The Lion

December 29, 2018

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Hebrews 1:3-4

Hebrews is probably the most bold and straightforward book when it comes to describing Jesus' divinity. This is probably the main book I bring people to who question the Trinity, or Christ's divinity. Later in verse 8, God the Father says this of His Son, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom." Jesus is God, He is Ruler, King, and Judge. This is something that the church (or the American church at large), has softened. We take Christ and accept Him as our friend, our buddy, or our "daddy", and have reduced the gospel of Christ to Him merely helping us through our "issues". People treat Christ as their therapist and nothing more. A lot of people come to church during the holiday season and many (sadly) will not hear the true gospel.

The gospel is not that of coming to Jesus to "make your life better". The gospel most people hear is that "Jesus loves you and wants a relationship. No matter what you are going through, whether it's drugs, heartbreak, depression, you fill in the blank, Jesus wants to fill that hole in your heart." There are problems with this gospel because well, it is not the gospel! The word gospel just means "good news". We can't have the good news without the bad news. The bad news is that we are all filthy, dirty rotten sinners. And because of our sin we deserve eternal hell, because we've offended an eternal God, and no good works can save us. Now the good news is actually good news, that Christ died and took your punishment on His behalf, and we accept that by faith and repentance. Yes, everything else mentioned above is true. Jesus does want a relationship with us. He does want to help us out of our depression, or anything else. But to mention all of that without first mentioning sin, hell and repentance is a false gospel, and damnable one at that.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8

The gospel without sin, hell and repentance is not the gospel. People are tricked into a false conversion believing they are saved just because they asked Christ into their heart, or because they said some special prayer. They come to Christ to help them through their problems only to find out that their problems got worse because they are now "Christian" and have lost friends or family. Or they find out they're still just as sick or depressed as before, so they leave the faith. The Bible even speaks of many who will stand before God on judgement day believing they are saved only to be sent to hell (Matthew 7:21-23). We come to Christ because He is our only escape, our only hope to be saved from His wrath. Don't get me wrong, Christ does care about your problems, He is our Wonderful Counselor, but He is also Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, which means savior! Savior from what? From hell! I love what my pastor said this last Sunday before Christmas in regards to Christ. He spoke about how during Christmas we view Jesus as "tender and mild", or as the "Lamb"... but we need not forget to look in that manger and also see a Lion.

Christ's first coming was to save us from His wrath, it was a peaceful coming. His second coming is His wrath, and He is coming with a sword, and His robe will be dripped in blood. "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness..." ( Hebews 1:9) In a culture that has watered down the character of Christ we must remember Him as He truly is. Not just as our Wonderful Counselor, but as Judge who will judge the world with His wrath. Not just as the Lamb, but as the Lion who has teeth. Not just as the Prince of Peace, but as the King who will come again and will rule the sceptre of righteousness.

Christ must be feared. He must be honored. He must be praised. We come to Christ because of what He has done. We come to Christ because He purchased us with His blood and He deserves every part of our being. I hate to break it to ya, but Jesus isn't coming to your pity party. To come to Christ for any other reason without first coming to Him with brokenness, faith and repentance is only selfishness. It's like modern medicine and trying to treat the symptoms without first addressing the problem. All our trials, all our depression, all our darkness, everything can be traced back to sin. We must bow at His feet and beg for mercy. It's time to take Christ off of our trendy hashtags and t-shirts and put Him back on the throne. He must be feared. He must be praised.

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