A few weeks ago, when I was meeting with my Men’s Class at St. Patrick Center, a man raised his hand, and with all the sincerity he could muster-up, asked; “What’s the big deal about Jesus?” He went on to say he believed in God because he could see his majestic qualities in the sun, the moon and stars, the changing seasons, lightning and thunder; he felt God looked after him; he felt God was good; in fact, he thought he was good. But…“I just can’t buy the concept of Jesus? So what’s the big deal about him?”
So I responded in my usual manner, and this is the conversation that followed. (It is, btw, virtually verbatim to every conversation I’ve ever had following this question.)
(me) “That’s interesting. Thanks for sharing your perspective. But let me ask you…do you believe there is a heaven…an after-life?”
(him) “I hope so”
(me) “OK…let’s assume there is a heaven. Do you think you’ll get into heaven?
(him) “I think so.”
(me) “Why do you think so?”
(him) “Because I’m a good person.”
(me) “But how good is good enough? Have you achieved ‘good enough’ status?”
(him) “hummm… I don’t know?”
So therein is the shortcoming of his perspective, and every other perspective – or religion – that is based on being “good-enough” to satisfy god. “I don’t know (if I’m good enough.”) Ever since the fall of man at Creation, the goal has always been to try to justify our existence by being acceptable to a god somewhere who is keeping score.
But why guess? God has given us the answer to the “good enough” question. It’s in the Bible! But you have to open the Bible to find the answer, and again…therein lies the problem. Most people don’t open the Book, or they rely on someone else to tell them what it says. But clearly stated in 1Peter 1:16 is the answer: “You have to be holy (set aside for sacred use; sin-free) because I am holy.” In other words, according to God’s standard, you have to be sin-free to be acceptable in his sight.
“Ouch! That sounds frighteningly strict. I don’t think I like that – and it certainly doesn’t sound like fun! So, I’m going to keep looking until I find something that’s more palatable to me.” (Free-will is alive and well)
Because man is first and foremost about “feeling good” and serving himself, he tries to find a religion that fills that bill. And he can justify his search by thinking, “OK…if God is a loving God and an all-knowing God, he knows I am doing my best. I mean…I’m not Jesus Christ, therefore he can’t expect me to be perfect. But I’ll do the best I can. What more will a good God – a loving God – expect of me?” And the crowning thought of justification is…“I know there are good Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, etc. And what about Oprah? She says there’s more than one path to heaven and she’s certainly a good person! And finally, “since god is a good god, I know he wants good people in heaven with him. Right?
Right! But let’s review for a moment…Christianity 101! A loving God created a perfect world for his perfect people. Adam and Eve, our ancestors, were created in his image and for a relationship with Him. They lived in paradise, it was perfect; they communed with God, and they wanted for NOTHING. But since Adam and Eve had free will, they – like all of us – were subject to temptation. So when they took the focus off God yielded to Satan’s lie (Genesis 3: 5 “God knows your eyes will be opened when you eat of it. [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] You will become just like God, knowing everything both good and evil.), SIN entered the world. In fact, that is the definition of sin – living to please our self rather than pleasing God. (In other words, we become our own god!)
The world we live in today – as I’m sure you have noticed – is not paradise. Every despicable thing about it is the result of SIN: greed, anger, hatred, fear, lying, cheating, envy, poverty, suffering, sickness, pain, death, etc. So as you can see…SIN spreads, contaminates, kills and destroys. Our world today is a result of the truth of the previous sentence.
But the good news is…God is a loving God; a good God full of mercy and grace. And because he is also an omniscient God, he knew that man would use his free will for a purpose other than for which it was intended. That’s why Ephesians 1:4 tells us: “Long ago, even before the world was created, God loved us and chose us in Christ, to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:6,10 is the fulfillment of that promise. “While we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. (in us)
That, my friends, is why Jesus is not only a BIG deal…he’s the ONLY deal! God wants a relationship with us…an eternal relationship with us, but ever since the fall of Man we have been born into this world spiritually disconnected from Him. Unless we come to a point where we realize our own insufficiency apart from Him, we can go from the cradle to the grave living only to please ourselves. That is indeed unfortunate because God said we cannot come into his presence if we are stained with SIN. So unless we can muster up the will, the ability, the stamina to live a perfect life through our own volition, we are at this moment the living dead.
Here is our dilemma and THE answer in one verse, Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of what Jesus did on our behalf, not only can we “hope we are good enough” to get into heaven…we know we are “good enough” and acceptable in God’s sight because we are covered with the blood of Jesus. That is our only way. Jesus told us himself in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Colossians 1:27 tells us, “Christ in you, your hope of glory.” In other words, our only hope of glory (our after-life with the resurrected body) is in Christ.
So how good is good enough? Perfection…to be without sin! Can we live a sin-free life through our own effort? No! So what’s the big deal about Jesus? He is our ONLY answer. This is summed up perfectly by the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” That, My Friends, is the Good News…and that is a very big deal!
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May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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