| December
9, 2006
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All it takes is –just a minute- to
think about the implications of the words of the angel to
Joseph, the husband of Mary. While he was wondering what
to do, the angel of the Lord told him not to fear taking
Mary to be his wife; then added: “And she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shall call His name Jesus: for He
shall save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
Without a second thought, we could conclude that the Lord
Jesus would solve the problem of human sin. That is what
Joseph must have understood. He had been accustomed to all
the ritual of the Jewish system of religion. The angel’s
announcement must have come as a relief from the complexity
of all of that.
But Christian religion has borrowed from the Jewish system
and has put all the ritual back into Christianity. Accordingly,
it has so complicated the matter of salvation that people
live -- and die-- in doubt about their relationship with
God. By adding rituals, ceremonies, church membership, and
a host of other things they have put the simplicity of the
statement of the angel into a fog.
Rule out all the additional items that men have added and
we are brought back to the simple, uncomplicated announcement
of the angel and back to the belief that the Lord Jesus
has dealt with our sins through His atoning death on the
cross.
One of the first persons to meet the new-born baby Jesus
in the temple was Simeon. He took Him in his arms and said,
“Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace,
according to Thy Word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”
Luke 2:29,30. Here again is a simple statement about where
salvation lay…..in Simeon’s arms.
If we forget the ritual of Christianity and reflect for
the briefest time on what the Bible really says it will
only take a minute for us to realize that we can be sure
of salvation through faith in Christ.
God has made it simple so that no-one need miss it. As the
apostle Peter stated it later on, “For Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18.
Jim Beattie
submitted by Russ Nesbit
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