Devotions this week are based on Week 3 of “He Shall Be Called: Everlasting Father” (CLICK HERE)
At times I have heard people lament about the decrease in the confessing Christians in the United States. People who go to church, believe in God, or live by absolute truth all are on the decline. It’s easy to look to secular institutions to bring this back, almost demanding that people become believing, moral Christians. Someone asked me recently my take on “Christian Nationalism,” which, in my understanding, is the movement to make America Christian by the series of right laws and right politicians. Looking to the government to do what only the Gospel can do is aiding in the demise of Christianity in America because the government can’t replace the Gospel.
On very big reason why is politics and legislation are human inventions that have a lifespan. Governments are allowed by God, but are not eternal institutions. So to expect to the temporal to accomplish the eternal is never going to work.
But the eternal can accomplish the eternal. The message of grace found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is an eternal truth that has worked in the hearts of people for millennia. This message has changed lives and connected them to the eternal life that Jesus came to give.
The Church (capital C) is an eternal reality because it is founded on the eternal truth of the Gospel which rests on the eternal existence of the Everlasting Father, Jesus Christ.
Samuel John Stone, in 1860 captured this truth in the hymn, The Church’s One Foundation,
The church shall never perish! Her dear Lord, to defend,
to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end;
tho’ there be those that hate her and false sons in her pale,
against the foe or traitor she ever shall prevail.
When Peter made his confession of Jesus, Jesus promised that the opposition will never prevail against it.
Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock[b] I will build my church, and the gates of hell[c] shall not prevail against it.
What this means is that when we come to faith, we are connected to Christ. We become part of the eternal reality of God’s kingdom, his church. It will never fall. You are part of it and you get to share the eternal Gospel with the days God has given to you. This alone changes hearts, not politicians and legislation!
Apply: How does it feel to be part of an eternal reality of God’s Church?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, Eternal Father, thank you for connecting me to the eternal reality of your kingdom and Church. Use me in time to bring this eternal truth to many more souls! AMEN.