Grace for the Race

This is the final article in our series on Jesus, the True Overcomer. I’ve stated that we are often urged to be overcomers ourselves; in order to do that, we must first fix our gaze on the One who overcame our sin, our unbelief, and even death itself. On Monday we discussed the first pillar of The True Overcomer: the active obedience Jesus displayed in His life. On Wednesday we examined the second pillar: the passive obedience He demonstrated in His death. Today we will look at the third and final pillar of the True Overcomer: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The angel said to the woman, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” (Matthew 28:5-6)

Job asked one of the most profound questions that can ever asked: “If someone dies, will they live again?” (Job 14:14). The answer to that suffering saint’s question is a resounding “Yes,” and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is indisputable proof. It is God’s stamp of approval on both the active and passive obedience of His Beloved Son. The Father demonstrated that He fully accepted the atoning sacrifice of the Son. And because the Son was raised from the dead, all those who have, by grace through faith, placed their trust in Jesus Christ will be raised from the dead as well.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

This is the fifth of Jesus’ seven great “I AM” statements recorded in the gospel of John, all of which point to the deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus was asserting that He has the power of both life and death. Jesus not only gives us life; He IS our life. Jesus not only gives us the resurrection; He IS our resurrection. By believing in Jesus Christ, we have life in His name. The resurrection of Jesus is the final, ultimate proof of His assurance in John 16:33—“Take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The German Jewish scholar Pinchas Lapide once said this:

I accept the resurrection of Easter Sunday, not as an invention of the community of disciples, but as a historical event. If the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on that Easter Sunday were a public event which had been made known . . . not only to 530 Jewish witnesses but to the entire population, all Jews would have become followers of Jesus.

Let me close out this week of eternal encouragement about Jesus, the only True Overcomer the world has ever seen, with these words:

Jesus entered this world through a door marked

“NO WAY IN” – a Virgin’s womb . . .

And exited this world through a door marked

“NO WAY OUT” – a dead man’s tomb!!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

As I wrote in Monday’s blog, we all hear a lot of talk about “being an overcomer.” I said that before we can begin to understand the process of being an overcomer, we must first take a good look at The True Overcomer: Jesus Christ. Just hours before He was to be arrested and ultimately put to death, our Lord told His disciples:

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

This series of articles was drawn from a sermon I preached at Cross Community Church, which outlined the three pillars that point to the True Overcomer: On Monday I discussed Pillar #1, His life, which was marked by His active obedience. Today I’d like to showcase Pillar #2—His death.

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30)

In theological circles, this aspect of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is called His “passive obedience.” The sinless Lamb of God took our place on the cross . . . He took your place and mine . . . He took our scourging . . . He took our nails . . . He took our crown of thorns . . . He took our death . . . and He did it all in complete passive obedience to the will of the Father. You’ll recall that in the Garden of Gethsemane . . .

Jesus fell with his fact to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  (Matthew 26:39)

Jesus did not turn away from the cup that was handed to Him on that first Good Friday; He drank the full cup of God’s wrath and judgment for the forgiveness of our sins. In His passive obedience, Jesus overcame the world and there is no better place to see this truth than in the supernatural event that took place in the Temple at the moment of His death:

When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.(Matthew 27:50-51)

Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, our sins have separated us from God, blocking our vertical relationship with our Heavenly Father. The Temple curtain was a visible symbol of this truth: only the High Priest could go past this curtain into the presence of God and this only one day each year to make atonement for his own sins and the sins of the nation of Israel. But Jesus overcame the world in His death and He has given us—both Jew and Gentile alike—unlimited access to God . . . any time, any place!

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.  (Hebrews 10:19-20)

The death of our Lord Jesus was the death of death. Jesus overcome it all by His active obedience—living the perfect, sinless life—and also by His passive obedience. He died in our place and paid the penalty for our sin . . . all of our sin . . . past, present, and still to come.

On Friday, we’ll examine the third and final pillar of the True Overcomer: His Resurrection.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I hope to encourage you this week by expanding on a portion of a sermon I preached last month at Cross Community Church, entitled “The True Overcomer.” There is a lot of talk these days about overcoming this and overcoming that, but before we can begin to understand the process of being an overcomer, we must first take a good look at the One who is the True Overcomer: His name is Jesus Christ.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Notice first what our Lord did not say; He did not say, “I will overcome the world” or “I hope to overcome the world.” He simply stated, “I have overcome the world.” And remember, Jesus spoke these words just hours before He would be betrayed, arrested, beaten, nailed to a cross. When Jesus announced that He had overcome the world, He knew—He had told His disciples several times—that before the sun set on the next day He would be dead and buried.

