WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT

    The mystery of life is that we are here, but we do not know why. We care but we do not know what to care about. We seek companionship but we are afraid of another. We are guided by instincts for pleasure, security, and power while pursuing all such things only hurts us and leaves us empty. We care about what’s right only to continually stumble over what that means. And the guilt of failure dogs us. We cling to life with no more thought than to avoid death, even though life hurts and death is common. But what lies beyond death is an even greater mystery, which ultimately terrifies to our very core.
    There are those who say there are no answers. Any search for answers only wastes one’s time. The trouble with that thinking is, what better thing do we have to do?
    Others say that, all there is is the search. There is no destination- nothing we can be sure of, anyway. All we have is the journey. But a journey to nowhere is not very satisfying. And an uncertain destination can be very dangerous.
    There are those who say that we can make up our own answers as we go along. The trouble with that is, this universe is not conducive to made-up answers. You can’t come up with helpful medicine that way. You cannot make a decent shelter that way. You cannot get to the moon (or anywhere else, dependably) that way.
    Then there is religion. There is Christianity. There is the Bible. And there are the answers found in it.

WHY AM I HERE?

26. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’’
27. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth,’’ (Genesis 1).

13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
14. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil, (Ecclesiastes 12).

15. He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him, (Colossians 1).

18. Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20. “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and see, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’’ Amen, (Matthew 28).

IT IS ALL ABOUT CHRIST JESUS

    Once the Bible has been opened, many questions flood the mind: why is there a Hell? Why is it eternal? Why does God allow pain? Why does God allow Satan? Why does God not give me what I ask for? Why can I not do or see miracles like the Bible talks about? Why did Jesus have to die? And so forth.
    The Bible has answers to all these questions and many more. But you have to have a mind to listen. Jesus said it is like being a little child listening to Daddy tell us what we need to know (Matthew 18:1-4).

WHO IS GOD?

    What does it take to be God? It is not that no one can beat Him. It is not that He knows everything. It is, very simply (believe it or not), eternality. A being with no beginning is by definition God (Exodus 3:13, 14; Psalm 90:2). Though there are various theories to say that the stuff of this universe- including the universe itself- is eternal, the facts of nature demonstrate that everything in this existence is running down, meaning we all had a beginning and we all will have an end. But yet, here we are. Since nothing only can produce nothing, since something is here, then something has had to always be (Hebrews 3:4). That would be God. He is indeed able to do whatever He determines, knows all there is to know and then some, and fills the whole universe. He is the reasonable answer to what is here.
    The Bible reveals that there are three Beings with eternality: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But before Jesus came to this earth, it was God, the Word, and the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2; John 1:1-3, 14-18). Three beings yet one heart, one nature, perfectly equal in all ways, including ability, desire, and determination. Fully together and fully individual. Perfectly so.
    The nature of God is love (I John 4:16; I Corinthians 13:1-13). The Bible teaches that all creation is a gift from God to the Word, to Jesus. In other words, we and all here are the expression of God’s love to Christ. This is why we are here, to enhance this Gift. This is really what it is all about.

WHO IS SATAN?

    “Satan” means adversary. He is not God’s adversary; he is ours (Revelation 12:9, 10). But God makes him His adversary, because God refuses to surrender us to Satan’s hate. Satan was made a good angel (Genesis 1:31). He was put in charge of this world, including our affairs in this world (Luke 4:5, 6). He uses his charge to work against us, to “show” God that making us was a mistake, that we are not worthy of Divine love (Job 1:6-11).
    Satan, as a child of God, has the power of choice. He has chosen to reject the love of God toward us. In other words, he despises the gift he is a part of because he does not want us to be a part of it. Therefore, God has in this creation a place where His children may exist without His love. It is called Hell (Matthew 25:41, 46). It honors the choice of those who reject God’s love. This place is forever because God’s love is forever. So the gift is forever.
    Now notice two things: Satan rejects the love of God; he will go to Hell. He has tempted us to reject the love of God and show ourselves unworthy of that love. We give in, so we will go to Hell. Therefore, Satan gets to spend all eternity with the ones he hates so, and they with him, because they chose his hate instead of God’s love, his lies instead of God’s truth. Secondly, Jesus still gets to enjoy the gift because it glorifies the love between God and the Word. We all are made for God’s love. Without it, we hurt– badly, without relief. So it is not a good thing to reject the love. It is not wise or righteous or smart. Jesus is still glorified; He still gets satisfaction in this wondrous gift of God’s love, because it is for Him and there is no fulfillment apart from Him (Colossians 1:19-23; II Thessalonians 1:5-10; Revelation 14:6-11).

WHAT IS REDEMPTION?

