When Max Solbrekken is asked, "Who are you?' He says, "I am a Soldier of the Cross, an Ambassador of the Kingdom of God, a humble servant of Jesus Christ! He is my Lord, Saviour, and my soon Coming King! To God be the glory And honour forever and ever. Amen.
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but
to preach the Gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the CROSS OF CHRIST should be made of none effect. For the PREACHING
OF THE CROSS is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. But we preach
CHRIST CRUCIFIED, unto the Jews a
stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor. 1: 17, 18, 23, 24)
For many years, the Christian Church has
presented the claims of Jesus Christ to be able to save lost souls, heal the
sick and liberate the suffering and wounded granting Eternal Life, on the basis
of His shed blood, vicarious death and glorious resurrection.
With gusto and great fervour, saints of
God have preached the Word and written songs, proclaiming the power of the shed
blood of Jesus Christ to break every fetter and to set the captives free.
Hallelujah!
In his book, ‘The Cruciality of the Cross’ Dr. Henry Mabie writes: “The
Greek word used by Paul in 1 Cor.1: 18, is Logos...” not preaching but “the
subject matter of preaching; with the very essence of that which was to be
preached; with the Logos of the Cross, which constituted a rationale, it’s
Divine reason, a reason which…he declares to be the wisdom of God. This ‘Logos
of the Cross’ is conceived by Paul to be the key which unlocks the riddle of the
universe, solves all mysteries and reconciles all things.”
A SUBJECT MATTER SO MAGNANIMOUS!
The sacrificial death of the incarnated
(God in human flesh) Son of God to redeem the world, is a subject matter so
powerful, so magnanimous and so incomprehensible that mortal man can only stand
in holy awe at its immensity, enormity and grandiose love that we are left
speechless!
The blood of Jesus Christ which He freely
gave for sinful, rebellious and hell-bound, guilty sinners, purges our
consciences from all guilt, delivers us from the power of sin and liberates us
from Satan and his evil kingdom, for time and eternity!
And as Dr. Henry Mabie states: “This Logos of the Cross is conceived by
Paul to be the key which unlocks the riddle of the universe, solves all
mysteries and reconciles all things.”
I agree one hundred per cent with that analysis and
commentary - which is the greatest I have ever heard - but still doesn’t even
begin to cover the eternal consequences of the incarnation, passion, death and
resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and God!
St. Paul came closer when He wrote: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love Him.” (1 Cor.2: 9)
How helpless we are without His
indwelling presence and yet how strong when He is moving within us by His
awesome power. How amazing that the God of Heaven and Ruler of the Universe
would deign to identify Himself with mere earthlings and to dwell within us.
It has been said that truth
is stranger than fiction. It is difficult to
understand why so many have been blinded by Satan and coerced into rejecting
Jesus Christ, Who gives Eternal Life freely to all who humble themselves and
receive Him as Lord and Saviour!
That men and women endowed
with a free will would choose to follow a murderous Liar, manipulating Deceiver
and the despicable Enemy of God down the broad road that leads to perdition and
Hell is an enigma of the very worst kind! How is it possible that thinking
individuals made in the image of God, could become so deceived?
GOD'S ABSOLUTE
INTEGRITY!
And yet, Almighty God in His
absolute integrity and fairness and knowing the wickedness and cunning of the
defrocked and fallen Lucifer, still created our first parents Adam and Eve and
placed them in Eden's Garden with a free will to follow good and reject evil!
After their disastrous fall by
committing high treason against their Creator and God, the love of our Heavenly
Father drove them out of Eden so they would not partake of the fruit on the
Tree of Life and live forever in their sins!
In His great mercy, God made
a way of escape from their sins and the snare of the Devil, through the
sacrificial system which pointed to Christ. In passing judgement on the serpent
as an accomplice of Satan, He laid out His great plan of salvation which had
been hidden in His heart from before the foundation of the world.
He said: "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her SEED
(Christ); It shall bruise (crush) thy head, and thou bruise His heel."
