You can listen to this message here: https://youtu.be/cpsAwqAhiGc
My
primary texts today come from Romans 6:23 and 8:1. “For the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God is eternal life IN Christ Jesus.” And – “Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus.”
Before
I get too deeply into today’s message, it is necessary to pause a moment or two
and focus on an important preposition the apostle uses in these two texts. It
is the preposition, ‘in’ – because eternal life is a free gift of God ONLY to
those who are IN Christ. Why? Because we are His adopted children through
Calvary’s cross.
And
God promises to never condemn those who are IN Christ. Why? Because He said so.
However, to be IN Christ begs two questions – what does it mean to be IN
Christ? And how does one get IN Christ?
To
answer the first question – what it means to be IN Christ, let’s let Scripture
clarify Scripture. Here is Jesus in John 15:4-6 –
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you
abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides
in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do
nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he
is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast
them into the fire and they are burned.”
The key word in this
text is ‘abide.’ Whether in the original Greek, or in our English translations,
the word means to “actively remain with, to actively dwell with.” The word
‘perseverance’ comes to my mind when I think of actively staying with or
remaining with Christ.
Paul is a good example
of such perseverance. Listen to what he wrote to the Christians at Corinth: “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned,
three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I
have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from
robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles,
dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea,
dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and
hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst,
often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external
things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the
churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into
sin without my intense concern? (2 Corinthians
11:24-29)
This
text is not one that anyone should quickly gloss over. Paul LIVED what the word
‘abide’ meant. He lived what it means to be IN Christ.
Along
those lines of what it means to abide in Christ, listen to what the Lord Jesus
said to His disciples in Luke’s gospel: “You are those
who have stood by Me in My trials; (Luke 22:28).
I think it does
absolutely no harm to that Scripture if I alter one word in what He said to His
disciples, AND to what He says to us in 2021: “You are those who have stood
by Me in YOUR trials.” I’ve talked
about this very thing in the past, and I purposely do so again – for your
encouragement.
Think for a moment of the
emotional and physical traumas you’ve faced in life, and through which you have
persevered. Those trials are not anything to be glossed over, are they? They
represent your life blood, sweat, and tears.
But through it all and
after it all, Jesus says to you: “You are those who have stood by Me in YOUR
trials.” You could have given up. You could have walked away. But you didn’t –
and even if you did at one time walk away – you have returned, haven’t you?
AND THAT’S what it means
to be IN Christ. To actively continue with Christ. Which brings us to then to that
second question: How do we get to be IN Christ in the first place?
For this, let’s turn to
only two Bible passages, The first is from Psalm 51:1-4 “Be gracious to me, O
God, according to Your loving-kindness; According to the greatness of Your
compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my
sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what
is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You
speak and blameless when You judge.”
And
here is that second text that helps answer the question, how do we get to be in
Christ. It’s from Luke 18:10-14
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the
other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to
himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast
twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was
even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast,
saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I
tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be
exalted.”
So,
how does one get to be IN Christ? The answer to that question is not at all
complicated. God purposely made it easy enough for a child to understand.
First,
admit to God you are a sinner. Admittedly, that’s easier for a child to do than
an adult. We have had so much more time to clothe ourselves with pride that it
has become for many of us like a second skin. But admitting to God that we are
sinners deserving of eternal hell is a prerequisite step to finally
being IN Christ.
After
telling God you deserve hell, then you simply ask Him who loves you very much,
you ask for His forgiveness – and you promise Him and yourself
that you will live your life from then on in obedience to His commandments.
That’s
how we all get IN Christ in the first place.
So,
let’s return to that first of today’s texts in Romans: “The wages of sin is
death . . . ”
Paul
is not speaking here only of physical death when he speaks sin’s payday. He is
speaking also and more ominously of eternal death. A death that is – as
Scripture teaches – an endless torment in the Lake of Fire.
For
the sake of time, we will not turn to more than a passage or two regarding the
endless torment of eternal death. You’ve read the Bible often enough in your
lifetimes that you know what God has told us about the final judgment.
But to
hear the false teachers talk today about hell, you might think Jesus was wrong
when He warned us of the eternal flames. False teachers might wear religious
garb and parade in their academic degrees and church-assigned titles – but they
are nothing more than Satan’s workers dressed as God’s children.
Truth
is, Jesus spoke more about hell than He did about heaven. For example, Matthew
18:8-9) “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and
throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame,
than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If
your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is
better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be
cast into the fiery hell. (Matthew 18:8-9)
Or
Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the
vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the
idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning
sulfur. This is the second death.”
Listen – if Jesus and
the New Testament writers were wrong about an eternal hell – then can we
believe what they wrote about an eternal heaven?
Those
who tell us hell does not exist to the dying words of some of the infamous
atheists who tell a very different story than those false teachers, shepherds,
and pastors.
For example, Voltaire, that infamous
anti-Christ atheist of the mid-eighteenth century, said on his deathbed: “I
have swallowed nothing but smoke. I have intoxicated myself with the incense
that turned my head. I am abandoned by God and man. I shall die and go to
hell!” His nurse said: “For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to
see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.”
