The Need

Posted by on December 18, 2008 under Bulletin Articles

We need forgiveness! This forgiveness must not be a “one time” event but a continuing state. Stated simply, we cannot “be good” in the sense that God is good. We “goofed”! We repeatedly “goofed”! If God wiped our slates clean but once, we would sin again. None of us are even aware of all our sins! We sin “ignorantly” constantly!

Long ago it was commonly believed that God forgave once-at baptism. Once God forgave, He forgave no more. There arose the practices of (1) guessing when you would die and (2) postponing baptism until anticipated “death time.” Why? So the person might receive God’s forgiveness when he had little time to sin and did not wish to sin. The problems: (1) People delayed baptism too long by dying sooner than expected, (2) God was completely misunderstood, and (3) Sin was completely misunderstood. The result: people lived and died in anxiety, not the peace Jesus came to bring.

Obedience does not earn salvation. It says, “Thank you!” to God for what He did for us in Jesus Christ. No human act places God in debt. We cannot earn anything. We serve God wholeheartedly because we deeply appreciate what God did for all in Christ through Jesus’ death. The more we see our need for forgiveness, the more appreciative we are of God’s gift. The more we fail to see our sinfulness, the more arrogant we become.

We needed an enduring solution that worked. In Christ we find God’s enduring solution that works-regardless of who we are, what we did, and how much we need to grow.