Life & Faith: Recent Episodes
Honorine Kouemo T.
JESUS CHRIST IS LORD | "Christ Himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed." 1 Peter 2:24. May his name be glorified among all the nations. Amen! To access the written version of each sermon and more, go to faithintheoneaboveall.com
After considering the uniqueness of God's essence and His singularity as the Self-existent Maker and the Self-sufficient Sustainer in the first part of this series, the focus in the second and last part is on the unchangeableness and the trustworthiness of God, as it transpires from His personal name "I AM". The conclusion, which speaks of God's self-revelation, will serve as a bridge to our upcoming series in which I will survey the metaphorical statements that the LORD uses throughout the Bible to speak of Himself, namely the "I AM" statements.
When the LORD sent Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, "Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations" (Exodus 3:13-15).
What does God's name communicate to His people? This two-part series, titled Picture of the Great I AM: A Look into God's Transcendent Beauty, gives you a clear answer to this question.
Until the flesh is subdued, man can never be set free from the dominion of Satan. And since by nature man is of the flesh, the fight against the flesh cannot therefore be initiated by man. The initiative must come from outside of him, the battle against the flesh must be initiated and fought by an opposite power. For the flesh cannot fight against itself. The heart of man is by nature inclined toward the deeds of the flesh. Therefore he has neither the will nor the ability to initiate the battle against the flesh, nor can he win such a battle by means of the flesh. As the Lord Jesus says in John 3:6a, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” This statement from our Lord points out the sin-prone condition of man and his natural ability to achieve only that which is consistent with his inherently sinful nature.
As we read from James 1:14-15, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Therefore we are without excuse whenever we disobey the commandments of the Lord, even when we are being tempted by Satan. For we willfully choose to reject God’s rules and defy His authority because of our unbelief and lack of trust in God – an attitude that is rooted in pride; we choose the things of the flesh over God and the things of God because we do not treasure God in our hearts, although He ought to be to object of our worship and the object of our joy. Therefore, Satan’s activity does not excuse our sinful deeds and disobedience to God.
The devil has such a fiery craving for worship that when the Son of God was baptized and let into the wilderness by the Spirit of God, “the devil took [the Son of God] to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to [the Son of God], “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8-9). 1 Peter 5:8 warns us that the devil always “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” For he knows that every time a man defects to his lies and deceptions, it is he, the devil, and not God, who gets the glory, he is the one who is worshiped, not God.
“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the Garden?’ (Genesis 3:1). Satan’s question insinuated Eve's misunderstanding of God's will and incited her to question God’s goodness. However, the first part of Eve’s answer, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden” (v.2), not only reveals God’s will for her and her husband and His abundant provision for their sustenance, but also expresses something they had been doing from day one: they enjoyed God’s provision every day. God had given them the liberty to enjoy the fruit of all the trees in the garden, with only one exception.
No one can reverse God's curse or cancel its effects on the sons of men. As Job 12:14 puts it, “If [God] tears down, none can rebuild; if He shuts a man in, none can open.” From the womb we are held captive by death because of sin. But we cannot deliver ourselves from this bondage. As Psalms 49:7-9 points out, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.” No human exertion, no amount of good work can save a person from the guilt and penalty of his sins, for it is against an infinitely holy God that they have sinned. And every sin deserves an everlasting punishment in the hell of fire. Therefore, in order to escape the pit, sinners must rely solely on the grace of the One they have offended. For He alone can open the prison door of death where He has cast them and restore them to freedom.
Because the sinful nature of Adam has been inherited by all men, all are subjected to the curse that befell him, for all fall short of the glory of God. As it is written, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The implication is that no one is innocent. So lest we be mistaken about our own corrupt condition, we must not conclude that the miseries and troubles in our lives are all the result of the one sin of Adam. Romans 3:23 reads,“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 53:6a, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way.”
The effect of the fall of man is apparent in the degradation of men’s relationships with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation. For every faculty of their being has been utterly altered: their minds have become depraved and dull, their volition perverted, their hearts hardened, their eyes blinded, their ears stopped and their tongues inflamed – “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes”(Romans 3:10-18).
The serpent said, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He denied the truthfulness of God's threat and distorted the meaning of God’s prohibition in order to tarnish the beauty of the Lord. This led to man having a distorted view of God, a misunderstanding of God, which created in his heart the desire to live independently of God, outside of God's rules and authority; for the God of love was now seen by man as an oppressor. Hence his desire gave birth to sin, and as a result, peace was lost and death entered the realm of man. He severed himself from God and His blessings.
When God made Adam and Eve, they were holy, just as the Lord is holy. They lived in the presence of God, enjoying His blessings, and were pleased to live, to the glory of the Lord, under His authority and according to the rules established by Him. They had no hostility toward God in their hearts, no conceit, but love, reverence and submission. They gloried in the LORD God and obeyed Him.
Visit https://www.faithintheoneaboveall.com/post/the-tragedy-of-the-fall-of-man for the full series.
Man is the crowning jewel of God’s creation, a volitional being equipped with a mind and a heart, to whom the Lord God gave the earth as his dwelling place. Moreover, he was chosen by God to reflect His holiness on earth, to act as God’s deputy regent on earth, caring for the rest of God’s creation as God Himself would. Man was designated by God to rule the earth, to fill it and to keep it. This was his original vocation. Of all His creatures, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).
As God’s deputy regent, man is to faithfully represent His Maker on earth, so that the glory of God may shine in him.
By His spoken Word, God brought into existence all creatures and assigned to each one usefulness, and to all a purpose: to glorify their Maker – each according to the ability He has given them – and to rejoice in Him alone. In other words, as creatures of God, the purpose of our lives is to glorify God and glory in Him – He is the object of our worship and the object of our joy. We are here on earth to exalt God, to display His beauty, and to delight in His person and works. The key verses that substantiate the affirmation that we exist for the glory of God are from Isaiah 43:6b-7, where God says: “Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.”
The attack on the soul by the evil world system today stands as the culmination of a long-standing battle. Nowadays, more than ever before, the world has managed to make its abominable practices more appealing by decriminalizing them. Drug use, homosexuality, transgenderism, prostitution, bestiality, the killing of babies in the womb, and many other dark practices condemned by the Lord are legalised in many countries today, in defiance of the decree of the Creator God. Thus says the Lord in Leviticus 20:10-21, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them...
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is what defines the identity of God’s elect. It is the baptism of regeneration, the mark of Christ's ownership over those whom God, before the foundation of the world, predestined for adoption as sons. Without the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we remain spiritually dead, alienated from God and hostile toward Him.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is what seals our union with Christ; it is in fact what makes us Christians – as the Scripture says, “Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9b). The Spirit quickens us and enables us for all good works and perseverance in the faith. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us is what distinguishes us from the rest of mankind, that is...
Unlike water baptism, which can be accessed by almost everyone, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is exclusively for God’s elect. It is administered by God to those whom He chose in eternity passed as an inheritance to His Son, according to the riches of His grace.
The baptism of the Holy Spiritis the act by which the Holy Spirit, at salvation's birth, unites God’s elect to the body of Christ by taking residence in them and empowers them for spiritual growth and perseverance in the faith. By this sovereign and supernatural act of God, the Holy Spirit brings us from spiritual deadness to life in the Spirit and produces in us repentance and faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Christ instituted water baptism so that those whom the Father had predestined for adoption in eternity past, and for whom the Son died and who would be raised from spiritual death by the Holy Spirit, might identify with the Son in His death, burial, and resurrection. That is to say, water baptism must be administered to everyone who is brought from death to life by the Holy Spirit of grace and is led to repentance and faith in Christ, being justified “by the blood of His cross” (cf. Colossians 1:20).
The authority to baptize new converts has been given by Christ to the ministers of the Gospel. As the Head of the Church, Christ has instructed them to make disciples and to baptise them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The sacrament of baptism was instituted by the Lord Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry as a sign of the new covenant, a symbol of the internal reality of rebirth brought about supernaturally by His Spirit. And it symbolises one’s death to sin and newness of life in Christ.
Water baptism is the means by which we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. It is a public affirmation of one’s faith in Christ, a testimony of one’s union to Christ. Water baptism symbolizes the death of the old self and the new life that we live in and for Christ. It follows spiritual baptism and serves to affirm the internal work of regeneration initially accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
Regenerationis a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who, through the agency of God’s Word, according to His sovereign will and grace, convicts people of their sinfulness, of the coming judgement, and of their need for Christ at His appointed time, and implants in their hearts love for and faith in the Son of God.
Water baptism does not cleanse us inwardly nor does it save us. It is a testimony of our new birth and new life in Christ, which is wholly and exclusively accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is the means by which we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
“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,” Romans 3:23-25a. As it is written, “To the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness,” Romans 4:5.
What picture can you get if not a distorted reflection if you look at yourself in a cracked mirror? For “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10). V. 23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” A defiled and ruined vessel can become aware of its uncleanness and despicableness only by looking at that which is holy and unbroken. Mark 10:18 says, “No one is good except God alone.” And He who made us all has said, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16).
