The last enemy that
will be destroyed is death.
For "He has put
all things under His feet."
But when He says
"all things are put under Him,"
it is evident that He who put all things
under Him is
excepted.
Now when all things
are made subject to Him,
the Son Himself will
also be subject to Him
who put all things
under Him,
that God a all in
all.
1 Corinthians 15: 26
-- 28
Death is
the result of sin, and that the results came upon man by the failure of
Adam. Yes, Eve sinned when she listened
to the serpent and took of the forbidden fruit, albeit she was deceived, she
did know what she was doing was wrong.
Adam failed in a major way for he did not believe in God to the point
where he would do nothing more than that which God had commanded him to do or
to not to do. It was Adam's failure,
his sin, that separated man from God so that the spirit of man no longer
desired the Spirit of God. Man then
could do nothing more than that which was and is evil in the sight of God. As hard as a man may try, as many antics
and gyrations they may do in some attempt to worship God, none can save them,
and nothing can remove this pain and infection caused by Adam which is
death. For man to be saved, there must
be a Savior, One who could redeem them and that One could not be an angel, as
some teach that Jesus was and is, another being and not God Himself. The Redeemer must be fully man but One who
does not have the stain of sin caused by Adam's failure toward God as Creator. This Redeemer must die but not due to the cause
of sin rather to die as a person who has not sinned. By such a death then the debt owed to God, a just and Holy God
would be satisfied and then the debt paid by the death of Jesus Christ the one
sent by God to do exactly that, to die a sinless Man, the debt is paid. Jesus Christ not only died upon cross paying that debt and is our
Mediator, He is our High Priest who makes intercession for the children of God,
and intercession that never needs repeated for His intercession is complete, a
finished work. Jesus Christ is also our
Ruler, our King, and as the King, He reigns over all, even all His enemies
(verse 25). All of the enemies of Jesus
Christ will be destroyed and when complete even death will be destroyed. All of God's children will no longer be held
in the throes of death. All who have
been chosen to be one of His children are now close in immortality: "For this corruptible most put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on
incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in
victory." "O Death, where is
your sting? O Hades, where is your
victory?" (1 Corinthians 15: 53 --
55). The Greek word is Hades, and
not Gehenna, the place where all evildoers will be thrown into, the lake of
fire, to remain there for ever and ever on the day that we all give an account
for our lives. Hades does not hold mankind any longer. Death, that which we all must face, that grave that we will all
reside in upon our death, that sting now destroyed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is for forever. Yes, we must wait until He comes again to bring His children to heaven with Him, but it is finished. The fear that should bring us to shudder, to
raise the hair on the back of our neck, is the fact that there is a Gehenna,
not that the child of God has to fear of being thrown into it, no, but to drive
us to desire to seek the most excellent way.
And, that way is the way of love.
It is this love, Agape, that should be driving us to be all that God has
called us to be, a witness for Him, and Ambassador for Jesus Christ, and to go
about our lives seeking those that are of God's children and need to convert
their lives completely over to Him.
Yes, some are called to do this in a full time position; i.e.,
missionaries, pastors, teachers, and others.
But this does not remove this fact that we are all His witness and
Ambassadors. Our King who reigns over
all of His enemies, also reigns over all of His children. Whatever our circumstances, whatever also is
our secular work, to be a good mother and father, to teach our children all
about Jesus Christ and how to live their lives in conformance to His commands.
All of this does not deter us to be the one who spreads the Gospel. Our priority is not our success. Our priority is Jesus Christ and our
conforming into His image. When our
priorities are not in the correct order then we do as a Corinthian church seem
to be doing as well, though saying that they thought were worshiping God and
being Christian when in fact all was in contradiction to God. We must examine our lives, and this
examination should drive us to conform to the image of Jesus Christ will One
who has given to all of His children, those given to Him by the Father, eternal
immortality. What more could a person
want? Does this not give us impetus and
to drive us to serve Him? Jesus Christ,
our Savior, our Mediator, our King and Priest, upon the completion of His work
for which He was sent does not separate Him from God the Father. No, for when all is done subjects Himself to
God the Father so that God is all in all.
Should we not now, as a child of God, subject ourselves to our King, our
Priest, our Mediator, our Redeemer, and our Savior? The first step for all of God's children is to convert, not just
decide, to convert and be obedient and allow God to handle all of our
circumstances. We must as a child of
God be reading His word, and we must ensure that were not reading some
paraphrase, some devotional type of Bible, though we need to be reading the
Bible that has the foundation built upon the manuscripts and then correctly and
rightly translated into our language.
There are far committing so-called Bibles that do not meet this
criteria. Like a computer, garbage in:
garbage out. Error begets error! Read His word and pray so that you will come
to a faith that supersedes all things.
And these words which I command you today
shall be in
your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children,
and shall
talk of them wind use it in your house,
when you walk by the way, when you lie down,
and when
you rise up.
Deuteronomy
6: 6 -- 7
What joy has the child of God
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