Without food you may be able to survive a month or two. Without water your survival is vastly reduced to perhaps three or four days. And without air death usually sets in, in a matter of five to seven minutes. But may I submit to you that without Christ living in your heart you are already spiritually dead and in desperate need of resuscitation. And my friends that is why our greatest need is for Christ. Without Him we are hopelessly doomed to a life with little meaning, even less joy and peace, and sadly no hope for the abundant life that the Bible promises we can experience now as well as for eternity.
No wonder the late theologian R. C. Sproul said it well when he shared: “There is nothing in this universe you need more desperately than Christ.”1 And the great 17th century French mathematician and Christian philosopher, Blaise Pascal echoed this thought when he famously said: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.”2
Both Sproul and Pascal understood that we are created fallen creatures that, on our own, have no way to change our state of spiritual deadness and our soon approaching physical death, with its dreadful prospect of being eternally separated from God.
And while Sproul and Pascal state that Christ is clearly our greatest need perhaps the following quote from biblical scholar D. A. Carson should prayerfully be shared with our unsaved loved ones because it lets them know the “why” behind our need for Christ: “If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.”3
Without Jesus we will forever remain in our sin and physical, spiritual, and eternal death are our certain destiny. Not only that but peace, joy, and meaning will also forever be out of our grasp. But praise God that Jesus is able to reverse all of these states, except for physical death, which for the Christian is not really a negative, since it is our portal to experiencing our forever state of being with Jesus!
1 TOP 25 QUOTES BY R. C. SPROUL (of 351) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
2 Quote by Pascal: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of ea…” (goodreads.com)
3 TOP 25 QUOTES BY D. A. CARSON (of 121) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
I disagree with the statement ” Jesus is able to reverse all of these states, except for physical death”. My thinking is that he is able to do anything he might choose to do but he would never choose to do anything that was counter to his nature, promises, and will… But… I certainly can be seeing it wrong! Thank you for your devotionals, I read them every day and God bless you for your good work.