“From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, ‘This man is calling Elijah.’ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’”
Jesus is God; He has always been God. He is the unique God-man. Throughout the Gospels He presents Himself as either the “Son of Man” [2] or as the “Son of God.” [3] Various cults and sects have attempted to cast shade on this revelation of the Word. “If Jesus was God,” they sneer, “where was God when Jesus hung on the cross?” Human reason doesn’t permit a casual answer to the question of how God can die? Perhaps the greater mystery is why God would choose to give His life for fallen mankind.
Cultists, and other scoffers, imagine that their questions are unanswerable; they imagine that orthodox Christians have mythologized the Gospel. Because they can’t wrap their heads around what is presented in the Word of God doesn’t invalidate what is written. Not everything that is presented as truth can be understood by human reason.
When we explore what is written, we who follow the Christ will be encouraged. Again, let me assert, Jesus is God. Jesus was always God. There will never be a time when Jesus is not God. What a comfort for the individual who has chosen to follow the Christ to read, “[Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” [HEBREWS 7:25]. Jesus will always be God, ever living and all powerful. It is this Jesus who now saves. Amen.
“MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” Pinioned to the cross on which He would surrender His life, God’s Son cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” I contend that Jesus is God; and yet, here He calls out to His God, questioning why He was forsaken. Confused? Some people are. They don’t like the idea that anyone would dare believe that God would give His life as a sacrifice for fallen mankind. In fact, they are sufficiently angered by what is presented in Scripture that they rail against the very thought that Jesus is God. But what does Scripture have to say about this matter? How could God give His life as a sacrifice for His fallen creature?
For the one who follows the Christ, Scripture must serve as our ultimate authority. Undoubtedly, some will argue the point; however, I assure you that I am well aware that the Spirit of God lives within the believer. I know that He indeed teaches us all things. Liberal churchmen will say that they must allow the Spirit of God to interpret Christ. There is an element of truth in this, but the statement masks something quite sinister.
I, too, have read the Words of the Master as He prepared those who followed Him for His exodus. Jesus taught those who would follow Him, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” [JOHN 14:16-26].
The Spirit is given to all who follow the Master. One primary role the Spirit of Christ plays is to instruct the one who is following the Saviour. God’s Spirit did enable those who wrote the Scriptures to remember all that is necessary to know the mind of God. And He enables us in this day to understand what has been written. Let’s look at these two points briefly.
The Spirit of God guided those who wrote Scripture, as Peter states quite clearly. “We possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” [2 PETER 1:19-21 NET BIBLE].
The Holy Spirit guides you as you read the Scriptures that He ensured would serve as a revelation of the mind of the Living God. Here’s the thing—He will not guide you to an understanding other than what is clearly written. The Spirit of God will not give one truth at one point in the Word and an alternate truth at another point in the Word. God’s Spirit will guide you, but He will not violate what He says in the Word.
Recall the Apostle’s teaching delivered in his first letter to the saints in Corinth. “Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him’—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” [1 CORINTHIANS 2:6-16].
We who are redeemed, we worshippers of the Christ, we in whom God’s Holy Spirit lives, have “the mind of Christ.” Quite literally, we have the worldview of the Master, we see matters from His perspective. We who are saved have the perspective of Heaven, we see matters as does God Himself. We view the world through the eyes of the Lord God. And this is as it should be since the Spirit of the Living God dwells within those whom the Father now calls His own; and His Spirit guides us into all truth.
We cannot expect cultists to know Christ as Master over life, they do not acknowledge His rightful claim to their own heart. We cannot expect the lost to confess Christ as rightful ruler over their lives, they are lost and unsaved. We assuredly cannot expect people who have never put faith in the Son of God to act righteously—they haven’t the capacity to do what is right because they don’t have the Spirit of Christ! Lost people will stumble through the world with eyes darkened by their condition. Perhaps they will attempt to address one problem or another, but inevitably the law of unintended consequences applies to their actions, and they make matters worse, more confused. Unsaved people, those who refuse Christ as very God, do not have the Spirit of God and cannot realise that Jesus is very God and very man. However, for all who are born from above, we know and are assured that Christ Jesus is very God and fully man. He is the unique God-man, and He gave His life as a sacrifice because of our fallen condition.