There is no life without Christ. For He is the Word of life who inhabits eternity, the Light of those who sit in darkness, in the shadow of death. He alone guides our feet into the way of peace. “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:2-4). Christ is the second person of the Trinity, God the Creator, for “He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). Rom. 11:36 says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” Col. 1:16-17, “By Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is not only the Author of biological life, but He is also the Author of spiritual life. Col. 1:19-20, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” In our natural state, we are all dead in trespasses and sin, alienated from God. And the truth of the matter is, no man can free himself from spiritual deadness by his own efforts, no one can be justified before God by his good works and merits. There is only one way to be justified before God, one way to pass from death to life: the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”, declares the Lord in John 14:6. Life is found in Christ alone. No one can be made alive, no one can be raised from spiritual death except by the Lord Jesus, the Author of life.
Set before every human being on this planet are two ends: life and death. The end of each person depends on whether they choose to love the Lord, obey his voice and be faithful to Him until the end or not. All those who reject the Lord Jesus in this life will one day wake up to their surprise in hell. As the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Thess. 1:8-9, the Lord will inflict “vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Their souls will be delivered to everlasting and conscious torment. Only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who die to sin and live in Christ will inherit the Kingdom of God. The Lord says in Rev. 21:6-8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death”
Under the law death reigned because of sin, but in Christ grace abounds much more. Grace reigns “through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21. He destroyed sin and defeated death by his atoning sacrifice on the cross. As the author of the Book of Hebrews writes, “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” (Heb. 9:12). Thus the Lord was able to redeem the souls of his elect, He was able to raise us who believe on Him from spiritual deadness and to bring us into life eternal according to the riches of his grace. As Heb. 10:14 says, “By a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Christ “offered Himself without blemish to God, [to] purify our conscience from dead works [so that we may] serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). He conquered death for us who are in Him, so that we might live with Him in the presence of our God forever. And so Paul writes in Rom. 6:8-11, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
The wages of sin is death. But “whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God” (1 Pet. 4:1-2). Someone may ask: Who is he who has ceased from sin? Anyone who is in Christ. By the Spirit of Christ, we who are in Christ have crucified the flesh with its lusts. That is to say, as followers of Christ, we are dead to sin. Therefore, our heart is set on the things above, and we delight in the ways of our Lord. We are no longer governed by the basic principles of this world because we are not of the world. Rather, we put our trust in the Lord our God.
In Christ we are no longer children of wrath but sons of God. For we have been justified by his precious blood, baptised and adopted into the family of God by the Holy Spirit who has sealed us into God’s love and promises, and prepared us for all good works. In Christ we are made citizens of heaven, co-heirs with our Saviour according to the riches of his grace (cf. Rom. 8:16-17). Furthermore, we abide in our Father and He abides in us. And on the basis of our Savior Lord’s merit, which is imputed to us through faith in Him, we go to our Father in prayer, with confidence and the assurance that his ear is attuned to our cry. (cf. John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:24).
As citizens of the Kingdom, co-heirs with our gracious Saviour, our hope is kept for us in heaven; our eternal reward dwells with our heavenly Father. As 1 Pet. 1:3-5 points it out, “According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
In this broken world, it is impossible for a faithful Christian to escape hatred. The Lord Himself says to his disciples, “You will be hated by all for my name's sake” (Mat. 10:22). No one who identifies with Christ and follows Him faithfully can escape the hostility of the enemies of truth. Being a Christian does not put an end to our suffering in this world, it instead brings us more affliction. “For to [us] it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for his sake” as Paul writes in Phil. 1:29. We have been granted by God to share in the sufferings of our Lord, so that by suffering in the flesh we might be trained and equipped to live the rest of our days in our earthly tent no longer for the vicious passions of the flesh but for the will of God and the glory of Christ our Lord. Peter writes in 1 Pet. 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”
1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.” There is a clear opposition between the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of darkness. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the world with its evil practices and turned away from its lies and deceptions. You cannot embrace truth and falsehood at the same time. You cannot reconcile the Kingdom of light with the kingdom of darkness. You cannot worship the deities of Hinduism and have fellowship with the One True God. “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols”, says the Lord Almighty in Is. 42:8. You cannot exalt Mary, or Buddha, or Mohammed, or any false god and call yourself a child of God. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). You cannot offer sacrifices and prayers to the dead or to any other idol and still be pleasing to God; for the things which you sacrifice, you “sacrifice to demons and not to God” (cf. 1 Cor. 10:20). As Paul writes in 1 Cor. 10:21, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s Table and of the table of demons.”
Unless one is born of God, he remains under the dominion of Satan, he remains a slave to the system of evil ruled by Satan. Our love for the world separates us from God until the moment of our conversion. For there is no unity between darkness and light; between the world and the Kingdom of Heaven there is no fellowship. There is no coherence between the holy and the profane. Between moral purity and depravity there is no harmony; there is no friendship between the world and God. People who love the world are alienated from God’s glorious presence. For, as already mentioned, “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Anyone who upholds any ideology that is against Christ is an enemy of God, and he cannot inherit Christ’s Kingdom. Unless a person renounces to the abominations that are in the world because of lust, and turns to Christ in repentance and faith, Satan will continue to rule over him, and he will remain a candidate for the second death.
Any heart that indulges in a life of sin will be sent to the fire of hell. But anyone who despises his life of sin, anyone who rejects the flesh with its desires and throws himself on the mercies of Christ is granted everlasting life in the Kingdom of God, where sin is completely powerless and death is conquered. Therefore, until a man has, by the power of the Holy Spirit, crucified the flesh, he cannot have life. There is no hope for those who love their body of sin. Unless someone dies to sin, he will remain its slave, he will be held captive forever by the sting of death, man’s last enemy. This is the wages of sin. But he who is dead to sin has died with Christ: he has shared in Christ’s death, he has been baptised into his death. And since Christ lives, he also lives in Christ, being born again, regenerated by the Spirit of grace. As Paul writes in 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Our works can never deliver our souls from the grip of sin and death, nor save us from the judgment of the Lord. They are like filthy rags in the sight of the holy God. We can only be justified before God by the righteousness that comes from God Himself, and which is graciously imputed to us on the basis of our faith in his Son Jesus Christ. As Romans 3:20 points it out, “For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Salvation is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
No one can curse what God has blessed (cf. Num. 23:8). Conversely, no one can reverse the curse pronounced by God. What God plucks up and breaks down, what God overthrows and destroys, He alone has the power to reconstruct and restore (cf. Jer. 31:28). As a result of human rebellion, God subdued the creation to futility. To borrow the words of the Apostle Paul from Rom. 8:20, “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.” Human rebellion against God brought about divine curse. Hence, there are pains, sufferings, wars, crimes, natural disasters, diseases, viruses, infirmities, sorrows, crying, groaning, trials, and afflictions, all because of sin. And the climax of the curse pronounced by God is the death of man. However, it is only by God’s design that man can be delivered from the sting of death and restored to life. But to inherit this life, one must die not only to self but also to the world, and embrace Christ as Lord and Saviour. This must be done, not in a superficial manner however, but with the willingness to share in Christ’s sufferings, to suffer persecution, loss and even death for his sake. For we can share in our Saviour’s glory only if we suffer with Him (cf. Rom. 8:17).
God sent his Son Jesus Christ to bless us by turning away every one of us from our iniquities. “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:19-20). Apart from Christ, reconciliation with God is impossible. Those who reject Him turn their backs on the grace of God, and the fire of hell is the eternal destination of their souls. Salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (cf. Eph. 2:8-9). “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”, declares the Lord in John 14:6.
One of the essential characteristics of the world is its diversity and the striking contrast that defines all that is in it and everything that happens in it. Nothing in this world exists without its antithesis; everything has its exact opposite – there is joy and sadness, there is good and evil, there is crying and laughter, there is hope and despair, there is peace and warfare, there is life and death, there are two gates (the narrow gate and the broad gate). And every person here on earth journeys by one of these antithetical gates. The question I am asking you today is: through which gate are you journeying? The purpose of this inquiry is to help you reflect on your ways; for it is crucial for every person here on earth to know the eternal destination of their soul. For your soul will meet with torment if you forsake the ways of wisdom (God’s wisdom) to pursue the desires of the flesh.
Knowing the gate we are on gives us a clear picture of where it is taking us and a better understanding of what awaits us at the other end. This is crucial, for the two gates or paths are diametrically opposed in every aspect; they do not lead to the same destination: one is the path of life and the other leads to perdition. This means we are all journeying, each to a specific destination: life or death, depending on the gate we are on. The Lord says in Mat. 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
This truth stands in stark contrast to what many worldly-minded people and opponents of the doctrines of grace claim – there is only one way to life: the narrow gate, and that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Besides Him there is no other way for men to be justified before God. Here is the testimony of John the Baptist concerning the exclusivity of Christ, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:35-36).
Although the broad gate that leads to perdition is not labelled, ‘way to destruction, or gate to hell, or way to death, that’s where it leads. As Prov. 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” This reminds us to be watchful, to mind where our heart takes us, lest we follow the wrong path and wake up tomorrow in hell.
To inherit eternal life, one must enter through the narrow gate. But what does it mean to enter through the narrow gate? And why enter through the narrow gate?
