“To Love Christ”
THE REFUGE By Rodney Nantz
Dear Christian, let us not be deceived concerning our salvation and where we shall spend eternity. The truth is we will either enter into God’s eternal kingdom to spend eternity with Jesus Christ, Who took upon Himself the wrath of God for all who would come to Him, or we shall perish under the torments of hellfire where God’s justice will be poured out upon those who reject Him.
This, no doubt, is a weighty subject that has been rejected by many evangelicals of our day, but has been preached from the beginning of time, as it was written in the book of Jude, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” I write this because there is a faith in Christ that is either driven by emotion or intellectualism or tradition or heritage apart from the operative work of the Holy Spirit upon the soul. You must know this because this faith will not stand at the end of the age when God will judge the secrets of men in Christ Jesus but will be cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
My friends, please, believe me, I beg you. The only faith that truly saves you from the wrath that is to come is when the Holy Spirit acts upon the dead heart of the One Whom God is saving and breathes life into it. The Holy Spirit illuminates to you the treachery of your own rebellious heart; He leads you to the cross to see a bleeding Savior, Jesus Christ, Who has taken your punishment upon Himself. He produces in you, by the supernatural work of regeneration, a love for Jesus that leads you to hate sin and love and pursue holiness. This love is effectual and rises within you like a wellspring of water from the very depth of your soul where your deepest affections lie. It is a love that will contend with the cultural sins of this age that has desensitized your mind and will recondition your conscience with incessant longings for the pure milk of God’s living word. It is a love that will give you an intrinsic desire to see the kingdom of Satan destroyed and to see people come to a true knowledge of the One Who saved you.
Well, one might say, “But one day I went to an event and repeated a prayer the preacher asked me to repeat, and He said if I believe it, I will not go to hell.” But I say to you, “Do you understand that you are fully deserving of God’s eternal wrath, and apart from the grace of Jesus, you will surely perish? Has this brought you into contention with your worldly desires? Do you love Him and cast yourself down before him as Paul crying, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the One who wants to do good? For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Do not be deceived, beloved. If you know the Father, you will love Jesus and walk according to His teachings. Believing in Jesus is not like believing your car will start when you turn the ignition, but it is a full dependence upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not only this, but this message of truth, concerning your dependence upon Jesus, is written upon your heart with an iron stylus that cannot be removed, and it produces in you holiness.