This is, of course, the testimony of the Word of God that followers of the Risen Saviour accept, testimony leading to transformation of life. “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [ROMANS 5:6-8].
This truth must never allow us to exalt ourselves against those of the world, but rather it should make us humble. Those in the world are acting as they act because they are ignorant of the Lord. Perhaps they know about God, but they do not know God. They may be religious, but they have rejected God as Ruler over their lives. Our perspective is not learned from a church or through a class, our perspective is the result of God’s grace working in our lives through His Good Spirit.
We are not better than outsiders, but we are different. We are not like those identified with this dying world. We are ambassadors of Heaven, citizens of an unseen country. Indeed,
This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through;
My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue!
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
That is it exactly! God leaves us here so that the world can witness the power and grace of the Lord displayed through His holy people. Peter is correct in his assessment of Christians when he writes, “[We] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” [1 PETER 2:9-10].
Is Jesus God? No follower of the Christ should ever doubt that the One we call our Master is very God. Writing of his love for the people of Israel, the Apostle to the Gentiles has written, “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” [ROMANS 9:1-5].
Paul did not hesitate to affirm that the Christ is “God over all.” Was that assertion offensive to the Jewish religionists? Of course! They had understood Jesus when He testified, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
The Jews were offended and picked up stones so they could stone Him. Jesus calmly asked, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me” [JOHN 10:32]?
Note the response of the Jewish leaders: “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God” [JOHN 10:33].
Peter understood who Jesus is; he didn’t hesitate to remind those of the Diaspora to whom he wrote in his second letter that Jesus is God. Listen as he opens that missive. “Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
“To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:
“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” [2 PETER 1:1-2].
Peter calls Jesus Christ “our God and Saviour!” He wants those to whom he writes to realise that grace and peace are supplied by Jesus, who is our God!
Paul wanted Titus, and everyone who would read the missive that he had penned to the preacher he had left in Crete, to know Who we serve. He reminded Titus that we are looking for God to come for His people. The Apostle wrote, “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” [TITUS 2:11-14]. Our great God and Saviour is the same One who “gave Himself for us.” Of course, Paul was writing of Jesus Christ.
Dear people, Jesus Christ is very God in human flesh. I don’t profess to understand everything that He has revealed in this Word, but of this I am quite certain: JESUS CHRIST IS GOD. The Living God gave Himself as a perfect sacrifice for man’s sinful condition. The Word which God has delivered for our benefit is very clear on this matter. JESUS CHRIST IS GOD.
HEAVEN GRIEVED AND THE EARTH WAS CONVULSED — “Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many” [MATTHEW 27:51-53].
How strange that day must have been when the Saviour was crucified. First, there was the eclipse, except it wasn’t really an eclipse. The sky darkened. Birds began to roost. The nocturnal animals stirred and began to prowl about. It was the sixth hour, about twelve noon, just about the time people would be breaking for a noon meal. This strange darkness persisted for three hours, as though heaven itself was draped with black crepe, as if the angels turned their heads, refusing to gaze upon the horrific scene taking place on that dreadful hill outside of the city.
Then, there was the report that the curtain in the temple had been torn in two. This was that veil that blocked the view of those going into the Temple, ensuring that worshippers could not gaze upon the Most Holy Place. This opened the veil into that awful place where only the high priest could go, and that only once each year to make atonement for the people. Now, worshippers were no longer debarred from looking upon the place where atonement was made.
As though the earth heaved with great, tectonic sobs, there was an earthquake. Anyone who has experienced an earthquake can tell you that the experience is always terrifying; it was the more so for Jerusalem since tectonic plates are relatively stable in that area. Rocks splitting would be terrifying no matter where the phenomenon occurred. But the bodies of saints coming out of the tombs? These bodies walking into the city must have terrified all who witnessed this unreal scene!
Don’t imagine that this was like a scene from “The Walking Dead.” The indication is that those present in the city on that day recognised these saints. Their appearance must have been positively disconcerting. Those who saw them recognised them for who they were—saints of the Living God who had died and who were buried. It was as though the fabric separating earth and heaven had been rent! How could such phenomena be explained? Something mysterious, unexplainable, had taken place.
