Does the God of the Bible exist? Before you answer this question, I would sincerely ask you to pause for a moment and take a deep look inside yourself, think of the world around you and everything in it.
Are you waiting for God to manifest himself to you? Are you expecting to see Him? Are you looking for signs somewhere that he exists? Now, while you may reject the Bible (I'll attempt to address that later), the Bible states, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Romans 3:18-21
The verses make it very clear that the things God makes known of Himself to us, he has already made manifest (or clear). Not only that, he has shown it unto us by the creation of the world and the things we see in it; putting on display some of His invisible characteristics like his eternal power and Godhead. And since He has made them apparent, if we deny them, we are without excuse. We can't someday, when we stand before Him, say something like, "But God, you never made yourself known." So again I will ask you to pause, listen to your heart beat, feel the blood pump in your veins, realize that in some amazing way you are thinking about all of this, open your eyes and look at your body and all of the amazing life around you and ask yourself again....is there a God?
Do people deserve punishment for the wrong they do? There is an all too frequent lie being told today that goes something like this... there is really no absolute right or wrong. Stop for a moment and reflect on the person you care more about in this world more than anyone else. Now imagine someone was to brutally kill that person for no reason, would you want there to be some repercussion for their action? Or would you just say... that person thought it was okay, so it doesn't matter.
The Bible makes some clear statements about knowing right and wrong. "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Romans 2:12-16 The verse above clearly indicates that even if you don't know the "law" (referring to the set of rules God gave Moses including the 10 commandments), just by having a law in your country or your own set of right and wrong, you have a moral standard. Have you ever accused someone of wronging you and been upset with them? That is proof that you have a moral standard and believe people deserve punishment when they commit wrong actions against others.
Do you have a valid excuse before God for all the wrong things you've done? The Bible makes it very clear that none of us are perfect, so don't feel alone. Romans 3:10 states, "There is none righteous, no, not one:" and Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;". None of us are good/right in the eyes of God. We have all sinned/done wrong and fall short of being able to be in the presence of God based on our own goodness.
So if people deserve punishment for the things they do and we have all done wrong in God's eyes, do you have a valid excuse? Below you'll find two common excuses. Let's see how they stand up according to God's word
COMMON EXCUSE #1--But I am not as bad as others This is a common excuse we all use in our everyday life when we do some little thing that seems wrong. We think, I probably shouldn't do this, but everyone else does and I'm not as bad as _____(fill in the blank for yourself). Just like the verses showed above, "All have sinned." None of us are good enough on are own. Listen to this, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." Romans 2:1
Well there you have it! The moment you judge someone else (which we have all done), by saying something like..."Well at least I'm not as bad as _____" , you have condemned yourself. Because while you may not do the exact same things, you still do bad things. God in the Bible calls us "inexcusable."
COMMON EXCUSE #2--God made me this way Remember when you were young and you got in trouble. Ever say this? "But Mom, He made me do it" Did that excuse ever really work. Why do you think it would work when you are standing before the all-knowing God. It would be as if you had gone up to your Mom and said, "But Mom, because you made me, you made me do it." How do you think that would have gone over?
The fact of the matter is that we all have a free will. I know it. You know it. Your neighbor down the street knows it. You make decisions for yourself every day. You can't blame someone else for your decisions. And we all know deep down that there is evil in the world because we have the ability to make our own decisions and we and everyone else do not always make good decisions. Romans 1:28 makes it clear, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;" If you decide to make a bad decision (do that thing which is not convenient), God lets you.
So are you tired of all this bad news yet?
Are you tired of hearing the truth that you really already knew about yourself?
Is there any way to stand before God and not have to pay the penalty? (which by the way is death) Here's the good news. The answer is YES! This is what the Lord Jesus Christ was all about. "You mean that man who lived over 2000 years ago and who's name for some reason is the most common name to use as a curse, only rivalled by God's name?" YEAH HIM! "Why is there all this talk about HIM still today and what was he all about? " He claimed to be and proved himself to be God in the flesh and lived a perfect life and agreed to pay the penalty that everyone deserved when he died on the cross, fulfilling the justice that God required to be executed for the wrong you and I had done. He paid for the sin of the whole world! And, even though that judgment would have produced everlasting death for us, it was not able to hold Him. He rose from the dead. All God requires of you is, in your own free will, to believe that he did that and accept that payment for yourself. If you don't accept the payment it means you will have to stand before God in your own goodness and plead your case for yourself based on your own works. From the verses, I noted earlier and after talking about how "good" we all are, I know I don't want to do that and I don't want you to have to either.
If Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and took your punishment as an acceptable substitute for you, will you accept his payment for your punishment?
Or would you prefer to have God judge you based on your own "goodness"?
The choice is yours. I pray you make the right choice. To learn more or to ask further questions, please contact us now.
