We all like to think of God as a loving and compassionate God. Yes, the Creator of heaven and earth is loving, gracious and merciful. But the Bible also teaches that God is holy, righteous and the supreme Judge of all mankind. His holiness demands that He will not tolerate any sin in His presence. God created human beings for His good pleasure so that we would ascribe to Him all praise, honour and glory, and that we would live our lives in complete submission to His will. But we have become His enemies by sinning against Him through our actions, our words and our thoughts. The holiness and righteousness of God demands that we must receive a just penalty for going against the Judge of the universe. So all of us will stand “guilty” before God on the Day of Judgment and be eternally separated from Him in hell for acting against His divine nature. It would be vain to expect God to exercise His love and mercy towards us on that Day at the expense of His holiness and justice. This is really bad news! There is absolutely no chance for anyone to enter heaven … unless … God’s anger against our sin is fully satisfied. How can that be possible? Answer: The Lord Jesus Christ.
It is through Jesus Christ that God demonstrates not only His anger against sin but also His love towards sinners. What we could never achieve through our charitable works or religion, God the Father accomplished by sending His only Son Jesus Christ to take the form of man and suffer a cruel death in order to pay the penalty for our sins. It is Jesus Christ alone who has opened the gates of heaven for us, if we put our faith in Him alone. The Bible promises that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will not be condemned. If we respond with total submission to Christ, we can be absolutely sure that our sins are forgiven. This is because God the Father demonstrated His acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice by raising Him on the third day after His death. If we confess Jesus as the only Master of our life and believe that He lived, died and was resurrected on our behalf, we will be saved from our sins and thus from the wrath of the holy God that is about to come when Christ returns to judge the world in righteousness.
This is the “gospel” or the “good news” of the Bible – that God is offering forgiveness to us through His Son Jesus Christ. This is the beautiful message that all of us at Chembur Biblical Baptist Church have embraced and on which we entrust our present life and the life to come.
Chembur Biblical Baptist Church 