Weekend, November 26, 2022
The Road to Nowhere
There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death. (Proverbs 16:25 NLT)
This world can appear so glamorous, especially when we’re young. We turn on the TV or watch a movie, and sin looks attractive. They make things like illicit sex, drugs, partying, drinking, and adultery appear so wonderful. Tragically, this web draws in person after person and then chews them up and spits them out.
That’s what happened to Judas Iscariot. He betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, but where did that get him? Nowhere.
Matthew’s Gospel tells us, “When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he declared, ‘for I have betrayed an innocent man’ (27:4 NLT).
If Judas had gone back to Jesus and told Him, “Lord, I have betrayed you. I know you’ll go to the cross because of what I’ve done, but I beg you to forgive me,” I believe that even then, Jesus would have forgiven him.
Yet Judas did not turn to God for relief. Instead, he turned to the religious leaders, who basically said, “That’s your problem, not ours. Get lost!” Then Judas went out and ended his life.
If we turn to religion, it will offer us no real help in our hour of genuine need because it’s manmade. It consists of rituals, of things that we do for God rather than what God has done for us.
Christianity, on the other hand, is a relationship with Jesus Christ. He went to the cross and shed His blood for us because there was no other way to satisfy the demands of a righteous and holy God from whom we were separated.
Religion and morality cannot do it. That’s why Jesus came to this earth and paid such a radical price for our sins.
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