Sojourner #008: The Invitation

[12] But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13, ESV)

This essay is part of a new series titled, "From the Editor's Desk", a collection of essays from Sojourner's Editor-In-Chief. Our earnest desire is that these essays might point you towards our great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

Over the years I've gained a great love for literature, writing, and books. The stories we tell mean something, and the great love of the writer is finding the one story worth telling. National Geographic and HeartCry magazines color every surface in my study, its bookshelves filled with the works of Tolkien and Lewis and Sproul and Spurgeon and McKay and Carr, half-full notebooks and Parker pens are everywhere.

Though, the one book that I’ve come to live in is the Bible. I'll explain why.

In it pages, I have come to know the God of Bible, and been forever changed by knowing Him. I've come to learn that God is holy and righteous, loving and just, and that He has worked about the salvation of His people throughout all of eternity.
The question then for each of us (as, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we have all done what is evil; none of us is holy and righteous) is how can I, can we be made right with a holy and just God (who, though He is loving and kind, cannot tolerate sin, lest He cease to be that which He is)? The answer is that we cannot, we deserve the wrath of God poured out on us for our sin. The good news of the Bible, is that salvation has come for the guilty and the oppressed and the unrighteous (you and I) in the man Jesus Christ (Christ: Messiah), the very Son of God. In His life, death, and resurrection, God has worked about salvation for all who would believe in Him / turn from their old ways to Him by faith alone.

You see, if God is loving and just, then He must hate / punish our sin, in the same way that a just judge cannot clear the guilty on the basis of his love for the accused (lest he cease then to be just). The judge, if He is just, must pass the sentence and carry out judgement on the condemned.

Therefore, any salvation or hope of it must come from outside of ourselves (for we cannot spin ourselves the right way round, pick ourselves up from our own bootstraps, or renew our standing with a holy God, as we are the transgressors), it must come from God Himself.

Our standing with God is renewed on the basis of grace, on the basis of what Jesus has done. By His life, death, and resurrection, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53).

By faith alone in Jesus Christ, in what He has accomplished on our behalf, by His act of substitution (He takes our place) we can be saved. Though we have no righteousness of our own, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are justified before God and clothed with His righteousness (Ephesians 2).

Today, I'd ask you to earnestly and honestly consider your life, consider God, consider the Bible, and above all consider what Christ Jesus has done for you; trust in Him by faith today.

That's why I have many books, but live in the Bible; for I have found life in it pages, and life to the full. Psalm 32 says, "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!"

This is the joy that I have, and I invite you to have the same.