{"id":6936,"date":"2010-05-22T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/?p=6936"},"modified":"2024-03-31T23:16:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T23:16:01","slug":"the-empty-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomfrommedom.com\/wp3\/believe\/the-empty-cross","title":{"rendered":"The Empty Cross (40 hours no one talks about)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Steven Gledhill<\/em><\/span> for FREEdom from MEdom Project<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We honor the death and sacrifice of Jesus on Friday, and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday, referred to as Easter. Jesus crucified in the morning, and died in the afternoon on Friday, and arose from the dead on the following Sunday morning. What about the 40 hours between his last breath on Friday and his next breath on Sunday?<\/p>\n

“The Empty Cross” is meant to unveil misunderstood truth to better appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ experienced fully in the flesh for you and for me. To redeem the sinner, in Christ sin was condemned (Romans 8:3). To speak of sin crucified and condemned<\/em><\/strong> in the person of Jesus fully man<\/strong><\/em> is not easily accepted or tolerated. Some will be critical of this presumption even though I believe it is accurately supported by Scripture in proper context. Please read on…<\/p>\n

\u201cThe death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experiences of cosmic abandonment…\u00a0On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power excels ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken.” <\/em>—Timothy Keller, The Reason for God<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The cross of Jesus Christ has always been one of the most misunderstood symbols of new life in the Christian faith, regardless of denomination, Catholic or Protestant. I have cherished the cross of Jesus as the<\/em> place where my sin was bore to be crucified with Christ. But I’ve had to rethink that. What if Jesus had been stoned or beaten to death? What then would I cherish?<\/p>\n

Keep this question in mind, while you read through this provocative article: What if what is three days on this side of eternity cannot be quantified with the relativity of time on the other side of eternity? What if three days on this side is an eternity on the other side until there is resurrection into new life… finally then, to be exalted to the rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords?<\/p>\n

It can be said that the cross of Jesus Christ was a gift given freely to us. It should also be said that there was nothing free about it; that the cross cost Jesus… God… everything! There is a hymn that reads, “I will cherish the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown.” Scripture tells us that we have all fallen short of the glory of God and that the consequence of our sin is death, but that the gift of God is eternal life. The gift of God is NOT the cross. The cross represents horrific sacrifice; the payment for sin; a bloody, painful (on a level that is incomprehensible) death. The gift of God is life, given in the person of Jesus Christ! To give us life, Jesus humbled himself to come to us to take the cross from us. He didn’t give us the cross, He took it from us. Death (eternal dying) was our fate until the Savior altered our destiny. It’s already been exchanged. Praise God!<\/p>\n

A few Sundays ago, I had an opportunity to say a few words before the congregation on what we were calling \u201cLay it Down\u201d Sunday. The Spirit of God had put it on my heart to go forward to share something with the congregation. I went to the front and picked up the wooden podium next to the pastor. I shared that God wants to bless me with new life and all that comes with it—peace, joy, hope, love, provision, mercy, and so on—but my hands are full with this podium and I am not able to receive every gift that is from my generous Lord and Savior. I have this piece of wood in my hands that I cannot seem to lay down regardless of how good it is the gift He has for me. My life had become an obstacle in the way of the blessing God wanted to activate through new life in me.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know why it hadn\u2019t occurred to me while I was sharing to the congregation what God\u2019s Spirit proceeded to share with me when I sat down. He communicated this to my mind: \u201cThat piece of wood in your hands represents your old selfish sinful life. You cannot part with it. So here is what I will do. I will take the wood from you that is your sinful life and I will nail myself to it and die becoming sin for you. I will through my death in your sinful life free your hands to receive the new life experience that I have for you.\u201d Jesus came for me, died on the wood I could not part with, taking the wood representing my sin, and condemning my sin to hell while liberating me to live forever in sweet fellowship with Him today, and all the saints, His children, someday in glory.<\/p>\n

In worship today, as the congregation sang one of the modern worship songs, \u201cHappy Day\u201d by Tim Hughes, the words to the first verse and chorus struck a chord with me as I looked upon a large cross upright on the platform in front of me. The words I found so compelling as I gazed upon the cross are in bold below:<\/p>\n

