2019-02 EngFeb

CONTENTS
• Are You In Debt?
• Do You Know The
Way To Heaven?
THE GOOD NEWS
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9
Are you in debt? According to
the statistics, it’s likely that you
are. Whether we view debt as a
burden or as an investment in our
future, most of us have experienced
the crushing feeling of living
under a burden of debt.
Let me share with you an
amazing
story
about a
man
who
owed
more
than
most of
us can
imagine,
yet had
it all forgiven…down to the very
last penny! His story is found in
the Bible, where Jesus valued the
debt at “ten thousand talents”
(Matthew 18:24). Because
one talent was equal to 6,000
days’ wages, the man would need
to work six days a week for
192,000 years to repay what he
owed. At today’s minimum wage,
the debt calculates to roughly 3.5
billion dollars!
Who could ever repay such a
debt? And what lender can afford
to just forgive it? Jesus used this
story to illustrate the greatest act
of pardon
we
can ever
encounter:
the
forgiveness
of our
sins. Because
of
our sinfulness,
we owe God a debt that we simply
cannot repay. Even if we work our
hardest—doing good, praying, going
to church—our debt far exceeds
anything we can earn. The
Bible summarizes our condition
as: “dead in trespasses and sins…
having no hope and without
God” (Ephesians 2:1,12).

P A G E 2
“Jesus, the
Son of
God, came
to earth
and lived a
perfect,
sinless
life...to
pay our
sin debt”
Have you ever realized the
enormous weight of the burden of
sin that you carry? Thinking about
our sin can cause many of the
same emotions and responses as
thinking about our debt—stress,
anxiety, depression, frustration,
fear, shame, and denial. But Jesus
has good news for us! We can experience
the same abundant forgiveness
as the man in the story.
So, how can we be released
from our debt of sin? Jesus, the
Son of God, came to earth and
lived a perfect, sinless life. He was
therefore uniquely qualified to pay
our sin debt, which He did on the
cross: “For Christ also suffered
once for sins, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to
God” (1 Peter 3:18).
When we turn to God, putting
our trust in the payment that Jesus
has made through His sacrificial
death and glorious resurrection,
God applies the full worth of His
Son to our account. By trusting Jesus,
we “receive forgiveness of sins
and an inheritance among those
who are sanctified by faith” (Acts
26:18).
Will you turn your sin debt
over to God today? “If you confess
with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in your heart that God
has raised Him from the dead, you
will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
T H E
G O O D
N E W S

P A G E 3
Did you figure out the
maze? Could you find a path
from any of those things that
leads to heaven? Don’t feel bad,
because I could not find one either.
Is the maze broken? No,
there’s nothing wrong with the
maze. What’s wrong is that lots
of people are still trying to get to
heaven in ways that don’t work.
How many ways to heaven
are there? Each religion seems to
have its own way (or lots of
them) to get there, but they
don’t agree with each other and
therefore cannot all be true.
Some say there is one god, some
say there are many gods, and
some say there is no god. How
can they all be right? They can’t.
Is there a way to heaven?
Yes, there is. Can we know what
it is? Yes, we can. Jesus said, “I
am the way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me” (John 14:6).
This bold statement leaves no
room for any other ways to the
one true God. Many people try
to take these words lightly, by
thinking that Jesus was a good
religious teacher and nothing
more. Yes, it’s true that He was a
good teacher—and good teachers
tell the truth! That’s why we
have to take what He said very
seriously.
One day, Jesus was talking
with a religious man. Jesus said
to him, “Unless one is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of
God” (John 3:3). Religion is not
the answer. There is a larger
problem that must be dealt with.
That problem is sin. Sin is like a
wall that separates us from God.
People have tried for countless
years to climb over the problem
of sin by elevating themselves
morally, or to go around it by
pretending that it doesn’t exist.
But it does exist, and the reason
we can’t simply climb over it is
that—from God’s perspective—
sin has made us spiritually dead
(Ephesians 2:1). Dead people
can’t climb!
T H E
G O O D
N E W S
“This gift of
a new life—
the only way
to heaven—
is offered to
you”

Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth
to provide the way by which you and I
could be “born again”—given spiritual life
and a personal relationship with God. Because
this is nothing that we could ever do
for ourselves, salvation is called a “free
gift” many times in the Bible. It is a gift that
was purchased at great cost to the Lord Jesus,
who laid down His life as a payment
for our sin. There, at the cross of Calvary,
He “bore our sins in His own body on the
tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Then, on the third day,
He rose victoriously from the grave to die
no more. Now this gift of a new life—the
only way to heaven—is offered to you. Will
you accept it? Will you acknowledge before
God that you are spiritually dead in
sin? Will you by faith trust Jesus Christ to
be your Saviour? “For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life” (John
3:16).
The way to heaven is not something
that we can earn or figure out for ourselves.
Rather, it is only through faith in Jesus
Christ, and is open to all who cast
themselves upon the amazing grace of God
(Ephesians 2:8,9).
Are you on the way to heaven?
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