Hierdie is werklik een van die beste verduidelikings van God se plan vir saligheid vir die mens wat ek al teë gekom het.
As dit 'n bietjie lank vir jou is om nou te lees, vra ek jou baie mooi, nee ek smeek jou om asseblief een of ander tyd, hiervoor tyd te maak. Dit is werklik wat my betref fenomenaal.
God's Plan….
FOR YOUR SALVATION
Come with me to Mount Calvary, in the land of Palestine, and I will give you God's dramatic picture of the awfulness of sin. There, on the cross, over two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had come from Heaven, shed His holy, incorruptible blood, suffered indescribable agony, and died for the sins of the whole world. He was buried, arose from the dead, and ascended back into Heaven. That is what God thinks of sin! That is the price of sin that God demanded. Calvary is the most awful, the most conclusive proof of the gravity of sin. See what it took to pay for your sins! God hates sin with an indescribable hatred, and Calvary reveals not only God's love for the sinner, but also His hatred for sin.
THE RESULTS OF SIN
"The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23)
I challenge you to give me any other reasonable explanation for all of the misery, heartaches, sufferings and death in this old world. But the results of sin does not even end at the grave. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:7) According to the Word of God, the penalty for sin goes on into eternity because sin is a transgression, not only against society or an individual, but also against a HOLY GOD. To the sinner who dies without accepting God's atonement, God's only remedy for sin (the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ), there awaits in addition the certainty of Eternal punishment. God's Word described the place of future punishment for sinners and unbelievers to be: " A lake of fire." (Rev.20:10-15)- "A place of torment."(Luke. 16:22-24) A place of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 25:30) (Matt 8:12) (Matt.24:51)- "A place where sinners drink of the wine of God's wrath (Rev. 14:10)- "A place where the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever." (Rev.14:11)
THE PRESCIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST
God has laid down a law that there can be no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." (Heb.9:22) But this blood must be perfect, sinless, and incorruptible blood. That is why the blood of mere human being can- not avail, since all human blood is imperfect and sinful. The only acceptable blood is the sinless blood of the Son of God. He laid aside the form of God, and took upon Him our humanity, and became a man, Christ Jesus, there flowed divine blood, sinless, incorruptible blood, and this blood is the only blood which God can or will accept as the propitiation for your sins, and the basis of your forgiveness.
GOD'S LOVE versus GOD'S JUSTICE
When God told Adam and Eve that they would surely die if they ate of the forbidden tree, this involved more than physical death; it included spiritual death, eternal separation from God. And since God cannot lie, He must carry out the penalty. Man must die and be eternally separated from God.
In the Bible (which is the only true Word of God), God is revealed to us by His attributes, and these attributes fall into two classes; those which describe His love, and those which sets forth His hatred. "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God."(Romans 11:22) In the first group we
have God's love, mercy and compassion. In the second group we have God's holiness, justice and righteousness. After man had sinned, God's love sought and demanded his salvation. Now, if God were merely perfect love, there would have been no problem at all, for He simply could have overlooked man's sin, pardoned and forgotten it, without exacting the penalty of eternal death. That is what we often do. Instead of punishing our children, love gets the best of our justice, and we just pass it by. But that was impossible with God, for in addition to His perfect love, He is also infinitely and perfectly holy, just and truthful.
THE AWFULNESS OF SIN.
To emphasize the awfulness of sin in the sight of a holy God, we have but to go back to the first sin of the human race. God had created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and had placed them in the Garden of Eden, and had told them, "Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surly die." (Genesis 2:17) But they yeilded to satan's temptation and ate of the fruit of the tree which God had prohibited. Now that, of course, seems in itself but a little thing. We would call it mere petty larceny, eating one fruit from a forbidden tree. In the estimate of men, and according to our moral standards, that was only a little sin. We would hardly inflict the death penalty upon an individual for taking one fruit from a tree which had been forbidden. But God did not consider it as such, for GOD KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT LITTLE SINS. Listen, friend, so great was that sin in the sight of God, that He not only cursed man from the Garden of Eden, imposed the penalty of death upon him and his offspring (which we are), but God even cursed the entire creation, the earth, the birds, the animals, and every creature over which Adam was placed as federal head. So great was this one sin that every pain, every heartache, every sorrow, every toil, every sickness and every death, that the earth has ever known, is attributable to some degree, to this one sin of our original parents. (What about your sin?? How shall you escape the wrath of Almighty God???) We have all inherited a sinful nature because of the fall of Adam and Eve. We have all sinned – there is none righteous: no not one – and God has sentenced all of us to ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, unless we repent of our sins and accept the atonement made for our sins, by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The world has tried desperately hard to rid itself of even the very mention of the word "Sin." But sin is still sin; it is that vicious selfish, filthy thing which lies at the root of all man's troubles and trials, and is a rebellion against a Holy God. It must result in the Eternal punishment of the sinner, unless taken care of by the blood atonement of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That is why we emphasize the blood, the only God-given remedy for sin.
But God's love is also infinite, and His love demanded man's restoration into fellowship with God, while His holiness and justice demanded the eternal separation of man because of sin. And right here is the whole problem of the atonement. If God satisfies His justice and keeps His Word, man is lost forever, and God's love is left unrequited. But if He saves man without demanding the proper, eternal punishment, then God becomes a liar, for he had said, "The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Someone has called this problem the "heartbreak of God." If God's love is satisfied, His justice, truth and holiness are violated. If His justice is satisfied, His love is violated. How can both of these be satisfied? Of course, there is no human solution, no human answer to this problem. It transcends all human reason and logic. But God, who in addition to infinite love and infinite justice, is also infinite wisdom, found a way for the solving of this tremendous problem.
Man could not pay, for if he did, it meant eternal separation, and love demanded his restoration. Angels could not do it, for God demands that man pay for man's sins. And so God found a way, and took the responsibility upon Himself. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."(John3:16)
God became man, and so could take man's place. Because He was also infinite God, He could pay the infinite price for sin. And so, in the fullness of time, God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, and upon Him was placed man's guilt and sin, and He bore it to Calvary, and there suffered the agony of hell, and paid the penalty of death. Because He was a man, He could substitute for man; because He was God, He could bear the infinite penalty for sin. He paid the debt for your sins, if you will only accept it, that you might not perish, but have eternal life.
"IT IS FINISHED"
God is completely reconciled. He is perfectly satisfied with what His Son Jesus Christ did upon the Cross of Calvary for sinners, - FOR YOU. But now YOU must be reconciled to God, by accepting this offer, and receiving His Son. There is no more that God or man can do. To refuse His offer of peace and reconciliation is to choose Eternal Punishment, instead of Eternal Life. The sin question has been settled forever. Your sins can all be forgiven by you repenting of them, and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour.
THE AWFULNESS OF REJECTION
To refuse God's own remedy means that you shall have to pay for your own sins throughout the endless ages of eternity. It will be terrible, therefore, for those of you who reject this offer of the precious blood, to stand before a Holy God on the Great Judgment Day. Oh, my friend, fall down before God now, and ask Him to forgive you of all your sins. Accept Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as your Savior. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." (Acts16:31)
Jesus said, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."(Mark 16:16 ) "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)
The Bible further tells us: " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)
Christian Missionary Society.
Judas 1:24-25
Aan Hom nou wat magtig is om julle vir struikeling te bewaar en julle sonder gebrek voor sy heerlikheid te stel met gejuig,
25.
aan die alleenwyse God, ons Verlosser, kom toe heerlikheid en majesteit, krag en mag, nou tot in alle ewigheid! Amen.
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