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Gerry Gutierrez' Update
Death is gain. Matthew 27: 45- 56. A taste of heaven changes our view of death. It is by given up
that you gain just us keeping is that you lose. The shortest road is the
longest road, just as the fastest way is the slowest way. Humility is true
strength while pride is true weakness. Take these truths in childlikeness.
By living one remains alone, while dying one is
fruitful as the grain of wheat that must die, otherwise it remains alone.
ÒDeath is gainÓ When Jesus died,
life sprang up immediately, as the tombs were open and the dead raised as the first fruits among the living. After Jesus's
resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
ÒDeath is gain.Ó I order to be
alive the body needs the spirit but in order to have a life the body must give
up the spirit, therefore death is a transitionary
state, whereby the body and the spirit are separated and the Spirit gains
freedom from the confinement in the body of death. ÒThe body is weak but the
spirit is willingÓ. The letter of the law kills, while the spirit of the law
brings life. Life is a person
and that person is Jesus. When Jesus became sin for us, he could not at the
same time be in God. It is to Jesus as ÒSinÓ that God turned his back and that
was the death of Jesus that came to him moments before he gave up the Spirit
and breathed his last breath. The death of
Jesus should not be taking as the stop breathing. Death to Jesus arrived to him
before he stops breathing. It came when his father was separated from him in
true abandonment, a sinful man and a Holy God could not co-exist as one. Jesus
was truly forsaken by God long enough to fulfill the requirements of the law
and justice of God on behalf of man. The death of
Jesus was our execution as fellows by the only one who has the right to kill.
If it is recorded in the words of his own son, is for us as a testimony of the
love of God expressed in the next words. ÒFor God so loved
the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believeth I
him may not perish but have everlasting life. ÒThis is
Gospel truth.Ó
The body of Jesus, separated from the Spirit was
left on the cross, lifeless or without LIFE, or without Jesus. It was to the
dead body that the Roman soldiers speared on his side. Later Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus placed the body of Jesus in the
tomb, while Jesus in a twinkling of an eye was very much alive and taking care
of his promise to a repentant thief to whom he has promised:
ÒToday you will be with me in Paradise.Ó
ÒDeath is gainÓ The first want to
gain the benefits of the death of Jesus was the dying thief, and that by grace
alone, so no one can boast from the first of the last. ÒSalvation is of
the Lord aloneÓ.
In obedience to
prophecy and predestined before the foundation of the World, Jesus was
delivered to accomplish on the cross the work of redemption and resurrection to
bear fruit. The word of God and his will is bound to prevail immutably,
precisely, exactly, unchangeably, irresistibly, faithfully, reliably and more
precisely than the constant of the speed of light.
Heaven and earth
will pass away, but his words will never pass away. The Lord is faithful to his
word. God said, the soul who sins will die. That's also gospel truth. That is
the justice of God. It will be so and no other way. All have sinned. There is
no one good, not even one.
Therefore, all
are under condemnation and ready to face the wrath of God in eternal separation
from God. But God, who is rich in mercy and full of compassion; ÒSo loved the
world that he gave up his son for us to die on our place in order to satisfy
his own just on legal requirements.
In Jesus
we died to no longer live for ourselves but Jesus in us as the hope of glory.
That's why for us the redeemed, to live is Christ and to die is gain. We no
longer live but Christ lives in us. God is love and because of his love we are
saved. It is the love of God that constrains me to love him and those he love.
I am deeply thankful to the love of God for
me in Jesus. I know he loves me and loves me totally. But what keeps me firm
and secure in his love, is the justice of God, whereby I know that God is
faithful to his promises of rewards and punishments and also to disciplines as
a father who did not spare his own son.
Therefore
he will not spare me in his great love as a father from discipline. It is GodÕs
will is for me to be holy like him and humble like Jesus his son.
It is snowing the justice of God that I have come to
fear the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. It is in that fear and by grace I
know that death is gain and to live is Christ. I trust his word and I want more
than anything else to be a witness of Jesus as Jesus was the witness of his
father. Pray that my life be fruitful, by life or by death. Gerry Gutierrez.
(Joseph Stephen.)
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