Jesus Christ is my God!
Issued 21.10.2002
Bad or good enemy?
Good is bad's enemy, because goodness hates evil. Bad is good's enemy, because evil hates goodness. God is a good enemy of a bad person and a person is a bad enemy of the good God. God demonstrated His love for His bad enemy allowing His Only Son to suffer the punishment deserved by a bad person. Wickedness that doesn't break down and humble itself before this great love, will be crushed suddenly.
Who is your enemy?
He who hates you, is your enemy. Has he got any right to be angry? If you have done wrong to him, he also has a reason to hate you. On the other hand somebody can hate you, although you have done no wrong to him. Usually the word "enemy" gives the image of something evil, but as a matter of fact your enemy can be good and you are bad.
If you are hated because of your evil, you can seek reconciliation with your enemy by confessing your injustice, by regretting your deed and asking for forgiveness. If you are hated without any reason, you have the right to be angry because of it. In this way you can become someone's enemy.
He who hates you, is your enemy. Has he got any right to be angry? If you have done wrong to him, he also has a reason to hate you. On the other hand somebody can hate you, although you have done no wrong to him. Usually the word "enemy" gives the image of something evil, but as a matter of fact your enemy can be good and you are bad.
If you are hated because of your evil, you can seek reconciliation with your enemy by confessing your injustice, by regretting your deed and asking for forgiveness. If you are hated without any reason, you have the right to be angry because of it. In this way you can become someone's enemy.
Whose enemy are you?
You are the enemy of the one you hate. Have you any right to be angry? If he has done wrong to you, you also have a reason to hate him. On the other hand if you hate him without a real reason, you have to change your attitude to him. Rarely we consider ourselves anybody's enemy, because we do not consider ourselves bad and we are not able to think that an enemy can also be good.
If the object of your anger is guilty, you can seek atonement to your anger to be able to forgive him and be conciliated. If he is not guilty, you hate him without a reason and he has a good reason to become your enemy.
You are the enemy of the one you hate. Have you any right to be angry? If he has done wrong to you, you also have a reason to hate him. On the other hand if you hate him without a real reason, you have to change your attitude to him. Rarely we consider ourselves anybody's enemy, because we do not consider ourselves bad and we are not able to think that an enemy can also be good.
If the object of your anger is guilty, you can seek atonement to your anger to be able to forgive him and be conciliated. If he is not guilty, you hate him without a reason and he has a good reason to become your enemy.
Guilty one deserves his enemy
A guilty one can regret his deed or become a liar. If you regret your wrongdoing, you seek reconciliation with your enemy. If you don't confess your guilt, you seek excuses for your deed, which leads you to turn to lies. If you reject your guilt with lies, you will finally believe your own lies as the truth and consider yourself not guilty. Your feeling of innocence makes you reply to anger with anger. In this way people become enemies of good.
If you done wrong you cannot demand, to be treated without anger. If a guilty one demands a kind reprimand, he demonstrates the hardness and impenitence of his heart. It is wrong that a guilty one is angry with his rebuker, because a wrongdoer has deserved anger. Justifiable anger is right. Anger against evil is a good thing. It is good to listen to a good enemy.
Love and anger are not opposites. Sin is the opposite of love. Love hates lovelessness. In other words it hates sin. He who forbids hating evil, deserves himself to be hated.
A guilty one can regret his deed or become a liar. If you regret your wrongdoing, you seek reconciliation with your enemy. If you don't confess your guilt, you seek excuses for your deed, which leads you to turn to lies. If you reject your guilt with lies, you will finally believe your own lies as the truth and consider yourself not guilty. Your feeling of innocence makes you reply to anger with anger. In this way people become enemies of good.
If you done wrong you cannot demand, to be treated without anger. If a guilty one demands a kind reprimand, he demonstrates the hardness and impenitence of his heart. It is wrong that a guilty one is angry with his rebuker, because a wrongdoer has deserved anger. Justifiable anger is right. Anger against evil is a good thing. It is good to listen to a good enemy.
Love and anger are not opposites. Sin is the opposite of love. Love hates lovelessness. In other words it hates sin. He who forbids hating evil, deserves himself to be hated.
Hated groundlessly
If you are not guilty, you have a reason to become angry when you were hated without any reason. It is natural that an innocent person doesn't ask for forgiveness, but can lift up his head before his enemy. People have hated God without any reason. Jesus does only good and never evil. However many hate Him. Jesus says: "They hated me without reason!" John 15:25
A guilty person, who doesn't confess his guilt, often secretly hates the person, who does right where he did wrong. It is their lot who love God to suffer anger of the people who are irritated by their good deeds. Jesus says to those who belong to Him: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." Joh.15:18
All evil in this world gains power and strength from the lies of the guilty ones who consider themselves innocent. When the guilty ones don't accept the anger they deserve, they put forward a flow of lies, which causes many to feel that they are hated without reason. This brings up suspicions and fears which generate wars.
