This is Passion week. Christians will celebrate Easter Sunday all around the world.
Part of me is excited and part of me is solemn. I am excited because the grave could not hold my Lord and Savior! I am solemn because I am reminded of everything Jesus did for us.
What a great God we serve. I have been in a discussion with other Christians about why God would allow suffering to go on in this world. My response was God is bound by His word and He gave dominion and authority to Adam.
He did not tell Adam if you mess this up I will take it back. No, He gave Adam the right to mess it all up. Adam did mess up, he gave his authority to Satan and Satan is now the prince and power of this world. God did not create suffering, Satan did.
Satan, in my opinion, is the one who deserves the credit for all of the bad. Satan is the one who tempted Jesus. Satan is the reason Jesus had to die on the cross. By dying, Jesus made a way for everyone to live.
He paid the price for the whole world. Read 1 John 2:2
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Jesus paid the price, but the individual must accept by faith the grace of God. Jesus did more than redeem us from sin, He totally freed us from the power of Satan. But like salvation we must appropriate it to our lives.
He became poor so we might become rich, by His stripes you were healed, the chastisement of peace was upon Him. He bore it all on the cross, but we must accept it by faith.
That is where many struggle, they don't feel worthy. Let me let you in on a secret, you are not. None of us are, but Jesus completed His work anyway. When He said, "It is finished." The price was paid in full. You name your problem in the flesh; Jesus paid the price.
I know many people think this is over the top but I think anyone who would assign bad things to God after the New Covenant, is not honoring all Jesus did at Calvary.
Why do people suffer? Because sin entered the world. The spiritual law of sowing and reaping did not get turned off, so many suffer because of the sins committed by others. It is as simple as cause and effect. Jesus paid the price, but you must use your faith to appropriate the grace of God for your life.
So what about the Sovereignty of God. It is easier to blame God, than to blame of ourselves. We don't come right out and blame God, instead, we use a (lazy) teaching like the Sovereignty of God to do it for us.
My definition the Sovereignty of God is:
God is supreme, the absolute top, answering to no one. God is everywhere, knows everything and can do anything without getting permission. God is not subject to time, He is the Beginning and the End. God has no limits in heaven.
God's word will come to pass but God can be limited here on earth. (This is for another post, this is way too long already.)
Jesus said, "Be of good cheer I have overcome the world." The war has been won but the battle is still raging here on earth. I believe it is up to His body (the church) to make His enemies His footstool.
The whole concept of One Drop of Blood is we (the church) defeat Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. (Revelation 12:11) It is all about what God has done for us and through us, but we must open our mouths and tell others.
Remember, your life is all about giving God the Glory. How much glory can God get from giving you cancer? What kind of sick God would give you cancer to show you how much He loves you? That is where the extreme Sovereignty of God teaching takes you. If God controls everything, then He picks and chooses who gets cancer, who gets rich, who gets saved, etc. Not much for you to do except praise God, go to church and hope God does not "bless" you with a disease or calamity.
Sorry, The God I serve does not use bad things to "bless" me. And if He won't do it to me, God will not do it to you.
Romans 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.
That is not to say that God does not correct me, He does, like any good father would. But He does it in love and uses things other than cancer, disease, etc. (God actually uses His word most of the time to get my attention and get me back on track.)
So Rejoice this week and again I say Rejoice, because Jesus arose from the dead. Meditate also on all Jesus did for whosoever believes in Him. It will make you rejoice even more.
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