The Truth about Easter

First off I would like to say, Happy Resurrection Day everyone!  This is truly the most glorious day of the Chrisitian calendar (and one day it will be on the Jewish one too)!  When the historical Lord Jesus was taken and arrested by the Roman centurions, taken and unjustly beaten, mocked, whipped and crucified for the sins of those who would be saved from every nation, tribe and language.

Revelation 7:9-10  ⁹ After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;  ¹⁰ and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

This is why the apostle John can say, “For God so loved the Word (i.e. humanity) that He sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that whoever believes through Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).  If anything is under attack today, it is the good news that Jesus came into the world to preach.  And I mean, under attack, not just from the secular progressives and the atheists that are trying to destroy a groups culture and religion, their very lifestyle (boy, talk about intolerant!), but from the very churches where we sit each and every Sunday.  The places where we go to worship, the places where we serve, and often seek to fulfill, at least in part, our service and devotion to God.

I want everyone to know that I love the pastor whose message I’m about to use as an example.  He and I have got together on a few occasions and had wonderful fellowship!  He shall remain unnamed, because I do not want to bring public shame to his ministry, but desire his recognition of his error, repentance and correction of an erring theology.  In fact, today in the Resurrection service, my wife and I were having a wonderful worship experience, and following the message wonderfully, until right at the end.  Now the reason this concerns me so, is that pastors are called to be God’s spokesmen in this age, much as Moses was to the Jews.  So there is a much higher accountability before God, whose ways and Word they are claiming to teach.

It is well said in church that you can’t understand the good news, until you know the bad news (and just how bad the bad news really is, I mean, BAD!!!).  He did a wonderful job setting out how sinful we are as people, and that all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), that all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before  just and holy God (Isaiah 64:6).  All of this is right on, and completely Biblical.  In fact, there were more scriptures used, but from lack of recall I list these examples.

All was great, but then, bringing the sermon to close, trying to really “bring it home,” trying to really “clinch the audience,” he shifted, and in his sincere efforts, he made God look weak and responsive, and even dependent on us humans.  That’s where the sermon crashed.

So let me state a few things to make sure we all have a Biblical understanding of the Gospel, (the good news) as taught in the Bible.  God is not weak.  He is not dependent on us, nor does he need us.  God created human beings as a way to manifest His glory and increase the glory of His perfection and praise.  Saying that God is omniscient means that God knows all things.  God created a race of beings that he knew would turn against Him and hate Him and reject all His commands, and try to take His place over them.  He knew that they would through their sin and rejection, earn a just sentence of eternal punishment (2 Thessalonians 1:9 says ‘destruction’ ).  But the Bible tells us that Christ was crucified from before the foundation of the world.  His ‘tabernacling among us,’ and his death on the cross were NOT a ‘plan B’ or ‘plan C’ that God fretfully came up with, wringing His hands as humanity continued to reject Him and break His covenant love and His righteous commands!  God FOREKNEW from before the creation of the world!  This was God’s plan.  God knew that humanity would rebel against Him, and that everyone of us, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Southern Baptist, would fall short of His righteous ways, and that we would create religions, and we would put on a face of righteousness, while justifying out sinful behavior.

But scripture teaches that God always leaves Himself a remnant of humanity.  You see, our creation was and is a manifestation of God’s overflowing goodness and love for and to Himself.  The way my theology professor, Dr. Russ Moore put it, “All of creation is a gift, from God the Father to His Son.”  The tiny little sparrows flitting about on the tree branches, is a gift from the Father to Jesus His Son.

But as God knew, all humanity has rebelled against God’s holiness.  But in His love, God foreordained, before the creation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6), a group of people, from every nation, tribe and language, predestined for salvation.  “In love  ⁵ He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the ²kind intention of His will,  ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” Ephesians 1:4-6.

And so today at church, at the close of the message, people were invited to “accept” the good news.  The pastor showed a verse on the screen that was right on.  The verse is Mark 1:15  ¹⁵  and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."  But see, here’s the trick, no where are we asked or pleaded with to “receive” or “accept” the gospel.  The Bible already tells us that there is no one who seeks God (Rom. 3;11), and that of our own power, we do not want to, nor are we even able to obey God’s commands (Rom. 8:7-8).

That is why churches today are weak and apathetic, because pastors, whose sermons are seething in Arminiansism, plead and beg with their people to “accept” and “believe” the gospel, and then they get frustrated when no one responds.  Who wants to follow a God who can’t make a people obey Him?  What kind of God is that?  Certainly not omniscient!  Who wants to follow a weak, worried God that is always responding to the whims of man, and enacting ‘plan B’ and ‘plan C’ to get things right?  Not me.

Here is the God I want to follow (although it’s only by His grace and not of myself in any way Eph. 2:8,9):

·         One who takes wretched, foul, broken sinners, and in a gift of love and grace, applies the satisfaction of His only Son’s passion and sacrifice to my account (Rom. 5:8, 2 Cor. 5:21). 

·         A God who is in complete control of all things, and directs the path of humanity, even in their wickedness, according to His will (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:22-23, 11:36). 

·         I want to follow a God who raises up evil wicked men, to show His power and greatness over them, and to show just empty their threats of grandeur and greatness really are.  I want Him to show them for what they really, false prophets, who promise people freedom, while all the while being slaves of carnal desires and lusts themselves, only further enslaving those who follow them (2 Peter 2:1-19).

And this is what God does!  According to God, Men cannot and do not want to follow God!  Even us who are born again into new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), can sometimes fall back into sin, for a brief period.  But it is quickly followed by open confession, repentance and making amends for the wrongs committed during the sin.  John 3:19-21  ¹⁹ "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  ²⁰ "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  ²¹ "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

  So no more teaching that we can “accept” the gospel!  What really happens, is that through the teaching and preaching of the good news, the Gospel, that God has foreordained from the creation of the world, some to eternal life.  And they will be convicted of their sins, and respond to the effectual calling upon their life.  Jesus said,  ¹⁶ "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.  John 10:16  Jesus laid down His life for His sheep.  But there are those whom God raises up for destruction, to manifest the riches of His grace and mercy on the objects of His kindness… for none of us deserve it!  Romans 9:21-24  ²¹ Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel ¹for honorable use and another ²for common use?  ^{22 1}What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?  ²³ And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,  ²⁴ even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

So if you have had the patience to read through this, and you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, God commands you right now, Mark 1:15  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

Praise be to Yahweh!