Category: God’s love

He Took My Sins Away #1

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 KJV).

The first verse of Margaret Jenkins Harris’ classic 1903 hymn “He Took My Sins Away” highlights today’s Scripture.

“I came to Jesus, weary, worn, and sad.
He took my sins away, He took my sins away.
And now His love has made my heart so glad,
He took my sins away.”

Many of us came to Jesus Christ after several years lost in religion. One day, it finally sank in that years of laboring to fulfill church demands was a faulty system because we sinners could never perform perfectly. Uttering the same prayers dozens of times daily, “holding out until the end,” weekly partaking of a sacrifice that can never take away sins, avoiding “the world’s sins,” being faithful to a church calendar of “holy days,” weekly confessing personal sins to an equally-sinful man, on and on. We discovered that entrusting our very souls to a fallible institution was eternally dangerous!

Weary, ever so exhausted from all that vain religious performance, we gave up “trying to do the best we could” because we knew our “best” would never be good enough. Like the Jews of today’s Scripture who struggled under a most severe system of Law—not only God’s pure law given first to Moses, but also hundreds of other laws Israel’s religious leaders had compiled—we were drained, disappointed, worn out.

We came to Father God by faith in Jesus Christ alone, for only He could provide us with peace with God (Romans 5:1), justification before God (2 Corinthians 5:21), and forgiveness before God (Ephesians 4:32). What our works could never do in a million years, Jesus Christ did at Calvary in just six hours. He died to “put away [our] sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). And now, by faith in Him alone, we can enjoy His love, His peace, and His joy. We can rest in Him, we do not have to worry about where we will go when we die, for we are secure in Him (Romans 8:31-39; 2 Timothy 1:12).

Yes, He cancelled our sin debt….

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Were Gentiles saved before our Dispensation of Grace?”

The LORD’S Great Love for Israel

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

“Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine [grape/raisin cakes]” (Hosea 3:1 KJV).

JEHOVAH commissions the Prophet Hosea to live out his message so the children of Israel can see His great love for them!

From Hosea’s perspective, the Jews’ Assyrian and Babylonian captivities are approaching, JEHOVAH’S response to their centuries of idolatry (Leviticus 26:28-39). With a broken heart, He must now rid His Holy Land of the nation Israel, and send them away to foreign lands. His people have not honored His Word but rather have trampled it under foot. They do not believe His Word to them: they have willfully abandoned His Covenant of Law. They have defiled His land with their child sacrifices, violence, injustice, and idols of wood and stone. Like a wife cheating on her husband, the houses of Israel and Judah have been so unfaithful to the God who delivered them from Egyptian, satanic, and sin’s bondage. They have ignored Him and worshipped dead idols!

In chapter 1, God instructed Hosea to marry Gomer. It is soon apparent that she is a prostitute, for, after giving birth to Hosea’s first child, Gomer delivers two children whose paternal origin is unclear. In the context of today’s Scripture, Gomer has since left Hosea and is now prostituting on the streets. Hosea is instructed of God to purchase Gomer back, and God orders him to love Gomer in the same manner He loves adulterous Israel. The children of Israel are to see Hosea’s life and learn the doctrine being communicated.

From our perspective, JEHOVAH—some seven centuries after Hosea—shed His blood on Calvary’s cross to—beyond our day—redeem Israel, buy her back from her satanic and idolatrous captivity, forgive and cleanse her, and despite her infidelity, re-marry her and return her to her Promised Land forever (Hosea 2:14-23). The Apostle Paul affirms that Hosea’s prophecy—Israel’s restoration and redemption—will occur after our program ends (Romans 11:15-36). Saints, what a loving God we serve!

Our latest Bible Q&A’s: “Who will accompany Jesus at His Second Coming?” and “When will the Old Testament saints be resurrected?”

One Who Never Disappoints

Thursday, August 14, 2014

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 KJV).

When life disheartens, let us be assured in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Person who never disappoints.

The recent, tragic suicide of comedian and actor Robin Williams was the consequence of life’s problems becoming too overwhelming. Dear friends, this most unfortunate event demonstrates that material wealth and popularity do not guarantee happiness. Celebrities are not super-humans, just as human as we are, and also subject to this world’s temptations.

