Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Some thoughtful person asks, "What difference does it make whether Christ died our 'first death' (what the Bible says is 'sleep') or the 'second death' (of the 'Lake of Fire')? He has given us a ticket to heaven; isn't that enough for us to understand? We have the Life Insurance Policy; what more is needed? Why stretch our minds and hearts any further? For thousands of years this idea has never come up. Why is it so important now?"
(1) We have come to a time in world history when "sin [has] abounded" more and more; grace therefore must abound "much more" or we shall end up with the "mark of the beast."
(2) That "grace" is not a hokus-pokus legal maneuver beyond our range of knowledge. Much more abounding grace speaks to the heart and meets the increasing demands of modern temptation to abounding sin. 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us that we can perceive "grace" only by understanding the sacrifice of Christ, how far He went in becoming "poor" that we "through His poverty might be rich." He went the full length of the second death! If past generations did not fully understand it, that does not excuse us for failure.
(3) There is a "breadth, and length, and depth, and height" in the love that motivated Christ to His cross that "children" can grasp only as they "grow up into Christ in all things, ... from whom the whole body [of the church is] fitly joined together" (Eph 3:17, 18; 4:15, 16). If we choose to remain infantile when it's time to "grow up," we ourselves cancel that "ticket to heaven" that He gave us. Now it's grow up or die on the vine. We are living in the "time of the end."
(4) Yes, it's true that Charles Wesley in the 1700s prayed "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise" while he still believed in the papal doctrine of natural immortality. But now it's impossible to "sing" understandably about that cross if we believe in that false doctrine. There's lots of growing up that's on God's agenda for us now.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Daily Bread - Readings about life and the Word of God.
