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. 

Photo credit: Jupiterimages 

Everything Costs Something

Recently we took a week's vacation and went to San Diego. Our primary reason for the trip was to attend our daughter's wedding. But spending time with her and others in our family wasn't the only thing we did on our six days there.  We spent parts of several days at the beach, and we took the three children living with us to Sea World.

Sea World is a pretty interesting place to visit, and the children really loved it. It is also expensive. I don’t know what the tickets cost, as Robin handled that before we left home. I saw for myself what the food cost, and I took a picture of the cost of parking as we entered the parking lot. We arrived early in the day, taking the General Parking option. As we walked from our car into Sea World itself it looked like at that time of day spending $5, or $15, for the parking upgrade was like throwing your money into the trash can, for there seemed to be no significant difference in reducing the distance from car to gate. But even if the lot had been full I wouldn’t be able to justify to myself spending $5 more in order to walk ¼ mile less.

As we drove into Sea World we were talking with our younger daughter a bit about the costs of our vacation and visits to places like Sea World. Robin told her "Everything costs something."

"Everything costs something" is true for so many things in life. The provision of our day-to-day needs of shelter, food and clothing. Education. Transportation. Entertainment and recreation. Some of these things are things we pay for ourselves. Others we may receive, with someone else bearing the costs. And digging a bit more deeply, the most precious thing any person might have falls into that latter category, a thing received, with the cost borne by another.

The most precious thing a person could have is salvation from the wrath of God through the forgiveness of their sins.  In Romans 3 Paul writes:

"For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."

"Justified" is a term that means the person who turns towards Jesus in faith, turning from their sin and believing in him as their Savior, is declared innocent before God. God's grace, the forgiveness of sin, has been received as a gift. A gift. Free. It comes at no cost whatsoever to the person seeking it. 

The latter part of Paul's sentence shows that there is a cost to our salvation, but that the cost has been paid by Jesus.  The cost of our redemption was in the pouring out of his blood. He gave his life, so that by faith in him, we could receive eternal life.

We went to California for a particular event, the wedding of our daughter. It was a big trip, something we prepared for by making a budget and setting aside money ahead of time. There were costs, and we prepared to pay them ourselves. It was a great trip and we are left with wonderful memories.

But there is nothing in life that compares to the value of knowing God through faith in Jesus. Nothing. And this thing that is beyond all other things in value can be yours, absolutely free, as you, or I, make that turn towards Jesus in faith.

The offer Jesus holds out in Mark 1 remains valid today:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Everything costs something, even a relationship with God. But Jesus paid the costs, for you, for me, because of his great love for all who beleive.

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.