Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers… I have thoroughly enjoyed putting together this series of blogs concerning the Time of the End. No doubt this is a very weighty subject; for some it is a scary subject; for others it is an unbelievable subject. But one thing for sure; there is a plethora of untrue and misleading information concerning The Time of the End that only adds to the confusion. I have tried to present this subject in a clear, concise way, devoid of speculation, but substantiated by Scripture.
I made a statement in part 1 of this series that I want to repeat now. “This message is nothing but hope and confirmation for those who are in Christ, but it should scare the living hell out of non-believers. Not because God is a mean God or a vengeful God, but because He is a just God.” Sin – living separated from God – is the chasm that has existed between God and Man from the Garden of Eden until today. God created us for an eternal relationship with Himself, Jesus and all Christ-followers, but if we are stained with sin, we can’t even qualify to enter through the proverbial “Pearly Gates”. Why? Because God hates sin, and He hates sin for all of these reasons: “God IS Love!” (1John 4:8) and “God IS Holy!” (Leviticus 20:26) Therefore, He is perfect in every way. Sin, by contrast, is everything He is not!
- The ultimate consequence grieves Him. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
- Sin separates people from him. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God? Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
- To pursue sin is to turn your back on God and His blessings: “I know the plans I have for you’ says the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. “(Jeremiah 29:11)
- Sin blinds people to the truth. “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me!” (John 14:6)
- Sin leads to spiritual blindness and bondage: “Don’t you realize you become a slave to whatever you choose to obey. (worship). If Sin is your master, it will lead you to destruction.” (Romans 16:16)
God knew, even before he created the world and Man, that we were going to stray off of the path He had planned for us. But even then, He had a plan for our salvation, as outlined in Ephesians 1:4-5,10-11: “Long ago, even before He created the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure. And here is His plan: At just the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are in Christ, we have received an inheritance from God…just as he decided long ago.”
So now you know that God loved his proudest creation (us) even before He created us. But even more important, He created us knowing that we were going to go astray. Now that’s Love! But that’s also why He had a plan in place to save us from ourselves. He knew we could never overcome, through our own effort, the enticement of Sin – living separated from Him with our focus on self-indulgence. In Ephesians 1:10 above, it refers to “just the right time” for bringing everything under the authority of Christ. Romans 5:6 is the fulfillment of that promise: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time, and died for us sinners.”
“Utterly helpless” clearly describes our pathetic state. Obviously, God was convinced we were never going to overcome the issue of Sin without his help. Also notice that He didn’t wait until we cleaned up our act to make ourselves worthy and acceptable in His eyes. No indeed! His unconditional love manifested itself in action when He provided the solution to our moral dilemma.
Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, became the Sacrificial Lamb to pay the penalty for our sins. In the Old Testament, under the Law of Moses, sins could only be covered (not forgiven) if blood were shed. (Blood was the proof of sacrifice or payment.) With God’s plan, the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, paid the sin-penalty for all Mankind – past, present and future. Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of the world so that we could become the righteousness of Christ. That is the Great Exchange. Let me explain.
Jesus loved us enough to die for our sins. To be saved (or reborn), all we have to do is accept what He did on the cross as the payment for our sins. That means we accept Him for who He is: The Son of the Living God who came to earth to pay the penalty for our sin so we can be declared sin-free and qualify for everlasting life in Paradise with God, Jesus and all Christ-followers. As I mentioned earlier, we cannot qualify for eternal life if we are stained with sin. “Why?”, you ask. Because Sin contaminates when it “spreads, kills and destroys.” (John 10:10)
Remember, this world was Paradise when it was created, but the world you see now shows the ravages of sin and all of its ugly consequences, such as hatred, anger, fear, jealousy, guilt, shame, remorse, lying, cheating, stealing, murder, depression, stress, finger-pointing, name-calling, poverty, oppression, addictions, sickness and even death. All of this is a result of Man living separated from God’s will. This will not happen in the new Paradise because we are told in Revelation 21:27, “Nothing evil will be allowed to enter; only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” (Those who are in Christ) God’s gift of Grace is the only pathway to Heaven. As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
The Time of the End, whether you believe it or not, will happen. And Revelation, as challenging and confusing as it can sometime be, makes two powerful promises: Those who are in Christ will rise to receive their rewards and eternal salvation; those who have rejected God’s Gift of Grace will rise to judgement and eternal damnation. God is a just God. Those who are stained with sin must pay for their choices.
This world has to end before God can establish His New Kingdom. Because the New Kingdom will be, and will continue to be, Paradise, Sin must be eradicated before the new Paradise can be established. And as was true in the Old Testament, Sin – at any time or of any kind – cannot go unpunished. It requires a sacrifice. Those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will pay for their sins through eternal separation from God.
The decision to accept God’s Gift of Grace or not accept it has eternal consequences. My prayer for every reader is that you will make that decision now, not just for the eternal consequences, but for the joy-filled and blessings-filled life you can begin experiencing right now. It’s as simple as saying, “Almighty God, I know I have fallen short of Your glorious standard. I want to change by accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I want the rest of my life to bring honor and Glory to Him. In Jesus’ name, Amen”
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May God bless you abundantly,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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