(Gen 3:15)
This is what we call in
theology, the 'Law of the First Mention'! The first mention is of the Deliverer
Whom God would send to crush Satan's head. The second is the Virgin
Birth of the Deliverer. He is called the SEED of
the woman! God's only begotten Son would be incarnated (God in human flesh) to
emancipate Adam's fallen race through the sacrifice of Himself, to meet the
demands of divine justice in payment for our sins!
How could anyone with a
natural mind, if not inspired by the Holy Spirit, be able to digest these
amazing truths? The Bible clearly states: “But the natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor.2: 14)
There is a vast difference
between the carnal and the spiritual man. And because we have not allowed the
Liar any place in us, we can truthfully and boldly declare that God is
omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (everywhere
present at once).
We know that God's Word is
incomprehensible (unknowable) and that Jesus Christ is TRUE GOD from eternity
and TRUE MAN through His incarnation (born of a virgin) and the Only Saviour of
the world.
A
NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST JESUS!
St. Paul was not a believer in Jesus
Christ at first. He was a blatant blasphemer, injurious and a hater of
believers in Christ. That all changed when he met JESUS on the Damascus Road.
(Acts 9, 22 and 26).
He stated: "Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things
are become new. And all things are of God, Who hath RECONCILED us to
Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
"That is, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are
AMBASSADORS for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Cor.5:17-20)
Again he stated:
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes
of this world knew for had they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of Glory." (1 Cor. 2: 7, 8)
Here is the real reason so
many reject the Saviour Jesus Christ: "For God so loved the world, that
He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life.
"For God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not
is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God.
"And this is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hates
the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in
God." (John 3: 16-21)
THE CASE FOR CHRIST OUR
LORD!
Loudly and triumphantly, I
make the case for Christ! There is no-one like Him. He is the One and Only
Saviour of the world. He is the Great Physician Who heals us from all our
sorrows, problems, sins and diseases! He baptizes believers with the Holy
Spirit and Fire!
The Bible says: "He
came unto His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His
name." (John 1: 11, 12)
Believe on Him today and He will give you
the power to become His ADOPTED CHILD: "Grace be to you, and peace,
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Heavenly places in Christ.
"According as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love:
"Having predestinated
us unto the ADOPTION of children by Jesus Christ
to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us ACCEPTED in the
Beloved." (Eph.1:2-11)
JESUS
OUR HIGH PRIEST & INTERCESSOR!
"But this Man, because He continues ever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood. Wherefore He is able also to SAVE them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them."
(Heb. 7: 25)
JESUS OUR SUBSTITUTE: "For such an high
priest became us, Who is Holy, Harmless, Undefiled, separate from sinners, and
made higher hat the heavens. Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to
offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people: for this
He did once, when He offered up Himself." (/Heb.7: 26, 27)
JESUS'
ENDLESS LIFE: "For that after the similitude of Melchisedec
there arises another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal
commandment, but after the power of an ENDLESS LIFE. For He testifies, Thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec." (Heb. 7: 15-17)
Jesus Christ declared: "I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which
was, and which is to come, the Almighty. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet
as dead.
"And He laid His right hand upon me,
saying unto me, Fear not, I am the First and the Last: I am He that Lives and
was dead; and behold, I AM ALIVE forevermore, Amen; and have the keys
of Hell and of Death." (Rev. 1: 8, 17, 18)
JESUS IS MY
LIFE: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye,
except ye abide in Me. I am the Vine, ye
are the branches:
"He that abides in Me and I in him,
the same brings forth much fruit: For without Me, ye can do NOTHING. If ye abide in
Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done
unto you." (John 15: 4-7)
Again our Lord promised: "I will not
leave you comfortless: I will come to you. At that day ye shall know that I
am in My Father, and YE in ME, and I
in YOU. He that hath My commandments and keeps them, he it is that
loves me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him
and will manifest Myself to him.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, If
a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him and we will
come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14: 18-20, 21, 23).
"I am the LIVING BREAD
which came down from Heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live
forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the
life of the world.
