“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
“He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
“Announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”
(1Co 2:2; 1 Jn 2:2; Acts 10:34)
Put it all together:
I announce to you the good news of peace: Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, was crucified for the whole world! What GOOD NEWS!
What does Jesus “crucified” have to do with the “good news of peace?” It has everything to do with it. It is the very substance of that peace. “Him crucified” implies all that the death of Christ achieved for every person. And what’s that? Paul tell us clearly in Colossians 1:19-20:
“For it pleased the Father…by Him (Christ) to reconcile all things to Himself…having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Please reflect on this. It’s the Father’s pleasure to reconcile all to Himself through the blood of His cross [or “Him crucified”]. Note that the phrase “all things” in many translations is not in the Greek – See Hope Beyond Hell page 132 as it applies to this passage as well. The added word “things” only clouds the deep significance of this passage.
“For it pleased the Father…by Him (Christ) to reconcile all to Himself…having made peace through the blood of His cross.” This is a passage that every child of God should commit to memory! What a revelation of our Father’s heart especially when thought of in light of Luke 15:20 – “But while he was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” This parable includes all of us – His lost prodigals! The Father’s pleasure is to reconcile all people to Himself through the blood of His cross (Him crucified)! Our Lord said it this way: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth [lifted up on the cross and suspended between heaven and earth – “Him crucified”] will draw [literally “drag” – see Hope Beyond Hell p. 111] all men to myself.” John 12:32. Every eye will some day see Him lifted up on the cross – “Him Crucified” (Phil. 2:9-11). And on that day every heart will melt and break with sorrow for what our sin did to Him, and every knee will bow in sincere and genuine adoration of Him (see also Heb. 2:8-9 with 1 Cor. 15: 28 and 1 Tim 2:3-6).
This passage (“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” – 1Co.2:2) has become very meaningful to me. It inspires me to be focused and determined in proclaiming this Good News to the world. Paul said he did not count his life dear to himself that he would testify to the gospel (the good news) of the grace of God (Acts 20:24). That’s how I feel! Do you also feel this way? Like Paul, we are called to enter this race. Are we determined not to know anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the whole world? Let’s not let ourselves be diverted and distracted by the attractions and temptations of life! Let’s stay focused on the goal – bringing the good tidings of great joy (joy, the fruit of true peace) for all people (Luke 2:10). Let’s proclaim it far and wide!
“But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).”
But does God’s grace really extend to all of humanity, even those who are not believers? Absolutely! “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1Jn 2:2 “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself…and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Cor. 5:19. “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” Luke 2:10 “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially [not exclusively – see Hope Beyond Hell page 112] of those who believe. These things command and teach.” Yes! God will save all! Let us command and teach it! See Appendix I (page 185) of Hope Beyond Hell for many more passages that support or confirm this truth. Click here: http://www.hopebeyondhell.net/proclamations-of-hope/
Does your heart burn to share this great news with hurting, fearful, and tormented people all around you? Do you share the compassion of Christ (as seen in Matthew 9:36)? How beautiful are your feet?
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” Rom.10:15 “The message God sent…telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” Acts 10:36 N.I.V. Did you hear that? I repeat: “The message God sent…telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ Who is Lord of all.” It’s not a matter of “making” Him Lord; He IS Lord! I do not minimize our crucial need to submit to His Lordship, but He IS Lord of all and has redeemed all of humanity. This will be made clear in God’s due time – “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved… Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time (1Tim 2:3-6).” God purposed that in the dispensation of the fullness of time to gather together in one all in Christ (See Eph 1:9-11).
Join us in proclaiming and living out the truly GOOD NEWS! Let’s boldly tell the good news of peace through Jesus Christ Who is Lord of all! (Acts 10:36). “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation (Mark 16:15 NIV).”
“Lord, please impassion and empower every Christian who has encountered You in your unlimited love for all people to not count their lives dear to themselves. Cause them to be like Paul who gave himself to testify to the GOOD NEWS of your grace for all! In Jesus precious Name I ask. ”
Gerry Beauchemin
If this message has blessed you, why not share it with someone?
