In Matthew 7, as Jesus was talking about those who would one day stand before Him hoping to gain entrance into heaven but finding out the awful truth that they have no personal relationship with Him and are doomed to Hell, He told us how to make certain our eternity is in Heaven. We read in Matthew 7:24-27, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
It all boils down to whether we have a TRUE foundation. If our lives are TRULY based on His Word and the teachings that He so PLAINLY taught, we know that salvation is by FAITH in His shed blood as payment for our sins. We understand and know that Jesus died on the cross for us, and we too have to come and die. Die to ourselves and our sins that is. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it well when he said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die” Die to self, die to our own righteousness, die to our own abilities, die to our own desires, and die to this world. If the foundation of our faith is SECURE in Him and His Word, we have no problem, rather – we WILLINGLY DIE to these things that have sought to destroy us and we GAIN NEW LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST.
However, if we do not have this sure foundation, and our salvation is based on ANYTHING else, we are doomed to failure like that house built on the sand. Oh, on the outside, the houses may look the same, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts – what’s at the foundation!
If we have serious reservations about yielding our life and everything to Jesus Christ, if we are bothered and irritated by the commands of God’s Word, and if we do not like the “restrictions” Jesus places on us as Christians – then our faith is built on sand – we have no SURE foundation.
If we read our Bible and pray just because we have too, and we fellowship with other Christians just because it’s expected of us, or we want to make better our false front, but we would rather spend time with the world – we have no SURE foundation.
If we are self-righteous in ANY way, thinking we deserve or can earn our faith and salvation because of who or what we are – we have no SURE foundation.
Acts 4:12 puts it plainly “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
He is THE ONLY FOUNDATION that is SURE!