The greatest day in history, Death is beaten
\nYou have rescued me
\nSing it out Jesus is alive
\nThe empty cross, The empty grave<\/strong>
\nLife eternal You have won the day \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh happy day, happy day<\/em><\/span>
\n You washed my sin away<\/em><\/span>
\n Oh happy day, happy day<\/em><\/span>
\n I’ll never be the same<\/em><\/span>
\n Forever I am changed<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, we have a song that celebrates the cross of Jesus Christ. For a long, long time, it was hymns like \u201cThe Old Rugged Cross\u201d (George Bennard, 1913). The cross in the sanctuary where I attend worship stood alone toward the back of the stage, and appeared to be made of wood. It caught my eye as I sang the words, \u201cThe empty cross, the empty grave…\u201d during worship. Of course, you know that the person of Jesus is not on the cross; not his body, not his soul. Neither is He in the grave. We celebrate the cross as the symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus that rescued us from our sin. We see beauty and wonder in the attraction of the cross. But to Jesus the cross was something that in the flesh he did not want, praying three times that, Lord willing, he would be spared from drinking from that cup (though as God He knew the cross to be an essential part of the plan). In the flesh Jesus was not attracted to what he would experience on the cross. The anticipation of all that was in store for him scared him nearly to death.<\/p>\n

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, \u201cMy soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.\u201d He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, \u201cO My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.\u201d Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, \u201cO My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.\u201d So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Matthew 27:37-39, 42, 44 (NKJV)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\".<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
\n<\/em><\/span>The emblem of suffering and shame;<\/em><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, <\/em><\/span>
\n Has a wondrous attraction for me;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, <\/em><\/span>
\n A wondrous beauty I see,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For \u2019twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died, <\/em><\/span>
\n To pardon and sanctify me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,<\/em><\/span>
\ntill my trophies at last I lay down;<\/em><\/span>
\nI will cling to the old rugged cross,<\/em><\/span>
\nand exchange it some day for a crown.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The composer of this classic hymn got it right as he referred to the cross as “the emblem of suffering and shame”. There is beauty in the compassion and love that motivated the plan of God; that They would choose that the Son would humble Himself to the extent that He would be made<\/em> “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, begotten of the Father, to experience all temptation while by choice remaining obediently faithful to a sinless life, to suffer in the shame of my sin and yours at the cross.<\/p>\n

The cross and crucifixion was a torturous execution. The ‘good’ in Good Friday is the good that Christ’s suffering did and does for you and for me. We are reconciled back into relationship with God since Jesus paid the ransom—the debt—for sin. For Jesus, that day, and the better part of the next two days was a wretched time of immeasurable torture and suffering on every level beyond anything anyone can imagine.<\/p>\n

I wish to explain why it is not accurate to cling to the old rugged cross, though it could be stated that what we cling to is the promise of mercy and grace associated with the cross as an event in history. It is an empty cross. The cross was a vehicle to eradicate humankind from the penalty punishment of sin. Apostle Paul writes that Jesus condemned our sin to hell through the vehicle of the cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how our Lord regards His own Sonship, surrendering His will wholly to the paternal will and not even allowing Himself to be called \u2018good\u2019 because Good is the name of the Father. Love between father and son, in this symbol, means essentially authoritative love on the one side, and obedient love on the other. The father uses his authority to make the son into the sort of human being he, rightly, and in his superior wisdom, wants him to be.\u201d<\/em> <\/span>\u2014CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I think Apostle Paul agreed that it is important to have proper context when he wrote about wanting to know Jesus “in the fellowship of His sufferings” and being “crucified with Christ”. Did Paul want to share in the suffering of his Savior? Of course not! That would require minimizing the three days of Christ’s torment. Are we literally crucified with Christ as He was crucified? Of course not. He so wanted, though, to appreciate the human suffering of his Lord. Paul understood that his sin went with Jesus – into Jesus – from the cross, to be condemned in the flesh of Jesus (Romans 8:3) through His death experience.\u00a0It had to be that way to satisfy the law of the flesh that the consequence of sin (payment for sin) is death. Jesus paid that price for us; the consequence for sin.<\/p>\n

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. <\/span>Romans 8:3-4 (NIV)<\/span><\/p>\n

When you listen to Jesus talk in anticipation of his death, he doesn’t talk about healing in the shadow of the cross. He speaks of his death as a time of prolonged suffering in the heart of the earth. What do we know about the heart, the depths, the “belly” of the earth? We know that at its core the earth is extremely hot with metals so hot and powerful that they fuel the earth’s gravitational pull against the sun to keep this planet from getting sucked into it. It is at the heart of the earth that the person of Jesus, who has absorbed into him the sin of all people for all time, is absorbed into condemnation for my sin and yours.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor as Jonah was in\u00a0the\u00a0belly\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0great fish for three days and three nights, so will\u00a0the\u00a0Son\u00a0of Man be in\u00a0the\u00a0heart\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0earth\u00a0for three days and three nights.\u201d <\/span>Matthew 12:40 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

