Holy
Week and the Gospel of our Salvation
The Holy Week began with the marking of the entry of our
Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem as Israel was beginning the annual observance
of Passover. The Week would end with the Lord’s crucifixion, death, burial and
Resurrection. Most important for Christians today is our understanding of the meaning
of the events that took place at the end of the Week. They are the key to our
eternal salvation.
At the beginning of the Week, the Lord’s disciples and
many other followers in Israel were anticipating the arrival of their Messiah. Some
threw their garments, others threw palm branches and leaves in His path and cried
out: “Hosanna, Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the
LORD.” (John 12: 13; Matthew 21: 8-9). But
knowing what the next days would bring through their (Israel’s) rejection, the
Lord quietly lamented, saying: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets
and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy
children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would
not!” (Luke 13: 34)
The Lord knew that the Jews required a sign before they would
believe. However, they would not
believe, even after His many miracles and signs and wonders throughout the
three years of His Earthly Ministry to prove that He was truly the Son of God.
(John 6: 2; 12: 37-41; 21: 25; 1 Corinthians 1:22)
The Omniscient / All-Knowing Lord knew the many forces at
work that restrained Israel’s belief in Him. However, He still must have felt
regret that the sins of man had compelled this step to restore man to God. Remember
that it was the first man Adam’s unbelief and the resulting sin against God
that led to this situation. (Genesis Chapter Three) The scripture would later reveal to us
through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans the following: “For I would not, brethren, that ye
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own
conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of
the Gentiles be come in.” (Romans 11: 25)
That reference to Israel’s
blindness has direct implications for us as Christians today. Through the
scripture we learned that Israel will continue to be “blinded” to the fact that
our Lord Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah, and that He is going to return
as their King. (Psalm 2: 1-8; Isaiah 9: 6-7; Daniel 2: 44; Revelation 19: 1-16;
and others.) As a result of Israel’s rejection, the Lord turned to Saul / Paul
of Tarsus to bring the message of salvation directly to the Gentile world.
(Acts 9: 1-16) [You recall that the message
of salvation through adherence to God’s Moral Law was to have been delivered by
the Nation of Israel acting as “priests” on behalf of God. (Exodus 19: 1-8) But human weaknesses and their sin-nature inherited
from Adam blocked their efforts.]
The scripture’s note of
the duration of Israel’s blindness “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” refers
to the completion of the full complement of Gentile believers that will fill
the Lord’s spiritual body , called the “Body of Christ” (https://www.gotquestions.org/body-of-Christ.html
; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_of_Christ
)
Today the path to salvation
for both Jew and Gentile alike is that we recognize and embrace who our Lord
Jesus Christ is (the Son of God); and what He accomplished during those last
three days of Holy Week. Many Christians haven’t studied the specific steps of
what was accomplished by the Lord during each of those days. However, God didn’t
want our salvation to be a difficult task requiring intense study.
The following two scriptures show that He asks only that we believe…have
faith in the Gospel that leads to the eternal salvation of our spirit /
soul:
· 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4
“Moreover, brethren, I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have
received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are
saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you
first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
· Romans 10: 9-13
9 That if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
11 For the scripture saith,
Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
This Week Christians mark the terrible suffering that the Lord
endured because of our sins: His mental anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane; His
scourging and other torture of His body at the hands of the Roman soldiers; His Crucifixion and death on Calvary’s Cross.;
His burial; and then His triumph and victory over death demonstrated through
His Resurrection on the third day. Through
His shed blood, He was able to pay for the sins of all mankind. (Hebrews
Chapter Nine, especially Verse 22; Galatians 3: 13-14; 1 John 2:2; )…but a
person has to believe the Gospel to receive their eternal salvation.
May you have a very blessed weekend, as we look ahead to the day we
will one day be in the presence of our Lord Jesus, to personally thank Him for
redeeming us.
Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson
No comments:
Post a Comment