Monday, September 3, 2018

What only Christ can Do

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21

It is true that sin brought with it many other maladies, yet, Christ came primarily to deal with the most fundamental consequence of sin, which is the separation from God. When the solving of any other consequence of sin becomes the primary focus of the gospel we preach, then there is a very basic flaw in our message. It is wonderful to see the sick healed as we preach Christ and Him crucified, yet, we must not make healing the objective end of our message, the object of our message must be Christ and Him crucified to wrought reconciliation between God and man. In the words of the apostle Peter, Christ suffered to bring us to God.

Before Christ came, people were experiencing the supernatural intervention of God in some form, therefore, making them experience the supernatural cannot be why He came. He came to make possible to man something that was absolutely impossible without Him, and that is the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God.

Any message that presents what can be accomplished apart from Christ, cannot be the true message of the gospel, therefore, cannot save those who believe it. The message of the apostles was one that did not only present Christ, it was a message that brought to the people something that they could not find outside Christ. Such is the message that saves and transforms, and such should be our message. 

Toni