Jesus…..the Beginning and the End
Romans 10: 1-4 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Jesus….there is something about that name. When you bring up the name of Jesus, it tends to bring controversy. When one says, “God help us,” it may bring some disagreement, but it is usually a generic enough proclamation that no one seems to protest it. Ah, but say, “Jesus help us” or “Trust Jesus to Save You” and the controversy and resistance begin. Why? It is because Jesus is a specific way to God. Namely He is the ONLY way to God. When we specify Him, we make it personal. Generic belief in something higher than ourselves goes from being an abstract to a reality that is fixed on one person. The Bible even alludes to the fact that no one confesses that Jesus is the Christ unless He is first enlightened by God to do so.
So much of the letter to the Romans is about the contrast between trying to “do good” (or live up to the standards of the Jewish Law) and believing in a Person, Jesus, as the means of salvation. Paul is constantly contrasting the absurdity of trying to obey the rules and being right with God alongside of an acceptance that this is not the way. He illustrates by using examples from the Law to show that no one can ever measure up to its standard.
People today usually fall into three groups: 1) Those who sincerely want to measure up but are constantly faced with the reality that they do not. Those people may be religious but are constantly frustrated with the futility of trying to “do right” but having their fallen nature confront them at every turn. They don’t experience Joy because they are constantly on the edge of Hell hoping that some unconfessed sin doesn’t trust them over the precipice into the abyss and separation from God for all eternity. 2)Then are those who just don’t stand on or for anything. They are often happier than the first group mentioned above because at least for a time, they don’t have the struggle other than to make it through the pressures of this life with its fragile existence in the hopes that there may be something beyond. 3)The final group are those who have faced the abyss of hell, know that it is impossible to measure up, and look for another way. A better way to describe this may be that another way looks for them. Jesus, the Author and Finisher of Our Faith, reaches down and reveals himself to a person through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. He is the first….the beginning of salvation. He is where it all begins to be right with God. He is also the Last….he will be what makes an individual right with God when they take their last breath….when they reach the end of their strength……when their good intentions have left them empty….He will fill them up……God will say, “Well done they good and faithful servant….enter thy rest…..and it will have been JESUS all along.
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