Reflections on the Holy Scripture

Our Purpose is to show the power and love of God through His Word.

It is very easy to write off the Bible as an antiquated historical journal. After all, what is the difference between the Bible and other documents like the Quran or Iliad? All of these were written well over a thousand years ago by people who have long since passed away. Why treat the Bible differently?

Put simply, the Bible is unique in how it claims itself to have life-altering power, and it additionally in 2 Timothy 3:16 claims to be the spoken word of God Himself. The words of Hebrews 4:12 show that the Bible has the power to discern who we truly are. In reading the Scripture daily as suggested in 2 Timothy 2:15, our minds ought to be transformed in the manner detailed in Romans 12:2. Or, so the Bible claims.

If this is true and the Bible really can affect our lives, then we ought to see evidence of it. We ought to be able to observe the testimonies of others and see the power of the Bible at work. It is for this reason that Life's Handbook exists, as evidence of the work of the Lord in our everyday lives.

This matters because we need God.

Take a quick glance at our world today and you may notice something. There is poverty. There is depression. There is dishonesty. There is murder. There is hatred. There is vanity.

Yes, there are also joys, but it is clouded by the vast amount of suffering. It becomes natural to ask then: why all the suffering? Where does it come from? Why does it exist?

According to the Bible, the origin of all this is sin. But, what exactly is sin? To answer this, consider who the God of the Bible is:

Sin opposes the very nature of God.

Sin represents anything that goes against God's nature or His will. Since God is Truth, to lie would be sin. As sin opposes God, it follows that the world, full of sin, would exhibit qualities that are opposite of an All-loving, All-powerful God. And indeed, this is what we observe.

So, if God exists, then why is the world the way that it is? Well, originally, God created the world to be without sin. However, after He created humans and gave them the capacity of free will, mankind ultimately sinned. We rebelled against God in the beginning, and we rebel against God even today. The Bible teaches that each of us has sinned in Romans 3:23; there are no exceptions. And so, as a result, our world today is clouded with darkness. The consequences of sin, however, extend far beyond that.

God has a dilemma.

The ultimate problem of sin is that it permanently separates us from God, the One who created us in the first place to be His special treasure. God, being pure, cannot tolerate sin; that is what it means for Him to be holy. Even a single act of sin is enough to forever separate us from Him, and if we have sin, we cannot be with Him after death. Being sinful, we are kept from living with God in Heaven after we die meaning that we can never experience the richness, joy, truth, life, love, and fulfillment of His presence and goodness.

However, God does not want that at all. 2 Peter 3:9 shows that God would rather that none perish. He wills this because of His love for us. God loves us like a father loves His children. In spite of the fact that we are sinful and are slowly destroying His creation, He loves us so deeply that He wants to spend an eternity with us.

Yet, God's dilemma is that He can't without also compromising His own holiness. God is righteous and just, and He cannot tolerate the presence of sin. Romans 6:23 says that death is the cost of sin, and for having sin, we are destined for an eternity of separation from the Loving Father. Nothing that we can do now can ever save us from that fate.

So what does God do? Can God circumvent this dilemma?

God's love for us triumphs over sin.

There was only one way for God to both give us eternal life and preserve His holiness, and that one way cost Him greatly. Ultimately, sin's wage of death had to be paid, and so God paid it Himself through His Son, Jesus the Messiah. Two thousand years ago, God sent His own Son down to the world in order to become a man. Jesus, being fully God, was born sinless unlike us, but during His 33-year life, He had been tempted on multiple occasions to sin against His Father. However, He didn't.

Being sinless, Jesus did not need to face the same judgement as us. Yet, His love for us was so great that He freely gave His own life on a wooden cross. In doing so, He took the entire punishment of all the world's sin upon Himself so that we could be free and spend an eternity with the Father.

We cannot ever come to fully comprehend the value of such a sacrifice. Jesus, being fully God, is holy just as the Father is, yet at the moment of His death, He literally became the sin of the world, a holy being now the filthiest of all. And, having taken our sin, the Father could not even look upon His own Son. Yet because of this, we are justified before the Lord and can stand clean and holy, all because He loves us.

The words of John 3:16 summarize this best:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 NKJV

However, it does not end there. Jesus is alive today!

Jesus did not stay dead. Rather, on the third day after His death, He was resurrected and triumphed over death. Our God is so powerful that not even sin could overcome His righteousness. 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 tells us because of His resurrection, we can have hope that in the last days, God will rule over all things, and not even death will touch Him and His creation.

He did this because you matter.

God went through with the sacrifice because you personally matter to Him. You are a beloved creation of His, given a unique spirit that no other in history can replace. His love for you was in fact so expansive that He even gave His own life so that you do not have to perish.

However, God gave us the free will to choose whether we accept His gift of eternal life or reject it. The key point here is that by accepting His gift, we are acknowledging that there is no other way in which to be free of sin. No amount of charity will save us from sin. No amount of community service will save us from sin. Not even living a generally good and noble life is enough. Only the sacrifice of His Son is capable of cleansing us of our unrighteousness, and it is up to us to humble ourselves before the Lord and accept that His sacrifice is sufficient.

If you do not accept this gift, then God cannot justify granting an eternity in Heaven with Him, despite the amount He loves you. This is why we are so adamant about getting this message out, for once it is time to pass away, this offer expires. While living here in the world, it is up to you to put forth the faith and acknowledge that, ultimately, we need Him.

For God says: β€œIn an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:10 NKJV

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