The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Which Is Greater?"
"Goodness triumphed over the most dreadful evil, and even used evil as the means to achieve its most glorious accomplishment."
The Scriptures teach that two powerfully influential realities presently exist in the earth.
"The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD" (Psalm 33:5).
"The whole world lieth in wickedness" (I John 5:19).
Which is greater? The cross of Calvary and the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ answer the question.
"When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against Me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53).
God allowed the world, the devil, and the flesh to have free rein for the purpose of executing the worst evil ever committed. The hour and power of darkness tortured the Lord Jesus Christ to death. No sin compares with this most horrific of acts. The Creator visited His planet in love, and was ultimately killed by the hatred that led to the cross. "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not" (Isaiah 53:3). How dark indeed must be the wickedness in which the world lies.
And yet…
"When they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre. But God raised Him from the dead" (Acts 13:29-30; emphasis added).
The Lord Jesus lived so purely as a man and died so perfectly as "a Lamb without blemish and without spot" that His cross led to an empty tomb, an occupied throne, and His exalted place as King of kings, and Lord of Lords (I Peter 1:19). Goodness triumphed over the most dreadful evil, and even used evil as the means to achieve its most glorious accomplishment. It always has, and always will in a world that may lie in wickedness, but which far more consequentially teems with the presence and involvement of the living God's goodness. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" declared the Lord Jesus long ago (John 5:17). Such truth abides in this moment, and always will as God fulfills His purposes amid all the wickedness His enemies can devise and perform.
This does not discount, of course, the horrors perpetrated by evil throughout human history, and in this present hour. Sin and its effects are real, and bear dark consequences regarding both time and eternity. Again, however, which is greater, the goodness of the Lord declared by the Bible to fill the earth, or the evil in which the earth lies? Every believer in the Lord Jesus will arise to affirm an empty tomb, an occupied throne, and the Lordship of our risen Savior as the joyous answer. So long as this is true, goodness will be greater than evil, even when evil seems to have its most powerful sway and influence. It never actually does, and we do well to see by faith the Light that ever shines in the darkness, the light of a cross, an empty tomb, and the Bible's exultant declaration that "Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:11).
Sometimes it seems that the enemy of our soul wins
over and over and over again.
But if we could see the Truth much more clearly, my friend,
we'd see Christ triumph over death, hell, and sin,
over and over and over again.
The tomb is empty, the throne above occupied.
For Christ is risen again, from death glorified.
So remember when hot, stinging tears fill your eyes,
the triumph He's shone so many times in our lives,
over and over and over again.
Forever draws nigh, we will be with Him there soon, my friend.
The trials of this life will be gone when we're with Him in Heaven.
Glories we'll see, majesty without end,
that sing the glad hymn, Christ is risen again,
over and over and over again.
"Though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God."
(II Corinthians 13:4)
Weekly Memory Verse
As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness.
(Psalm 17:15)
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