THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.

The cross and our response

Travelling west from Lake Louise in Canada, one comes to a point where the highway is spanned by a massive wooden arch. On it is written the words, “The Great Divide”. It marks the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia. The Great Divide in human history is not a wooden arch but a wooden cross. Derek Tidball, Principal of the London School of Theology, says:

On the cross the ultimate sacrifice was offered, the High Priest died, atonement was made, healing was provided, peace was effected, redemption was purchased, access was granted, glory was manifest, a new covenant was established, a new age begun, cosmic renewal set in train.

However, the cross not only divides history into A.D. and B.C., it divides humans from one another. It divides those who respond to God’s offer of salvation from those who refuse or ignore it. In New Testament terms it divides the “children of God” from those who “did not receive him” (John 1:11-13); “the people of the kingdom” from “the people of the evil one” (Matthew 13:36-43); “whoever…has life” from “whoever…does not have life” (1 John 1:12); those in whom “the Spirit of God lives” from those who do “not have the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9); those who are “not condemned” from those who stand “condemned already” (John 3:18); “whoever…has eternal life” from those on whom “God’s wrath remains” (John 3:36). This division, depending on our response to Jesus Christ, is a constant and consistent theme in the New Testament. Though we have the opportunity now to respond to his love in repentance and faith, the day will come when the division is permanent—“eternal punishment” or “eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

And it is no use looking elsewhere to bridge this particular divide between us and God. Skip Heitzig, in an article in Decision, rightly says:

If we go to a psychiatrist or a therapist, we’ll become well-adjusted sinners. If we go to a doctor or health spa, we’ll become healthy sinners. If we achieve wealth, we’ll be wealthy sinners. If we join a church and decide to turn over a new leaf, we’ll become religious sinners. But let us go in earnest repentance and faith to the foot of Calvary’s cross, and we’ll be forgiven sinners, for we will find that the cross of Jesus Christ is the only bridge that can reach God. The choice is ours. It’s either separation from God or redemption by God.

Obviously, if the New Testament is true, there is no more important issue that we face in this life. And if you are unsure of your relationship with God, then there are ways of making sure. There is a Jewish legend that on the night the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, the night when the firstborn of every family died unless the sacred blood had been placed on the doorposts, a young Israelite girl lay sick on her bed. As midnight approached she anxiously inquired, “Father, are you sure that the blood is there?” He replied that he had ordered it to be placed there. She was not satisfied until her father had carried her out to see for herself. They were distressed to find that the order had been neglected and there was no blood. Quickly they took steps to remedy the situation before midnight arrived. In Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins, when the cry rang out at midnight, “Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” it was the virgins who were unprepared who were excluded from the banquet (Matthew 25:1-13).

When the call comes for you to meet Jesus, it will not do that you have been trusting in your good behaviour or your religious observances, or your correct beliefs, to get you into the kingdom of God. Neither will the passing of time cancel out sin. C. S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, said:

We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels out sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were of no concern of the present speakers, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. The guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ.

Your trust in the Saviour, who shed his blood for you, is the only sure foundation on which to build a hope of acceptance. And we have to claim for ourselves the gift of forgiveness and reconciliation that he offers. Alister McGrath, lecturer on historical and systematic theology at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and author of many impressive books on the Christian faith, expressed this very clearly in an article in Decision magazine, when looking back on his own conversion to Christ:

Looking back on my own life as a Christian, I can see that a turning point came when I realised that the cross of Christ couldn’t change me unless I allowed it to. I used to think that being a Christian meant believing that certain things were true; for example, believing that the cross of Christ really happened in history. I didn’t realise that the cross of Christ could affect me personally. I didn’t understand that this event in history could turn my own history inside out, and make it “his story”, that is, “God’s story”.

Since then, I’ve noticed that many people seem to have the same difficulty. They think of the cross as something that happened long, long ago and far, far away.

When I was in a situation like that, I found it valuable to close my eyes and imagine that I was there, standing amid the crowd near Calvary and watching Christ die. I imagined that I was asking myself: “Why did this wonderful Man have to die?” Gradually the crowd faded away, and I was the only one left. A voice said to me, “You are the reason that Christ had to die.”

So what was God doing on the cross? The real question that each of us needs to ask ourselves are: “What did God do on that cross for me?” And, “Have I accepted it, and made it my own?”

Until that happens, the work of God on the cross remains unfinished in our lives.

I love a story told by Robert Coleman in his book The Heartbeat of Evangelism concerning an eminent preacher of a past generation, Dr Charles Berry. In his younger days, Berry had struggled with the concept of the cross and its meaning. When he began his ministry, like many people with humanistic training, he had looked upon Jesus more as a great moral teacher than a divine Saviour. He viewed Christianity as essentially living a good life.

