SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/9/2023 7:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “The Vindication of Kingdom
Equality”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:13-16
Message of the verses: “13 But he replied
to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for
a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last
worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what
belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first,
and the first last.’”
First of all I want to wish all of those who read
this Spiritual Diary today a very happy Easter, for indeed the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead is certainly the very key to what the Bible is
teaching, for without it no one would be able to have eternal life.
I
have been writing about the spiritual meaning of these verses in our last SD,
and today I want to begin looking at it from a human perspective, as that seems
inequitable; but from the divine perspective, it is totally just. Why would that be true? Well it is because no person is worthy of
salvation, eternal life is a gracious gift for which only Jesus Christ could
have paid the cost, and so that truly fits in with our celebration of the death
of our Lord, and then the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead,
which we celebrate this morning, and should be celebrating it each and every
day, not just on Easter. John MacArthur
writes “Differences among human beings are infinitely smaller than the
difference between even the most righteous human being and God. Before receiving Christ as Lord and Savior
all men are equally lost, and after they receive Him they are equally saved. Relative merit is irrelevant, because all
that even the greatest human righteousness can merit is damnation. ‘All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment,’
Isaiah declared (Isa. 64:6). By God’s
perfect standard of righteousness, no person comes to Christ with more or less
merit, and no one is received by Him with more or less grace.”
This
is a wonderful truth that I have just written about. However the Christian who is envious of other
Christians, for whatever reason, not only is unspiritual, but he is very
foolish. Now if God really did give him
what he actually deserved, then he would be destined for hell rather than for
heaven. Don’t ever ask what you deserve,
for Paul writes “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The spiritual believer rejoices in the
salvation of others, no matter who they are, for think of something else that
Paul wrote when he told Timothy that “I am the chief of sinners.” I have asked
the question in other SD’s “I wonder how many people were praying for Saul of
Tarsus before the Lord saved him, for many believers were in great fear of him,
but probably not many were praying for his to come to Christ. Looking at this in another way, and that is
if a Christian sees a person comes to Christ on their deathbed, after a life of licentiousness
and infidelity, he would then rejoice with the angels in heaven that one more
sinner has repented (Luke 5:10) and that God has again been glorified through
His marvelous grace.
I
want to conclude this SD with a story that John MacArthur writes that is in his
commentary. “A pastor friend told me
that his father not only had been an unbeliever all his life but was a vocal
Christ rejecter, openly criticizing the things of God and wanting no part of
the gospel. When his father was
hospitalized with a severe stroke and no longer able to communicate, the son
again presented the gospel to him as he had many times before. ‘I witnessed to him with all my heart,’ he
said, ‘I told him how he could embrace Christ even at this point in his life,
even though he had so strongly rejected Him.
I don’t know whether he did or not, because he had no way of letting me
know but I know that if he did believe he will inherit the same eternal life
that I have. And how I hope that he did.’”
There
is a man, Josh MacDowell who has written a number of books, one is entitled “Evidence
That Demands a Verdict,” and his story of coming to Christ is in a movie about
his life. Josh had a father who drank
and was known as the town drunk. His
mother had to tie him up when people came to their house so that they would not
see him. His mother wanted one thing,
and that was to see Josh graduate from high school, and after he did she
died. Later on his father became a
believer in Jesus Christ and the whole town saw what Christ had done in his
life, however Josh was not happy because of what he had done to his mother. I took him a while to get over it, but he
finally did and in the end he and his father reunited. I can understand his frustration, and I can
also know that he had thoughts of wondering why his drunken father became a
believer, and his mother had not as far as he knew. There are some things that we just have to
leave in the hands of God, those things we don’t understand, because God is sovereign,
and we are not.
4/9/2023 8:21 AM
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