For anyone who thinks that the story of Jonah and the great fish was some kind of allegory or Old Testament mythology, Jesus believed in the story of Jonah as a matter of history, prophetic to what was coming his way sooner than later. Jesus likened his death and grave experience to that of Jonah who felt he\u2019d been swallowed up by the earth. Jonah actually gives an account of his experience in the following passage from the book of Jonah.<\/p>\n

Then Jonah prayed to the\u00a0Lord\u00a0his God from inside the fish.\u00a0He said, <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me.
\nI called to you from the land of the dead, and\u00a0Lord, you heard me!
\nYou threw me into the ocean depths, and I sank down to the heart of the sea.
\nThe mighty waters engulfed me; I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.
\n<\/span>
\nThen I said, \u2018O\u00a0Lord, you have driven me from your presence.<\/span>
\n Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.\u2019<\/span>
\nI sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me.<\/span>
\n Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.\u00a0I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever.<\/span>
\n But you, O\u00a0Lord\u00a0my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!”\u00a0<\/span>Jonah 2:1-6 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

Where the similarity ends is that Jonah sensed the support of the Spirit of the Lord, a presence in the midst of his hell that Jesus did not know or experience still attached to your sin and mine. Imprisoned within the depths of the earth, Jesus became subject to the severest of catastrophic torture and desperate loneliness in the depths of condemnation.<\/p>\n

For what the law was powerless\u00a0to do because it was weakened by the flesh,\u00a0God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh\u00a0to be a sin offering.\u00a0And so he condemned sin in the flesh<\/span>.<\/span> Romans 8:3 (NIV)<\/span><\/p>\n

We celebrate the cross and the empty<\/em> tomb, but why do we not celebrate the grave, the tomb where the body of Jesus lay for three days and nights? Why do we not celebrate the condemnation Jesus suffered in a hell of indescribable torment as a forsaken sinner who had become a curse, the stain for all humanity for three days and nights? Like the three friends of Daniel in a kind of hell but Jesus would not know the protection of grace like Daniel’s friends did as he suffered beyond comprehension for three days and nights. Jesus was forsaken, abandoned under the weight of sin, and would be left alone to endure immeasurable suffering. We don\u2019t celebrate that<\/em>. We hardly even talk about it; not really considering what occurred between Good Friday and (even better) Resurrection Sunday.<\/p>\n

What makes it easier for us is to erect a religious institution centered on the cross. It makes it easier for us to make the cross prettier, adorning it with spectacle; maybe even artfully putting the body of Jesus back on it all cleaned up, looking like he’s in the middle of a sweet dream. Who could argue that the crucifixion for Jesus was a nightmare beyond anyone’s wildest dreams?<\/p>\n

…The Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. <\/span>Revelation 13:8<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazingly, there is actually precedent for allowing suffering and death as directed by the Father with His Son in agreement. We find it in the prophetic story of Jesus allowing his special friend to die of illness. We may not know it as fact, but Lazarus may have suffered greatly, perhaps in the final days of cancer, which at the time wouldn’t be diagnosed like today. He would get sick, suffer in his illness and die.<\/p>\n

So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, \u201cLord, your dear friend is very sick.\u201d\u00a0But when Jesus heard about it he said,\u00a0\u201cLazarus\u2019s sickness will not end<\/em> in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.\u201d\u00a0So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,\u00a0he stayed where he was for the next two days…\u00a0Then Jesus wept.\u00a0The people who were standing nearby said, \u201cSee how much he loved him!\u201d\u00a0But some said, \u201cThis man healed a blind man. Couldn\u2019t he have kept Lazarus from dying?\u201d\u00a0\u201cRoll the stone aside,\u201d\u00a0Jesus told them.\u00a0But Martha, the dead man\u2019s sister, protested, \u201cLord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.\u201d <\/span>John 11:3-6, 36-39 (NLT)<\/span><\/p>\n

Lazarus did die and was dead for four days, but what Jesus said is that it would not end <\/em>there. Lazarus would be resurrected from death by a superhero. Watching His begotten Son die so brutally with so much suffering, it would be obvious had we seen the Father looking on throughout, how much He loved Jesus. My guess is that God the Father wept for him. Then finally, Jesus also was resurrected and renewed into new life, capturing – snatching – every single one of us from the train to be rescued from it and resurrected with Him into new life.<\/p>\n

