Christ and You

The God revealed in the Bible is real. He is also very Holy. We live as His enemies since we have not, nor can we, fulfil His requirements for perfect living. All the good deeds in the world are mere dirty rags when seen from the perspective of His holiness and righteousness. Heaven and hell are very real places. We deserve hell. This is often an affront to human pride. But human pride is an affront to God.

However, God has not left us without hope. Whilst He is indeed a God of wrath and justice, He is also a God of mercy. God's justice was satisfied by God Himself, in the human form of Jesus Christ, taking the penalty for our sins and not only dying physically on the cross, but also carrying spiritually the full wrath of God, the Father. 

The good news of the Gospel message is that God will credit the righteousness of Christ to the account of anyone who believes and trusts in this action of Christ on the cross. When we believe, God looks at us and sees the blood of Christ; the penalty for our sins is paid, and His wrath removed.

 

People are not saved by doing 'good things', by going to church or even by believing in God and Jesus. They are saved solely through believing and trusting that Jesus died for them. A person without the Holy Spirit, with mere human wisdom, cannot understand this faith. No intellectual persuasion can bring people into a living relationship with Christ. 

Our sinful nature can lead us to believe we are  capable of 'doing something' to meet the righteousness demanded of God, or that we can 'bring ourselves to believe'. This is folly and the essence of pride. God calls people to Himself. He gives faith. If you come to believe the message it will be because God has already been working in your heart. The gospel message is, according to human wisdom, foolishness. There lies the power of God; who could otherwise believe!

 

If you are reading this message,then God is calling you to believe the gospel.  Ask Him to help your unbelief. When you go to God in humble prayer to say you believe  Christ died for you,  that you want to know Him and that you are sorry for your sins, then the Spirit of Christ comes to live with you. You are no longer an enemy of God, but rather a child of God. He will help you - always. He doesn't promise a problem-free life without sorrows; He promises to be with us in our trials and sufferings. He keeps His promises. Any true child of God will testify to the power of God in changing their lives.

 

Christians are not perfect. They are simply saved sinners. They are not what they should be. But they are not  what they were. They have nothing to boast in except the cross of Christ that revealed the mercy and grace of God to them. Lives and minds change: you are spiritually born again.

 

Unless God opens your eyes, you are blinded to His reality and the message of the gospel remains foolishness. You might become religious but you will still go to hell. An affront again to human pride and all sense of 'fairness'. It is by grace only that we are saved. There is nothing in any Christian that led them to somehow 'deserve' salvation. My rapist deserves hell. So did I. He now guides and rebukes me.  It is amidst the storms of life that I am  most assured that my faith is not foolishness but grounded in historial and contemporary reality.

If you are a victim of rape and not a Christian I urge you to look at this message carefully and read the Bible. Everyone has something to say on it, often negative;  few however have read it. Start with the Gospels in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Put your pride to one side and everything you thought you already knew about Jesus and seek Him while He may be found. Put your pride to one side and pray that whilst you do not yet believe,  that He will, in mercy, reveal Himself to you. Your heart and soul will know when this has happened. God is your creator. He knew you whilst you were still unformed in your mother's womb. He knows about the rape. He knows what happened to you. He knows who did it. He knows your pain, anger and trauma. But if you do not know Him then only worldy hope is on offer - and that, ultimately is no hope.

 

I spent my adult years with nothing but contempt for the Christian message.  I believed it nonsense. I know what it is to be spiritually blind, to hate the Bible and to ridicule Christians. I know what it is to hurt inside and to daily struggle with the consequences of rape. I now know what it is to 'see'.  I urge you to seek what I have found. His name is Jesus Christ. He walked this earth 2,000 years ago and is very much alive today.