People often surround themselves with power, money, houses, lands, sex, friendships and marriages, vacations, and drugs and alcohol, attempting to fill the void in their heart that only the Lord Jesus Christ can fill. The more they fill that vacuum with things that do not belong, the emptier and more hopeless they feel. While suicide is not the answer, the human heart is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), enough to cause us to think it is. Nay, the answer to life’s problems is not our death, but the answer to our sin problem is Jesus Christ’s death. Depression strikes individuals, whether rich or poor, with absolute hopelessness, that there is no way out of life’s difficulties. It distracts lost and saved alike from the hope, solution, forgiveness, love, grace, acceptance, and peace God offers us in and through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Beloved, may we not have misplaced dependencies, may we not lapse into depression, may we not commit suicide, and may we not look down upon depressed individuals and those who commit suicide (we, being equally human, are not immune to depression or suicide). Sin ever so complicates life but there is such simplicity in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Philippians 2:16 says that we Christians are to “hold forth the word of life,” to offer the Gospel of the Grace of God—Jesus Christ’s death, bloodshed, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4)—to any and all we meet. There is life in Jesus Christ, eternal life (today’s Scripture), and may we focus more on that everlasting life than the temporary troubles of this one! 🙂

Evil Seen and Punished

Saturday, July 26, 2014

“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3 KJV).

Certainly, God sees evil, and in due time, He will punish it!

One of the lamest so-called “arguments against God’s existence” is the presence of unpunished evil (this is also an “argument against the police’s existence!”). Oddly, these Bible scoffers then ridicule the “cruel, vengeful God of the Old Testament.” It seems like that sinful man is determined to criticize God no matter what He does!

A very wise Christian once pointed out that the atheist really defeats himself or herself with their mind-games, conceding that evil unpunished will forever remain unpunished because God supposedly does not exist. To say that evil does exist is to presume that good also exists, and that just as there is one source of evil there is also one source of good. To say that God does not exist is to make our lives meaningless. What we do in our lives really will not make a difference in the long run. No, certainly the atheist would disagree with us when we continue their assumptions into the long-term; their ideas are more comfortable when applied only to the here-and-now.

Ecclesiastes 8:11-13 reminds us: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.”

The wicked, Bible rejecters, haters of the Lord Jesus Christ, have “days which are as a shadow.” Until God stops them from breathing His air, drinking His water, eating His food, and enjoying His world, He will continue to offer them His love, grace, mercy, and peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Indeed, the atheist’s evil will not remain unpunished, so may he or she come to God through Jesus Christ to have that wrath satisfied before it is eternally punished.

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Does God chasten us when we sin?”

 

At Calvary #5

Saturday, June 21, 2014

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24 KJV).

The chorus of William R. Newell’s classic 1895 hymn “At Calvary” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Mercy there was great, and grace was free,
Pardon there was multiplied to me,
There my burdened soul found liberty
At Calvary.”

“Mercy” means “pity, compassion,” God holding back what we deserve (His wrath). “Grace” is God’s unmerited favor—it is free to us (apart from our works) because Jesus Christ paid for it with His life (it is not “cheap grace!”). In Christ, we are liberated from sin’s dominion and works-religion bondage (Galatians 5:1)—the “redemption,” the purchasing of our freedom, through Jesus Christ’s shed blood. We received “redemption through [Christ’s] blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of [God’s] grace” (Ephesians 1:7; cf. Colossians 1:14). The riches of God’s grace—where our sin abounds, God’s grace abounds far, far, far, far more (Romans 5:20). God’s forgiveness, His abundant pardon, is offered to us at Calvary’s cross.

For our dear readers who are lost, who have never come to a point in their lives where they relied exclusively on Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for their sins, we urge them to do so today before it is eternally too late. No matter what you have done in your life, there is no sin so vile that Jesus Christ’s blood cannot cover it. At Calvary, the God of the Bible offers all the mercy, grace, love, and forgiveness you will ever need, but none of it can be applied to you until you trust Jesus Christ alone as your personal Saviour.

