Psalm 25:12

What makes a person acceptable to God? The path to redemption begins not with the decision to live a better life or to stop doing something wrong, but with the realization that we cannot correct our sinful nature. To find favor with the Lord, we must grasp that it’s impossible to make ourselves righteous; instead, we need to depend on the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. When we trust in Christ as our Savior, God the Father applies the benefit of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice to our sin debt, thereby making us “saved,” or acceptable in His eyes.

Your good works and righteous acts are of absolutely no value in the mind of God. Compared to others’ actions, your generosity and good works might seem like enough to bring favor with the Lord, but Jesus said, “Not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:9). When you stand before God, the only way you can be forgiven of your sins is through Jesus Christ and His sacrificial, substitutionary atoning death at Calvary. Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Jesus’ public crucifixion was a demonstration of God’s hatred for sin and immense love for mankind. He who was blameless bore the penalty for all in order that wicked, corrupt people could be made righteous.

No matter what you’ve done, you can be cleansed of the stain left by sin. Confess any known transgressions and turn from them; then Jesus will forgive you and write your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life (1 John 1:9; Rev. 21:27). By trusting in Him, you are assured of eternity in His presence

A common claim made by many atheists is that religion causes evil, suffering, division and war. For example, at the Munk Debate in Toronto last November, Christopher Hitchens argued this very point against Tony Blair. Religion, Hitchens claimed, causes sectarianism, division, strife, disagreement, war, poverty and a host of societal evils. In his best-selling book, God is Not Great, Hitchens even wrote that “religion poisons everything.”

How might a Christian respond? Well, first, I’d point out there’s a major problem with Hitchens’ argument. You could remove the word “religion” from his statement “religion poisons everything” and replace it with many other words. Politics, for example. Politics causes division, bloodshed, argument, and war. Politics poisons everything. Or what about money? Money causes crime, resentment, bloodshed, division and poverty. Money poisons everything.

You see the problem is that atheists like Christopher Hitchens have built their worldview on the idea that human beings are essentially good and that the world is getting better—a kind of naïve utopianism. But the world isn’t like that, is it? Rather, it seems to be the case that whatever human beings lay hold off, they use to cause damage. That applies to money, politics, government, science—and religion. The problem is not with religion or politics, the problem is not out there somewhere, the problem lies in here, in the human heart.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian novelist and political commentator, who survived the Russian gulags and wrote with amazing insight into the human condition, once famously said this: “The dividing line between good and evil runs right through the middle of every human heart.” What the world needs, as an answer to violence and injustice, poverty and pain, is not a clever philosophy, not a religious system, not a new politic, not more money, more education—none of these will fundamentally change anything. Rather, it needs individual transformation, a radical transformation of the human heart. Only Jesus Christ offers that possibility if we are willing to surrender our lives to him.

I often find it interesting to point out to my atheist friends that Jesus himself was also anti-religion. He regularly clashed with the religious leaders of his day because he saw empty religion as powerless, damaging, and enslaving. Ultimately that stance led to his crucifixion. And Christians, of course, cannot talk about suffering and evil, pain, and violence, without talking about the example of Jesus, one to whom violence was done. His example has inspired millions if not billions of Christians to give sacrificially, to love their neighbors, to engage in peace making. One of the most powerful recent examples was the Amish School Shooting in 2006. Not only did the families of the victims publically forgive the perpetrator and offer pastoral support to his family, they set up a trust fund to help the wife of the shooter, who had killed himself too. Only Jesus Christ offers the transformative power that makes that kind of choice possible.

Andy Bannister is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Toronto, Canada.

Morning     “He was numbered with the transgressors.”

