Friday, 18th May 2023
Alex Buabeng-Korsah
TOPIC: EVIL, AND THE POWER OF THE CROSS
THEME SCRIPTURE: “He cancelled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all – our sins, our stained souls – He deleted them all and they cannot be retrieved. Everything we once were in Adam has been placed on His cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.” – Colossians 2:14 (TPT)
PREPARATORY QUESTIONS:
- How can man deal with the problem of evil in our hearts?
Mankind over the centuries has proven that man has insatiable needs. Dr Samuel Johnson, the English poet, critic, playwright, and moralist asserted that ‘the more we know the more we want.' This suggests that even though man has advanced in knowledge and abilities, our needs and wants have also grown proportionately. Thus, the more we know the more we want. Precious One, of all the needs and wants man has, there is another set of desires or needs that are in the class of the ‘struggles of the human soul’. One of them is to get rid of the evil nature. Deep down we know that we are sinners. We may not mean to be, but we are. Hence there is this war within every man, that also terrorized Apostle Paul – the battle between “the good that I would, and the evil that I would not” during our own self-examination (Rom 7:19).
Man is driven often to cry within, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom 7:24)”
Even though we have advanced in the areas of science, man has made no progress when it comes to curing evil. According to a 2001 assessment, more than 4,200 books on the question of evil were published between the period of 1960 and 1996. What ignited the writing on this complex subject during this period? What made this subject so pressing, stimulating and even to say – obsessive during this period? According to Peter Dews: “The revival of this venerable philosophical question, which has fallen into disrepute throughout much of the twentieth century, must no doubt ultimately be attributed to the intensifying sense of the twentieth century as a ‘dark century’. It has now become clear that recent generations have lived through an era in which the scale and the scope of the human capacity to inflict death and suffering on other human beings have been exhibited in ways unimaginable in earlier times.”
The reality and mystery of evil in the heart of man is a struggle of the human soul that is confounding. But can we talk about evil without first looking at the human heart?
Evil is a powerful and sui generis soulish force, with its roots in the human heart, which God alone can deal with. The Bible describes the human heart as this: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
Precious One, in the fall of man, two things happened – we became estranged from God and His image within us was broken. It is the justifying grace of the cross that has reconciled us back to God, dissolving our estrangement. His resurrection took care of the recreation of the image of God within man.
This is the reason every man must be brought to the place of the cross, and to look up to Him whom we have pierced (John 19:37).
Beloved, have you lifted up your eyes to the cross? Keep looking to Him who has been pierced for you. All graces flow from there. Are you yet to look up to the cross? This morning, turn to Jesus. If you will acknowledge your sins, and sinful nature, O wretched soul; if you will also believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, and confess with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Rom 10:9). Hallelujah
FURTHER READING – Zechariah 12:10
Call to Salvation: Today is your day if you have not received salvation by turning over your life to Jesus Christ. Click here to do so
QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU MEDITATE ON THE WORD:
- Should you continue in sin, having received a new life in Christ, just because the cross has the answer to your sin?
CONFESSION
Christ has rescued me completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated me into the kingdom realm of his beloved Son. For in the Son, all my sins are cancelled and I have the release of redemption through his very blood. Through my union with Christ, I have experienced the circumcision of my heart. All of the guilt and power of sin have been cut away, and are now extinct because of what Christ has accomplished for me. Glory to God!
1-Year Bible Reading Plan
Joshua 3; Joshua 4; Isaiah 9; 1 Thessalonians 5
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