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The Amish Voice 3
had been paid for by Jesus Christ
Himself! My own efforts were useless,
because Jesus had already done
everything that was needed for my sins to
be forgiven.
11
And every priest
standeth daily
ministering
and
offering
oftentimes
the same
sacrifices,
which can
never take
away sins:
The priests in the
Old Testament had to
offer hundreds of sacrifices
every day for the sins of the people,
and even that could not take away their
sins.
12
But this man,
(Jesus)
after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins for
ever, sat down on the right hand of
God;
13
From henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool.
14
For by one offering he hath
perfected for ever them that are
sanctified.
Once again, the words of the Bible hit
home. The words
once
and
forever
kept
coming up:
Once for all. . . . One
sacrifice for sins forever. . . . By one
offering. . . .
Slowly the truth dawned on
me. Christ had made one sacrifice for my
sins, and that was all it took. Nothing
more was needed to pay for my sins,
because He had finished the job. I could
do nothing to add to His sacrifice to make
it better. I suddenly realized that all the
months and years of trying to please God
by living a good Christian life had
absolutely no value in paying for my sins.
I realized that while I had been waiting
on God to forgive my sins and save me,
He had already paid for my sins through
the sacrifice of Jesus, and He was waiting
on me to believe it. The problem had not
been that God did not want to save me;
the problem was that I was so busy trying
to live a good life to impress God that I
didn’t have time to accept
what He had already
done for me.
I now saw and
understood
that
my
salvation
was sure
and secure
because it
rested
on
what
Jesus
had done, not
what I did. As time
went on and I continued
to study the Bible, I became more
and more convinced and persuaded of
this. There were many times when I took
my eyes off Christ and His sacrifice and
tried to keep God happy by being a good
Christian. Every time, though, I would
come to the point where I would once
again long for the peace that came from
simply trusting in Jesus, and I would
return to the cross, where I was
guaranteed to have freedom. All my life I
had been taught that I had to be a good
person to please God, and now I had to
retrain my mind to understand that my
goodness could never be good enough.
It took some time for me to learn how to
live in this new reality of depending upon
the work of Jesus instead of upon my
own works. Often in desperation I went
back to the Bible, again looking for the
answer, and every time it pointed me to
Jesus. Slowly, I learned to walk by faith
in Jesus, to trust Him day by day as all
that I needed to stand before God.
As I grew in this faith, I became more
and more confident and bold in Christ,
and I learned how to stand strong in faith
against the doubt and fear that kept trying
to come into my heart. I learned to love
Jesus more and more, and as I followed
Him and continued to believe Him, I
discovered that sin, although it was still
as much of a temptation as before, was
losing its power over me.
Today, I testify that I have peace with
God because of Jesus Christ. I can look
death square in the face and not be afraid
of it, because Jesus has gone before me
into death and has taken the keys of death
from Satan. He has finished all the work
that was required to pay for my sins and
to get me into heaven, into the very
presence of God.
He is sitting at God’s right hand, praying
for me before the Father, waiting for me
to arrive safely in heaven. I do not have
to simply hope that I will be lucky
enough to make it; I know I will make it,
not because I lived a good enough life,
but because Jesus made a good enough
sacrifice for me. I do not trust in my own
righteousness; I trust in the righteousness
of God, given to me on my behalf.
John 3:35
The Father loveth the Son,
and hath given all things into his
hand.
36
He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth
on him.
To order a free copy of
My Story
—in
booklet form—please contact us:
Call (419) 962-1515, or send a note to:
The
Amish
Voice,
P.O. Box
128,
Savannah,
OH 44874
—End—
Part 4 is coming up in the next issue.