What is very alarming in this fallen world clouded with sugar-coated lies and disturbing uncertainties is that people just settle with what keeps them in their comfort zone instead of pursuing the intrinsic value of truth most especially in the light of eternity because death is real like a thief in the night that comes anytime without warning.
Once again, I’ve heard and seen on TV the mournful reactions of the fans of a veteran actor due to his untimely death, yet they just comfort themselves by affirming he is now in heaven because of his good deeds. The question is, can good works save a dead person from going to hell? What about his sins , just like everybody else’s sins ? Because if we ask God, He put His crystal clear answer into writing through the Bible saying “No one is righteous not even one” (Romans 3:10). “All have sinned and have fallen short of His glory” (Romans 3:23). Can our good works wash away or compensate for our sins? God said, “No!” Scripture says, “. . .without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin” (Hebrews 9:22). We badly need an atoning sacrifice to cleanse us from all our wrong deeds.
This is the reason why the Bible was written so we will know how to escape from the pit of hell which is the penalty of sin (Revelation 21:8). How then, can we know it if we won’t read the Bible? Though it was written by human hands but everything was done as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2Timothy 3:16; 2Peter1:21) authenticated by the resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 15;14) to become our Lord and Savior by the shedding of His Unblemished Blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins (Galatians 3:13; Colossians 2:13;1Peter 3:18-19).
Without reading the Bible, man is allowing to settle with ease and confidence what their own religion says instead of what the True Living God says. No wonder the Bible says, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Matthew 15:8). God does not allow man to believe on his or her own understanding apart from His revelation because it defies one of His amazing attributes that He is a God of order (1Corinthians 14:33).
If man failed to obey the one and only law that God commanded our first parents, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, how much harder can we obey God in our time now that we are facing a thousand laws to obey since the time man has known what is good and bad after Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. Praise God for the Bible was written so that we will know where our first parent failed resulting to the death of all men. Jesus, the Sinless Son of God came so that through His death we can have life by believing and accepting His redemptive work on the cross (Romans 5:17-19; Ephesians 2:8-9; Colossians 1:21-22; Romans 6:23).
King Solomon said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) while Prophet Isaiah wrote, “Declares the Lord, ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8).