Posts Tagged ‘salvation’
So, Who “IS” Jesus?
When I was young, Christmas was a wonderful time, the decorations, the tree and the gifts of course.
At church, I knew there was talk about a baby in something called a “manger” and being told about some shepherds and Wiseman coming to visit him with gifts, ah yes – a gift, that was the best part. Little did I know or realize what the real gift was and from where it came.
As I grew older, I still enjoyed Christmas but sort of drifted away from church and Christmas slowly became more commercial than anything else. However, a time came when something happened to me that I later found out that it was what the Bible calls “being born again”. I had heard about it but evidently never experienced it. That is, until the Word of God came to me and revealed Himself to me in reading the Scriptures.
It was then that I learned about the truth about Christmas. It begins like this.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
So, what does this mean? How does the Word become flesh? It began like this.
Luk 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
Luk 1:27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Luk 1:28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Luk 1:29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
Luk 1:30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
Luk 1:31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
Luk 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
Luk 1:33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Luk 2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
Luk 2:2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
Luk 2:3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
Luk 2:4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
Luk 2:5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
Luk 2:6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
Luk 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luk 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Luk 2:9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
Luk 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Luk 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luk 2:12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
Luk 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Luk 2:15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
Luk 2:16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
Luk 2:17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
Luk 2:18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
Luk 2:19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
Luk 2:20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
We do not know exactly when Jesus was born, and it is not important when that we do. All we need to know is that God did come down to us, to mankind, to reveal Himself in human form. He did so to let us know that in our human, and sinful, nature we cannot do anything in order to be worthy of going to Heaven when we die and to spend eternal life with Him.
We need for someone else to stand in our place, to suffer the consequences of our sins for us, so that we could be forgiven and be given a new life in Him to know Him, to love Him and to be obedient to Him; now and forever.
You see, the true gift of Christmas is God’s gift to us of forgiveness, love and eternal life, found only in Jesus, and for all who will believe in Jesus, the only true Savior of mankind. To all who call upon Jesus as Lord, and believe that He has been raised from the dead, will be saved from paying the penalty for our sins and having to face the wrath of God on judgement day.
Yes, the true gift given that we should be celebrating at Christmas is the gift of God given to us, and that gift is Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh, became human, like one of us, and we call Him – Jesus. In addition, it is only through Jesus that we can receive forgiveness, eternal life and knowing the true love of God.
There is no other name, given among man, by which we can be saved. Thank God for giving us the true Gift of Christmas…
Do Good People Go To Hell?
You Know, being confined to Hell for all eternity can be a scary thought. I wonder if good people go to Hell. If good people do go to Hell, then how good does one have to be “Not” to go to Hell?
Right now, you are probably thinking that, “I know I am good enough to go to Heaven and not be sent to Hell.” Yeah, I know the feeling.
When I was a teenager I was quite active in the Episcopal Church. I was an acolyte, a Sunday School Teacher, taught in Vacation Bible School, and was leader of the Youth Group – Spy’s it was called, which stood for “St. Peter’s Youth”. Catchy, do you not think?
What I really enjoyed doing was when I was asked to be a Lay Reader during Morning Prayer Service. It got to the point that, except for giving the sermon and the blessings at the end of the service, I got to do everything else. Man, I was King Teen of the Church. I was a pretty big guy on campus, so to speak, and the thoughts of going to Heaven when I died were never in doubt.
After graduating High School my life began to change and church activity began to drift off, especially after I was called to active service in the Navy. I had already joined the Navy Reserves when I was just a Junior in High School and the Navy, in its wisdom, saw fit to bring me up to the big leagues. Actually, I really enjoyed my three years on active service. It is a time of life that I would do over again.
Strangely enough, I never went to church at all while serving in the Navy. Church was the last thing on my mind. I was too busy, well, being a Sailor…
Eventually I was released from active service, got married, had kids and was living life OK. During all of this, I still felt that I would go to Heaven when I died. If someone were to ask me how I knew – this is what I would tell them. “Well, I know that when I get up there God would put all of my good qualities on one side of a scale and all of my bad points on the other side of the scales and the good would out way the bad and for that reason I would be allowed to get into Heaven.” With that kind of thinking about what was there to worry.
