Cross thought: Christian ideas seen in Sudanese every day life.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”,
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV).
Damnation is the righteous condemnation by God on the sinner who has not been redeemed by faith in the sacrifice of Christ. It lasts forever.
Every human being, except one, is a sinner, Standing In Need before the holy creator God, because we do not do what we were made for. One future day God will hold everyone individually to account for this.
The cross of Christ is the usual sign around which Christians meet. This is rather strange when we remember that the cross was (and sadly is) a method of execution. It seems an odd point of focus, until we realise what was going on.
When Jesus of Nazareth died by crucifixion nearly 2,000 years ago He was doing something almost unbelievable. It is credible only because Jesus was, and is, God in human form. In His body of flesh and bones He carried a huge, yet invisible, burden. He died as substitute for the total world population.
The stated punishment deserved by the sin of the whole world was placed upon Him. Yours and my sin was ‘on the Saviour on the cross’. The death Jesus died under the wrath of God was God’s holiness rejecting human sin, and justly buying salvation for those who commit to believing.
The moral and spiritual perfection of the Lord Jesus is transferred to the lives of all people who trust Jesus to stand and say aloud on Judgement Day, “This person is mine”! Notice, “so that in him we might become” in the text above.
The slang English swearword ‘damn’ terribly empties damnation of its awfully serious, eternal consequences. Where I live people get used to hearing it in trivial contexts. This makes us forget the ‘grave fate waiting beyond the grave’ for those who die without repenting of their personal sinfulness and trusting in God’s provided Saviour, Jesus Christ.
The one, single, triune God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, truly damned Himself while offering the choice, to everyone He had ever created, of being saved forever.
God has made sinners right with Himself while still satisfying His own justice.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in (through)
Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 6:23.
“We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”, Isaiah 53:6.
Crosses act like signposts, pointing away from themselves and to the Saviour!
April 2015.
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