Can you imagine a coach telling his team, “Stop tryin’ so hard! You’re getting’ in the way of our victory.” or a military commander saying, “raise the white flag. That’ll lead us to victory.” Sounds preposterous, right? Well in terms of the world’s perspective, it is preposterous. But Jesus gave us an insight to the contradiction of “the world’s perspective” and the “Kingdom of God’s perspective” the first time he sat down to teach. In the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed to the crowd, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” But the real attention-getter was, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven…” (Matthew 5:3-5, 11-12) While the crowd had never heard teaching like that – and no doubt many of them wondered if Jesus was crazy – many were also astonished by his confidence and insight. “He taught with much more authority than the teachers of religious law.” (Matthew 7:28)
In my opinion, two reasons the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so hard to grasp by unbelievers is because it is contrary to worldly thinking, and because of its simplicity. For instance…in my own case, I considered myself a pretty smart guy for many years. The Gospel sounded like a fairy tale to me. I mean…who in their right mind could believe a story like that? And in the end it wasn’t about what I did or didn’t do, but what someone else did on my behalf…and all I had to do was believe it? That just defied common sense. To be honest, in the back of my mind I hoped it could be true…but I also knew my past. And in light of my past, I knew I wasn’t worthy of such a gift.
When I look back on that perspective, I readily admit it was a result of my own ignorance. Not ignorance in terms of stupidity, but ignorance of the truth. I really had never read the Bible, and the God I learned about in my youth was a God who was just waiting to punish me for my indiscretions. Unfortunately for me, it seemed like everything I wasn’t supposed to do was what I enjoyed the most!
SO THE ANSWER IS…
Today I believe that if any rational, logical, thinking person will allow themselves to be exposed to the truth of God’s word and will start reading and connecting the unmistakable dots, the conclusion is inevitable. Jesus was always the answer to mankind’s dilemma with sin. (Sin in this case is a noun, meaning it is a self-centered way of living rather than a God-centered way of living.) Man had from creation to two thousand years ago to rise above the squalor of this fallen world, but unfortunately we kept sinking deeper and deeper into the death-knell of sin. That condition is clearly defined in Romans 5:6: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”
Two fundamental truths from which I believe everything else written in the Bible spring from are: 1. God is love, and 2. God wants a relationship with us…an eternal relationship with us. Apostle John refers to God as “love” in 1 John 4:8: “The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” And Revelation 4:11 tells us “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” God’s pleasure is for us to enter into a relationship with him, but he also knows that in order for us to enter into that relationship, we first have to come to know who he is; what he thinks; what he thinks about us; what his standards are; what his promises are; and how we receive those promises. That’s why God chose to reveal himself to mankind through the Holy Bible.
2 Peter 1:21 tells us, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” And again in 2 Timothy 3:16 we read: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right”. In other words, if we want to come to know God and to learn about his truth, the Bible is the source. It is the only book in the world that makes such a claim…to be the Word of God.
As soon as we begin connecting the dots found in scripture, it becomes clear that they all lead to the same place. To Jesus Christ! And why is that?…because Jesus IS the answer to man’s issue with sin. Jesus himself proclaimed in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Sin is the issue that keeps man separated from God. As long as we are stained with sin we can never come into His presence, because sin spreads, contaminates kills and destroys. Just look at the world we live in today. This is the result of sin entering the world. Does this look like paradise to you?
SO HOW DOES SURRENDER EQUAL VICTORY?
We have two options. One is to try to earn our way into heaven by being good enough. But how did that work under the Old Covenant (before Jesus Christ)? Refer to Romans 5:6 again: “While we were utterly helpless Christ came at just the right time to die for us sinners.” That tells the whole story. Utterly helpless reveals our pathetic state; just the right time tells us God stepped in because he knew mankind could never be good enough to live up to his standard; and sinners means we were on the fast track to eternal damnation! Remember: God is Love; He wants an eternal relationship with us. Romans 6:23 reveals our fate and our hope: “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord”. I love that scripture!
So the paradox of the day is quite simple. It is not about our work and effort that makes us acceptable in God’s sight. It is about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. His death paid the penalty for the sins of ALL mankind – past, present and future. God’s gift of his Son for our redemption is his ultimate show of his love for us. Our acceptance of his Gift of Grace is our ultimate show of trust and faith in him. Now that we are covered with the blood of the sacrificial lamb, when God looks at us, he no longer sees a sinner, but he sees us in Jesus Christ. So by surrendering our effort and accepting the work already done by Jesus, we become victorious over death and receive eternal life. How awesome is that?
So paradox has become clear. The only way to be victorious over the lure of Satan and this fallen world is by surrendering to God’s Gift of Grace. Besides forgiveness of our sins and eternal life, we also are promised the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to empower us to rise above the world around us. That brings to life 1John 4:4:” The spirit that is in me (the Holy Spirit) is greater than the spirit (satan) in this world.” The sooner we grasp that truth of this paragraph, the sooner we can begin experiencing the “abundant life” Jesus promised us. A-men!
My question to you today is… have you experienced the truth of that paradox?? You’ll know it if you have. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.
May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
Thanks Dan!