GOSPEL LIGHT #709

WHEN JESUS SAID "FAITH ALONE!"

Lu 8:49 While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, "Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher."

Lu 8:50 But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, "Do not be afraid; ONLY BELIEVE, and she will be made well."

The miracles of the Lord Jesus were called signs (John 20:30-31). As "signs" they point to something else. They are not the end themselves. Signs, you see, point beyond themselves to a greater reality.

That the Lord Jesus physically raised the dead here points to something greater. If He could do this in the physical realm then He could also do this in the spiritual realm.

What did He require in the physical resurrection of the little girl here? ONLY BELIEVE. The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would be a conqueror of death. That He would have the power to do it. And so, the father here was urged to "only believe" in Jesus. He will be given a demonstration of His Messiahhood as God promised Israel in the Old Testament.

What is true in the physical dimension is also true in the spiritual dimension. As sinners, we are all spiritually dead. What does He require from us to be made alive spiritually?

Writing to the Colossians who trusted in Christ, Paul said this:

Col 2:12 ... in which YOU ALSO WERE RAISED WITH HIM THROUGH FAITH in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

God is now offering to the Jews and non-Jews alike the promise of spiritual life. Only believe is His requirement! Faith alone in the crucified Christ alone is enough for one's salvation!

GOSPEL LIGHT #708

Faith Alone In The Savior: Simple But Not Insignificant

There are lots of simple and uncomplicated activities and events in this blue planet of ours that carries with it tremendous significance.

Saying "I do" at a wedding ceremony seems pretty simple. But it carries a tremendous lifelong significance. Simple does not mean insignificant. There are simple events that are, in fact, momentous.

Stepping inside a plane and willing to fly in it is simple and yet it is a tremendously significant event. You are entrusting your safety and security to it.

Stepping inside a boat is the same. Depositing your life savings in a bank is another. We could cite other examples.

A lot of people are turned off by the simplicity of the condition of salvation (faith alone) saying: "What? That simple! No! That's too good to be true!"

But simple doesn't have to mean insignificant. Yes, entrusting your eternal destiny to Christ by simply putting your reliance on what He did on the cross is simple enough. But, look, at what you are entrusting and committing to Him --- Your ETERNAL DESTINY! It is something tremendously significant.

Are you willing to do the simple and yet tremendously significant act of the heart of trusting in Christ and what He did on the cross for your salvation?

GOSPEL LIGHT #707

 The Titan Tragedy --- Be Sure Your Faith Is Not Misplaced 

There is no question that the people on board the Titan really had faith, even strong faith, yes, even genuine faith in the submersible. They had faith in it so much that they were willing to deposit themselves in it down into the deep, dark, and deadly ocean.

But what is strong and genuine faith if it is something that's misplaced? Our faith is only as good as the object of our faith. You can't go to Switzerland if your plane is really going to North Korea even if you have strong and genuine faith that it is.   

A lot of people have no problem with regard to the quality of their faith. Their problem, a fatal one, is in the placement of their faith. Many people believe that their good works are "Titan" enough to save them. The Bible says "Nope, it will implode. It will all end in tragedy." 

Here's someone that will never implode ---  The Lord Jesus went through all the pressure of the wrath of God at Calvary for us and came out of it alive three days later.  

If you want to be saved, you must place your faith squarely and exclusively in Him and what He did on the cross and you will be safe...forever safe as the all-powerful God could save you.

* The seminal idea of this write-up came from the ladies in our little church

GOSPEL LIGHT #706

 Christ's Atonement --- The Only Way Out

If God does not take sin seriously then our good works may be able to pay for its penalty. But, if He does it take it seriously (and He does!) then no amount of good works can pay for the penalty of our sins and therefore save us.

We will all have to face a God who takes sin very, very, very seriously. A God who declared that the "wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).

Only an eternal death can satisfy an absolutely holy and eternal God who takes sin very seriously. It's eternal death or nothing for us. It really looks like it's game over for us. But hope springs eternal when the Lord Jesus Christ came and died FOR us and AS us. His death on the cross for us has an eternal value because He who died on the cross was Himself eternal.

