Today marks the 43rd anniversary of the day, by the grace of God, I came to the understanding of my sin, the need for salvation, and my trusting in, clinging to, and relying on Jesus Christ (belief). This was my new creation, born again, birthday. It is a special day for which I will eternally be thankful.
Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Malachi 3:6 “For I the LORD do not change
Habakkuk 2:3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
Luke 21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
Hebrews 6:18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Herbert Lockyer, in his volume All the Promises of the Bible,’ tells the story of Everett R. Storms, a schoolteacher in Canada, who made a detailed study of promises. According to Time,’ Storms, of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, reckoned the figure of 30,000 to be too high (since it is roughly the number of verses making up the Bible31,]73). During his twenty-seventh reading of the Bible, a task which took him a year and a half, Storms came up with a grand total of 8,810 promises (7,487 of them being promises made by God to humankind). W. E. Vine says that a promise from/of God is “a gift graciously bestowed, not a pledge secured by negotiation.” I believe this to be true of all promises inline with Jesus Christ, redemption, salvation, forgiveness, joy, hope, faith, understanding, wisdom, love, peace, rest, courage, power, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and others that are promised to those who would humbly surrender, honor, glorify, believe, trust, follow, and obey Jesus Christ. However, there are other promises that do not reflect the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners, eternal life, heaven, and the bestowal of blessings. These are promises of God’s condemnation, wrath, anger, fury, and judgment. Too often, we give these no thought. We do not proclaim the coming judgment, wrath, anger, and fury of God against all who would deny, reject, or by some other means not fully and wholly trust in, rely on, and cling to Jesus Christ for their salvation, redemption, and forgiveness. God promised all who try to get to heaven, other than through Jesus Christ, will be judged, lacking, and will be cast into the lake of fire forever and ever. There is an urgency for understanding these two paths of promises. Without understanding the reason for and the results and outcome of sin, a person will never see the need for confession, repentance, forgiveness, redemption, or salvation. Without an understanding of God’s Holiness, Love, Wrath, and Anger, how is a person to understand the need for Jesus Christ? How is a person to understand the greatness of God’s grace, love, and mercy without understanding the effects of sin in the eyes of God? How is a person to know God’s hatred of sin without the perspective of God’s judgment of it?
God’s Word says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “The wages of sin is death.” “If their name is not written in the Lambs book of life they were cast into the lake of fire.” “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Believing in God’s grace, mercy and love also mean that there must be an understanding for the reason of needing it.