Introduction |
I have
written these messages for you who don’t know God. Their purpose is to lead
you to the knowledge of God, for knowing God is the most beautiful and
important experience that a human being can have. We speak from personal
experience, for we have known God. |
Maybe you
are an atheist and thus you will say, ‘There is no God!’ You are greatly
mistaken, for the Bible speaks of the existence of God, and not only the
Bible, but also the creation, which you can see with your eyes, speaks of the
existence of God. Therefore repent of this your evil thought and believe in
God’s existence and yearn to know Him. Maybe you are a religious person: you
believe in the existence of God and think that you know Him, but actually you
do not know God for you do not love those who are begotten of Him. For the
apostle John states that he who does not love does not know God, for God is
love (1 John 4:8). Therefore, you also – like the atheist – need to know God.
It does not matter if you say you are a Christian; you can say that you are a
Roman Catholic, or a Lutheran, or a member of the Reformed Church, or a
Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Pentecostal, or a member of another protestant
denomination; you can be even a Jew, but since you do not love, you do not
know God, for you are dead in your trespasses and iniquities. It is evident
that you do not know God from this also, you do not have the assurance of
remission of sins and of eternal life, for anyone who knows God is sure that
he has obtained remissions of sins and eternal life, not by his own personal
merits, but by the grace of God. |
How can you
know God then? Only by repenting of your sins and believing in Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who came into the world to make God His Father known to us. That’s
why in all the messages that you are going to read you will find the
following exhortation, ‘Repent and believe in Jesus Christ.’ Therefore if you
want to know God, the only true God, you must know Jesus Christ first, the
Son of God, and you can know Him only by putting your trust in Him. When you
know Jesus you will know His Father also, that is, God, and you will obtain
remission of sins and eternal life, and you will start loving the sons of
God. |
So Jesus
Christ is the Way that leads to the knowledge of the only true God, who
created all things and sustains all things by His power. Him we proclaim to
you with all boldness and without flattering you, who died for our sins on
the cross and rose again for our justification. This message is foolishness
to some, and a stumbling block to others, but to us who have known God and
believe in Him it is the power of God. Do not despise this message, do not
make light of it, for it pleased to God to make Himself known through it. I
know that this is still incomprehensible to you, but it is the truth; I say
it again, God can be known only by the message of the cross. |
|
Giacinto
Butindaro |