June 17, 2010
Thanks again Gerry, as usual your message is always encouraging, and uplifting-many blessings to all-Tom and Barbara-Queensland Australia x x
June 17, 2010
Yes! Christ crucified. But how does it actually save all men for all time? We are in Christ. We are crucified with Him. And we appropriate the power of His death through faith to raise us into new life.
Gerry, have you considered that the lake of fire is a good thing. The very thing that brings all men into full union with the Father and the Son? And that the eternal burning of something is actually a nature of Adam in us that was crucified with Christ and must be forever destroyed. Our God is a consuming fire. We are to become a consuming fire in Him. We want the old man to be forever consumed by the fire.
How powerful is Christ crucified? Can it deliver a believer from sin and Satan fully in this life? Yes, a way has opened up through His death to do just that so that all men may destroy sin, satan death and hades in themselves too and come into union with the Father and Son.
-Frank
June 17, 2010
I listened to your video more than once, for I thought I was the one who was talking and not you! That is, like you, I have an older brother; and as your brother Bob is not a Christian, my brother Rick is also a non-Christian. In fact, my brother will NOT have anything to do with Christianity. Further, as you cried in the video, I have cried more than once in talking about my brother. Finally, though, like you today my tears are shed in view of the knowledge that one day my brother will also worship His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:9-11).
Anyway, Gerry, it has been a long spiritual journey. I am 51 and I began studying the Bible and preaching “full-time” at age 21. My earthly father, who has been dead for 8 years, was a Christian Church minister for almost 30 years. So my brother (only sibling) and I grew up in a minister’s home—a minister who taught “eternal suffering in hell for all non-Christians and for all unfaithful Christians.” Yet I continue to love my father for his spiritual example of “giving his life” to studying the Word of God, teaching the Word of God, and preaching the Word. As I said at 21 while preaching full-time (from 21 to 26), my love for the Word of God is DUE TO MY FATHER’S EXAMPLE/LOVE—period. I still believe this—period.
Unfortunately, however, my brother went in the opposite direction, becoming even a skeptic. Like me, though, he studied at several state universities. In fact, we both have undergraduate degrees in English-education and graduate degrees in English. He also has a graduate degree in philosophy, while I have about 4 years of formal study in Christian theology. Further, we have both taught English at state universities: I taught at Tennessee Tech University in the 80s; and for the past 20 years, he has been teaching English at the University of Tennessee—the university I left my senior year, ironically, to study Christian theology. Again, though, there is no parity in our “spiritual lives”: unlike me, my brother continues to be a skeptic.
Still, thank God, a few years ago the Holy Spirit who drew me to the Lord many, many years ago drew me to a different (new) understanding of several Scriptures, such as Ephesians 2:8, Philippians 2:9-11, and John 6:44. This was done (and continues to be done) while I was (and while I still am) reflecting on my brother’s refusal to believe and to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, since I knew (and I still know) that there is no reason for God to save me instead of my brother. (Alas! In some ways, he has better qualities than me!) In other words, my tears are NOT of the same nature. Today, instead, these tears are hopeful tears of assurance that someday he too will worship HIS Savior and Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:9-11). In fact, in light of this theme, below is (I included) a paper I joyfully wrote two weeks ago pertaining to Scriptures like John 6:44.
At any rate, Gerry, thanks for the video. Thanks for sharing this. Again, while you were talking, I thought I was talking. God knows. God bless.
Randy Yost
Coordinator of RIC
Serving 5 North Carolina Public Schools
ryost@randolph.k12.nc.us
http://www.publishedauthors.net/randyyost
“I long to accomplish a great and noble
task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish
small tasks as if they were great and noble”
(Helen Keller).
___________________________________________________________
Humankind’s Will and God’s Will….Why Share God’s Love for the World?
by Randy Yost
http://www.publishedauthors.net/randyyost
(Here to Encourage & to Defend the Faith)
The Greek word boulema is defined as God’s divine plan for the salvation of humankind through Christ, a divine plan that God planned for ALL people before creating humankind (Thayer 104-105). And even though the Greek word thelema includes humankind’s will (response) in relation to God’s salvation in Christ for ALL people (Thayer 285), humankind’s failure to “use their will,” or to believe and to receive, God’s love in Christ—God’s boulema will—does NOT terminate God’s salvation/love in Christ for humanity. Regardless of humankind’s will as such, God’s salvation in Christ for all people (God’s boulema will) still exists because God’s boulema will is irrevocable (cf. Acts 2:22-35).
