Finding God: Chapter 2 / My Testimony
This is a story of how God brought me into His family through a simple prayer from the heart. My journey of enlightenment began in the spring of 1970 when I experienced a very traumatic event at the age of twelve. After sleeping out with a few friends in an old doghouse that had been transformed into a young boys’ fort, I entered our family home early the next morning to find my older brother, sitting in our living room. This was odd because he was supposed to be away camping for the weekend. When I asked him what he was doing home, he didn’t answer, but the look on his face was one I had never seen before.
My mom was at the door in the front room speaking in a hushed voice with a very distinguished man. She then came into the living room, motioned for me to sit on the couch with her, and sat down facing me. Tenderly, in a very soft tone, she told me that my older brother by six years with whom I shared a bedroom, had been killed in a car accident around midnight. He had been with his friends, riding in the passenger seat, when a drunk driver went through an intersection and slammed into their car. Seat belts weren’t worn in those days, and he had flown out of the car, hit his head on a traffic light pole, and died instantly. He had just turned eighteen and planned to start an apprenticeship to become an automotive mechanic when he graduated from high school in just a few weeks.
I had never felt emotional pain like that in my life. I can’t remember much about what happened after I was given the news; I guess I went into shock. How does a person prepare anyone for news like that—a sibling gone, a child lost, never again to darken another doorway in our family home. God was not part of our family at that time, so the idea of Heaven was no comfort to us. To our family, Heaven was just a word brought up in conversation when someone had died and had gone to “a better place,” not a concrete reality. It was simply a feel good, abstract idea—an idea that would be nice if it were true.
Later that morning, I remember being in the back room of our house where we kept our coats and shoes. Sitting on the floor with my back against the big stand-up freezer, I was alone, just staring out the back door. The sun was pouring in through the window, covering me with its warmth. I can’t remember exactly what I was thinking about, but the warmth of the sun was making me feel a little bit better. In retrospect, I believe God was trying to intervene, to bring some type of hope into my situation. I wanted so much to understand this calamity that had been thrust into our lives, but for the time being, I just sat there and stared blankly out the back door. The explanation of this time in my life would come years later, but one thing was certain: nothing would ever be the same.
Sometime later, after the funeral service was over and my brother was in his final resting place at the cemetery, life started to get back to normal—or at least to our new normal. Our tears had dried, but a deep sadness hung over our house for a long time. One night in my bedroom—which I now shared with my younger brother of six years—I was climbing into the top bunk for the night when I noticed a bookmark pinned to the wall. I don’t remember what the writing said, and I don’t even know how it got there, but I stared at the little cross on it, then folded my hands together and, for the first time in my short life, prayed from my heart to God or to something, for some type of answers. As I mentioned, we were not a religious family; I don’t even think we had a Bible in the house, and I couldn’t tell you at that time if we had ever gone to church. Nevertheless, I prayed. I didn’t know it then, but this was the start of my journey toward something bigger than myself.
When we ask questions, say to a higher power, I think it would be prudent to try to understand the seriousness of asking such questions. When answered, if we choose to disregard the very source and trivialize the answers, what consequences will there be? I think if we are going to ask the questions to a higher power, we must be ready to receive and then act upon the answers.
Here is my story of asking questions, of receiving answers, and of making decisions. It is a story of how not making a decision could have had a detrimental outcome and how pride could keep one in a holding pattern for years or, even worse, prevent one from finding true answers.
Six years later, I still had a feeling deep inside that something unexplainable was calling me. All that I had experienced up to that point in my life had left me unfulfilled and pondering the age-old questions of life.
At age eighteen, the prayer I had prayed six years earlier in my bedroom before a small cross went from wanting “some type of answers” to finding a more absolute why:
- Why was I here?
- What was my purpose in life?
- What’s the plan?
- Why was there so much pain and suffering?
- Was there a Master of destiny?
Also, one of the biggest questions I had as I headed into manhood was where I fit in? In the great scheme of things, where did I fit in?
These were not the abstract thoughts of an adolescent teenager, but the reflective thoughts of a young man starting to leave childish things behind and hoping to make his mark in the world. The wild times didn’t seem to hold the same appeal they once had; smoking pot now made me tired and irritable, while drinking made me act stupid.
