In All Your Getting, Get Christ
If anyone ever fully understood Man’s total
depravity and spiritual inability, it was Jesus. If anyone ever thoroughly
comprehended the constrained nature of human free will, which can only operate
within the spheres of ability and desire, it was Jesus. Man can surely will
whatever he desires, but he cannot freely will what he lividly despises. Jesus
knew these things about Man far better than any of us.
Yet Jesus, who understood these realities better
than anyone else, urged His hearers to enter into His kingdom, and to enter at
once! They were outside it. He told them to enter into His kingdom. Repent,
change your mind, and believe the gospel—and do it now! In Matthew 7, He told
His hearers to enter into the kingdom of God by going in at the little, plain
gate; it leads to God, to eternal life and to heaven. The little, plain gate He
speaks about is the gospel itself, the evangel, the good news that God has sent
His Son to be our Redeemer.
Now there is another option and it looks much
better and much easier. But that large, ornate, impressive, other gate opens up
into a broad, easy, one-way super highway to hell. So Jesus says, essentially, “Don’t go that way! Repent and believe the
gospel; enter at the little gate. Walk on this narrow, winding path traveled by
only a few, for it leads to eternal life and to God and to heaven.”
Jesus knew very well that most people are all concerned
about the here and now, about getting
what they want, all of it, and getting it now! Two of Jesus’ remarks come to
mind.
First, from Matthew 16:26, “For
what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Jesus points out something many of
us never think about: we not only have lots to gain in this world, but we all
stand in danger of losing something far more valuable than everything else put
together—we stand in danger of losing our souls, the very persons we are. This
is where Christians get the term “lost” to refer to those who are not yet trusting
the Lord Jesus. When we request prayer for someone who is lost, we mean someone
who presently stands in danger of losing his soul forever and being condemned
for all eternity because of his sin—sin unforgiven because he never changed his
mind (repented) and never called upon (believed) the only Forgiver of sins. Something
more valuable than “the whole world” is on the line.
The other is more of a story. We
are fools to think we have all the time in the world and become enamored with
stuff, especially when everything seems to be going our way. We may sit down
all satisfied with ourselves and our lives, thinking, “It just can’t get any better than this,” when an unexpected
eternity comes calling. When God comes calling, our souls will be “required” of
us.
From Luke 12:15-21, Jesus’ words:
“And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard
against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of
his possessions.” And he
told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man
produced plentifully, and
he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear
down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my
goods. And I will say to my
soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be
merry.”’ But God said to
him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have
prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich
toward God.”
If the truth were someday written on your
tombstone, could it truly say that you were “Rich toward God”? O dear soul, it’s
not too late—not yet. The living God has come in kindness to your soul yet
again by the words of Christ today. Do not let another moment pass until you
change your mind and gladly enter the kingdom of God and His Son. “Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved…” This is simply the gospel of God’s
grace. Repent and believe; you will be saved.
Saved forever, not lost forever. The living God
can truly change a poor sinner’s forever just
like that! He did it for me. He can do it for you. –TSA
