God is love, but all men have sinned. That sin established a non-negotiable separation; people were permanently split off from God. While humanity was created to be in relationship with God it was completely broken, shattered, “humpty-dumptied” if you will.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
could not connect people to God again.
But there was a way that was put in play.
When a sinless person died for men
then could men connect to God again.
God sent his son Jesus at Christmas to die 33 years later on a Jewish holiday called Passover to rise and make a day known as Easter. That was how he made a way through the barrier of separation. That was what we now see he had planned from the beginning of time to restore that which would be lost when his creations rebelled in a place called the Garden of Eden.
Jesus said when he was lifted up he would draw all men to himself. In one of Peter’s letters he said that God is not slow in returning as some understand slowness, but is patient not wanting any to perish. From passages like these I see that all people are drawn by God to himself. Some are drawn many times and some few, but all are drawn. God is not indifferent to anyone; each person is God’s unique creation, and because of that there is no person anywhere that God has missed or overlooked or is disinterested in. Race, gender, etc. are varieties he has made, that he values, and traits which have no bearing on his love for the people.
There remains a crucial step in this process. While the account is settled each person must accept the payment given on their behalf. Each person must learn of their sin. They must recognize that cosmic rebellion (to borrow a phrase I heard R.C. Sproul use) and accept God’s cosmic payment. Then they can be brought back into renewed relationship with God.
So God loves all, desires all come to repentance, and draws all men to him.
In this drawing each person is given a point or points of awareness and conviction. In those moment(s) they are given enough insight, enough personal awareness and enough strength to respond. But…they must respond. Just like you have to approve updates on your Android or Apple products you have to accept the offer God gives.
There are many around me with a variety of beliefs, but we are all alike under sin. There is no one righteous, each of us has turned to our own way. In the mid-1990’s while sitting at Pizza Hut in Augusta, Georgia fellow named Bill Pearson said to me that some have turned away to good things and some to bad, but all of us have turned away. All need to turn back and God facilitates this. He gathers the bits and pieces of our eggshells and fixes our Humpty-Dumpty lives.
What about you?
Are you in pieces? God has good glue and he’s a lot more effective than the king’s horses and the king’s men at putting people together again. Salvation is step one. Without re-entering into a relationship with God you remain in a bad fix, the permanent fix and that train does not ride tracks to heaven. Below are the steps of what is called the Roman road, for it is taken from the book of Romans.
- Romans 3:23 >> “3 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (ESV link)
- Glory of God means relationship with God; heaven. All have fallen short of God’s mark
- Romans 5:8 >> “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (ESV link)
- God made a way. “But there was a way put into play.” See that poem above.
- Romans 6:23 >> “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (ESV link)
- Sin pays. It pays with death. The Bible says that people who die don’t just go to a “better place.”
- The Christmas gift was Jesus and that gift is free for all of us. Accept that gift and then you begin life, now, in a “better place.” Now don’t twist that and think life as a Christian is rosy. It will be tough. A bed of roses is not promised, but carrying people through thorns is.
- Romans 10:9-10,13 >> “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved… 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (ESV link)