To Encourage You

Acts 17:30-31 “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

To hear some people talk, it would seem that Christianity is an optional thing, one way of thinking among many, and if you want to believe that stuff, if it makes you feel better, good for you.  But if it’s not “your thing” that’s ok too. To each his own.  Well, if that’s the way you think, the Bible calls that thinking and anything else like it “a time of ignorance.”  Maybe you just never knew any better, or you never heard anything so definitive.  However, if you’ve read the verses above, that “time of ignorance” is over, because now you know that to “repent,” i.e., to turn from your sins, and turn to the only One Who can save you from your sins and rescue you from the judgement to come is a commandment from God to each and every one of us. 

Note that this commandment is to “ALL people EVERYWHERE.”  That leaves no exceptions.  It doesn’t matter where you live, who your parents are, how you were raised, what you believe, or whether or not you care what the verses above say.  And God has put an exclamation point on this command by declaring that the “man whom he has appointed” to judge the world is none other than Jesus Christ, by “raising him from the dead.”  He’s the only One Who ever lived in all the history of the world that this could be referring to.  The God who created each and every one of us has commanded each and every one of us to repent, to turn around, to reject the way we are naturally inclined to go in our sinful ways, and turn to His Son, Jesus, Who came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).  He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). To escape the judgment to come, there are not many options; there is only ONE option, and that option is obedience to the command of Acts 17 above.  This is a warning to every person, and more than that, an entreaty, for every person who has ever lived or ever will live will one day stand before Christ and answer the question of what they did with God’s command to repent. 

So, what have you done – while there is still time?