Perspectives

It is interesting how perspective changes how we see and interact with the issues we see as being important. Take the life of Yeshua. He said many wise and important things. 1) He said that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Yet to many this is a contradiction. 2) Yeshua became the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. In him we are set free so surely he has made the law redundant. No he has made what was unobtainable under the law possible under grace. Through the indwelling of the holy spirit and the propitiation of our sins in Yeshua we are free of sin and able to keep the law in him.

But a persons perspective colors the way they see reality. Some say we are still under the law. Some say we don’t even need to know the law because we are under grace. Some say we need to know the law and we can keep the law because in the power of the holy spirit we are free from sin. This is an important theological issue and yet there is a circumstance which makes this issue irrelevant.

 

I received a prayer list from Barnabas Fund recently. One of the first calls to prayer described Pastor Stephen in Sudan. In the early hours of the morning Islamists arrived at his house demanding to know why he was still preaching Yeshua. His preaching has led many new converts to the Lord. They cut the limbs of each member of his family until they died. Stephen preached to them and sang Hosanna until he died.

Martyrdom brings things into sharp focus. A theological knowledge is handy but it is a first world matter. What really matters is that you have a hope of salvation. That you know Yeshua bore your sins on the cross. That you have confessed your sins to him and asked him to be your savior and to make his place in your heart and life. DO YOU HAVE A HOPE OF SALVATION.