MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 20, 2024
The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 3
THE VERY FIRST ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’
This brings us right back to a subject we just covered as a series yet now with added insight and enlightenment, as can only be expected from God’s inexhaustible mine of truth! Quoting from Haskell’s The Cross and its Shadow, pp. 19-21 (emphasis mine):
“To every voyager on the storm-tossed sea of life, the Lord has given a COMPASS which, if rightly used, will safely guide him into the eternal haven of rest [the ‘place’ Christ went ‘prepare’]. It was given to our first parents at the GATE of Eden. The compass CONSISTS of the following words, which were spoken by the Lord to Satan: “I will put ENMITY between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.’ [Gen. 3:15].
“In EVERY HEART God has planted [even as He ‘planted’ the garden of Eden for Adam and Eve] an enmity to sin [the transgression of the law’], which, IF HEEDED, will lead to righteousness and eternal life. Any man, whatever his station or rank in life, who will ABSOLUTELY FOLLOW the divine compass placed in his heart, will 1) accept Christ as his Savior [from sin and sinning] and 2) be led into the sunlight of God’s love and approval (John 1:9).
“As the result of our first parents’ eating of the forbidden fruit, over all the earth hung the gloom of the divine decree [the ‘curse of sin’], ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die’ (Gen. 2:17, margin). The marks of death and decay were soon seen in the falling leaves and withered flowers. There was NO ESCAPING the decree, ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Rom. 6:23).
“But a ray of light penetrated the darkness when God spoke the following words, ‘It (the Seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel’(Gen. 3:15). These words revealed the fact that for those who would CHERISH THE ENMITY AGAINST SIN which God had placed in the heart, there was a WAY OF ESCAPE FROM DEATH. They would live, and Satan would die; but BEFORE his death he would ‘bruise the heel’ of the Seed of the woman. This was necessary in order that the DEATH OF SATAN might be made sure, and that MANKIND MIGHT ESCAPE ETERNAL DEATH.
“In order that man might realize the ENORMITY of sin, which would TAKE THE LIFE of the sinlesss Son of God, he was required to bring an INNOCENT LAMB, confess his sins over its head, then with HIS OWN HANDS take its life, A TYPE of Christ’s LIFE.
“This SIN-OFFERING was BURNED, typifying that through the DEATH of Christ all sin would FINALLY be destroyed at the FIRES OF THE LAST DAY (Mal. 4: 1-3).” End quote.To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.