A few years ago I received a call on my cell phone. It was the supposed outcome of a contest that I had won. The prize turned out to be a brand new SUV. The words of the person I spoke with had such a sense of persuasion that it wasn't hard to believe. All this added to the fact that I was in great need of a vehicle a that time. After several minutes talking to the person who represented this very unusual promotion, I was already choosing the color of my new SUV and giving particular details about the address where it was to be shipped. Everything was going great, I woke up that morning without a vehicle and I was going to bed with a brand new SUV in my garage. "Too good to be true", right? But for a moment my mind accepted and embraced the idea, I could see myself enjoying a brand new car, with 0 miles on it…until some people around me started planting seeds of doubt and would not stop until they convinced me of the deceit behind the call. While I was hanging up the phone, my dream of driving a new SUV had already vanished, leaving a very clever man behind the telephone, saved from believing in his folly.
Things like these turn the phrase "too good to be true" into a reality. However, it seems that when it comes to material benefits there's something that leads us to ignore this and simply guides us into believing in these offers. If we looked at the annual rate of fraud and theft that occurs this way we would be surprised. Even as we mouth the words "too good to be true", we are easily diverted by the greed in our hearts and will soon be next on the "scammed" list.
But just as with fake offers for goods and/or material benefits here on Earth, which sound easy and fast in exchange for barely anything, often making us willing to embrace them, thousands are also repulsed by the more real and beneficial offer that any man can have.
It's easy to believe that you've randomly won the car of your dreams, but there's a totally different reaction towards the offer God makes through Jesus Christ.
The religious and the wicked equally despise the Gospel’s offer.
God says:
“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD”. Isaiah 55:6-8.
"Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:22.
…..By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8.
But The religious answer: Nah! Too good to be true, too easy, salvation by grace? No!!!.. we want to earn it, work it out, pay for it....
And The wicked answer: Nope, too good to be true, or no I do not need it, I am satisfied!
God has approached man, who is sunk in his sinfulness and has offered a perfect way to save us from our lost and miserable condition, Jesus Christ.
Because:
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
So: "what must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. " Acts 16:30-31.
We are sinners, we are disarmed without means of transportation to reach to God, our sins are many and our hearts are evil, urgently needing a way. God calls today and graciously offers, without our deserving it, an effective way, since “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Christ came to give life and life in abundance, no other offer in this world can compare. This is where "too good to be true" does not apply. The need is raised, the offer is made. No scam, no tricks…… Only benefits, God Himself!
Will you reject it?