Now, all we have to do is to appropriate His death on the cross for us by relying on it. It was provisionally for us. Now, we must embrace it and cling to it for dear life.

And God who sees you making use of Christ's death on the cross will declare your sins as forever paid and cancelled.

GOSPEL LIGHT #705

 SONRise

MK 16:2 Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

This verse could have been written like this as well: “Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the SON (yup! S-O-N) had risen.”

That the SUN had risen is the perfect illustration of what happened on this day. Just as the sun rose on this day so the Son rose on this day.

Imagine this --- What would it be like if the S-U-N will not rise anymore? Among other things, we would all be in bleak black darkness. The temperature would drop leaving us in extreme cold. Our mental health will be affected. Darkness is depressing, even maddening. There will be no more flowers; no more plants; they will wither. No more colors. No more beauty.

Now, imagine if the SON did not rise from the dead. We would all be in spiritual total darkness. We would not feel the warmth of God’s love at all. We will all be in grief and sorrow for our sins. We will all wither. We would all be barren and desolate. Spiritually, there will be no flowers, no colors, no beauty.

For the non-resurrection of the Son would have been the divine rejection of the Son's death on the cross for sinners. And if His death on the cross was rejected then there would have been no salvation for anyone at all.

Every time you look at a sunrise think of the SONrise.

Think that one day the long night of sin and darkness will give way to the eternal day of a new universe that knows no night. And you can be there if you repent and trust in the death of the Lord Jesus for our sins and His resurrection.

GOSPEL LIGHT #704

The Bible's Scandalous Message Of Salvation 

One of the reasons why people don't read the Bible is because they think that they know what's written in the Bible already.

They think that the Bible teaches a be-good-and-do-good-to-be-saved method of salvation. "Why bother to read and study it seriously? The point is simple --- just be good and do good and you'll go to heaven!" so they think and say.

Do a survey. Ask around. Almost to a man, people will say that in order to be saved one has to be good and do good.

Ask a young kid, who has never been exposed to the teachings of the Bible, and he'll answer "Do good in order to go to heaven."

Examine all the religions in the world. In fact, almost all of them, except one, teach that salvation is by good works. If all the people in the world today were given 1 million years to figure out how a sinner is saved, they would all come up with a variation of the salvation-by-being-good method, at the end of it.

Why? That's naturally what comes into a man's mind.

The Bible turns heads with its teaching that salvation is not by works but through faith alone in the work of the Savior. It iconoclastically breaks the mold. It controversially presents a paradigm shift. It turns their belief system upside down. It offers a road that's less traveled. It defies the conventional. It shockingly goes against the grain. Scandalous! Bizarre! A sucker punch! Nobody saw it coming! Totally out of this world!

It is something that is completely unlike any other belief system in the world. It could not be the result of man's devices, because it is something that is totally different from anything that humans could create.

My friend, I invite you to unlock the secrets of salvation. Dive into the Bible's pages and discover for yourself the life-transforming truth it contains, finding salvation by faith alone in the work of Christ on the cross. 

GOSPEL LIGHT #703

Ex 1:13 The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; 

Ex 1:14 and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.

It is often common with the dealings of God with men for God to cause men to become painfully aware of their bondage to enable them to see their need for redemption.

Pharaoh is a picture of Satan. Egypt is a picture of the world. Israel’s bondage in Egypt was a picture of the sinner’s bondage to sin in the world.

The problem with the sinner is that he does not see his deplorable condition. On the contrary, he enjoys the bondage of sin that is breaking him piece by piece, inch by inch.

Often, before God saves a sinner, He makes him painfully aware of his bondage to sin. He makes him aware that sin is a taskmaster and that his service is an affliction and grievous. That he is helpless and hopeless to free himself from this condition.

At this point, God is opening the sinner’s eyes, creating the need in his heart to be freed and redeemed from sin. At this stage, the sinner is ready for “Moses.” Moses is just in the next chapters in his life, so to speak.

When a sinner becomes painfully aware that he is a sinner in bondage to sin, helpless and hopeless to save himself, the Savior is just around the corner. It is at this point that the sinner is ready for His salvation.