GOSPEL TRUTHS (PART 1)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.

Keep reminding God’s people of these things.

2 Timothy 2:11, 14a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today we begin a four part series simply titled, “Gospel Truths”. Each of these messages will be drawn from a wonderful passage found in the second chapter of 2 Timothy as the Apostle Paul writes to his missionary partner and pastor of the church in Ephesus.

Here’s the foundation verse for this first Gospel truth:

If we died with Him, we will also live with Him. v. 11

Note here that Paul makes sure to proclaim that this verse, and the others that follow, are “trustworthy”. They are absolute in their validity and dependability.

Of course, the “Him” mentioned in verse 11 is none other than Christ Jesus who Paul mentions at the end of verse 9. He is the one and only Son of God who was given up to sacrifice so that anyone who believed in Him wouldn’t perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Jesus was also the One John proclaimed as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Only a perfect, unblemished, sinless sacrifice of the highest divine order would be able to expiate the sin of all mankind in what would be the last atonement needed. And so Jesus was crucified while bearing the weight of all transgressions and died in the place that the sinner should have.

Jesus died and so will every other human being. No worldly person is immortal. We all have an expiration date. There is no questioning this but it does offer us a question:

“Then what?”

In other words, what happens after we draw our last breath and our heart ceases to beat here on earth?

There are two answers to this question, the first simple while the other not so much.

The simple answer involves our physical bodies. Every physical body is going to decompose after death until it is nothing more than dust for as the Bible assures:

By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. Genesis 3:19

Here we find God imposing judgment on Adam for his sinful disobedience in Eden’s garden. The first man who was formed from the dust (Genesis 2:7) would return there after dying just as every other person afterwards.

That’s the body but we also have a spiritual component to us, a soul that creates our life identity. How people see us, good or bad, is a byproduct of our spiritual self and there are really only two ways to categorize that part of us. For our spirit is either in Christ Jesus, which means we have believed in Him and received the Holy Spirit, or our spirit is void of Christ because we refused to believe in Him.

So what happens when our bodies die in this worldly existence?

It depends on whether or not we believed in Jesus as our Savior. Go back to our verse for today.

If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.

Here in our first trustworthy Gospel truth, we are reminded of the assurance found in John 3:16. For those who believed in Jesus are with Him in death and therefore will join Him in a new resurrected life, a life that will last forever. Through Jesus, death loses its sting and we become guaranteed victory over the grave (1 Corinthians 15:51-57).

As Christians, this is the incredible hope we have, a hope that Paul encourages Timothy and us to continue to remind God’s people about.

Now, there is a second possibility for a person’s spiritual self and it’s not one that anybody should favor. For anyone who refuses to believe in Jesus will not see their soul simply die with their body. Rather, their soul will go on to live forever in Hell, besieged by eternal damnation and torment. Such is God’s judgment for anyone who rejects Him and the salvation offer He gives through His Son.

I’ll close with a few simple questions:

Where do you find yourself right now?

Where is your soul destined for if your life ended today?

Friends, if you have never believed in Jesus up to now, even if you know your days are numbered, it’s not too late. For even the thief on the cross next to Jesus found paradise in his final hours (Luke 23:39-43) and you can too. My prayer is that you will choose Christ, so that when you die with Him as your Savior, you will rise to eternal life and live with Him forever more.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.