Could Have Been

"Can they curse you to your face and you speak the words of the Holy Spirit instead of your emotions?"

THERE IS AN END TO THE WICKED which they cannot see, and we who can see it, through Christ, tend to wish for it to fall upon them so that, at least, they are out of the way. But for this reason, to save those who are lost, Jesus came and died. For this reason, the Spirit of God raised Him from the dead. To save men from wickedness, the Father sent His Son in the greatest act of love ever done. Without Christ’s salvation, we, who are rescued, would be like them. We are meant to feel what Christ feels, seeing their imminent destruction. So what does Jesus think of those self-inflated egos on earth that thumb their noses at godliness and morality?

Anger, or this is our response. We look for all the parts where Jesus “told them off” for their backtalk. We suck up words like “vipers” and “hypocrites” and use them to parade their sins across the main page, while we shake our heads and laugh or grimace. Doesn’t everyone need to know what they’re doing so that we can combat it? This is our argument. And the world should know what has been conceived in back alleys. The Father has promised that all which is done in secret shall be rewarded openly. This goes to good as well as evil. The darkness and the light are both alike to Him. It isn’t possible to hide sin from God. Read that twice. It isn’t possible for any man or woman to sin in any manner on any scale and God not know about it. What is possible is for that sin to be forgiven, and it is our job as God’s children, as the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 1:23), to pray for their redemption.

I’m sure that sat you down. “Why would I pray for someone that has done such great evil?” Well, why did anyone pray for you? “Did anyone pray?” you ask. Someone did, and it may have been someone you know or someone you don’t. We see a person of renown declare their salvation and applaud. We see someone of renown act out their deception and complain, openly criticize, even from the pulpit. I once heard a sermon specifically against a popular song that spoke solely of being happy, the purpose of the sermon to condemn the singer, who, just recently, I saw is a child of God.

Now, what do we do with that? What do we do with the one who isn’t part of God’s kingdom and finds flirting with the devil amusing? Declare it on social media? Chat about them with our friends? Or is someone’s eternal damnation more serious than that? Do we really want this person who Jesus died for to only wake up to the truth after they are dead?

In the story of the rich man and the poor man, both died, and the rich man went to Hades, the poor man to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man, finding himself in torments begged for the poor man to dip his fingertips in water and moisten his tongue. See the irony of that, that even after death he derided the poor man, being unwilling to accept more from him than the barest contact. Abraham’s reply to him was that there was a gulf between them, a great distance from the place of torment and the one of comfort, and it was impassable.

There is no rescue after death, save the final end of all evil things prophesied in Revelation. Those redeemed and washed in Jesus’ blood will receive their glorified bodies, their spirit and soul and body being fully engulfed with the presence of God. Here is great reward. For those who died without Christ, one day, death will be no more (Revelation 21:4). God’s mercy will put an end to all sin and suffering.

But think of what that one who died without Jesus could have been if he’d taken hold of God’s love for him. This question keeps my eyes focused and my heart centered. There is a reward for wickedness, and the penalty for all is based not on what they have done, how much they have sinned, nor the extent of their evil deeds, but only on the fact they did not accept Jesus Christ to live in their heart. Far be it for the church, the body of Christ, to look like anything else but Him.

God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to see that it might be saved. So we have wasted far too much time heaping it on the lost. That they are lost is why we were warned of persecution. Those who persecute Christian beliefs speak from the darkness within them. We who have the Light of the World need to shine it, a way of saying our prayers matter, our words toward those without God matter, our love walk matters. Can they curse you to your face and you speak the words of the Holy Spirit instead of your emotions? See Jesus in this question.

More than once, the Pharisees and scribes sent someone to trip Him up. It never worked because all of His answers came from the Father through the Spirit. His one act of aggression was to cleanse the temple of salesmen, something worth thinking about, yet He injured none of them. In contrast, when Peter cut off the servant, Malchus’, ear, Jesus healed the man, reattaching it. A Roman soldier seeing Him hung on the cross remarked, “Here is the Son of God.”

Stop using Jesus as an excuse to behave like the devil. Use the devil as a reason to behave like Jesus, who asked a tax collector to be His disciple, who forgave a woman caught sleeping with another man, who specifically sought out a woman who’d had five husbands. Who condemned sin in order to forgive it and defeated the devil so that we would have permanent authority over him, then sent us the Spirit of God to give us the power over the devil like He has. We do not fight against people but “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6;12).”

People, Jesus died to save, and because of it, our behavior demands something better of us.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

“Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:11)

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” (Colossians 3:12-13)

Image by DONGHWAN KIM from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com