall if I am already Facebook friends with the person sending the request.

Since I had exchanged email with my “new friend’s” wife this morning I replied with a follow-up question to clarify things. “Fine. How much longer until the baby comes?” “Soon,” says my new “friend.” I then say, “You sound like a fake account. Here is another chance to prove you are who you say you are. What is your PhD in?”

No reply. And so I sent one more note, saying something along the lines of, “Instead of pretending to be someone you are not why don't you turn to something that is the God’s-honest truth, which is that your sin can be forgiven through saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?” I included a link to last week’s sermon, Don’t Be Foolish, from Galatians 4:8-20. When I checked Facebook before I began to type this blog post I found that my new “friend” had disappeared.

This exchange brought two things to mind. First is that there will be a day when all people will appear before God for judgment. Second, on that day, what will our plea be and on what basis will we make it?

The Bible makes it crystal clear that all people will appear before God, as their judge. If you are not a Christian than you likely don’t believe this. It is not the most important detail found in the Bible, but it is there and it is an unavoidable truth. As a Christian pastor, one whose faith is grounded in the confessions of the Reformed tradition, I don’t have any doubts that this day of judgement will occur, and that all people, no matter what they believed in life, will be judged.

Which leads to the second point, which is what will our plea be, and on what basis will we make it?

Standing before God, and perhaps shaking in our boots as we are directly confronted with the Lord God Almighty, will we plead a different identity, something similar to my Facebook “friend,” pretending to be someone who will perhaps be more favorably received?

Or maybe we will plead our case based on the worship of something or someone else? Maybe God will cut us some slack because we followed a god, even if it was the god of Mohammed, or Buddha, or Confucius, or Grandfather, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

The world would offer us a million excuses, or ways to rationalize our case, as we stand before God, but on that day none of them will fly. None of them will give us the slightest bit of favor from God.

In Romans 3:22-23 Paul writes, 

“For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

There is only one viable option at the moment of judgment. It is a good and beautiful path, provided by God Himself, and it is to have saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 4:12, speaking of Jesus, Peter says,

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

And going back to Paul, this time from Romans 10:9, we are taught that the salvation that may be ours in the Lord Jesus Christ is something that is very freely available to all people, as long as they place their faith in Him while they are in this life.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

Turn to the Lord Jesus, now, and stand before God then, with humility and confidence, not to receive judgment, but mercy. Know that your sin and its judgment will have been completely removed, by your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. 

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