By Tim Wildmon
"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand.'" ~Matthew 4:17
I recently heard a very popular Christian speaker talk to a large audience for an hour. He said nothing heretical. He said nothing controversial. He just focused on the "unconditional" love of God. Again, nothing wrong with what he did say, but it is what he did not say that bothered me. He said nothing about repentance of sin. There is a reason Jesus said what he said in the above bible verse. And there is a reason John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world with the exact same proclamation in Matthew 3:2: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
There is a popular trend going on in the American Christian church. The
trend is to talk of the love of God without talking about the justice of
God. But if you read the bible, it is clear, there exists both the grace of
God and the wrath of God, and Jesus Christ spoke of both.
Many Christians around the world have been celebrating Holy Week this
week culminating today with Easter Sunday or what some churches call
Resurrection Sunday. It is to commemorate the victory of Jesus over Satan,
sin, death and hell. This is good news! And "good news" is the meaning of
the word "gospel."
It is true that God's love for mankind is "unconditional." However, in
order for man to be in right relationship with God, man must conform his
life to match with God's requirement of man. And God does not force this
decision on man. God draws a person to himself, but it is the free will of
the individual to decide if he or she will obey God's requirements for a
right relationship or not.
Jesus called this experience being "born again." In other words, a
person (every human) must understand that he or she has violated God's laws
and is forever separated from God spiritually unless he or she repents of
their sin and trust in the shed blood of Jesus on the cross for forgiveness
of that sin in order to be counted among those who have been redeemed.
Redeemed from the consequences of unrepentant sin which is death and
hell.
What I am writing here is not popular in modern day America where we
want to live our own life without interference from God. It is our natural
tendency to live for ourselves instead of obey the commands of God. That is
the eternal struggle between flesh and the spirit.
In order to prove our love for Christ, he says we must deny ourselves,
pick up our cross daily, and follow him. Our "cross" is a challenge to wake
up daily and try our best to live like Jesus. The way we learn to live like
Jesus is to study the bible, take time to pray and fellowship with other
believers (followers) which we call "church." God knows we will fail at
this precisely because we are human. Sometimes we are tempted by sin and we
give in to it. But the Bible also says that if we are willing to confess
our sins to God, He is willing to forgive us. That also is great news!
No one is compelled to believe this. You may read this and call it
foolishness. That is your right. But if that is your view, I at least
encourage you to read one book in the bible, the gospel of John, and
consider the claims of the bible and Christ before you dismiss
Christianity.
To my fellow Christians, I say, He is Risen!Sincerely,
Tim Wildmon, President
American Family Association
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