Isaiah 53:12

Why did Jesus suffer himself to be enrolled amongst sinners? This wonderful

condescension was justified by many powerful reasons. In such a character he

could the better become their advocate. In some trials there is an

identification of the counsellor with the client, nor can they be looked upon in

the eye of the law as apart from one another. Now, when the sinner is brought to

the bar, Jesus appears there himself. He stands to answer the accusation. He

points to his side, his hands, his feet, and challenges Justice to bring

anything against the sinners whom he represents; he pleads his blood, and pleads

so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the

Judge   proclaims, “Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit,

for he hath found a ransom.” Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors

in order that they might feel their hearts drawn towards him. Who can be afraid

of one who is written in the same list with us? Surely we may come boldly to

him, and confess our guilt. He who is numbered with us cannot condemn us. Was he

not put down in the transgressor’s list that we might be written in the red roll

of the saints? He was holy, and written among the holy; we were guilty, and

numbered among the guilty; he transfers his name from yonder list to this black

indictment, and our names are taken from the indictment and

written in the roll of acceptance, for there is a complete transfer made

between Jesus and his people. All our estate of misery and sin Jesus has taken;

and all that Jesus has comes to us. His righteousness, his blood, and everything

that he hath he gives us as our dowry. Rejoice, believer, in your union to him

who was numbered among the transgressors; and prove that you are truly saved by

being manifestly numbered with those who are new creatures in him.

 

Evening     “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.”

Lamentations 3:40

The spouse who fondly loves her absent husband longs for his return; a long

protracted separation from her lord is a semi-death to her spirit: and so with

souls who love the Saviour much, they must see his face, they cannot bear that

he should be away upon the mountains of Bether, and no more hold communion with

them. A reproaching glance, an uplifted finger will be grievous to loving

children, who fear to offend their tender father, and are only happy in his

smile. Beloved, it was so once with you. A text of Scripture, a threatening, a

touch of the rod of affliction, and you went to your Father’s feet, crying,

“Show me wherefore thou contendest with me?” Is it so now? Are you content to

follow Jesus afar off? Can you contemplate suspended communion with Christ

without alarm? Can you bear to have your Beloved walking contrary to you,

because you walk contrary to him? Have your sins separated between you and your

God, and is your heart at rest? O let me affectionately warn you, for it is a

grievous thing when we can live contentedly without the present enjoyment of the

Saviour’s face. Let us labour to feel what an evil thing this is–little love to

our own dying Saviour, little joy in our precious Jesus, little fellowship with

the Beloved! Hold a true Lent in your souls, while you sorrow over your hardness

of heart. Do not stop at sorrow! Remember where you first received

salvation. Go at once to the cross. There, and there only, can you get your

spirit quickened. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead we may have

become, let us go again in all the rags and poverty, and defilement of our

natural condition. Let us clasp that cross, let us look into those languid eyes,

let us bathe in that fountain filled with blood–this will bring back to us our

first love; this will restore the simplicity of our faith, and the tenderness of

our heart.

 

I called him, but he gave no answer.     Song of Songs 5:6

Prayer sometimes lingers, like a petitioner at the gate, until the King comes with the blessings that she seeks. The Lord, when He has given great faith, has been known to test it by long delays. He has allowed His servants’ voices to echo in their ears as if the heavens were brass. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, “You have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.”3

In this manner true saints have continued to wait patiently without a reply, not because their prayers were not strong, nor because they were unaccepted, but because it so pleased Him who is a Sovereign and who gives according to His own pleasure. If it pleases Him to test our patience, shall He not do as He wishes with His children? Beggars must not be choosers either as to time, place, or form.

But we must be careful not to take delays in prayer for denials. God’s postdated checks will be punctually honored; we must not allow Satan to shake our confidence in the God of truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers. Unanswered petitions are not unheard. God keeps a file for our prayers–they are not blown away by the wind; they are treasured in the King’s archives. This is a registry in the court of heaven in which every prayer is recorded.

Struggling believer, your Lord has as it were a tear-bottle in which the costly drops of your sacred grief are put away, and a book in which your holy groanings are numbered. By-and-by your case shall prevail. Can you not be content to wait a little? Will the Lord’s time not be better than yours? By-and-by He will comfortably appear, to your soul’s joy, and will cause you to put away the sackcloth and ashes of long waiting and put on the scarlet and fine linen of full fruition.

3 Lamentations 3:44

The family reading plan for March 29, 2012

Proverbs 16 | Philippians 3