To know God, we must also recognise that He is absolutely holy and just and righteous. Sin cannot come into the presence of God. No man, sinful as we are, can stand in the light of God’s holiness. Therefore He has declared, “Without holiness, no man can see the face of God”. “But what is sin?” you may ask, or “I have no sin,” you may say.
First of all, sin means “missing of the mark” or falling short of God’s standard and glory. When God made man, He made us in His image, that we should be holy, as He is holy. God did not set an arbitrary standard for what constitutes holiness; He Himself is the standard! Sin also means “transgression of the law” which includes all acts of disobedience to Divine law. Not to obey the first commandment is sin. Not to obey the second commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 19:19, James 2:8) is sin. Not to obey the commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother” is sin. Which of us is there who has not sinned and come short of the glory of God? No, not one! (Romans 3:23).
But what of all our good deeds then? God’s Word tells us that all our good works are as filthy rags and by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight. For God does not judge outwardly by appearance, even as men judge each other, but He tries our innermost hearts and weighs our motives and judges the thoughts and intents of our minds. None shall stand before Him. Out of our hearts, proceed a flow of sin and iniquity: evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness and blasphemies, which defile us. For this reason, we cannot save ourselves. Any religion that teaches us that we can or must do good deeds or penance in order to cleanse away our sins and save ourselves, fail to understand God’s holiness and the basis of His judgement. No one shall be able to pretend or hide our true hearts before the Great Judge.
If that is the case, what shall we do to get saved? How shall we stand right with God? If we could live holily on our own abilities and could stand right with God on our own righteousness, God would not have had to send a Saviour to interpose on our behalf and save us from our sins. But ever since our first forefather Adam chose to sin, sin entered the world, and we all like him have continued to sin. But what our good deeds cannot do and trying to keep the law cannot do, God did! Sending His Son to be born of a woman, to take on human flesh, to die on the cross on our behalf and to rise again on the third day, God both paid the penalty of sin and justified the sinner. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Sir/madam, this is why I have taken the liberty to quote from the Bible, which is God’s Word to the world, which alone tells us the only way of salvation. Yes, there is one God and only one way of salvation and only one mediator between God and men, which is the man Christ Jesus (1Timothy 2:5). When He was on the earth, this Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Today, He sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven, ever living to make intercession for those whose hearts have got right with God.
If today, you have heard God speaking to you, do not harden your heart but take the first step to respond to Him. Begin to search after Him and start praying that He will help you to find repentance toward God and faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Pray that He will forgive your sins and save, change and transform you and send His Holy Spirit to live in your heart and fill you. As you seek after Him in repentance, He will bless you and own you as His own. You will begin to enter into a relationship with Him, as between a child and his father. And even as you start to know Him in an experiential and personal way, you will stand in an approved relationship with Him, justified by the blood of His Son Jesus. You will know that you are His because God knows you as His own (2Timothy 2:19).
It is our prayer that God will bless you with mercies and grace and that you may find peace and the true knowledge of God through Jesus Christ His Son.
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