~
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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