“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23 NIV
Most of us may think that we can balance
our spiritual and physical sins with good deeds, so we tend to do good deeds
until the end of the age for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. This is because
we think that we are pleasing the Lord by doing them. In addition to this, we
think that the law of God consists a bunch of rules, such as going to a church,
reading the Bible, and praying for certain time. Furthermore, we might even
think going to the kingdom of heaven in the end of our physical lives requires
the repentance and praying real earnestly how much we want to go to there in the
end of our physical lives. Therefore, we tend to enjoy living our lives by
living comfortably and peacefully with such things that we desire and have
passionate hearts about until the end of our physical lives. When we are at the
age of 99 or when we know our physical death is about to come, we earnestly
pray to God about repentance and how much we want to be in the kingdom of
heaven with Him.
However, the truth is that we cannot
balance our physical and spiritual sins with good deeds, and this is not how we
are able to please the Lord. We have to repent each time when we have committed
sins, and due to the fact that Jesus has already paid our death penalty through
crucifying Himself on the cross (Colossians 2:13-15), we are able to be
forgiven by the Lord if we pray earnestly before Him. (1 John 1:8-2:2). In fact, God rejoices with
His angels when we repent (Luke 15:3-7) and He is going to give us
eternal life right away, after we have repented, with His presence. This does
not mean that we can purposely sin and repent earnestly before God. Repentance
means turning to God from our sins and stay in intimate relationship with God,
that we may always feel His presence within us (Acts 3:19-20). Furthermore, the law of God
does not consist a bunch of rules, such as going to a church, reading the
Bible, and praying for certain time. This is because God looks deeply into our
hearts whether we have motivations for Him, or not (Hebrews 4:13), and the word of God states, “Christ is the culmination of the law so
that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:4).
But do not forget
this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and
a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise,
as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone
to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)
Believing Jesus Christ, the perfect image
of God (Colossians 1:15), is the method of being
the righteousness of God (Romans 8:1-17). “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who
earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not
send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through
him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe
stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s
one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but
people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone
who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their
deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so
that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight
of God.” (John 3:16-21) This means that not believing
Jesus Christ is counted as sin (John 16:8-11) as we deny the fact that we
have been created by God (Genesis 1:27) and that God is powerfully
working within us as the Spirit of God (Ephesians 3:20-21). This is the reason why
the Apostle Peter urges us to repent for not believing in Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38-39). Falling short of the glory
of God is sin, also (Romans 3:23), because we have to know Jesus
Christ intimately to receive eternal life from Him (John 17:3). The main reason for this is
that we cannot believe or trust Jesus Christ until the end of our physical
lives if we do not know Him well enough.
But whatever were
gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I
consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my
own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the
righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know
Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the
resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have
already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on
to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and
sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I
do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on
toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7-14)
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