Sunday, February 2, 2020

Jesus Was—But, 12


~ Consider His Divine Eternal Nature ~

Introduction  ~  Each post in this series looks at an historical event and then follows it up with part of “The Rest of The Story” (as Paul Harvey used to say). 

Jesus Was  ~  Crucified between two criminals.  “And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center [between two criminals]” (John 19:17-18). 

But There Is More To The Story  ~  As a great hymn of the faith says: “I serve a risen Savior… He’s in the world today!”  The Scriptures provide this account: “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.  After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.  After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.  Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

Important Closing Overview  ~  Jesus Christ is God.  He is eternal.

The Past Factor  ~  Jesus Christ, the Messiah, lived the life we could not live.  He paid the penalty we could not pay.  “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:14-17). 

The Now Factor  ~  Jesus Christ is now sitting beside God, His Father, working on our behalf: “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns?  It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:31-36).

The Future Factor  ~  “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep [physically dead].  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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