I decided to write this since I have my blog posted on my pinterest and I know a lot of people will click it just out of curiosity. I would like to offer you a test! Have you ever heard of the good person test? Do you think you are a good person? Let’s take a quick test to see. Are you ready? Have you ever told a lie? If you have, what does that make you? You would say a liar. Have you ever stolen anything regardless of its value? If you have, what does that make you? You would say a thief. Have you ever taken the Lord’s name in vain and/or used it as a cuss word? If you have, that’s called blasphemy. Now here’s the one that gets almost all of us. Have you ever looked at a woman/man to lust after them? I know I have. That’s adultery of the heart. Jesus said that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her/him has committed adultery already in their heart. They don’t even have to commit it physically. So by your own admission if you have done all of these things, you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart, and don’t feel bad because most of us are in the same boat. if God judged you by those things against the Ten Commandments, do you think you would be innocent or guilty? I know that I would be guilty. Do you think you would go to heaven or hell? If you are one who says, “I’ll go to heaven because God is supposed to be so loving, and God is mean if He sends anyone to hell”, well let’s use a court case as an example to show how God is…say you are standing in a courtroom in front of a judge, you’ve committed a crime and you are about to be sentenced. The judge asks you if there’s anything you want to say before he makes his ruling. You look at the judge and you say “well, I’m sorry that I did this and I know you‘re a good judge so if you’re good then you’ll let me go.” Well if the judge said ok, since you’ve said you were sorry, I’ll let you go, your crime is dismissed. Would that be right? No that judge would be thrown out. He can’t say you can go when you’ve committed a crime just because you said you were sorry, even if you really meant it. A judge is just and he upholds the law and he punishes those who commit crimes. That is the same way God is. God is good, but He’s also just and He must punish when we’ve broken the law. There must to be a standard for God because it wouldn’t be right or fair for a rapist who has murdered one thousand people to stand in heaven by a person who has spent all their lives healing people in need. The standard God goes by is
Jesus. Jesus is the path that God made for us as our atonement. It’s like this, say you’re back in the courtroom and the judge says “you’re sentenced to 75 years or $200,000.” And you say, “judge I don’t have that money .” So he gives you 75 years in jail as your sentence. Just as he’s about to slam the gavel, this man that you don’t know runs in the courtroom and says “wait! I have the money. I love this person and I sold everything I have to keep this person from going to jail. I paid the price for him.” Because this man paid the fine, the judge is allowed to release you from your debt. Why? Because the requirements have been met. That’s what Jesus did. Jesus paid the requirements of the law; He paid the price for sin. Jesus canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14). He died on the cross for us and rose again! There is no other “God” in any religion that has died to save us! And Jesus was raised to life to make us right with God (romans 4:25)! The bible says that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. It might be easy for us to lay down our life for someone we love, but would it be so easy to lay down your life for someone who has just murdered your daughter or killed your son? That’s what Jesus did. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us (Ephesians 5:2). God sent him to us, who have done everything that hurts Him and yet He still loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us. What must we do then to receive that payment that Jesus paid and be justified and go to heaven? Jesus paid the fine for humanity forever but just because he did that doesn’t mean that everyone goes to heaven. It’s a matter of receiving the gift. The bible says that people are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood for us! (Romans 3:25) if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved (Romans 10:19). God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith (Philippians 3:9). We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. (Romans 5:1) we must admit that you are sinners. We don’t deserve what Jesus did for us, we don’t deserve to stand in the presence of God, but Jesus died for us so that we can. If you’re one who says “ I believe in God and Jesus, I’m a “Christian” I’m going to heaven.” Believing isn’t enough. The bible says that even the demons believe in God. (James 2:19) Satan himself believes in God and even knows the bible word for word, but that doesn’t mean he’s saved. It’s like this, you’re on an airplane and the plane is going down,
and they give you a parachute. You could say, “ I believe in this parachute, I’ll be ok.” Just believing in the parachute isn’t going to save you. You have to put it on and jump with it on, and that will save you. It’s a matter of not just believing in God and Jesus, it’s accepting His payment and changing your life and having a relationship with Him. God loves you so much that he sent his son, Jesus, to die for you. Could you love someone, a murderer, a rapist, so much that you would sacrifice your child for them? I don’t think we could. But God did. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. The bible, which is the inspired word of God (2 Timothy 3:15 says that “all scripture is God’ breathed) teaches us that Jesus Christ is the only way to get to heaven. There is only one God, and He brings us into a relationship with Himself only by faith (romans 3:30).It’s by accepting Him as your Lord and Savior. In John 14:6 it records Jesus saying, “I am way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me”. 