Did the resurrected saints shout praises to the Lord God as did the angels who announced the birth of the Saviour? Were they dressed in white raiment that shone as brightly as the sun? Were their faces wreathed in brilliance, glowing as the eastern sky at the first blush of the morning sun? Did they simply fade through the darkness after a time? We don’t know; the Word of God doesn’t inform us. What we do know is that these saints appeared to many, and they were apparently recognised for who they are.
No child of God rejoices when evil appears to be in ascendency. No follower of the Christ experiences joy when wickedness appears to win. As the Master prepared His followers for His exodus, He taught them, and thus instructs us, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me” [JOHN 16:16].
That passage continues with this commentary and instruction. “So some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What is this that he says to us, “A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;” and, “because I am going to the Father?”’ So they were saying, ‘What does he mean by “a little while?” We do not know what he is talking about.’ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, ‘Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, “A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me?” Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you’” [JOHN 16:17-22].
In this world, evil appears to be winning; but we haven’t seen the final act. Remember the words which Paul wrote in the Ephesian Letter? “I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says,
‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.’
“(In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” [EPHESIANS 4:1-16].
I know the passage is long, but weigh what the Apostle has written in the context of the message presented this day. Evil does appear to be in control in this world, but we see with the eyes of Christ. The existence of the Faith, the presence of those who point us to the Risen Lord, the joy of the Spirit who lives within us, all remind us that we are on the winning side!
Writing the saints in Colossae, Paul affirmed what actually happened at the Cross. “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” [COLOSSIANS 2:6-15].
Heaven grieved at the death of the Saviour, but the grief was not because of what the Master accomplished. Heaven grieved at the devastation of sin in our world. Heaven grieved at the pain people would experience because of the broken condition of this fallen world. Heaven grieved over what we experience because of our sin. However, there was rejoicing in the knowledge that Christ conquered death, hell, and the grave!
There is wild joy in Heaven to this day each time a lost sinner turns from the darkness that characterises this world and sees with spiritual eyes the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus told a series of parables on one occasion that illustrate this truth. A shepherd searches for one sheep, though he has ninety-nine other sheep. When he finds his sheep, he rejoices, inviting all he knows to enter into his joy. Jesus then says, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” [LUKE 15:7].
Then, the Master told of a woman who had ten coins, but she lost one of those coins in her house. She lights a lamp and sweeps the floor, working hard until she finds what she has lost. When she finds the lost coin, she is ecstatic. She invites her friends and neighbours to enter into her rejoicing. Then, the Master draws back the curtain separating earth from Heaven to inform us, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” [LUKE 15:10].
By now, you know where this is going. A son was lost to a father. When the son at last came to his senses, the father threw a party. There was wild celebration, joy that couldn’t be contained, joy that had to be shared. The Master portrays that father as saying, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found” [LUKE 15:32]. What was accomplished at the Cross caused all Heaven to celebrate; and when we work with Christ, we also rejoice.
Dear people, the sacrifice of the Saviour was not a defeat, it was a victory. Each time a sinner comes to life in Christ the Lord, Heaven breaks out in wild celebration, and we, also, should throw a party. I’ve often wondered why we don’t throw a party each time a soul openly confesses the Saviour. It should be a time of wild celebration among the people of God. It is confirmation that Christ is Victor in the battle for the souls of broken people.
O victory in Jesus, My Saviour, forever,
He sought me and bo’t me with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. [4]
Amen. Hallelujah.
“TRULY THIS WAS THE SON OF GOD!” Those rough Roman soldiers, including the seasoned centurion who commanded them, were forced to confess that this One whom they had humiliated and treated brutally, was indeed who He said He was. Witnessing these awesome phenomena, they cried out in terror, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
The exclamation that escaped the lips of these hardened Roman soldiers was a confession forced by the events they witnessed. Though I didn’t witness this event with those soldiers, I have witnessed events that are every bit as stunning. I testify that this Risen, Living Saviour changed a violent, ungrateful young man into a servant of the Living God. I testify that a man who was rapidly moving toward becoming a drunk and a profligate was transformed into a sober man seeking what was pleasing to the Lord God. I am glad to testify to a truth that transformed my life. Christ the Lord saved me, and His salvation was much more than merely delivering me from the judgement I richly deserved. I am convinced that Christ saved me from an early grave.
