THE CONFESSION OF A REBEL SON
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
I spent the first seventeen
years of my life making life miserable for everyone around me. Everyone who
loved me and cared for me was injured and abused by me. My wanton rebellion and
ungodliness caused embarrassment, pain and heartache to all my family. None
were more hurt by my actions than my mother.
After God graciously stopped
me in my mad rush to hell and saved me by his grace, one great goal of my life
was to make up to my mother for all the heartache and misery I brought into her
life.
My mother died this morning
(November 14, 1998). I spent thirty-two years trying to atone, trying to make
up for the things I had done to her and against her. I failed miserably! She
would have disagreed with that statement. In fact, she did disagree on the many
occasions she heard it. But my conscience is not satisfied. My conscience tells
me, incessantly, “You have not done enough.” I have to live with the pain of
that fact until I leave this world.
I have written these things
and made this acknowledgement to you for a reason. I want you to consider this
- If one sinner cannot make up and atone
for his offenses against another sinner to the satisfaction of his own
conscience, how can any of us hope to make up and atone for our sins and crimes
against the thrice holy Lord God?
What does God require of us? He requires, upon penalty of eternal death, that we walk before him in reverence, obey his Word, and keep his statutes perfectly, without the least deviation, from the cradle to the grave, and serve him in absolute holiness with all our hearts, souls, minds and beings, all the days of our lives. God requires from us, as sinners, perfect righteousness, that is perfect obedience (Matt. 5:20), and complete satisfaction for all our sins (Ezek. 18:20).
Not only does God require
these things from us, he has put his voice in our inmost beings demanding the
same things. Our consciences can never be satisfied with less than perfect
righteousness and perfect satisfaction. That is the reason no man can truly
find peace before God, until he is brought by grace to rest in Christ alone as
that all-sufficient Savior who alone is our righteousness and redemption.
I could never make up to my
mother, because I can never do enough, give enough, or make myself good enough
to satisfy my own conscience. And no sinner can ever do enough, give enough, or
make himself good enough to satisfy even his own conscience, much less God
himself. But, blessed be his name, the Lord Jesus Christ is enough! Trusting
Christ alone as my only atonement for sin and my only righteousness before God,
my conscience speaks peace to my heart saying, “CHRIST IS ENOUGH,” because God himself says, “CHRIST IS ENOUGH!”. His obedience is enough (Rom. 5:19). His blood
is enough (Rom. 3:24-26). Christ is enough. He is the propitiation for our
sins.
Grace For Today Radio Message #588
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road -
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S.
Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net