Since the founding of our nation, people from all over the world have looked longingly to America, the land of freedom and opportunity. They realize the value of being an American. While there are some who now dispute this, by and large, we are still overwhelmed with the numbers of immigrants who come to these shores annually. These are individuals who want an opportunity; who want to spend their lives in some valuable endeavor.
For the most part we desire to spend our lives, our talents, energies, and abilities in some worthwhile endeavor. I submit that living for Jesus and being a Christian is where one can find the very most meaningful existence. Indeed, there are some who doubt the worthwhileness of this endeavor, especially if they witness inconsistencies in a Christian’s life. Their doubts, however, do not negate certain realities that make being a Christian the greatest way to live. Mankind would give New Testament Christianity more serious consideration if they were constantly reminded of the meaningfulness and value of spending one’s life in this way. Jesus reminds us that men will know that we are his disciples, “If ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). By the same token, He affirms that men would come to believe through seeing the unity and harmony within the Christian fellowship (John 17:21).
Just why should a person want to become a Christian? Certainly one need only look at the consequences of sin in the world to realize that we need deliverance from this presence. The Apostle Paul affirms that this happens through one person and one only: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we are reminded that God “made Him to be sin for as who knew no sin; that we might be the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus offers eternal salvation to those who are willing to obey Him (Hebrews 5:8-9). Friends, there is no other antidote in the world that can provide this kind of deliverance from a most dreaded disease: sin that results in death (Romans 6:23). Just think, all the burden of guilt is removed from a person’s past life. He can be saved eternally one day.
In addition to the joy of release from sin and its consequences is the wonderful joy of spending one’s life as a child of God. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we sufler with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:16-17). What better way for one to spend their life than living as a child of God and bearing glory to God through all that we do and say.
Dear reader, living for Jesus is the only way to live that brings with it any hope in the world to come. We buy insurance policies to protect loved ones in the event of our deaths. What sort of insurance do you have that will protect your soul for eternity? God has promised, and He’s faithful in His word, “I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 5:12).
Terry Broome
Broad Street church of Christ
Scottsboro, AL