After soul salvation unto eternal life, we join our Apostle Paul in reflecting upon our former lives, and we conclude with him, “but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:13,14). Indeed, the mercy, grace, faith, and love of Jesus Christ are more than enough.

Saints, being mindful that our (self-) life ended at Calvary, and our (eternal) life began at Calvary, let us sing “At Calvary” with grateful hearts! 🙂

At Calvary #4

Friday, June 20, 2014

“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9 KJV).

The fourth verse of William R. Newell’s classic 1895 hymn “At Calvary” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!”

God gave heaven’s best—Jesus Christ—to save earth’s worst—us, sinful mankind. God’s love for us drove Him to Calvary’s cross: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s grace, His unmerited favor toward us, enabled Him to endure Calvary’s cross for us: “…Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9).

We could not meet God’s righteousness in our own strength: we were spiritually poor. Jesus Christ had God’s spiritual wealth—righteousness, majesty, glory, and so on. Today’s Scripture says Jesus Christ “became poor” (“he humbled himself;” Philippians 2:5-8). He became a man, to serve instead of be served (Matthew 20:28), to have our sin imputed to Him (2 Corinthians 5:21), to die as “the just for the unjust” (1 Peter 3:18). When He completely paid our sin debt, He resurrected to give us His righteousness (Romans 4:25; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

Titus 3:4-6 reminds us: “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;….”

The Apostle John affirmed: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: … Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 3:16a, 4:10). Christ’s finished crosswork at Calvary is now the bridge between God and us.

At Calvary #1

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 KJV).

The first verse of William R. Newell’s classic 1895 hymn “At Calvary” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified,
Knowing not it was for me He died
On Calvary.”

Before we came by faith to Jesus Christ, our lives epitomized emptiness and arrogance. We may not have been murdering, stealing, committing adultery, bowing before statues, or cursing the Lord Jesus Christ’s name; yet, our lives were vain and prideful. We were “walking, in the vanity [emptiness] of [our] mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that [was] in [us], because of the blindness of [our] heart: who being past feeling [had] given [ourselves] over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4:17-19).

Romans chapter 1 explains how God gave us Gentiles up and over to our “vain imaginations” and “foolish, darkened hearts” (verse 21). In Genesis chapter 11, God relinquished us Gentiles to enjoy the spiritual ignorance—“reprobate [worthless] mind” (verse 28)—we so desired. Once He let the Gentile nations go on their way, He created the nation Israel to become His earthly people. For the next 2,000 years, Satan’s sin (pride; 1 Timothy 3:6) operated in us Gentiles; hence, the Devil himself, the ruler “over all the children of pride” (Job 41:34), was our king. While we Gentiles were “without God” and “without Christ” (Ephesians 2:12), Jesus Christ died for us (today’s Scripture). As our pagan Gentile ancestors offered their worthless sacrifices in their heathen temples, Jesus Christ offered Himself to pay for their sins.

“Calvary” (Greek, kranion; Latin, calvaria, “skull”) only appears once in our King James Bible (Luke 23:33)—modern English versions eliminate it. In Hebrew, the place is “Golgotha” (Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17), meaning “the place of a skull.” It was on this hill whose rocky formation resembles a human cranium, outside of Jerusalem, that Jesus Christ was crucified for us. While we were on our merry way to eternal hellfire, the eternal Son of God was put to death on Calvary’s cross that we might have eternal life!

Iniquity Not Yet Full #12

Friday, May 23, 2014

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16 KJV).

Today’s Scripture expressly declares why the God of the Bible “takes His time” when dealing with sinful mankind.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “iniquity” as, “injustice; unrighteousness; a deviation from rectitude.” Derived from Latin, the term conveys the idea of things not being equal or just (fair). God’s standard of rightness (righteousness) is not being met (sin, disobedience to His Word, is present). When God’s righteousness is offended, His justice meets out His wrath, that the balance be restored, that His offended righteousness be satisfied, that the injustice be corrected (that sin be punished).

