September 24, 2020
The world is not as God made it.
In that original Paradise of God called Eden death was an unknown.
Universal life proliferated. Every feature of nature–animal, insect, microbe, wind, and weather combined for the comfort and happiness of the first human pair.
They were sheltered.
When God warned Adam that if he ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge he would die, Adam would have had no reference in his experience or observation.
Death was an unseen hypothetical. It existed only in the warning of God. It was localized invisibly in the one fruit which hung upon the one tree.
In the 21st century the proportions are exactly reversed.
The Christian persuader labors against a great difficulty.
For one thing we plead for a universal reality–obvious to us, but invisible to all.
Someone once said of the Book of Esther, “God’s name is nowhere heard, but God’s Providence is everywhere seen.”
Just so, God’s work can be seen everywhere, but His image is hidden out of sight.
The devil’s work can also be seen. His work is death.
His advocates appear everywhere to prevail in our secular generation.
Everything dies.
And then there is silence.
In these mortal bodies, on this fallen planet, we face one of two possibilities: either we die, or we watch everyone else die. It is a morbid observation, of course, but no less true for its morbidity.
Then there is that third alternative which we cherish–the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ to this planet.
But very few take that into account.
The Gospel insists that death has been defeated by the Son of God.
He appeared upon this planet, took a human nature and a human name, and died to pay for the sins of many.
“For as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to be called the children of God, even those who believe on His name.” Death is now everywhere.
The life which overcomes death is found only in the promise of God.
That promise is localized historically in the one Man who hung upon the one tree.
The name of the ONE MAN is JESUS.
The name of the ONE TREE is the CROSS.
The warning in Eden to the one man was not heeded.
May the promise now going out to all men and women be believed.