The ImPossible Miracle

5^th October

“Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.””

Matthew 19:26

If you were asked, ‘what is the greatest miracle of all’, what would you say? Jesus’ calming of the storm, being raised from the dead, the Red Sea parting or perhaps a breakthrough in your own life? Yet the biggest miracle of all, one which the angels of Heaven rejoice in¹, is the miracle of salvation; when a person is saved from their sins, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Why? Because this is God’s work alone.

Jesus, in Matthew 19, is approached by a very rich man who asks what is needed to gain eternal life. Jesus begins to list some of the 10 commandments to the rich man to which his reply was, ‘I’ve obeyed all these commandments…. what else must I do?’ Jesus then said to to the rich man, ‘go and sell all your possessions and then follow Me’. The man left very despondent as he had many possessions and this teaching was hard to accept. See what Jesus was really saying, is not you have to obey this law and this law to get to Heaven. He was implying that salvation is a heart issue not a ‘works’ issue. The man clearly had his priorities in the wrong place. His assurance, his security and his ‘guarantee’ was not in God’s grace but in his wealth and in his ‘good works’.

Jesus clearly says that, actually, salvation is not something we can achieve by buying or earning our way into Heaven. It is a gift of God. Jesus adds that ‘it is impossible’ to even try to get into Heaven by doing good. The only way, is to surrender our hearts to Him; to make Him number One priority in our life and to accept His free gift of grace and mercy. With man gaining salvation is impossible but with God, everything is possible!!