If you were asked the question, ‘Are you alive or dead’, what would your answer be? Not only would you find the question weird, but your answer would certainly be, ‘I am alive. As you can see, I can breathe, I can talk, I can eat, I can do all the basic things that a living person does.’ But does the fact that a person can do these things mean the person is alive? Not necessary. In this world there is a whole lot of dead bones moving here and there, yet unaware of their deadness; for they think that to have life simply means to be able to breathe. You may be able to breathe still, but you are nothing but dead bones; there is no life in you. Someone may ask, how can that be? Well, whoever does not know God is a dead man, he or she is spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sin. Just a footnote, I am not talking about some superficial facts one may know about God, but rather a deep relationship with God.
The fact is, we all come into this world dead, spiritually speaking, because we are all conceived in sin. And once we are born, our sinfulness is evidenced by our hatred towards God, our immoral actions, our lustful thoughts and the abusive and deceitful words that come out of our mouth. “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-18).
So what defines a person who is dead in trespasses and sin is his utter depravity. Such a person does not love God, but rather is at enmity with God; he loves the deeds of wickedness, his thoughts are evil. He rejects God and his Truth, and walks according to the flesh, which deeds are: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-21).
Today is the day of salvation, the season of salvation, when Hope can be found. In the beginning of his earthly ministry, the Lord declares in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” I exhort you to seek the Lord when He is near, to turn to Christ the Lord and Saviour before judgement comes. For the day is coming, i.e. the Day of God’s wrath, the season of damnation, when the Lord will punish all those who in their pride have trampled underfoot the precious blood of his Son, treating it like a worthless thing. Those who reject the blood of Christ have no hope for salvation, as Heb. 10:26-29clearly specifies it, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?”
This is the season of salvation! The Lord has stretched out his hand of mercy to welcome anyone who is burdened by his sins, anyone who wants to have peace with God and escape hell. Thus declares the Lord in Mat. 11:28-30, “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.” In Isaiah 45:22-23 the Lord God declares, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”
Isaiah 55:1-3, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” V.6-7, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Do not harden your heart, for “Behold (says the Lord in Rev. 3:20), I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”
Prov. 10:4, “He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
Slackness is not a virtue but a vice that produces devastating and often irreversible repercussions on our lives, whereas diligence, by the grace of God, nourishes its man. For he who has a slack hand acts treacherously or deceitfully, he shirks his duty, i.e. he does his work negligently, he avoids carrying out his duty or responsibility, he acts foolishly and consequently brings upon himself poverty and shame. By contrast, the person who is diligent carefully considers his actions, he works heartily, he is honest, industrious and mindful of his responsibilities; his diligence, by the grace of God, yields a bountiful harvest. This is true both in physical matters and in spiritual realm. Although the context of this verse in Scripture points us to physical matters, I am going to focus on its spiritual application, its implications in our life in relationship to Christ our Lord and Saviour.
We were created to work for God’s glory. “For we are his workmanship (as Paul writes), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). The Lord has called us and prepared us for good works, He has entrusted to us varied gifts, and we are to be good stewards of those gifts; we must use them conscientiously, so as to glorify the Lord; we must be useful, not useless servants. 1 Pet. 4:10-11 says, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
If we have a slack hand in managing our gifts, this will result in the loss of our heavenly rewards. But our diligence will contribute, by the grace of God, to the laying up of treasures for ourselves in heaven. Those who fail to be good stewards of their gifts, to diligently manage what they have been charged with, become unprofitable and bear the consequences of their slackness, aswe learn from the Parable of the Talentsin Mat. 25.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”, declares the Lord in Mat. 5:6. That is to say, He who supplies the seed to the sower, and bread for food also attends to our spiritual needs by lavishing his grace upon us, in order that we may be well equipped to live a godly life. The Lord calls us in righteousness, holds us by the hand and watches over us. Anyone who delights in that which the Lord delights in is satisfied, the Lord attends to their spiritual needs. This is clearly affirmed by the Lord in John 15:7when He declares, “If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Ps. 37:4 reads, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Were it not for the grace of our God, no human being would be alive today, for we are all sinners. Despite our depravity, the Lord “gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25). These, as we have already mentioned, are not a payback for what we first gave Him. For if He were to reward us for what we have done, our payback would be justice. And God’s justice demands that every sinner be condemned to eternal disgrace, eternity in hell. But in order to demonstrate his righteousness, the Lord vindicated us, by offering his only begotten Son as an atonement for our sins, and to us He has given grace. No one under the sun can deny that God is gracious to them, nor can one claim that the breath of life and everything they possess are a recompense for what they have done or given to the Lord. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). The Apostle Paul draws our attention to the fact that it is God who gives, by asking us this question in Rom. 11:35, “Who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” Obviously, the answer is no one, “for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36)!
Therefore, we are to respond to God’s grace with gratitude, thanksgiving, praise, reverence, honour, humility, obedience, faithfulness, worship and service unto the Lord. In other words, we must offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. The Apostle Paul draws our attention on the necessity to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship” (cf. Rom. 12:1). As people with a sinful nature, we are inclined to live to satisfy the desires of the flesh, to seek worldliness. But the grace of God has been given to us to set us free from this bondage and to equip us for a life of righteousness, a life that brings glory to the Lord, a life of gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us. We have been called to live a humble life, to renounce to worldliness and carnality, and embrace a life of faith in obedience to God’s will. And so in v. 2-3 Paul urges us, by saying, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
Only the grace of God disentangles the cords of pride that holds the heart of the natural man captive, profanes it, and prevents it from seeking after God. Grace pulls us out of the dark and filthy pit that imprisons our souls, and gives us a new heart and a new mind that accept and understand the things of the Spirit. In other words, it is by God’s grace alone that we are emptied of our moral corruption, freed from the bondage of sin and the sting of death, and fuelled with love for Christ. God’s grace is foundational to our spiritual birth and life; it is the foundation of our ability to love God and to love one another. It is by grace alone that we are delivered from the yoke of corruption and adopted into the family of Christ. It is by God’s grace alone that we can live a fulfilled life. Grace is sufficient for our reconciliation with our Heavenly Father and for the fulfilment of the life He has prepared for us in Christ Jesus.
The works of man cannot cover him. It does not matter how hard he labours, he remains naked before the Holy God, alienated from his glory. Only Christ the Lord and Saviour, in Whom grace is found, can cover the nakedness of those who humble themselves, count their works as refuse, cast themselves on the tender mercies and seek the righteousness of the perfect Lamb of God. It is Christ who takes away the sins of every repentant sinner who trusts in Him and confesses Him as Lord and Saviour. The prideful and self-righteous, those who store up for themselves earthly treasures, anyone who seeks the glory of men or that in which the Lord does not delight, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, for thus says the Lord in Is. 66:2, “on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.”
Saving grace is fundamental to our reconciliation with God. Without the grace given to us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, we would forever remain separated from God. God grants us his grace to set us free from the dreadful effects of the curse brought about by the fall of man – we are all born in sin, and in sin we live, separated from our God by sin and prisoners of death. But although the Lord has no obligation to us, from Him we receive grace and forgiveness, from Him we receive the gift of faith. And by that faith we now have life, a life that we live in union with our God. For in his grace, the Lord has sent his Son Jesus to live the perfect life that we can never live and to take upon Himself all our sins. Christ died as our substitute and credited to us his own righteousness. As a result of Christ’s redemptive work, we are freely justified before God. As Paul writes in Rom. 8:33, “[…] It is God who justifies.” It is by his grace that we are justified and reconciled with Him. He graciously justifies us, wicked as we may be. Our justification secures us in our Heavenly Father’s everlasting love. Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, our Saviour and Lord, we inherit a new nature and a new identity. We are born of the Spirit, with a new heart and a new mind, our enmity with God ends, we are reconciled and adopted into the family of Christ and thus become children of God. Moreover, we are given victory over death, sin and Satan.
Christ is the most precious gift, the greatest revelation of God’s grace to us, sinners; for the Father offered Him as a propitiation for our sins, not as a result of what we ourselves have done, but according to his own mercy, grace and love. We were dead in our transgressions. Without hope, we lived in fear of eternal damnation because of our culpability. We were not able to make peace with the Holy and Righteous One, i.e. to atone for our iniquities, to appease God’s wrath and to be right with Him. But “God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). God gave his Son as the ransom for sin, to reconcile to Him those who believe in his Son. Christ willingly died as our substitute on Calvary, so that anyone who believes in Him may be freely justified before God and graciously granted eternal life. Salvation is God’s gift to us, sinners, and a manifestation of his grace. We cannot earn it, we do not deserve to be saved, nor is the Lord God under any obligation to save us. Our fate as sinners is eternal damnation. But God offers salvation to anyone who puts his faith in Christ. For “in Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7).
