What If I ‘Miss’ God In This Life?
Will there be a second chance?
Frankly, no other thought can be more terrifying - to have lived our lives either denying or ignoring God (perhaps only using His name as a curse word), only to stand before Him at the final judgement, and told to depart into eternal separation from Him.
It is the most difficult and gut wrenching portion in all of scripture (the Bible). It describes regret that cuts so deeply, that there will be ‘weeping’ and ‘gnashing of teeth’ as we are ushered in to the ‘lake of fire.’ Unfortunately, the Bible states that it is “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgement.” There simply will be no second chance.
The sad thing is that deep down, people KNOW. Our God created us with the ability to know and sense Him. And when we aren’t living exclusively for Him, God seems distant to us… and the symptoms are that we feel lonely, empty & unfulfilled, purposeless – but most of all very disconnected from the God who created us to experience His love. We may have everything that the world could hope for… but inside, we are spiritually dead.
But why the distance? Our sin has wedged a gap – actually a gaping chasm – between us and our God. We are ALL guilty of being sinners. And because God is all holy, He cannot allow sin (which is actually a form of spiritual debt) into heaven or to go unpaid before Him.
An even greater problem is that man is completely unable to pay his own sin-debt before God. We can’t give enough, obey the Commandments enough, pray enough, go to church enough, or be ‘good’ enough to erase our own sin before God. After all that trying, we still remain sinners – unworthy of the glory and goodness of God.
So, there is no hope? How can a just God (who MUST punish your sin) reconcile that with the fact that He loves you beyond all measure, and wants to spend an eternity with you? Even God saw this dilemma for you. And because His love for you outweighs all else, He made another way. Instead, He sent His son Jesus to pay YOUR sin-debt before Him – personally.
Only God Himself, becoming man in the flesh, possessed the holiness to live sinlessly (no other man ever had). Yet, He was subjected to death – which the Bible teaches is only the rightful penalty of sinners. So with the death of Jesus not being for His OWN sin, God can rightfully credit His death to your sin.
God’s master plan for COMPLETELY defeating your sin and death actually involved reconciling the 2 ‘seemingly’ incompatible attributes of God – His love and His justice - which were united at the cross through Jesus, where a Holy God became man for man’s sake, to die man’s death so that man could receive God’s life.
How, then, do I receive God’s forgiveness and begin living forever for Him?
- Agree with God concerning your sin – admit that you are a sinner, and that it has separated you from Him.
- Decide to turn from sin, and TO God. The Bible calls this ‘repentance,’ or a ‘turning away.’ It is drastic, and it is not easy. It involves ‘dying to yourself.’ It is the complete abandonment of all you own, all you know, all you are – you must completely die to self or you cannot be called His. This does NOT mean you never sin again. It does mean you have devoted the rest of your existence to God’s will – not your own.
- Through faith, acknowledge Jesus as God’s one and only payment for your sins – and that there is no other.
- Receive God’s life by becoming His child. Yes, you actually BELONG to Him. You are now fully restored to Him. And there is something different about you – His Holy Spirit (the same Spirit that was in Christ Jesus) is now living in you!
- Begin living a NEW life – life not according to ‘self,’ but by the Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit will be your new life. Jesus Himself will mature you and send you to others on His behalf, with this same message which has set you free, and restored life and the promise of God’s heaven to you!
- Begin studying God’s Word (the Bible), and get involved in a strong, faith-driven church. God will reveal the depths of His marvelous truth to you, and provide you opportunities to serve Him.
- Live out of the reality of heaven. Yes, you will still stumble in this life – because your flesh still desires evil. But you have the spiritual reality of having been forgiven – present, past, and future. You also have a new purpose in Christ here on this earth, as well as a new inheritance in heaven.
If you have experienced the grace of God for the first time, or have further questions, please contact us. We may also be able to assist you in finding a strong church in the area where you live – a place where you can now begin to live out your new life as a true child of your gracious heavenly Father.
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.”
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