Saturday, August 11, 2018

The Basis of Hope – Part 2




Continuing Michael's message from the last post, he writes: True virtue incarnate appeared upon this earth over two thousand years ago with the coming of the Messiah. We don't hate the majesty of Kings and Queens.  However, humans hate the true Messiah. Why?  It's because most religions allow you to be your own person. However, the true God says, "Thou shall have no other Gods before me." To approach the true God is an offer to make a unilateral covenant according to His terms, not ours.  Men and women don't understand their own internal corruption and sin ... the nature of sinful flesh that we all inherited from Adam.

Psalm 2:11-12 “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”

We have a counterfeit King in ourselves. We need a genuine King and we are offered to accept the true King according to God's terms. Believing plus desire equals hope.  

Some women have a large cedar chest, a "hope" chest where she kept her family's heirlooms in addition to mementos of her hopes and dreams. We all have a hope chest in which we keep our fondest desires and deepest thoughts. Hope is why we get married, believe the best for our children, send them to college and bless them when we give them away in marriage. Hope is why we read the bible and pray. Christianity is the only religion that gives us an intellectual basis for hope. The other religions of the world give no hope of eternal life in fellowship with our loving Heavenly Father. When our hope is in Christ, confinement becomes spaciousness.  Bondage becomes Liberty.  Death to self becomes life in Christ.

The story of Guinevere broke the back of the kingdom of Camelot. King Arthur was on the horns of a dilemma. He could either kill the queen whom he loved, or kill the law. We are God's Guinevere and have committed adultery by serving and loving other gods.  Satan is saying, "kill Guinevere."

God did justice by executing his innocent Son on our behalf. Jesus lived a perfect life and went to the cross as the perfect innocent Lamb of God. There was a double transaction: He paid our debt of sin. But the second transaction is that He exchanged for our guilt, the righteousness of Christ. For He who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.

What amazing grace!  This is the basis of our hope.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace,
Your brother in Christ, Michael

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