I Thought I Was Good Until I Met The Holy One. My name is David Christenson. This is my story.

I was born into a good family on May 3, 1953.   Although my parents were not religious, they raised me up to honor my father and mother, not kill, not commit adultery, not steal, not lie, not covet.   I do not think that they knew that these are part of the Ten Commandments. They were just trying to bring me up to be good, live right, stay out of trouble, and do the best I could.    Of course, I was not a little angel, but I thought I was just as good or perhaps better than almost everyone else and smart enough to get away with most everything I did wrong. One incident sticks in my mind.   I remember stealing field corn from a neighbor's field and turning around and selling it back to him as sweet corn.   When he questioned me about it, I lied.   Somehow, my parents found out about it!    During my teen years, a friend invited me to go with him to church.   The only churches that I had been to were dark and spooky.   This church was different.   It was a well lighted, 1

friendly church with many fun activities to keep the youth coming.   It was here that I was taught about the Triune God, the creation of man, the fall of man into sin, Heaven and Hell, that Jesus is God in the flesh, that He died a substitionary death on the cross for man's sin, that man could not save himself, that he could be declared just before God in Christ, about repentance and faith, and the Christian life.   I realized that there was more to the Bible than the Ten Commandments and that our responsibility was not only to be rightly related to our fellow man but to God also!   I somehow thought that since I was good, God would accept me.   My good surely outweighed the bad things I did.   I am sure that I heard hundreds of gospel sermons and devotionals. I sat through many invitations to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour.   Many thoughts went through my subconscience.   All of these good church folk received me.   I did not have an enemy in the world.   Surely God would accept me too.   Though I did not personally 2

accept the Gospel, I did not refuse it.   I went to church and believed the doctrines.    One evening, I spent the night at my friend's house who had initially invited me to church.   After an evening of typical activities such as small talk with the family, eating and playing games, we finally settled down to sleep in the bedroom, but continued to talk about a lot of different things into the late hours of the night.   At last the conversation turned to the Scriptures.   He shared a verse with me that I had heard many times before.   I had even memorized it!   Truly, the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17) because God used it that night to cut me to my heart.   He showed me that I personally needed to be saved from my sin.   "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23.   I had not come short of my wishes, or my family's expectations, or society's standards.   I was short of God's glory, standard, and holy expectation.   I was right with the world but wrong with God.   I saw 3

clearly that my sin separated me from God. My self-righteousness fled in a second.   I could not see any goodness in myself.   All I had remaining was my sin.   I needed to be cleansed from my sin.   I was justly condemned before a holy God because of my sin.   How I hated my sin and wanted to be free from it. There was no human way to do it.   My sin condemned me.   I saw no way out.   Then in a flash the Holy Spirit brought the answer. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," Romans 3:24.   If I was to be saved from sin it would only be through Christ's perfect work of redemption on the cross of Calvary where He died for my sin and your sin.   The only righteousness that God would or could accept was that of the sinless Son of God who died in my place.   There is no other way of salvation according to Acts 4:12: "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we might be saved."   I needed the 4

pardon and justification that can only be received through Christ.   That night I died to sin and self to find new life in Christ, forgiveness of sins, peace in my soul, and justification (just as if sin had never been) before God.    It has been many years since that night.   I was saved, separated from the penalty of my sin and at the same time separated unto God. There has also been a progressive setting apart or sanctification from the power of sin. Sure, I still fall into sin but I do not live in or love sin.   And one day I will be saved from the very presence of sin.   That is the blessed hope.   Do you have that hope?   Do not be content to just be good or just to go to church. Jesus said, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."   Do not be like so many of His day of whom He had to say, "And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life," John 5:39-40. 5

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