You Can Have Peace!

God wants to be close to you!
Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (Isaiah 59:1)

God is all-powerful, and is capable of anything that He wishes, yet He has given you the freedom to love or reject Him. Anything else would not be love. He wants to save you from sin, shame, guilt, and the sorrow that always accompanies sin, and He can! There is only one thing that could possibly keep God from bringing you the peace and joy of salvation, and that is you. No one can keep God from you. No force of evil is powerful enough to stop God's love. God is love and He offers His love to you. If you accept, He will bring peace and joy to your life

Sin has separated you from God.
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)

This is not the will of God. He wants to be close to you. It is when we do wrong that we are separated from Him, because He is pure and cannot abide with sin. Habakkuk 1:13 says "Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor."  He is a just God, and He is a God of love. How can His justice be satisfied  and yet His love be fulfilled?

Jesus bears the guilt of your sins, and restores your relationship with God!
"But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 4:24-5:1)

John 19 tells us how Jesus suffered terrible things at the hands of cruel men to be sacrificed for us. Why did he do this? Why did He suffer on the cross? He did it because He loves you. God loves you! John 3:16 says that God loved you so much He gave His Son for you. That Son was Jesus. There was no other way. Sin is wrong, and justice demands that it be punished. There are only two ways that your sin can be justly punished. One is that you take the punishment. Maybe you are feeling that now. Maybe you are punishing yourself because of your mistakes. You do not have to do that! There is a better way.

The other option is that someone sinless, someone perfect who has no sins of his own take the punishment for you. That is Jesus. That is exactly what happened on Calvary. Jesus took the guilt of your sins and bore them on His own body. The torn body, the nail-pierced hands, the crown of thorns...they were all for you. Now you do not have to suffer guilt any longer. God can and will forgive you through the blood of Jesus. You can finally have peace. Peace with God...Peace with others...Peace with yourself. There is hope.

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