Common grace relates to God’s beneficence and benevolence toward men whether they are believers or unbelievers. A general revelation of God’s common grace is found in the blessings the Lord bestows upon all men and in all that He does to sustain them, fallen as they may be. However, it must be noted that this form of grace does not bring salvation. Its purpose is to preserve and sustain God’s creation. This means that those who do not turn away from their sins and seek forgiveness in Christ will be condemned. Anyone who continues to live in disobedience and refuses to worship the Lord will succumb to his wrath on the Day of Judgment. “The Lord will come with fire and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword the Lord will judge all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many” (Is. 66:15-16). Thus declares the Lord in Jn. 12:48, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive my words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”
Wickedness dominates the heart of man, but the grace of God abounds. Were it not for the grace of God, no life would have been spared because God is holy and righteous; his eyes are too pure to look at evil. If He were to judge every one of us and execute judgment on us right away, no one would be alive today. But the Lord graciously continues to preserve his creation, He continues to preserve the life of men regardless of their deeds. However, it must be noted that the grace of God does not negate his wrath against the sons of disobedience, the grace of God does preclude his justice “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). So the day is coming when the Lord will judge those who refuse to worship Him, those who refuse to repent of their sins and believe in Christ the Saviour. On that day, anyone who rejects the grace of God will be destroyed just like those in the day of Noah.
What we all deserve, as a result of our sinfulness and hostility toward the Lord our God, is death, eternity in hell. Yet He has not banished us, but rather He continuously sustains us in spite of our sinfulness and hostility toward Him.
However, it must be noted that although the Lord always sustains his creation, all that He does is neither a requirement He has to fulfill, nor a reward for our merits or good works. How, then, are we to understand God’s continuous provision and care for us, sinful and rebellious as we may be? It must be understood that all that God does is a manifestation of his intrinsic character. I.e. the only explanation for God’s ongoing care and preservation of men is found in God’s character. God sustains us not because we deserve to be cared for, but instead all that the Lord does is a revelation of who He is, a manifestation of his attributes – He is the LORD, and thus He does what is inherent in his nature. God’s supreme greatness and uniqueness contrast with human depravity.
If we continue to exist today, it is only by the grace and mercy of our God. However, for us to properly value the abounding grace of God in our lives, we must first grasp the biblical meaning of the word grace.
Grace is an unmerited and unearned favor bestowed freely by God on undeserving sinners. In other words, grace is God’s undeserved gift to us, sinners; it cannot be earned; it is not something that is merited nor are we worthy to receive it. Rather, it is a favor, a free gift from God, not something that is required of Him; for God does not owe us anything. Rather, we owe Him everything “since He gives to all life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25), and we can do nothing without Him. God’s abundant grace in our lives reveals who He is and is perceived in what He does to preserve, sustain and to redeem his creation (cf. Rom. 5:15).
Exodus 20:7 reads, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” The Lord is holy and so is his name. Any attack on God's name is an attack on his person. We honor the Lord's name for who He is - the Lord alone is God; hence his name must be reverenced, glorified, honored and praise. Thus says the LORD in Isaiah 42:8, “I alone am the LORD your God. No other god may share my glory; I will not let idols share my praise.”
I urge you to abstain from sexual immorality, discipline your body and pursue holiness. Do not let your sinful desires control you. Anyone who is sexually perverted destroys his own soul and paves his way to hell. As the Scripture says: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
In Revelation 21:6-8, the Lord says, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Thus says the Lord in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. Those who come to Me will never be hungry; those who believe in Me will never be thirsty.” Verse 47-48, “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” Christ came into the world and gave his life so that everyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life. Thus declares the Lord in verse 53, “If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves.” That is to say if you reject the blood of God’s covenant that sets people free, if you dishonour the Son of God, your sins will not be forgiven; you will remain under God’s judgement and be sent to hell on the last day.
Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of anyone who believes in Him.Verse 54, the Lord says: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day. For my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in Me, and I live in them. The Living Father sent Me, and because of Him I live also. In the same way whoever eats Me will live because of Me.”
Unless you repent of your sins and believe the Word of God, unless you put your trust in God’s Son, you cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Unlike water baptism which can be accessed by almost everyone, baptism by the Holy Spirit is for repentant sinners who have responded with faith to the Word of God. Genuine faith is the condition for salvation, and thus what gives us access to the baptism of the Spirit. Whoever does not believe in Christ, whoever does not have a genuine faith in God’s Son cannot receive the Holy Spirit. They are not born again, they are not baptised in the family of God. They are children of Satan. Baptism with the Spirit is administered by God to his children, to those who turn away from their sins, renounce to self, carry their cross and submit to the Lordship of Christ the Saviour. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to his children. Christ Himself marks his sheep by baptizing them with the Holy Spirit. So whether you receive water baptism by sprinkling or pouring of water on your head, or by immersion, this does not make you a born again Christian nor does it save you. Water baptism cannot turn you into a child of God.
The baptism of the Holy Spiritis the act by which the Holy Spirit, at salvation's birth, unites into the body of Christ repentant sinners who believe the Word of God and have faith in his Son Jesus Christ. Simultaneous with this baptism is the regeneration of their hearts. In other words, the baptism of the Holy Spirit regenerates us; we are born in Christ and baptised into his family. We are born of the Spirit through our baptism by the Spirit of Christ and we are blessed with the gift of salvation the very moment Christ baptizes us with his Spirit. The baptism by the Holy Spirit is the mark of a genuine believer, the proof that someone is born again. It is the Spirit of God alone who regenerates us through the instrumentality of God’s Word. For thus says the Lord in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” This explains why those who do not believe but reject the Gospel are doomed. They are condemned because of their rejection of the words that bring life. Such cannot receive God’s life-giving Spirit.
To justify their heresy, many of those who believe that water baptism saves wrongly adduceMark 16:15-16,where the Lord commands his disciples, “Go throughout the whole world and preach the Gospel to the whole human race. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” They misinterpret the declaration made by our Lord in verse 16. This verse, however, can easily be interpreted by considering other verses on the doctrine of salvation – the Bible is its own interpreter. The Lord is not saying that water baptism is what saves people. To be saved you must believe the Gospel, you must put your trust in Christ. Salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The Apostle Paul affirms this truth when he reminds the believers in Ephesus how they were saved. Paul writes, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in Whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Water baptism is the means by which we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. It is a public affirmation of one’s faith in Christ, a testimony of one’s union to Christ. Water baptism symbolizes the death of the old self and the new life that we live in and for Christ. It is a process through which we declare that we have turned away from our sins and affirm our desire to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. Water baptism normally follows spiritual baptism and serves to affirm the internal work of regeneration initially accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
Although some rituals of purification observed in the Old Testament required people to immerse themselves in water, to take a bath or to wash their feet, hands and clothes, water baptism as ordained by our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament has a different significance. Water Baptism in the New Testament points directly to Christ. This new approach began with the ministry of John the Baptist. Matthew 3:5-6 tells us that, “People came to him from Jerusalem, from the whole province of Judea, and from all the country near the River Jordan. They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan.”
It is critical for us, however, to understand why John was baptising. The Apostle Paul writes in Acts 19:4, “The baptism of John was for those who turned from their sins; and he told the people of Israel to believe in the One who was coming after him – that is, in Jesus.” John was sent ahead of Christ the Saviour to prepare the way for Him. There is no doubt that John himself knew that water baptism was just a public affirmation of one’s repentance rather than a ritual that regenerates man. John also knew that the people he baptized needed another form of baptism from someone greater than him. For John declares in verse 11, “I baptize you with water to show that you have repented, but the One who will come after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He is much greater than I am; and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals.”
No one can schedule his own regeneration. No external ritual can allow a person to be born again. Regeneration is a sovereign and supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit, through the instrumentality of God’s Word. According to our Lord’s declaration, this new birth that we receive in the Spirit is something that happens outside the realm of human will, knowledge and power. Thus says the Lord in John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” We cannot predict when and where the wind is going to blow any more than we can affirm with certainty when someone can be born of the Spirit. In the same way God alone controls the wind, He is also sovereign over our regeneration. According to God’s own schedule, the Holy Spirit circumcises our hearts and gives us a new nature; He gives us a new birth and a new life through our faith in his Son Jesus Christ.
Regeneration is a supernatural work accomplished exclusively by the Holy Spirit, according to God’s own schedule and sovereign will, in every repentant sinner who believes the Word of God. It is the circumcision of the heart of the repentant sinner who has put his faith in Christ. However, we should keep in mind that every repentant sinner who responds with faith to the Word of God is initially enabled by the Holy Spirit. God Himself gives repentant sinners the faith to believe his word. So God initiates the call of those whom He foreknew and He regenerates them according to his own schedule.
Christ is the eternal King and the Judge of all. As the only Lawgiver, Christ alone is the Judge of the entire human race. He will judge the living and the dead. Thus says the Lord in John 5:25-29, “I am telling you the truth: the time is coming – the time has already come – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will come to life. Just as the Father is Himself the source of life, in the same way He has made his Son to be the source of life. And He has given the Son the right to judge, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be surprised at this; the time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice and come out of their graves: those who have done good will rise and live, and those who have done evil will rise and be condemned.”
The eternality of God provides hope and confidence to those who put their trust in God’s only Son. But those who reject God’s Son remain forever under curse; they will suffer eternal disgrace. On the Day of Judgement, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious might, when He comes on that Day to receive glory from all his people and honour from all who believe.” (2 Thessalonians 1:9-10). The Lord Jesus Christ will cast all his enemies into the eternal fire of hell. “There (says the Lord) ‘the worms that eat them never die, and the fire that burns them is never put out,’” (Mark 9:48). But those who are saved through their faith in Christ will not be humiliated. Their salvation is everlasting.