"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink
His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eats My flesh and drinks my blood,
hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is
meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
"He that eats My flesh and drinks My
blood, dwells in ME and I in him. As the Living
Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats Me shall live by
Me. This is the BREAD which came down from Heaven: not as your
fathers did eat manna and are dead: he that eats of this bread shall live
forever." (John 6: 51-58)
After stating that to receive Eternal Life
we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, Jesus clearly emphasized that He was
speaking about the spiritual experience of becoming ONE with Him and the
Heavenly Father, through the Holy Spirit.
He was NOT advocating
eating His actual physical flesh and drinking His physical blood. It was an
analogy of the nearness, closeness and oneness of Jesus Christ to His Children
through the new Birth!
It is drawing strength and life from Him
Who purchased our Redemption by His atoning work through His intense suffering
and vicarious death on the cross.
"He was wounded for our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our
peace was upon Him and with His STRIPES we are healed." (Is.
53: 4.5)
Our Lord Jesus said: "It is the
spirit that quickens (makes life); the FLESH profits NOTHING;
the words that I speak into you, they are spirit and they are life."
(John 6: 63)
MYSTERY OF
CHRIST IN US!
This is the great Mystery that was
revealed to St. Paul through the Holy Spirit, namely, Christ entering into the
very innermost being of believers at the time of conversion to Jesus Christ!
He said: "Even the Mystery which
hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His
saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
Mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the Hope of
Glory." (Col.1: 26, 27)
When we received Christ as personal
Saviour, He took up His abode in our hearts and lives! By Jesus Christ living
within us through the blessed Holy Spirit we automatically receive His life
within our being! He gives us His life because He is the Creator and the Life
giver! We draw His life into ourselves by becoming a part of Him, as He enters
our lives with His Holy Spirit!
Through our union with Jesus Christ we
are protected from the power of Darkness which is seeking to envelope the
world. The Blood of Jesus Christ is the only solvent that is able to wash
sinners from the filth, stench and corruption - both spiritually and physically
- that is Satan's signature plan and strategy!
Christ's Victory is Satan's Defeat and our Liberty!
St. Paul states: "If ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are Above, where Christ sits on the
right hand of God. Set your affection on things Above, not on things on the
earth. For ye are dead, and your LIFE IS HID with CHRIST
IN GOD. When Christ WHO IS OUR LIFE shall appear, then
shall ye also appear with Him in Glory.
"Mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things' sake the
wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience."
Jesus spoke of the 'PROMISE OF THE
FATHER' to His disciples before His departure to Heaven. He was referring
to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His band of followers, who would
comprise the Church (called out ones) which He would build.
The HOLY BIBLE says: "In
the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If
any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the
Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
"But this He spake of the Spirit,
which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet
given; because Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7:37-39)
What an honour to be filled with God, the
Blessed Holy Spirit! To be called by the Holy Spirit, saved by the precious BLOOD
of Jesus Christ and filled with that Holy Spirit of Promise and be led by His
nail scarred hand!
The great Apostle to the Gentiles stated: "For
in Him (Christ) we live, and move, and have our being..." (Acts
17: 28)
JESUS IS MY
AGAPE LOVE!
Jesus said: "As the
Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love If ye keep y
commandments, ye shall ABIDE IN MY LOVE; even as I have kept My
Father's commandments, and abide in His love.
"These things have I spoken unto you,
that My JOY may remain in you, and that your JOY might be full.
This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John 15: 9-12).
St. Paul testified: "I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME:
and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of
God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal.2: 20)
St John declared: "Ye are of God
little children, and have overcome them (evil spirits): because Greater
is He that is IN YOU, than he that is in the world." (1
John 4: 4). Greater is Jesus Christ Who purchased our forgiveness, peace,
joy, healing and abundant life through His death on the Cross.
He ABIDES within us
together with the blessed Holy Spirit, Who leads us and gives us the wisdom,
strength and power of the Risen Jesus Christ to show forth the love, mercy and
grace of God to a lost and dying world!
Christ's
Victory is Satan's Defeat and our Liberty! Amen.