To make a long story short, along the way I started going to church, got involved in various activities and actually started reading the Bible; not a good idea for someone with the thinking about going to Heaven that I had. Maybe this would be you as well.
Over a period of time, there were three words that would pop up on occasion; four times in Psalms, once in Romans and twice in the Gospels. What were these three words? There were, “There is none.”
Now, by themselves, the phrase, “There is none,” is really not a bad thing about which to ponder, but when you add three more words to them it becomes a big thing. The other three words are, “That does good.” So, when you put them together you get, “There is none that does good.” Think about that for a moment and then let me add what Jesus said about being good.
In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark there is a story about a person that came up to Jesus and said, “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus answered like this,
“Mark 10:18 – And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”
Man, that was like running into a brick wall. Jesus actually said that, “No one is good except God.” I mean, if no one is good that would mean me! How could Jesus say that I was not a good person? Look at all of the work I did in the church early in my life and being told how I was a good little boy. Look how I was a good father and husband. Look how people liked me and said that I was a good person. Everyone thought that I was a good person except… except Jesus!
Now, how could I doubt Jesus? However, if He was right… then I had nothing good to offer God when I died. If I had nothing good I would not be allowed into Heaven. If we cannot get into Heaven by our good works how do we get into Heaven?
I started reading and studying the Scriptures, especially the New Testament. I learned that the reason we are not considered good is that we have a sin nature, and this sinfulness has separated us from God. In order to come back into a right relationship with God we need to repent of our sinfulness and to seek forgiveness for our sins.
However, our sins require a penalty for which they need to be paid. We need to pay for them – unless – unless someone stands in our place and takes on them the penalty for which we owe God. I learned that Jesus has done this for they who would confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and to believe in their heart that God has raised Him from the grave. In other words, whoever would call upon the name of the Lord would be saved.
If we would just repent of our sins and believe that Jesus is Lord of our life because of what He has done, and have a desire to be obedient to Him, to do His will, then we would be forgiven for our sins based on the fact that Jesus died for sins and paid the penalty for them.
In fact, if you would just call upon Jesus as Lord of your life you will find out that you have been forgiven, saved from paying the penalty for your sins by facing the wrath of God on Judgement Day, and are now in God’s family for all eternity.
Good works will never save you, anyone or me. Only by calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus, will anyone be forgiven, saved and allowed into Heaven.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Surely you do not want to be one of those good people, depending on your good works, who wind up in Hell? Will you not now call upon the Lord Jesus to be saved? It really is that easy. If I, one who was a very religious and good working man can do so – you can as well.
Throw your good works aside and call upon Jesus to be saved. Do so before it is too late.
Could You Forgive As Jesus Asked?
Everything that Jesus taught is to show man that he could not be obedient to God, and was unable to earn his way into heaven. What Jesus said about forgiveness is a good example.
In Matthew 6: 14, 15 Jesus said the following:
Mat 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
Mat 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Let me ask you a question? How easy is it to forgive someone? Is isn’t is it. In fact, depending on the offense, it is not easy and it may be that you do not want to forgive them at all. Am I right? I do speak from experience.
Here, however, Jesus tells us that unless we can forgive others for their sins against us then He will not forgive us for our sins against Him. If you think about it, that is very scary. You think, how can I forgive them for what they did to me? If you only knew what they did, you would understand why I cannot nor do I want to forgive them.
If that is the case then we are stuck. If God will not forgive us because we will not forgive others, how are we going to get into heaven? That is the question, and that is what Jesus is showing us. In simple terms, Jesus is telling us that we just can never do what is needed to earn our way into heaven. There has to be another way, and there is.
In John 14 Jesus tells us what the only way is for us to get into heaven:
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
In everything, Jesus taught that, because of our sinfulness, we cannot be obedient to God the Father and earn our way into heaven. Someone must do that for us and that someone is Jesus.
We do not want to forgive because we cannot forgive; that must be taken out of the way. Jesus did just that for His sheep.
