Two Minutes With The Bible

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A Little Space of Grace
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord…” (Ezra 9:8.).

If you know anything about the history of Israel, it was a constant series of them sinning, God punishing them, them repenting, and then “a little space” of grace in between, such as this space that came after the punishment of the Babylonian captivity. Today, of course, we live in the dispensation of grace (Eph. 3:2), a time when God is dispensing grace unmixed with any periods of wrath. No matter what you do, you can’t make God punish you, whether you be saved or lost.

Of course, a believer who sins grieves God’s holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and may still suffer the natural consequences of sin. For example, a believer who ignores God’s prohibition against homosexuality (Lev. 18:22) may contract AIDS. However, this is not the wrath of God, this is just an example of reaping what you sow (Gal. 6:7), a principle that applies in every dispensation. If you want to know what God thinks of homosexuality, don’t look at a mealy-mouthed disease like AIDS, look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Then remember that it is true of all kinds of sins that “because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them” (Eph. 5:6,7). Just because you are saved and immune from the penalty of sin doesn’t mean you should engage in the kinds of sins for which God will punish unsaved men in Hell for all eternity.

If you are not saved, enjoy the dispensation of grace while it lasts, for you are going to be left behind when the Rapture brings an end to this dispensation. The Great Tribulation that will follow the Rapture will be the exact opposite of a dispensation characterized by grace not mixed with any periods of wrath, for it will be a time of wrath unmixed with any periods of grace. When that day comes you will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture…” (Rev. 14:10). As the uncut, unmixed, undiluted wrath of Almighty God is poured out, “in those days shall men seek death” (Rev. 9:6) because they will understand that even the slightest space of grace will then be out of the question to seek. Your only hope is to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” (Acts 16:31).

If you are thinking that you’ll wait and see if the Rapture really comes before believing on Christ in the Tribulation, think again, for God’s undiluted wrath will not convince you to believe as you might think it would. In John’s vision of that day,

    “…men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not…and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed…God…because of their pains…and repented not of their deeds” (Rev. 16:9-11).

Of course, these pains will be the least of your worries, for all who persist in unrepentant unbelief will be “tormented with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 14:10), “and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…” (Rev. 14:11).

The choice is yours: undiluted grace or undiluted wrath. “Christ died for your sins” and “rose again” (I Cor. 15:1-4). All He asks of you is to believe it, and rest in what He did for you on Calvary’s Cross.

[nChrist]

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What's Hiding Under that Cloak?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin” (John 15:22).

What on earth did the Lord mean here when He said that if He hadn’t come, the unbelieving Jews He had mentioned in the previous verse “had not sin”? Surely they had sinned, whether He had come or not!

To find out what He meant, we have to define a word that we don’t use very often, the word “cloke,” spelled cloak in our day and time. A cloak is a loose, sleeveless garment that is worn over other clothing, and about the only time that this writer hears the word even mentioned is when someone puts their coat in the cloakroom of a restaurant. If you can’t picture what a cloak would look like, but you can picture the mythical character Dracula, he is always depicted wearing a cloak.

Now the thing about a cloak is that you can easily conceal something under a loose, sleeveless garment, such as a dagger. This has given rise to the expression cloak and dagger, a figure of speech that refers to espionage. For this reason, when this word is used as a verb, to cloak something means to hide it. Star Trek fans will remember that Klingon and Romulan vessels were equipped with cloaking devices that made it so that you couldn’t see their ships coming. And no, I’m not a geek, I had to look that up!

All of this helps us understand what the Lord meant when He said that if He hadn’t come they would not have had sin. He didn’t say “they had not sin, then I came and now they have sin.” He rather said, “They had not sin, then I came and now they have no cloak for their sin.” In other words He was saying, “Now that I’ve come, they can’t hide their sin any more,” and I believe He had a specific sin in mind, an all-encompassing one that He mentions in the next verse.

    “He that hateth Me hateth My Father also” (John 15:23).

The comprehensive sin that these unbelievers were cloaking so successfully before the Lord came was hatred of the Father. Since the Law commanded the Jews to love the Father (Deut. 6:5), it was a sin to hate Him, and for centuries unbelieving Jews had cloaked their hatred for God with their religion, which provided the perfect cover. Practicing Judaism made it appear that unsaved Jews loved the Father, but as the Lord said of them: “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matt. 15:8 cf. Isa. 29:13).

If you are wondering how the Lord’s coming uncloaked their hatred of the Father, remember that He was God the Father in the flesh, and so when He showed up and they hated Him, it showed they hated the Father.

