Peace with God

By Patricia Newman

The Crux

The world is a mess.
You are a mess, everyone is a mess.
Sin is the cause.
The only solution is Jesus Christ.
Without Jesus, your future is eternal, unrelenting misery, according to the righteous justice of an infinitely holy God.

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12

Why Jesus?

You may think that you have no need of Jesus. Perhaps your chief concern is to be able to earn a good living; to be able to take care of yourself and those that you love. Perhaps you have all the material things you need: you have a house to live in, you have a satisfactory job and you have money. You can afford good holidays and you have plenty of entertainment. Additionally, you are in good health, maybe even excellent health. You may think that these are all you need, and as a result, you have no room in your heart for Christ. Think again. Jesus is the greatest need of anyone alive. Only Jesus can bring true rest to a soul.

God is a very, very holy God. When He made the world, all of creation was beautiful. There was no sin. Adam and Eve, the first man and woman on earth had close fellowship with God, their Maker. But when they disobeyed God, sin entered the world and their fellowship with God was broken. Adam and Eve were banished from their home - the garden of Eden. But God, in His great love and mercy, promised a Saviour, a Mediator, who would restore the broken fellowship. That Saviour and Mediator is Jesus.

Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like You, glorious in holiness.

Exodus 15:11

Sin is the total opposite of God. As His very nature is holiness, He cannot abide sin. He loves righteousness and He abhors sin. God ordained that the soul that sins will die (Ezekiel 18:20). As a result of Adam and Eve's disobedience, every human being born since has inherited the sin gene. We love to sin, and we are under the power of sin. We see all around us the gruesome consequences of sin. The Bible says this:

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

You may think that you are a “good” person. Perhaps you are in the eyes of the world. You give money to the poor and you work hard to earn an honest living. You are tolerant, kind and civic-minded. However, all of your goodness falls short of the standard of the pure and gloriously holy God. All our goodness apart from Christ is as "filthy rags" in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6). No one can keep all the holy commandments of God. All fall short of the very high standard of God. Way short. Accordingly, no one can enter heaven on their own merit. This is why Jesus came.

In order to understand why you need Jesus, you need to have knowledge of the infinite holiness of God, and the desperate wickedness of every human heart. We all are born with an aversion to God because of our sinful hearts. Jesus, the Son of God became man in order to take the punishment that was due to us on account of our sins.  On the Cross, sinless Jesus paid the price for our sins. No one need perish.

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

You need the righteousness of Jesus (not your own) in order to become a child of God. Without the righteousness of Jesus, we would all be cast away eternally in hell. No one would be able to stand on the Day of Judgement. Jesus came to give us true righteousness and true life. Jesus said,

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

John 14:6

You cannot know truth, or make sense of the world without Jesus. He is the Truth. He is the Way. Jesus shows lost sinners the way back to God and He is that way. We were created to bring glory to God, and to enjoy fellowship and communion with God forever. After the Fall (Adam and Eve's disobedience), this God-ordained life is only possible through Jesus. Jesus is the life.

You may think that there is no life after death. This is not so. The Bible says,

It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

Hebrews 9:27

No one escapes death, but Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. Death could not hold Him; on the third day, He rose from the dead! And for those to whom His righteousness extends, He gives the resurrection of life and eternity with God.

How, then, do we lay hold of the righteousness of Jesus? What God requires is that you repent from your sin and put all your trust in Jesus' work on the cross as the only basis of your righteousness. I exhort you to read God's word (the Bible), and know more about what Jesus has done for you. He came to restore your broken relationship with God, the Father. He came to save sinners, just like you. He promises that he will not cast away any one that comes to Him sorry for their sins and looking to Him alone for forgiveness.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Because of Jesus, you can come humbly before God and ask for forgiveness for your sins. He will wash away your sins and make you spiritually clean. Only then can you have peace with God and communion with the One who made you. This is called being "born again". It refers to the second birth, or spiritual birth, from God Himself, which must take place for anyone to enter the kingdom of God.

No matter how great your sin, God will always answer a sincere and earnest request for forgiveness and cleansing of sin and He will give you a "new heart". He will change you, and give you new desires for wholesome things. You will see the beauty and glory of holiness and desire more of Him. This is the true life: a life of joyful communion with the true and living God. Without delay, dear reader, come to the only Saviour of the world. Confess your sins to Him and put your trust in Jesus alone.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1

Father to Thee in Christ I Fly

Father, to Thee in Christ I fly,

What though my sins of crimson dye,

For Thy resentment call?

My crimes He did on Calvary bear,

The blood that flowed for sinners there

Shall cleanse me from them all.

Spirit divine, Thy power bring in;

Oh, raise me from this depth of sin,

Take off my guilty load;

Now let me live through Jesus' death;

And, being justified by faith,

May I have peace with God!

Foul as I am, deserving hell,

Thou cannot from Thy throne repel

A soul that leans on God;

My sins at Thy command shall be

Cast as a stone into the sea—

The sea of Jesus' blood.

—Augustus Toplady (1740-1778)