20/09/2022
*TWO THINGS THAT HAPPENED AT THE CROSS*
(Let please try to read to the end, our comments and contributions is most welcomed and appreciated)
The Bible made us realized the love God has for the whole world to the extent of giving us His only begotten son as the remission of our sins. This love is so humongous and exorbitant that no human in his or her imagination and comprehension can qualify and quantify the extent of this love. The explanation of this love by any preacher or human is but a mere attempt.
This love made Christ to come not only in human form to experience the world as a man but also to endure all the temptations and afflictions and by extension the suffering and death on the cross. In that through Him we should have our sins forgiven and by extension have a new life. This he did in order for our salvation and faith to be perfected.
THE FIRST THING THAT HAPPENED AT THE CROSS
SALVATION
The first and fundamental thing that happened at the cross is that, we have all our sins forgiven having accept, believe and confess Jesus as Lord and Saviour (ABC formula by Evangelist Okelola 18/09/2022) and forsaken all the sins. We are therefore ushered into the kingdom of God having gained redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:14)
THE SECOND THING THAT HAPPENED AT THE CROSS
DEATH(Becoming Christ)
This is the most critical point after salvation as it's what follows after salvation in that, we share in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is by this we can be His disciple.
LET ME BREAK IT DOWN
When we were still sinners, we were outside the kingdom. The moment we accept Christ as Lord and Saviour, we are at the Cross ready to die with Christ and eventually dieing with Christ (dieing to flesh). What follows is that the person that comes out after that is no longer we but Christ.
GALATIANS 2:19-20
19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.(NKJV)
It is as a result of this that, what we normally do before like lying, fornicating, stealing etc which was our old nature, we no longer do as we are now a new being in Christ.
It is only then that, we are new creatures and by that reason old things has passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17)
If this is not the case in our lives, then, we are not His disciple and therefore share not in His nature as our salvation remain disputed.
It is also then we have eternal hope that even if we die, we have hope of eternity with Christ and as a result of this, *we need not afraid of physical death* because, Christ in us is the hope of glory ( Colossians 1:27)
It is this hope that made Stephen to be smiling in the face of brutal and excruciating persecution.
Acts 7:55
55 "But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,"
It is this nature of Christ which can be aided only by the Holy Spirit that was absent in Simon Peter which made Him denied Jesus by lying because he couldn't see the glory. But thank God, Jesus had prayed for him and hence his repentance.
Jesus has not promise us a smooth and rough free ride while following Him. We would be tempted, persecuted in the process. We must however persevere and steadfast as we must not do what Jesus would never do.
Jesus will never lie, should we? The answer remains capital NO
Jesus will never steal, should we? NO
Jesus will never do all what is in Galatians 5:19-21 which are all work of the flesh.
Galatians 5:19-21
[19]But when you follow your own wrong inclinations, your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure,
[20]idolatry, spiritism (that is, encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group—and there will be wrong doctrine,
[21]envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.(The Living Bible)
I really wish there is time and avenue to rub mind together and brainstorm on this issue but.....
Let me conclude by saying, whatever makes one to lie would make one to land in hell fire irrespective of any humans reason behind it.
Shalom
Revelation 21:8
8 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.”