But notice in our text that it wasn’t just the Lord’s coming that uncloaked their sin. He said, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not sin” (v. 22). How did His words uncloak their hatred? Well, remember, His words were the Father’s words (John 3:34; 8:26; 12:49). So when the Lord spoke the words of the Father and they hated His words, they were actually hating the Father’s words!

If you are not convinced that this is what the Lord had in mind, consider what He went on to say:

    “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father” (John 15:24).

This sounds a lot like what He said in our text verse, but remember that there He said that His words uncloaked their hatred, while here He affirmed that His works uncloaked it, speaking of the miraculous works that He did among them. If you are wondering how His works uncloaked their hatred of the Father, remember He said that “the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works” (John 14:10). And so when the unbelievers in Israel ascribed His miraculous works to Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24), their hatred of His works were actually hatred for the Father’s works. That’s how the Lord’s words and works uncloaked their hatred of, as He says here, “both Me and My Father.”

All this reminds us of how if you are looking for a certain book on the internet, you will usually see advertising popup ads that say something like, “If you like this book, you might also like…,” and then go on to try to sell you some other books that are similar to the one for which you had been searching and found. Similarly, if you don’t like the Lord Jesus Christ, you don’t like God the Father. You might say that you do, as the adherents of many religions do, but you really don’t! Religions that claim to love God but reject His Son are nothing more than cloaks for hatred of the Father, and you have God’s Word on it!

[nChrist]

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Bible Test
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


A Bible test was sprung recently on five classes of college-bound 11th and 12th graders in an American public school.

Some thought Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers; that the Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luther and John; that Eve was created from an apple; and that the stories which Jesus told were called parodies.

Eighty to ninety percent of the students could not complete the most familiar quotations from Scripture.

The teacher, Thayer S. Warshaw, was understandably upset and rightly asked: “Is the student to study mythology and Shakespeare and not the Bible? Is it important for him to learn what it means when a man is called an Adonis or a Romeo, yet unimportant for him to be able to tell a Jonah from a Judas?”

This writer’s heart is with that teacher and all who are awake enough to see that the Bible is disappearing more and more from American life. How can we expect anything but juvenile delinquency, the rapid general rise in the crime rate, the growing divorce rate, increasing dishonesty at every level of business and social life — how can we expect anything but these conditions when the Bible is flaunted and despised? This departure from the Word of God is bound to get us deeper and deeper into trouble.

But whatever the conditions about you, you may have the joy and peace and light that comes from that Blessed Book. The Bible tells us frankly that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23) and that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23) since a just God must deal with sin. Ah, but it tells us also that “Christ died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3), and that the believer may have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”(Rom.5:1).

Read the Bible, especially the Epistles of Paul, who was raised up to proclaim “the gospel [good news] of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). You will never cease to thank God for having given your attention to this wonderful Book.

[nChrist]

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The Reign Of Grace
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


It is amazing that God should still send forth the good news of His grace in a world where His Word and will are increasingly despised.

The growing wickedness of “this present evil age,” of course, only emphasizes the true character of grace, for grace is the mercy and love of God toward those who do not deserve it (See Eph. 2:2-6).

It is interesting to observe that while the four “Gospels” and the Acts take up twice as much space in our Bibles as the Epistles of St. Paul, yet the word “grace,” in the original, appears only 27 times in the “Gospels” and the Acts, while it occurs 107 times in the Pauline epistles: a ratio of 27 to 214 in favor of the Pauline epistles! Furthermore, only a very few times in the “Gospels” and the Acts is the doctrine of grace referred to, while in the Epistles of Paul almost every reference has to do with the doctrine of God’s love and favor to undeserving sinners.

True, “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” but it was not manifested at His birth, or even during His earthly life, for He lived and died under the Law (Gal. 4:4,5). As “the law was given by Moses,” not at his birth, nor when a prince in Pharaoh’s court, nor yet when he served with his father-in-law in the desert, nor even when he returned to deliver Israel from Egypt, but years later at Sinai, so “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” not at His birth, nor during His earthly ministry, nor even during His resurrection appearances, but after His ascension to heaven, when He committed the dispensing of it to Paul (Eph. 3: 1-4).

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Two Sides Of One Coin
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (II Cor. 12:15).

The true man of God will faithfully serve the congregation which the Lord has entrusted to him without thought of reward. Like Paul, he will “gladly spend and be spent” for them even if his toil and sacrifice go unappreciated. Where the congregation is too small to support him fully he will cheerfully engage in enough secular work to supply the deficiency. This is as it should be for, in ministering to his people, he is serving God.

But there is another side to this coin, for Christian assemblies should appreciate the ministries of their pastors in their behalf. This is especially so where the minister gives himself unstintingly for his flock.

