Who gave Himself for our sins,
that He might deliver us
from this present evil world,
according to the will
of God and our Father: Galatians 1:4 KJV
Notice that the Apostle (someone with authority to write the Bible) is not talking about evil outside the realm of creation. Notice that he is not trying to construct a theology of how the sins of angels are or will be handled. He is not discussing the imaginary notions of calvinists and others who claim to know what happened in "eternity past." No one who is human is being delivered from the predestined sins of "eternity past." When Calvin (not an apostle and not invited to write the Bible) dreamed up his lying doctrines about the reprobation of humans from before creation, he didn't bother to ponder the truth that is being taught by this verse.
Jesus Christ (Jesus is God) gave Himself for our sins. We learned last week that "He became sin for us." Jesus did not do all of this in some secret ceremony before Adam was created and, then, dole out some 'spark of infinite goodness' to lucky recipients throughout history. The Bible (written by Prophets and Apostles, not calvin or calvinists) tells the story of sin and evil in "this present world." Present tense, measurable and recordable, much of this painful story is available in the Bible. The personal component of this story is available in every human heart (Romans 1:18).
Jesus was crucified on a cross in the realm of time and place that He had constructed. His death, burial, and resurrection happened at a time and in a place where human eye witnesses could observe it and report to the rest of humanity how it happened. It may be interesting or even exciting to imagine what happened in the eternal realm before God created "this world that is presently evil," but there is no authoritative report of what happened that is available to man. This lack of evidence should be like the shout of a father to a bad boy who wants to shirk at doing his chores by asking what his older brothers are doing, "That is none of your business! Get busy doing what you have been told to do!"
The New Testament gives us our marching orders. Tell sinners about Jesus. The ways by which this task may be accomplished are as varied as the number of people to whom the Holy Spirit has access through the Blood of Jesus. Stop speculating about junk above your intelligence and pay grade (1 Timothy 1:6-7) and tell people that Jesus loves them and has provided a gift for them. The command is the same. The outline is the same.
Sinner.
Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.
that He might deliver us
from this present evil world,
according to the will
of God and our Father: Galatians 1:4 KJV
Notice that the Apostle (someone with authority to write the Bible) is not talking about evil outside the realm of creation. Notice that he is not trying to construct a theology of how the sins of angels are or will be handled. He is not discussing the imaginary notions of calvinists and others who claim to know what happened in "eternity past." No one who is human is being delivered from the predestined sins of "eternity past." When Calvin (not an apostle and not invited to write the Bible) dreamed up his lying doctrines about the reprobation of humans from before creation, he didn't bother to ponder the truth that is being taught by this verse.
Jesus Christ (Jesus is God) gave Himself for our sins. We learned last week that "He became sin for us." Jesus did not do all of this in some secret ceremony before Adam was created and, then, dole out some 'spark of infinite goodness' to lucky recipients throughout history. The Bible (written by Prophets and Apostles, not calvin or calvinists) tells the story of sin and evil in "this present world." Present tense, measurable and recordable, much of this painful story is available in the Bible. The personal component of this story is available in every human heart (Romans 1:18).
Jesus was crucified on a cross in the realm of time and place that He had constructed. His death, burial, and resurrection happened at a time and in a place where human eye witnesses could observe it and report to the rest of humanity how it happened. It may be interesting or even exciting to imagine what happened in the eternal realm before God created "this world that is presently evil," but there is no authoritative report of what happened that is available to man. This lack of evidence should be like the shout of a father to a bad boy who wants to shirk at doing his chores by asking what his older brothers are doing, "That is none of your business! Get busy doing what you have been told to do!"
The New Testament gives us our marching orders. Tell sinners about Jesus. The ways by which this task may be accomplished are as varied as the number of people to whom the Holy Spirit has access through the Blood of Jesus. Stop speculating about junk above your intelligence and pay grade (1 Timothy 1:6-7) and tell people that Jesus loves them and has provided a gift for them. The command is the same. The outline is the same.
Sinner.
Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment