JESUS HAS ALREADY DONE EVERYTHING FOR YOU
Author: Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote to me a letter and I share a section with you which contained a question which was asked of me within that letter:
“You know, the more that I read the Bible the more I realise that those who will be saved, are going to be very few and that I don’t think I will make it.
Measured against the Word (not the law) which is expected of me and that I totally fall short of, I miss the goal post completely.
Is there anyone who is completely righteous? Is there anyone who is doing and living right?
Regarding humility; if I am not humble, still worldly and still learning humility, and I am arrogant, God dislikes my arrogance and I do not meet His standards.
What now?? If I die arrogant/haughty and not humble, where will I go?”
I want to begin by highlighting a section out of your letter to me and it and to answer it first. You wrote:
“Is there anyone who is completely righteous? Is there anyone who is doing and living right?”
Read what our Lord’s precious Word says:
ROM 3:10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;”
Then a little further we read the following:
ROM 3:21-24
Righteousness Through Faith
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
You can do nothing, absolutely nothing to inherit eternal life after you have truly accepted Jesus Christ as your Redeemer and Saviour with your whole heart.
Everything, literally everything what was needed to be done to open the road to heaven for you, Jesus has already done for you.
EPH 2:4-5
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Even the fact, that you and I have accepted Jesus as our Redeemer and Saviour was also through His grace, mere divine grace.
Now that I have been saved through God’s immense grace, now I must try to the best of my abilities to remove everything that is wrong in my life.
Not that I can achieve anything more by doing this, but out of my love for Him and to put it another way, I admire and respect Him, because I know what he despises.
Naturally I am not going to accomplish/achieve all of this in my lifetime but He will see in my heart the effort I have put in and whether I have truly tried at all to truly serve Him in spirit and true love and lived my life in honour and glorification to His Holy Name and as such reward me through His immense grace.
1 COR 3:11-17
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.
14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.
15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Certainly waiting for us, as you have read above, there is a reward, in accordance with how we have lived our lives towards the wrong we come across in our lives and how we have resisted satan. Jesus highlights this for us by saying:
REV 22:11-14
11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”
Epilogue: Invitation and Warning
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
For as long as I live, I will work on things in my life which is not acceptable to our Lord and some of the wrong I will be able to remove completely in my life and some of the wrong I will be working on right to the end of my life.
PHI 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus
While I continually remain focused on Jesus who I follow:
HEB 12:1-3
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
1 JOHN 2:1-5
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.
4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God[a] is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him.
1 JOHN 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness
Greetings,
Sakkie
Afrikaans Version: JESUS HET ALLES REEDS VIR JOU GEDOEN