There is no other eternal kingdom apart from the Kingdom of Christ. Psalms 66:7, “He rules for ever by his might and keeps his eyes on the nations.” The reign of the kings and rulers of this world lasts only for a time, not even for their lifetime, because no son of a man and a woman is born a king. Even if a child is born into a royal family, although he may be the heir to the throne, he is not a king at birth but a prince. And until the day he sits on the throne he can never be called a king. In addition, his kingship will end when he dies or is dethroned. Also Earthly kings receive their authority from God. As Paul says in Romans 13:1, “No authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God.” It is God who makes and unmakes kings. He raises kings and rulers, and at his commands their kingdoms fall into ruins; they are overthrown by his power. God delivers them to destruction. Job 12:18 says, “He dethrones kings and makes them prisoners.”
The Lord rules supreme over all earthly kingdoms and powers of the heavenly world. Enthroned above the winged creatures and seated at the right-hand side of the Father in Heaven, “Christ rules there above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; He has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next.” (Ephesians 1:21). Daniel 7:14 says, “To Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.” Christ is the long-awaited King, the Promised King, the Messiah, the Redeemer of his people, the only One born a King, whose birth and eternal dominion were announced by the prophets.
When we talk about the eternality of God’s promises, we must contemplate the objects of those promises – they are not of the same nature as what the world offers to its children. The things the world promises its children are visible. Such things are temporal; they are subject to decay and destruction, they are all ephemeral. But the promises of God are based on the things unseen. And as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts for ever.” We, children of God, believe in the things unseen, things which by nature are eternal. We believe in the invisible promises of God our Father, and He never fails to keep his promises.
The promises of God are eternal, and so are his purposes. The work of Christ on the cross has an eternal purpose. The eternal purpose of God for mankind is redemption. The Lord promises eternal life to those who turn away from their sins and put their trust in Him. Hebrews 9:12 says, “When Christ went through the tent and entered once and for all into the Most Holy Place, He did not take the blood of goats and bulls to offer as a sacrifice; rather, He took his own blood and obtained eternal salvation for us.”We, Christians, have been purified by the blood of Christ and never again will we be unclean in God’s sight, never again will we be treated by God as unrighteous. As Paul says in Ephesians 3:12, “In union with Christ and through our faith in Him we have the boldness to go into God’s presence with all confidence.” The world crowns its children with withering wreath. But the crown of glory promised to us by our heavenly Father is secured for us in heaven. It's the crown that lasts forever.
No human doctrine lasts for ever. But as for the word of God, Psalms 119:89 says, “Your word, O LORD, will last for ever; it is eternal in heaven.” The word of God was the same in eternity past, is the same today and will be the same for all time to come. The word of God is eternal. All things will pass away but it will remain forever. “As the Scripture says: ‘All human beings are like grass and all their glory is like wild flowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains for ever.’” (1 Peter 1:24-25). The word of God is alive, immutable, trustworthy and powerful. The word of God never changes. God’s word transcends time, because He has always existed. It is written, “In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through Him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without Him. The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to humanity. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.” Says John 1:1-5.
Thus says the Lord in Isaiah 57:15, “I am the High and Holy God, who lives for ever. I live in a high and holy place, but also live with people who are humble and repentant, so that I can restore their confidence and hope.” As sinners, we were dead in our trespasses. But God through the sacrificial death of his Son on the cross gives a new birth and a new life to anyone who puts his faith in Jesus, anyone who renounces to self and lives for Christ. Christ came into the world, humbled Himself and took the place of a servant. He lived the life we couldn’t live and He bore the curses that we should have borne. He was nailed to the cross and He suffered in the hands of his own Father. Christ set aside his glory and sacrificed his own life so that all those who have faith in Him may have a new birth and a new life in Him. He obeyed the will of his Father in order to reconcile to Him all those who turn away from their sins. He was crushed for our transgressions. “Even though He was God’s Son, He learnt through his sufferings to be obedient. When He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him, and God declared Him to be High Priest, in the priestly order of Melchizedek.” SaysHebrews 5:8-10.
Christ is the source of eternal life.Everyone who believes that Christ died for their sins and was raised by the glorious power of God the Father is cleansed from their sins. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to them and they are treated by God as righteous. It is only by believing in Christ that one can inherit eternal life. No man possesses eternality, and no one can access eternal salvation by his own merit or works. For God alone is the dispenser of eternal glory, the source of eternal life. And to inherit this life one must turn away from their sins and believe in God’s one and only Son, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Unlike man, God never changes; his attributes remain the same. As the writer of Hebrews says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8). God is eternally righteous, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, loving, merciful, gracious, faithful, compassionate, holy, good, sovereign and immutable.
The Lord is an eternal being. His nature does not change, his attributes do not change. All the attributes of the Lord are eternal. Thus declares the Lord in Isaiah 43:13, “I am God and always will be. No one can escape from my power; no one can change what I do.” In this verse the Lord affirms his eternality and his sovereignty.Psalms 111:3affirms God’s everlasting righteousness. Itsays, “All He does is full of honour and majesty; his righteousness is eternal.” James 1:17 speaks among other things of the immutability of God. It is written: “Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning.” 1 Chronicles 16:34 says, “Give thanks to the LORD, because He is good; his love is eternal.” Psalms 100:5, “The LORD is good; his love is eternal and his faithfulness lasts for ever.” Psalms 117:2, “His love for us is strong and his faithfulness is eternal.” Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Psalms 119:90, “Your faithfulness endures through all the ages; You have set the earth in place and it remains.”
The life of all things is sustained by God alone. As the Scripture says, “In Him we live and move and exist.” (Acts 17:18). No human being sustains the life of others. No human being is a necessary being. As a matter of fact, every day throughout the world, the Lord takes his breath away from many people and they die. But life goes on; it does not stop. Because no human being is indispensable. God is the only source and the only sustainer of all lives. The Lord is the only necessary being. His very existence is what makes life possible for all created beings. The entire creation lies in the Lord’s mighty hands. Job 12:10 says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power.” Verse 14-15, “When God tears down, who can rebuild, and who can free those God imprisons? Drought comes when God withholds rain; floods come when He turns water loose.” Job 34:14-15says, “If God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, all life would cease, and humanity would turn again to dust.” Job 34:14-15 says, “If God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, all life would cease, and humanity would turn again to dust.”
God alone is eternal. He lived in eternity past, He still lives today and will live forever. Unlike the redeemed who are going to inherit eternal life, the eternality of God is part of his nature: He has always existed and there is no end to his life. Furthermore, God’s eternality does not come from someone else. God is a self-sufficient and self-existent being, whose eternality does not depend on an external cause. God is an eternal being, the Great I AM. When the Lord appears to Moses in the burning bush, He says to Moses in Exodus 3:10, “Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country,” Verse 13, “But Moses replied, ‘when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ so what can I tell them?”Verse 14, “God said, ‘I am who I am. This is what you must say to them: ‘The One who is called I AM has sent me to you.’”
What the Lord says to Moses in this verse describes the very nature of God, his aseity, his self-existence, his immutability and eternality. God is – there has never been a time when He wasn’t and there will never be a time when He is not – God is eternal, the Great I AM; He is life without end.
God is an independent and self-existent being, the Creator of the whole universe, the source of all life. Unlike all created beings, whose life is limited by time, that is, there is a moment in history that marks the beginning of their existence and a moment that marks the end, God has no beginning and no end. All created beings are temporal beings, but God is an eternal being who transcends time. And thus says the Lord of Hosts in Revelation 1:8, “‘I am the First and the Last,’ says the Lord God Almighty, who is, who was, and who is to come.” God existed before ages; He existed in eternity past. God has always lived and will live forever. So time is not an issue for God. He is not limited by time; He is not bound by time, but rather He controls it. God transcends time – time itself being created by God.
Before God there was no one. Thus says the Lord in Revelation 22:13, “I am the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Before God created the universe, He had always existed and He will remain for ever while the whole universe passes away. God breathed into existence the whole creation; in six days He created all things. But He has set a day when He will fold all things up like a coat and discard them. The universe is disposable, it is temporal. God made it and He will dispose of it at the due time. But He himself will remain; He will live for ever. Psalms 102:26-27 says, “O LORD, You live for ever; long ago You created the earth, and with your own hands You made the heavens. They will disappear, but You will remain; they will all wear out like clothes. You will discard them like clothes, and they will vanish. But You are always the same, and your life never ends.”
Nahum 1:2-3says, “The LORD God tolerates no rivals; He punishes those who oppose Him. In his anger He pays them back. The LORD does not easily become angry, but He is powerful and never lets the guilty go unpunished.” Christ’s mercy triumphs over judgement, but rebellion brings about God’s curse. Whatever we sow in this life, we will reap the fruit on the day of harvest. If we sow the wind, we will reap the storm. If we sow in the field of the Holy Spirit, from the Spirit we will receive eternal life. The same treatment we administer to those around us will be given to us on the Day of Judgment. If we have been merciful to others, God will be merciful when judging us. But He will withhold his mercy from anyone who has not been merciful to his neighbour. As James 2:13highlights it, “God will not show mercy when He judges the person who has not been merciful; but mercy triumphs over judgement.”
