Son of God or Son of Man

One thing I especially admire about Jesus Christ is that He was always laying things right on the line. He was a radical, and because, He was a radical He forced people into a decision. You know, there is one thing about a radical you can’t be neutral about a radical. They force you into an opinion, either right or wrong they force you into an opinion concerning them. Jesus was a radical He gave no place to be sitting on the fence. Now, there are a lot of people who make the practice of their life sitting on the fence. We’ll just watch and see the way it bounces and then we will jump in but Jesus did not allow people to take a neutral stance for Him. In fact one time He said, “if you are not for Me you are against Me.” You see you just can’t be neutral. You just can’t pass Him off. He wouldn’t let you He forced you into a decision concerning Him.

One day Jesus was talking to the scribes and He said unto them, “what think ye of Christ, Whose Son is He?” and really He just brought it right down to where you live. Whose Son is Jesus Christ? Well Mary and Joseph got caught messing around and so they made up a story. Or some young guy in Nazareth and Mary got together and Mary made up a story and told Joseph to cover the whole thing. Or He was the Son of God. “What think ye of Christ whose Son is He?” Now if He is the son of Joseph or some unnamed man in Nazareth then we might as well close the book and go home. There is no sense in gathering together there is no sense in worshipping God together or building churches or anything else. The whole thing is a big farce. And all of those people in the centuries who believed in Christ have been actually duped. Then all of the hospitals and all the schools that have been built in the name of Christianity are all just so much phoniness, if He was the son of man Joseph or some other. But if He is the Son of God you had better pay attention to what He had to say because your life depends upon it. “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?”

You know, there are a lot of people that try to say of Jesus that He was a great man, He was a great teacher, He was a marvelous philosopher, not so! If He was not the Son of God then He was the biggest phony that ever walked on the face of the earth. He is the greatest liar and the biggest hoax who as ever lived. You can’t just say He is a good man He has taught us a lot of good things because if He was not the Son of God then what He had to say is worthless. And rather than quoting His phrases we should be speaking of Him with hisses and derision. You can’t just put Jesus on a nice pedestal and say what a great guy. “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?”

You know, whether not you believe in Him as the Son of God you do have to acknowledge with all honesty that He has done more to change the History of mankind that any other single individual who has ever lived. Name to me one person who has done more to alter the History and the course of human life than Jesus Christ. If you wrote a check to day 2-28-1977, 1977 What? Nineteen hundred and seventy years since He was born. He so altered the history of man that we even date today are calendars from the day of His birth. So whether or not you want to believe in Him as the Son of God and least you have to acknowledge that which He has done to influence human history. More than any other man who has ever lived. “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?”

You see, it boil down to you, YOU, have to make a personal judgement concerning Him. Well my mother thinks He’s the Son of God, Which won’t do for you. “What think YE of Christ?” What do YOU think it is a personal judgement that each of you has to make concerning Jesus Christ. Not only do you have to make it but also you have made a personal judgement concerning Him. “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?” what think YE of Christ. What do you think of Him, Son of God, or Son of Man?

Not only has He done more to alter history than any other man has but also no one has come into the world with more advance announcements than Jesus Christ. For centuries before He was born men were writing about Him. Men were laying out facts and details concerning His life. They told us where He was going to be born, they told us how He was going to live, they told us how He was going to die, who He would be put to death with, they told us where He was going to be buried. And fact, after fact, after fact, and detail, after detail, after detail was given concerning this man before He was ever born. No one has ever had so much written about Him before He was born. No one has ever had so much advance publicity than Jesus Christ has. And this advance publicity is very interesting to us tonight. For really what chance is there that someone could come tripping along in history and fulfill all the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled when He was born, when He lived, when He died, and when He rose again. What are the chances? Now it is interesting when you deal with prophecy you can actually measure prophecy by a scientific law called the law of compound probabilities. Now let us say that I predict that we are going to have an earthquake here in California that really doesn’t make me a prophet because we no doubt are going to have an earthquake here in California. If things go true to form California has got a lot of different faults that are working and everyone says we are going to have an earthquake. So that doesn’t really make me a prophet. Chances are my prediction would be correct but if I say we are going to have an earthquake in California on march the 12th then you see I’m narrowing things down the chances of my prediction of coming to pass are greatly multiplied. If I say we are going to have an earthquake on March the 12th and it is going to be 7.2 on the Richter scale I all of sudden am expanding all the more the chances of my prophecy not coming to pass. If I say its going to take place at 2:00 in the afternoon March the 12th 7.2 on the Richter scale and the epicenter will be in Newport Beach. Then I am broadening all the more the chances of it coming to pass. If I say there is going to be a loss of 7,280 lives then you see I’m expanding more and more the chances and I am having more and more the chance of being proved a false prophet every time I lay something on it. The chance of it coming to pass becomes more and more remote every time I add something to it.

Now, in the Old Testament there are over 300 prophecies that related to Jesus Christ, His birthplace, His life, His ministry, details of His life, Over 300 prophecies that were completely and accurately fulfilled. What are the chance factors of these 300 prophecies being fulfilled by accident?

Now, here's another illustration of this scientific law of compound probabilities. Let us say that one man in 10 is bald headed. Law of average will get you. How many men would we have to line up against a wall to find a bald headed man? At random chances of are if we lined 10 men against the wall at random if 1in 10 are bald headed we should have 1 bald headed man. Now, let us assume 1 man out of 10 is blind in his right eye. Now how many men do we have to line up against a wall to get a man who is blind in His right eye and bald headed? Well, according to the averages we would need a hundred men lined against a wall. Out of the hundred men lined against the wall you could pull out 10 bald headed men from the ten bald headed men you should be able to find one who is blind in his right eye. Now let us say that 1 man in 10 is missing his left thumb. Now how many men do we have to line against the wall to find a bald headed man, blind in his right eye and missing his left thumb? Theoretically we would need a thousand men at random. From the thousand men at random we could get the hundred bald headed men. From the hundred bald headed men we could get the ten that are missing there left thumb. And from the ten who are missing there left thumb we could get the one who is also blind in his right eye and so we could get one man who can fulfill all three requirements. But every time you are adding a stipulation you must multiply the number of men you need to fulfill it by the factor or by the chance factors or the variables for that stipulation. So it is possible to take the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ determine the chance factors at random of there being fulfilled and then you can determine what the chance factor was that He could of come along and accidentally fulfilled all of these prophecies. Or how many men would you have to have before you could find one who would fulfill all the requirements of these prophecies.

Let’ start Micah the 5th chapter the second verse said, “Thou Bethlehem though thou be little among the provinces of Judah yet out of thee shall come He who is to rule my people Israel whose going forth has been from old from everlasting.” The first prophecy we want to look at is that of His birthplace because this immediately illuminates most of the people. What is the chance of an individual being born in the city of Bethlehem? How many of you tonight were born in Bethlehem? Chances of none of you were. We don’t have enough people. Now how can you determine the chance factor of a person being born in Bethlehem? Well the best thing is to take the average population of Bethlehem with the average population of the world from the time of the prophecy. Then you can determine, and from the records the best they can determine the average population Bethlehem from the time of the prophecy of Micah to the present day has been less than 7100 people. It’s just a little village; it’s growing now. But from that time the average population has been less that 7100 and the population of the earth less than 2 billion. So there is only one chance in 280 thousand of a person being born in the city of Bethlehem. So chance are if we gather people by random if we gathered 280 thousand men by random chances or we could find one of the 280 thousand and he would say, “Yea, I was born in Bethlehem.”

Now the bible said there would be a man that would go before Him a forerunner who would prepare His way. Now how many men in History that you know of has had a man going before Him preparing His way? Not very many, maybe one in thousand but just to be conservative lets just say one in a hundred.

Now it said that He would make His triumphant entry on a donkey. How many kings in history do you know who made their triumphant entry on donkeys? Most of the time the kings made they’re triumphal entries on chariots or on white stallions or something like that. But not often a donkey I’m sure. But let’s say one in a hundred just to be conservative.

Now it is said that a friend would betray him. Most people are betrayed by there enemies not often by friends. But then it said the friend that would betray Him would betray Him for 30 pieces of silver. Now how many men in history do you know have been betrayed by friends for 30 pieces of silver? And then it said that the silver would be thrown down in the house of the Lord and it would be used to buy a potter’s field. Now how many men in history do you know who were betrayed by friends for 30 pieces of silver and the silver was thrown down in the Lords house and then used to buy a potters field? You see every stipulation that is added compounds the chance factors.

Until a science class in Pasadena College several years ago took as a semester project the determination of certain prophecies by random in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled and they sought to discover what were the chance factors of 8 prophecies being fulfilled. How many would you have to have before you found one who would fulfill all 8 requirements? And using very conservative estimates they can up with one chance in

2.8 x 10 followed by 28 zeros. But to make it simpler they knocked off the 2.8 so they cut in thirds and said one chance in 10 followed by 28 zeros. Now in order to be more accurate we should subtract from that the population factor, which they have estimated to be some 88 billion people. But for easy math sake lets say 100 billion people or 1 in 10 to the 11th power subtracted from 10 to the 28th power it would give you 1 man in 10 to the 17th power. In other words you would have to have 10 men to the 17th power in order to get a man who would fulfill all 8 requirements. That’s your chance factor. If you had this many silver dollars you could cover the entire land surface of Texas 2 feet thick with silver dollars. Now mark one of those silver dollars and blind fold a fellow and let him start roaming across the state of Texas. And one day reach down into that pile of silver dollars and pull up one, take the blindfold off, and open his hand. The chance that he would pull out the silver dollar that you had marked would be the same chance that Jesus could have fulfilled those 8 prophecies by accident.

And so then they took 16 prophecies and assuming the ratio was the same in the next 16 it would be 1 chance in 10 to the 44th power because you have already reduced or taken off the population factor you don’t have to take it off twice. Now if you had this many silver dollars you could make a ball of silver dollars that would go 30 times further out than the sun. Now the sun is 33 millions miles away. And you could make a ball that would extend 30 time as far as the sun. Now blindfold a guy and equip him with scuba gear and let him dive into this ball of silver dollars and swim around and swim around for centuries. Then finally one-day grab holds of one of the silver dollars and surface and holds it up. The chance that He would come up with the silver dollar you had marked would be the same chance factor that Jesus could have just fulfilled the 16 prophecies.

So then just to take it totally out of the mental ability to comprehend they took 48 prophecies and now you have one chance in 10 to the 157th power. That is a number that is so vast that we can’t even conceive it. 10 followed by 157 zeros. Now you couldn’t make a ball out of silver dollars. The universe is just not big enough. And so we have to find something smaller now to make our ball. And the smallest thing that we really know for sure, now they say there may be even smaller particles than electrons but for all practical purposes electrons are small enough for us tonight. An electron is 1 or actually

2 ½ of pointillionth of an inch long. In other words, if you lined up electrons single file 1 inch long it would take 2.5 x 10 to 15th power electrons, Or 2 ½ quintillion. If you tried to count them it would take you 19 million years counting day and night at the rate of 250 a minute. Electron is pretty small. Now can you imagine how many electrons you could put in a 1-inch cube? Say you made a solid cube out of electrons. Man you could cram a lot of electrons into that. In fact to count them would take you 19 millions years x 19 million years x 19 million years at the rate of 250 a minute counting day and night.

Now lets come back to this number 10 to the 157th power let us say we had electrons to work with and we had this many electrons. How big a ball do you think we could make out of electrons? The largest thing we know is the universe. The universe is estimated to be some 6 billion light years in radius. Or from one end to the other 12 billion light years. Now light we know travels at the rate of 186 thousand miles per second. So the time it take for a ray of light to get from the earth out to the edge of space is 6 billions years at that speed of 186 thousand miles per second. Now that’s pretty fast if you could jump on a ray of light you could actually circle the earth about 7 ½ times in 1 second. Imagine that’s moving. Stay on that ray of light for 6 billion years and you get out to the edge of space.

Now if we had 10 to the 157th power electrons we could make a ball that would be as large as the universe in which we live. In fact if we could go into mass production and make 500 of these balls every minute we could go on making these balls for the next 6 billion years. And then we could do that to the 10 to the 10 9th power over again and still have 10 to the 32nd power electrons left over. Now mark one of these electrons. You can’t even see it.

The chance random factor of one man fulfilling the 48 prophecies 10 to the 157th power. But there wasn’t just 48 there were over 300. But someone says “Well the prophecies are all so vague.” you know after all when a person lives and a prophecy is so vague you say well look here’s what it says and you can fit it in. all right. It says He would be born in Bethlehem tell me how vague is that? If He were born in Nazareth He would never make it. Born in Hebron, Jerusalem, and Bethel He’s out. There’s really to me nothing vague about being born in Bethlehem sound to me like its pretty straight on. He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. That doesn’t sound very vague what if it would have said 29 then Jesus would be out. What if He said 20 Jesus would be out. It said it would pierce His hand and His feet. What if they only pierced His hands Jesus would be out. Really they are not so vague they are pretty precise. In fact you talk about precise prophecies one of the most precise prophecies I know is in Daniel the 9th chapter where Daniel by the understanding of the reading of the book of Jeremiah new that the 70 years of Babylonian captivity were about over. Now the Lord had prophesied that the nation of Judah was going to go into captivity to Babylon. Jeremiah said that you are going to be there for 70 years and then God was going to bring you back into your land. Now Daniel who was in Babylon, taken in the first captivity by Nebuchanezzar and was one of the leaders, now that the meado Persian Empire taken over Daniel realized from the records in the prophecies of Jeremiah that the 70 years were about over. And because he was in a position of governmental authority he felt that God perhaps would have him to do something in the re-patrolling of the people back to the land. So, Daniel began to fast and pray and wait upon God for whatever God might have for him to do. And while He was waiting upon God the angel Gabriel appeared unto him and said, “O Daniel thou art greatly loved of God and when you started to pray and seek God, God sent me to tell you the things concerning the nation Israel: and no one understands this Daniel from the time the commandment goes forth to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem unto the coming of the Messiah the prince. Will be seven seven’s and sixty-two sevens,” Or a period of 483 years.

Now at the time Daniel wrote this prophecy the city of Jerusalem was in shambles. Nebuzar and Adom the general of Babylon had taken a troop of men. They’ve went to Jerusalem, they burnt the temple with fire, they burnt all of the palaces and then they systematically tore down the walls of the city of Jerusalem burning things and making havoc and wreckage of the city. The city was wasted. But the Lord says when the commandment goes forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah the Prince will be seven seven’s and sixty two sevens or 483 years.

Now he was living in an area where they were still using the Babylonian calendar of 360 days to the year. So if you take the 483 years at 360 days to the year you actually have 173,880 days. Now if God is accurate and God’s word is accurate then we should be able to know the day the Messiah was going to come. Because from the day the commandment would to go forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the coming of the Messiah the Prince would be 173,880 days. God knew what He was talking about.

When the archeologist were digging in the palace of Shushan they found records by which they know what date was the first day of April that year. Because on the first day of April in the year 445 BC King Artexurisx gave the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem March 14, 445 BC

Now starting from March 14, 445 BC the first of Nissan actually in the record. Starting at that date and counting on the calendar 173,880 days brings us to the date of April 6, 32A.D. Now when Jesus was crucified there was darkness over the land from the sixth hour unto the ninth hour. And it is assumed that the darkness over the land was caused by a total eclipse of the sun in that area. And of course we are able to determine when and where total eclipses are going to take place because the movement of the sun and moon are constant. So, we can tell you in advance, years in advance, where the eclipses are going to take place, when, what dates, the time of the day, and when they are going to be total eclipses and going back we can do the same in history. And we know that a total eclipse took place that week of April the sixth at 12:00 until 3:00 there in Israel. So going back from the total eclipse to the Sunday before you have the date April 6th, the Sunday before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

