26 Nov Paul’s Footsteps #178
Footsteps #178
Paul states the Gospel message once again in 2Cor5:21. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” NLT It’s as though he wants to be absolutely sure we don’t miss the heart of the issue: Meditate upon it for a moment. There has only been one perfect person in the history of mankind, and that is Jesus. All others have sinned, and “the wages of sin is death.” Each was under a death sentence, so none could die for anyone else. None, that is, except Jesus. Since he had no sin of His own, He could take on our sin and die in our place.
The chapter division here is not well-placed. The first two verses of chapt.6 are a continuation of the thought of chapt.5: “As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.” Paul is still talking about our assignment as ambassadors of Christ, and I believe he means that since God has been so gracious to appoint us as His ambassadors, we are blowing it big time if we fail to sense the urgency of our message. We should make it clear to everyone that now is the day of salvation. He quotes Isa.49:8 and then applies the prophecy this way: “…now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.”
Which do you think would be the most effective satanic strategy? Convince people there is no God (too much evidence for that.) Maybe convince people there is no devil (but we can see evil everywhere.) No, the best plan would be to convince people there is no hurry. None of us are promised tomorrow; be reconciled to God today.
If a person is swept overboard in a storm and someone on deck says he will throw a lifebuoy over to haul him in. The one in the water, however, has to agree to his end of the ‘deal’, and that is to grab onto and hold onto what has been provided. That, in many ways, is what God is offering. I can’t think of a more monumental tragedy than declining an offer of friendship from Almighty God and thus missing out on that friendship for all eternity.
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