Life Assurance - Tad Dykes (1 Oct 1997) (original) (raw)

Tony said and I whole-heartily agree:

"Do you wonder why you are wearing yourself out in the Master's service? Maybe you're forgetting to eat properly. None of us needs to go on a diet, as far as Christ is concerned. On the contrary, we must fatten outselves up, feasting on the gospel, in order to have maximum strength. So do you want nearness to Christ, union with him, love for his people, and strength for his service? Then start today with a healthy breakfast - with Jesus himself."

This is a wonderful and challenging site for me. I've been "feasting" here for months, However, I'm certain that not all visitors to this site are able to "digest" the meat that is offered. There's a need to present the simple and easily digestible gospel, and that is this: that the Bible is God�s primary communication tool to the world. And in it, He has clearly stated that He created us to have fellowship with Him, but sin (ie. disobedience to God) caused us all to be eternally separated from Him, God is just and our condition demands justice.

The penalty for sin is death, no amount of good deeds on our part can reduce that sentence. But the good news (Gospel) is this, God loves us and doesn�t want any of us to be separated from Him. Because we cannot save ourselves, God created The Way for anyone who desires to restore their fellowship with Him. He accomplished this through the voluntary death of His only son Jesus. Jesus' death is the alternate payment of our penalty for sin; because being both fully God and fully man(John 1), He lived as we did yet without sin, and after three days, Jesus rose from the dead, demonstrating His power over death. When Jesus died, he took upon Himself the sins of the world offering Himself sacrificially as a free gift to save us from our condition. Everyone who accepts God's gift is adopted into His family forever with Him as their Father. God promises to send His Holy Spirit to dwell inside His children as their comforter and guide through this life, while He prepares a place in Heaven for each of them.
Accepting God's offer is done through prayer, which is simply talking to God. In an article called "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" elsewhere on this site, Tony has a wonderful suggested prayer for anyone who desires to accept God's solution to our condition:

If you prayed this prayer in faith, you can be assured that you now possess eternal life. And you can look with hope like the rest of us to His soon return. By faith I mean saving faith. We can believe a chair can support us, but until we rest ourselves in it, we are not demonstrating faith. God asks that we demonstrate this type of faith regarding his gift. The time is short, and it is well said that "the opportunity of a lifetime, must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity".