There is total hopelessness without Christ, but with Christ there is hope, and only is there hope in Christ.

There is total hopelessness in Roman Catholicism. You can be the most holy of Roman Catholics, and yet still end up as an enemy of God, for it is Roman dogma that we still must do penance to go back to the state of grace. But how much penance, how much working of the sacraments will ever be enough to cover the infinite sinfulness of sin?! From the sins in our thought life, even down to our secret sins? None! What a terrible thing it is to profess belief in Christ yet deny His offering of Himself as the one sacrifice that has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). What a terrible thing to profess belief in Christ yet deny Him to be a perfect Savior.

How about other major religions of the day? Islam? Mormonism? Jehovah’s Witness? All of which deny the Deity of Christ. How can we escape if we neglect so great salvation? How can we be redeemed in the absence of one of infinite worth to atone and propitiate the infinite sinfulness of sin, the God-man the Lord, Christ Jesus? What amount of prayers, works of righteousness, merits in tradition can ever cover the infinite sinfulness of sin? Oh, the guilt of it, what else can cover it?! Oh, the hopelessness!

Dear, reader… The Lord Jesus Christ, the same Jesus that Thomas confessed, saying, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28); the same Jesus that John speaks of saying, “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20); this same Jesus says:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

—Matthew 11:28-30

And that same God-breathed text of Scripture declares:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

—Romans 3:21-26

Reader, Jesus saves.