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The Amish Voice 10
—Continued from page 9—
You see, the law was put in place for the following reasons:
we can never measure up to God and His requirements.
the law helped us see our great need for Christ.
And now that Christ has come, we are no longer under the school
teacher (law). Unless of course you would rather continue beating
yourself up in reaching perfection by living under the law.
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus”
—
What makes us part of God’s family? Faith in Christ!
What makes us brothers and sisters? Faith
in Christ!
What makes us justified before God? Faith
in Christ!
The story is told of a man who cried out for help
as he dangled helplessly from the edge of the
cliff. "Can anyone up there help me?"
"Yes," answered a heavenly voice. "I'll help you,
but first you must let go"
"Let go!" gasped the man. "But then I'd fall!"
"I'll catch you," replied the voice.
After a long pause, the man called out, "Can any-
one else up there help me?"
This story illustrates mankind's refusal to accept God's offer of salva-
tion. Rather than accepting God's faith way to salvation, people cry
out for another way. Paul had clearly taught the Galatians that
faith in
Christ
was the only way.
Simple
faith in Christ
can be scary because it seems so easy. It seems
too simple to let go of the rope of good works and have a faith rela-
tionship with God.
So what did the Galatians do? They listened to the false teachers who
taught that letting go of the rope of self-effort was foolish.
These false teachers convinced the gullible Galatians that they can
have heaven and a relationship with God by clinging to good works.
The Apostle Paul, who was called to the Gentile nation, kept looking
back over his shoulder and wondering about his own people, the
Jews, who were trying so hard to become justified by their good
works. In Romans chapter 9, he wrote:
I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I
could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my breth-
ren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Paul would have willingly given his salvation up
for the sake of his own people, and gone to an
everlasting hell. In the very next chapter, chapter
10:1-4, he wrote again:
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God
for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I
bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge. For they be-
ing ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the right-
eousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that be-
lieveth.
Maybe you too have been hanging onto the rope of righteousness,
afraid to let go, for fear no one would catch you. If you have, please
let go. I promise, God will catch you. Have faith!
Ephesians 2:8-9 says:
For by grace are ye saved
through faith
;
and that
not of yourselves
: it is the gift of God: Not of works,
lest any man should boast.
—Joe Keim
—Continued from page 8 (End of the World)—
At the end of the 1000 years, Satan will be released,
defeated again, and then cast into the lake of fire
(Revelation 20:7-10). At this point, the end of the
world described in 2 Peter 3:10 occurs. The Bible tells
us several things about this event.
First, it will be disastrous in scope. The “heavens”
refers to the physical universe – the stars, planets, and
galaxies—which will be consumed by some kind of
tremendous explosion, possibly a nuclear or atomic
reaction that will consume and obliterate all matter as
we know it. All the elements that make up the uni-
verse will be melted in the “fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:12).
This will also be a noisy event, described a “great noise” There will
be no doubt as to what is happening. Everyone will see and hear it
because we are also told that “the earth and everything in it will be
laid bare.”
Then God will create a “new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation
21:1), which will include the “New Jerusalem” (v. 2), the capital city
of heaven, a place of perfect holiness, which will come down from
heaven and descend to the new earth. This is the city where the
saints—those whose names were written in the “Lamb’s book of
life” (Revelation 13:8)—will live forever. Peter refers to it as “the
home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
Perhaps the most important part of Peter’s descrip-
tion of that day is his question in verses 11-12:
Seeing then that all these things shall be dis-
solved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for
and hasting unto the coming of the day of God,
wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dis-
solved, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat? —2 Peter 3:11-12
For Christians, this means we should live our lives in
such a way that we reflect our understanding of what is going to
happen. This life is passing away quickly, and our focus should be on
the new heavens and earth to come. Our “holy and godly” lives
should be a testimony to those who do not know the Savior, and we
should be telling others about Him so they can escape the terrible fate
that awaits those who reject Him. We wait in eager anticipation for
God’s
“Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come. —1 Thess 1:10
This question and answer article was taken from the book, GOT
QUESTIONS? Reprinted with permission.
http://www.gotquestions.org