The Gospel
How am I with God?
Do you know what the most important question is in all of life? It’s not, “How much money do I have?” and it’s not, “How many people like me?” or even, “Have I been a good person?” No, the most important question is, How am I with God? When this life is over, and I stand before God (and His Word tells us that we will all stand before Him in judgment - 2 Timothy 4:1), will I be acceptable into His presence or not?
Some people think that part of the answer to this question (How am I with God?) involves their being likable or being a good person, but to truly answer this question, we shouldn’t go simply on what we’ve heard or what might make sense to us based on our experience; rather, we should listen to God Himself in His Word (the truth - John 17:17) in order to be sure to have the right answer.
The Problem
God tells us in His Word (the Bible) that none of us are “good” according to God’s perfect standard (Romans 3:10-12). Sure, we may be relatively better than the guy next door, but that doesn’t make us good on God’s scale. You see God is perfect, without sin or error, so He must judge us accordingly. Matthew 5:48 tells us that if we want to be acceptable to God, we must be perfect as He is perfect. I’m sure that you’re thinking the same thing I am right now . . . well, nobody’s perfect. I’m not perfect, and you’re not perfect; so, how can God expect me to be perfect? The answer is that God must hold us to that expectation because He is holy, holy, holy (Isaiah 6:3). That means that He cannot sin (James 1:13), and He cannot tolerate any of our sins (our evil deeds).
Some people believe that they haven’t sinned very much, but when we consider God’s Law (the 10 Commandments - Exodus 20:1-17), we find that we’ve broken God’s perfect law repeatedly in our lives. That being said, it doesn’t really matter how many sins we’ve committed because God doesn’t judge on a relative scale to determine if our good works can somehow outweigh our evil deeds. James, the half-brother of Jesus, again tells us that “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (2:10). Do you know what that means? It means that even one sin breaks God’s law and is worthy of punishment. In fact, David even tells us that we are sinners from the moment of our conception (Psalm 51:5), and the apostle Paul agrees with him when he says, “just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The reality is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and what we deserve on account of our sin is death, eternal separation from God and His blessings (Romans 6:23).
That’s not very good news is it? In fact, it’s very bad news, but it’s true. God always tells us the truth (Titus 1:2), no matter how hard it may be to hear.
The Good News
That, however, is not where it ends, because after we understand the bad news, God gives us some amazingly good news (gospel = good news)! The problem of our sin, which we could not fix, even by our good works, God resolved in the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that God the Son became man (Philippians 2:6-7), and He lived a perfect and sinless life (2 Corinthians 5:21), but He chose to die on the cross of Calvary, not for His own sins (because He had none), but for those who would receive Him as Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” That means that we must confess and repent of our sins, asking Jesus to be the Lord (the boss, the King) of our lives; and we must trust in Him alone as our only Savior, our only substitute who took the wrath of God in our place, so that we may be saved from the punishment of eternal separation from God (death, Hell).
John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Are you tired of trying to figure it all our on your own? Have you already understood that you’re just not good enough? Do you realize that you’re a sinner who needs a Savior? Jesus Christ is the only Savior! He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). Luke said, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
If you would like to know more about how you can ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, please contact us at office@montanaave.org or call (208) 459-2137. We want to help you to know the hope and peace that only exists in knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.