During the nearly 8 years since I started this ministry, on rare occasions I have said this, but this time I think it will really be as I say:
This might be the shortest message I have ever given!
If you prefer to watch a video (a short one, that is), click on this link: Watch the (short) video.
We have all heard that if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. We have also heard that faith is all we need to be saved. And we’ve heard that Jesus died for our sins, and through his death we can have life, eternal.
Oh! And let’s not forget the big one, really popular during the “I Found It” campaign in the 70’s…. Jesus saves!
But none of those are true, really, because the only one who can save you is…YOU!
I get it! Yeah, Yeshua (Jesus) died as the substitution for bringing an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which (after being destroyed) could no longer provide us the means for forgiveness, and without forgiveness of sin, there can be no salvation.
But that’s the point!
You need to be forgiven (free of sin) in order to enter into God’s presence, which is what being “saved” means, and despite all the suffering Yeshua went through, and despite God’s willingness- in truth, desire- to forgive us (Ezekiel 18:23), it really boils down to how you live that will be the ultimate reason you are saved.
You can call on God’s name all day long, you can profess faith in Yeshua, you can do tzedakah (charity), and you can even donate time at a local hospital, but if you do not truly and faithfully to t’shuvah (turning from sin), then you are the one thing standing between salvation and damnation.
God provided a means for sin to be forgiven through the sacrificial system, which Yeshua made possible after the temple was destroyed, but it is you, and you, alone, who must live in accordance with God’s commandments to receive that forgiveness. That means not living as some religion tells you, but how God says he wants you to live.
And you find those instructions in the Torah.
For the record, Christianity has been teaching for the past two millennia that the Torah is just for Jews, and that good Christians only have to do as Jesus did, well… Jesus did the Torah!
And because he did, his sacrifice was acceptable.
So, be the cause of your salvation- read the Torah, live it as best as you can, and when you screw-up (as we all do), you THEN have God’s desire to forgive you and Yeshua’s shed blood to cleanse you, so that you can be saved.
But it all starts and ends with you: accepting Yeshua as the Messiah, doing T’shuvah, and living and worshipping as God said to do.
Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!