173,880 days from March 14, 445 BC to April 6, 32 AD taking in account the leap years and other factors. Now on April 6, 32 AD Jesus said to His disciples “go over into the city and you will find in a certain place a donkey that is tied. Untie him and bring him to Me. And when the men say to you why are you untying that donkey you just say the Lord needs him.” And so they went over to the city and exactly where he told them, there they saw the donkey that was tied. As they started untying him the fellow standing there said “ Hey what are you doing untying that donkey?” they said “the Lord needs him” and so they brought the donkey to Jesus there in Bethany and Jesus sat on the donkey and started riding toward Jerusalem. The disciples began to lay their coats in the pathway, as they began to wave palm branches and they began to quote the 118th Psalm, which is a Messianic Psalm. And they said “Save Now, Save Now, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The word save now in Hebrew is Hosanna and so the disciples were crying out “Hosanna, Hosanna blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” A quotation from the 118th Psalm which is a Messianic Psalm Peter quotes it as such because the Psalm says “this is the stone which is said not of you builders but God has made it to be the chief cornerstone.” Save now Save now. Read the 118th Psalm and the prophecy concerning Jesus and the disciples were crying out this Messianic prophecy Save Now Save Now. And the Pharisees when they heard what the disciples were saying turned to Jesus and said, “ Lord you better rebuke those disciples that’s blasphemous.” And Jesus said unto the Pharisees let me tell you something fellas “if these disciples would at this time all together hold their peace and be quiet these very stones would cry out.” Jesus went riding into Jerusalem on that donkey even as Zechariah said. “Behold thy king cometh unto thee but He is lowly He is sitting on a donkey the fold of an ass.” Jesus was rejected in Jerusalem and so He came back out to the mount of Olives and looking back over the city of Jerusalem He began to weep and He said, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem if thou hadst only known the things that belong to thy peace in this thy day.” This was the first day Jesus allowed in public acclamation of himself as the Messiah. Earlier in His ministry when He had fed the five thousand they tried to by force take Him and make Him King but His time was not yet come and He disappeared out of there midst. This was the first time He allowed in public acclamation and at this time He said, “if these people were quiet theses very stones would cry out.” And then weeping He said, “ if you only knew the things that belong to your peace this thy day but now they are hid from your eyes.”

But going back to the prophecy of Daniel what did he say? He said, “The Messiah would be cut off without receiving the kingdom.” Wild! Daniel predicted the very day the Messiah would come but then he declared the Messiah would be cut off with out receiving His kingdom and the Jews would end up by being dispersed. And thus the prophecy of Daniel was literally fulfilled to the day. Now, to me there is nothing vague about that.

What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He? You see there is an awful lot of evidence to indicate He was indeed the Son of God. In fact the evidence is overwhelming. Now Jesus was always making radical statements, Statements that forced you into an opinion. One day Mary and Martha had sent an urgent message to Jesus when He was down at the Jordan River. They lived in Bethany and it was two days from Bethany to the Jordan River. And there message said, “come quickly the one you love is sick!” Jesus got the message and stayed at Jordan River for two more days and then said to His disciples, “come let’s go to Bethany and see Lazareth.” And by the time He made the two-day journey to Bethany Lazareth had already died and he had been buried four days earlier. Martha came out of the village and met Him as He was entering into the village and she said, “Lord if you had already been here my brother would not have died.” Politely she was saying where were you when we needed you? Why didn’t you come when we called didn’t you get the message it said URGENT! What took you so long to get here! Lord if you only had been here my brother would not have died! You can hear a little bitterness in that. But Jesus said, “Martha, your brother is going to live again.” Oh yes Lord I know on the Last day of the great resurrection. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life and He that believeth on me though he were dead yet shall He live and he who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Do you believe this? What did Jesus do? He immediately cuts the line you either believe it or you don’t! You see He immediately separates people into two categories those who believe and those who don’t believe it. There’s no fence to sit on. You either do or you don’t. It’s just that sharp and plane. Believest thou this? No. Imagine anybody else in history making that statement. Imaging Nero saying, “fellow Romans led me your ears I have a pronouncement to make unto you. I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes on me though he were dead yet shall he live and he lives and believes in me shall never die.” No problem you say Nero’s a madman he’s crazy. He’s insane. What if Napoleon had made this statement? “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes on me though he were dead yet shall he live and he lives and believes in me shall never die.” You would say, “Napoleon’s insane!” He is diluted. He is out of his gored. What if I would stand up here tonight and say listen friends I want to share something with you. Keep this confidential but “I’m the resurrection and the life and if you believe on me you’ll never die.” You would say, “man that guys a few bricks short of the load.” Hey, you know if anyone else in history made that statement you would have no problem with it at all, you would just immediately dismiss it. But because of who Jesus Christ is you can’t just pass it off lightly. Because of all of the prophecies that proceeded Him you can’t just pass it off, it really challenges you. Now, He either is or He isn’t. He either does or He doesn’t. And when He says believest thou this immediately He draws the line and either you believe it or you don’t and you have life or you don’t have life. Just that plane.

