Just In Case

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     John 3:3 says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

     There are many people who want to cover all their bases so to speak when it comes to salvation, “just in case…”  While serving as a chaplain in a hospice program, I had a call to make a visit  to a person who was probably going to die soon.  When I got there, I found the man had in his hand, a rosary and a “Book of common Prayer.  There was already a Methodist pastor there and I was the Baptist pastor.  The Rosary was for the Catholics, the “Common Book of Prayer” for the Episcopalians, and of course the Protestants were represented by a Methodist and a Baptist.  The children wanted to have all their bases covered, Just in case one of the different ones were correct.  The man himself, who was on his death bead was a Lutheran.  The only thing missing was perhaps the one true item, a new life in Christ because he had been born again.  There was no evidence of that, just the symbols of different faiths in hope that one of them would usher his soul into paradise. 

     The above passage, a familiar one, states the most basic and primary statement.  One needs to be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of God.   Sometimes, simplicity baffles the minds of people into thinking that it just can’t be that easy.  There is no catechism, there are no requirements, there are no classes to attend, thee are no  pennances to perform. It seems that men and women have come to the conclusion that there is nothing in this world that is free.  We have been bombarded with junk m ail and promises form the Publisher’s Clearinghouse that we have been listed as a possible recipient of a great financial reward, if we just do one thing.  The concept of God’s grace is something that they cannot understand nor accept.  After all, who would give away something as precious as eternal life when you can’t even get a free meal at McDonalds?  As some would say, “You need to jump through so many hoops before you can ge the prize.  With this type of mentality, then, mankind has set forth their own list of methods in order to make it to heaven.  In the back of our minds, we sometimes think, “What if this other group is correct?”  So, we add something to our life “just in case.”  As we have mentioned so many times, the word “believe” is one of the major words that occurs in the Gospel of John.  There is the root.  We must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that He paid for all of our sin  and even though we are unworthy, Jesus paid it all, while we were yet sinners.  And, we are still sinners yet saved by grace.  This wonderful grace has been given to us by God.  Praise God today for the simple plan of salvation.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  Acts 16:31