Toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, a lawyer asked Him a question, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.’ [Matt 22:36-39]
Most people who say they believe in God only make a nod to God. This becomes obvious during the religious holidays of Christmas and Easter. They take God off one of the shelves of their life and attend services, or they use Him during the year like one would use a genie. That hardly qualifies for loving God with all your heart, soul, or mind. Jesus said, ” No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other.” [Luke 16:13] If God is not God of all, the question is, is He God at all?
Furthermore, one can only come to God through His Son Jesus Christ. The only way to know God and love Him is through His Son. He is the mediator. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” [1 Tim 2:5-6] ‘Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”’ [John 14:6]
Jesus Christ is the one who opened the way for sinners to approach God by means of His sacrifice on the cross, where He was judged for our sins. “He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus was judged by God as a sinner, though He never sinned so that we could be justified by faith and declared righteous though we are sinners. “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” [Rom 3:24]
Rodney Goertzen – Senior Pastor at Countryside Bible Church
904 SW Road, Hampton, NE
