"And when the people were gathered thick together, He [Jesus] began to say, 'This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
And as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall the Son of man be to this generation. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.'" Luke 11:29; Matt 12:39
Nobody could speak the truth in love like the Lord. I was thinking how all the people came together, and were packed in to hear Jesus teach, and speak. And He begins His sermon with "This is an evil generation!". Doesn't sound very prudent, does it? Jesus, perhaps, should have begun His sermon differently? No, we know that's not true. We know that He always spoke the truth with compassion as His Father wanted Him to.
My point here is that our risen Lord always spoke the whole truth. And that's the Church's responsibilty in our day as well; to preach the whole truth of God in our pulpits, and everywhere really..
Many preachers today, are avoiding the passages such as this one, and simply teach, love, grace, forgiveness, and happiness.
Churches are becoming bloated with uncoverted converts. They need to hear the whole truth. This means, along with preaching grace, love, and forgiveness, which is the Gospel for sure, we need to be hearing teachings on God's law, wrath, justice, hell, condemnation, and sin.
When the whole truth is spoken in love, then the heart will be torn, and will cry out, "Have mercy on me a sinner!", as the taxcollector did in Jesus' parable. And the Cross will be seen as it should be: And we will want to "pour contempt on all our pride".
The Savior will then become our Lord and our God, and not just a religion to make us feel good about ourselves.
We must be able to see God's mercy and forgiveness, AND wrath, when we behold Christ on the Cross. Otherwise, we will never embrace that greatest of all cries on the Cross, "It is Finished!", with it's deepest and richest meaning.
I encourage us all to take time and look at some of the more hard hitting passages of Holy Scripture, and they contemplate what God is saying, and always remember the cross of Christ as the central focus of God's truth.
2 comments:
That's a difficult concept to convey to a people who think it's always all about me, me, me.
I read someone's article today regarding the benefits of religion. They were more interested in the social (secondary) benefits, rather than truth and doctrine. I can't help but think that they will lose both for rejecting the most important component. Truth, reality, God Himself.
You're spot on Craver. It's a me, myself, and I age.
We need to hate, and deny me, myself, and I. And then I can have a precious life indeed; full of love, peace and joy in Christ.
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