An unmistakable feeling kept welling up inside me that there was something more to life. This unmistakable feeling kept hounding me to search for something more. I wasn’t really sure what the “more” was, but that nagging feeling deep inside made me feel more than ever that if I searched for it, I could find it.
The Journey Continues
My progression to obtaining the answers to “why” continued one summer night. The lyrics of the songs playing on the stereo mentioned the very things in life to which I seemingly had no answers. The music, combined with the setting sun, stirred deep thoughts in me. Dusk brought shadows in my room, and the sun outside my window became the most beautiful shade of orange glowing across the sky. In a melancholic state, I stared out the window at the darkening sky as the brilliance of the setting sun streamed into my room, and the stage was set for my heart to start questioning my own mortality.
Just then, a light, warm breeze wafted through the window and I pondered what was going to happen when death came knocking. As I thought about that, the warm air drifting in through the window seemed to turn cold and, with the sun setting over the western sky, the room lost its feeling of comfort and warmth. I continued to contemplate the question of my mortality. An uneasy feeling came up from my soul, almost as if I felt a sense of urgency to deal with the question of death sooner rather than later. At the same time, I sensed that I was being pushed to continue considering the uncertainties of life, and the room grew even darker. Sitting in the dark, I quickly became weary of the questions swimming around in my head; I was in a spiritual battle and didn’t even know it.
I turned my gaze back to the forming stars and the last rays of a beautiful sunset. I thought about the beauty that I had just witnessed as optimism grew in my soul. I remember thinking that an artist had to create such beautiful scenes and such wonders of nature, and if this fact were true, there had to be an author for life itself. There in the darkness with the stars shining, I asked my questions once more from my heart—for questions from the heart are always heard. I didn’t realize it then, but I had made the most important decision of my life: I had unknowingly made the decision to find God.
My many questions started a sequence of events that would ultimately bring the answers to me. I had an intuitive realisation that with the answers there would come an expectation and a decision: I would have to decide for myself whether to accept or reject the answers I sought. In hindsight, I realize now that if the answers had come that night or the night of my first prayer, I would not have been able to accept them. I was not yet ready or prepared to respond with acceptance at that time.
Years passed during which I hardly ever thought of those perplexing questions. I was caught in a lull, and I knew it. It was one of those times in life where nothing, it seemed, was ever going to change. And to be honest, I didn’t particularly want my life to change, for my life was good. I was in my mid-twenties, and I had quit drinking and smoking pot. I was also racing dirt bikes, which took up the majority of my time, and I had a good job and a girlfriend. My head was never so clear, and my life seemingly had some purpose. It was, I knew, a worldly purpose, but it was a purpose just the same.
The reality, though, was ever since I had prayed as a twelve-year old boy to a cross on my bedroom wall, the preparations in my heart had never ceased. Even though I wasn’t really looking for answers at that time, the answers to those perplexing questions were starting to be revealed…whether I liked it or not.
For some reason, I steadfastly resisted hearing the answers to the questions I had asked so many years before. I think it was because I had a feeling that my acceptance of the answers would bring about change, and there was comfort in familiarity; at this point in my life, I really wasn’t looking for a change.
Regardless of how well or how badly things are going, or how out of control life can get, change is always a scary business. But the progression in my life over the years brought me to the point where I could not only somewhat comprehend the answers but could also act upon them. My own fears of the unknown were causing me to resist, but at the same time, these same fears were causing me to continue.
I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but powers greater than I was able to comprehend were working to bring me to the place where I could understand and act upon the answers that were starting to be revealed. At the same time, opposite powers were trying to stop the process and keep me from dealing with my own mortality. Were these the powers of good and evil, with the good guiding me to enlightenment of truth and the evil keeping me in darkness, oblivious to the truth.
Looking back now, I understand that the answers to these questions and the choice to act upon them were the most important decisions I was ever going to make. It was also becoming quite clear that these decisions were more faith-based and involved something far beyond me. They were, in fact, far greater than something I could literally see, touch, and understand in my humanity.