Why the train imagery? Why take something so precious and make it so brutally savage, ugly, and disgusting? Because if we cannot imagine the body of Jesus under a rolling train, how much more can we not comprehend Jesus enduring a condemning hell after being nailed to the cross? It was in fact so brutal, savage, and disgusting! The sacrifice that Jesus made on my behalf and yours is precious, heroic… even romantic. But the price He paid that we can have new life to the full was horrendous at best. As brutal and heart-breaking as the movie “The Passion of the Christ” is, and while there is a glimpse of resurrection at the end of it, it tells only a partial story. The rest, that which is in between crucifixion and resurrection, cannot be accurately portrayed on film. We cannot even begin to imagine the dreadful terror experienced by our Lord. My “getting run over by a train” metaphor… even trying to generate an image for you above, pales greatly compared to the actual experience of Jesus between Friday afternoon and Sunday. But thank God—thank Jesus—He drank from the cup and substituted His life for mine.<\/p>\n

(Author’s note: Some readers may find the photos above regarding this train image, especially disturbing when imagining the bloody torn-apart body of Jesus, the sacrificial lamb of God, pinned helplessly underneath the steel wheels of the train. It pales in comparison to what our Savior experienced at the cross and for three days in the belly of the earth. Yet many of the same readers will cherish the old rugged cross so long as it is shiny jewelry around their neck or adorned with fine linens in the sanctuary of the church building, not to be made messy. The cross was a bloody torture chamber for our Lord Jesus even before he experienced the full blunt impact of taking into him our sin. We ought never forget that.)<\/p>\n

Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. <\/span>Galatians 3:13 (The Message)<\/span><\/p>\n

To dissolve the curse of sin staining my life, Jesus had to be cursed. The cross, representing the stain of my sin was stained by the blood of the Lamb, my Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. He took the curse into himself and in doing so broke fellowship with God. Jesus, in the flesh anticipating this reality of supreme sacrifice, prayed three times pleading with the Father for an alternative to such reality, and three times he was denied. When Apostle Paul begged Jesus three times to remove the thorn in his reality, he too was denied while all the while comforted and strengthened by sufficient grace from the throne of his Savior. Jesus did not get grace. Jesus was condemned in his flesh that became sin on the cross; the tracks of our sin. Instead of receiving grace, he became grace for us. Jesus was pronounced unworthy for a moment in history so that through him you and I would be redeemed as worthy, received into grace. He was in the moment and for three days excluded from grace so that we would be included into grace through his sacrifice.<\/p>\n

“A Christian’s worth and value are not created by excluding anyone, but through the Lord who was excluded for me… The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved that Jesus was glad to die for me.”<\/em> <\/span>—Timothy Keller, The Reason for God <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Revision: Since I originally wrote “The Empty Cross”, a good friend of mine wrote to me, “This (“The Empty Cross”) is filled with so many errors it would be hard to untangle the heresy taught or implied throughout the article. These are recycled errors that have been around for centuries. I suggest you look at other sources on the Gospel when researching your next project.”<\/em> He directed me to a sermon by Paul Washer<\/a>, Founder and Director of Heart Cry Missionary Society. Pastor Washer said that “we in our sin are the “covenant breakers” while Jesus, while innocent in the flesh, was the “covenant keeper”. When Jesus was crucified on the cross and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!”, it was at that moment that he drank from the cup that was the wrath of God against the covenant breaker, having taken the place of sinners lost in their sin. It was at that moment that God withdrew and allowed for the damnation of all sin in the flesh of His Son… “Be damned” was the word of the Father to Jesus, who then responded, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!” It was in that moment that the curses against the sinner were imputed upon the person of God’s begotten Son, Jesus Christ. To teach it any other way would be heresy.” Again, this is from a Paul Washer sermon.<\/p>\n

I suppose the only discrepancy between what I have written in the Sympathetic Savior<\/a> Series and Pastor Washers’ teaching is that he, like most, agrees that Jesus while human was fully man and fully God, while I contend that Jesus was fully man while somehow making Himself less than God while in the flesh. I don’t comprehend how the Son becoming less than God is possible any more than I could comprehend that somehow God can be tempted to sin and that somehow God can die if the Son while fully human is also fully God. Both precepts seem just as ridiculous to my human finite mind but I guess something’s got to give here.<\/p>\n

