Eric Casagrande     /         Genelyn Novabos

 

 

Jesus Christ:  The Way, Truth & Life

  

My friends, I did not come here today, to talk with you about religion. I did not come here today to tell you about some terrific new philosophy. Nor is it my intention to speak to you about the need for good moral values.

I came here for one reason, and one reason only – to share with you the utterly fantastic news concerning God’s great love for the world, as shown through the person of Jesus Christ.

Prior to the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ was God’s perfect plan of salvation, by which to redeem a fallen, sinful world, that was totally lost and without hope (1 Peter 1: 18-20):

 

“Forasmuch as you know that you were not

redeemed with corruptible things, as silver

and gold, from your vain conversation

received by tradition from your fathers.

 

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of

a lamb without blemish and without spot:

 

Who was verily foreordained before the

foundation of the world, but was manifest

in these last times for you.“

 

He is the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14: 6). But Jesus Christ is not just one way out of many ways … He is the only way. He is not one half-truth out of many truths … He is the only truth. Neither is He one life out of many billions who have come and gone on planet Earth … Jesus Christ is the only life. In fact, it is highly impossible to reach unto God the Father by any other means, except through Him. In John 3: 16-18, it says:

 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only

begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him

should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

For God did not send His Son into the world to

condemn the world; but that the world through

Him might be saved.

 

He that believes on Him is not condemned, but

he that does not believe is condemned already,

because he has not believed on the Name of

the only begotten Son of God.“

 

My friends, only someone who is completely without sin, and righteous in the eyes of God, can die for the sins of someone else. A liar cannot die for the sins of another liar. A thief cannot die for the sins of another thief. A murderer cannot die for the sins of another murderer. Therfore it seems to be an impossible task for man to be redeemed, because at no point in all of human history, had anyone been able to fully adhere to the more than 600 commands and laws of God, so as to be declared sinless.

Paul gives evidence to this in Romans 3: 10-12, when he says:

 

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one.

 

There is none who understands, there is no one

who seeks after God.

  

They are all gone out of the way, they are together

become unprofitable; there is no one who

does good, no, not one.“

 

But how did mankind arrive at such a desperate situation?

While in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with God. They had access to all of His resources. They had fellowship with God. The Bible tells us that God would even come down to meet with Adam on a daily basis, and walked with him in the cool of the day. They lacked nothing, and lived in a supernatural manner, by today’s standards.

Adam and Eve had perfect consciousness of God. There was no evil to be feared - all they knew was peace. All they saw each and every day was the goodness of God, and what He had done. None of the sickness and disease, none of the poverty, and none of the many other terrible things we know today, existed in their environment.

But then one day … it happened. They were deceived by the devil, and sinned against God through partaking of the forbidden fruit. They ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and suddenly their eyes became opened, and they knew of their nakedness.

Their first reaction after having fallen into sin, was quite similar to the way in which most people might act today – they tried to cover it up and hide their sin. For in Genesis 3: 7 it says:

 

“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they

knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig

leaves together, and made themselves aprons.“

 

You see my friends, the fig leaves symbolize the way mankind tries to cover up its sin. But it couldn’t be hidden, and now a terrible new law entered into their environment – namely, the law of sin and death – and it robbed them of every good thing given to them by God.

The moment at which sin entered the world, something started to change on the inside of them. They became ashamed due to their nakedness, which is symbolic of sin. Fear seized control of their hearts, and they became afraid of God – even though nothing had changed in terms of His tremendous love for them – and they hid amongst the trees of the Garden (Genesis 3: 9-10).

My friends, this is exactly how sin works. It starts by trying to manipulate the thoughts and intents of your heart, in order to cause you to question the goodness and faithfulness of God. Then after you fall, it manipulates you further, via thoughts of guilt and condemnation … trying to pull you away from God. The whole end game is to make you feel so horrible or unworthy, that you don’t have the nerve to communicate with God.

Now if you don’t study to learn the Word of God, and if you aren’t born-again, or if you are but don’t realize who you are in Christ and who He is in you as a result of the new birth, then instead of taking the right course of action and running towards God – your natural inclination will be to run from God. When you do this, my friends, you are in big trouble, because now your very line of communication with God the Father is broken.

When a person is without Jesus Christ and trapped in their sin, every part of their understanding becomes darkened. They are apart from the life of God, and have no idea of who He is, or what He is all about. Their heart is blind to their need for Him. They develop a twisted understanding of the difference between right and wrong.

My friends, it is impossible for us to either understand God or know who He is, apart from having a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. It absolutely cannot be accomplished on its own. Jesus Christ is the express image of God. He came to this earth in the flesh, to reveal the very nature of God Almighty to all mankind, and restore our relationship with Him.

