Saying, "Father, if it is Your will,
take this cup away from Me;
nevertheless not My will, but Yours,
be done."
Then an angel Appeared to Him
from heaven, strengthening Him.
And being in agony, He prayed more
earnestly. Then His sweat became
like great drops of blood falling
down to the ground.
Luke 22:42-44
God sent to earth clothed in humanity His Wisdom to become the Son of God, the Son of Man to die as propitiation for sin: this Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. The view of Arius and of Jehovah Witnesses is that Jesus was a created being who is a god but not God and that is why Jesus prayed with great tears that this event He was to endure on the cross would pass from Him and that God would accomplish the removal of sin by some other means. Does this sound like you when enduring troubles? Oswald Chamber in his book; "My Utmost For His Highest" makes this important statement of fact: "Our Lord received Himself in the fire of sorrow, He was saved not from from the hour, but out of the hour." Sorrow, persecution, tribulations, are a fact of life; history records this fact and we are experiencing the fact of sorrows: some more than others. If we take God out of Jesus then all we have left is a man who like a man could sin and our salvation would not have been a surety by Jesus Christ, therefore God would be judged as being, at least in some way, impotent, unable to fulfill His purpose, that purpose being a people who are devoted to Him, and who live by His commandments that are only there for the good of man. As God He would then make salvation possible without any possibility for sin not to be atoned; but this He could not accomplish as only God, for it was man that sinned and it would take man to demolish sin and to demolish it so that it could never raise its ugly head again. God has a Spirit cannot be seen by man, but God has His wisdom, His Wisdom that created all that is, that removes the possibility that God, as a single God, not a trinity, created a creature to do the work of creation. For if God could create an angel, as the Jehovah Witness preach and teach, as did Arius, then why not God create all other things? Why assign creation to an angel? And if He created an angel that could not sin, then why did He not create man so that man could not sin? If God created an angle that could not sin, who would only do the Will of God, then that angel is nothing more than a robot who has no will of his own. Yet, for God to accomplish His purpose, that is to save all those whom He elected to salvation, and to judge all others for sin, a sin that they themselves cannot remove, He clothed His Wisdom in human flesh, to die as a propitiation for sin and to do so His Wisdom by taking on human flesh would have all the issues that man faces to be faced by Him. Therefore the cross, being a horrible death assigned to criminals, would be a thing of great sorrow and as man He would feel all the effects of the cross and be affected in pain and misery. But this is why He came, to do the will of the Father: "Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work'" (John 4:34). By God taking on humanity in every way as man, this He did by the clothing of His Wisdom, and by this means then God would afflict His vengeance on sin, and judge sin so that it would be removed forever, never to return. This is the Goodness of God, His mercy overriding His judgment, that He would save some as predetermined by Him, and to judge sin in man who without Him would never be able to be saved by his own efforts. God is calling, man refuses to hear; all the information is available for man to make the right choice; man will not heed the information: Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke" (Proverbs 1:23-25).
This is serious! Some may object and say that if some are going to the Lake of Fire anyway and some are going to be saved: what is the problem, God has it all under control and has no need of me. Really, then your understanding of God is all mixed up, and so is your understanding of the nature of man, and of evil, sin. God did not make us a robot, and uses the humanity of man in all of its humanity; that is man is free to choose, man can either live for God and enjoy the blessings of God, or man can choose to live as he may desire. This is true for non-Christians, and for those chosen by God. For a chosen, elected person to not choose to live for God as he should, then all the second causes of his decision will fall upon him, and he will go to heaven as he is elected to do so, but not without the stench of smoke on him: "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because the are spiritually discerned. but he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.... If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire" (1Corinthians 2:14-15; 3: 14-15).
We must come to grip with our true self, or true nature, our true condition, we are sinners and need a Savior. God must rescue us from ourselves. As fallen humans we must take seriously this condition and acknowledge that we do not have an adequate foundation on which to build Authentic Biblical Faith. We do not know the elected of God, therefore we preach the Gospel to everyone and to those who are elected they hear the Gospel and respond, and by means of His word the become sanctified in this life. We are of that sort, becoming sanctified and this we accomplish as we become devoted to God, to His provision for Salvation, Jesus Christ our Savior. Remember this: the cure for our sins is not forced upon us; it is offered to us. The question is will you respond positively for the Gospel or not? It will take an honest open approach will keep us from the conclusion that many have taken; that is to believe in the goodness of man so that he may choose salvation, and that evil was chosen by God from the beginning, not just decreed and that by God's Providence control the affects of evil, rather that evil can be overcome in this world so that man can become sinless in this life. This is denial of the truth of God's word and the conclusion from such denial is a theology that is blasphemy to God. Be away of your condition and grow spiritually, God has provided, His Word, His preachers of truth, and as He did for Jesus Christ He will provide His angels to keep watch over us and to lead us if we would just listen to them: "Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him" (Luke 22:43; cf. Matthew 4:11). Paul gives great encouragement: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). God, although invisible to our sight has given us, not a word of make disciples at all costs, even as some pagan religions teach that make disciples or kill those who will not believe, rather God through Paul wrote for man to read and by strengthen: "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present not things to come, not height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 8:37-39).
The heart of him who has
understanding seeks
knowledge, but the mouth
of fools feeds on foolishness.
Proverbs 15:14
Pray and Study His Word
Richard L. Crumb
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