Through stories of rebellious people who got consumed by the fiery wrath of God, the Lord warns us of the danger of human rebellion. Jude 1:5-7gives us a recap of some of those stories. It says, “The Lord once rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, but afterwards destroyed those who did not believe. Remember the angels who did not stay within the limits of their proper authority, but abandoned their own dwelling place: they are bound with eternal chains in the darkness below, where God is keeping them for that great Day on which they will be condemned. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, and the nearby towns, who indulged in sexual immorality and perversion: they suffered the punishment of eternal fire as a plain warning to all.”
God’s mercy is an open door to his grace. Those who rebel against God reject God’s mercy and grace, and so remain under curse. Because they make themselves enemies of God by rebelling against Him, they become the objects of His wrath. God unleashes his wrath upon them and condemns them. But those who turn to the Lord receive his mercy and grace. Their sins are forgiven and they are no more condemned. For God’s mercy triumphs over judgement. Anyone who throws himself on the mercy of Christ escapes judgement; he is saved by God’s grace through his faith in Christ. Rebellion against God is like a gangrene that spreads throughout the entire body and casts one’s soul straight into hell. It enslaves one’s conscience and brings the soul under God’s curse. It shuts the door to God’s mercy and grace and opens the door to hell. Rebellion against God brings about damnation. As 1 Samuel 15:23 says, “Rebellion against Him is as bad as witchcraft, and arrogance is as sinful as idolatry.”
The story of the people of Israel who rebelled against the Lord in the wilderness is the story of anyone who rejects God’s new covenant sealed by the blood of Christ. In the same way the rebellious people of Israel couldn’t enter the Promised Land, those who reject the Lamb of God cannot be partakers of God’s redeeming grace; they cannot receive eternal life. They will die in their sins and go to hell. If you hear God speaking to you today through his word, do not harden your heart. Do not keep on trying his patience. For the day is coming when He will withdraw his hand of mercy and pour out his wrath upon anyone who rebels against Him.
The Lord says, “Do you think I enjoy seeing an evil person die? No, I would rather see Him repent and live.” (Ezekiel 18:23).As 2 Peter 3:9highlights it,“The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised, as some think. Instead, He is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.”
God is patient and merciful. But that does not mean He will never punish those who try his patience over and over and refuse to repent of their sins. For instance, the message sent by the Lord Jesus inRevelation 2to the church in Thyatira displays God’s patience in dealing with people. But this message is mainly a lesson to us and a warning to anyone who indulges in sinful practices and refuses to turn to the Lord in repentance. The Church of Thyatira was reproached by the Lord for tolerating Jezebel, a woman who, by her teaching, encouraged Christians to practice sexual immorality and to eat food offered to idols. The Lord showed patience towards this woman by giving her time to repent, but she refused to give up her perversion. So in his address to the church, the Lord warns Jezebel and her followers, He threatens to kill them if they continue their evil practices. Thus says the Lord in verse 21-23: “I have given her time to repent of her sins, but she does not want to turn from her immorality. And so I will throw her on to a bed where she and those who committed adultery with her will suffer terribly. I will do this now unless they repent of the wicked things they did with her. I will also kill her followers, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who knows everyone’s thoughts and wishes. I will repay each of you according to what you have done.”
The story of the Pharisee who prays in Luke 18 describes exactly how the Lord treats those who think they are good and so do not repent of their sins. The Lord uses the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector in this chapter of Luke to separate those who have a high view of themselves (like the Pharisee), from those who humble themselves and cry out to the Lord for mercy, recognizing their sins and their need of Christ the Saviour (like the tax collector). The Pharisee in his prayer says: “I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there. I fast two days a week, and I give you a tenth of all my income.” (Luke 18:11-12). Unlikethe Pharisee who has a high view of himself, the tax collector recognizes before God that he is a sinner, he has great contrition for his sins. The tax collector has a contrite heart and resents himself for offending God – it is written: “The tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his chest and said, ‘God, have pity on me, a sinner!’” (Verse 13). And the Lord declares in verse 14: “The tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home.” It is written: “Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.” (Proverbs 22:4). Proverbs 15:33 says, “You must be humble before you can ever receive honours.” Proverbs 28:13 says,“You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you.”
This is the command of our Lord in Luke 6:36, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.” Because the Lord is merciful, we too ought to be merciful towards one another. As Paul highlights it in Titus 3:3-5, “We were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them. But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour was revealed, He saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that He saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us.”
The mercy of God is a precious gift, essential to our existence, essential to our relationship with God. For without the mercy of God there is no hope for life; without God’s mercy reconciliation would have never taken place between man and his Creator. Anyone who is not a recipient of God’s mercy is doomed.However no one can earn it or control it, for no one deserves it. It comes from God and is graciously granted to anyone God chooses.Thus says the Lord in Exodus 33:19, “I show compassion and pity on those I choose.”
God is merciful and He freely forgives anyone who genuinely seeks Him. In Isaiah 55:1-3, “The LORD says, ‘Come, everyone who is thirsty – here is water! Come, you that have no money – buy corn and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk – it will cost you nothing! Why spend money on what does not satisfy? Why spend your wages and still go hungry? Listen to Me and do what I say, and you will enjoy the best food of all. Listen now, my people, and come to Me; come to Me, and you will have life! I will make a lasting covenant with you and give you the blessings I promised to David.”
Christ became sin for us and as the result of his mercy and love, we have been made recipients of God’s grace; we have been reconciled to God the Father through the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross. And as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:17, “All who receive God’s abundant grace and are freely put right with Him will rule in life through Christ.”
God’s mercy refers to his loving-kindness towards men, to the care and protection He provides to those in need and to his forbearance and forgiveness of sin. In other words, God attends to people’s physical needs, He is tolerant and patient in enduring sinners and He also grants forgiveness of sins to those who believe in his Son. This is manifest throughout the Scripture and in our everyday life. Psalms 103:8-12gives usa broad description of the mercy of God – it says, “The LORD is merciful and loving, slow to become angry and full of constant love. He does not keep on rebuking; He is not angry for ever. He does not punish us as we deserve or repay us according to our sins and wrongs. As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is his love for those who honour Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our sins from us.”
Christ is the light that came into the world to dispel the darkness that isolates us from the glorious presence of God and fills our minds and hearts with the fear of death. And so says the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 9:2-7, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows, but now light is shining on them. You have given them great joy, LORD; You have made them happy. They rejoice in what You have done, as people rejoice when they harvest their corn or when they divide captured wealth. For You have broken the yoke that burdened them and the rod that beat their shoulders. You have defeated the nation that oppressed and exploited your people, just as You defeated the army of Midian long ago. The boots of the invading army and all their bloodstained clothing will be destroyed by fire. A child is born to us! A Son is given to us! And He will be our ruler. He will be called, ‘Wonderful Counselor’, ‘Mighty God’, ‘Eternal Father’, ‘Prince of Peace’. His royal power will continue to grow; his Kingdom will always be at peace. He will rule as King David’s successor, basing his power on right and justice, from now until the end of time. The LORD Almighty is determined to do this.”
The Lord tells us in John 16:33, “The world will make you suffer. But be brave! I have defeated the world!” He who lives in us is greater than he who lives in the world. The Spirit who is in us is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world. God rules supreme over the world, and gives us victory over the world by means of our faith in Christ Jesus. And so, every child of God, that is any person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, can defeat the world. Neither trouble nor hardship, neither persecution nor hunger, neither poverty nor danger or death has power over God’s children. And no one can separate us from the love of Christ: “neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below – there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).
God is the Only Head of his people. As Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “God put all things under Christ’s feet and gave Him to the church as Supreme Lord over all things. The church is Christ’s body, the completion of Him who Himself completes all things everywhere.” The Lord is the only Teacher, the only Father and the only Leader of his flock. He tells us in Matthew 23:8-10,“You must not be called ‘Teacher’, because you are all members of one family and have only one Teacher. And you must not call anyone here on earth ‘Father’, because you have only the one Father in heaven. Nor should you be called ‘Leader’, because your one and only Leader is the Messiah.”
«J'ai fixé un temps pour le jugement, dit l’Eternel, et Je jugerai avec équité.» (Psaumes 75:2). Versets 6-8: «Le jugement ne vient pas de l'est ou de l'ouest, du nord ou du sud; c'est Dieu qui est juge, Il condamne les uns et acquitte les autres. L'Éternel tient dans sa main une coupe remplie du vin fort de sa colère. Il le verse, et tous les méchants le boivent; ils en boivent jusqu'à la dernière goutte.» Hébreux 4:13, «C'est à Lui que nous devons tous rendre compte.» Il est écrit: «Dieu va juger tout ce que nous faisons, bon ou mauvais, même les choses faites en secret.» (Ecclésiaste 12:14). «Quand le Fils de l'Homme viendra comme Roi et tous les anges avec Lui, Il s'assiéra sur son trône royal, et les hommes de toutes les nations se rassembleront devant Lui. Il mettra les justes à sa droite et les autres à sa gauche.» (Matthieu 25:31-33).
