4.5.23
Hey, Calvary Fremont –
Non-Christians have a lot more faith than Christians.
Some people tell us that they are not people of faith – but this is not so. Everyone trusts in something. Everyone is a person of profound faith.
If you’re not trusting in Christ to save you, you’re trusting in your own goodness. Many people believe that if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds, 51% to 49%, they’ll make it heaven. God will be standing there with a big smile saying, “I knew you could do it!”
Some trust in their own reasoning that there is no afterlife. This is a position of faith – not of evidence or even of reason.
Some believe that God will take everyone to heaven – except maybe Hitler and their mother-in-law. This, too, is a position of faith – not of evidence or logic.
Can you prove, give evidence that if you’re good enough God will take you to heaven, or that there is no afterlife, or that God eventually lets everyone in? Prove it. Demonstrate it. You can’t! Everyone is a person of profound faith – even you.
The issue isn’t whether or not you have faith, but whether you’re trusting in what is reliable. “Well, Pastor Tim, how do you know that you trust in that which is reliable?” Because Jesus is risen from the dead! He has conquered sin and death and hell and the grave and the devil! There is so much more evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ than there is that trusting in your own goodness opens heaven for you. There is so much demonstrable proof for Jesus rising from the dead on the third day than there is for evidence that there is no after life or that there is one and everybody goes to heaven.
We have the testimony of the eye-witnesses to the risen Jesus! Where is firsthand testimony to the thought that your good works earn heaven, or that there is no heaven, or that everybody goes to heaven? These are faith positions. And since there is more demonstrable evidence for the resurrection of Jesus that for these other positions, it requires more faith to believe them than it does to trust in Jesus. Christ is risen from the dead – risen for you. He appeared to Mary Magdalene and then to two people walking in the country and then to the disciples and then to 500, and then to Saul – the persecutor of the church. May the risen Christ appear to you. He is risen – He is risen indeed!
Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim
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