If you are not guilty, you have a reason to become angry when you were hated without any reason. It is natural that an innocent person doesn't ask for forgiveness, but can lift up his head before his enemy. People have hated God without any reason. Jesus does only good and never evil. However many hate Him. Jesus says: "They hated me without reason!" John 15:25
A guilty person, who doesn't confess his guilt, often secretly hates the person, who does right where he did wrong. It is their lot who love God to suffer anger of the people who are irritated by their good deeds. Jesus says to those who belong to Him: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." Joh.15:18
All evil in this world gains power and strength from the lies of the guilty ones who consider themselves innocent. When the guilty ones don't accept the anger they deserve, they put forward a flow of lies, which causes many to feel that they are hated without reason. This brings up suspicions and fears which generate wars.
Nation as an enemy
An angry man is frightening and God's anger is much greater. The fear of enemy produces armaments. Fear even sometimes causes preventive attack against an enemy.
One person can succeed in selling his own enemy to the others, and a group can move their fears even to a whole nation. In this way a whole nation can be made to believe that another nation is our enemy. The propaganda blows up threats and fears of losing the current benefits. They are afraid of losing their freedom. A peaceful nation can be made into enemies of another nation only by blowing up fears and hate against the other nation.
How vain are the reasons which cause the wars! In most cases they hated each other without reason, or killed each other when trying to convince the innocence of guilty people. A tiny fear can turn into a war as a grown-up. A lie uses fear for violence, but the truth uses fear for wisdom.
God has nowhere said that you must give your life for your fatherland. He doesn't need to be afraid of His enemies. Therefore fear doesn't direct the actions of His friends.
A Christian fallen to defend one's fatherland with violence has fallen into fear, because he has not got the conscience washed by the blood of Jesus. He has fallen away from the grace of God, because he has abandoned the gospel of God.
True freedom is freedom from the power of sin. The sovereignty of a nation gives freedom only for a group of people to put their power into practice. It is a great injustice that to secure their power many are ready to sacrifice human blood onto the godless altar of war.
An angry man is frightening and God's anger is much greater. The fear of enemy produces armaments. Fear even sometimes causes preventive attack against an enemy.
One person can succeed in selling his own enemy to the others, and a group can move their fears even to a whole nation. In this way a whole nation can be made to believe that another nation is our enemy. The propaganda blows up threats and fears of losing the current benefits. They are afraid of losing their freedom. A peaceful nation can be made into enemies of another nation only by blowing up fears and hate against the other nation.
How vain are the reasons which cause the wars! In most cases they hated each other without reason, or killed each other when trying to convince the innocence of guilty people. A tiny fear can turn into a war as a grown-up. A lie uses fear for violence, but the truth uses fear for wisdom.
God has nowhere said that you must give your life for your fatherland. He doesn't need to be afraid of His enemies. Therefore fear doesn't direct the actions of His friends.
A Christian fallen to defend one's fatherland with violence has fallen into fear, because he has not got the conscience washed by the blood of Jesus. He has fallen away from the grace of God, because he has abandoned the gospel of God.
True freedom is freedom from the power of sin. The sovereignty of a nation gives freedom only for a group of people to put their power into practice. It is a great injustice that to secure their power many are ready to sacrifice human blood onto the godless altar of war.
Jesus overcame His enemy
The devil understood that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, who will rule over the whole world. He hated Jesus and was afraid of losing his own position as the prince of this world. After the Fall this world had been given to him. The devil knows that he can rule people only, if they live under the anger of God. Therefore he still does whatever he can to deceive people so that they would sin against God. To defend his power he mounted an attack against Jesus.
Under the influence of the devil Herod tried to kill Jesus already as a baby. Many times he tempted Jesus to abandon the mission given by God the Father and to lead Him to sin and under the anger of God and so under his own influence.
A temptation is a trap of an enemy. Under his influence Peter tried to advice Jesus to abandon the road of sacrifice. Under his influence Judas betrayed Jesus so that He would abandon the will of God and would make war with the angels of God. Jesus overcame all temptations and nobody could provoke Him to violence. Also you can overcome, if you follow Jesus in the prayers of your Gethsemane.
As his last provocation Satan tried to tempt Jesus to step down from the cross. Under his influence onlookers near the cross hurled insults at Jesus: "Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God." Matth.27:40 Thanks to God, Jesus was not overcome by evil! Before His death Jesus cried out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Then the devil believed that he had succeeded in destroying the relationship of Jesus to His Father. He was very happy that God had forsaken Jesus.
