Crushed

Let’s get something straight:

You are not good enough for Heaven. I am not even good enough for my church, my wife or my child.

If we cannot do enough good works to earn our place with a Holy God, how will we ever pay what we owe for our many sins?

Answer:

We can not.

No work we can do is good enough to pay the high price of our sins.

Five hundred years ago Martin Luther and many others sought to reform church leadership. Those protesting rejected sacramental penance of man for the true repentance of a man’s heart won back to God.

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8

 

Why did the LORD send Jesus to the Cross for my sins?

A most unattainable thing about goodness: We cannot attain it. We will always trespass. We will always sin.

 

Romans 7:

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

 

The Scriptures foretold of the coming of the Christ, who IS in the Person of Jesus.

Around 700 B.C., the Prophet Isaiah [in chapter 53] described the Savior of Israel, the Redeemer of the world:

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:10

What good work will your soul offer for your guilt?

Mark 10:

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone…

“… come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

“Then who can be saved?”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

 

Are we good enough for Heaven?

NOT without the grace of God by faith in Christ Jesus, alone.

The generous philanthropy of the greatest foundation for charity to all the causes of good can not buy Heaven and eternal life for even one unrepentant sinner without the grace of faith in Jesus Christ.

GOD gave breath to your spirit, formed you in your mother’s womb and calls you to a life by faith in the Spirit.

Fellow sinner, when will you repent of your many sins?

Are you not crushed by your sins when your mind is convicted in guilt and no good work will lift the burden from you? Do you still consider that another good work will pay the price of the Lord’s piercing and death for you?

Confess your sin before Almighty God! Bow down your selfish will before Christ Jesus. Repent once more, dear fellow sinner. Turn back to the righteousness of our loving Father.

For God intends for your brief journey here beneath the immeasurable heavens and timeless creation to glorify your Lord. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Let us confess that we among many cannot do good without the grace of God.

We are saved by faith alone: in Christ Jesus, the only Son, One with the Father.

Humble your failing flesh to guidance of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, eternal Judge of all mortal souls.

REPENT! Self-righteous sinner.

Turn back to the LORD by faith in Christ Jesus,

While it is yet today;

Before you are crushed

By sin and death,

Before your good legacy becomes

Another forgotten rotting vanity.