The Most Important Day

 

“All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass; the grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.”

1 Peter 1:24-25

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.

 

"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

John 5:25-29

 

Main Focus

The main focus of the good news is about eternal life. It is about life after death.

 

Jesus came to defeat our greatest enemy – death. And it is sin which brought in physical death and eternal death in hell, separation from the love and light of God forever.

 

Our Saviour came to save us from sin and death and eternal condemnation. God did this by His own initiative, by making Jesus the atoning sacrifice for our sin, and Jesus willingly laid down His life for us because He loves us.

 

There is no greater love than Jesus' death on the cross and it is of the greatest importance, if we call ourselves Christians, to dive into depths of the love of God and seek God through His word and with earnest prayer. That we may know the extent of His love for us in Christ.

 

The cross is God’s glory and it is His glory that transforms into His image.

​

Judgment Day

The most important day in every human being’s life is Judgment Day. The day in which all life will stand before God and be sentenced to either heaven or hell.

 

Our lives are but a short time and compared to eternity, less than a drop in the ocean.

 

We actually have no point of reference to grasp eternity but through trust in who Jesus is and all He has done, we can be assured there is nothing more important in our lives.

 

So often we get caught up in Jesus saving us and helping us with the things of this life. We pray and ask to be blessed now so we can enjoy life now.

 

And thank God that He cares for us and is intimately involved in blessing us in this life.

 

But this is not the main focus of the gospel. It is eternal life which are the promises of God in Christ and salvation from the wrath and judgment of God which our sins deserve.

 

It is salvation on Judgment Day by the blood of Christ that we may not come under condemnation and face the wrath of God of our sins.  

So, the questions we must ask ourselves:

• Are we preparing to meet God?

• Are we seeking the things which will matter in eternity?

• Are we seeking God because He is our Creator and our Saviour and He is the most beautiful, perfect and glorious being which we own every breath and every heartbeat?

• Is our confidence in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection?

• Are we confident that our faith is real about life after death and that we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, risen from the dead and coming again to judge the living and the dead?

 

The answers to these questions have every significance for how we live our lives in this world.

 

The words of Jesus and the promise of eternal life is the foundation on which everything in our lives is built.

 

And if Jesus and Judgment Day are at the forefront of our mind daily, it will keep us aware and focused on what is of eternal value instead of temporal distractions which we will not even remember in eternity.

 

It is like the story about an atheist and a Christian: The atheist looks at the Christian and says, “You deny yourself pleasures and miss out on all the fun stuff in life which you call sin, and when you die and find out that God doesn't  exist, you will have wasted your whole life”. And the Christian responds, “And when you die and find out that God does exist, you will waste an eternity”.

 

The fact is God does exist and Judgment Day will happen for all of us.

 

In Christ we are safe and because we know the price paid to save us, we will do everything in our power, by the grace of God to seek to be holy in thought and action and live lives which show our gratitude to our Lord and Saviour in trust and obedience.

 

May our focus be on the glory of God because He is worthy of all our love and devotion for His everlasting loving-kindness He has shown us in Jesus.

 

“For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us,

 

not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

 

so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according

to the hope of eternal life.”

Titus 3:3-7

  

 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

 

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

 

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ

(by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and

seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

 

so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace

in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

 

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:1-10

 

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

1 John 3:2-3

 

Romans 8:1-25

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh -

13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?

25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

​

​