Did you ever stop and wonder about why there are so many hundreds of religions in the world, if there is but one God? There is Buddhism, Islam, Confucius, Hinduism, and too many others to mention at this time. But despite what the world might have you believe, all these different religions will never lead you to the same God. The real truth of the matter is that there is but one living God, and we can only reach Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. In fact Peter tells us this in Acts 4: 12 when he says:

 

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is

no other name under heaven given among men,

whereby we must be saved.“

 

Now there is one interesting thing, however, that all of the world religions do have in common. They were all contrived by sinful men, desperate to fill the great void within their heart. They need to find both the meaning as well as the purpose of their existence. They want to know that, at the end of the day, both themselves and everything around them, are not here by accident.

So my friends, the great multitude of world religions and philosophies were born out of man’s need to reach up into the sky, and somehow grab ahold of God Himself.

But there are two very serious problems with this plan. First of all, they don’t have any idea of who God might be. Then secondly, if they don’t know who God is, how can they know the way to go by which to find Him?

It should be quite easy to see that man cannot magically discover God, by his own weak efforts. For the eyes of his understanding are blind, and his heart has become darkened, because of sin. They need someone else to point the way for them, as Romans 10: 14-15 tells us:

 

“How shall they call on Him in whom they have not

believed? And how shall they believe in Him of

whom they have not heard? And how shall they

hear without a preacher?

 

And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them

that preach the gospel of peace, and bring

glad tidings of good things.“

 

So what makes Christianity (as the Bible defines it), different from all other world religions and philosophies? Well first of all, as it says on our website, it’s not about a religion … it’s about a relationship.

Secondly, the bible is the only book in the entire world, that contains fulfilled prophecy, about specific events. Over and over again, it foretold events which later happened, sometimes many centuries into the future.

However, there is not even one fulfilled prophecy that can be found in the sayings of Buddha. There is not one fulfilled prophecy to be found within the Koran. Not even one. There is not one fulfilled prophecy found in the Hindu Varda. There is no fulfilled prophecy in the Book of Mormon. Not one.

Yet in the Bible, there are literally hundreds of fulfilled prophecies. There are more than 300 concerning the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. There are prophecies about individual people, and about cities, and about many nations. But a false god cannot predict the future. A false god does not know what is going to happen. This is why none of the world religions have any fulfilled prophecy in their books.

But there is an even greater difference between Christianity, and all of the world’s religions. In the world religions, it is man who unsuccessfully tries to reach up into the sky, and grab ahold of God. But in Christianity, it is God Himself who reached down to man, and came into the world in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ!

What God did, through the person of Jesus Christ, is everything!

Yet my friends, it saddens me to say that many people today do not know about the fantastic news of God’s love for them, as was clearly evidenced, through the person of Jesus Christ. This is especially true even within the Church! Many people continue the hopeless struggle of trying to reach God all on their own, trying to get to heaven by doing some good works. They hope that, when it is all over, when everything is said and done, their good deeds will somehow outweigh their bad ones.

Some people might say: “Well … I know that I’m not perfect, but I still do the very best that I can. I’ve never killed anyone. I think I’m a pretty good person. You should see what my neighbor is like … I know that I’m better than him.”

But if you believe that you’re a good person all by yourself, then allow me to ask you a question: “By whose definition, and by whose standards do you think you are good? Is it by your definition of good – or by God’s? Is it by your standards – or by God’s?”

Someone else might say: “Well I have moral values. I guess that makes me a Christian.”

My friend, you can never become a Christian simply by having principles or moral values. You see, here is the massive problem with morality and principles: It changes from one person to the next. There is no specific standard of measurement by which to make judgment. Morality is based simply on how a single individual thinks or feels, at a specific moment in time. It does not even remain constant from day to day, but is subject to change, based on moods or circumstances.

Doing good works, or being a “moralistic” person, will never save you – not even with the best of intentions on your part. You can wear a gold cross on your neck, and you can put the name of God on your money, but my friend I can tell you with full assurance … they don’t mean a thing!

It is only through faith in the shed blood, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, that will lead us to a restored relationship with God the Father, as it is written in 2 Corinthians 5: 21 where it says:

 

“For God has made him to be sin for us, who

knew no sin; that we might be made the

righteousness of God in him.“

 

The righteousness of God! Now that is perfection, my friends!

Although we deserved to be condemned to death for our sins, instead, through the person of Jesus Christ, we received the righteousness of God (Philippians 3: 9). We became children of the living God – a new species of being which never existed previously – and treated as though we have never sinned, all because of the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross (John 1: 12-13):

 

“But as many as received him, to them he gave

power to become the sons of God, even

to them that believe on his name.

 

Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of

man, but of God.“

 

Now that is love, my friends!

God did it all for you. He willingly gave His only Son, in order that you would be saved, and have a restored relationship with Him, forever! In the eyes of God it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, or the color of your skin. No matter what you have done in your life, God gave everything that He had for you, in the person of Jesus Christ. Absolutely everything!

I would encourage any one of you, who has never received Christ into their heart, to call upon Him now to save you, and give you eternal life.

He will answer your prayers, my friend! I promise you!

Oh Hallelujah!

 

 

 

 

HOME