I am a Christian and I believe that the Bible is the word of God.  I also have a history of being mean, sarcastic, drinking more than I should, and talking down to people.  Most of you probably haven’t witnessed this, but it’s true.  Take my word for it.  The reason I bring that up is because if I didn’t some of you might think that I’m trying to ignore it and you might disregard what I have to say.  You might still disregard everything, but I’m trying to be as honest as possible.

Christianity can’t be proven.  I want to go ahead and lay that out on the table.  I’ve heard several lessons in the past where people try to show that Jesus was God’s son based on some kind of statistical analysis of Old Testament prophecies.  While it's important to be able to defend what you believe, it never made any sense to me to try to prove it by argument.  First of all, if you can prove the divinity of Jesus then it takes away the entire faith element, which is stressed over and over again throughout the New Testament.  Second, you could argue that the authors of the gospels simply invented the story of Jesus and built it around well-known prophecies, thus “fulfilling” them.  The reason I point both of those things out is because it’s extremely off-putting when people are trying to be convinced of something that they don’t believe in by someone who is using clearly flawed arguments.  Furthermore, I’d argue that Christianity is inherently not intellectual, even though some try to treat it that way.  You can seek out intellectualism in any avenue of life, Christianity included, but as far as I can tell, this has no bearing whatsoever on salvation or our ability to glorify God.  “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all” (Mark 10:15).  I think it’s important to accept this – or at least consider it – before you read what follows because it may change your mindset.  Also, I know that some non-Christians believe that when Christians start quoting the Bible they enter some bizarre, mindless, regurgitating trance, and I just want to reassure everyone that I’m not about to do that.

Some of you will think this is crazy.  I’m aware of that, but it’s my responsibility to share this anyway.  “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).  I hope everyone will put aside all the political and social issues that Christianity is associated with these days and read this outside of that context.  Here we go.

1.       God is perfect and we are called to be perfect.

“You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

2.       We are not perfect.  All have sinned.

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

3.       Sin has a price.

“The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23).  This death is eternal separation from the holiness of God.

4.       There is nothing that we can do alone to compensate for sin.

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6).  My friend JR Burnett pointed out that the “filthy garment” here is more appropriately translated as a “menstrual cloth.”  This demonstrates that nothing we do can live up to God’s holiness.

5.      But God did not create us for this eternal separation.

“God has not destined you for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for you so that whether you wake or sleep you will live with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).

6.       So how do we obtain salvation?

We must be “born again.”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

7.       How is one “born again”?

We are born again by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who became human, that he was without sin, and that he incurred the wrath of God on our behalf so that we could be made blameless in the sight of God – which is impossible to do on our own.

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (John 6:53-54).

One of the most beautiful things in the Bible is the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus passes a cup of wine to the disciples and says, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”  Later that night, Jesus knows that He is about to be crucified and He is praying to God.  He says, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”  The cup that Jesus was referring to was a cup of God’s wrath that was destined for all men.  Jesus did not deserve the cup of wrath, but He drank it anyway, and instead of giving us the cup of wrath, He gave us a cup of His blood which is our only means of salvation.

8.       Three days after Jesus took on our sin and was crucified, He rose from the dead. 

By doing this, He overcame death and defeated it.  He robbed it of its power.  If Jesus had not overcome death, we would still be subject to it.

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

“He was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know – Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (Acts 2:22-25).

See, Jesus could not be contained by death, and by His resurrection we are justified.

9.       We do not deserve this free gift.  It is given to us only by the grace of God.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Salvation is an invaluable gift that was made free to us by the grace of Jesus Christ.  We have done nothing to deserve it.  All that is required of us is that we believe that Jesus is God, that He became human and lived among us, that He was without sin, that He took on our sin and incurred the wrath of God that was meant for us, that He was crucified, and that He overcame death three days later.

10.  Can we just "take it or leave it"?  What happens if we do not accept it?

No, a decision must be made.

"For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed" (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)

11.    What now?  Why are we here?

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

We were created for God’s pleasure.  How do we please God?

As above, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Jesus said that the greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). 

“Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.  And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrew 13:15-16).

Everyone who’s reading this is smart and motivated.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten to where you are in life.  Smart and motivated people sometimes have the most difficulty believing because they have to take the things that they’ve built up for themselves on Earth and admit that they’re inconsequential.  A lot of people believe that the Bible is outdated and that religion doesn’t make sense.  I can hear some people talking about how weird it is that I’m going on this bizarre, hyper-Christian rant out of nowhere, and that it lacks any legitimacy.  If that’s how you feel, there’s no argument that I can make to convince you otherwise.  I want to be very open about that.  But what I can say is that I will try to love you and serve you for the glory of God.  The Bible is clear that Christians have no business judging people outside of the Church.  I will screw up.  Again and again and again.  You may see me screw up and wonder if anything I said had any value at all.  Do not place your faith in me or in anyone else.  I am literally the worst person I know.  Instead place it in Jesus Christ, Who is responsible for every single thing that’s good about us. 

It has been an honor to serve in this position.  I know that a lot of people have enjoyed my emails this year, but if you’re going to remember any of them, let it be this one.  

If you would like to discuss any of this further, please email me, call me (601-259-9766), or meet with me in person.  I will be out of the country from May 6 - May 23, and I won't be using me phone during that time, though I should still have limited access to email.  I'll be leaving for New Hampshire on June 4 to start my residency.  JR Burnett (PT2) will be in town for at least the next year and he would love to talk/meet with you too.  His number is 601-278-6457 or you can shoot him an email.