“Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Revelation 1:17b-18 NKJV
“What do you get angry about?” the man sitting in my office asked who was frustrated about the current state of affairs in the world. I responded by saying, “Well, I detest apathy, indifference, carnality, and a lack of vision and vitality. These things are really symptoms of a deeper and more foundational heart problem, namely, idolatry.” Then I went on to say, “What do I get angry about? I get angry when people, especially professing believers in Christ, live like they have a little god.” Then I proceeded to remind him that Jesus is BIGGER than frightening things like the dreadful disease of Ebola, the supposed conspiratorial agenda of the CDC, the hate-filled terror of ISIS, and the wickedness of Boko Haram. In other words, in the face of all that, “How BIG is your God?”
Ten years later, this grace gospel preacher of God’s glory is more than able to not only wholeheartedly reaffirm what I wrote back then but also to expand on my answer to the question, “What do you get angry about?” Myriads of professing Christians who claim the name of Christ as Savior but merely give lip service to the comprehensive scope of the Christian worldview rooted in Holy Scripture are vexing to my soul. Unfortunately, biblical illiteracy and progressively liberal worldviews are rife in the Church. Dereliction of our duty-bound stewardship responsibility before God to intentionally transmit the faith to the next generation also plagues the church and family. Reformation, revival, and revitalization is desperately needed for such a time as this (Rom.13:11-14; 1 Tim.3:15; 2 Tim.3:16-4:5).
We live in different world than we did ten years ago before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Lord Jesus Christ is still BIGGER than (and THE Answer to) the ungodliness that dominates the headlines every day. Whether it is the satanic nature of antisemitic protests pronouncing death to Israel and the Jewish people on American college and university campuses steeped in woke neo-Marxism, Islamist terror groups like Hamas who are well-funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran, or the Romans 1 rebellion of LGBT woke paganism, the Lord Jesus Christ is BIGGER than this depravity because of who He is and what He has done to rescue ungodly sinners from the wrath of God they deserve (Rom.1:16-18; 2 Cor.4:3-7; Col.1:16-21).
Regardless of what is your answer to the question, “What do you get angry about?”, a far more significant question is the one that I asked the man sitting in my office, “How BIG is your God?”
Jesus Christ is the Sovereign Master of the universe who decimated the demonic forces of evil and the tyranny of sin and death by pouring out His royal blood at Calvary and triumphing over hell through His resurrection. If there ever was a day when it seemed like the world was careening out of control near the edge of a precipice before a thousand-foot drop into death it was the day that Christ died (1 Cor.2:7-8).
From man’s perspective, this young Nazarene carpenter and Jewish rabbi was cut down when the tide of popular opinion turned against him. He was unjustly condemned to die by a kangaroo court and sentenced to death by crucifixion at the hands of Roman executioners. This would be the end of the story were it but for the reality that God’s ways are beyond man’s ways (Is.55:8-9).
From God’s eternal perspective, it was at Calvary where love ran red when God the Son willingly gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice to pay the price of mankind’s rebellion demanded by God the Father’s righteous justice (Rom.3:25). Christ was in complete control of the situation as evidenced by the triumph of His resurrection.
What do you do when life hurts most, when the bottom drops out, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel but only hopelessness and despair? Where do you turn when even life itself holds no promise of joy? People doubt the goodness of God because of their circumstances. They posit that He cannot be good because there is evil and if He were great then He would stop evil. Since there is evil, they assert that God is neither good or great and therefore nonexistent. This is diabolical falsehood for the Bible teaches otherwise (Job 1:20-21; Ps.107:8; Rom.5:12; 8:28).
God’s Word teaches that nothing transpires in our life that is not first sifted through the almighty hand of God. This world is broken and cursed by the death knell of sin but one day Jesus will return and set it all right. Christ is the Master of the universe who decimated sin and Satan at the cross and conquered death when He rose that Sunday morning. Christ is alive today and transforming lives so that all who have been saved by grace through faith alone have the hope of being with Him forever in the glories of heaven (Job 38:1-4; Rom.5:12; Eph.2:1-10)?
There is coming a day when the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls among all nations worldwide throughout history will be broken in awestruck humility before the vertical reality of God’s Sovereign Majesty in Christ Jesus (Phil.2:9-11). On that day, it will be too little too late for multitudes before they are banished from the presence of God in the outer darkness of the lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth for all eternity (Rev.20:11-15). This sobering reality ought to drive the hearts of God’s people to faithfully invest this day in light of that day as we too will give an account of our lives before Him who is BIGGER than this present evil age at the Judgment Seat of Christ. May the testimony of our lives echo throughout eternity to the praise of God’s glory in Christ Jesus (2 Cor.5:10-11). Once again, “How BIG is your God?”
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11 NKJV
“For we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 NKJV
