Monday, June 23, 2014

THE GLORIOUS CROSS

The Bible that God has given us was designed for our good and for our deliverance from sin. The Jews of Christ day had taken the Law and turned it into a club to beat people over the head with. They had made the Law into an instrument of ma...n's destruction instead of man's deliverance. Read what Jesus said of this in Matthew twenty three. Jesus spoke of the greatest of the commandments being that of to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and being. He said the second of the greatest commandments was to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27).

Today, some take the New Testament and do the same thing that the Jews did with the Old Testament. They use the scriptures as a battering ram to destroy people. Yet, the one who gave us the Word was Jesus and he said He came to give us the abundant life (John 10:10). Jesus said He came to save people. Listen to His words: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:17).

I have heard all my life of Christians gloating of how they have told this one off and that one off and they feel proud of themselves. Shameful!

Our task is to follow the footsteps of Jesus (I Peter 2:21). Jesus went about doing good. "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him." (Acts 10:38). Jesus was always about helping people. Oh, how wonderful our Savior is in every wondrous way! Praise Jesus!

Let us use the New Testament as God intended. It was designed to teach people, help people, and encourage people. None of us can put ourselves in the place of Jesus or the Apostles. As humble servants we seek to persuade humans of the glory of the Gospel. Jesus said, "Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27). The law was for man's benefit. The New Testament was and is for man's good. There is a time to stand strong against the great evil of our day. But, in dealing with sinners broken and destroyed by sin, we must take the glorious message of salvation, and seek to give that to such sinners as a wonderful gift. After all, the word "gospel" means GOOD NEWS! Does it not?

*Allen Ashlock, 2014

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