It Includes Everybody by Dorcas Afolabi

 

It includes everybody. The hardened criminal and the gentlest rebel. The confused soul and the ignorant fool. The proud intellectual and the desperate benefactor. For just as Isaiah said, there is really not one innocent, not one worthy. But the provisions of the cross spreads its wings across board; Jew and Gentile have a common place now!

They have a covenant, made by promise, sealed by blood. Who could have thought it out? No one could have reasoned or even dared to. For sin’s hands weighed heavily on the once glorious race, now stripped of its estate by one man’s disobedience. A race condemned, all doomed by identification. Yet it seemed all too foolish that One person would take away the sins of the whole world. That One should be sacrificed for all.

But by His eternal Spirit, Jesus the Christ offered himself once for all and made the impossible possible. A final solution to man's virus. Since the law and condemnation could not rescue the perishing. A new way and a new life. The rejection of the old and the acceptance of the new, available to everyone who believes this truth and receives this gift by grace. 

And it is by His grace through faith, for how else could God be both loving and just? He did not spare His son, anticipating our reproach and vile hatred. He could have crushed us by His power as of old, but He crushed the Son instead. The same vengeance against sin, ever present, only a different vessel for destruction so we would be set free from our sentence to eternal damnation. But He raised Jesus again! And raised us all who believe too with Christ, because it was not just about forgiveness, but restoration too. Salvation. That the new race should emerge, that all believers would be partakers of this divine nature. The new man. The man God so desired to see from the beginning of time.

It was all of God who does not fret at the sight of problems. Who knew beforehand of the tendency for sin and provided a lamb. The lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Humanity can now rejoice because there is forgiveness of sins, justification by faith, purging by Jesus' blood, acceptance by the Father, adoption into sonship, cleansing and sealing of the Spirit, regeneration of the spirit man, salvation of the soul, redemption of the body, eternal life.

Humanity can now share oneness with God through faith. Humanity can now approach God, going past the veil to the Holiest of all. The implication is that there now exists a new family of God’s children where God is our Father. Having received love and grace from God, we now extend it one to another. Through the church, Christ is shown and preached, sharing in God’s nature to save and not destroy, to love and not to hate, to justify and declare righteous and not to condemn and judge. Together we share an inheritance, the Spirit of God!

The new man walks in this reality and his freewill is uncorrupted because his desires are now guided by the Spirit of God. For there is no law against his works, against the good works that has been prepared for him to do long before man breathed his first breath. And when this man shall take his last breath, it will not be over. Not just dust merely returning to dust. For he has a place with the Father, He'll reign with Jesus Christ the righteous and will see in full. God's Spirit will dwell in him forever, there will always be no need to fear. God will be the light and song of the regenerated man, all by His grace.

It’s a mystery. The hidden riches in Christ. It breaks the limits of religion. Where religion stopped, mercy broke out. The outcasts are now joint-heirs! The lost have been found, the dead have come back to life. The barbarian and the civilized both have room for citizenship in this eternal city and kingdom by faith in Christ. People of diverse races can co-exist in one spiritual habitat; united by love, united in spirit.

Again, because it is by His mighty power that we now partake of His grace, of the eternal inheritance, it is not by our works. Salvation is a gift so we can neither boast of ourselves nor be proud. We cannot take credit because we could in no wise of ourselves come out of the grip of sin and death. We could not escape the lust until we found grace in His sight. But now we can because of what Christ has done.

Thus, past, present and future are taken care of because there is One who dwells in eternity. Who has offered Himself up by His eternal Spirit once and for all. Who was raised to life so whoever believes will live too as Christ lives unto God. Both here and in the resurrection. For God is love and will endure forever. And so also are those made anew. They will endure forever. They will dwell with God forever. Both here and in the resurrection.

Dear reader, thank you for coming this far. You can also check out and read other interesting entries in the New Man Gospel Writing Contest here.