In All Your Getting, Get Christ

In All Your Getting, Get Christ

If anyone ever fully understood Man’s total depravity and spiritual inability, it was Jesus. If anyone ever thoroughly comprehended the constrained nature of human free will, which can only operate within the spheres of ability and desire, it was Jesus. Man can surely will whatever he desires, but he cannot freely will what he lividly despises. Jesus knew these things about Man far better than any of us.

Yet Jesus, who understood these realities better than anyone else, urged His hearers to enter into His kingdom, and to enter at once! They were outside it. He told them to enter into His kingdom. Repent, change your mind, and believe the gospel—and do it now! In Matthew 7, He told His hearers to enter into the kingdom of God by going in at the little, plain gate; it leads to God, to eternal life and to heaven. The little, plain gate He speaks about is the gospel itself, the evangel, the good news that God has sent His Son to be our Redeemer.

Now there is another option and it looks much better and much easier. But that large, ornate, impressive, other gate opens up into a broad, easy, one-way super highway to hell. So Jesus says, essentially, “Don’t go that way! Repent and believe the gospel; enter at the little gate. Walk on this narrow, winding path traveled by only a few, for it leads to eternal life and to God and to heaven.”

Jesus knew very well that most people are all concerned about the here and now, about getting what they want, all of it, and getting it now! Two of Jesus’ remarks come to mind.

First, from Matthew 16:26, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Jesus points out something many of us never think about: we not only have lots to gain in this world, but we all stand in danger of losing something far more valuable than everything else put together—we stand in danger of losing our souls, the very persons we are. This is where Christians get the term “lost” to refer to those who are not yet trusting the Lord Jesus. When we request prayer for someone who is lost, we mean someone who presently stands in danger of losing his soul forever and being condemned for all eternity because of his sin—sin unforgiven because he never changed his mind (repented) and never called upon (believed) the only Forgiver of sins. Something more valuable than “the whole world” is on the line.

The other is more of a story. We are fools to think we have all the time in the world and become enamored with stuff, especially when everything seems to be going our way. We may sit down all satisfied with ourselves and our lives, thinking, “It just can’t get any better than this,” when an unexpected eternity comes calling. When God comes calling, our souls will be “required” of us.

From Luke 12:15-21, Jesus’ words: “And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

If the truth were someday written on your tombstone, could it truly say that you were “Rich toward God”? O dear soul, it’s not too late—not yet. The living God has come in kindness to your soul yet again by the words of Christ today. Do not let another moment pass until you change your mind and gladly enter the kingdom of God and His Son. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved…” This is simply the gospel of God’s grace. Repent and believe; you will be saved.

Saved forever, not lost forever. The living God can truly change a poor sinner’s forever just like that! He did it for me. He can do it for you. –TSA