God is holy – to the nth degree
Our God reveals Himself in the Bible to be extreme to the nth degree. That is to say:
perfectly, absolutely, extremely, totally, unconditionally …
– https://www.dictionary.com/browse/to-the-nth-degree
He is many many things, but lets just look at His love and His holiness.
Our loving Father God is so loving – that He is love. But that extreme love is totally impacted by His extreme holiness.
Jesus loved us to such an extreme – that He went to the cross so that we can be saved. But He is also holy. He will not go so far as to allow sinfulness into His Kingdom. His holiness limits his loving us – to such an extent that He must condemn sinners.
An example (theoretically) is a judge who has his brother come before his court for murder: he will be forced by “justice” to condemn his guilty brother, who he loves, because his love is subject to his system of justice which demands punishment.
The same is true of the God of the Bible. He loves us so much He died for us at Calvary. He wants all creation to live forever with Him. But He is not only “love” and “mercy” and “forgiveness”. He is also “holy” and full of justice.
God is not only “love”. He is also the Judge. His justice system cannot simply open His pearly gates to us all. With a holy God there is a holy standard from which He will not deviate.
We cannot just waltz into heaven on our own terms. We cannot simply walk in with all our sins on our back. We must first meet the requirements of His justice inside His Kingdom – and that requirement is that we have our guilt declared forgiven by the Judge. The Judge must declare us “not guilty”, or we are forever guilty.
That is all.
To become “saved”…
- We do not have to become perfect.
- We do not have to stop sinning (and in fact we are totally unable to stop sinning).
- We are not required to clean-up our act.
To walk freely into His Gates, we simply accept His grace freely given to us. His justice declares us “forgiven” when we bow our will to Him in sincerity and truth, asking Him to forgive and clean-us-up. In that moment of “repentance” we are declared set free forever.
In that moment we become born again by His Spirit… never ever again to be condemned as a sinner, forever clean within His Courts. In that moment we are declared worthy of entering into His Holy Heavens. In that moment we are made heirs with Jesus.
No Other Can Save. It is by His Justice, His and His alone, that we are able to be set free. That is why no other can save: no other name under heaven, no other gospel, no other “way of thinking”, no other philosophy, no other religion, no other guru, no other method, no other but Christ, and Christ alone. It’s so plain and simple that we can hardly believe it!
You cannot fake your way into heaven, sneak into heaven… go under the fence, over the wall, buy your way in, talk your way in, by-pass the system, plead your position, convince the Judge of your worthiness, get God to rethink His position on the matter, have a lawyer plead your case, make a deal with God, or get a coyote to lead you in through a back door.
God does not have grandchildren. Just because your paternity is Christian, that does not get you into Heaven. Your Christian background has no pull with the Judge, nor Christian parents, nor friends. Your Christian spouse or well-meaning priest may have lots of chutzpah, but their prayers won’t pray you in after you’re dead.
We must be born again now, before you die. It is only Jesus that was the perfect sacrifice to take our place of condemnation. He is calling you to accept Him.
Excerpt from Why pray:
In all His Greatness… He chose me before the foundations of the earth were established (Ephesians 1:4). My name was “written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 17:8). Wow. That is extreme love. He will accept whoever chooses to truly follow Him:
John 3:16-17
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His [a Or unique, only one of His kind] only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
His grace is extreme. His mercy is extreme. His justice is extreme. He did not just condemn us all to hell, giving up on us. Rather… He left His extreme throne in Heaven to make a way to justly forgive us within God’s system of extreme justice. All we have to do is respond:
Romans 10:9-13
…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How about you? Have you come to the place where you have accepted Christ as Lord? How about accepting Him now?
FOR MORE:
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