From the paper - We must come to Jesus by faith

For a very brief introduction read the first paragraph here.

We must come to Jesus by faith

There was a man who was blameless in many ways.  He was honest in his business dealings, tried to treat everyone fairly without showing partiality and kept his life free from sexual immorality.  On top of that, he knew the scriptures quite well and was faithful to pray, tithe and even committed to fasting.  He would be an exemplary man in our day and age where so many do not live up to standards of decency and integrity. There is one big problem though – he was not a Christian.  He would have put most professing Christians to shame by his lifestyle, but that says more about professing Christians than the devout religious man.  How can I say he was not a Christian then?  He was the man in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18:9-14, and no, he was not the publican.  The publican stood with his face to the ground and cried out to God for mercy understanding the weight of his sin.  The Pharisee we have been talking about had great hope that his life well-lived would be his ticket into heaven.  Jesus tells us the publican crying out for mercy was justified, and the Pharisee, however exemplary he was, was not.

We might wonder, “How can this be?”  Does God not care that we are doing the best we can, attending and participating in church, and being an example to those at our work and home?  All of these things may seem good on the surface, but even the Jew in our text believed in God and did so many good works that we would look like atheists compared to him.  We have already looked in depth at how Jesus bore the sins of many and took their punishment on the cross, and in doing so, He can now declare sinners righteous.  How do we receive it?  A jailer once asked the apostle Paul, “What must I do to be saved?”  Did Paul answer, “Help those who are in need and be generous and kind to everyone”?  No!  All he said was, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31).  Believe is the verb form of the word faith.  As I have shown from the scriptures in previous articles, everyone stands condemned in their sin and no amount of community service can change our verdict.  We must come to Jesus with the empty hands of faith.  Empty hands mean we do not bring anything to God – our works, our false belief that we are good.  We just bring our sinful selves to God confessing our sin.  Saving faith means entrusting our lives to Jesus Christ and His work of redemption.  It is more than just nodding our head in agreement, but trusting wholeheartedly in Jesus Christ to remove our sin and the wrath of God abiding on us.  Friends, my exhortation to you is simple.  Ensure you believe in Jesus alone and are saved!