It is a sad fact that too many pastors are grossly underpaid. Most of the members of the congregation would not be willing to live on the low economic level on which they keep their pastor and his family living for years on end. He must be willing to sacrifice, but they must not be deprived of any of the luxuries to which they are accustomed. They do not realize how discouraging it can be for the pastor and his family to constantly have to do without, while the better- off members of the congregation hardly notice.

This is why the Apostle Paul reproved the niggardly Corinthians and declares: “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (I Cor. 9:14). And this, too, is why he wrote to the large-hearted Philippians:

    “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction ….Not that I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account” (Phil. 4:13-17).

Where true, Bible-believing pastors are concerned, let’s not be Corinthians; let’s be Philippians.

[nChrist]

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The Grace Of God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In the Bible, the grace of God is His loving favor toward fallen man. St. Paul has more to say about grace than any other Bible writer, opening every one of his epistles with the declaration: “Grace be unto you and peace.”

Little wonder, for he himself was God’s greatest demonstration of salvation by grace. In I Tim. 1:13,14, he says:

    “I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy… and THE GRACE OF OUR LORD WAS EXCEEDING ABUNDANT….”

After years of service and suffering for Christ, he declared:

    “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify THE GOSPEL [GOOD NEWS] OF THE GRACE OF GOD”(Acts 20:24).

Salvation is wholly by God’s grace, not partly by man’s works, for in Rom. 11:6 we read: “…if [it be] by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.”

And in Rom. 4:4,5: “…to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Thus salvation is “not of works” but “unto good works” (Eph. 2:8-10). Good works is the fruit, not the root.

“All have sinned,” says Rom. 3:23 but, thank God, all may be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

Thus it is God’s purpose “that in the ages to come He might show THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).

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Was Paul Saved Under the Kingdom Program?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “Was Paul saved under the kingdom program?”

No, Paul was “a blasphemer” (I Tim. 1:13) who, as a strict, Law-abiding Pharisee (Acts 26:5), would never blaspheme the Father, but was among those who blasphemed the Spirit when they stoned Stephen (Acts 7:51-8:1). This rendered him ineligible for salvation under the kingdom program, for the Lord had warned, “him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).

How then could God save Saul? Well, remember that the Lord had warned, “whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matt. 12:32). The nation of Israel blasphemed the Spirit in the world that the Lord spoke of as “this world” when they rejected Stephen, a man filled with the Spirit (Acts 7:55). “The world to come” is defined in Hebrews 2:5 as the kingdom, the “world” which God will “put in subjection” under Christ, where people will fully know “the powers of the world to come” (Heb. 6:5) that they only tasted at Pentecost.

Since blasphemy against the Spirit was unforgivable in both those worlds, we know Saul was saved under the program of a whole new world, the dispensation of grace, “this world” in which we live (Eph. 1:21), “this present world” in which we are to walk and please God (Titus 2:12).

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The Hour
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


History records many great and significant events, but none nearly so significant as the crucifixion of Christ on the cross of Calvary. Referring to the time, then still future, when this should take place, our Lord spoke again and again of “the hour,” “that hour” and “My hour,” and so does the sacred record.

When His enemies would have stoned Him at the Feast of Tabernacles, the record states merely: “they sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come” (John 7:30). Finally, when that dread time did arrive, we read:

    “And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him” (Luke 22:14).

    “And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.

    “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:23,24).

    “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say: Father save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this end,” (John 12:27).

    “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come… having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John 13:1).

Finally, in His great High-priestly prayer, uttered in the very shadow of the cross, He “lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come…” (John 17:1).

This is the hour to which many of the Old Testament sacrifices and prophecies had pointed forward. This is the hour to which the redeemed will look back with gratitude and praise for the ages to come. There would have been no salvation for sinners without it, nor any hope of a restored earth with the curse of sin removed. Thank God, because Christ was willing to face that dreadful hour “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

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The Supreme Importance Of God's Word To The Believer
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Bible will always have first place in the life of the spiritual Christian.

It is of utmost importance that we understand this, for some who feel themselves quite spiritual give much time to prayer, but little, if any, to the study of the Word. Such have actually fallen for the subtle trick of the adversary to play upon their natural human pride and cause them to exalt self and push God into the background.

In saying this we do not for one moment minimize the importance of prayer; we only stress the supreme importance of the holy Word of God. In this we are surely Scriptural, for David says, by inspiration:

    “For Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name” (Psa. 138:2).