I can’t see gravity, for example, but I can understand it and see its effects. I was starting to learn that I couldn’t see spirituality, but I was becoming strongly aware of its existence.
Now, in my twenties and for the first time in my life pondering spirituality, I came to define spirituality as the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul, as opposed to material or physical things. The tide was turning in my life; spirituality was becoming more important than it ever had been before. I knew something spiritual was happening, and I was starting to see the dots connect through my girlfriend, who I was living with at the time. She came home one night and announced that she was “born again”. My response was, in essence, “What are you talking about?” She then started to talk about Jesus all the time, something that I found very annoying.
As time went by and she embraced her new life, I noticed a few personality changes that stood out: she became softer, less critical, and more affectionate in a very wholesome way. It was evident that she was taking this church stuff very seriously, and it was making a difference. While I saw it as church stuff, she always corrected me and said that it was a relationship with Jesus Christ—as though I knew the difference.
I thought it was all fine as long as I didn’t have to give up my lifestyle and could basically remain the selfish man-boy that I was. Everything began changing, though, when she started telling me that I was a sinner who was going to spend eternity in Hell. I countered with the assertion that I was a good person who had nothing to worry about. This answer didn’t satisfy her in the least and, to be completely honest, deep down, my words didn’t really satisfy me either. It’s amazing, really, trying to justify to God my entrance into Heaven by being a good person or just better than the worst of society.
Christ Was Clearly the Crux in All of This
I wondered what was going on in my head. I had asked for answers from a higher power, and it seemed that these answers were starting to unfold through my girlfriend’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ; yet I was resisting the answers. Why? I can only go back to what I said before: it seemed like opposing powers were trying to stop me from dealing with my own mortality.
In a nutshell, she was saying that I was separated from God because of my sin and quoted from Romans 3:20,“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”
She also said that Christ was the only payment for sin and quoted Galatians 2:21:
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.”
My Good Person Theory Was Flawed
What my girlfriend was saying from the verses she quoted was that putting my faith in the Ten Commandments/The Law wasn’t going to help me become righteous or justified in the sight of God. And since there was no justification for the sin in my life, I was guilty and condemned.
Then she clearly pointed out the seriousness of the situation: Hell. “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire [Hell]” (Revelation 20:15). In her estimation, Hell was where I was going to end up.
Well, she still hadn’t convinced me, but the changes in her life were speaking volumes. She had a peace about her now; she was more caring and understanding, and we got along so much better. These changes in her personal life were softening me to her ideas about God, Heaven, and Hell. She was quick to point out that these ideas were not her ideas. Rather, she explained, they were the truths of what the Bible says will come to pass. After that, she pretty well left me alone, but before doing so, she gave me a book on Bible prophecy entitled The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. Through reading that book, I found some interesting answers to two of the crucial questions I had asked years before: Is there a master of destiny? And why was there so much pain and suffering in the world?
Now the dots were being connected very quickly, but I still wasn’t ready to acknowledge that I needed a relationship with God like that of my born-again girlfriend. I was also hesitant to forge such a relationship because I wondered what my life would look like if I did become born again.
With this new standard of right and wrong my girlfriend was presenting, I realized that I was no saint. I began seeing my anger, selfishness, and swearing, to list a few things, in a different way—I was seeing them as wrong. And if they were wrong, I knew that coming to God would mean that I would have to change. But how much change would I be required to make? For example, would I have to start going to church on Sundays? Would premarital sex be out the window? Would my racing days on Sunday be over? I had a lot to consider for I wasn’t so naive, as to think that I wouldn’t have to learn to put all of God’s precepts into practice in my life if I made the choice to follow Him.
My Enlightenment
I came face to face with the reality of my spirituality and my physical limitation in just one split second of time. This was an unexpected enlightenment that was to thrust me into getting off the fence and making a decision of amazing significance. But the total magnitude of that decision would take years to transpire and is still transpiring to this day.
