Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson – one of Hollywood’s highest paid and most recognizable actors –has recently tried to make amends after being riddled with guilt for years over his sins as teenager. The media tells us he has been able to redeem himself. He returned to the scene of the crime he committed as a youth and bought hundreds of Snickers bars, giving them to the store, and telling them to give them away to anyone who was tempted to steal.
You can watch the video here:
“I have been waiting decades to do [this]” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson visited a 7-Eleven in Hawaii that he used to shoplift from as a teenager, to make amends for the misbehavior of his youth.
Before making amends, three times in one interview he told the host that he wanted to “redeem” himself for his theft. The media loved it, and said he was, “making things right.”
Isn’t that the instinct in so many of us? We have a tendency to think we can balance the scales of justice by doing good works. After all, wasn’t this what Zacchaeus did in the Bible?
Actually, Zacchaeus wasn’t trying to redeem himself. He was redeemed the moment he put his faith in Jesus. His righting past wrongs was done as an act of gratitude for God’s forgiveness. It was what scripture calls “fruit of repentance” (see Luke 3:8). It was evidence that he had just been saved.
Many people today want to trust in their own attempts to redeem themselves, but that’s something the Bible says cannot be done:
Any payment we try to make for sin is an abomination to Him (see Proverbs 21:27). Yet millions deceive themselves by pacifying their guilty conscience with what the Bible calls “dead works” (see Hebrews 6:1).
On a cold winter morning in 1979, I sat in the back seat of my neighbors’ car as they kindly drove me to work. The husband had earlier that week heard me speak at a service club about Christianity and drug prevention. To my surprise, he suddenly asked, “Ray. Good people go to Heaven. Bad people go to Hell. Where does the average person like me go?”
I explained that the Bible teaches that in God’s eyes, no one is good (see Mark 10:17-20). No one. Despite that, most people will say that they are morally good (see Proverbs 20:6). That is probably humanity’s most prevalent deception, and perhaps the second is to admit that they have moral failings, but to believe that if they do good, it will balance the scales on Judgment Day.
But “good works” are irrelevant. They certainly won’t justify us in God’s court on Judgment Day. So pastors, how do we awaken the person who is deceived into thinking that their works will justify him before God? I have found the following argument to be effective.
Most of humanity doesn’t see sin as being serious crimes against God. They believe they make mistakes or have moral failures. After all, nobody’s perfect. However, the Bible shows us something different. It says, “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). In other words, God is paying us in death for our sins. It is like a judge who gives the death sentence to a flippant murderer. He says, “I’m giving you the death sentence. This is your wages. This is what you’ve earned.” That sentence shows the criminal his crime was serious.
Sin is so serious to a holy God, he’s given every one of us the death sentence. Capital punishment. In other words, our death will be evidence to us that God is deadly serious about sin—even if we’re not. Death is an arresting officer with a divine summons in his hand. God isn’t going to withdraw that summons just because you try to pay for your crimes in this world. The payment was infinitely greater than that. It took the agonizing death of the perfect Lamb of God to redeem us from the curse of the Law. Jesus alone shelters us from death and from God’s wrath:
The post Do You Have the Power to Redeem Yourself? appeared first on Focus on the Family.
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You can watch the video here:
“I have been waiting decades to do [this]” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson visited a 7-Eleven in Hawaii that he used to shoplift from as a teenager, to make amends for the misbehavior of his youth.
Before making amends, three times in one interview he told the host that he wanted to “redeem” himself for his theft. The media loved it, and said he was, “making things right.”
Isn’t that the instinct in so many of us? We have a tendency to think we can balance the scales of justice by doing good works. After all, wasn’t this what Zacchaeus did in the Bible?
Actually, Zacchaeus wasn’t trying to redeem himself. He was redeemed the moment he put his faith in Jesus. His righting past wrongs was done as an act of gratitude for God’s forgiveness. It was what scripture calls “fruit of repentance” (see Luke 3:8). It was evidence that he had just been saved.
Many people today want to trust in their own attempts to redeem themselves, but that’s something the Bible says cannot be done:
Any payment we try to make for sin is an abomination to Him (see Proverbs 21:27). Yet millions deceive themselves by pacifying their guilty conscience with what the Bible calls “dead works” (see Hebrews 6:1).
Good People and Heaven
On a cold winter morning in 1979, I sat in the back seat of my neighbors’ car as they kindly drove me to work. The husband had earlier that week heard me speak at a service club about Christianity and drug prevention. To my surprise, he suddenly asked, “Ray. Good people go to Heaven. Bad people go to Hell. Where does the average person like me go?”
I explained that the Bible teaches that in God’s eyes, no one is good (see Mark 10:17-20). No one. Despite that, most people will say that they are morally good (see Proverbs 20:6). That is probably humanity’s most prevalent deception, and perhaps the second is to admit that they have moral failings, but to believe that if they do good, it will balance the scales on Judgment Day.
But “good works” are irrelevant. They certainly won’t justify us in God’s court on Judgment Day. So pastors, how do we awaken the person who is deceived into thinking that their works will justify him before God? I have found the following argument to be effective.
Most of humanity doesn’t see sin as being serious crimes against God. They believe they make mistakes or have moral failures. After all, nobody’s perfect. However, the Bible shows us something different. It says, “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). In other words, God is paying us in death for our sins. It is like a judge who gives the death sentence to a flippant murderer. He says, “I’m giving you the death sentence. This is your wages. This is what you’ve earned.” That sentence shows the criminal his crime was serious.
Sin is so serious to a holy God, he’s given every one of us the death sentence. Capital punishment. In other words, our death will be evidence to us that God is deadly serious about sin—even if we’re not. Death is an arresting officer with a divine summons in his hand. God isn’t going to withdraw that summons just because you try to pay for your crimes in this world. The payment was infinitely greater than that. It took the agonizing death of the perfect Lamb of God to redeem us from the curse of the Law. Jesus alone shelters us from death and from God’s wrath:
The post Do You Have the Power to Redeem Yourself? appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...