Time To Choose (NKJV)

Who Do You Serve?

While America will soon decide who will serve as its elected officials, let me ask you, dear reader, who do you serve? The Bible tells us that we serve one of two things: we either serve sin by disobeying God, or we serve righteousness by obeying Him (Romans 6:16). We may think that by “doing our own thing” we really don’t serve anyone or anything but ourselves, but that’s not true. There is no neutral ground. Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30).

You see, before being saved—before we turn to God in repentance and faith—all we can do is serve sin. Until then, there is nothing we can do to please God or serve Him because we are “dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:1-5). In the eyes of God, even “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

A Serious Problem

Let’s not minimize the awfulness of sin. God hates sin! The Lord must, and will, punish all sin. No sin will be forgotten about or overlooked. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “After this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God … and the dead were judged according to their works” (Revelation 20:12). There’s just no way around it. If we disobey God and serve sin, we will answer to God.

The God-Given Solution

But, thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for us, bearing our sins, so that we might be saved. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Galatians 3:13). Yes, Jesus Christ hung on a tree (the cross), shed His precious blood in our place, and received the wrath of God upon Himself so that all who trust in Him may have the forgiveness of sins. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Make the Right Choice

“Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent’” (John 6:28-29). It is only through faith in the Lord Jesus that we can cease being slaves of sin and begin to serve God (Romans 6:18).

Let me ask you again: who do you serve? This is the most important choice you will ever make, and the time to choose is now: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). —C.T.C.