The questions I had asked from the heart many years before—as a little boy praying to a cross on his bedroom wall and then as an older teenager with more questions on a warm summer night in my upstairs bedroom—were being answered with clarity. These answers, one after another, were all pointing to God. This God was not the one I had always imagined: the old guy in Heaven in a rocking chair, stroking his white beard and pondering all that had gone wrong in the world. No, He was an all-powerful, all-knowing God who held the whole universe together in His hand. This was the God seeking me out because I asked Him to.
My final enlightenment came from an unexpected source. I was in an accident while dirt biking up the side of a hill beside a busy two-lane highway. Just before I reached the top, my front wheel hit a rut, causing me to be half knocked off my bike. This sudden movement caused my dirt bike to switch directions and thrust me down the hill. Ironically, the more I tried to pull myself back onto the bike, the more I pulled on the throttle, and the faster I went. Now, totally out of control, I was racing down the hill into a ditch, thinking that the deep ditch would stop me. It didn’t. In fact, the ditch acted like a ramp propelling me into the air.
Somehow, I was still on my dirt bike, about six feet off the ground and sailing onto a busy highway outside of Brantford, Ontario. I remember thinking it was a no-win situation, either for me or for the cars speeding by. Everything in my brain went into slow motion. Still on my dirt bike in the air, I narrowly missed the back of a small car in the closest lane. Heading across the road towards a red Camaro in the far lane, I pushed myself off the bike and started to flap my arms to slow myself down. That did not work.
When the driver of the red Camaro saw what was happening, he tried desperately to accelerate out of the way. But still, the rear tire of my dirt bike hit the back quarter panel of his car. I will never forget the look on the face of the guy in the Camaro’s backseat; he was ashen, and he had a look of utter disbelief—like he couldn’t believe that he might get taken out by a flying dirt bike. I came down hard onto the pavement on my hands and knees; my protective riding gear saved me from getting hurt, but also made it easier for me to slide across the pavement into the path of a big Chevy 4X4 that was screeching to a stop. When both I and the truck stopped, my face was two inches away from the centre of its bumper. I was so close I could see my reflection in the chrome.
For some reason, I wasn’t affected personally with any fear or dread; in fact, I was the calmest one standing in the middle of that highway that day. I pulled my dirt bike off the road and got the traffic moving again. After giving my insurance information to the driver of the Camaro and convincing him that we didn’t need to call the police, I checked my bike for damage. It was good to go, so I crossed the road and approached the hill that, just minutes before, had gotten the best of me. I tore up that hill with a vengeance and rode down the trails into the woods.
My older brother, had been riding the other dirt bike, and we stopped on the trail soon to discuss what had happened only moments before. At that time, I gave some serious thought to the validity of what my girlfriend had been telling me. I remember saying, “It sort of makes you believe in God, doesn’t it?” I estimated that the average speed of the cars on that stretch of highway would have been going 90 kilometres per hour; and travelling at that speed, a car covers 82 feet per second. With that in mind, if I had entered the highway a second earlier, I would have been hit by the car in the closest lane. I would have probably kept going and been run over by the Camaro in the far lane; and a second later, the big Chevy 4X4 would have likely run right over me and spit me out the back. Either way, it would have cost me either my life or some serious pain at the very least.
What Was at Play?
Remember that I said I was in a battle and didn’t even know it, and that it was seemingly a battle over my eternal soul?
Did one side want to snatch me away before I could finish comprehending and act upon the answers that were being revealed to me about God, about my soul, and about where I would end up for eternity? Or did God, out of His grace, knowing that I was on the fence, give me the push that I needed to make a decision as to whom I was going to put my trust in for my eternal soul? I felt it was time; I didn’t believe I’d have chance after chance, and it seemed to me that making no decision at this point would be giving an absolute “no” to God.
Simply put, I was face-to-face with the decision to accept or reject the answers to the questions that I had asked so many years before. Glimpses of my near-death experiences were flashing into my mind’s eye; I could clearly see that something was working in my life, and that these situations in my life were pushing me to accept the answers that were set before me.
I had always believed in God and thought I was a good person or at least better than most. I thought that if I were to die, the scales would tip in my favour, and God would let me into His Heaven. I was being shown very clearly that this was not the case.