In the eyes of the world and the disciples, Good Friday did not look like Jesus had overcome anything! Rather, it looked like the world had completely overcome Him. And yet . . . three days later, when Jesus got up and walked out of that tomb, the world was turned upside down!

This week we’ll look at the three pillars that point to the True Overcomer: Today we’ll examine Pillar #1, which is His life; on Wednesday, I’ll show you Pillar #2, which is His death; and on Friday, we’ll look at His resurrection, which is Pillar #3.

Pillar #1 – His Life

Jesus overcame the world by the life He lived. As you know, Jesus was not born on Good Friday; He was born on Christmas morning, so that He could live the life we could not live and fulfill the demands of the Law that we could never hope to meet. He fulfilled the Law of God completely—every jot and tittle of it—in order that we could receive His perfect righteousness, because we have no righteousness in and of ourselves. As Isaiah said, even our righteous acts are no more than filthy rags when compared to the perfect holiness of Almighty God.

In theological circles, Jesus’ perfect, sinless life is called His “active obedience.” In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)

In fulfilling the Law of God, Jesus earned for us the righteousness we could never get on our own. Scripture tells us that Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Despite every temptation that the world, the flesh, and the devil could throw at him, Jesus’ perfect life—His active obedience—makes Him the True Overcomer.

One final note of encouragement for you before we close for today: during His wilderness experience and battle with the devil, remember what Jesus used as the source of His strength to overcome temptation: the Word of God. For each of the three temptations the devil threw at Him, Jesus responded each time by quoting Scripture—IT IS WRITTEN . . . IT IS WRITTEN . . . IT IS WRITTEN! That is the key to being an overcomer like our Lord. Study the Word of God—marinate in it and memorize it—and you will be well on your way to becoming an overcomer.

I hope you’ll be back on Wednesday, when we will look at Pillar #2—His death.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

When was the last time you considered just how easy it is to fall into the trap of exchanging the Creator for created things? And I am not just speaking about those created things that we would put under the heading of “Bad”—possessions that possess us, worldliness, and instant gratification. We often exchange the Creator for some very good created things, such as . . .

• Family
• Friends
• Finances
• Success
• Work
• Church service
• Hobbies
• Possessions

Can you think of other “good” created things that we exchange for the Creator? Our selfish, sinful human hearts can begin beating for the good gifts God has given us rather than the Giver of those good gifts Himself. Because we are created to worship, if we are not worshipping our Creator, we will find some created thing to worship. We simply cannot live without an object to worship! So it’s not a question of whether we worship, but rather what we are worshipping.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created tings rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:25)

But this is not for you! Let the words that follow bring you strength and courage today to rise above a life given over to created things, stopping at nothing short of keeping the Creator on the throne of your life.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2}

In this very first of the Ten Commandments God gave to His delivered people, He reminded them what their first priority in both life and death is to be: GOD! And what God told His people then He is telling you and me today.

Worshipping created things is not as strange as it might sound. To be sure, we think it strange to bow down to a sacred cow or a golden calf. We are far too sophisticated for that! What we do is make gods out of everything else.

God knows the sinful nature of the human heart and just how easy it would be for our hearts to begin beating for something smaller than God. So after having freed His people from over 400 years of bondage and slavery in Egypt, God reminded His people of His deliverance as a means of making the Creator the object of their worship. Notice the language: I am the Lord your God . . . I brought you out of Egypt . . . I brought you out of the land of slavery. Our God wants us to remember how He and He alone has delivered us. Now, I know we have not been delivered out of bondage in Egypt; but make no mistake, we have been delivered out of bondage to sin, Satan, and death. These no longer reign in the life of the believer, but they still remain, which is why we must keep our focus on our Deliverer. Our deliverance should be a source of continual comfort, courage, and strength to encourage us to love God and use things, rather than love things and use God as a means to an end.

Take a moment to consider . . . where in your life right now have you exchanged the Creator for created things? Remember, these can be really, really good things. But good things become bad things when they become ultimate things. Does your work sit on the throne of your life? How about a relationship or family? For parents, it can be children who become their object of worship. Perhaps your money or possessions?

