SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/5/2024 8:39 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-3
“Saving Faith”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 27:54
Message of the
verse: “54
Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when
they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very
frightened and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!’”
I want to begin by looking at Mark 15:39 which tells
us that centurion who actually spoke these words, however Matthew makes clear
that he spoke for his men as well. “39 When
the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed
His last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!’” All of these men suddenly realized that Jesus
was not deluded or deranged but was indeed who the Jews had accused Him of
claiming to be. I am not sure how many
of these soldiers were the ones who beat Jesus and dressed Him up in purple
garments, but if they were we can see that the fear of God has come to them as
they watched all the miracles that were done while Jesus was on the cross. When we were looking at the trial of Jesus in
front of Pilate these men heard what Pilate said about Jesus being
innocent. They also heard what Pilate’s
wife said about her dream as she declared Him innocent too, and told her
husband to stay away from this case.
However as I have learned in past studies Pilate had two strikes against
him and it would not be long before he was sent back to Rome to face charges
and be dismissed. There is more to
Pilate’s story that I spoke of in an earlier SD, things that were supposed to
happen to his body after he died as it seemed to pop up in different
places. That story very well could be a fake
story but it was interesting to me when I read about it. Let’s look again at Matthew 27:19 “While he
was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying,
"Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered
greatly in a dream because of Him.’” There
is more to this story as we think about the few words that Jesus spoke at His
trials, and then the few words that He spoke on the cross must have penetrated
their pagan, hardened minds. They now
knew the stood in the presences of One somehow related to deity.
John MacArthur writes “The soldiers’
fear gives witness to their awareness of sin, and their reverential awe gives
witness to their being confronted by God’s holiness and righteousness. And just as Isaiah in his Temple vision (Isa.
6), they suddenly realized they stood under God’s judgment and condemnation.
“And I (MacArthur) believe the
soldiers’ confession of Jesus’ deity gives witness to the possibility of their
salvation. Both their fear and their
confession were spiritual responses to Christ.
From Luke we learn that the centurion and presumably the other soldiers
as well, not only confessed Jesus divinely but ‘began praising God’ (Luke
23:47).” “47 Now when the centurion saw
what had happened, he began praising God, saying, "Certainly this
man was innocent.’”
“The deep conviction of the men is seen in their introducing
the confession with truly. They
proclaimed without reservation or qualification that the Man at whose feet they
now stood was indeed the Son of God.”
There is nothing better that can happen to anyone’s life than to realize
that Jesus Christ, the Son of God came to earth as a baby, who lived 33 years
on this earth, who came to this earth to die in your place as He suffered on
the cross almost 2000 years ago. Next to
realizing that Jesus is the Son of God that you must then confess to God that
you are a sinner, and Paul writes that “All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God,” then the next thing to do after confessing you are a sinner is
to invite Jesus Christ into your heart asking Him to be you Savior and
Lord. He will do that, He will save you
from your sins and send the Holy Spirit into your life to guide you to help you
understand what His Word has to say as you begin to read it each and every day
and to study it. “2Ti 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does
not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”
MacArthur goes on to write “Some scholars maintain
that, because of the Greek construction of the text and because of the soldiers’
pagan background, their statement should be rendered, ‘Truly this was a son of
God,’ as seen in some modern versions.
The linguistic argument is based on what is called an anarthrous
construction, meaning the Greek noun does not have a definite article (‘the’). Such is the case in the text of Matthew
27:54, where there is no Greek article (the) before Son. Ordinarily in such construction s the
indefinite article 9’a’) is understood.
But it is clear from secular Greek literature, as well as from many
other passages in the New Testament, that the anarthrous construction does not
always demand the indefinite article.”
With that last paragraph I will end
this SD because I think in reading this last paragraph from MacArthur’s
commentary that it is enough to chew on at this time.
9/5/2024 9:17
AM
No comments:
Post a Comment