“I have set a time for judgement, says God, and I will judge with fairness.” (Psalms 75:2).Verse 6-8: “Judgement does not come from the east or from the west, from the north or from the south; it is God who is the judge, condemning some and acquitting others. The LORD holds a cup in his hand, filled with the strong wine of his anger. He pours it out, and all the wicked drink it; they drink it down to the last drop.” Hebrews 4:13, “It is to Him that we must all give an account of ourselves.” “God is going to judge everything we do, whether good or bad, even things done in secret.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).“When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with Him, He will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before Him. He will put the righteous people on his right and the others on his left.’’ (Matthew 25:31-33). “God will reward every person according to what each has done.”
God can do everything He wants. (cf. Job 42:2). Everything happens as God has predestined and planned. No one and nothing can stand against his will. (cf. 1 Chronicles 29:11-12). No one can oppose his decree. The Lord raises some to glory and condemn others to misery, according to his own mercy and grace. He alone directs the course of our lives and all the events that mark our existence. Job 12:14 says, “When God tears down, who can rebuild, and who can free those God imprisons?” In the same way that the Lord controls life and death, any other event relating to all that God has created occurs according to His decree and at the very moment He intended. No one can oppose what God has ordained. It is written: “All things are done according to God’s plan and decision.” (Ephesians 1:11). God does whatever pleases Him. Lamentations 3:37–38says, “The will of the Lord alone is always carried out. Good and evil alike take place at his command.” Psalms 115:3, “Our God is in Heaven; He does whatever He wishes.” The Lord “does whatever He wishes in Heaven and on earth, in the seas and in the depths below.” (Psalms 135:6).
We are the cause of evil; it comes from our hearts. But the Lord has power over it. Although the Lord never does anything evil, (because He is holy, just and good), not a single evil act takes place outside his will. Evil only happens because the Lord wills it to happen. He ordains it in order to demonstrate his goodness. He has the power to thwart our evil actions. People may plan evil but it is the will of God that is going to be done. And what men mean for evil God means it for good. God allows evil to happen so that his goodness can be subsequently revealed. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him. They beat him and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. God allowed their evil actions to take place so that He could later use Joseph to fulfill his own purpose. He wanted to prevent famine from hitting the people. And so Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.” Even the most outrageous evil of human existence, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ by his own people, was ordained by God. It was God’s will that his Son would be crucified. Many people still today do not know that Christ’s death was orchestrated by God, in order to satisfy the righteous demand of the Law. It pleased God to crush Him. Not only is God sovereign over evil, but He also exercises his sovereignty over our will in general. “People may plan all kinds of things, but the LORD’s will is going to be done.” (Proverbs 19:21).
We deserve nothing good from the Lord. But out of the fullness of his grace the Lord constantly exercises protection and care for his creatures. He is always present in our lives to procure to us the care and protection we need. It is God who provides for our physical and spiritual needs. The Lord alone protects us against physical attacks – Proverbs 21:31 says: “You can get horses ready for battle, but it is the LORD who gives victory.” And as far as maintaining our physical wellbeing is concerned, it is the Lord who keeps us healthy and strong. God alone has the power to keep us in good shape. He is the one who heals our diseases and broken hearts and keeps us safe from all hidden dangers and all deadly diseases. He protects and defends us against our enemies. It is the Lord who offers us spiritual protection. The Lord alone protects us against the Devil’s tricks and against sin. It is the Lord who protects us against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world. By Him we are able to put out the burning arrows shot by the Evil One. The Lord is our deliverer from sin and depravity. We do not have the capability to separate ourselves from the evilness of our flesh. The Spirit of God is our restrainer – those who do not have the Spirit of God in them, as the result of their rejection of the Son of God, are given over to their depraved mind and they remain slave of sin and death. But those who honour the Lord are led by the Holy Spirit. The word of God is life, it is Spirit-breathed, it is the light for the soul. As Paul says in his second letter to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Lord is sovereign over all authorities and powers of the heavenly Kingdom. Enthroned above the winged creatures and seated at the right-hand side of the Father in Heaven, “Christ rules there above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; He has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next.” (Ephesians 1:21). All the angels of heaven are under the authority of Christ, day and night they worship and serve Him. Hebrews 1:14 says, Angels “are spirits who serve God and are sent by Him to help those who are to receive salvation.” God is the Lord and King, the supreme Ruler, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords – all knees bow before Him. He is sovereign over earthly rulers and powers. These receive their authority from God. As Paul says in Romans 13:1, “No authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God.” God’s is also sovereign over evil spiritual powers and demonic forces. “He is supreme over every spiritual ruler and authority.” (Colossians 2:10). The Lord rules over Satan and his agents, all the fallen angels that Satan has drawn with himself in his rebellion against God. None of these beings can move to the left nor to the right unless the Sovereign Lord, the Lord God Almighty wills it. In the garden, when Satan led Adam and Eve into sin, “the LORD God said to the snake, ‘You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: from now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live. I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head and you will bite her offspring’s heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15).
Hebrews 1:10-12says,“You, Lord, in the beginning created the earth, and with your own hands you made the heavens. They will disappear, but You will remain; they will all wear out like clothes. You will fold them up like a coat, and they will be changed like clothes. But You are always the same, and your life never ends.” On the other hand death is an instrument designed and controlled by God, the ultimate judgement that God pronounces against the entire human race after the fall of the first man Adam. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit from the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad, the Lord says to Adam: “You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil again.” (Genesis 3:19).The Lord thus condemned Adam and all his descendants, that is, the whole human race, to the same fate. And so people of all generations die as the result of God’s judgement, because of the sin of our first parents. We all are mortal beings, no one escapes death. Also, God has the power to kill both body and soul. Just as it is God who gives life, it is Him who takes it back. It is the Lord who determines when and how each person has to die.
It is God’s power that works in us to cleanse us. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:20, “This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which He used when He raised Christ from death and seated Him at his right side in the heavenly world.”
God offered his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the propitiation for our sins. Thanks to the physical death of Christ on the cross, those whom God had chosen before creation have been legally justified before God, for Christ took their sins upon Himself and his righteousness has been imputed to them. That is their sins have been forgiven, and God treats them as righteous. No human being can atone for his own sin, no one can appease God’s wrath. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:11, “God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what He had decided from the very beginning.” Romans 8:29-30 tells us: “Those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.”
God alone is the Creator. He breathed all things into existence. Nothing came into being apart from the work of God the Creator. “All things were created by Him, and all things exist through Him and for Him.” (Romans 11:36). He is the beginning and the end of all things, the Alpha and the Omega, the source of life and the Word through whom all things came into being. God is a self-existent being, the Word through whom all things were made. John 1:1-5 says, “In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through Him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without Him. The Word was the source of life. And this life brought light to humanity. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.”
The Lord holds our lives in his hands. We do not tell Him what to do or how to do it. He works all things according to his will and He treats us according to his grace and mercy. The command of the Lord brought the universe into being. With this same command He will put an end to all things. Heaven and earth will pass away. But the Word, the Creator will be sovereign forever. For thus says the Lord in Haggai 2:6-9, “Before long I will shake heaven and earth, land and sea. I will overthrow all the nations, and their treasures will be brought here, and the Temple will be filled with wealth. All the silver and gold of the world is mine. The new Temple will be more splendid than the old one, and there I will give my people prosperity and peace.”
The phrase ‘God is sovereign’ means that the Lord has the right, the wisdom, the authority, the power and the discretion to do whatever He wills to do. In eternity past God had ordained all things that would happen, and He carries out his will freely and discretionarily. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:11, “He works all thing according to the counsel of his will.”
No human being born of a man and a woman lives to the standard set by the Lord God Almighty. As Romans 3: 23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But God, through his Son Jesus Christ freely justifies all who believe in Christ and reconciles them to his glory. God does this to demonstrate his righteousness.
God's uniqueness is revealed to us by his attributes. Although words are not enough to fully describe who God is, knowing his attributes, however, is important when we seek to truly know Him; that is to love Him, to obey his commands, to worship Him and to honor his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
For his own glory the Almighty God created us. He made us males and females and commanded us to keep our bodies pure. 1 Corinthians 6:13, “The body is not to be used for sexual immorality, but to serve the Lord; and the Lord provides for the body.” The Lord tells us in Leviticus 18:22-23, “No man is to have sexual relations with another man; God hates that. No man or woman is to have sexual relations with an animal; that perversion makes you ritually unclean.” Leviticus 18:29, “You know whoever does any of these disgusting things will no longer be considered one of God’s people.”
There is a stream of happiness that flows from the Kingdom of God. Those who drink from it never get thirsty again.
The Lord our God created us and gave us his teachings to instruct us to do good and avoid evil. The Lord is the pillar that sustains our lives. We cannot live a happy life when we ignore God's words. It is only by obeying the Lord's command that humanity can live a life full of joy. Unfortunately, many of us have turned their backs against God. The impact of our spiritual barrenness in our daily life is tremendous. It is time for us to understand that we are nothing without God. Those who trust in Him are never disappointed; they have all they need. For the Lord their God is always by their side. The Lord Almighty is the Stone of Help.
