Telephone scams. A common one informs you that you’ve won a big prize. All you have to do to get it is to make a small payment on your credit card. After the person realizes they’ve been scammed, they admit, “I should never have fallen for it. I thought it sounded too good to be true.”
A friend told me of a different scam call that he recently received. The caller told him that his oldest grandson had been arrested for DUII while on a business trip. He needed $10,000 to bail him out of jail, and he didn’t want his wife to find out. This wasn’t too-good-to-be-true. It was too-bad-to-be-true. After a little investigation, my friend found out that his grandson had been home with his family the entire time.
Some respond to the gospel as a scam. They say, “Sounds too good to be true. Just following someone who died two thousand years ago will ensure that I go to Heaven!?” I must admit, that does sound awfully easy. What’s the catch? Everything else we experience in life seems to take some kind of effort on our part. Most of the time, we earn our way. It just seems logical that being allowed to live forever with God would be reserved for those who try their hardest, the religious elite, so to speak. That’s how one of the major world religions functions. It teaches that if you blow yourself up, and kill lots of innocent people, you’ll be welcomed into heaven. Doesn’t sound inviting to me; sounds too-bad-to-be-true.
On the other extreme of the religious spectrum is Christianity. It is the product of God’s love. Instead of asking us to blow ourselves up, God offers Heaven as a gift. The catch? He simply asks us to acknowledge that we’ve sinned and don’t deserve Heaven. When we confess to Him that we’ve sinned, and invite Him to take the reins in our life, He promises to give us a home in Heaven forever.
Jesus isn’t a scam. He loves us. Like a loving parent who has already paid for all the groceries, He invites us to sit at His table, free of charge. He doesn’t ask us to blow ourselves to bits. In fact, He allowed Himself to be murdered to pay for the sins of the world. 1 John 2:2 says, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Have you already received Jesus? Then you know He is not scamming you. If you haven’t yet received Christ, I encourage you to read about Him in the Bible. Let me suggest you start in the book of John, near the front of the New Testament. You’ll be pleasantly surprised that Jesus makes entrance into Heaven so easy.
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