WISDOM

Dear Friends -

When Christ said that He came to give us life, we already had life, didn’t we?  Well, mortal life anyway, as we were bound by the Original Sin of Adam and Eve to eternal death if Jesus hadn’t come to redeem that sin. As our Savior, Christ’s death on the cross was the one-time sacrifice God The Father required to pay sin’s debt, which opened the Heavenly gates to immortality... life more abundantly.  Sin is an offense against God that He can’t overlook or ignore, so He generously mandated reparation to give humankind another chance.  Sin happens every day, but a real crucifixion every day is not required for redemption; a professed belief in Christ’s single sacrifice, uttered at the time of Christian Baptism opens the door for sinners, to repent and gain absolution.  Nonbelievers, who are never Baptized to profess faith in Him, are not redeemed and thus do not gain heavenly immortality; these sinners do not escape debt for their sins but spend eternity in hell making that reparation.  Our redemption was not Christ’s only objective for coming to earth, He knew once we were freed, we would require knowledge to elevate us to spiritual life far removed from material existence, and so His teaching ministry was a must.  While redemption and education were important reasons for His heavenly descent, I feel His prime objective was to make God The Father known... the invisible became visible.  The reality of God was certainly acknowledged in the pages of the Old Testament, but, The Son brought The Father with Him to show Him off as only The Son could do.

In the New Testament we find Christ repeating in one form or another, “The Father and I are one,” (John 10:30) “Who has seen Me, has seen The Father,” (John 14:9)  “I can do nothing by Myself,” (John 5:19) only to continually emphasize a personal relationship with God is possible, desirous, and absolutely necessary if you want to be His child, and not live material existence alone. Imagine, Almighty God, The Creator of all life and The Supreme Being without equal wants to be your Father, to love you and care for you and provide for all your needs... to give you life abundantly... if you simply ask!  Only prideful ignorant fools would turn down the offer for the best life possible, but to those who learn, believe, and profess “Jesus is The Way, The, Truth and The Life,” they become heir to all that God has including immortality. Christ was speaking primarily to uneducated peasant people, and His crystal-clear language and picturesque wisdom left them spellbound and always wanting more, particularly the miracles.  The cures Christ demonstrated were not simply one-time events, but symbolic examples of what He and The Father could and would do to this very day.  They are always clearing the spiritual blindness in those whose vision is incapable of seeing His truths; eradicating the cancerous leprosy of evil vice eroding the sinner’s soul; restoring life to those committed to unbelief and thus dead and bound for hell eternal, and so much more all to give us spiritual life, the only existence that can live life abundantly with God’s help.

If you still think you can live only a natural life devoid of any Godly influence, then I would suggest on Good Friday you look at the crucified being of Jesus Christ and ponder why would He knowingly undergo such extreme torture and death for nothing.  Realize then, it can only be the tremendous immeasurable Love of God The Father and Son that couldn’t tolerate leaving us to sins’ death, and therefore took the measures necessary to return us to abundantlife as promised in The Garden of Eden, the ideal Paradise.  It is provable that Christ came to earth, redeemed us of sin, educated us to the Truths of Almighty God, and He showed us in words and deeds the unbounded love and power of He and The Father... there is nothing more abundant than heavenly immortality... don’t remain a sinful fool, but celebrate His resurrection this Easter, and yours as well!