Sabrina's
Testimony
The first time I sat down to read the Bible I was looking for similarities
between Christianity and other religions. I was also looking for inconsistencies
or contradictions in the Bible. Back then; my opinion was that all religions
held the same basic view. In fact, the “One Way to God” claims
of Christians struck me as supremely intolerant.
I was well versed in many of
the classics; furthermore I had examined
different kinds of religions while in college.
But I could never fully justify my “they’re
all the same” point of view, because
I hadn’t actually studied the Bible.
If for no other reason, I owed it to myself
to read the best-selling literary work in
history…
I read the first book of the
Bible, (Genesis) then skipped over to the “New
Testament” and started reading the
book of Matthew. I had expected a set of
maxims for daily living; but instead, I read
how God came down to earth and fixed the
problem that was started in the book of Genesis.
Mankind was created with a
free will—with the choice to listen
to God’s warning about the knowledge
of evil. Getting to “know” evil
would spell certain death. Now this I could
believe… just knowing about something
evil makes me sick…but experiencing
it for myself is even worse. What was news
to me was a plan to avoid it.
It’s common sense that
a good deed doesn’t erase a bad one.
What you have is two deeds: one good and
one bad. God accepts the good, but not the
bad. Since the human race is not perfect,
we all make mistakes. I reasoned that God
should forgive us since we can’t help
our shortcomings.
Except “shortcomings” don’t
belong anywhere near a perfect God. Even
if every person on earth has got them. And
that’s the crux of the problem. If
God would tolerate our sin, mistakes & shortcomings
then His justice would no longer be perfect.
God is perfect; sin and evil are not. By
definition, perfection is totally intolerant
of imperfections. God does not tolerate evil.
Knowledge of and experience
with evil kills; it has since the beginning.
And if God lets us die for sin (something
none of us can help) how is that perfect
justice? But as I read on, it became clear
that God’s intolerance for evil sets
the stage for the greatest story ever told.
If someone could live without
making a single mistake, then sin wouldn’t
separate that person from God. If this person
would be willing to accept the penalty for
ALL the sins of the world, then justice would
be served. Separation from God (or death)
would be over. But who’s qualified
to take on the sins of the world? Who hasn’t
got a “shortcoming” of their
own that separates them from a perfect God
in the first place? There’s only one
person.
God Himself. God would have
to come down to earth in the form of a man
to do that. Jesus Christ, His totally perfect
Son is the only one qualified. Jesus Christ
experienced the separation from God that
everyone else deserved when He died on the
cross with the sins of the world attributed
to Him…not to the people who actually
committed them.
Jesus: fully God, fully man,
and totally without sin is the perfect sacrifice.
There’s no need for separation from
God (also known as death) because Jesus accepted
the ramification for sin. The proof that
death has been conquered for mankind is that
Jesus rose from the dead, opening the door
to everlasting life. But remember, mankind
was created with a free will. We make our
own decisions.
I had a choice to make: get
what I deserved for the mistakes I’ve
made, or accept God’s gift to the world,
Jesus Christ. It’s the same choice
as in the Garden of Eden. “Believe
God, trust God”, or “Pursue the
knowledge of good and evil”
What’s my point?
