It's so easy for me having grown up in evangelicalism to only think of the Bible in religious or spiritual terms. Books are books, but when it comes to the Word of God it always seems to take on something entirely different in my head. The reality is that it IS a book, a very peculiar book that makes historical claims that have an affect on every aspect of life. Jesus - a man foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament, born of a virgin, killed by skilled Roman executioners, (no messing around, you didn't get crucified and live...) and raised from the dead, after which he appeared to many witnesses. It's history, and I recommend strongly that everyone put its claims to the test. If Jesus was raised from death as this collection of reports claims, it has implications for all men. Namely: Death is not the end, God is able to raise the dead, and the same God that raised Jesus Christ will raise every human being from the grave on the last day. And we will all stand before the living God of the universe and answer for what we have done. We are not able to stand before a perfect and just God without paying for the sins we have committed against his law. Ever lied? I have. Every stolen anything? I have. How bout coveting other peoples stuff? Guilty here, pretty sure you are too. How do I pay a perfect God back for all the times I've broken his law without any regard for the fact that I owe him the very breath that I breathe? I can't. Thanks be to God that he sent his Son to pay the penalty for those who would throw themselves on his mercy. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you WILL be saved. God has promised it, and the proof that he will fulfill his promises is the reality that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and raised from the dead. We owe everything to the one who created us, because without him we would have nothing. And we go through our days largely ignoring the fact and barely (if ever) thanking him for it all. Without someone stepping into the breach between us and the God that most of the time hardly crosses our minds we would have no hope. The wrath of God will be poured out on the ungodly. We are the ungodly. We must hide in Christ, cry out to God for mercy based on the sacrifice of his perfect Son.
Believe. Believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. Not because I tell you to, and not because you feel good about the whole thing, but because He is raised. The tomb is empty, and we have to deal with that.
Oh the precious word of God above,
That tells us of his matchless love.
I look to him 'till my last breath,
though him alone I'm free from death.
Read the Bible.
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