Of those who would still object and place first emphasis upon prayer rather than upon the Word, we would ask one simple question: Which is the more important, what we have to say to God or what He has to say to us? There can be but one answer to this question, for obviously what God has to say to us is infinitely more important than anything we might have to say to Him. Our prayers are as fraught with failure as we are, but the Word of God is infallible, immutable and eternal.

Yet some, having fallen for one of Satan’s “devices” and feeling quite spiritual about it, are like the talkative person to whom one listens and listens, occasionally nodding his head, but receiving little or no opportunity to “get a word in edgewise.” They do all the talking, but give little time listening to what God has to say to them.

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The Rightness Of God
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


St. Paul’s great Epistle to the Romans has much to say about “the righteousness of God”; in fact, this is the theme of the Book of Romans. Sad to say, however, the Bible is so little read and studied of late that many people do not even know what the word “righteousness” means.

Actually, every man, woman and child should know about the righteousness of God — or, to simplify the word — the rightness of God. It is most important to understand that God does always and only that which is right. He can do nothing and will do nothing that is not right.

Thus God cannot and does not merely forgive sinners and smuggle them into heaven, for this would not be right. As Job 8:20 says, “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He help evil doers,” for neither would be right.

It was Bildad who said this to Job, and Job replied, almost exasperated: “I know it is so of a truth, but how shall a man be just with God?” (Job 9:2). In other words, how can a holy God look upon a sinner and pronounce him righteous? With this background let us consider Paul’s great declaration in Romans 1:16,17:

    “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth…. for therein is the righteousness [i.e., the rightness] of God revealed….”

True, the love of God is also revealed in the gospel, but what made Paul so proud to proclaim the gospel is the fact that it tells how God dealt “righteously,” or rightly, with sin, paying its just penalty Himself at Calvary so that He might offer salvation to all by free grace.

Thus the Apostle declares in Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death [this is its just penalty] but the [free] gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”

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That Explains It!
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


Did you ever wonder why nominal Christians give you grief when you insist that salvation is by grace through faith alone apart from any good works (Eph. 2:8,9)? The Apostle Paul understood the reason that men troubled him for proclaiming this message, and he came up with the perfect illustration to help the Galatians understand it. Speaking of the two sons of Abraham, he observed:

    “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now” (Gal. 4:29).

When we look up the passage that Paul is quoting here, we learn that Ishmael “persecuted” Isaac by “mocking” him (Gen. 21:9). And, if you know the story, you know why Ishmael was giving his younger brother grief. When Abraham got tired of waiting for God to give him the son He had promised, he took matters into his own hands and fathered a child by his wife’s servant, intending to make Ishmael the heir that God had promised (Gen. 17:18.). God rejected this notion (Gen. 17:20,21) and eventually gave Abraham the son that He promised through the miraculous birth that Abraham’s wife Sarah gave to Isaac.

Ishmael was thirteen years old (Gen. 17:25) when Isaac was weaned (21:8.), and based on his father’s assurance that he would be his heir, he had doubtless worked very hard to be worthy of his inheritance. Then suddenly there appeared this interloper, this young child Isaac, whom Sarah rightly declared would be her husband’s heir (Gen. 21:10), and God agreed (v. 12). That meant that after all Ishmael’s hard work his inheritance was now going to be just handed to this infant who hadn’t done a thing to earn it other than to be born the child of promise.

Now, if you can’t relate to the anger that Ishmael felt toward the newly-declared heir, I certainly can! When I was twelve, I asked my father to buy me a Schwinn Fastback Stingray bicycle. He informed me that I was old enough to work for the money that would be needed to make such an expensive purchase. He then reminded me that I could work as many hours as I wanted at his tool and die shop. To help me out, he graciously bumped my salary up to 50 cents an hour (he had started me out at 15 cents an hour!). But while I was working and saving for my $75 bike, my younger brother learned to ride a bike, and was given—a Stingray bicycle! I remember feeling angered that he had just been handed something for which I was having to work so long and hard!

That explains how Ishmael felt about Isaac, which in turn explains how professing Christians feel about those of us that champion the cause of salvation by grace through faith apart from works. Such “Christians” are angered at the notion that the salvation for which they themselves are working so long and so hard is being offered so freely to men and women who haven’t done a thing to earn it other than to be born again a child of God’s promise (Gal. 4:28.).

How should we respond to such religious animosity? Paul answers in the opening words of the very next chapter in Galatians: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (5:1)! It has never been easy to stand for the pure, unadulterated gospel of the grace of God, but as the old hymn of the faith expresses so very well, “it will be worth it all when we see Jesus”!

