« It is inevitable »

We just finished a series from John called "It is inevitable". The big idea for the series was the inevitability of the victory of Jesus Christ over all enemies. In the series which covered John 18-21, we saw that the righteousness of Christ is more powerful than the sin of man, that life is more powerful than death and that forgiveness is more powerful than hate.

I have come out of this study convinced that divine sovereignty inevitably triumphs over Human failure. It is inevitable. History is not a senseless cycle of random and repeating events but an ever-increasing movement of the inevitable triumph of the Gospel of grace. Listen to what the angel said to Mary... "And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:30-33) "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof". (Ps. 24:1) "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea". (Habakkuk 2:14) When Jesus gave his parables of the mustard seed and the leaven (Matt. 13:31-33) his point was that the kingdom would start out small, hardly visible, and gradually grow until it becomes large, vast, expanding and eventually overcome all enemies. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father guiding events, movements, people and circumstances until every enemy is made his footstool.(Psalm 110:1) I believe that the Spirit-anointed Gospel will have overwhelming success in bringing the nations of the world to Christ. I believe this is the consistent promise of scripture. Christmas is a loud reminder that the baby born in Bethlehem will reign from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth. We sing it out with Isaac Watt's hymn, "He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and heaven and nature sing" In other words, Christ's great commission will become the world's great realization. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wife died in a fire in 1861. He was unable to attend her funeral because of his own severe burns. In his diary for Christmas day 1861 he wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are the holidays."Two years later his son was severely wounded in the civil war. On Christmas Day 1864 - at age 57 - Longfellow sat down to write... "I heard the bells on Christmas day. Their old familiar carols play, ... "And in despair I bowed my head: "There is no peace on earth", I said, For hate is strong, and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men". "Then peeled the bells more loud and deep; "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men." Longfellow saw the truth of the inevitable triumph of Jesus Christ. May we see it too. In His grip of grace, Rex