God cannot die. God cannot forsake God. God cannot curse God. So Jesus, fully God, in humility, emptied Himself and became fully man in the likeness of sinful flesh. Even though Jesus in the flesh was innocent of sin having depended fully upon the Father, his body was flawed by sin. He got tired, hungry, thirsty, lonely, etc. That would mean his brain was flawed by the impact of sin, emotionally affected by the impact of sin, and his human spirit affected by sin’s impact. Is it possible that, while it was righteous anger in the honest interest of defending the integrity of the temple as a house of worship, Jesus acted in the flesh when he went through the merchants in the temple with a whip?<\/p>\n

God cannot sin and therefore cannot be tempted to sin (James 1:13). Yet Jesus, while human, was indeed tempted to sin. What does that convey about Jesus the man that he could be tempted to sin? It suggests that Jesus may not have been fully God in function\u00a0while human<\/em> (suggested by Paul in Philippians 2:6-8, and by Jesus in John 5:19 & 30); considering the position as God to be of no advantage; already the ultimate sacrifice to that<\/em> point. Why do I find it so necessary to communicate this unpopular point concerning the humanity of Jesus while here in the flesh? Because if Jesus was fully human and not <\/em>fully God (by His choice) while on the cross and while imprisoned in the belly of the earth \u2013 condemned to hell having been cursed by my sin \u2013 then all of his excruciating pain and torturous suffering was experienced as a human being like it would be experienced by you or me if he hadn\u2019t drunk from that cup and left it for us to drink.<\/p>\n

Author’s Note: In attempting to describe the humanity of Jesus, John uses the term “begotten” from the word ‘beget’ in John 3:16. The word beget means to produce<\/em> or create<\/em>. It is true ‘begotten’ is translated in the original Greek to be uniquely God’s son fully divine. But that would mean that Jesus would have complete divine authority, which Jesus<\/em> disputed in John 5:30. It would mean that the obedience of Jesus is merely symbolic if Jesus is fully divine in the flesh. It would bring into question the legitimacy of his being tempted since God cannot be tempted. Then there is the matter of his death since God cannot die. Why can it not be possible that Jesus, fully God, humbled Himself to the point that His humanity was produced or created to be flesh in its full scope, beginning as a seed in his mother’s womb; then exalted once again into full authority ascending to His rightful<\/em> place as God on the throne?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Here lies the tragic reality of the cross. It was an abomination to all that is right and good, and Jesus would become that, embodying the evil of all mankind. We can romanticize and celebrate the \u201cwondrous beauty\u201d and \u201cwondrous attraction\u201d of the cross of Christ today like we do, but without its proper context we minimize its consequence to Jesus and the triune relationship that is God, as well as the significance and vitality for you and me.\u00a0The reality for us today is that Jesus cannot and will not be found on the cross any more than He can be found in the tomb. The cross is as emblematic of death as is the tomb. The cross represents the death of our sinful existence and the grave the condemnation of our sin. For three days and nights the lifeless, soulless body of Jesus lay on a slab guarded by angels while our redeemer paid the ultimate price. The cross is empty today just as the tomb is empty.<\/p>\n

So, do I cherish the old rugged cross or do I cherish and treasure the wondrous beauty of the sacrifice of God the Son and all that He did and experienced that today is so beautiful that it is beyond attraction for me?<\/p>\n

The gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God\u2019s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man\u2019s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God\u2019s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! <\/span>Romans 5:15-17 (NIV)<\/span><\/p>\n

Here lies another tragic reality. In the person of Jesus fully in the flesh, in order to redeem us from the consequence of our sin, God condemned our sin; the sin of all mankind. Jesus has resurrected mankind into the gracious gift of new life. However, as I shared to begin this article, some will not accept the new life awarded them in the incredible price paid by the Savior as long as they refuse to let go and lay down the old life to free themselves to receive the gift of new life… eternal life in fellowship with God. To hold on to the old life is to hold on to the sin that leads to eternal dying. The old life of sin that was condemned with Jesus is in fact condemned. For those who align themselves with their sin choose to experience condemnation with their<\/em> sin… forever. The sacrifice of Jesus at the cross will not be in vain. To choose to remain with one’s sin is to experience the condemnation that Jesus freely experienced for you already. Praise God, we have received the gift of new life who have freely received it as it was freely given, having repented (turned away) from their sin laying down (or dying to) the old life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, \u201cThy will be done,\u201d and those to whom God says, in the end, \u201cThy will be done.\u201d All that are in hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.\u201d<\/em> <\/span>\u2014C.S. Lewis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(Please watch this amazing video to “Revelation Song”. It’s worth the six minutes.)<\/span><\/p>\n