The Bible Is Our Road Map
The Gideons are our church’s ministry of the month for September. This past Sunday, we had the privilege of hearing a message from Jim Miller, one of our members, who is actively involved in the Gideons Ministry.
Their mission is to win others for the Lord Jesus Christ by strengthening one another, sharing the Gospel message, and distributing copies of God’s Word in hotels, hospitals, shelters, and other places where people often seek hope.
There are no more important instructions than those found in the Bible.
When the Israelites were preparing to enter the Promised Land, Moses reiterated the importance of these instructions:
“See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’
“For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call on Him? And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
God gave us these instructions so that we would know how we should live here on earth and how to get to Heaven.
Heaven is perfect, and it requires perfection to get in. If imperfection were allowed into Heaven, it wouldn’t be any different from what we have here on earth. God made a way for us. This is why Jesus became man. He was perfect, and He paid for our imperfections.
As C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Mere Christianity:
“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.
“At the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness–or lack of it–or the righteousness of another. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.”
R.C. Sproul says:
“The gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not.
“For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead–so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification.
“The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith–and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.”
This is Good News!
But it is up to us to follow the instructions that we’ve been given if we want to find our way to Heaven. The Bible is our road map. It tells us where we come from, why we are here, where we are going, and, most importantly, how God has made a way for us to spend eternity with Him.