God will tolerate no rival, nor should He. Give God His rightful place on the throne of your life, and your good gifts will become great gifts because the Giver of them is glorified!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Did you know that hate is a very good thing . . . when it is directed at the right object and delivered in such a way that it does not cause us to sin?

Let those who love the Lord hate evil. (Psalm 97:10)

Here we see the positive aspect of a holy hatred. All those who love God must hate every evil. To be sure, the longer we walk with our Lord and the closer we get to Him, the more we will hate the things He hates. This is one of the surest proofs that we are in Christ. As we become increasingly more conformed to His image, we will increasingly hate all the things God hates. God hates sin . . . we are to hate sin. God hates injustice . . . we are to hate injustice. God hates death . . . we are to hate death. These are holy hatreds; as the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus, “Be angry, and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26 NKJV). We can hate and still not be in sin.

An unholy hatred, however, is a poison that leads to death by slowly eating away at us from the inside out. What starts as an infection, if left untreated, winds up a malady. Make no mistake, the Scriptures remind us that hatred left unchecked becomes a “root of bitterness” that springs up within our hearts (Hebrews 12:15). An unholy hatred destroys both our walk with Jesus and our witness to others. That “root of bitterness” is like a time bomb, just waiting to explode and devastate our testimony. The key to keep this from happening is to keep short accounts with everyone about everything and to actually live out the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer:—“Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors”—for the glory of God.

The model for living out this forgiveness, of course, was supplied to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Does Jesus hate evil? You need look no further than His cleansing of the temple to see that He most certainly does!

He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”  (John 2:15-16)

But Jesus was the perfect, sinless Lamb of God. He never once sinned in His anger. And when He was on the receiving end of a hatred more unholy than anything in all humanity’s history . . . He showed the amazing grace of God. Was there ever a being so lovely, so kind, so gracious, so merciful, and so loving as Jesus? And yet from the moment of His birth—when the sword of Herod sought to end His divine life, throughout His three-plus years in ministry—right up to His dying breath on the cross, an unholy hatred followed Him everywhere He went.

This unholy hatred was hurled at Him by both enemies and friends. You will remember that the cries of the crowd changed from “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” to “Crucify Him!” in less than a week. Before the fresh-cut palm fronds they were waving during Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem had even turned brown, the crowd swung from exaltation to execution.

They hated me without reason. (John 15:25)

Never was there a reason to hate our Lord. Yet from the religious leaders to the Roman authorities to the common and the poor, their voices were unified in their unholy hatred for Jesus Christ. They laughed and mocked Him as He hung in agony on that cross. And how did Jesus respond? “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Here was the vilest, the unholiest hatred the world has ever conceived; yet instead of calling down fire from heaven, Jesus called down forgiveness!

If you should one day find yourself on the receiving end of some kind of unholy hatred, take it to the cross. Keep firmly in your mind what our Lord did when confronted with it; the most unimaginable unholy hatred could not conquer His holy love!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

One of the chief teachings of Scripture can be found in these words: we are in the world, but we are not of the world. To be sure, there was a time when we were “of the world” because we were children of Adam. Adam and Eve fell when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, and so did all of humanity. Paul wrote to you and me and all of humanity, saying . . .

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (Ephesians 2:1-2)

But all that changed when Jesus intervened and raised us from death to life. Because He is not of the world, all those He has saved are no longer of the world. We are still in the world and will be until Jesus calls us home. But along the way to the Celestial City, we must remember that we no longer belong to the world. We belong to Christ.

I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow. (Exodus 8:23)

Even though we are still in this world, God has made a distinction between His people and the people of the world. As we look at the words above, which the Lord commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh, we remember that the Pharaoh of Egypt had a people and the Lord of heaven and earth had a people. And God declared a difference between both of these groups. If God is making a distinction between His people and the people of this world, we must be totally committed to keeping up this distinction for all the world to see. Remember, we were bought at the greatest price known to man: the precious blood of the sinless Lamb of God.

So how are we to live out this distinction that truly makes us different? Think about it this way: we make a difference by being different from this world. We are to be different in . . .