Because of his great joy Satan bowed down before the cross of Jesus to mock His kingship. Just then Jesus shouted: "It is finished" and "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit". Then "the earth shook and the rocks split" on Golgotha, which word means The Place of the Skull.
This event crushed not only the rock of Golgotha, but also the head of the devil, because Jesus is the offspring of the woman, about whom it has been said to the devil: "He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel." Genesis 3.15 On the Place of the Skull Jesus trod down the head of the devil. The scornful bowing before dying Jesus was the stroke of the serpent to the heel of Jesus.
Rebelling against God is the effect of the poison of the serpent. However that poison didn't succeed in influencing in Jesus' relationship with God. The poison of the devil lost completely its power, when Jesus didn't lose His love to God although He suffered God's anger without any reason.
The devil understood that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, who will rule over the whole world. He hated Jesus and was afraid of losing his own position as the prince of this world. After the Fall this world had been given to him. The devil knows that he can rule people only, if they live under the anger of God. Therefore he still does whatever he can to deceive people so that they would sin against God. To defend his power he mounted an attack against Jesus.
Under the influence of the devil Herod tried to kill Jesus already as a baby. Many times he tempted Jesus to abandon the mission given by God the Father and to lead Him to sin and under the anger of God and so under his own influence.
A temptation is a trap of an enemy. Under his influence Peter tried to advice Jesus to abandon the road of sacrifice. Under his influence Judas betrayed Jesus so that He would abandon the will of God and would make war with the angels of God. Jesus overcame all temptations and nobody could provoke Him to violence. Also you can overcome, if you follow Jesus in the prayers of your Gethsemane.
As his last provocation Satan tried to tempt Jesus to step down from the cross. Under his influence onlookers near the cross hurled insults at Jesus: "Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God." Matth.27:40 Thanks to God, Jesus was not overcome by evil! Before His death Jesus cried out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Then the devil believed that he had succeeded in destroying the relationship of Jesus to His Father. He was very happy that God had forsaken Jesus.
Because of his great joy Satan bowed down before the cross of Jesus to mock His kingship. Just then Jesus shouted: "It is finished" and "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit". Then "the earth shook and the rocks split" on Golgotha, which word means The Place of the Skull.
This event crushed not only the rock of Golgotha, but also the head of the devil, because Jesus is the offspring of the woman, about whom it has been said to the devil: "He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel." Genesis 3.15 On the Place of the Skull Jesus trod down the head of the devil. The scornful bowing before dying Jesus was the stroke of the serpent to the heel of Jesus.
Rebelling against God is the effect of the poison of the serpent. However that poison didn't succeed in influencing in Jesus' relationship with God. The poison of the devil lost completely its power, when Jesus didn't lose His love to God although He suffered God's anger without any reason.
Crushed head
The concept of a head means a centre of power not only a head of a body. "The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church." Eph.5:23 Nowadays feminist movements try to remove the husband as the head of the wife. Thus they happen to crush their own head. It happens to them just as it happened to the devil. They don't understand that they are fighting against themselves, because they have believed lies concerning God.
Just when the devil rejoiced at his victory, he realised that he had lost everything. When he then saw that Jesus didn't become bitter against God, but died in faith in God, he realised that Jesus had entered the centre of his kingdom. "By His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Heb.2:14-15
Although God's wrath struck Jesus because of our sins, He didn't lose His loving attitude to His Father. He experienced on the cross the wrath of God. However He said: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit". In this way He destroyed the devil by His death.
Now Man, Jesus Messiah sits on the throne of God and "waits for His enemies to be made His footstool." Heb.10:13 Finally the death will be removed totally, for "the last enemy to be destroyed is death." 1Cor.15:26
But already now God puts into practice the following promise to those who obey Jesus: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Rom.16:20
The concept of a head means a centre of power not only a head of a body. "The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church." Eph.5:23 Nowadays feminist movements try to remove the husband as the head of the wife. Thus they happen to crush their own head. It happens to them just as it happened to the devil. They don't understand that they are fighting against themselves, because they have believed lies concerning God.
Just when the devil rejoiced at his victory, he realised that he had lost everything. When he then saw that Jesus didn't become bitter against God, but died in faith in God, he realised that Jesus had entered the centre of his kingdom. "By His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Heb.2:14-15
Although God's wrath struck Jesus because of our sins, He didn't lose His loving attitude to His Father. He experienced on the cross the wrath of God. However He said: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit". In this way He destroyed the devil by His death.
Now Man, Jesus Messiah sits on the throne of God and "waits for His enemies to be made His footstool." Heb.10:13 Finally the death will be removed totally, for "the last enemy to be destroyed is death." 1Cor.15:26
But already now God puts into practice the following promise to those who obey Jesus: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Rom.16:20
The Bible version used in references is NIV