Why?

Socrates is credited with saying, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Truly, we are inquisitive creatures.  In fact, our penchant for examining almost everything is what separates man from beast. As early as toddlers, we begin to look at the world around us and wonder, “Why?” Why are we here?   Why do people do that? Why is there evil in the world?  Questions such as these underscore the examined life Socrates spoke of, confounding the most astute thinkers for millennia.  Doesn’t anyone have the answers?  Well, if you want to understand what life’s really all about, why not ask the One who is Life (John 14:6)? Thankfully, the God of the Bible invites us to “Come now, and let us reason together” with him (Is 1:18).  Just as the Queen of Sheba “came to prove” King Solomon with “hard questions” (1 Kings 10:1), the one “greater than Solomon” is able to answer our most pressing examinations in such a way as to make this life–and the next–worth living (Matt 12:42). Read on and discover why.

Why are we here?

Make no mistake about it:  we are here.  And our existence begs some serious inquest:  Where did we come from? Where are we going? Do our lives have any meaning beyond mere survival?  The atheist, the evolutionist, or the skeptic might protest that humanity is simply an accident, albeit an elegant one.  Well, if we’re the result of natural processes operating via blind chance, why ask why?  After all, baking soda doesn’t wonder why it reacts with vinegar.  Why should a bunch of chemicals with a brain stem bother examining anything?   God’s word, however, makes it clear we’re more than just molecules turned to men.  “In the beginning,” the Bible declares, “God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1).  The great scientist Newton observed that every action requires a cause.  God Almighty is the reason behind the universe, the Prime Mover, the First Cause, the Beginning.  “All things were made by him,” the Bible says of Jesus Christ, “and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).  You see, every building has a builder, every painting a painter. It follows then that you, a creature whose cells are more complex than a space shuttle, have a Creator.   Even the DNA encoded in our cells, the blueprint for life containing infinite amounts of information, cries out in testimony to the mind and majesty of God in whose image we were created (Gen 1:26).  But why are we here?  What makes man different than the birds and bees?  Well, unlike the physical creation, the Bible says man was made “a living soul” (Gen 2:7).  Put simply, we were made to have fellowship with our God, who is a Spirit (John 4:24).  To that end, there’s more to us than just neurotransmitters and amino acids.  Yes, man has the unique privilege as the crown of God’s creation to commune with his creator and to bring him glory.  The book of Revelation reminds us that God “hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev 4:11).  How’s that for a purpose?

Why is there so much wrong?

At the close of creation week, the Bible says, “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31).  Picked up a paper recently?  Watched the evening news?  All is not very good anymore.  What happened?  Why is there so much wrong in the world?  Wars, famines, bloodshed, and strife…doesn’t sound too good, does it? The apparent incompatibility of a good God and an evil-ridden world has been a perplexing question for many.  How could a loving God allow all these bad things to happen?  When we examine God’s words, however, the answer becomes as clear as s-i-n.  You see, God wanted man to love him and follow him willingly, not like robots but as children who cherish their father. To allow us this power of choice, we were endowed by our Creator God with free will.  Thus, the first man Adam was given one parameter for maintaining his life of peace and paradise in the Garden of Eden:  “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,” God commanded, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen 2:16-17).  Man could heed God’s explicit command, experience inexplicable joy, and partake of all the innumerable blessings Jehovah offered him in that garden.  Or Adam could disobey his Maker, go his own way, and face the awful consequences of  transgressing God’s law: death. Sadly, the first man willingly chose to disobey. When Adam did that, he died spiritually, severing his connection with God.  More tragic than that, man’s sin unleashed death into a once-good creation, placing us all under a curse.  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,” the Bible explains, “and death by sin” (Rom 5:12a).  Hospitals and cemeteries were never intended by our loving and gracious God.  No, the suffering we experience, the evil we witness, are the result of man’s disobedience, for “by man came death” (1 Cor 15:21).  In fact, God actually calls death an “enemy” he avows to one day destroy completely (1 Cor 15:26).  In short, God made everything good, and man’s sin ruined it.  After Adam’s fall, God cursed the ground, thorns and thistles began to grow, and sorrow reared its ugly head for the first time (Gen 3:17-18).  But, lest you think Adam is the only guilty party, the Bible is clear when it says “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  You and I have had the choice to tell the truth but lied more than once in our lives.  We’ve known it was wrong to cheat the boss, cheat our spouse, or cheat the store, yet we’ve stolen something, even if its value seemed insignificant.  And deep down you know that lust, hatred, and taking God’s name in vain are all wrong but, even so, you’ve willingly sinned against a holy God. If you’re honest with yourself and honest with God, you’ll admit that much. You’ll agree that “there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).  The root of all our problems has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats in power, which religion you prescribe to, or what part of the world you’re from.  It’s sin.

Why Jesus Christ?

Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ made some rather audacious claims.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ states unequivocally, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).  Wow!  What a sentence!  Is that arrogance?  Insanity?  Or might the Saviour be speaking the truth in love when he says clearly and succinctly there is simply no other way to heaven, no other way to God, no other way to be forgiven of your sin, but through his own person and work.  Consider why Jesus Christ said that.  First, you are a sinner.  And you are not alone.  The Bible says that, after he disobeyed God, Adam “begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image” (Gen 5:3).  That means every man and woman born after the fall has inherited a sin nature passed down from the first sinner, Father Adam and his wife Eve, “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20).  Ever notice how hard it is to live right but how easy it is to do wrong?  Why does the current of human behavior always tend toward sin?  Because we are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph 2:3).  The great King David recognized his sinful condition this way:  “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps 51:5).  In other words, Adam’s fall left us with a propensity, a bent, towards sin.  But it’s more than just a condition into which we are born; sin is also an action.  The Bible says, “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4b).  Remember all those “thou shalt not’s” God gave us?  Well, every time we miss the mark of God’s holy law by violating his moral standards, we sin.  In this regard, “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). The scriptures warn us that “the wages of sin is death” and “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”(Romans 6:23, Ez 18:4).  And the death God levied against man’s sin was more than just the grave–that’s where your body goes.  The Bible also speaks of a prison in the heart of the earth, with gates, bars, and literal fire…a place called hell.  This is the awful abode of lost souls.     After all, if physical death were the end, what’s the point of worrying about being wicked?  “Can all you get and get all you can because tomorrow we die!”  No, the God of the Bible is holy, just, and righteous.  His justice will be thorough.  Indeed, the “judge of all the earth” will see that all sin is punished, great and small (Gen 18:15). Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is the only man who ever walked the face of the earth and lived a spotless life.  Virgin born, he did not inherit the fallen nature of the first Adam (Is 7:14, Matt 1:23).  As the Lord Jesus Christ walked and talked, lived and loved, for thirty-three and a half years, he was “tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).   While Jesus Christ was “made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,” his holy life “condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3).  Being perfect, Jesus Christ is  the only one worthy and capable of being “the mediator between God and men” (1 Tim 2:5).  That’s another reason why Jesus Christ is the only way to God:  you can’t save yourself.  Because of your sin, the Bible says “the wrath of God” abides on you (John 3:36).  You and I are guilty.  Consequently, the word of God tells us we are “without strength” (Rom 5:6).  No one has the power to save himself because no matter how much good we do, how much religion we practice, how much effort we exert, we are “under the curse” (Gal 3:10).  Do you know why ten out of ten people die?  Why the next casket could be your own? It’s because you’ve violated God’s law.  That disqualifies any sinner from being able to save himself or anyone else.  Every religious figure throughout  all of history…died.  You and I can find the bones of Mohammed, Buddha, and the popes.  Only Jesus Christ could say, “No man taketh it [his life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:18).  Friend, Jesus Christ did not die for his own sins like Mary, Zoroaster, or Brahman.  No, the Bible boldly declares the glorious truth that “Christ died for OUR sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3).  That is the blessed good news, or gospel, of the Lord Jesus Christ, that “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Think about it.  Even though “we like sheep have gone astray…the LORD hath laid on him (that’s Jesus Christ) the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6).  Even though we are cursed, the Bible says “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13).  Though we have sinned, God made Jesus Christ “to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21).  No one else did that for you.  No one else could do that for you.  A substitutionary death.  A vicarious atonement.  In the courtroom of God’s justice, as the gavel of an eternal death sentence was about to seal your fate, Jesus Christ stood in your place, the place of the condemned.  He died upon that old rugged cross.  He shed his precious blood on Mount Calvary.  And after his body went to the tomb, his soul descended into hell to save yours.  Then, after three days and three nights, he arose from the dead.  Hallelujah, what a Saviour!  That’s why Jesus Christ is and forever will be the way, the truth, and the life. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18).

Why are you reading this?

You are reading this for a reason.  The God of heaven, your Creator, the one who designed the cosmos, ordained that this booklet come across your path at this moment.  Contrary to the blind chance indoctrination evolution preaches, there are no accidents.  The Lord Jesus prophesied, “If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32).  As predicted, Jesus Christ was lifted up from the earth when he died upon that cross.  Now this is the fulfillment of his promise to draw you to himself.  We’re not talking about joining a church or turning over a new leaf.  Forget religion.  Man-made systems of laws and ordinances obscure the implication of the gospel for an individual.  Simply put, you need to take what you have seen from God’s word personally.  It’s not enough to say, “Nobody’s perfect.”  The Holy Spirit wants you to understand that you have sinned against a holy God.  You have broken his laws.  You need to realize the awful consequence for your sin is an eternal punishment in hell and the lake of fire.  You need to stop ignoring the reality of your own mortality. The Bible says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).  You can’t boast of tomorrow (Prov 27:1); you’re not even promised your next breath.  When God’s appointed time arrives, you will step out into eternity.  Are you prepared to meet thy God?  Are you ready for the one unmistakable, unavoidable fact of your own existence–your own death?   Most importantly, you need the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour.  Scores of people walk around knowing intellectually that “God so loved the world” (John 3:16), but have YOU ever called upon the name of the Lord?  Have YOU ever asked God to apply the blood Jesus Christ shed for sins to YOUR account?  Have you ever placed your complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ’s work alone to save your soul and forgive your sin?  If not, that is why you’re reading this.  “The Lord is not willing that any should perish,” the Bible tells us (2 Pet 3:9).  And God “will have all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4).   If God were to ask you, WHY should I let you into my kingdom, what would you say?  Perhaps you might reply as many do.  Maybe you’d point to your own righteousness, your own self-worth, your own denomination as sufficient reason for God Almighty to admit one such as you.  Sadly, Jesus warned that “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt 7:22-23).

Conclusion:  

Don’t take Socrates’ admonition for granted.  Don’t let your life pass by without examining the most important question of all:  are you saved?  The Bible says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (2 Cor 13:5).   Indeed, life is full of questions.  Your eternal destiny doesn’t have to be one of them.  The word of God promises, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). Examine yourself now.  Settle the issue of salvation today. If you neglect this invitation, God will examine your life for you.  The Bible says he “hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness” by Jesus Christ.  Every thought, word, and deed of your life will be scrutinized before the one who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Hab 1:13).  What is the end of those who believe not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?  “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15).  Truly, the unexamined life is not worth living if it leads you to hell.  Don’t wait another moment.  Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ today to save your soul. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).