Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The last rays of light that will fall on this darkened earth just before the end comes will be a revelation of God's character of love. This is Bible teaching.
That last "revelation" will obviously be the same as the light of that "another angel" who comes down from heaven having great power. The "earth [is] lightened with his glory" (Rev. 18:1, 2, King James Version). It's not legalism gone wild, nor soft-soap emotionalism; it's love (agape).
That "glory" in turn will obviously be the same as the message Jesus describes in John 12:32, 33: "'I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.' This He said, signifying by what death He would die." That "love" which will "reveal the character of God" must be the same love that "constrains," or compels, or motivates the ones who believe in Jesus. They are moved henceforth to live only for Him, "no longer for themselves" (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). There is tremendous power locked away in that "love" known as agape.
Again, that revelation of love in the last days must be what Paul meant when he said that he "determined not to know anything among [the Corinthians] except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). That was not extremism; it was only a "reasonable service" that Paul saw as appropriate to the extravagant love Christ had shown for him (cf. Rom. 12:1). It was agape, not ordinary human love. Paul saw what we have not yet seen clearly.
In these last days when sin and selfishness will become so rampant, the Lord Jesus will be honored by "144,000" (figurative or literal) who "follow the Lamb [the crucified, risen Christ] wherever He goes. ... They are without fault before the throne of God" (cf, Rev, 14:1-5). Whoever they are, there will be such a people who will glorify Christ! We might eventually be surprised who will end up in that group; let's walk humbly before Him.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 25, 2005.
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