Our life is made up of varied episodes. Every day brings its own challenges, and each situation we face requires different approach to solution. Some of these episodes bring us joy, but others strip us of our happiness or force us to make tough choices. These are choices that bring changes to our life. Sometimes, it can be very difficult for us to cope with changes, whether it has to do with our relationships, our friendships, our careers, our beliefs, and even our ways of doing certain things. The reason being the uncertainty that trots in our minds and the fear of the unknown future that lays ahead. Whenever we feel changes need to be done to improve our life, we need to be brave enough to move forward, but it is really important to align our choices and decisions with what the Lord our God tells us and requires from us.
There is always a greater joy in writing for the glory of our Father in Heaven. What matters is the meaning we give to every single word and what we do of it. For the Lord's teaching is the greatest riches that ever exists: it gives joy; it gives happiness; it gives hope; it brings healing; it gives strength; it gives love; it is the only source of life.
Turn to the Lord and be saved. Honour the Lord your God, worship Him for salvation comes from the Lord alone.
The Lord Almighty said: “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in Spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.’’ Matthew 11:28-30
“The Lord watches over those who obey Him, those who trust in his constant love. He saves them from death; He keeps them alive in times of famine.” Psalms 33:18-19. Bring to the Lord all your pains and worries; be faithful to Him at all times, even if the seas roar and the mountains thunder. Be faithful to the Lord your God and to Him give all glory and praise. “Those who obey Him have all they need. Even lions go hungry for lack of food, but those who obey the Lord lack nothing good.” Psalms 34:9-10
Every sinner is a prisoner, a sick at heart. Healing comes only with repentance and through our redemption by Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Healer of all broken souls. He restores the health of whoever comes to Him with a humble and repentant heart. ''He is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn from their sins.’’ (2 Peter 3:9)
Everything we do in life works for us or against us. The same measure you use for others will be used for you. In the same way our righteousness is graciously rewarded by our Lord, our greed and stubbornness makes our "punishment even greater on the Day when God's anger and righteous judgments will be revealed. For God will reward every person according to what each has done. Some people keep on doing good, and seek glory, honour, and immortal life; to them God will give eternal life. Other people are selfish and reject what is right, in order to follow what is wrong; on them God will pour out his anger and fury. There will be suffering and pain for all those who do what is evil." Romans 2:5-9
We cannot life happily without welcoming Christ in our lives. For those who reject God remain forever under the power of sin and death. However, those who seek to know God must keep in mind that faith is the ultimate element to build a relationship with the Sovereign Lord. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that "no one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek Him."
There is a greater joy in giving than in receiving. We all know or meet people in need - whether they are members of our families, strangers, friends or enemies. Our responsibility as individuals is to show them that we care, by helping them stand back on their feet through generous gifts, just like our Lord wants us to do. For the Lord first gave to us.
Our Lord Jesus says, “If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, he must be your slave – like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.’’ Matthew 20:26-28
Never look at your condition as a weakness; instead, have a peace of mind, and you will be healthy. Be patient, for our Lord Jesus has a plan for you – all good things come from our Lord Almighty. Be patient and content with what you have – do not steal, do not envy, Do not try to be like others – The Lord does not tolerate any of that. Be thankful for your life and for who you are; “forwe each have our load to carry.’’ (Galatians 6:5) – ‘’The rich have to use their money to save their lives, but no one threatens the poor,’’ (Proverbs 13:8)
Before our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was taken back to Heaven, He prayed not only for his disciples, but also for all of us who believe in Him, asking the Father to keep us safe from the Evil One, the ruler of the world, the father of all lies. Because, just like Christ our Lord, we do not belong to the world. Our Lord also commands us not to love the world or anything that belongs to it. For anyone who becomes a friend of the world makes themselves God's enemy.
Our human nature constantly seeks to satisfy its passions and desires, and we do not ask ourselves what pleases God, how to please Him, how to avoid his wrath. We do not try to find out what our Father expects from us. We need to know how our Lord wants us to behave towards one another and what to expect when we fail to submit to his will. Our Lord commands us to love one another. We should not irritate our brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love others remains under the power of death.
The world is ruled by the spirit of falsehood. Many people give themselves to filthy actions, oppressing the weak and the poor. These have no right for justice. Even the judicial system is perverted. But the day is coming, when Christ the Judge of all will come to judge the living and the dead. No one will escape his judgement.
Sin subdues our condition as human beings and we face each other's mistakes. Forgiveness is the only way to free oneself and to live in harmony with one another. Also, in order for the Lord to have mercy on us, we must forgive those who offend us.
Human happiness depends on several factors without which its existence will remain forever paralyzed. One of these factors, which many people keep on neglecting is the truth, the very foundation of trust and the love that binds us to one another. And this truth comes to life in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior
The Sovereign Lord gave us his commandments. The greatest and most important of these is: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37). The second most important commandment is: "Love your neighbour as you love yourself." (Matthew 22:39). It is love that seals our union to God the Father and to Christ the Saviour through the Holy Spirit. It is love that brings people together.
People often embrace lies instead of the truth. Many think that there is nothing wrong with telling lies. But we should be aware that lies are destructive. They damage our inner worth, they create mistrust and distress among people, and drive us away from God.
Recognizing God's power helps us understand the major role the Lord plays in our lives. It expresses our gratitude for the unfailing love that the Lord has for us. God's power is revealed in all He does to protect his children, to punish the wicked, to change people's lives and to end our suffering or pride.
Human beings are inherently arrogant and rebellious. Sometimes even in the face of distress he prefers to die rather than to bow before God his Creator. And that is exactly what is happening around the world today. But we forget that man is nothing without God - all of our plans are doomed to failure when we depart from the Sovereign Lord. It is important for each individual, for each nation to consider God as his Protector, because outside of Him we are condemned to destruction. The Lord is all we have.
Humanity is in the midst of a spiritual blindness. Many people today have rejected God's word to embrace false teachings. This has led to all kinds of filth, and many have been given over to their sins. It is time for people to acknowledge that there is no better life outside of Christ. He is the light, the truth that sets free.
The world is in turmoil, dealing with of all kinds of crises. In the face of all the tragic events that mark our daily life, many people are worried and they wonder when things will get better. Rather, should we not be concerned about our actions and thoughts, making sure they are in accordance with the will of the Lord? Because everything that is happening is the result of the sin committed by humanity. But the day is coming when we will all stand before the throne of the Sovereign Lord to be judged for our deeds.
The Lord our God can do more than we can ever imagine. Whatever life brings us as hardships, pains or struggles, the Lord Almighty is willing and He alone is able to help us. He can turn our gloom into light and our ordeal into a fountain of joy. He alone is able to dry our tears. Our Lord is an Omnipotent God. His love and power extend over the whole world.
Humanity is on the threshold of a new turmoil. The rapid spread of the virus along with others natural disasters and manmade threats is weakening people worldwide. It is evident that the world is under God's judgment.
Our soul nurtures various types of emotions among which we have fear. Although it is often underestimated by many people, fear can cause us more harm than we think, especially in our spiritual life.
Thanks our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been born again as Children of God through our faith in Christ. This new identity confers us every spiritual blessing of the Kingdom of God, as we now live in union with the Holy Trinity. But as God’s children we are also called to live a holy life. As Paul says, " We have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to. For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live." (Romans 8:12-13).
How do you prepare for the coming of the Lord? Are you ready to receive Christ the resurrection and life when He returns to judge the world? He will raise the dead and judge both the living and the dead. Are you ready to face his throne of judgement?
The world is in turmoil and the church of Christ is targeted by the Devil. People are worried, unsure how to cope with the upcoming challenges. But should we really worry about anything? Our Lord Jesus exhorts us to be strong, courageous, and to be faithful to Him. We must hold unto the truth until our Saviour comes.
Our relationship with God is subject to a multitude of habits we need to develop and maintain. One of these habits is prayer. However, there are many people who fail to understand the true purpose of prayer and do not fulfill the requirements that surround it, and consequently, as the Scripture tells us, the Lord finds their prayers too hateful to hear.
Humanity is completely lost. We should stop being stubborn and rebellious towards God. When the Lord spoke to me back in May 2020 about this issue, He really was not happy when He said to me that He is angry with us because we have turned away from Him to worship false gods. No one can deny that. We all know about all the false teachings people are following these days. Teachings that tell people to engage in a lifestyle that is totally wrong in God's sight and encourage all kinds of insanity, indecency, immorality; all those things that are not pleasing to God. We need to stop it. We need to open our eyes and turn from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan to God, so that through our faith in God our sins may be forgiven, for us to receive salvation. We all must worship our Father instead of worshipping false gods.
All what is happening around the world today should open our eyes. We have rejected our Father and his teaching to follow the wrong way, bringing on ourselves all kinds all troubles. The whole world is in crisis; things are falling apart. It is time for humanity to face the truth and make the right decision. We are nothing without the Lord our God. We should stop fooling ourselves, thinking that our help will come from someone else. There is only one God, the Lord Almighty. He wants us back to Him. He is our Maker, He is our God; the only one to be worshipped, praised and feared. Let's "sing to the Lord, all the world! Worship the Lord with joy; come before Him with happy songs! Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we belong to Him; we are his people; we are his flock." Psalms 100:1-3 The Lord our God is mighty, merciful, kind, supreme over all, full of love, righteous, powerful, holy and marvelous.