The days were dark. The hour was late. And the great Assyrian city of Nineveh was about to fall into the swift and violent hands of God’s judgment. Yet, something peculiar happened…
The reluctant prophet, Jonah, proclaimed a simple message to its inhabitants, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The city, its dwelling places, people, and livestock would be destroyed. But, they heard Jonah’s simple message of warning and impending judgment, and they believed and repented. Their response was so moving that, “…when God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”
They believed the message, and God relented. He did not do it.
What is the message today?
Christ has made a way for an eternally right relationship with God.
- Those who are not in a right relationship with God through faith in the finished work of Christ on their behalf will face eternal separation and torment from God. The reason? They are perishable, and thus must perish forever.
Who, then, are imperishable? Those who believe the message of God…that they have fallen short of His holy standards, and yet God did not leave them in this state, but rather sent His Son to receive their punishment and to pay the penalty for their sin. His work through His death on the cross was sufficient and acceptable to God as payment for every life. Thus, a person simply receives Christ’s work on their behalf through faith–believing that He died for them.
What’s a facet of faith? Repentance. Just like the Ninevites, it’s a recognition of failure to achieve God’s holiness, therefore it’s a turning away from a life of death in the material to a life of life in Christ.
Simple message. God made a way for an eternally right relationship with God through Christ. Faith and Repentance. Turning away from death to life. Amen & Amen.
Click HERE to see what Christ had to say about these Ninevites..— August 4, 2017