A month or so after my close call on the dirt bike, I was still reading the intriguing book my girlfriend had given me called The Late Great Planet Earth. I was at the part in the book that explained how to have a right relationship with God when it just clicked; my eyes opened to the fact that if I wanted a relationship with God, I had to go through Jesus Christ. This revelation was made clear in my mind when I related it to going to the unemployment office the day before because I needed to see someone about a claim I had made. I knew the person that I needed to see and proceeded to walk back to his office. I walked only a few feet before the receptionist at the front desk stopped me and informed me sternly that I just couldn’t do whatever I wanted, and that I had to follow the proper channels. At that moment, thinking about the events from the day before, it all came together. Jesus Christ was “the proper channel”: “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The Deciding Factor
Then God give me the final push I needed by having me recall another time when my life was held in the balance: Having grown up at the beach as a young boy, I was a good swimmer. This particular day, I was a skinny nineteen year old who weighed around one hundred and thirty-five pounds, and my lack of body fat made floating very difficult. Still, I decided to swim out to the fishing nets, as I had done many times over the years. The problem was that I hadn’t been swimming in quite a while, and other than working, I wasn’t doing any exercising. So, I was a little out of shape for what I planned to attempt.
Off I went without telling anyone my plans; I just got into the water and started to swim to the first fishnet’s buoy that was half a kilometre away. The buoy was quite flimsy: just a flag on a stick which was stuck onto an oversized juice can, but it was enough to prop me up—at least, it used to prop me up. When I was around twelve or thirteen, I used these little buoys to hold me up out of the water, so I could rest before swimming back to shore.
Now, at nineteen, I soon realized that the buoy would not support me and that I hadn’t considered how far this buoy was from shore and how out of shape I was for this little swim. So, there I was, clutching a buoy that was not keeping me afloat, with exhaustion creeping into my arms and legs. To tell you the truth, I was a little worried.
I looked around at the boats that were cruising by on the beautiful, blue waters of Lake Huron. My pride and reluctance to be embarrassed prevented me from yelling for help; in my mind, I had no other option except to swim back to shore. About fifteen feet away from the buoy, I panicked and my arms began flailing uncontrollably. Within a split second, I was three feet under the surface of the water, looking up.
I regained my composure, but I knew that with my next breath, this could become my watery tomb. No one was there to reach down to save me, and not one person even knew the incredible danger I faced. I was totally alone, and my life was hanging in the balance.
Surprisingly, a feeling of tranquility came over me. I looked at the bottom of the lake and saw ripples in the sandy bottom, and as I looked around, it was as if I were in a big underground aquarium. Above me, sunlight glistened off the top of the water; the scene was so peaceful, it was almost as if it were calling me to stay. Thankfully, I quickly snapped out of it, swam to the surface, flipped onto my back, and started the very slow trek back to shore.
When I broke the surface of the lake, I could barely keep my face above the water; all I could do was swallow the water that splashed into my mouth. My arms and legs were so tired, I was amazed they worked at all. I could hear the boat propellers buzzing as they passed by and despite the serious situation I was in, my inconceivable pride kept me from calling out for help.
How stupid was it that I was willing to drown before I would call for help and embarrass myself? In the end, pure determination got me back to shore. Remembering that near-drowning experience taught me something about myself: I had way too much pride.
As I reflected on events from my past, it was obvious to me that I was letting my pride condemn me to hell. That was very evident when I almost drowned and didn’t call out for help to the boats passing by, or when I lost control of my dirt bike and slid between the cars on the highway and didn’t call out to God immediately for salvation. From, my girlfriend’s viewpoint, which she shared with me a few times—I was going to Hell, not Heaven.
All I know is that my life could have been over in an instant in both cases. My oldest brother’s life was over in an instant, with no warning, and this reminiscing over my past was really causing me to think about dealing with my own mortality sooner rather than later. In reality, no one knows when their time here on earth is up, and I started to wonder if my next brush with death would be my last.
Clearly, I had been given the answers to all the questions I had asked over the years, and it was decision time: simply put, it came right down to either accepting or rejecting God. It was a decision with consequences that would last for eternity, and God gave me the free will to make that decision any way I chose. But I was also very aware that not making a decision would be considered a rejection on my part.