1 Timothy 2:5 says there is ONE GOD and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Matthew 10:32-33 says that everyone who acknowledges Jesus publicly here on earth, He will also acknowledge before His Father in heaven and everyone who denies Him here on earth, He would also deny before His Father in heaven. There is repeated scripture in the word of God that teaches us that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. When people go to hell, they go to hell with their sins already paid for. Jesus paid for every single person’s sins. People go to hell because they reject the payment that Jesus made for them. You may be saying what you have done He couldn’t forgive you for, but God says that your sins He would remember no more(Isaiah 43:25) He said He will cast your sins as far as the east is to the west (psalm 103:12). God will not only forgive you but He will forget them completely! I am going to close this letter but I want to describe you first what Jesus went through that day when He gave up his life for you and me, I pray you will see just how much Jesus loves you and what he went through for you. Before Jesus died on the cross we read in Matthew 27:26, 31 that Jesus was flogged or scourged and then crucified. In jerusalem when they prepared a man for scourging, the victim was stripped of his clothing. His hands were tied to an upright post above his head. The back, buttocks and legs were laid bare for beating. This procedure exposed the greatest area possible to inflict as much pain as possible. The instrument used in flogging was a short whip called flagrum. It consisted of a
handle, to which several cords or leather thongs were affixed, which were weighed with jagged pieces of bone or metal, to make the blow more painful and effective. A medical doctor named C. Truman Davis has described the process of flogging the body of Jesus as follows: The roman legionary would step forward with the flagrum in his hand. The heavy whip is brought down again and again across Jesus shoulders, back and legs. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then as the blows continue, they cut deeper into his tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead firs produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by the many blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped. The half fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump the stone pavement, wet with His own blood. After Jesus was scourged Matthew 27:27-31 tells us that the soldiers put a crown of thorns on His head. The scalp is one of the most vascular areas of the body which would cause a lot of bleeding. They mocked Him saying “Hail, king of the Jews”. After that, from the place of scourging, Jesus started out on the 650 yard journey bearing his own cross to Calvary. The part of the cross that was carried was the patibulum; the horizontal part which weighed between 75-115 pounds. Along the way we read that Simon of Cyrene help Jesus carry the cross to Calvary. When Jesus arrived, the crucifixion began. Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild pain relief mixture but He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus is quickly thrown down with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly but to allow some movement. The left foot is pressed backward against the other foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The patibulum is then lifted in place and at the top of it, reads “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews”. It’s nailed in place. Jesus is now crucified. He is hung completely naked before the crowd. The piercing of the
median nerve of the hands with a nail can cause pain so incredible that even morphine won’t help; it would cause severe, excruciation, burning pain, like lightning bolts traversing the arm into the spinal cord. Rupturing the foots plantar nerve with a nail would have a similarly horrible effect. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain as the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweet over the muscles knotting them in deep relentless throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fight to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally carbon dioxde builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically He is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life giving oxygen. Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint render cramps, searing pain as tissue is torn from his back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins. A deep crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress his heart. It’s almost over, the loss of tissue fluids have reached a critical level, and the compressed heart is now struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are making frantic efforts to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus can feel the chill off death creeping through His tissues. His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally He can allow His body to die. With one last surge of strength, He once again presses his torn feet against the nail, straightens his legs, takes a deeper breath and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” What part of all this did Jesus die from; exhaustion, blood loss, etc.? He died after 3 hours of crucifixion from “agony of the mind” producing rupture of the heart. He died of a literal broken heart. He took so much wrath and sin on Himself and He loved you so
much that it caused a rupture of the heart. The evidence from this comes from John 19:34 when the roman soldier pierced Jesus left side. The spear released a sudden flow of blood and water. Please know what love Jesus has for us. I didn’t write this letter to condemn you. Jesus said He came not to condemn the world but to save the world. I am no better than you. I’m just a Christian who doesn’t want to see anyone go to hell. I want everyone to know what Jesus did for us and how much He loved us. I just ask that you open your heart to what I’ve written and know that God loves you and wants you, his beautiful creation, in heaven with him. Thank you for reading this. God bless you.
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