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Josh
Simple Truth Entreated: The Response of Unbelievers
If you are reading this and have not been saved from the
just penalty of your sins by Jesus Christ, or if perhaps the force of biblical
truth has removed you of all your certainty of your salvation, then do not barricade
your heart against the saving truth of the Word
Repentance and surrender to Christ are your only rational recourse. True, the gospel seeks to invade your sinful heart,
to conquer it, and to change it as to make it utterly alien, but you must, you must throw open the gates and let it
enter undisputed, or it will kill you someday, and for all eternity. This gracious offer of the Lord, so real and
substantial in this instant, will not endure even a hairsbreadth beyond your
own life – what certainty have you beyond this brief moment?
As Paul implored, “we beg you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20b) We
stand to gain nothing in this appeal, excepting joy, whereas you stand to gain “everything
pertaining to life and godliness.” (2 Pet. 1:3b) Come; come now, before you
draw another breath! There is no matter
of greater importance, nothing of truer urgency, than this matter of the sinful
chasm between you and your Creator. Do
not wait for tomorrow when today may yet betray you! “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the
hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) To die without Christ is to be judged by
Christ, without the benefits of His protection or intercession. He will weigh out your sins, and will justly
repay each of them, including the sin of
reading this appeal and ignoring it.
You will find yourself consigned to a blind torment beyond the reckoning
of art or science, a lonely agony unsatiated by the endless passage of ages. Surrender all to Christ; admit of your guilt
before Him! Plead His forgiveness, and lay
your very life at His kingly feet.
If we urge you in light of His grace, we also charge you on
the basis of His sovereignty. “God is
now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has
fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man
whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from
the dead.” (Acts 17:30b-31) God not only invites all to repent of their sins; He
commands that repentance. The day of
judgment approaches, over which Christ will preside as proven, triumphant Lord,
so the command has gone out: repent now. God has created this world such that He is
Lord over all of it; He sovereignly issues His orders, and it falls to us to
obey Him. Fortunately, He is entirely
wise, powerful, and righteous – we need not fear His leading.
Many objections are commonly made by those who resist the
gospel; let us briefly examine but a few:
- Some of you will say, “This
is all well and good, but I simply do not believe in God.” This is merely to say that you believe in
yourself, for, as your finite mind cannot account for a God like the One revealed
in the Bible, then He clearly must be a fabrication. So you set yourself up as your own sure authority,
and all your life is washed through the filter of your own good opinions. Do you not see, though, how dangerous this
becomes? An earthworm could hardly
conceive of a thinking, feeling, deciding, inventing human being, but this does
not render human beings any less real. Does
an annelid’s inability to grasp music or technology make you or I any less
real? Surely not! Rather, it serves to underscore the vast
difference between a worm and a person.
This vastness looms larger still between us and our God, and
we cannot afford to dismiss this reality out of hand simply because it does not
reduce to a comfortable human understanding.
In actuality, how disappointing would an entirely comprehensible deity
be? If God were such a one that could be
understood completely, He would not be God at all, for this would fully assure
us that He was a fabrication of the human mind. Our inability to fully understand Him should
not dissuade us of His reality.
- Some others will say, “Surely;
I believe in God, but I cannot believe in your God.” My friend, my God is the God revealed by the
Bible; what better revelation of God and His character would you have? Your own suppositions? Another book, perhaps? When science and archaeology have crushed
countless so-called holy books to powder, the Bible stands conspicuously
intact, a solitary monument in the midst of so much rubble. Space does not permit a complete treatment of
its enduring character, but I urge you, look into its history. See how it has been preserved in the face of determined
and repeated opposition. Mark how its
truths have not been altered, though it passes through centuries, through
languages, and through cultures. Note
how it is the product of dozens of human minds from different eras and
different nations, and yet it comes together as a cohesive whole. You begin to understand that the Bible you
hold in your hand is a startling book indeed – it is the revelation of the one
true God to humanity, written perfectly by that very God through human agents,
and preserved diligently by God against every feeble calamity and opposition that
this world could muster. To understand
this book is to see our Creator as He has revealed Himself.
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