Further, says Jesus Christ, “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him” (John 6:44). In other words, according to Jesus Christ, God’s boulema will (not humankind’s will as such) is the prevailing factor in relation to God’s salvation/love in Christ: it is the climactic entity; it is the superposing feature. Or God is the initiator, pursuer, or drawer in relation to humankind’s salvation. Our choice/will per se is NOT.
God….is seeking to make it known. Revelation of the will of God always begins with Him….Before our conversion, we thought it was all our choice to accept His grace; looking back, we realize that a vital part of His grace was the mysterious, magnetic pull within us to respond” (Ogilvie 17-18).
Speaking of “SEEKING,” Jesus speaks both John 6:44 and Matthew 7:7, so it is ludicrous to refer to Matthew 7:7—“ask and seek and you will find”—and teach that this negates John 6:44. I mean, Jesus does not negate Himself or contradict Himself. Remember who He is. Instead, then, the “seeking” in Matthew 7:7-11 applies to those who know Him as Father specifically—not generically—and thus seek Him persistently in prayer. But the “seeking” on the Lord’s part in John 6:44 is in relation to one’s initial salvation, or to those who “know” Him as “Father” only in the generic sense (cf. Luke 3:38 & Ephesians 3:14-15): “Today salvation has come to this house….For the Son of Man came to SEEK and to save the lost” (Luke 19:9-10, NIV).
C.S. Lewis, who once was an atheist, believed that by the age of thirty God was seeking him, or God was drawing him.
You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England. (50)
God moved on Professor Lewis, or God drew Lewis to Himself. That is, it was due to God’s love/grace (gift of salvation) and not to Lewis’ will (work) as such that initiated his conversion (salvation).
Likewise, Saint Paul writes the following: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). In other words, unlike the tradition I was taught, Paul is saying that saving faith is also God’s gift to us! So in Acts 9 God’s boulema will overcomes Paul’s will in that the Lord draws Paul to Himself and transforms him from the antagonist of Christianity to the protagonist for Christianity! In fact, if God in Christ (God’s boulema will) had not superposed Paul’s will, Paul would have kept on imprisoning Christians and consenting to their deaths, while even believing (thinking) he was doing the right thing (cf. Acts 23:1). Alas!
So I conclude that although God will NOT save a person against his or her “free” will (“free” for it is not completely free), God has the power and love to do whatever is necessary to cause one’s “free” will to change. The Lord does this in relation to Paul, and God loves all people in Christ (John 3:16). In fact, though I am not a Calvinist because God loves ALL people, I believe Calvin’s following words are applicable to this issue: God’s drawing of humankind “is not violent as to compel people by force; but still it is a powerful influence of the Holy Spirit which makes men willing who formerly were unwilling” (as in Paul’s case and in Lewis’s case—my addition).
And since God has the power to move on one’s “free” will and He will not save a person against his or her “free” will, I also conclude the following in light of God’s LOVE for ALL people: we should joyfully share God’s salvation/love in Christ for all people because the Word of the Cross, or the Message of the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit are the means in which God draws all people to His salvation/love in Christ. “Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart (due to the Holy Spirit, John 16:8, which is my addition) and said to Peter and the other apostles, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:36-37) “The Holy Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth (The Cross), will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). Great God Almighty!
Works Cited
Lewis, C.S. The Essential C.S. Lewis, Editor Lyle Dorsett. “From Surprised by Joy.” New York, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1988.
Ogilvie, Lloyd John. God’s Will in Your Life. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1982.
Thayer, Joseph. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1977.
June 17, 2010
Right on Gerry!!! To God be the Glory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 17, 2010
Right on Gerry!!! To GOD be the Glory!!!!
June 17, 2010
Amen…God multiply your efforts!!