By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
What’s the best news you’ve ever heard? Maybe it’s when your wife said, “I’m pregnant.” Or maybe you already had five kids, and the best news you’ve ever heard was, “I’m not pregnant.”
Perhaps it was the afternoon in your doctor’s office when he said, “It’s not cancer.” Or the day when the man of your dreams asked, “Will you marry me?”
Good news energizes us and lifts our spirits no matter how depressed or troubled we were beforehand.
Well just you wait until you read on and discover the best news you’ll hear this month… possibly in your lifetime.
The most revered name in Jewish history is Abraham. God came to him and promised he would grow a great nation through Abraham. God instructed him to do three things to get the ball rolling (Genesis 12.1-3).
Leave his country where he was living. Leave his people and his father’s family behind.
Go to the land God will show him. Centuries later, the author of Hebrews held Abraham up as a model of faith. “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went” (Hebrews 11.8).
But hold on a second. Stephen had a different perspective. Centuries later, he stood before an angry crowd of fellow Jews explaining why they shouldn’t stone him to death for becoming a follower of Jesus. His speech, found in Acts 7, included a brief history of God’s dealings with Israel.
Stephen begins his review with the day God appeared to Abraham and told him to leave his country and his people and go to a land God would show him. But Stephen adds a couple of details you’ll find missing from the Hebrews story (Acts 7.2-4).
Stephen reports Abraham only went as far as Haran where he settled down with his father. It wasn’t until the old man died that Abraham “obeyed and went” (Hebrews 11.8).
Genesis 11.31 confirms what Stephen said and adds an additional fact: Abraham not only took his father, Terah, with him; he also took his nephew, Lot. That’s at least two more people than what God told him to take on the journey.
Genesis corroborates what Stephen said and contradicts what the writer of Hebrews penned. So, what’s the truth? Did Abraham obey or didn’t he?
According to the historical timeline, Abraham did not obey God right away. But from God’s viewpoint, Abraham “obeyed and went.” Genesis 12.4 states what God saw: “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him.”
Ready for the best news you’ll hear this month (or longer)? God’s perspective of Abraham’s actions is the same way God views your disobedience, delayed obedience, giving in to peer pressure, and sin. He doesn’t see them. It’s like they never happened!
How’s that for the best news you’ve ever heard? There are two caveats you must understand, however. First, this astounding news only applies to you if you’ve put your faith in what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross, and you are now faithfully walking with him.
You’re not sinless, but you are sinning less because Jesus has given you a new heart, and his Spirit is transforming you day by day.
The Bible says when someone calls upon the name of the Lord, he is justified (see Romans 3.26; 1 Corinthians 6.11).
When you were justified by faith in Jesus, God erased every sin — past, today, and future — from your account. When he looks at you now, he sees you “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned.
Romans 4.7-8 put it this way: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
You can have every sin you’ve committed and will commit expunged from your record if you’ll put your faith in Jesus.
Second, this amazing news doesn’t open the door for Christians to sin more. They don’t think, “I can do whatever I want to do now because in God’s eyes it’ll be just as if I didn’t do it. Party time!”
See, anyone who has been justified doesn’t want to sin anymore. They’ve learned the temporary pleasures of sin can’t compare with the benefits that come from living in a right relationship with God.
Jesus wants to deliver to you the best news you’ll ever hear. All he’s waiting for is you to give your heart to him.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.