"Life instead of death, what an exchange!!"

Submitted by Lactantius Jr (United Kingdom), Oct 23, 2008 at 10:58

To Mr Keith Williams

Thank you for your gracious words, I appreciate them, and ask that you please stay with me as I attempt to go fast-forward through the Biblical account of sin and redemption, believing "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing," and webmaster permitting, I will attempt to respond to the other parts of your posting in a separate response.

Methodist and Baptist you may have been, but surely, you were never a full-on, born-again follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing Him as your friend, trusting Him as your Saviour, and worshiping Him as Lord of your life, had you been, there would have been nowhere else to go, as one of His original followers said to Him, recorded for our instruction in the following, taken from John 6:58-68,

Jesus said ‘I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.' He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Many of his disciples said, ‘This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?"

Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so He said to them, ‘Does this offend you? Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe Me.' (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn't believe, and He knew who would betray Him.) Then He said, ‘That is why I said that people can't come to Me unless the Father gives them to Me.'

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted Him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, ‘Are you also going to leave?'

Simon Peter replied, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life."

The Lord Jesus Christ told us His ‘job-description' and what a job-description it is, "I have come that they might have life, and have it in all its fullness" John 10:10 going on to say, "I give them eternal life and they will never perish, no one will snatch them from my hands." John 10:28

The New Testament documents very clearly describe the Lord Jesus Christ's purpose in coming into the world ~2,000 years ago, into a society that followed an endless round of animal sacrifices, in an attempt to make themselves right with the all-Holy God of the Bible they and we are separated from, because of our original parents sin, but if the ancient Jews knew anything at all about sin, they knew it was an expensive business, with the endless round of animal sacrifices year after year!! and here is what the New Testament says about the inability of animal sacrifices to remove sin,

"The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

Hebrews 10:1-4

So, because we couldn't get right with the all-Holy God of the Bible by our own efforts, that same all-Holy God did something about it, with His once for all time, all-sufficient and perfect sacrifice for sin, The Lord Jesus Christ, being prefigured in the account of Abraham and his son Isaac on Mount Moria, when

"Isaac turned to Abraham and said, ‘Father?' ‘Yes, my son?' Abraham replied. ‘We have the fire and the wood,' the boy said, ‘but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?' ‘God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,' Abraham answered. And they both walked on together."

Genesis 22:7-8

and sure enough,

"When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!'

‘Yes,' Abraham replied. ‘Here I am!'

‘Don't lay a hand on the boy!' the angel said. ‘Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from Me even your son, your only son.'

Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means ‘the Lord will provide'). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.'"

Genesis 22:9-14

And much later, in New Testament times, when John the Baptiser saw the Lord Jesus Christ walking towards him, we read,

"This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for He existed long before me.'"

John 1:28-30

The New Testament recording,

"This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'—and I am the worst of them all."

1 Timothy 1:15

the record is clear, that whoever accepts the all-Holy God of the Bible's provision for their sin, will be saved, saying that,

"But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."

Romans 5:8

that, "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 and that "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

and that,

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Romans 10:13

"inking it in" by saying,

"There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved."

Acts 4:12

no ifs, no buts, no maybes, and certainly no arrogance, but confident assurance that we can take God at His word, that He is what He says He is, that He's done what He says He's done, and that He will do what He says He will do, no wonder the hymn-writer Fanny Crosby wrote,

"To God be the glory, great things He has done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son, who yielded His life an atonement for sin, and opened the life-gate that all may go in"

I can do no other Mr Williams than to "offer you Christ" (John Wesley), and quote the Scriptures,

"In the Scriptures God says, ‘When the time came, I listened to you, and when you needed help I came to save you.' That time has come. This is the day for you to be saved."

2 Corinthians 6:2

What now? What if I do?what if I don't?

What if I do?

If we put ourselves, "under His management," the all-Holy God of the Bible forgives us and He treats us as if we had never ‘messed-up,' enabling us to live a life pleasing to Him and to us, we become ‘part of the family' again, and He guarantees we will be with Him always. The choice is ours.

What if I don't?

We're in a mess, we have a problem, a massive problem, we're sinners and we need a Saviour, and that's the job of the Lord Jesus Christ, which only He can do. Only Christianity has such good news for sinners, but we must accept God's ‘rescue-plan' before we die, since death ends the opportunity of being rescued, and if we turn His ‘rescue-plan' down, we'll face judgement as unforgiven sinners and receive the due penalty, that being a living death in the place called hell, but nobody needs to be there, and the all-Holy God of the Bible doesn't want anybody to be there either, saying in His word,

"The Lord isn't slow about keeping His promises, as some people think He is. In fact, God is patient, because He wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost."

2 Peter 3:9

So please accept the all-Holy God's offer of life in Jesus' name, you don't deserve it, you're not worth it and you can't earn it, do you want it? You're going to live forever Mr. Williams, please choose your address.

With kind regards

Lactantius Jr

ps. Thank you for saying, "may God guide you to the straight path," but He already has done,

and Jesus said,

"You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hellis broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it."

Matthew 7:13-14

The Lord Jesus Christ pointing very clearly to Himself as the way, not one way among many, but THE way, the genuine article, the real McCoy,

"Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"

John 14:6

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