Are you among His sheep? Only until you become a member of God’s family will you ever want or desire to forgive others as God forgave you. Once you have been born again, the change to being able to forgive others could happen quickly or over a period of time, and eventually you will find it easier to forgive as God wants. Especially when you realize what all God has forgiven you.
Forgiving without God will never happen nor completely go away even if you say you do. Only after being forgiven by God and given the gift of forgiveness will you forgive as God intends. Only after being able to forgive others for their sins against you will you be able to appreciate God’s forgiveness of you for your sins against Him. Then, you can truly say that God forgave you as you have forgiven others.
Does Jesus Love Everybody?
If someone were to ask you, “Does Jesus love everybody?” Most likely, you would say, “Yes.” Then if I were to ask you, “On what verse do you base that?” I know that you would say, “On John 3: 16.”
Now we have gone over this verse in other posts to show that this verse is not talking about people everywhere specifically, but in people everywhere in general. In addition, the sentence in this verse that qualifies about whom Jesus was talking is the one that says, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Salvation is not just for the Jews but for Gentiles believers also.
You might be surprised to know there are no verses in the Bible that says Jesus loves everyone. However, many verses specifically say whom Jesus does love. We are going to look at a few of these verses, and I will let you read them, study them, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you, and pray that He will open your heart to understand about what they are saying.
Here is the first verse for you to read:
John 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Now here is the second of the verses that you should read and study, just like the first verse:
John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? (Note: Jesus is only showing Himself to those whom He loves.)
John 14:23 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.
These are the last of the scripture verses that you should look at, study and pray for insight into what they are saying:
John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; (Note: Jesus prays for future believers.)
John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
John 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
In these few Scripture verses, you can see that Jesus loves those who will be believers, believers chosen by the Father for salvation. Nothing can be clearer than what you have just read. Even in all of the Letters written by Paul, John, and Peter etc. that when they speak of God loving them they are talking about they who have become believers, true disciples of Jesus.
Please read these Scripture verses over several times and let them sink into your heart, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you understanding in these verses to God’s glory and for your own good; that you may know the truth about the love of Jesus.
A Most Misunderstood Verse
There are many verses in the Scriptures that a number of well-meaning Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers will take completely out of context when preaching on them. It seems they do this to support their version of theology that they were taught in studying for the ministry.
The one verse we are looking at today is a good example. This verse needs to be read completely in context to understand fully what it is saying.
Here is that verse… John 1:12
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to them that believe on his name
At first glance, this looks like it means that anyone who believes on the name of Jesus and receives Him into their life then Jesus will give them the power to become sons of God. Well, how can this be when we are all spiritually dead in our sins and are unable to respond to God in this manor?
Here is the answer. When John 1:12 is read in context of verses 11 and 13, we can easily see that it means something completely different.
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
The first thing we see is that when Jesus came to His own people they did not believe on Him nor did anyone receive Him. However, we know there were many who did believe on Him and receive Him into their life. So, what changed some people who did not at first receive Him?
Easy, the reason they believed on Him and received Him is this. Jesus “first” had to give them the power to become sons of God.
Verse 13 supports this and explains it perfectly.
John 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
We read here that they were “first” born again “before” believing and receiving Jesus. Being born into a believing family did not give them the right, doing good works did not give them the right, nor choosing of their own will to be born again gave them the right. The only thing that gives anyone the right to become sons of God is by God’s own will, and His alone.
When the Spirit of God makes one alive, they have been given the right to become sons of God and once they are born again they then believe on Jesus and receive Him into their life and confess Him to be Lord. So, lets read all three verses together and you should then be able to see what is being said as God opens up your understanding to receive His Word.
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to them that believe on his name:
John 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Here is what we see. Jesus came to His own but no one would believe on Him. However, Jesus did give the right to some to believe on Him and to receive Him.
The only reason the “many” believed on Him and received Him into their life was that they were first given the right to become the sons of God. In other words, they were first born again by the Spirit of God and not by anything that man did to deserve that right. Only God gives this right as He chooses.