Today’s Scripture is the first time the term “iniquity” appears in the Holy Bible. According to the Bible study principle of “first mention,” the first occurrence of a word in Scripture generally outlines the Bible’s (God’s) attitude about that term. Today’s Scripture says that God will only tolerate injustice for so long; our Dispensation of Grace will not last forever. Therefore, we must never take God’s grace for granted. While we in Christ will always enjoy God’s grace, today’s lost world will not experience it indefinitely.

The Apostle Paul cautioned the world’s (Gentile) nations: “[20] Well; because of unbelief they [Israel] were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: [21] For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. [22] Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:20-22).

One day, God will “cut off” our program, His grace to the nations; He will restore Israel and resume her program (verses 15,23-29). Gentiles who do not get saved during our Dispensation of Grace, their unbelief will cause God to end our program (just as unbelief caused God to interrupt Israel’s program)—our dispensation will conclude when Jesus Christ returns to take us the Church the Body of Christ back to heaven (rapture). Lost Gentiles should accept God’s grace to us in Christ by faith, while He is still offering it to them….

Iniquity Not Yet Full #11

Thursday, May 22, 2014

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16 KJV).

Today’s Scripture expressly declares why the God of the Bible “takes His time” when dealing with sinful mankind.

Beloved, this Dispensation of God’s Grace is the greatest time in all of God’s dealings with mankind. JEHOVAH God has never been more generous. His love for lost and dying man—demonstrated at Calvary (Romans 5:6-8)—has never been more evident (Titus 3:4,5). His grace for lost and dying man—demonstrated at Calvary (2 Corinthians 8:9)—has never been more obvious (Titus 2:11). For 20 centuries, God has offered the riches of His grace, love, mercy, and peace to unloving, prideful, helpless, idolatrous, ungrateful humanity.

Many have willfully ignored the Gospel of His Grace, preferring their sins of the spirit (religious works) and their sins of the flesh. As Israel’s program fell away (albeit, temporarily) when no one else wanted to trust Jesus Christ, so our program will eventually conclude. Our dispensation will end when we, the Church the Body of Christ, are raptured into heaven, when this agency is complete (Romans 11:25). Israel’s program will resume where it paused (God’s wrath!).

Romans 2:3-6,8,9 warns: “And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: … them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil….”

Paul, writing about the seven-year Tribulation period, says those who “received not the love of the truth” in our dispensation, “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:10,11). They will follow the antichrist in his rebellion against God, thereby receiving God’s wrath for participating in Satan’s “mystery of iniquity….”

Iniquity Not Yet Full #10

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16 KJV).

Today’s Scripture expressly declares why the God of the Bible “takes His time” when dealing with sinful mankind.

While the God of the Bible is unfathomably gracious (giving us what we do not deserve), incomprehensibly merciful (holding back what we do deserve), and unconditionally loving (what we do not deserve), He is also a God of justice (what we do deserve) and a God of wrath (what we do deserve). For the last 2,000 years, sinful mankind has grown comfortable with the God of grace, mercy, and love—too comfortable, actually. They have forgotten that He is also a just and holy God, and He will not let their sin go unpunished forever.

Indeed, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing [reckoning, applying, incurring] their trespasses unto them: and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19). The God of the Bible is not pouring out His wrath today; rather, He is offering every person in the world a chance to be made right with Him. Jesus Christ wants all people to be saved (2 Peter 3:9), so He died for the sins of all people (1 Timothy 2:3-7; Hebrews 2:9). By God’s grace through faith alone in Christ Jesus (His death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for our sins), every single person has been granted an opportunity to have his or her sin debt paid, to receive salvation from the penalty of his or her sins (eternal hellfire)!

Alas, that Gospel of Grace has been largely ignored these past 20 centuries. The Gentiles in the Dispensation of Grace have largely done what Israel did in her program before God set her and it aside—discarded God’s Word to them, and preferred works-religion. Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice at Calvary literally means nothing to works-religionists: they offer the “good” works of their sinful bodies hoping to please Almighty God like Jesus Christ did! Accordingly, the lost Gentiles of our world today, with Israel, will also experience God’s wrath. Once our dispensation concludes, their iniquity will be full….