Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Everyone at some time has dreams, bad dreams, nightmares. But it seems that one always wakes up just before the final tragedy. According to the Bible, since the world began no human being has ever experienced the second death, that is, hell itself, with one Grand Exception--Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second or "last Adam" of the human race.
As the Head of the human race, He tasted death for everyone (Heb. 2:9), not the first death which the Bible calls a "sleep," but the real thing, the utter God-forsakenness which is "the wages of sin" (Rom. 6:23; Rev. 2:11; 20:14). He died your second death; there is no need for you to endure it! Christ has done something for every human being, accomplished it, and given him the benefit.
"The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). Christ is "the Light which gives light to every man who comes into the world" (John 1:9). Not only is He "the propitiation for our sins," but also "for [the sins of] the whole world" (1 John 2:2). A wise writer has written, "He restored the whole race of men to favor with God. ... No sin can be committed by man for which satisfaction has not been met on Calvary, ... a thorough expiation."
You and I live today because of that "satisfaction." He has lifted the heart-burden of "condemnation" which sinful Adam passed on to us and has pronounced on "all men" that "verdict of acquittal" that Paul describes in Romans 5:15-18 (The Revised English Bible). That does not mean that everyone is automatically going to heaven; no, because many "receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. 6:1), and reject what Christ has already won for them. But "for every man" there is deliverance already achieved for those "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14, 15).
But don't we have to dosomething? Of course; let your proud, sinful heart be melted; "humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God" (1 Peter 5:6); let the "constraint" of that love motivate you to live "henceforth ... unto Him which died for [you]" and not unto yourself (see 2 Cor. 5:14, 15, King James Version). Say "Thank You!" with your life.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 30, 1998.
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