MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 8, 2023
God’s Saving Enmity
Part 43
HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WITH WHOM AND OVER WHAT IS THE ENMITY MANIFESTED
“And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be deprived. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3:19-21, KJV. Thus declared Jesus Christ, who “in the beginning was the Word, was with God and was God,” verily “the Light and Life of the world,” “the only-begotten of the Father in and through whom He “created all things and upholds all things by the word of His power,” incarnate in human flesh and blood nature, the Lamb of God who alone can take away the sins of the world, the Redeemer, Savior, High Priest, Advocate, Intercessor, Mediator, and concurrently the righteous Judge of all the earth.
The image-character of Him “who is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” and “in whom is there is no variableness nor shadow of turning” being “the fulness of the Godhead bodily” is revealed “to the world, men, and angels” in the law of Him who is the “one and only Lawgiver.” This law is His everlasting covenant between Creator and creature, Savior and the eternally-saved. Deut. 4:13; Rev. 22: 14, KJV.
So why did fallen, sinful humanity of the world He created “not know Him nor His very own people, the Jewish nation of His time, refused “to receive Him,” but instead falsely accused Him to be crucified by their hated national enemies at that time—Rome of the Caesar’s? See John 1: 1-11)? Because of the difference rendered by the enmity of Gen. 3:15.
Note the following:
“The difference between the character of Christ and the character of other men in His day was everywhere apparent and because of this difference the WORLD HATED HIM. It hated Him because of His goodness and His STRICT INTEGRITY. And Christ declared that those who manifest the SAME attributes would be LIKEWISE hated. As we NEAR the end of time this hatred for the followers of Christ will be MORE AND MORE MANIFEST. . . . When the light of heaven [of the present, testing truths of the gospel for the last days] rests upon us CONTINUALLY [not intermittently, sporadically, compulsively-impulsively], we shall REPRESENT Christ. It was the RIGHTEOUSNESS [‘unrighteousness is sin.’ 1 John 5:17) revealed [manifested] in His life that DISTINGUISHED [made Him ‘separate,’ ‘peculiar and distinct’] from the world and called forth its HATRED.” – E. G. White, Manuscript 97, Oct. 16. 1909; Upward Look, p. 303.
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.