As I thought about what to do, God brought to mind my experience at the unemployment office on following the proper channels and those close calls with death, which put everything into perspective. Jesus Christ was the only way to God, which was foundational for salvation, and now was the time to act.
I wanted an answer to the question “Why?” and the answer God gave me was Jesus Christ. I accepted this wholeheartedly by praying from my heart and giving my life to Him. I believed that Christ, being God, allowed Himself to be sacrificed on the cross to clear my debt of sin, saving me from judgement. With that, I invited Jesus to take away my sin which separated me from God and made Jesus Lord of my life. By doing this, I was forgiven by God’s merciful grace and received the peace with Him that I sought. It was a simple prayer, but God always hears a prayer from the heart. Amazingly enough, God had been preparing me to say that prayer ever since I had prayed to Him when I was twelve years old.
At this point, the dynamics of the relationship between God and me changed dramatically—it became very personal. I would find myself talking to Jesus as I would a good friend throughout the day. I felt strongly that prayers that had seemed to float into nothingness before were being heard, and not only heard, but I saw them being answered.
At the time, I couldn’t even imagine what effect receiving Jesus’ forgiveness would have on my life or on my future, but since I received Him, I was motivated for doing what was right and good in His sight…not in any way to work my way to Heaven, but out of gratitude for His gift that now gives me access to Heaven.
I was learning a new value system from God, a value system that my old acquaintances didn’t understand and were prone to ridicule me for. But I found answers in the Bible that refuted their comments. Now I was finding it easier to stand on principles, like telling the truth in all circumstances, not swearing, or thinking of others before myself, to mention a few. I thought these principles were lost in this world, but amazingly enough, they began to become a part of who I was.
Another benefit of accepting Jesus’ forgiveness was that the Holy Spirit took up permanent residence in me. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God to the believer. His job is to help the believer understand Scripture, awaken us to sin that needs to be dealt with, and guide us to become more like Christ. With the assistance of the Holy Spirit, I was able to comprehend and believe the answers to questions that I sought so many years before.
Jesus became such a vital friend: someone I could count on beyond what I could possibly imagine and someone who treated me in a manner that no one had ever treated me before or has ever been able to do so since. It was a good decision to embrace His friendship and what He had to offer. My side of the friendship could offer nothing other than myself, but that is all He asked and wanted.
Why did I have to believe in Jesus only to be accepted into Heaven, instead of relying on keeping the Ten Commandments?
The Bible is very clear that no one will enter into Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. I know this is a strange doctrine for many, but the Ten Commandments were never intended to show us how good we could be, in fact they were created for the opposite reason: to show us how good we are not. The Ten Commandments, also known as the Laws of God, were only created to bring us to the realization that we were sinners, unable to keep the law, which in turn, keeps us separated from God. Let me explain from God’s Word, starting with Romans 3:20: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious (aware) of sin.” The wording here is very concise: by the law, we are sinners and the Bible describes the sinner as helpless and drowning, unable to save themselves. “I am drowning in the flood of my sins; they are a burden too heavy to bear”(Psalm 38:4).
The Ten Commandments aren’t a life preserver to the drowning, but a millstone of great weight. What a stark contrast to what many people think the Ten Commandment’s purpose is.
So, if keeping the Ten Commandments isn’t going to open Heaven’s gate, then how do we?
The answer to the above question is by being justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by the law. Justification means we are forgiven, so when God looks at us, He doesn’t see our sin, He sees Jesus’ righteousness. This concept of law versus faith is explained in Galatians 2:16:
“Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”
Again, all the Ten Commandments were for is to show us that we are sinful and in need of a Saviour. The following verses tell us precisely what we are, “sinners”, and if we could enter Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, Christ died a horrible death for nothing.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam and Eve) and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned.” – Romans 5:12
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3:24
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” – Galatians 3:21
Now some good news: God offers us the gift of salvation through His Son.
