Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Only the pure Good News of the gospel is "the power of God to salvation" (Rom. 1:16), and we can't believe the gospel unless we have heard it (Rom. 10:14,15), and we can't understand it unless we've heard it clearly presented (Acts 20:27), and we can't understand the gospel unless we appreciate what happened on the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14; 1 Cor. 2:1-4). Conclusion: we must understand what happened there or we can never grow up out of infancy. To remain forever immature in understanding is pathetic, wouldn't you agree?
What was the death of the cross? The same as when we die--going to sleep? Are we moved only by Christ's 6 hours of physical agony? Many soldiers on battlefields have suffered longer. Isaiah says Jesus poured out His soul unto death, not unto sleep (53:12); Paul says He emptied Himself, kept nothing back, not even His hope of resurrection (Phil. 2:7), died every man's final death so nobody has to die it unless he chooses to resist and reject (Heb. 2:9).
A wise writer says of Jesus on His cross: "As man, He must suffer the consequences of man's sin." What are those "consequences"? Romans 6:23 says "death," and that's not sleep. That's the real thing which Revelation 2:11 and 20:14 say is "the second death." So that's the kind of death Jesus died for us. Isaiah 53:6 says, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
Some say No, "The second death is the lake of fire, and Jesus didn't go there!" Read Revelation 20:14 again in its true context of verses 12 and 13. The horror the lost will feel is not mere physical pain, but the horror of that judgment when verse 12 says the books will be opened and every person's true guilt will be laid bare. That overwhelming sense of guilt will be worse than dying forever! With that kind of pain, physical pain will hardly be felt.
If we could only see what's in those books of record now, what a blessing that would be! And that is the Good News--get on your knees and ask for a preview. There is nothing the Holy Spirit would rather do for you than that, for there is life in that realization now, before it's too late.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 29, 1997.
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