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Jesus died to save the world

1)            Try taking away John 3:16 from the Bible, and it will not minify the veridicality of the good Book of Jesus Christ or imperil its protocolary legality; neither will it bring about a falling apart or falling short of theological strength of God’s protocol. The only thing that will stand amiss is the expungement of the verse, the only verse that serves as the microcosm of the entire Bible of 31,102 verses of King James Version. The closest of global religious practices to Christianity is Islam which, tracing its faith to Father Abraham, lifts biblical teachings and the characters of prophetic offices from the Bible into the Qur’an. Muhammadan Qur’an, unfortunately, does not share one of the most important verse of the Bible: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What does this fact say of Islamism if the salvation of the Bible means nothing to Prophet Muhammad? In John 3:16 we have the thematic protrusions of: God, Son of God, giving, love, humanity and eternal life. Islam does not believe in the Fatherhood of God; it hates the Scriptural idea of Divine Sonship and eternality of life that the Son acquired for sinful humanity via the sanguineous death of the cross, bringing to fallen Adam the new and the living way.

John 3:16 – the entire Bible in one verse.

                John chapter three verse sixteen is the entire Bible compacted in one single verse. God’s intent and will bespeak its theological posture. God’s responsible stance is seen in His divine care for His creation. His beneficence is the gift of eternal life through the Author of creationism. God’s grand gift to the fallen Adamic creature is the soteriology. Most definitely, all that the LORD God is trying to communicate to mankind is none other than Jesus Christ. One classic Qur’anic chapter of Christ’s divine Sonship vitiation is the 112^th, titled Al-Ikhlas of which all the verses of 1-4 reads: “Say, “He is Allah, [who is] One, 2) Allah, the Eternal Refuge. 3) He neither begets nor is born, 4) Nor is there to Him any equivalent.” For this Muhammadan recitation, nothing changes the minds of true Moslems. However, the Bible is the finality of God’s dealings with humanity.

                For God so loved is seen in: Luke 2:14; Romans 5:8; 2Corinthians 5:19-21; Titus 3:3-7; 1John 4:8-10 and 1John 4:19. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). ‘Peace’ is eirene (ei-ree’-nee) ‘1. peace. 2. (by implication) prosperity.’ The love of God is most evident with the birth of Jesus Christ. Can anyone bring more pronounced peace other than that of the birth of Jesus; is He not the Prince of peace of Isaiah 9:6? The words ‘good will’ is eudokia (ev-d̮o-kiy’-a) ‘1. satisfaction. 2. (subjectively) delight. 3. (objectively) kindness, wish, purpose.’ God showered the yearning heart of mankind for divine intervention with goodwill. The word ‘man’, anthropos (an’-thrō-pos) means: ‘1. (literally) (a man-faced being, a man who has visibly come of age). 2. (concretely, in Hebrew) a clay being (a classification of beings made in the image of God, who made them male and female). 3. (generically, in English) a human being.’ God showered His divine love of eternality on creatures of Adam. What else can one expect from the LORD God who has a simple definition of “LOVE”?

                “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The English ‘commendeth’ is the Greek sunistao (sïn-iy-staō’) ‘1. to set together. 2. (by implication) to introduce (favorably). 3. (figuratively) to exhibit. 4. (intransitively) to stand near. 5. (figuratively) to constitute.’ Let us look at ‘love’, agapē (a-ğa’-pee) ‘1. love (i.e. affection or benevolence). 2. (specially, plural) love feasts.’ We had not ceased in our wanton sinfulness when God decided to adorn us with His agape. The word ‘yet’, eti (e’-tiy), is: ‘still (of time or degree)’. Christ entered into death situation for us, to conquer the adverse effect of the original sin on our behalf. Agapē is truly an act of sheer commitment, backed by divine constitutionality, no one can circumduct the terms of this redemptive love; nowhere in Scripture can one read of the abrogation of the Golgotha substitutionary death, therefore, no other religious book or leader can change this Testamentary fact. Was it not while we were yet sinners that God commendeth His soteriological love? We did not do anything to earn this love, ergo, there is absolutely nothing we can do maintain this love; the LORD God Himself wrote the terms of its constitutional legality; and what is more? He is eternally committed to this agape.   

                “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20) Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Corinthians 5:19-21). God was right inside, by and through Jesus ‘reconciling’, which is the Greek katallasso (ka-tal-las’-sō): ‘1. to change mutually. 2. (figuratively) to reconcile.’ The reconciling to Himself is the ‘world’ which is kosmos (koz’-mos): ‘1. orderly arrangement, i.e. decoration. 2. (by implication) the world including its inhabitants; {literally or figuratively (morally), by implication “world” in a wide or narrow sense}’. Only the sinless God can author the soteriology. Sinless Christ Jesus must be of the Divinity to carry out the katallasso. How does Muhammadan faith offer salvation?

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be continued…)

Read Part Two here

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