This is what these verses are saying. Therefore, you can see that when most verses are read out of context they can be made to say one thing, but when read in the context of what was being said you would see that there is a completely different meaning.
Therefore, what should we all be doing? Trust only in the Holy Spirit to teach you as you read the bible instead of letting someone else read the bible and then tell you what they think; and that goes for what I am saying as well.
There is no better teacher than the Great Teacher Himself.
Apostle Describes Meeting With Jesus
Back in the 70’s I had started a newsletter called “The Christian Layman”(Insights from a Layman’s Journal). The following was the first article in that newsletter.
_____________
Apostle Describes Meeting With Jesus
I was soaking wet, having waded ashore from the boat. The others, I had left on board, were guiding its rough underbelly onto the cool sand that had been chilled by the night air.
As I sat down, the damp sand crumpled under my weight, and I became conscious of how cold were my clothes, but I did not care. For there, sitting beside the warm fire that He had just made, was my Master – Jesus.
It had been a few days since we last met, and now we were sharing a breakfast of bread and fish. Where the food had come from I did not know and I did not care. Nothing mattered except that Jesus was alive and He was with us once again. I felt great.
We finished off the last of the fish and I turned toward Jesus; He was looking at me. It was as if He was looking into my very soul, the very heart of my existence.
“….. Do you love me?”
The words stung.
“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Two more times he asked me the same question; three times in all. Twice I said “yes.” The third time…
“Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you.”
Feed my sheep.”
I had denied Him three times on the night before He was crucified.
Now, three times He made me tell Him that I loved Him, even though He knew I did before saying so. But, more important, He had said,
“Feed my sheep.”
For three years, He had fed us, not just food but something more. He had told us that man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We are not to worry about what we are going to eat and drink. We are not to worry about whether or not everyone has physical or material comfort.
No, we are to provide His sheep with the bread that gives eternal life – Jesus.
He knows His sheep we do not. So in order for us to follow His command, we must bring the bread of life to everyone we meet. We must present Jesus to everyone, every time, all of the time. Anything else and we fail.
How about you? Have you been placed in the position of feeding His sheep? When you see Him face to face will He be able to say…
“Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
What Is The Primary Purpose Of Prayer?
Everyone prays at some time or another, but not all prayers receive answers or results in the way that the person who prayed wanted.
Let us get this out of the way before we go one-step further. Unless you are a Christian, a true disciple of Jesus, God does not hear your prayer and it will not receive an answer. The bible teaches that God does not hear the prayers of a sinner. That is a topic for another post.
Now, since that is out of the way we can proceed.
Most Christians, who repent of their sins and receive forgiveness, in one way or another, will always worry when they pray. Maybe it is about how they prayed, was it good enough. On the other hand, it could be they will worry that their prayer will not receive an answer or, if it is, the answer is not what they want.
Do you have peace when you pray? If not, why not? It is because you are not sure if the answer to your prayer will be what you are wanting it to be, even if you receive an answer at all.
The secret to having peace when you pray is simple. Read the following verses:
Eph_1:5 (KJV) according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph_1:9 (KJV) Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
Eph_1:11 (KJV) according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
1Jn_5:14 (KJV) And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
God is in charge. There is nothing done outside His will. We have an imperfect will. God has a perfect will. Unless we realize that “God’s will” will always be done we will always pray for what we want expecting to get our own way, and be upset if we do not. However, in God’s perfect will, what He wants He will always accomplish.
We cannot change God’s will, never could and we will never be able to do so. Imagine an imperfect, sin infested human, telling God what He should do because it was you who asked Him.
You see, the secret to prayer is just telling God about why you are praying and what it is that you would like to see because of your prayer; there is nothing wrong with that, as long as we trust in Him no matter how He responds to your prayers, and accept His will.
God may not answer right away because it is not time to answer. He already knows what the proper time will be to respond. In addition, the answer may not be what you want, but it will be what God wants, and God only wants you to trust in Him for the response that He gives.
We must realize that God’s timing is always the right time. In addition, the answer that He gives is always the right answer. God always knows what is best as He always does according to His will.