• Our goals
• Our plans
• Our purposes
• Our agenda
• Our accomplishments
• Our thoughts, words, and deeds

The list, of course, could go on for several pages. Before God made this distinction, we were under His condemnation and judgment. But then we were brought into the kingdom of the Son He loves, and there is now no condemnation for all those who are in Christ. On the cross, Jesus took all our condemnation and drank all the cup of wrath; when He said, “It is finished,” He meant what He said! So our focus now is to engage with this fallen and broken world, as fallen and broken people who make a difference in this world by being different from this world.

Perhaps today you’d like to spend some time thinking about some of the changes you might need to make for this distinction to become the confession of your life.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

In the third chapter of Genesis we read about one of the most awful days in all of history: Adam and Eve removing God from the throne of their lives. Instead of enjoying all that God had given them in paradise, they choose to covet the one thing God said they could not have. God gave Adam and Eve a test—one that should have been easy to “ace”—and they failed it miserably.

But praise God, He did not abandon them! Instead, as Adam and Eve stood before Him, probably shivering with fear, God gave the first promise to fallen man. And that first promise contains the entire Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

Here we find the covenant of grace promised to our first parents and to their seed in the Garden of Eden. Notice that God’s first order of business was to put enmity (that is, hostility or hatred) between the serpent and Adam and Eve. Why? Because they had become friends! By aligning with the serpent, humanity had put themselves at enmity with God; but God, in His amazing grace, refused to leave them there. He promised to retrieve them from the spell of the serpent.

Now look at the bruising of the heel of the Holy One. This refers to the crucifixion of Jesus in His human nature. Satan would indeed strike a wicked blow to the beloved Son of the Most High God. Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, abandoned by His disciples, and falsely accused, beaten, and scourged by His own countrymen and by the Roman soldiers. The final act of this sinful strike would be the cruel spikes that were driven through His flesh into the wooden beams of the cross. Satan undoubtedly believed that he had struck the fatal and final blow to any hope of redemption for mankind.

But it was only Good Friday! Three days later, on that first Easter morning, the prophecy of promise was fulfilled when Jesus crushed the head of the serpent.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” (Luke 24:5-6)

When Jesus conquered the grave, He crushed the head of the Evil one. The resurrection of the Son was God the Father’s divine stamp of approval over the promised “Seed of the woman,” who would become the Savior of the world. Atonement was made in full, death was utterly vanquished, and the unholy head of the serpent was crushed.

So . . . what does the first promise to fallen man mean to you today? It should mean everything, regardless of where this message finds you. If you have placed your trust in Christ’s atoning death on your behalf, God is for you, so it really doesn’t matter who or what is against you. God so loved you—not just the world, but you—that He gave His one and only Son, whose heel would be struck so that your sins would be forgiven and your place in heaven eternally secured.

Let the truth of the first promise to fallen man set you free today and all the days before you.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

How often our strength runs out! “The spirit is willing,” our Lord said bluntly, “but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41). I know I’m not the only one who would utter a hearty “Amen” to that statement!

And yet, time and time again, Scripture reminds us of the supernatural strength that God gives to us to sustain us through life.  Here are just a few verses to encourage you today:

The Lord will give strength to His people. (Psalm 29:11)

The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people. (Psalm 68:35)

He gives strength to the weary. And to him who lacks might He increases power. (Isaiah 40:29)

I [the Lord] will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

With whom my hand will establish; my arm also will strengthen him. (Psalm 89:21)

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. (2 Thessalonians 3:3)

The strength of the Lord is a sustaining strength. What God is calling you to do this day, He is giving you the sustaining strength in which to do it. God never sends without supplying! Here is what Charles Spurgeon has to say about this strength:

The same God who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the sun, and trims the lamps of heaven, has promised to supply thee with daily strength. While He is able to uphold the universe, dream not that He will prove unable to fulfill His own promises.

Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore, you can count on His sustaining strength. God gave His sustaining strength to Joseph, who was in prison 13 years before God raised him up to lead His people Israel. God gave His sustaining strength to His people who were in bondage for over 400 years in Egypt. God gave His sustaining strength to Moses to lead the people out of bondage and through the wilderness for 40 years. God gave His sustaining strength to Daniel in the lion’s den and to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. God gave sustaining strength to Mary and Joseph as the earthly parents of the promised Messiah. God gave sustaining strength to Paul as he wrote much of the New Testament while in chains.