As the Apostle opens his letter to the Christians gathered in Rome, he writes, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” [ROMANS 1:1-6].
Christ Jesus conquered death, rising from the dead. I wasn’t there with Mary when she grasped the feet of the Saviour as the Risen Saviour had revealed Himself to her, but He did reveal Himself to me. I wasn’t there when Peter rushed into the empty tomb, but I did witness the Risen Christ. I wasn’t with those two disciples when the Risen Son of God walked with them as they trudged to Emmaus, but I have walked with Him and He has instructed me. I wasn’t there when the disciples were huddled in that closed room when Jesus suddenly appeared to them and invited Thomas to touch the nail prints in His hands, but He did invite me to reach out to Him. I didn’t see Him ascend into the heavens as did those disciples standing on a hill outside of Jerusalem, but I have witnessed the Son of God standing before the Father and pleading for me.
I eagerly confess that I “walk by faith, not by sight” [see 2 CORINTHIANS 5:7]. The same is true for each follower of the Risen Son of God. As one who follows the Saviour, you also walk by faith. Thus, you know the reality of His life because He lives in you. It is not a feeling that draws you to cry out to Him in time of need. It is not mere emotionalism that impels you to worship Him as He blesses you. It is not some undefined sense of ethereal excitement that gives you confidence in times of trial. It is the reality of the Risen Christ.
Here is the glorious truth, during those hours of darkness, Christ the Lord was performing a miracle so great that it stuns us into silence before Him. Throughout the New Testament letters are glimpses of what Christ the Lord was doing during those hours of darkness.
The words Peter wrote in his first missive to believers in the Diaspora seem mysterious to us as we read them today; and yet, what he wrote points us to these hours when the Saviour worked. Peter has written, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him” [1 PETER 3:18-22].
Christ suffered once for sins; and He was made alive in the Spirit. He did die because of our broken condition; and He was raised from the dead. Now, each time we witness the baptism of a new believer we are witnessing that individual’s testimony to the completed work performed during the time when darkness was covering all the land. During those dark hours, the Son of God was making atonement for sin, so that none of us need ever face judgement for our enmity toward the Living God.
The writer of the Letter to Hebrew Christians was inspired by the Spirit to write of what was accomplished during the darkness of those hours. He writes, “When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” [HEBREWS 9:11-14].
He continues by saying, “It was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” [HEBREWS 9:23-26].
Writing the congregation in Colossae, Paul instructed, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” [COLOSSIANS 2:8-15].
Though people living in Jerusalem were then unaware of it, a spiritual battle raged throughout that unnatural darkness as Jesus hung on the cross. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, while hanging on the cross of Calvary confronted and bested the rulers and authorities of the unseen world in an unrecognised battle. Now, all who will receive Him as Master over life are made alive in Him. Far worse than the ignorance of people living in that distant day is the ignorance of Canadians. We have heard the message of life proclaimed from radio and television, from the pulpits of our land and even through multiplied sermons posted on the Internet, and yet the vast majority of our fellow Canadians do not believe the Son of God. We barely give lip service to His existence!
This plea provides one more opportunity to hear the message of God’s love and to receive the life offered in the Son of God. Christ the Lord died because of the sin which contaminates mankind. He presented His life as a sacrifice to free us from condemnation. Now, if you will believe Him—believe that He died because of you and raised for you, you shall be set free from condemnation.
The Word of God invites all who are willing to receive the forgiveness of sin and to be born into the Family of God, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” The invitation concludes with this offer, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:9-10, 13b]. We invite all who hear to receive God’s grace today. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] E.g. MATTHEW 8:20; MARK 2:10; LUKE 5:24; JOHN 12:23
[3] E.g. MATTHEW 14:33; MARK 1:1; LUKE 22:70; JOHN 20:31
[4] Mrs. E. M. Barlett, “Victory in Jesus,” ©1967