Late one night during his first pastorate in England, while sitting in his study, he heard a knock. Opening the door, he saw a poorly dressed Lancashire girl. “Are you a minister?” she asked. Getting an affirmative answer, she continued anxiously: “You must come with me quickly. I want you to get my mother in.” Imagining that it was the case of some drunken woman out on the streets, Berry said, “Why? Go and get a policeman.” “No,” said the girl, “my mother is dying, and you must come with me to get her in—to heaven.”

The young minister dressed and followed her through the deserted streets for more than a mile. Led into the woman’s room, he knelt down beside her and began describing the kindness of Jesus, explaining that he had come to show us how to live unselfishly. Suddenly the desperate woman cut Berry off. “Mister,” she cried, “that’s no use for the likes of me. I am a sinner. I have lived my life. Can’t you tell me of someone who can have mercy on me, and save my poor soul?"

“I stood there,” said Dr Berry, “in the presence of a dying woman, and I had nothing to tell her. In order to bring something to that dying woman, I leaped back to my mother’s knee, to my cradle faith, and told her of the cross, and the Christ who was able to save.” Tears began running over the cheeks of the eager woman. “Now you are getting at it,” she said. “Now you are helping me.” And the famous preacher, concluding the story, said, “I want you to know that I got her in, and, blessed be God, I got in myself.”

Of course, Jesus wants us to come to him so that we can find the greatest satisfaction and usefulness in this life, not just so that we are prepared to meet him as our Judge in the next. The danger of putting off this decision is that we will have neither the opportunity nor the desire to accept him as Saviour when our curtain call comes. All we have to do to be lost to God forever is to do nothing. After spending a whole chapter describing who Jesus really is and what he has achieved for us, the writer of Hebrews says: “How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?” (2:3).

Though none of us are good enough to make it without his forgiveness, you need never fear that you are so bad that he will not accept you. The only sin he cannot forgive is the failure to accept his offer. Paul, who violently persecuted Christians, even sentencing them to death, said, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man” and called himself the “worst” of sinners. However, he continued, “But for that reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:12-16).

A great prison warden, Kenyon Scudder, often told the story of a modern-day miracle. A friend of his happened to be sitting in a railway coach next to a man who was obviously depressed. Finally the man revealed that he was a convict returning from a distant prison. His imprisonment had brought shame on his family, and they had neither visited him nor written often. He hoped, however, that this was only because they were too poor to travel, too uneducated to write. He hoped, despite the evidence, that they had forgiven him.

To make matters easy for them, however, he had written to them to put up a signal for him when the train passed their little farm on the outskirts of the town. If the family had forgiven him they were to put up a white ribbon in the big apple tree near the line. If they didn’t want him back they were to do nothing, and he would stay on the train, go far away, probably becoming a hobo.

As the train neared his home town his suspense became so great he couldn’t bear to look out the window. His companion changed places with him and said he would watch for the apple tree. In a minute, he put his hand on the young convict’s arm. “There it is,” he whispered, his eyes bright with sudden tears. “It’s all right. The whole tree is white with ribbons.” In that instance all the bitterness that had poisoned his life was dissipated.

Come to Jesus and you will find the tree white with ribbons. His outstretched arms on the cross declare, “I love you this much! I’d rather die than live without you.” He has promised, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). The Greek of this verse has a double negative that has the intensified meaning, “I will certainly not ever drive you away.”

Another story that appeals to me is one told by the notable nineteenth century Bible teacher and evangelist, R. A. Torrey. It concerns a Mrs Bottome of New York who visited an old school friend she had not seen for 18 years. She asked the maid who met her at the door to take her card to the lady of the house. “She is not at home,” was the answer. “Oh, yes she is. I saw her at the window,” she replied, and she pushed past the maid into the room, where they fell into each other’s arms. “What has become of you all these years?” Mrs Bottome asked her friend. “Come into this room and I will show you,” was the reply. In a magnificently fitted out room, there sat a mentally handicapped boy of 17 years, scarcely able to talk, to all appearances a drivelling idiot. His mother said, “My duty lies there with my darling boy.” Mrs Bottome, in a moment of carelessness, asked, “How can you endure it? I do not wonder that you are prematurely grey.” “I knew you would not understand my love for my sweet boy,” said her indignant friend. “It is no burden, no care, to live for and serve my boy. And if some day he will only give one sign that he recognises me as his mother, I will feel repaid for all the years of love I have lavished on him.”

