Hello everyone,
I ran across a statement this week that caught my attention. “The fact that we cannot ‘save ourselves’ but have to ‘be saved’ is no excuse for anyone to sit back and hope for the best. God has revealed to us the way to be saved—by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ (Mark 16:16; John 3:16–17; Romans 10:9; Ephesians 2:8) —and that step of faith is commanded, not suggested.
If you have been a reader of these devotional thoughts for any length of time, you know I believe every person is born a sinner, separated from fellowship with God because of his or her sin, and in desperate need of a Savior.
The New Testament book of Romans says, “As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). To the church at Colossae, Paul wrote, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Colossians 1:21).
Here is the good news: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Based on the verses above, for a person to think they can depend on God’s good will to get them to heaven, is just foolish thinking. Jesus paid the price, the gift is free to us. Our only responsibility it to take the gift as our possession. In the words of an old song, “Why not come to Him now?”
Simply His,
sandhillspastor 