How are we to prepare ourselves to face this time of trouble that is known in scripture and in Theology as the Great Tribulation? Many answers are given today by many people. There are some who say to the Christian church, “Don’t worry, there will be a secret rapture so that you will disappear from this earth before it happens.” Well the Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible says that all Christians living in the last time will have to go through this but they will be delivered by God. Then there is another group who say, “No, you need to store up food for two years.” Well, that sounds like a wonderful plan, except that, in the Time of Trouble there will still be thieves and robbers, and they will come and take your food before you know it, because they will not use pleading, they will use the point of a gun; so that won’t help. There are others who say, “No, you must learn how to survive in the wilderness.” They have this wilderness survival program. Well, that’s fine, except the devil will simply move you where you have not studied the vegetation there, and you will say, “Boy, I don’t know which of this is edible and which is not.” So you will be stuck. And there are still others who say, “You need to overcome every inherited and cultivated tendency to sin because you will have to live without a Mediator.” Now I have to say something about that. I believe that the gospel is powerful, that it is possible to overcome every inherited and cultivated tendency. But there are two things that we must see clearly: 1. We will not know it; our nature will remain sinful until the second coming of Christ. So we will always feel that we are sinners. 2. We may not have a Mediator, but we will not be living without a Savior. Impossible! We don’t need a Mediator because the judgment is over, the verdict has been given in favor of the saints. But we will have to live by faith in a Savior, and the Holy Spirit will not be taken away from us (maybe from the world). But the question is, how do we prepare for this crisis? Well, I believe that Paul the Apostle has the answer. For example, in Ephesians 3, talking to a church that was facing real concerns about a crisis that was coming, his prayerful answer is, “Only those whose faith is rooted and grounded in the love of God will be able to stand” [see Ephesians 3:16-19]. And the reason he gives you is this: that if you are rooted and grounded in the love of God, you have the fullness of God in you, you have a faith that is unshakeable no matter what happens. In other words, as the book of Revelation says, “You have the faith of Jesus Christ,” a faith that endured the cross even though He felt God-abandoned. It is this unshakeable faith, rooted and grounded in the love of God, that Paul is discussing in our passage in this study, in Romans 8:31-39. Continue…
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 02:04:24 +0000
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