This is but a faint image of the love of God and I wonder how he feels when those for whom he has done so much refuse to respond to that love. Jesus said that there is much rejoicing in heaven if they do eventually respond (Luke 15:3-10—see also vv. 23, 24).

You and I are not idiots (certainly not if you have read this book this far!). The most intelligent decision you will ever make in this life is to submit your life to Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. You have everything to gain, and nothing that you lose as a result is worth keeping. Imagine four people walking down a street. One, an architect, points to a house and says, “That’s one of my houses. I designed that.” Another, a builder, says, “It’s my house. I built it.” Another, a landlord, says, “No. It’s mine. I paid for it and I hold the deeds.” The last member of the group says, “That’s my house. I live in it.” You and I rightly belong to God. He designed us in his own likeness. He created us, though he may have taken much time to do it. But above all, we belong to him because of the price he paid for us. He holds the deeds, signed with his own blood. As C. S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, “It costs God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things; but to convert rebellious wills cost him crucifixion.” He longs to take the final step of coming to live with us and in us.

Jennifer Ogilvie, in an article in Decision magazine, Jesus Turned My Life Around[50], tells of her conversion to Christ. After graduating from college she had got involved with drink and drugs and was soon going to clubs, getting drunk Wednesdays to Saturdays. She says, “I was miserable. I couldn’t get out of bed. I was drinking, getting stoned—and thinking about suicide." She got a real estate licence and one day a client she was taking to see a house shared with her how he had become a Christian eight months earlier and that Jesus had saved him from a $350-a-day cocaine habit. She thought, “Wow! He was deeper into drugs than I am, and Jesus helped him!” She had never heard the gospel before but wanted help so began asking God to reveal himself to her. She began listening to a Christian radio station and heard that Billy Graham was going to be in Fresno, California, to talk about Jesus. On the last night of the Crusade, 14 October, 2001, she drove 100 miles with a friend, got there late, but found seats at the top of the stadium. She says, “As Mr Graham preached about how Jesus Christ died for my sins, I felt a tug at my heart. This was the first time I had heard the full gospel—that Jesus Christ came to earth, died for me, rose again and offers me salvation. As soon as Mr Graham said, ‘Come down to the field,’ I got out of my seat and went down. I prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, send Your Holy Spirit. Come into my heart and change me. I don’t want to be me anymore. Make me new.’ I felt so alive.” She began reading her Bible daily, though it was some months before she found a solid church and Christian friends who enabled her to break completely free of drugs and alcohol. Today she works full-time at her church, “serving God with all my heart.”

She finished the article with the words, “It’s amazing that I could go twenty-four years not knowing that Christ died for me. I am so grateful for that October evening when I first learned how much Jesus loved me.”

[50] June 2004, ©.

If this kind of vital relationship with God is something you are looking for, and have not yet found, then you don’t have to go to some Crusade to find it. However, you do have to sort it out personally with God.

Maybe you could meditate on words from the famous hymn of Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, written in 1707. Charles Wesley reportedly said he would give up all his other hymns to have written this one.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

You may find it helpful to pray a prayer something like this:

God, I accept that when you created this universe and thought of me, you had a great purpose for me that stretches beyond the limitations of this mortal life. Though I don’t fully understand all that you may have planned for me in this life or the next, I accept that you love me and sent Jesus to die for me in order that I might be reconciled to you and become a member of your forever family.

Thank you, Jesus, for your great love.

Lord, I am coming home. I am sorry for my sins. I repent of them. I now accept your forgiveness and submit my life to Jesus as my Saviour and Lord.

Come into my life and begin the process of moulding me into all you planned that I should be and directing me in the path you have chosen for me.

Enable me to accept fully all that you have done for me and to be open to all that you want to do. Give me the courage and strength to live worthily of your love and to follow wherever you lead, so that I may grow in my relationship with you and make a difference in this needy world as your disciple.

                                                                                       Amen.

If this should be a new experience for you, then dig into your New Testament to see what God has in store for you. Also, look around for other members of God’s family who can be an encouragement to you, and for others looking for meaning to life with whom you can share your experience. And may God bless you on the journey.

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

Books I have found particularly useful in putting all this together

The Cross of Christ by John Stott, Inter-Varsity Press, U.K. 1986, ©.

Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday by Alan E. Lewis, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Cambridge, U.K./Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2001, ©.

The Death of Christ by James Denney, The Tyndale Press, London 1951, ©.

The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross by Leon Morris, The Tyndale Press, London, 1955, ©.

The Seven Last Words from the Cross by Fleming Rutledge, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Cambridge, U.K./Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2005, ©.

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