Loving God is Never Cliché! =)

Romans 3:21-26

Somehow, I’m reminded of John 3:16, that God so loved us that he sent his One and Only Son to die for us, that we may live and have eternal life. Today’s passage served as a good reminder for me, because without the act that He did, we’re…. just sinners. Full stop. And that would probably have been the end of the story, because none of us can be declared righteous apart from Christ’s atoning death. Trying to do good or to live right won’t earn us the Lord’s favor. Everyone sins. And, we won’t be able to enter the presence of our holy God. As this passage emphasizes, His sacrifice illustrated how Jesus’s shed blood allowed believers to be cleansed of sin and have a relationship with the Creator.

For God to be just, He must remain true to His own principles. In Ezekiel 18:4, the Lord’s holiness dictated that “the soul who sins will die.” The penalty for sin—death—had to be paid in an acceptable way to God. In Leviticus 17:11, the Lord explains, through Moses, why He required a blood sacrifice: He says, “The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” A life must be given so a life can be spared. So because of that, the heavenly Father provided a perfectly sinless sacrifice for everyone. God satisfied His justice and maintained His holiness when Jesus Christ took our guilt and sin and died in our place.

Writing this really took a lot of effort, because I thought it would sound real cliché initially. But I guess as Christians, we may have known this fact for as long as we have received salvation, but along the way, we probably start to think that it would sound funny to tell our non-Christian friends that, or to share the gospel to them. I dont know whether you did feel like that, but i did, not once, but many times, regretably. Like I often tell my Barnabas kids, they received Christ because they know there is a God who loves them and sacrificed His beloved Son for them, and they know that they’ll go to heaven. So we must share the gospel to our friends so that they will get to know God and go to Heaven too!

But somehow, somewhere, I think the adult in me must have arose, because I started to feel that only children would be able to share the gospel like that. While growing up, I must have lost my child-likeness, and start worrying how my friends will respond or think, whether they’ll laugh or walk away, etc, and in my heart, i started doubting or became skeptical about sharing Christ with my friends.

Today’s quiet time is really a timely reminder for me, that the only way is to trust God for everything, because trusting in anything else only ignores God’s holiness. More importantly, you know, sharing the Good News about what the Lord has done for us can never be cliché, because Our God rocks! (like literally… because He is our rock! haa...)