Part #2 of #6….. “DEAD OR ALIVE SETTLE IT NOW”… continued from Crumb 0045
“JESUS CHRIST died on the Cross for our sins, was buried and rose again” is the great Gospel message of our salvation”.
This Gospel is exclusive and the Cross of Christ Jesus alone is the pathway to an eternal destiny in Heaven.
And our exhortation to all would be, “DON’T DIE WITHOUT CHRIST JESUS”.
Everyone one will one day die. Here what Scripture in [Hebrews 9:27], “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”.
There is no getting away from this, so we will well to face it head on.
A True Story
Way back in 1984, I worked closely with a business colleague. We were both young twenty seven year old financial executives and very good friends.
My young colleague was a good man. He was a good, faithful and true family man with no vices or bad habits of any kind.
Well liked by all communities of people, his personal integrity was impeccable.
It so happened that one occasion he went away with his family on vacation. Shortly after checking into their hotel, his wife needed to go to the chemist.
She took their two children with her to return in about ten to fifteen minutes.
When they came back, they found him lying dead in the middle of the floor. He had suffered an instant cardiac arrest from out of nowhere.
Did he die in Christ Jesus or did he not? I DON’T KNOW!
From my point of view, if anyone deserved to go, it should have been me. For my personal life was just about opposite to his.
Apart from my personal opinions, I knew nothing about God in those were days.
I had never come to a personal saving knowledge of Christ Jesus.
I know today that if I had died then, I would have done so without “knowing Christ” and its eternal consequences.
It shakes me in my boots when I think about it. It is not something one would want for anybody.
But here is the reality.
He died and I lived on to come to a personal knowledge and faith in Christ Jesus.
And at the end of the day that is all that really matters after its all been said and done.
Satan The Devil Has A Ministry
Satan our prime adversary has a ministry. It is to “kill and to steal and to destroy” [John 10:10].
This ministry of his is not just physical but primarily spiritual in nature, for he is a spiritual enemy. He is real and so is his ministry [Crumb 0021].
He knows when and which buttons to press to bring confusion, doubt, despair and unbelief to make our lives miserable.
Satan uses the weapons of mass destruction through fear, depression, oppression, poverty, discouragement, deception, sickness and every other evil thing.
His aim is to make us so disillusioned with God that we want to have nothing to do with Him. And if there is a God we curse Him. That’s the devil’s aim. God is his target and he needs human instruments.
On the other hand he can also thoroughly prosper us so that we do his bidding without even knowing it.
His only agenda is that we do not come to that saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. He’s absolutely fine with everything else.
Satan has no problem with us being good, respectable, responsible and honourable men of integrity with an unquestionable character.
He promotes that in several ways to the point where we’re so convinced that we can make it on our own. We don’t need Christ.
Satan is “intelligently deceptive”.
Here’s what Scripture says about him, “In whom the god of this world (referring to Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” [2 Corinthians 4:4].
Can you see his dilemma? The Glorious saving Gospel of salvation, as revealed to Paul the apostle, gives him untold headaches. This eternal life saving Gospel is his greatest hindrance.
Jesus Came With A Counteractive Ministry
While Satan came to kill steal and destroy, Christ Jesus the Son of God came to came counteract it.
Here’s what He said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” [John 10:10].
Jesus did not just neutralize Satan’s ministry, but went beyond in promising life in abundance.
He was going to do this legally through the cross. He turned down all the short cuts the devil was offering Him.
The devil offered Him all the kingdoms of the world with their glory in exchange for his worship.
Christ’s Rejection Of The Devil’s Deal
“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” [Matthew 4:8-10].
Jesus made a statement here the devil could not get, for it was kept secret in the mind of God [Romans 16:25].
By going to the cross Jesus Christ was going to get everything back and destroy Satan simultaneously.
Through the cross, Jesus Christ the Son of God was going deal Satan a double blow.
Scripture reveals that had the devil known, he would have made sure that Jesus did not go to the cross [1 Corinthians 2:8].
By orchestrating the death of Jesus Christ the Son of God on the cross, Satan signed his own ‘death warrant’.
No wonder Paul the apostle is mind blown as he tells us that God’s wisdom and ways are “past finding out” [Romans 11:33].
The Cross Was Jesus Christ Taking Responsibility For Our Sin
The Law of God with its demands was always going to be beyond the capabilities of a “fallen human race”.
For us fallen human beings, the Law was ‘draconian’ in nature.
And yet it was God’s standard for us.
We had to keep something we were incapable of keeping and unless we kept it we could have no hope.
What a situation to be in! but that is how it was. All the Law could do was condemn us and rightfully so.
WE NEEDED A SAVIOUR to bail us out. And that is exactly what God did out of an act of “Incomprehensible Love” for us.
The “Cross Of Christ” was going to be the only solution and hope. It was going to be our lifeline.
So to the cross went Christ Jesus to die for our sins. He was then buried and rose again in order to justify us before God [1 Corinthians 15:1-4] and [Romans 4:25].
The cross was a thoroughly completed and finished work.
We can take hold of it by unwavering faith.
TRULY, in the cross of Christ we have an eternal Living Hope against all hope when we believe.
“The work of the cross fulfilled everything that God demanded of the human race”.
SO “DON’T DIE WITHOUT CHRIST JESUS”.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” [Proverbs 3:5].
This continues in Crumb 0047 – “THE ONLY QUALIFIED SAVIOUR”
