GOSPEL TRUTHS (PART 2)

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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 endure, we will also reign with Him.

Keep reminding God’s people of these things.

2 Timothy 2:11a, 12a, 14a

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

If we die with Christ, having placed our belief in Him as Savior, then we will live with Him forever.

That was the first Gospel truth that led off this four message series as we continue to study from the second chapter of Paul’s second letter to Timothy. It is a truth that provides us hope to live through a life that is anything but easy sometimes as we endure many hardships and afflictions on our journey from birth to death.

Indeed the promise of eternal life that we find in John 3:16 is one of the supreme blessed assurances found in the scriptures which are full of the promises of a Lord who never fails to keep any of them. As we turn back to 2 Timothy 2, we find yet one more that serves as today’s second Gospel truth. Paul writes:

Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we endure, we will also reign with Him.

Keep reminding God’s people of these things. 2 Timothy 2:11a, 12a, 14a

As with yesterday’s first truth, today’s is also trustworthy and one we are to remind God’s people of, a calling I am being obedient to today in this message.

As mentioned, life is hard and typically long for most people. It’s a marathon and not a sprint so we need to have endurance and perseverance to make it through all the ups and downs that come with just being human.

But here’s the thing.

None of us are strong enough on our own to be able to persist through and bear all the burdens that will come our way. Anyone who has lived a little while will give a hearty “Amen!” to that.

This is why we need the Lord’s strength and power within us, a strength and power we gain through the Holy Spirit when we place our belief in Jesus as Savior, who experienced the fully human life Himself and can relate to the struggles and difficulties we go through. There is no perfectly empathetic person we have on our side than Him, for sure.

And so as we look to Jesus, we find the inspiration and courage to endure. We endure because He showed us how to do it and no one knew that better than Paul who, once a persecutor of Christians, encountered Jesus on the dusty road to Damascus and had his life changed forever, commissioned and launched as an emissary of the Gospel and promised that he would be shown “how much he must suffer” for Christ’s sake (Acts 9:16).

Indeed, Paul did suffer, over and over and over again for the cause of the Gospel and His Savior who called him into service. This constant, persistent moving from one place to another, seemingly facing distress and danger everywhere he traveled across his many missionary journeys, culminated in Paul’s imprisonment in Rome where he was when he penned these words to Timothy. He had suffered greatly but he endured, discovering that no matter what life brought his way, he could do all things through the strength of Christ (Philippians 4:13). In fact, Paul actually rejoiced in his sufferings. Seriously.

Why in the world could he do that?

He gives us the answer in his letter to the Romans where he wrote these words:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (8:17-18)

Just as Jesus suffered in life all the way to being nailed to a cross and killed while bearing our sins, Christians, the “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ”, will share in that suffering in their own lives, suffering that they will need to endure through, all the while remembering that the troubles of this life can never last forever. As sure as life is hard, we will all die but for those in Christ, this isn’t bad news. Rather, death serves as a springboard into the best life a person will ever know, an everlasting life punctuated by the sharing of Christ’s glory, a glory that far exceeds any sufferings we may have gone through in this worldly existence. Like Jesus, we will be resurrected and inhabit the very Kingdom of God, our Maker and Master.

In other words, the best is yet to come.

Yes, we will all face adversity and tough trials in this temporary life on earth. Pain and anguish and heartbreak are as sure as the air we breathe in but equally sure is the blessed Gospel truth and assurance of the coming glory for all who believe in Jesus as Savior. For If we endure through life, we will also reign with Christ in glory.

Join me in giving thanks for this guarantee from God’s word today.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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