MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
God’s Saving Enmity
Part 20
ENMITY OF WORLDLY KINGDOMS AGAINST CHRIST’S KINGDOM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:12, KJV. That is, ALL who lovingly and willingly choose to faithfully and progressively obey God’s law and follow Christ’s example of living godly lives in and through Him, will, not might, suffer reproach and persecution.
As immediately recorded in Genesis, the very book of beginnings for fallen and sinful mankind’s instruction and warning, this painful truth was illustrated by and manifested in the life and consequent martyr’s death of the righteous Abel in the hands of his older brother Cain, the first unthankful and unholy rebel against God’s word of law, becoming the prototypical hater, persecutor, and murderer of his own brother of his own household. Thus, as the first human hater of righteousness and murderer of the righteous, God cursed him to be the first vagabond of fallen, sinful earth.
Cain stands as the head of the line of all the rebellious, unrighteous and wicked haters of truth and righteousness at the core of the great controversy between Christ and Satan and their respective “seeds” till “six thousand years of sin is ended” at His glorious second advent. Then commences the true Biblical millenium. (We will expound on this topic in a separate mini series).
In His sermon on the mount, Jesus introduced to the world He came to save the spiritual nature of His kingdom in His sermon on the mount. It is a kingdom of righteousness See Matthew, chapters 5-7. Hence, the “good news” of the Bible is the everlasting gospel of righteousness of Christ—the divine antidote against Satan’s dark kingdom of “unrighteousness, which is sin,” “the transgression of the law of God.”
In Matthew 5:10-12, Jesus declared to the multitudes and taught His disciples, saying,
“BLESSED are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for THEIRS is the KINGDOM of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall REVILE you, and PERSECUTE you, and shall SAY ALL MANNER OF EVIL against you FALSELY, FOR MY NAME’S SAKE.
"Rejoice, and be EXCEEDING glad: [Why] for GREAT is your reward [not ‘awards’] in heaven [not on earth]: for so PERSECUTED they the PROPHETS which were before you.” (All emphasis mine). It is only those who suffer for righteousness’ sake who receive a great reward in heaven, sharing the high, holy, and eternal distinction with the persecuted, faithful prophets of the Bible, Christ being the Arch Prophet or “Preacher and Teacher of Righteousness.”
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.