And God has given you all the sustaining strength you need to do all He is calling you to do! Never think for a single moment that God has changed over the centuries. His promises are yes and amen in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). God has brought you this far. Do you think He will stop short of accomplishing His purposes in you? Remember, Omnipotence cannot out-promise Himself; He is ready, willing, and able to ignite your fire of faith with a flame of sustaining strength that will never go out.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

If you are familiar with the real estate industry, you know the real estate agents’ mantra: “Location, location, location!” The phrase means that location is by far and away the most important factor in determining the value of properties and homes. The value of two properties that are virtually identical in every other respect can differ immensely simply due to their location.

Well, I want to encourage you today with a word from our Lord regarding the greatest location in the cosmos for real estate. Jesus has assured us, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). And the apostle John described that place to us:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (Revelation 21:1)

However real we think our real estate is on this side of the grave, Jesus tells us that all of it is passing away, and we will one day inherit a brand new earth and heaven. At that time, location will no longer be a factor in valuing our real estate, because there will be infinite value in every location, simply because our Lord will be there. Regardless of how great our place here may be, we are still living east of Eden. We currently experience only a shadow of the eternal substance that has been promised to us. As the writer of Hebrews tells us, “You knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions” (Hebrews 10:34).

Regardless of where you live—whether you are out in the street, squatting in a shack by the tracks, or reclining in a mansion within a gated community—your future location in the new heavens and the new earth has something you can’t get on this side of the grave: permanence. Even now, you experience this truth at some level because of the promise Jesus has given to you. The only real real estate is that property that has been bought for us by the blood of the Lamb and prepared by the Prince of Peace.

Think about it this way: should not the thought of our eternal estate in the new heavens and the new earth shake us from our slumber in the shadow real estate we currently occupy? What we have been promised in paradise can never be taken away from us. What we have today we can lose in countless ways, from financial reversal to a fire or natural disaster that razes our home to the ground. But what awaits us is the only real real estate in the cosmos . . . and it can never be taken away because of the One who holds it in His nail-scarred hands.

“Location, location, location” from an eternal perspective tells us that regardless of the location that we occupy in the new heavens and new earth, its value will be beyond measure. Why? Because our Lord will be present everywhere, all the time, in the real estate we have been redeemed to receive.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Do you know that the weapons that our enemy, Satan, the accuser of the brethren, employs against us are absolutely and utterly worthless? It’s true, and I want to encourage you with that truth today as it was proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah.

No weapon forged against you will prevail. (Isaiah 54:17)

Notice what Isaiah did not say. He did not say, “Most weapons forged against you will prevail” or “Some weapons forged against you will prevail” or even “One weapon forged against you will prevail.” Instead, He declared:

NO WEAPON FORGED AGAINST YOU WILL PREVAIL!

There is not a weapon forged in all the universe that can come up against you and prevail in the fight. To be sure, our enemy is busily forging one weapon after another, and he has countless flaming arrows at his disposal to hurl at us. The devil is relentless in pressing his fight against the saints. Yet regardless of how many weapons the enemy wields, not one of them can prevail against us . . . unless we allow it!

So . . . how are you doing in your battle against the enemy, who comes to steal your joy, to destroy your godly testimony, and to kill your desire to press on toward the goal? Don’t focus solely on the biggest weapons in Satan’s arsenal, like disease or death or financial downfall. Think for a moment about the weapon of the tongue and how it wages war against you with its slander, gossip, accusation, and ridicule. These “poisoned darts” can do more damage to us than all the others put together if we let them. And that is why we need to keep the truths of the Gospel in view, knowing that our Lord endured everything—so much more than we could ever endure—and overcame it all.

The psalmist reminds us that we have no reason to rise up and fight against our enemies who are wagging their tongues at us, because our God will silence them in His way and in His timing. We need only trust Him and take Him at His word.

The mouths of liars will be silenced. (Psalm 63:11)

Remember, the enemy spoke all kinds of falsehoods against the Captain of our salvation. They called Him a drunkard, a blasphemer, and an insurrectionist. They mocked and laughed at Him as He hung on the cross. How did He respond? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!”

May that spirit of grace and forgiveness be the confession of our lives, knowing that no weapon forged in the fire of filthiness will ever prevail against us, because every weapon the enemy wields against us is utterly worthless. We have God’s Word on it!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!