Let God Be True…
This verse came to me today as I was pondering the recent events at my husband’s job. [Edit: What started out as a blog about my husband’s job has completely changed direction, so don’t expect some long-winded gripe about what’s happening there. Instead, I present a long-winded explanation of what God has shown me about this verse in the last hour.]
I did a bit of research on this verse–the context comes from Paul explaining to the Romans that Jews and Gentiles have the same claim to heaven, and that just because the Jews were God’s chosen people does not give them a “get out of jail free” card. God is always faithful to keep His promises, and that includes His promise that ANYONE who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will not perish, but have everlasting life.
The definition of perish in this sense, from the Greek, means to destroy, or:
1. to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to ruin
2. render useless
3. to kill
4. to declare that one must be put to death
5. metaph. to devote or give over to eternal misery in hell
6. to perish, to be lost, ruined, destroyed
Okay, so that’s God’s promise. If I believe in Jesus, none of this stuff will happen to me. If I don’t, it will. It has nothing to do with culture, religion, denomination, what have you.
To me, that word has an eternal context. My eternal soul is safe now. But what about life on earth? What about right now? Well, Jesus guarantees that we will have trouble in this world, but never fear, He has overcome the world. So believing in Jesus has benefits for this life too. And since God is true, and it says He will work out all things for the good of those who love Him and follow His statutes, He will.
This is getting really really long, so I am now concluding part I of my diatribe.