When we finally realize that God always works all things according to His will is when we can start having peace in our prayers. God knows why we pray and what we would like, but our will is not always the best response. God wants us to trust in Him fully, completely and lovingly in His answer to our prayer.
No matter what we pray or what we would like for the answer to be, when we trust in the Lord for His response, no matter what it is, then we can have true peace in our prayers for we know that they will “always” be answered according to God’s will.
Just pray and then trust in the Lord for the right answer. For the primary purpose of prayer is just learning to know God’s will in all things and then trusting in Him for the answer that He gives.
The Real Avenger: Endgame
I am sure that by now everyone either has seen or at least heard about the new movie “Avengers: Endgame”. Well, I have at least heard about the movie. You see, I really do not go to the movies anymore. I am not into fantasy, sci-fi or bloody mayhem. I guess I am just an old-fashioned kind of a guy.
However, there is one Avenger who has a real “endgame” that I am interested in, and it is found in the Bible. Here it is from 2nd Thessalonians 2:
2Th 1:6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
2Th 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2Th 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
There is no one else Who has the power and right to bring vengeance on whom He wills than Jesus. Seeing that we also read the following in John 3:
oh 3:34 For he (Jesus) whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
Joh 3:35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son(Jesus) hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Imagine being given the opportunity to repent of ones sins and to believe on Jesus or face the wrath of God, why would anyone refuse the offer. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus said the following:
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
It does not matter whether you have little sins or big sins, any sin at all demands repentance of that sin and they who refuse to do so because they like their sin will face the wrath of God.
Why Jesus, you may ask. Here is the answer found in Acts 4:
Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
In fact, in Romans 10: 2, 10 we read the following:
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
All of us commit sins, and we must all pay for them, unless we bow before Jesus and submit to Him as our Lord, and ask for forgiveness. If we do, we will be saved from facing the wrath of God. If we do not, we only have God’s wrath to face.
There is a real Avenger and He has a real “endgame”. His name is Jesus. As we read before:
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
From Hebrews 10 we read the following:
Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Jesus is the real “Avenger” and he does have an “endgame”. A fearful endgame. One I pray that you do not want to face and will now repent and bow before Jesus as Lord and ask for forgiveness from the only true Savior of us all. For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
If you do not, you will only face the Real “Avenger”. That is something you will wish you had never done.
Yet He Opened Not His Mouth
Jesus, at any time in any place knew what to say at just the right time … as needed. Yet, when confronted with His own life in danger, He opened not His mouth in His defense. Why?
From Isaiah 53
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, “yet he opened not his mouth”: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
After His arrest, Jesus was brought before the chief priests and elders and, eventually, Pilate.
From Matthew 27
And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.
When Pilate heard that Jesus was from Galilee He sent Him to Herod.
From Luke 23
And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time.
And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him.
Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing.
And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him.
And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.
When Herod was finished with Him he sent Jesus back to Pilate who had Him scourged and then delivered Jesus to die.
From John 19
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.
Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
Where they crucified him.
Jesus knew His destiny, and He kept quiet to accomplish what had been given to Him.
From 1 Corinthians 15
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
He was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
By His obedience, Jesus became the author and finisher of our faith, to provide for us forgiveness for our sins and to give us eternal salvation.
From Hebrews 12 and 5
Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Epilogue:
Mat 26:53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 26:54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Mat 26:56 But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
Yet, He opened not His mouth…
Have You Heard The Gospel Call of Your Salvation
Into the woods though dark & deep, I look for a place where I might sleep.
Through fog & wind amongst the trees, I find myself upon my knees.
A sword swings high above my head, but I awake peacefully and in my bed.
Then out of the shadows Lord Jesus came.
Your salvations’ secured for I have called you by name.
Dead in your sins you could not answer the call, so I made you alive to hear it all.
Not of your own will have you behaved, for by My Grace have you been saved.
Because of My choice do you I forgive, and with me will you eternally live.
1. Romans 8: 30
2. Ephesians 2: 1
3. Ephesians 2: 5
4. Ephesians 2: 8 – 10
5. Ephesians 1: 4, 5
5. John 10; 28, 29
Riff's Christian Journal 