Peter said, “O how I thank God that He has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Now of course the whole thing is this Jesus rose from the dead. And it creates a living hope.” And then Peter said, “ we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we declared unto you the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead but we were eye witnesses.” Now, this story of the resurrection of the dead what must we assume? Well, very easy it is either true or it is not. Either Jesus rose or He didn’t rise. If He didn’t rise from the dead really then we have to assume that the disciples got together and made up a real neat story. They said, “ok guys you’ve got to swear, let’s take our blood and we will mix our blood, rub or wrist, nobody, NOBODY, BUT NOBODY squeal. We hang to the story fellas. We all of us vow that it is true. We all are going to say that we saw the resurrected Christ and no matter what they do to us we are going to hang on to this story and we are going to keep it straight. Nobody gives in. and so they went out and began to say, “Jesus’ is alive we saw Him.” Now one by one they took these fanatics that were saying that they saw the resurrected Jesus and they put them to death violently because they were saying that Jesus was alive He rose again.

First of all James they took him and cut his head off with a sword. Because he said Jesus rose from the dead. Later they took Peter and crucified him upside down because He said Jesus rose from the dead. Later the severed Paul the apostles head because he said, ”I saw the risen Lord too.” James the other James they actually drug by his feet up and down the steps until his brains were dashed out on the pavement because he said I saw the risen Lord. Another one of the disciple they tied by his feet to a horse and they drove the horse through the city until his body was dragged to death on the street. And each one of these disciples, with the exception of John, suffered a violent death because they were all declaring the same thing Jesus rose from the dead we saw Him. Now wouldn’t be easier for your position of unbelief if just one of these guys had cracked? Hey, Hey stop fellas let me tell you the truth; it’s all a big hoax. If just one of them had done that then you would have a position for your unbelief. You could say, “yea but look at this guy, when he really faced it he told the truth.” Of these stubborn hardheaded guys not one of them confessed. Pretty powerful evidence. It was interesting when Satan expressed to God his philosophy concerning man through observation Satan said, “skin for skin all a man has he would give for his skin.” Pretty much that’s true. When it really comes down to a life and death matter you’ll do about anything to save your life. And if these fellas could have saved their life, and they could have, by saying it’s a lie Jesus did not rise from the dead. They could have saved there lives by saying that but none of them did all of them went to there deaths affirming they had seen the risen Christ.

So Peter said, “We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we declared unto you the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead but we were actually eye witnesses of His glory.” Man I saw it with my eyes but then He said something very interesting he said, “but we have the more sure word of prophecy” what I was talking about earlier. More sure than what I can see with my eyes is the fact that Jesus fulfilled these prophecies totally far beyond any chance factor, the more sure word of prophecy.

And so ultimately and always it comes back to this. It’s your judgement decision. “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?” the Son of God or the son of some man? And your decisions and your belief determine your eternal destiny. With all the evidence that shows that He is indeed the Son of God it seems to me awful foolish to believe anything else.

Finally you have the witness of the majority of people here tonight and millions of people throughout the world who will say to you He is the Son of God He is alive today I have experienced His power in my life. How can you account for the dramatic changes that take place in people’s lives if it is all a hoax, If he was just a fraud, If He was a bastard? And yet that is what you are saying if you do not believe that He is the Son of God. “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?” if He is indeed the Son of God then tonight there is hope for this world. We have glorious future to look forward to. It isn’t all empty and vain and dark and hopeless but there is a bright tomorrow coming He promised it to us. If He is the Son of God then surely you should commit your life to Him. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose except your old rotten sinful self. Which is sort of nice to get rid of.