[nChrist]

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You Bet Your Sweet Bacon!
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


This morning as I was frying my breakfast bacon, I was thinking about all the Christians who pass on this tasty treat due to the Law’s prohibition. Despite Paul’s declaration that we are not under the Law (Rom. 6:15), and his assurance that “every creature of God is good” (I Tim. 4:4), these dear brethren remain convinced that “the swine…is unclean” (Lev. 11:7).

If this is your religious conviction, we would invite you to consider the reason God determined that pork was unclean. After God instructed Peter to eat some unclean animals (Acts 10:9-16), you would think that he would say: “God showed me that I should not call any animal unclean.” Instead, he testified that God had showed him “that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28.). You see, Peter understood that the only reason God made certain meats unclean was to teach Israel that certain people were unclean: the Gentiles.

    “…I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean…” (Lev. 20:24,25).

We know that those who hold that pork is still unclean would never say that any people are still unclean, and so we invite all who hold this view to recognize the symbolism that Peter understood and acknowledged, and rejoice with us that in the dispensation of God’s grace there are no foods—or people—that are unclean in God’s sight.

[nChrist]

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Ashamed
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Some time ago, we noticed in the fly-leaf of a young man’s Bible, a list of autographs of “great” preachers.  At the top of the page, one had been scratched out with a penknife.  Our curiosity aroused, we asked him what had happened.

“That was Pastor J. C. O’Hair’s signature,” he answered.

“And you scratched it out!”

“Yes,” he replied, “these other men would never sign with his name there!”

This young man’s heart had once been thrilled with the gospel of the grace of God and the truth of the mystery, but before a few “great” preachers, he had become ashamed of the one whom God had used to open these truths to him.

Popular opinion!  What a powerful enemy to the truth!

Little wonder that some faint-hearted Christians should be ashamed of those who boldly proclaim the mystery when we realize there was danger that even godly young Timothy might be ashamed of Paul!  Let us who mean to be faithful, however, remember that the words of Paul to Timothy are also the Word of God to us:

    “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God” (II Tim. 1:8.).

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It's All In the Bible
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


We couldn’t help hearing it! This woman had a voice that could be heard at considerable distance and we distinctly heard her say: “I doped it all out from the Bible.”

“Well, at least somebody’s interested in the Bible,” we said to each other.

But as she prattled on it turned out that she had used the records in an old family Bible to establish her claim to part of an estate. These records, introduced in court, had won the case for her.

There was, after all, no indication that she was interested in the Bible — only in those pages between the Old and New Testaments which, in some editions of the Bible, are kept for family records.

Actually she was no different from the masses about us who go about from day to day interested only in the things of this life and ignoring almost completely the things that really matter: God, heaven, hell and their own eternal destiny.

If these people only knew what treasures are to be found in the Bible! Among these are “riches of mercy” (Eph. 2:4), “riches of grace” (Eph. 1:7), “riches of glory” (Phil. 4:19), “riches of wisdom and knowledge” (Rom. 11:33), “the riches of the full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2), “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8.). And the best part of it is that anyone may have these riches simply for the asking:

    “For there is no difference… for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him,

    “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:12,13).

[nChrist]

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The Cross of Christ
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Perhaps you are reading these lines but do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We want you to know that life begins at Calvary! To illustrate consider for a moment the vertical beam of the Cross. It represents the way through which the broken relationship between God and the sinner can be restored. The way is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

In your heart of hearts you know that you are not right with God. Sin has separated you from the Holy One of Heaven and has made a mess of your life! It’s left you living in fear of death and the judgment to come. I know, I’ve been there! Salvation is not found in what you can do to make yourself acceptable to God, but what He has already done for you at Calvary.

The only way to restore your broken relationship with God is to believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (I Cor. 15:3,4). As the song says, “When He was on the Cross, you were on His mind.” The moment you place your faith in Christ’s finished work, you will be forgiven of all your sins: past, present, and future. Keep in mind, too, that the day Christ died all of your sins were yet future.

Nothing in this life is free, someone paid for it! This is also true of God’s provision of salvation; Christ paid for it with His precious blood. Today, God is offering salvation as a free gift to all who place their trust in His Son. When you believe the gospel, the burden of your sins will be lifted. You will for the first time in your life experience “peace with God” through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). Once this relationship is established, it is permanent because you are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the redemption of the purchased possession (Eph. 1:13,14).

We might liken the horizontal beam of the Cross to our relationship with those around us. Our lives touch the lives of others. God has believers in every walk of life so that those who are still outside of Christ might have the opportunity to hear the good news. This horizontal beam also represents the importance of reaching out to our brothers and sisters in Christ who have yet to see the revelation of the Mystery (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:8,9), which raises an important question: when was the last time you shared Paul’s gospel with a Christian friend?