    God and the Word are peers, perfectly. Their love for one another is perfect. But the Gift is demonstrating rejection. Does the Word still want the gift? Does He still desire it? Yes, He does, for it is the demonstration of God’s love to Him. Therefore, God sends Him into the midst of creation, as part of it, to retrieve it, redeem it from the hate. It is God’s gift to give. He tells the Word, “You must go and redeem it, as one of them, as a man, as a human being, as My Son,” (Isaiah 9:2-7; 53:1-12; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 13:7; John 8:42).
    So the Word humbles Himself, empties Himself, so limits Himself that He might be confined to a house of flesh (John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 10:5). God (Deity) becomes man. None of creation ever thought it possible, that God would become in His love the object of Satan’s hate (Ephesians 3:8-11). Now is the Gift enhanced beyond all words. Now is the love magnified. For Jesus is a part of it.
    God’s love brings life. The rejection of that love brings death. Jesus must give His life that the sin might be answered and the hatred stopped (I Corinthians 15:1-4). But God will not leave Him dead. He will bring Him back to life. Jesus lives as man among men in sinless communion with God, as Father and Son. Jesus fully identifies as Son and Servant. He embraces His humanity (Luke 3:3, 21, 22; 4:1-4). The Gift is good, because the love is good.
    Jesus takes this identity all the way to the cross, all the way in full payment for all sin, His final death cry the claim of love, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” (Luke 23:46). At any time through all of this, Jesus could have rejected the gift, said no to it, wanted something else (Matthew 26:53). For love cannot be forced; it must be chosen. Therefore God will exalt this One who has chosen His love without hesitation, without regret, without personal regard, to the highest of stations of glory (Philippians 2:9-11). But Jesus will be exalted as a man, as one of us!

THE DEPTH OF DIVINE LOVE

14. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15. from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16. that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17. that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18. may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-
19. to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God, (Ephesians 3).

35. “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
36. “and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.
37. “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come, and serve them.
38. “And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
39. “But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
40. “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect,’’ (Luke 12).

15. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’’ She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’’
16. Jesus said to her, “Mary!’’ She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!’’ (which is to say, Teacher).
17. Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, `I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God,’ ” (John 20).

18. “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
19. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
20. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
21. “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,’’ (Revelation 3).

28. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all, (I Corinthians 15).

30. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
31. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’’
32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church, (Ephesians 5).

THE POINT FOR US

    Did you get it? Jesus has become like you, that you may share in His gift (Romans 8:15-39). In the sharing, you are to become like Him. In other words, as God’s love was everything to Christ, so it is to be everything to you (I John 4:7-16).
    You are to share in His death, burial, and resurrection through your immersion in His name (Acts 8:26-39; Romans 6:1-23). You are to take on His mind (Philippians 2:5). His knowledge is to be supreme to you, worth the loss of all here (Philippians 3:7-11; Colossians 2:1-3). You take and show His life in you now that you may live with Him from now on (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:1-4). Continue to grow in Him, that He may be pleased to accept you when He comes back to claim His own (II Peter 3:1-18). Stay faithful to His word, the New Testament (John 12:48-50; 20:30, 31).
    Jesus will return here to claim total victory over all His enemies- all enemies to the love of God. Purifying the creation- redeeming the Gift, He then surrenders it back to the Father in full identification with us whom He loves (Ephesians 5:22-32; I Corinthians 15:20-28). What will then be the result of the Father’s love toward Christ is the stuff of Divine imagination which all those who choose the love will share in (Ephesians 1:15-23; Hebrews 2:10-3:6).

DISCIPLINE

    God wants as many as will to accept His offer of eternal love (II Peter 3:9; Revelation 22:14-17). Whatever it takes to get as many to heaven as will accept it He will accomplish (Hebrews 12:1-29). As many as now live live to that purpose in God’s sight. As many as die this day leave this world according to this purpose. Whatever you face- good or bad- is for you to realize the need of God’s love to get you home to heaven, and that you are to love nothing more than the Lord and His love.
    All prayers are answered according to this supreme need (I John 5:14-17). God will not be tempted away from it.

TRUTH

    The great surprise of Judgment Day is that there will be no surprises. It will unfold exactly as God has told us (Matthew 7:21-23). God’s love is true love. Life is as He says it is in His Bible. He has no reason to lie. Satan has every reason. The answer to Satan’s lies is the truth of God’s holy word (Matthew 4:1-11; John 8:26-32; 17:17).

CONCLUSION

    So, did you get your questions answered? Notice, it is not, Did you agree with the answers? These are the only answers which make sense, which help and do not hurt us. Two destinies: will you accept the love or the hate for yourself? You are totally free to answer as you choose. And God is totally free to respond to your desire. What better thing is there than to be part of the Gift of Divine love? What greater glory could we obtain than fellow heirs with Jesus? His church would love to help you get there (Romans 16:16).

J. T. Wheeler
WESTSIDE CHURCH OF CHRIST
4527 FREEDOM DRIVE
CHARLOTTE, NC 28208
704-392-6494
www.westsidecoc.org