If you’re
like most people, you’re NOT ready to pay your final bill! We were
created, by God to do two things: first to love Jesus Christ, and second
to love each other. Most of us don't do either one of these things very
well! A young man in the Bible asked Jesus which one of the Ten Commandments
was the most important. Jesus responded by saying:
Matthew
22:36-40
|
"The
most important one...is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no command-
ment greater than these." |
But we
turn our back on these two commandments and say, ‘NO WAY!’ ‘I want
to live my own life the way I want to live it without Jesus telling me
what to do. And I’m gonna take care of myself first. My neighbor can worry
about himself!’
The resulting
lifestyle is described in :
2
Timothy 3:1-4
|
“...People
will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous,
rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...” |
Reading
those scripture verses is like reading today’s newspaper headlines!
Jesus describes the results of this attitude in:
|
Luke
12:15-21
|
"Watch
out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not
consist in the abundance of his possessions."And he told them this parable:
"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself,
'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This
is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there
I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have
plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink
and be merry." ' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your
life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared
for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things
for himself but is not rich toward God." |
| The end result,
or "wage" of sin, according to Romans 6:23 is: |
DEATH!
|
We will
all stand before God one day to give account of our lives! According to
the Bible it is appointed to man once to die and then to face the judgment.
It says in:
| “Then
I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky
fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the
dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged
according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave
up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that
were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire
is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book
of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” |
Revelation
20:11-15
|
When that
day comes for you will you be able to pay the final bill? Will your name
be found in the book with “PAID IN FULL” next to it? There is only
one way that can happen!
A song
writer, speaking about Jesus Christ, wrote these words: “He paid a debt
He did not owe because I owed a debt I could not pay.” Jesus took all our
sins on Himself and paid for them with His death on the cross. God’s love
reached down to us in the midst of our horrible rebellion and gave us Jesus.
 |
“You
see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died
for the ungodly. very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though
for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates
his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.” |
Romans
5:6-8
|
But it
isn’t enough to know that intellectually. We have to do something about
it. Individually we have to receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and
Savior.
John
1:11-13
|
“He
came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to
all who received him [Jesus Christ], to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural
descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” |
We each have
to ask for His forgiveness.
I
John 1:8-10
|
“If
we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not
sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” |
|
In case
you think, “Well, I haven’t been so bad. I’ve lived a pretty good life.”
Listen to what the Bible says:
|
“...all
have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God...”
|
Romans
3:23
|
And, in
case you think there is another way to have your debt paid listen to Jesus:
|
“...I
am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.”
|
John
14:6
|
In His
love God made ONE provision for our debt to Him to be paid
in full. That is through Jesus Christ. The big question is what will you
do with that provision? If you believe and receive Jesus as your Savior,
God will write across your bill:
PAID
IN FULL!
Jesus
is standing at the door to your heart.
Revelation
3:20
|
“Here
I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, I will come in and eat [have fellowship] with him, and he with
me.” |
|
 |
Will
you open the door and invite Him into your life? All you have to do is
sincerely talk to God and say something like this:
"Jesus
I believe in you. I believe you paid my debt by dying for me. I bow my
knees before you. I’m sorry for the sinful things I’ve done. Please forgive
me and come into my life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.
Please write “PAID IN FULL” across my bill."
|
|
