Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Are there some issues in your contemporary society which are amazingly contradictory and conflicting? Here are two which really challenge what seems reasonable to me, currently in my part of the world…
1. Gender Identity: Some people are demanding that others view them and interact with them as a person of the opposite gender from what they really are.
2. Gender Transitioned people demanding their right to participate on sports teams of their preferred gender, not their birth gender– (biological boys participating in girls sports after having gender altering treatment)
Do both of those issues seem like foolishness to you? Did you know the Gospel of Jesus Christ seems like foolishness to many people? In fact, join me again today with the apostle Paul as he is writing his first letter to the Christians living in a very confused city, Corinth, in about 55ad. Paul knew the Christians then, as today, were ridiculed by people who really didn’t want to understand what Jesus had done to prove God’s love for them, and offer them rescue from their sin bondage. Why? Because for many of them, their sin was fun! Their sin was rewarding, as cheating often can be. For others their sin was enslaving and they couldn’t imagine being set free.
Paul wrote this in 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” It’s true, isn’t it? The ‘the cross’ is the center of God’s Gospel of Jesus Christ for humanity. That’s why the cross has been the tangible symbol of Christianity around the world since the days of Jesus. His atonement death on the cross was the primary purpose for which God the Son incarnated here on earth in a human body, right?
But the cross does seem like ‘foolishness’ in any society, any generation, doesn’t it? That Almighty God would come here to the earth He created, taking on a human body, and allowing the human race He created, to reject His truth, mock and humiliate Him, beat Him and hang Him on a cross like a piece of refuse… it makes no logical sense does it? But from God’s perspective, the cross is the symbol of God’s ultimate LOVE; God’s ultimate willingness to FORGIVE; God’s ultimate HOPE for humanity.
That’s why the apostle John, who stood at the cross and watched Jesus die, (John 19:25) wrote this: “dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God…This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His One and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…” (1 John 4:7-10) Oh my, we need to pause a few seconds. While the cross seems like foolishness to people far from God, the cross has powerful purpose and global significance because of what God did with that cross and His Son Jesus! Of course a fundamental, life and death question right now is appropriate: What is the significance of the cross of Jesus Christ in YOUR life?
Did you notice the two categories of people Paul identifies in his statement about the foolishness of the cross? “those who are perishing” and in contrast “those who are being saved”. (1 Cor. 1:18) What determines which group you and I are in? And is it any different for our spouses and our children and our friends and every person in the world? And by the way these are the ONLY two categories of human beings according what God calls His “book of life”, which will be opened at the Judgement of the Great White Throne. (Rev.20:12-15)
What is this book and when, why and by whom will it be opened then? “The Book of Life” is God’s book in which are written the names of “those who are being saved”, as Paul said it. These are the people who have repented of their sin and fully trusted in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation from their sin condemnation. They are the people to whom God applies the death payment of Jesus and declares them forgiven, justified, adopted into His family and assured of eternity with Him in heaven! It will be opened at the time all humanity is standing before Jesus Christ, the ultimate Judge, and as each person stands in judgment before Jesus this ‘book of life’ will be searched to see if their name has been recorded there as a person who has trusted Jesus and is saved from condemnation to hell.
Matthew’s record tells us that Jesus told His disciples that those whose names ARE recorded in the ‘book of life’ will be invited into heaven by God with these words: “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you…” (Matt. 25:31-34) That same record also reports Jesus said this about those whose names are NOT in the ‘book of life’: “depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’…then they will go away to eternal punishment…” (Matt. 25:41,46) That horrific eternal destiny is what Paul referred to as ‘those who are perishing’, for Jesus several times indicated He had come so no one needs to PERISH! (John 3:16; 10:28)
The last thing Paul mentioned in that great 1 Corinthians 1:18 verse is that our rescue from Perish is accomplished by “the power of God”. Oh my, that’s a wonderful truth. God’s power is the supreme creative, sustaining, and final judging power. And God’s power is the ONLY power which can save us from our sin bondage and our sin condemnation! Do I hear cheers all around the world? Are you celebrating and living joyfully, confidently in the POWER of God unleashed upon and into you by God’s Holy Spirit?
The ‘lessons learned’ will help us dig more deeply and there’s a great Charity Gayle worship song which celebrates the names written in this “book of life”, and tomorrow we’ll keep going with Paul in this letter.
Today’s Scripture: 1 Cor. 1:18.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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