“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.” – John 3:16
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” – 1 John 4:10
The Bible is a book about God’s nature. God is love; God showed His love towards us in sending His Son to be the ultimate sacrifice (offering) and atonement (payment) for our sins. Nothing else, other than Christ’s atoning sacrifice is needed for our salvation to be complete. John 19:30 verifies the completeness of that sacrifice: “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” When Jesus said “It is finished” and gave up His spirit, His work on the cross was done—His work to redeem (rescue) us from Hell was complete. Faith is the only contribution that is required by anyone seeking Heaven. For many, the simplicity of only having to have faith in Christ and nothing more is hard to grasp.
But our sins equal a debt that we can never repay. The debt of sin can’t be written off; it can’t be wiped out by declaring bankruptcy. The payment that is demanded for the sins that we hide in our hearts is eternity in a place that is like a dungeon: a windowless, overwhelmingly dark place where there will never be any other human contact. The thought of being sent to a place of total isolation scared me enough to call out to God so that my debt could be removed.
I am so thankful that there was someone willing to sacrifice their life to pay that debt for me, so that I could be redeemed by their sacrificial payment. Who was that person? Jesus Christ, whose sacrificial payment wasn’t just for me, but for anyone who is willing to believe. This action of the sinless Christ, dying for the sinful, is called atonement—which is the act of making amends for our sins.
And that is exactly what Jesus did:
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless (to save ourselves), Christ died for the ungodly (the sinner). Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
So, when we talk about Christ’s sacrifice to redeem us and the atonement (payment) for our sins, it means that He paid the debt that we could never pay. He paid a debt that wasn’t His, and He did this loving act because He wanted to do the will of His loving Father. Jesus is the friend in John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
The Book of Romans: Death to Life
The verses below clearly show: 1) Sin equals death; 2) God’s love for us is evident through Christ’s sacrifice; 3) Salvation is a gift—which is achieved by believing from your heart and calling on the name of the Lord.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
“For, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” – Romans 10:13
“That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (from eternity in Hell) – Romans 10:9–10
Another benefit of asking to receive Jesus’ forgiveness is that, at the moment my prayer was completed, I was adopted into His family, forever. I didn’t know the scope of what this entailed at the time, but I knew it was going to be good. Now, after almost forty years of following Christ, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life has been more peaceful and straight because of my faith. It hasn’t always been easy because of my prideful nature, and I haven’t always walked as close to the Lord as I should have, but He has never revoked my adoption into his family because I went astray; and He never will. Whenever I have moved away from Him by making selfish decisions, He has always drawn me back. In these uncertain times, I am so thankful for my personal walk with Jesus Christ and His unfailing love towards me.
Could you be rejecting Christ and not even know it? The Gospel of John 3:35–36 says, “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
It’s that simple: receive the Son, and you have a new life; reject the Son, and that equals spiritual death/punishment. The end of the verse in John 3:36 is hard to accept for many people, as they are convinced, like I once was, that this part of the verse—“but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them”—is not referring to them. They don’t believe that they have rejected the Son (Jesus Christ), even though their lifestyle indicated otherwise, as mine did. It’s just easier to turn a blind eye to verses like John 3:36 and believe the myth that all roads lead to Heaven as long as you believe in something. Having a blind eye is not going to change the fact that God is very adamant—it does matter in whom and in what you place your faith for eternal life.
The best verses in the Bible to encompass the whole of the Gospels is Ephesians 2:8–9: “For it is by Grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
One: Ephesians 2:8–9 clearly states that we can be saved only by God’s grace (His unmerited mercy). Two: His grace can be experienced only through faith in Christ as stated in the first part of John 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” Three: Salvation is a gift, so if we tried to buy it or work for it, it’s no longer a gift, and the offer becomes void. Four: There can be no boasting about getting a gift that God makes absolutely clear we don’t deserve.
One of my favourite verses below is a promise for all who have placed their faith solely in Jesus Christ for eternal life.
“I (Jesus) give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” – John 10:28–30
In many places in the Gospels, Christ tells us that when we place our trust solely in Him by faith, we will have eternal life; and no one can snatch that away. The imagery in John 10:28–30 is Christ’s holding the believer in His hand, then God the Father’s hand is wrapped around Christ’s hand. Nothing in Heaven or on earth is going to separate us from God’s love and eternal salvation with a grip like that holding us.