Christ Coming vs. Christ Crucified

by: Roger and Eileen Himes

Let’s begin with the obvious: Jesus is coming back! Acts 1:11 says so. None of us believes this world we know is all there is. BUT STOP! If our focus is on the future, and not the finished work of Jesus’ cross, we are living in unbelief! — not in faith! Jesus says ALL prophecies were fulfilled in his cross — in his finished work (Luke 24:44). John 19:30 quotes Jesus’ dying declaration: “It is finished!”

THE ISSUE IS SIMPLE! If we believe Jesus, we begin living gospel Christianity. But many believe a futuristic rhetoric that has no revelation of the gospel of the finished work of the cross. Did Jesus tell us the truth, or not? Did he lie to us? Did he finish things, as he said he did, or did he not? Check in with your heart: what do YOU think?

IS JESUS COMING BACK TO FIGHT SATAN AGAIN? He defeated him so badly, he made a public spectacle of him (Col 2:15). Jesus destroyed Satan’s works (I John 3:18). Luke 10:18 says Jesus saw Satan fall ‘like lightning’ from heaven (this means God really gave him the boot!) I Corinthians 2:8 says Satan would have never crucified Jesus if he had known the victory this would produce. Luke 10:19 says Jesus gives US all authority over Satan. Peter says Satan is ‘a roaring lion.” This is because ‘THE Lion’ (Jesus) pulled out all his teeth, and declawed him! All Satan can do now is roar!

It is SATAN who says Jesus did not defeat him totally, and that he has to come back and win at Armageddon! This is NOT the faith of gospel Christianity. If a country totally defeats and annihilates another country, do they then return and fight them again? Absolutely not!

DID JESUS FAIL THE FIRST TIME? Is the Father sending him back to clean up a mess he only said he finished? You must believe this somewhat, to believe some of the end time hype about all that is going to happen with Christ coming.

CHRIST CRUCIFIED carries much more weight than CHRIST COMING (I Cor 2:2): “It is finished!” Jesus IS coming back, but it is ONLY to bring finality to his already finished work!

THE CROSS IS THE FOCUS OF ALL WORLD HISTORY! Hebrews 9:10 calls it ‘the reformation.’ Hebrews 10:9 says this means Jesus ‘took away’ the old religious system, and ‘established’ a new spiritual paradigm. Paul says, because of this, ‘ALL things became new’ (II Cor 5:17). Jesus BECAME sin so we could BECOME the righteousness of God in him (II Cor 5:21).

SATAN’S GREATEST GOAL: DESTROY GOSPEL FAITH! Paul says this in II Corinthians 4:4. If Satan can do this, he has us building our lives on the sand, not on the ‘Rock’ (Matt 7:25-27). He has us playing in his sandbox! If Satan has us so FUTURE minded that the FINISHED work of the cross is not our focus, then our minds are blinded to the glorious gospel of Christ.

THE GOSPEL IS CHRIST CRUCIFIED: “IT IS FINISHED!” If we don’t have faith in the gospel, Hebrews 4:2 says the gospel doesn’t ‘profit us.’ Galatians 5:2 says “Christ profits us nothing.’ Satan does not want us living in truth, but in his lies, or his half-truths. The gospel is PRESENT REALITY. Satan does not want us to live in reality, but to live in a ’Disneyland’ type of FUTURE FANTASY.

Present reality is not the FUTURE end times. It is the FINISHED work of the cross of Jesus!

JESUS WON’T DO WHAT HE HAS ALREADY DONE! Jesus will return BUT… NOT for the reasons end time gurus say he’s coming back for! Most end time theology is built on the SAND of a lack of faith in the gospel. It is not built on revelation knowledge of the gospel, which is this ROCK of finished work of Jesus Christ.

YES, JESUS IS RETURNING TO THIS EARTH! But he asks, “Will I find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Check your heart as to WHY you long for that day. Are you just looking for a good fight against Satan, — and so you can rule with Jesus? That is exactly what the Jews asked for 2,000 years ago (see Acts 1:6).

Preachers are selling, and many Christians are buying a theology devoid of faith in the finished work of the cross. Paul says they are ‘enemies of the cross of Christ’ (Phil 3:18). This doesn’t mean they hate Jesus, but just that they do not preach the FINISHED work of his cross, which is the truth we proclaim in The Practical Gospel.

See Also:

The Training Of Peter
Everyone has to learn to submit one's inner being to the Spirit so that he can train us and turn us into people who are useful for doing his work, whatever that might be. Peter, the first of Jesus' disciples was no different. We can learn much by considering him as a an example of someone Jesus had to train for his service.

Discipleship - Following Jesus
Jesus made it very clear that discipleship is not an easy life. It is a life of constant change. To follow, we will have to count our relationship to Jesus as more important than our family and friends.

The Day I Met Jesus
The Samaritan woman tells us the story of how she met Jesus.

Roger and Eileen Himes publish a short gospel newsletter twice a week that helps begin and end the week on higher spiritual ground. Subscribe by emailing: GospelSnapshots@Royal-Responder.com. As our website describes, it is all about http://www.ThePracticalGospel.com/finished.htm . It is all about living in the power of the finished work of the cross of Jesus Christ.

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