It’s our aim in this blog post to address some
of the questions that people ask in life and to discover what the Word of God (the Bible) has to say
about it. We place real confidence in the Bible because we have become
convinced that the Bible is God’s communication to men and women and we wish people
to benefit from what God has said.
I’m
sure that most would agree that life hurts! That hurt can be caused by the normal progression from youth to old age and all the problems that come with ageing. Sickness
also brings its heartaches!
Natural disasters are devastating and destructive! To say
nothing of the dreadful treatment that people endure at the hands of their fellow
man. War and acts of terror
produce unimaginable horrors. I’m sure that at times we all question why
life is
such a difficult and a hurtful experience.
Is it wrong to question why? No it isn't. Even the Lord Jesus asked the question - why?
The first thing I’d like to say is that
“it's
not personal”. What I mean is that we do not usually suffer as individuals because
of something specific we have done. Before I go any further let me qualify
that statement. There are times in
life when we do reap what we sow.
There actually are consequences
to our actions! But all the awful
things that happen in the world are not usually the direct result of our
personal actions.
My main thought when I say it’s not personal
is this: people don’t die as a
result of some sinful thing that
they have done; old age doesn’t come because you did
something wrong. The fact that we die,
that we have sickness, that we grow
old is explained to us in the Bible. The Bible states that all
of these conditions and circumstances exist because sin came into the world. As a result of Adam, the first man, disobeying God the floodgates to all that was evil were opened. The fact that all of this is the result of the first man’s
rebellion to God is explained by the biblical statement “by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin,” Romans 5:12.
The Bible clearly teaches that God gave
man a choice:
Obey Him,
Enjoy His presence,
Enjoy all that He created for him….
But, there is a but, God warned him that the
day he ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would die. And that is what
happened! Adam
didn’t die physically but he died as
far as his relationship with God was concerned. He was dead spiritually. Sin, death, pain and suffering
became the normal experience of life. He had to work by the sweat of his
brow for everything.
Childbirth became a painful experience for the woman and the earth was
cursed. So life hurts as a result; a
fact that we know only too well.
However, what is quite incredible about the biblical story of salvation is that God
had already a plan in place. God’s
plan to provide forgiveness and to
offer salvation to men and women was devised long before time began, 1 Peter 1:
19, 20.
God had always planned to send His ‘Son to be the Saviour of the world’.
He made
sure in the writings of the Old Testament, the first half of the Bible, that we would know Him when
he visited earth. In the Old Testament, God told the prophets how to identify His Son. There were specific facts such as what family He would be born into, His distinctive and sinless lifestyle and His
mode of death. Normally how people will die is an unknown fact but God was making a point in defining how Jesus would die in advance. Psalm 22:16 and Zechariah 12:10 speak of the death penalty as crucifixion and of the
piercing of the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus which at the time was unknown. All of this information was so that when He came we would
know Him.
To me the greatest and most amazing thing about this whole thing is that God came to earth
in person. He was a real but sinless man. He suffered, He hurt and
He endured death to pay for our sin. God wants us to be forgiven therefore the price and the legal penalty for
our sin was dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ when He died upon the cross.
The Bible explains it like this: “Christ died for our sins.”, 1
Corinthians 15:3, “He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief”, Isaiah 53:3.
Today God offers us not hurt but forgiveness;
Today God offers us love.
The Bible tells us, “For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life”, John 3:16. The greatest proof
of the love of God is that, “God commends his love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, Romans 5:8.
I want to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, if you pray to God, today, confessing your sins
He will forgive
you.
I trust that you will do this.
May
God bless you!
For more information or to get in touch visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk
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