Deal Breaker

"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.   This is how we know it is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.  For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.  I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.  Who is the liar?  It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ.  Such a man is the antichrist- he denies the Father and the Son."  I John 2:18-21

 

Some things in life are just deal-breakers.  Picking your nose at the dinner table?  Deal-breaker.  Having animals walking on the kitchen counter during meal preparation?  Deal-breaker. Having a child shout "I hate you" as they storm from the room?  Deal-breaker.  Once these things happen, the number of likely outcomes reduces a great deal.

What you do with Jesus is one such thing.  If you accept who he is and all that he has to offer, you gain eternity in heaven with him.  If you deny him, you close the door on the one way to salvation.  Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One.  He fulfills all righteousness and perfectly paid the price for our sins.  When a person chooses to reject Jesus, they are rejecting God's Son.  They are rejecting his gift and therefore close the door to a relationship with the Father.  This passage says that a person who refuses to acknowledge him as Christ is a liar!

Some religions says Jesus was a righteous man, a prophet or teacher.  But they categorically deny his deity.  This is the true litmus test of a faith based upon the Bible or some other man-made teaching.  What will you do with Jesus?  Will you accept or deny him?  Those really are the two choices available to all mankind.  He paid the price for every one of us.  He opened wide his arms upon Calvary bidding all to come as he willingly gave himself as a sacrifice for our sin. The next move, so to speak, is on our side.  To deny Christ is to become anti-Christ.

We are taught that tolerance is a highly desirable virtue.  And to a certain extent, it is.  We should respect everyone's  right to their own opinions and beliefs.  God allows them that room.  But tolerance should not go to the point that we deny the basic fundamental principles of Christianity.  The Bible clearly teaches that all roads do not lead to God.  Rather, the narrow way is found in Jesus.  The one way.  Are you pointing others to Jesus?

Dear Lord, please help Christians arise and stand for truth.  Help us boldly and lovingly profess truth to a lost world.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Sherri