Dear Friend,
I am writing this letter to you because even though we may have never met I love and care about you. I hope you will bear with me and take the time to read this letter. The things I have to say are important; in fact nothing is more important. I don’t know your back ground but I surmise that at some point in time you have heard the word sin. What is sin? It is a term that many religious people use and many of them do not understand the term themselves. The bible gives us the definition of what sin is; “Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Sin is living life as if there were no God, no one to whom you are accountable to, or as if He has no knowledge of, or cares what you do. All societies, all cultures, all governments have a set of laws that the citizens of that society are expected to live by. You break the laws of the land and you can expect to be imprisoned and or fined. What happens to a society when you take away government? You have anarchy, people living as if there were no government and no law that they are accountable to, as long as the government remains in place most people obey the laws, but take away the government because of a natural disaster or civil war, the society falls into chaos; people taking whatever they want and doing whatever they want to do. Just as our society has laws and an authority, God the creator of all things has given us a Holy law, a Holy set of scripts by which we are to live life. And each of us knows these laws because He has written them on the heart of everyone. You know that it is wrong to lie, steal, kill, and commit adultery but it goes much deeper than that. God is spirit He sees your thought life, He sees hatred as murder (1 John 3:15) and lust as adultery; Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28) That is just a few of God’s Commandments, His moral law that He has written on your heart and holds you accountable to.
As I told you at the beginning of this letter that “Sin is Lawlessness”, living life as if there were no God. As in society we have to face the judge if we break the laws of the land, God is a good judge and one day every single human being will have to face Him and give an account of their life to Him. The bible tells us that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31). Jesus said when He returns, He will reward each according to their works (Matthew 16:27). My question to you is do you really want Him to reward you according to your works? I know I don’t! At some point we all die, our bodies will cease to function. The bible tells us, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27). Every single one of us will come before God in Judgment, and He will do what good judges do, He will find all law breakers guilty. He is not going to judge you for the good things you have done but for the bad. In society you can be good your entire life, then rob a bank and you are going to jail, no question about it, the good things you did won’t matter. God’s justice is perfect and His judgment is perfect. The punishment for breaking God’s law is death; not the death of your body but the death of your soul, the bible tells us about a second death, the death of your soul, eternal torment and total separation from God, “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelations 21:8).
Now God does not want that for you, God loves you and is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 2:9). God’s perfect justice demands punishment and the punishment for breaking God’s law is death but He loves you and does not want that for you, in fact He wants you to be with Him forever. So He did something incredible and do you know what that is? God became flesh; He became a man, flesh and blood just like us, and yet at the same time was fully God, His name was Jesus. He did something that no man has ever done before or since, Jesus never sinned, He lived His life without breaking the Commandments of God even once. Then He willingly laid down His life in our place, He was beaten, He was pierced, and hung on a cross, a very brutal and torturous way to die. He bled and died on that cross for your sins, for your lawlessness; the bible tells us that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission” (forgiveness of sins) (Hebrews 9:22). Then Jesus was buried in a tomb and then He did something that only God could do, three days later He arose from the grave and defeated death. He was seen by His apostles (His selected twelve followers) and then by over five hundred at once before He ascended to heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) He then said before ascending, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), “and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). That is the reason I have written you this letter, there is forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ for all who repent and put their faith alone in Jesus, His death on the cross was payment for your sins. Repentance is a change of heart, salvation is a free gift given by God to all who repent and put their faith in His only begotten son Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Religion can’t save you, following a bunch of rules to try and earn favor with God can’t save you, and if you remain in your sins you will die in your sins. There is salvation from sin through faith in Jesus Christ alone; He has paid the price for all of your sins on the cross.
So you might ask; what do I do? Go to God in prayer, call out to Him, He will hear you, confess your sins to Him and forsake them, except His free gift of everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ. If you do that you will be born again, God will give you His spirit as a guarantee of your salvation, He will give you a new heart, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). All who are saved in Jesus Christ truly are born again, God no longer sees your sin when He looks at you, He sees Jesus, your sins are truly forgiven, they are no more, and they died with Christ. If you have accepted the gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ, get to know Him. Find a bible and start reading, I suggest to begin with the gospel according to John. Also find a group of followers of Jesus Christ and meet with them regularly. This new life in Christ will not be easy, so you need the support of other believers to help you along the Way. I leave you with the words of Jesus that He spoke to His followers before going to the cross, His words comfort me daily. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven.” (Romans 4:7)
I Hope God blesses you,
Mike Peek
