As the Lord led me to write about earlier this month and celebrate from Palm through Resurrection Sunday, God’s Messiah was foretold by Him through His Jewish prophets in the Bible to come twice.1 The first coming of God’s Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, during the first century A.D. was all about sacrificing Himself to save willing mankind from our sins. He finished this part of the mission on Calvary’s cross with His death. After His burial, resurrection and ascension back to glory, at God’s appointed future time He is slated to return “a second time” to fulfill every promise of salvation God has made to those of us who have put our faith in and wait on Him (Hebrews 9:28b, NKJV).
“Scoffers” living captive “to their own lusts” as foretold, for nearly 2,000 years have scoffed at the faith of faithful Christians in our willingness to wait on “the promise of His coming.” “They willfully forget” the Bible’s instruction on God’s mighty Word in creation and past visitation in destructive wrath using water; foretelling of yet another to come with fire in judging earth’s “ungodly men,” (2 Peter 3:1-7, NKJV). What the scoffers and apparently many professed Christians also fail to realize is that the return of Messiah has been purposely delayed by God this long out of His love and “longsuffering” to save the willing He foreknows from His wrath and eternal damnation (2 Peter 3:8-9, NKJV).2
As the apostle Peter soberly warns, the return of Messiah entails the outpour of God’s wrath in the eternal onset of “the day of the Lord” as earth is reclaimed for His dominion from fallen angels and men, then later, destroyed to make way for “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells,” (2 Peter 3:10-15; Revelation 11:15-19, 21:1-8, NKJV). His wrath does not fully unfold, however, until after Messiah gathers His two elects--Israel’s mortal remnant and His followers from all nations--to Himself (Mark 13:24-27; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, NKJV).3 These events fulfilled are among the promises of salvation God has made to both elects in His Word!
The next promises of salvation to be immediately enjoyed by the faithful followers of Messiah gathered to Him from Heaven who are resurrected and those relative few mortals alive on earth at His Second Coming are glorified immortal bodies and eternal righteousness (1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 2 Timothy 4:8)! For in God’s justification by grace through our faith in Messiah looking to that Day, is our being clothed now, with His righteousness as both a spiritual position we occupy and experience we have despite the endless attempts of sin to reassert its dominion over us with the aid of Satan and his temptations we are to vigorously resist (Romans 6-8:17; Galatians 5:16-25; 1 Peter 5:8-11).
Thus, in Messiah Jesus, I am a sinner made righteous in the sight of God through faith and understand myself to be a righteous man who sins when I do in the weakness of the sinful flesh. In sin, I confess and repent of it availing myself of God’s readiness to forgive and cleanse me through the finished work of Messiah on Calvary’s cross as often as needed (Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:5-2:2). So, when I say I am a sinner to sinners as a Christian, it is not because I am going about practicing sin as a way life any longer, but I am humbly and honestly acknowledging that I still sin as one redeemed by and righteous before God in my mortal journey toward perfection!4
Today, secular films and television programming regularly mock and belittle God’s social and moral order He established at creation for the good of mankind in favor of what they call “progressive” correctives, but which are evil. Contrarily, another promise of salvation Messiah will fulfill in the Day of His Second Coming is the restoration of God’s will and way now, declared in His Word across every aspect of surviving mortal human earth existence in which He will reign as King and Judge (Psalm 72; Micah 4:1-3; Matthew 25:31-46).5 Indeed, we His glorified redeemed followers and saints from all time will reign and judge with Him (Psalm 149; Revelation 1:4-8, 2:26-29, 5:8-10, 20:4-6)!6
At the end of Messiah’s millennial reign in this present earth and age, by His Father’s election as God and Man, He shall resurrect “those who have done evil” and judge for eternity every human who has ever existed that He had not already judged (John 5:16-30; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11; 1 Peter 4:1-5; Revelation 19:11-21, 20:11-15, 22:12-15, NKJV).7 Daniel in his book where we started back on January 9th this year among the prophets of the Bible were shown the coming resurrections of the righteous and the wicked along with their final judgment by Messiah (Daniel 12:2-3).8 Clearly, things will not go well in the judgment to eternal fire for the unsaved who have shown contempt for God’s Word. But the saved who love God’s Word will delight in it forever!
1 See the April 3, 2022 post, Messiah Comes Twice: Once For Sin, under the category, The Faith.
2 Read the two-part post beginning July 18, 2021, No Repentance, No Peace, under the category, Call To Repent. Also, consider the February 6, 2022 post, The Divine Delay, under the category, Bible Prophecy, to appreciate if you will, that as He gave sinful humanity in Noah’s day time to repent and be saved from His wrath, so, all in these last days since He offered up His own Son on the cross to make our salvation possible nearly 2,000 years ago!
