consequences. God cannot compromise on His moral standards, but He does not want you to perish. This is why He sent Jesus to die on the Cross on the first Good Friday.
The cartoons of Mohammed issued recently caused a world wide fury. The Bible Text Publicity Mission would never publish anything that defames another person’s religion. I remember however cartoons of God that sometimes appear in our papers. They show a dozy old man sitting on a cloud. Some of us feel that if, say, our mum gets cancer, that it is the equivalent of God leaning down from His cloud and hitting us with a big stick. “What has Mum done to deserve this?!” we ask in anger.
Jesus is telling us that God does not have a big stick. He is a real Father, not a feeble caricature. He has a Father’s love for all the people He has created. Jesus bore your punishment and mine on the Cross. This is why God can forgive us.
But we need faith. It cannot be an airy fairy faith. It has to be absolute confidence in a person. Jesus is that person. It is not enough to believe in God. We have to believe in Jesus and in His saving work on the cross.
The next key idea is –
18 "There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust him to save them. But those who don't trust him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God.
19 Their sentence is based on this fact: that the Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
The cartoons of Mohammed issued recently caused a world wide fury. The Bible Text Publicity Mission would never publish anything that defames another person’s religion. I remember however cartoons of God that sometimes appear in our papers. They show a dozy old man sitting on a cloud. Some of us feel that if, say, our mum gets cancer, that it is the equivalent of God leaning down from His cloud and hitting us with a big stick. “What has Mum done to deserve this?!” we ask in anger.
Jesus is telling us that God does not have a big stick. He is a real Father, not a feeble caricature. He has a Father’s love for all the people He has created. Jesus bore your punishment and mine on the Cross. This is why God can forgive us.
But we need faith. It cannot be an airy fairy faith. It has to be absolute confidence in a person. Jesus is that person. It is not enough to believe in God. We have to believe in Jesus and in His saving work on the cross.
The next key idea is –
18 "There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust him to save them. But those who don't trust him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God.
19 Their sentence is based on this fact: that the Light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
