Romans 10:14
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
What part did you have in the making of the chair upon which you rest? Were you sought for counsel in its design, or did you labor in its construction? Did your skill contribute to its strength? Yet, when you sat down, did you not trust it to hold you? In resting, did you not demonstrate faith in what you did not build?
Oh, how simple it is to be saved!
As simple as sitting in a chair, so it is to receive the salvation purchased for you by Jesus on the cross.
The materials—His body, His blood, and the cross—were provided.
The design—His life, tested and tried, yet found without fault—was already conceived.
The construction—undertaken by the One who placed the stars in the sky and the heart within your chest—completed for you.
This salvation, which is offered to you, even now, requires nothing of you except your need for it.
A man who prefers to stand will stand even when a chair is present.
A man who prefers to save himself will attempt to save himself even when salvation is present.
A man unwilling to admit his need for rest deludes himself and attempts to deceive others.
A man unwilling to admit his need for salvation does the same.
Many have entered the rest offered by this free salvation, yet countless others still turn away. In my experience, their refusal is not born of ignorance but of unbelief.
Some prefer seeking out salvation by their own methods, believing that the same self that committed selfish actions can somehow commit enough selfless ones to balance the scales.
For these, I believe there is hope.
God, unwilling that anyone should perish, has a method of dealing with the self.
When self is stripped bare and seen in true light, it is revealed as less than nothing—powerless, wholly corrupt, incapable of good, and unending in its own appetite. Its beginning and its end are nothingness.
Some, though, after years of running away from the problem altogether, have deluded themselves into believing there are no consequences at all for their actions!
Though they feel a natural desire for justice when they are wronged, even this fails to awaken them to their own iniquities. Demanding judgment for others, they stand blind to their own faults.
As for this group, I have no hope.
Though night after night, their own conscience convicts them, they harden their hearts.
How can a man who will not listen to his own heart listen to the heart of another?
There exists no external voice more convincing than a man's own conscience.
My hope lies only in the one who created the heart and gave men their conscience. Nothing is impossible for Him. For these men, their waking up to experience another morning is evidence that God has not given up trying.