Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
It's fantastic, phenomenal, the wonder of heavenly angels who watch how the great bulk of humanity prefer Bad News to Good. When Someone came into our midst bringing us Good News, "we" were so upset with Him that "we" rose up and crucified Him. (Someone says, yes, but that was 2000 years ago and those were bad people; we are different. We have learned our lesson; we would never do that.)
Here's the root of our problem: the Bible says we are all the same--by nature. The New English Bible renders Romans 3:23 as, "All alike have sinned," and that is clearly what Paul says for in 8:7 he adds, "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (KJV). That "carnal mind" is standard DNA equipment for "all" of us, none are "exempted" from that universal inheritance, not even the Virgin Mary. All humans are born in a state of separation from God; we have to learn how to believe Good News (Mary learned!). We can claim no superiority of virtue over those of 2000 years ago. In a corporate sense, "they" were "we."
We cannot believe what Jesus says unless we believe that His "yoke is easy" and His "burden is light." But for sure, honest common sense tells us that believing that Good News is not "easy." Continually we humans, in the church or outside, slide into that groove of unbelief like the Israel who couldn't "enter into" their Promised Land "because of unbelief" (Heb. 4:6). Unbelief is still our corporate sin. But we don't have to stay in it.
If today, "compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses" after these millennia of history, we choose to go on in it, we shall draw upon ourselves the well-deserved condemnation of the ages (12:1; 6:4-8). We don't have to live in unbelief; we can repent of it, because the Holy Spirit is giving the GIFT of repentance (Acts 5:31). Let's grab it.
When we choose to believe how good is the true Good News, what a burden is lifted from our hearts! "By the adoption of children" the "Father has made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:3-6), members of the heavenly family! Don't walk away from it.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 16, 2002.
Copyright © 2013 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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