Sir Francis Newport, the one-time
head of an English Atheist club, said to those gathered around his deathbed: “You
need not tell me there is no God, for I know there is one, and that I am in his
presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already
slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know
I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! . . .
Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever! Oh, the insufferable pangs of
Hell!”
Christian, when it comes down to it – who will you
believe about heaven and hell and the final judgment? Will you believe God’s
inerrant, infallible, and eternal word, or will you believe the musings of
Satan’s children dressed in clerical garb who twist God’s word to their own
benefit?
But now let’s move quickly to the second part of
Romans 6:23: The wages of sin is death – But God’s free gift of eternal life is
given to all who are IN Christ. And I think it good that we look at this clause
with what the apostle wrote in the first verse of chapter 8: “Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus.”
The reason Paul writes that the true Christian will
never face God’s condemnation at the final judgment is BECAUSE of God’s promise
in 6:23 – the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. We do NOTHING
to earn our salvation. It is a FREE gift of God.
So, if we are IN Christ Jesus, we WILL
escape God’s condemnation. Again, it really is so simple a child can understand
the concept. That’s why Paul would write to the Christians in Corinth: “The
sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the
law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
And just as there are those who tell us there is no
hell – or that if there is a hell, it is empty because a loving God will not
consign any soul to an eternal lake of fire – just as there are those who vomit
such slippery lies, in the same way there are ALSO those who tell the Christian
he or she can have no ASSURANCE of heaven until we die and stand before the
Judgment seat.
It ought to make our blood boil to hear such
unbiblical drivel like that. If the Christian cannot have an assurance of heaven, then why did Jesus
tell a grieving Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live
even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in
Me will never die.”
If the
Christian cannot have an assurance of heaven, then why did Jesus tell us, “For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall
not perish, but have eternal life”? (John 3:16)
If
the Christian cannot have an assurance of heaven, then why did the Holy Spirit move the apostle John to
assure us: “These things I have written to you who believe in the
name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1
John 5:13)?
Earlier in this message I
read the last words of some famous – or rather, infamous –atheists. I did so to
demonstrate that those who try to deceive us into believe hell does not exist
are liars. Those atheists I quoted had lived their lives believing and teaching
a deadly demonic deception. And for them, all was lost.
But now let me read to
you the last words of Christians who, from their deathbeds, still have much to
teach us regarding eternal life for those who are IN Christ.
For example, Elizabeth Catez, known as St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, died
at the age of 26. She went to her Lord murmuring a soft chant: “I am going to the
light, to love, to life!’ They were her last intelligible words.”
When
Christian pastor John Inskip's lay on his deathbed, he pulled his wife close,
took her hands in his and raised them up together. With a countenance beaming
with delight, he shouted, "Victory! Triumph! Triumph." These were his
last words on earth.
St. Teresa of Ávila’s last
words were these: “My
Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may Your will be done. O my Lord and my
Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time for us to meet one
another.”
Dwight
L. Moody, famous preacher and founder of the Moody Bible Institute, said on his
deathbed: “Can this be death? Why it is better than living! Earth is
receding, heaven is opening. This is my coronation day”
Mother Theresa of
Calcutta said these words before she passed: “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love
you.”
St Catherine of Sienna “Blood!
Blood! Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Augustus Toplady, author of the
hymn, “Rock of Ages,” told those surrounding his death bed: “Oh, what delights!
Who can fathom the joy of the third heaven? The sky is clear, there is no
cloud; come Lord Jesus, come quickly!” Then he closed his eyes and died.
When I visited my friend and early
mentor, Dan Taub, as he lay dying from liver cancer, Dan placed his hand on
mine and quoted St. Paul’s last words to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the
future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to
me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
And
finally, you can tell those who tell us the faithful Christian cannot be sure
of heaven, tell them of the 96-year-old Christian who died of a stroke on June 11, 2021. As she
lay on the floor dying, she called her daughter to tell her what had happened.
Then she told her daughter to not call the ambulance. He last words were: ‘I’m
going to finally be with my Lord.” And she fell asleep.
Christian, listen once
more to the word of God: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life IN Christ Jesus.”
Please
note, the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write the free gift of God is – not
might be – but the free gift IS eternal life for those who are IN Christ Jesus.
And
then Paul also wrote a chapter and a half later – “Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus.”
Please
note again, the Holy Spirit moved Paul to assure all God’s children that there
IS NO CONDEMNATION – not that there might not be be condemnation – but
that there IS NO CONDEMNATION for those who are IN Christ Jesus.
Are
you IN Christ Jesus? Have you confessed to God your sins? Do you do so as often
as you sin? Have you repented of those sins – turned from them to the best of
your frail human abilities? Have you asked God to forgive you as often as you
sin? And are you following Jesus in faithful obedience?
If
you answer yes to all those questions, then God assures you – God assures you –
you ARE IN Christ Jesus. That means, you will NOT face condemnation at the
Judgement, and it means that you HAVE – right now – eternal life.
It
doesn’t get any more clear or more glorious than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment