Easter on the horizon

­(John 6:40) “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

If God has determined that even if the so called atheist says that there is no God it is obvious all they prove is that in fact they are liars. How so one may ask? God has proved His existence through the creation of our world; “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20) – We must now conclude that every living soul that has graced this planet is without excuse and will never be able to say I never knew you existed when they face judgement. In fact we can even take it further than that, it is not enough to make statements like; “I know there is a greater power out there somewhere, whoever that may be”. The creation of the world and all that is in it proves His “eternal power and divine nature”. We all have a mechanism within in us that informs us of whom God actually is, we may remain blind to this reality until we find life in Christ, until we are born again but we certainly have an itch that needs to be scratched, I remember clearly asking myself from a young age, “what is the meaning of life”. It is that niggle I refer to and we all experience it in one form or another.

With that established what is the Lord Jesus through the Apostle John teaching us?

I have lived long enough and gleaned through enough scripture to know that if God wills something nothing will stop that from happening. If it is God’s will that a remnant of mankind will eventually enter through the gates of heaven with a reward of eternal life, it will happen! So who will then enter through these gates? It is clearly spelt out in the text, those who look upon the Son and believe in Him. It is not enough to look, we must look and believe!

We are approaching the Easter weekend and many will celebrate this occasion but not all will embrace it believing all that it stands for. It is not enough to think about a historical event, go to church and say to family and friends that I go to church twice a year, Easter and Christmas and then claim that you are a believer. You are not!

To believe means that you embrace everything the Lord Jesus Christ stands for including all that He has done for mankind and especially that He died to justify mankind and pay the price for our sin. Justification simply means, just as if we had never sinned. This is what Christ achieved for all those who have looked upon Him and believes in Him. But it cost Him dearly, He had to die and bleed for those who now confess Him as their Lord! It was no light thing to bear the brunt of our sin, it cost our Saviour His life and it was a humiliating death, crucifixion! And yet the power of salvation lies in the gospel. God the Father has invested everything into His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and was satisfied with His atonement on our behalf of every sinner that confess their sin before God, acknowledging their sin as unacceptable before Him and seeking out His forgiveness. Understanding that Christ died in our place, we should have been crucified but because of God’s love He made a way of escape for mankind, repent and embrace His provision and you shall be raised up on the last day, reject God’s provision, look upon Jesus this Easter and then look away and you will be found wanting on Judgement Day!

It will never be enough to just look upon Calvary as so many people did as they stood at the foot of the cross watching Him die. You need to embrace, cherish and love everything Christ stands for. And you must believe that without His sacrifice you deserve hell because of your sin, we all do, but God who is rich in mercy has found a way to forgive us of our sin by sending His son to die in our place! Do you believe this? Do you accept it? If so then confess your sin before a Holy God and He will raise you up on the last day, He has so willed it!

Signing off

Tyrone