“Wail, for THE DAY OF THE LORD IS AT HAND! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore…Every man’s heart will melt, And they will be afraid…Behold, THE DAY OF THE LORD COMES, Cruel, with both WRATH AND FIERCE ANGER, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine. “I WILL PUNISH THE WORLD FOR ITS EVIL, AND THE WICKED FOR THEIR INIQUITY; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” (Isaiah 13:6-11) In the Old Testament the expression “day of the Lord” occurs twenty seven times. It is referred to five times in the New Testament. Our Lord God has been incredibly merciful in putting up with our disobedience. We were in desperate need of a savior! So God sent us Jesus.
Jesus didn’t come to defeat the oppressive Roman empire with weapons of violence. Instead, Jesus came to conquer the underlying issue, THE SIN THAT EXISTS WITHIN MAN that has been leading us astray into more and more evil. To defeat this evil, JESUS TOOK ON THE FULL POWER OF SIN AND EVIL when He died on the cross, ALLOWING EVIL TO FULLY EXHAUST ITSELF ON HIM and overcoming its one and only weapon — death. In doing this, Jesus gave us POWER OVER SIN and death themselves through the forgiveness that He offered, which dealt evil a crushing blow.
“CHRIST…DIED TO SIN ONCE FOR ALL…SO CONSIDER YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD TO SIN, BUT ALIVE TO GOD IN CHRIST JESUS…” (Romans 6:9-11)
-Bill Stockham