Christianity

Christianity is a religion of hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Peter 1:3-4)

Our hope does not rest upon ourselves; our own worth, value, or actions. Instead our hope is in Jesus Christ. Christianity is not about what we can do. It is about what has already been done for us. The heart of Christianity is the Gospel; that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and died on the cross in our place, and then was raised from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. If you  grew up in church you have probably heard it said that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins, but you may still wonder what exactly  Christ’s death accomplished and how this gives you hope.

God hates sin. You probably do too. None of us like to be lied to. Things like child abuse, rape, and murder make us angry, and justifiably so. The effects of sin are heinous. While sin angers us, God’s wrath burns against sinners. Why? Because He is holy.  The prophet Isaiah “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim…And one called to another and said “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:1-3). Isaiah’s response to this was literally to come undone. In an instant, Isaiah realized who he was, not in comparison to other human beings, but who he was before the ultimate standard of holiness; the God who is three times holy. “Woe is me! For I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

My friend, you and I are just like Isaiah. When we compare ourselves to other people, we are using the wrong measuring stick. Our sin makes God even more angry than the sin of others makes us. We are all unrighteous before a holy God. We have no defense. We are sinners and the good things we do, the things we hope will be pleasing to God, are worthless. “All of us have become as one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6). “As it is written,’ there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:10).

Isaiah knew, when He stood before God, that he was “lost”. If the story ended there, we would be without hope.

It isn’t over! We have a hope that is “an anchor for the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters into the veil” (Hebrews 6:19). The God who is holy, is also a God of grace.

“Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:6-7). Immediately, God made a way for Isaiah to be made clean, restored, forgiven, and whole. He does the same for you and I.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that  we might become the righteousness of God in Him”     (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us–for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 21:23).

Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life, a life of total righteousness. He died on the cross, in our place, and took our punishment. At the cross, we come face to face with the love and grace of God.

At the cross, Jesus Christ became our substitutionary atonement. Jesus died as our substitute, paying our penalty for our sins.

“He was delivered up for our trespasses” (Romans 4:25).

“Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

At the cross, Jesus Christ became the propitiation for our sins; His sacrifice appeased the wrath of a Holy God that burned against us.

“Since , therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9).

“You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

At the cross, Jesus Christ became our expiation. He removed the stain of sin from our soul.

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just  to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7-9)

“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14).

At the cross, Jesus Christ became our reconciliation. He made peace between God and us.

“For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him” (Colossians 1:19-22).

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (Romans 5:8-11).

At the cross, we find our only hope: Jesus Christ.

Christianity is a covenant, a relationship, between God and us. Isaiah could do nothing to change his standing before God. Neither can we, yet God in His great grace has done it for us.

Christianity is not about what we can do to please God, but what God, in His amazing grace, has done to save us. At the cross, we can trade our sin and shame for His righteousness.

Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 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” (John 6:37,40).

Ask Him to show you who He is today.

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all of your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

“We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20b). Jesus said ” I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but through me” (John 14:6). “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

God sent the angel to touch Isaiah’s lips and atone for His sin, and He sent Christ to atone for ours. We read in Isaiah 6:8 that this encounter with God, and the atonement He provided changed Isaiah’s life. “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me”.

The Apostle John wrote ” These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). If you have read these words, and God has moved your heart to trust in Him, your life will be changed too.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules…you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:26-28).

If God has given you new life today, please email us, so we can encourage you as you walk in this newness of life. “For the Scripture says, ‘ Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed’” (Romans 10:11, Isaiah 28:16).