3 See the August 15, 2021 post, The Honor Of Bypassing Death, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 The Christian journey toward perfection is about allowing God to make us over into the image of Messiah Jesus, His Son. This is the rallying cry and content of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and its companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study as well as Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study all available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 That’s right! The same transcendent eternal spiritual principles, morality and ethics contained in the Bible the wicked now, mock and belittle as well as many professed Christians corrupt and compromise, will be put in play and enforced by Messiah since as He Himself teaches, neither the content of God’s Law or any of His Words will fail to endure forever (Matthew 5:17-20, 24:35)! See the August 1, 2021 post, Jesus Christ King And Judge!, under the category, Instruction.
6 Read the August 8, 2021 post, Kings And Judges With Christ, under the category, Encouragement.
7 Behold the perfect justice of God the Father to allow His Son, Jesus, as perfect Man to judge His fellow man (Acts 17:29-31)!
8 See the January 9, 2022 post, Easier To Read Bibles, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Instruction.
Seeing actor, Will Smith, walk up on comedian, Chris Rock, and slap him in the Oscar clips seen globally was greatly disturbing though, nothing I had not ever seen before. Indeed, the imagery brought back my shame for letting my own anger best me in similar uncontrolled moments during the course of my life. Will was wrong as I was and anyone else guilty of such violence which is sin in the sight of God Almighty! For those past acts of violence and all of the other ways I still come short of the glory of God missing the mark of His perfect righteousness, I am glad Messiah Jesus came into the world to save sinners through His once for sin sacrifice as I wrote about in my last post.1
On April 10, 1977 which that year was Resurrection Sunday, I sincerely prayed with one time fellow Seaside, CA resident and lifelong family friend, momma Altamese Lee (who departed to the Lord in 2021) in her Jacksonville, FL home to receive Messiah Jesus as my Savior and Lord after attending church service. Though I came away from that prayer with all of my sin issues and shackles intact along with some doubts about what I had just done and the reality of hearing a voice in my heart I had never heard before say to me, “As your faith grows, so shall you,” I had hope maybe my life could be better than it had been when I lived without concern for being a sinner to that point.2
Now, on this Palm Sunday forty-five years later, the words of the voice I came to know as that of Messiah Jesus are continuing to be fulfilled to overflow in my life! And while I will not officially mark the day of my salvation and new birth until this upcoming Resurrection Sunday, I have already been celebrating; rejoicing with the God of my salvation in over the top gladness for the once for sin sacrifice His Son, Messiah Jesus, accomplished as the express mission and work of His first coming for me and all mankind as sinners (Matthew 18:10-14; Luke 15, 19:1-10, 28-40)!3 What an awesome thing to ponder that God loves us so much He sent Messiah to save us from our sins (Romans 5.6-8).
For this cause, as the head of a Ministry by God’s appointment charged with a first priority to restore men through the Gospel as a starting point,4 I encourage Will Smith and every man including Chris Rock He makes painfully aware of our wretched condition as sinners to press hard into Messiah Jesus not only for forgiveness, but the progressive spiritual growth He leads us into over a lifetime. I am a witness that Messiah’s victory on the cross wherein He broke the power of sin can be made real by Him one sin issue and shackle at a time in our lives (Romans 6:1-14, 7:14-8:13). Not that we arrive at anything like perfection. But we “press” hard into Messiah until the day when this life ends or He returns as is our hope in Him and His perfection becomes ours (Philippians 1:3-6, 3:1-16, NKJV)!
(I will be taking Resurrection Sunday off continuing to celebrate my 45th spiritual birthday as our regular readers already know. Thank you for taking the time to read and reflect on what the Lord gives me each week. He willing we see it, my next post will be on April 24th. May your celebration of what Messiah Jesus accomplished for us be fresh and refreshing with all joy in Him!)
2 Read the April 9, 2017 post, Forty Years A Christian, and on February 17, 2019 the post, Surrendering All To Jesus, both under the category, Glory To God!
3 This holiday season I urge you with someone you know that is unsaved to view one or both of our 30 minute videos on this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally YouTube Channel where you can be certain the biblical Gospel is presented. Stirring images of the Easter season especially punctuate the video, Hallelujah, Free!
4 Learn about Strong Man Ministries on the Ministry Web Site.
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