After his resurrection, Jesus spoke to his disciples. "He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, 'This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things," (Luke 24:45-48).
What is the ultimate human condition? Created beautiful, but fallen into the ugliness of sin. We have "God-imaging" potential, but we have an inherent sinful nature such that what we most want, and what we worship is not God, but ourselves and anything else (sex, money, you-name-it). Here is the beauty of God's rescue plan - He came to rescue the very people who rebelled against Him.
He sacrificed His Son, Jesus, who then rose from the dead because He was sinless, in order to justly condemn sin and death. Now, through exchanging our sin for Jesus' righteousness by faith there is the way for us to be forgiven, to be justified, to be righteous in God's sight. Our response to His gift is to repent by turning from our sin and to trust in Jesus for salvation, and to submit to His rule both now and forever. The disciples, and us today, are promised to be indwelt by God's Holy Spirit to progressively remake us into Jesus' image so that we rightly represent Him to the world and prepare to live under His direct rule forever. This is the Good News that Jesus promised would be proclaimed everywhere. Who have you shared it with in obedience to Jesus' preaching on the message of the Bible? Ultimately, if we want to wish our friends and family Merry Christmas, then we ought to share the Gospel fervently with them. Merry Christmas.
No comments:
Post a Comment