Jesus said
that a tree will be known by its fruit.[1] If
the fruit is evil, the tree is evil. If the fruit looks like murder, rape,
violence, hatred, terrorism, it is because the tree is evil.
Now, when the
world appears to be going from bad to worse, just as the Bible described a
couple of millennia ago,[2]
and those who profess faith in Jesus Christ are a special target of the evil
tree, what hope do the righteous have when they are unwilling to use the same
murderous violence as the wicked?
The secret
(not really secret) is in the same place the righteous get their righteousness:
in Jesus Christ.
What I mean is
that, those who are righteous in God’s eyes, are only righteous through their
faith in Christ. The Bible says, “And to
the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith
is counted as righteousness.”[3]
The apostle Paul declared of himself, “not
having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes
through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”[4]Those
who have faith in Jesus Christ have the righteousness that makes us right with
God.
Our hope comes
from the same place as our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ. He created us
to be like himself.[5]He
came into our sin-cursed world to redeem us out of our sin.[6] All
those he redeemed have the promise of eternal life which includes living with
him forever.[7]
While we wait for that glorious day of living with God forever, we have “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”[8]
Believers in Jesus
Christ have righteousness by faith, we have Christ in us by faith, we have the
hope of glory by faith, and so we know that the ugly and evil things taking
place in the world will do nothing to diminish what Jesus is preparing for his
brothers.
One of the
very special revelations of our hope in Jesus Christ is the amazing picture of
Revelation 12. It is a wonderful picture because, at least in part, pictures are
sometimes easier to remember than words. Not only that, pictures that are worth
a thousand words are a lot easier to carry for those times when we need
thousands of words to comfort our hearts.
Jesus, knowing
what his family would go through during these last days, told us about the
animosity of the most evil being of all, the red dragon. He is “that ancient serpent, who is called the
devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.”[9] He
would try to destroy Jesus, but fail.[10]
He would fight against the angels of heaven, and lose.[11]He
would be thrown down from heaven because there was no place for him with God.[12]
The defeat of
the red dragon, and the victory of God’s children, is described like this:
And I
heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser
of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our
God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.[13]
The red dragon
has been cast down, and the church has “conquered
him,” but they have done this only “by
the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” The blood of the
Lamb is all about Jesus’ work of redemption, the new covenant in his blood,[14] and
the word of our testimony is all about our connection to this new covenant by
faith, by confession of Jesus as Lord, by a personal testimony of experiencing
redemption by faith in Jesus Christ.
However, this
conquering of the red dragon has a distinctive characteristic during our
time-bound lives. It is that, “they loved
not their lives even unto death.” Now, keep this in context. This is not
talking about people who do not love life, but people who do not love this
inferior earthly life. It is because there is a better life, that eternal life
we were speaking of earlier, that Jesus’ brothers do not love their present
earthly life so much that they would run from death.
As brother
Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.”[15]He
wrote that from prison (yes, the evil tree bore its evil fruit back then as
well). If he was released, his life was Christ. If he was to die, he gained an
even better experience of life. He did not love his earthly life so much as to fear
death, and knew that his death from this earthly life would give him the life
he longed for, to be forever with the Lord.
This
conquering view of the troubles of this earthly life was also expressed in this
way, “But we are not of those who shrink
back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”[16]Do
you see that? Those who shrink back from death because they do not trust Jesus are
destroyed, while those who have faith preserve their souls no matter what is
done to them in this earthly lifetime.
Now we have a
bittersweet reality. The sweet is that the red dragon has been cast down in
defeat. The shout of joy is, “Therefore,
rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!”[17]
However, guess
where Satan has been thrown down to? You guessed it, the earth. And so we have
this bitter warning, “But woe to you, O
earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he
knows that his time is short!”[18]
While time sometimes appears to carry on forever, in the spiritual realm, the
red dragon knows his time is short. There is a lake of fire waiting for him,
prepared for him,[19]
and he knows he cannot avoid it. So, because he is evil-hearted, he will carry
out as much evil against humanity in general, and Jesus’ brothers in
particular, venting his wrath against God who has defeated him.
This explains
what we see in our world. Satan works through those who serve him to vent his
wrath. He knows his times is short. He knows he has lost. He knows there is no
place for him in heaven. He knows there is much-deserved judgment awaiting him.
His wicked tree is bearing much wicked fruit.
How do we look
at the church, since the red dragon is so intent on destroying it. We see
videos of awful atrocities against Christians, including murders by the
hundreds. Does this deny that Jesus’ brothers have conquered by his blood, and
by their testimony? Not at all.
One of my
favorite thousand-words-in-one-image is described in this beautiful picture.
Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard
one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” And I
looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was
given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.[20]
This is an
easy to remember picture of the church that goes out “conquering, and to conquer” through the blood of the Lamb and the
word of their testimony. This is the church that is “more than conquerors through him who loved us.”[21]
These are the heirs of the promise that, “everyone
who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has
overcome the world—our faith.”[22]
Which brings
us back to the wonderful reality that those who have righteousness by faith in Jesus
Christ also have hope by faith in Jesus Christ. There is no hope for an earthly
life that is free of the wicked tree and its fruit. But there is hope of
eternal life where we will be just like Jesus when we see him as he is.[23] It
will be in heaven, where the red dragon has forever lost his place. It is the
one life worth dying for.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Luke 6:43-45
[2]
II Timothy 3:13
[3]
Romans 4:5
[4]
Philippians 3:9
[5]
Genesis 1:26-27; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16
[6]
Isaiah 44:22; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:15
[7]
John 3:16; John 14:1-6; Revelation 21:1-4
[8]
Colossians 1:27
[9]
Revelation 12:9
[10]
Revelation 12:1-6
[11]
Revelation 12:7-9
[12]
Revelation 12:9
[13]
Revelation 12:10-11
[14]
Luke 22:20
[15]
Philippians 1:21
[16]
Hebrews 10:39
[17]
Revelation 12:12
[18]
Revelation 12:12
[19]
Matthew 25:41
[20]
Revelation 6:1-2
[21]
Romans 8:37
[22]
I John 5:4
[23]
I John 3:1-2
No comments:
Post a Comment