Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
It’s the chapter where sanctified logic and reasoning have reached their zenith: it’s 2 Corinthians 5. It tells what Christ accomplished (not merely wanted to, or merely offered to do) for you and for the world; and it tells the truth in such a way that the hardest and most impenetrable worldly heart can be captured.
The chapter begins by reminding us that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (vss. 10, 11) not to be condemned but to be defended and accepted by Him (the KJV word “terror” is godly fear or reverence in the original). “We persuade men,” says Paul, not as Muslim terrorists offering the sword or Islam, but as he explains, because “love” motivates us.
Paul faces the gossip that goes on about him that he is losing his sanity: “if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.” Either way, says Paul, we are serious. People wonder if I am insane, he implies, because I cannot retire or even take a cruise; I remain “on duty” for Christ 24/7 even into long past-retirement age because “the love of Christ constrains us” (vs. 14). People don’t understand!
It’s not emotional instability; there is a sound, rational logic at the bottom of my devotion to the Lord Jesus, he says: “We judge [or reason] thus: that if One died for all, then all died [or were dead, or would have died if that One had not died for them!].”
Paul’s logic is overwhelming: if the Lord Jesus died for us, instead of us, then it follows that if He had not died for us, we would now be stone dead.
In other words, instead of the life we now enjoy, what we would have today would be a grave—and an endless one at that.
Paul believes that everybody who is not hopelessly committed to total rebellion against God will respond in heart to this inescapable logic. The morning paper tells of a local lady who was saved by a passing stranger from being horribly mauled by an unrestrained pit bull; she didn’t get the man’s full name, but advertised in the Journal so he would come forward and let her thank him.
The world has never yet heard the full story of what Jesus did to save us; to a large extent He has had to remain un-thanked, un-appreciated.
Surely a change is in order, and that is what Revelation 18:1-4 is talking about. You’ll be surprised how many in the end will respond, and make Jesus glad (cf. Isa. 53:11).
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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