Can you imagine how much
courage it took for Martin Luther to stand up against the established religious
practice of the day, the tradition for over a thousand years, to state what he
believed to be true about God and His character? I’m sure it cost Luther his
job, his status, maybe even his friends and family. He held his convictions so
strongly that he faced public ridicule to bring attention to the differences
between what the Bible teaches and what was being practiced by the established
church.
I’m sure John the Baptist
went through the same thing. The son of a priest, a relative of Jesus Christ,
he began to speak about the coming Messiah. It seems this should have been
welcomed news to the Jewish people. The Messiah was their whole focus. They knew
God was sending Someone to redeem them, to restore them, yet they refused to
hear John’s message when he proclaimed the Messiah had come.
Noah faced similar
circumstances. A flood was prophesied; total destruction would result. He gave
people an opportunity to escape certain death, but they did not hear him.
When Saul (now known as
Paul) was converted on the Damascus road he changed from being a killer of
Christians to one of the strongest proponents for the cause of Christ. People
were skeptical, thinking it was perhaps a ruse to entrap them. Now we use
Paul’s writings to learn how to live the Christian life.
I’m sure as you read those
short paragraphs that things came to your mind. Some immediately applied these
thoughts to the current political turmoil in the United States and the need to
overthrow the “other party”. Others had ministers or ministries come to mind
whose belief systems are clearly not scripturally based and should be brought
down. Others thought of “the rapture” so you could escape all the madness in
the earth. For me, this shows a tendency in human behavior to allow things to
drift from the original intent of things to a place of apostasy and turmoil,
but also the faithfulness of God to bring individuals who will do His bidding,
to speak truth regardless of the consequence.
It cost Noah 100 years of
his life, but he saved mankind. It cost John the Baptist his life to hold to
his convictions, but he gave himself to introduce mankind to their Savior. Paul
gave up his prestige and position in order to represent Christ to his world.
Luther opened himself up to public ridicule and shame in order to stand for
what he believed was right. What has your faith cost you?
