Who wants to buy something that looks like gold but is just fancy, shiny bling? Who wants to eat a burger that is just old horse meat mashed up to look like a burger?
There are so many things in this world that look good but turn out to be fake. So many things we believe in turn out to be the wrong thing we were looking for.
When you are dealing with salvation don’t settle for imitations.
The cross is real
“Brothers—you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles—this message of salvation has been sent to us! The people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the prophets had spoken about. Instead, they condemned him, and in doing this they fulfilled the prophets’ words that are read every Sabbath. They found no legal reason to execute him, but they asked Pilate to have him killed anyway.
“When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead! And over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel.
“And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus:
‘You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.’
Jesus was labelled a criminal for you
You don’t have to walk the halls of being a tough guy. You don’t have to act cool, do drugs, and be violent. Jesus walked those halls for you. He was labelled as a criminal for you. He faced capital punishment on your behalf. He was executed for your sins. We sinned, and we disobeyed God and Jesus was the one who paid the price for us. He did the time in hell on our behalf. He suffered death and hell for you and me.
Brothers and sisters, Listen to me. Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid the price for all our crimes and sins against God.
God became a man
God became a man and here is what the Bible says about Jesus:
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” – Philippians 2:7-11
Be strong for the Lord
So humble yourself and tell God you are sorry for your sins. Ask God to save you. Then when people come up to you and ask you what happened to you, when they ask you why you don’t drink anymore, why you don’t steal anymore, then you can tell them that it was Jesus Christ who saved you from your sins and changed your life.