O THE PREACHER the Gospel is the Word of God that has an active power in the world resembling that

of a double edged sword, i.e. it pierces the power of the stubborn and renegade in the same way the sword

pierces the body severing its flesh from its bones. Yet the sword of the word is living, able to separate the soul

from the body meaning that it, the word of God, differentiates between that which is of the body and that which

is of the spirit1. Thus its action is to distinguish between that which is the truth and that which is false, or what is

God’s and what is the world’s. Hence the gospel of Christ is reckoned a new power of God, previously unknown

in the world of man. The knowledge here is not an earthly intellectual knowledge but the knowledge of

revelation where the truth of God is separated from among the untruths of the world. Christ enters man’s

spiritual world to lead him to the salvation God prepared for His chosen who believe in Christ. Thus God offers

man a new life through the spirit elevating him from the world of falsehoods to the summit of glory in heaven by

means of Jesus Christ who conquered2 the world for us giving to the renewed man a conquered world. Christ

opened for us the way to eternal life through His cross which by His death on it is counted that man also attained

through it death to the world, and with resurrection from death entered eternal life. It is as if the Body, the body

of Christ, is the new living way man crossed entering consequently the Holiest.3This is the synopsis of salvation

that came into the world of man to give him a new birth through the spirit if he believes in Christ, the death He

accepted on the cross and the resurrection that raised us with Him to eternal life.

The death given to us through Christ’s death is death to the world and victory over the devil which Christ

gained on the cross with all His aides4. It was also reckoned death to sin of the first degree, Christ having

annulled death and its power, illuminating the new life and immortality5 for us not to go back to bondage

anymore if we give over our will and desire to Christ. Because the Bible says: “For it is God who works in you

both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”6 Meaning that Christ’s readiness to help the sinner is for him to

return from sinning and hold on to life with God. The Apostle Paul here offers his son Timothy a golden rule:

“lay hold on eternal life.”7 This means to pursue godliness, purity and chastity, denying all desires of the flesh

and of the world, and instead to strive spiritually to annul the desires of the body and of the world. God will

consequently give us entrance to His beloved Son’s Kingdom with abundance.8 This can be translated to us now by the ease and grace Christ bestows on those who hold on to godliness and the chastity of the body striving through the spirit with living hope in the righteousness of Christ.

Now we in Christ do not strive alone but the eye of God is wide open on His children who are walking in the

way of eternal life that is filled with pitfalls and the devil’s resistance. Yet in all of it we are greater than

victorious through Him who loves us and surrendered Himself for us9. Christ’s sacrifice is alive before God His

Father through its blood, interceding for the sinner for whom Christ died to save.

The cross is a blaring invitation in the sinner’s ear: the cost of sin is very dear, Christ having paid it with His

blood and nothing can hinder our way to Him.

Prayer

Lord, You are my pride, and Your gospel is my glory raising my head,

To whom can we but resort, with the words of everlasting life being Yours,

I have loved you, Lord, because You are my salvation and strength

Your living words give me life and support,

Your Gospel is sweet, better than the delight of this ephemeral world,

I possess it as the greatest possession and preserve it in my heart as the greatest gift.

July 6, 2005

1 Note Heb 4:12.

2 Note John 16:33.

3 Note Hebrews 10:20.

4 Note Col 2:14, 15.

5 Note 2Tim 1:10.

6 Phil 2:13.

7 1Tim 6:12.

8 Note Col 1:13; 2Pet 1:11.

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