They did not know the war was over. In the past 60 plus years, there have been reports that throughout the years since the war ended that a number of WWII soldiers were being discovered on various remote islands not knowing that the war had ended.

Long before we even knew what a World War was, man hid deep in the trenches of another war. The difference between this first war and the wars as we know them today, is that while this first war was started and waged by man, it was not fought against other men.

No, man did not fight against one another, nor even men from foreign countries, they fought against God; against their creator. If I may liken this to our current days; when God placed Adam in the garden of Eden, He [God] had drawn a line in the sand.

According to Moses, “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” –A line drawn in the sand.

Unfortunately, the line had been crossed. God does not move lines. God does not move goalposts. Was the fall of man truly caused by the eating of a forbidden fruit? It was something else altogether that brought Adam and Eve to eat this forbidden fruit.

The eating of the forbidden fruit was the witness to a much deeper atrocity; that of not trusting in God –not trusting that God would keep His word; not trusting that God would not allow the line in the sand–to be blurred.

From this time on, man has, without ceasing, waged war against God. Cain murdered his brother. Man multiplied. Daughters were born. Men took daughters, whomever they wanted, as wives for themselves. The wickedness of man had become great, (Gen 6:1-5).

This brings upon us, what I consider to be the most heart-wrenching verse within the entire bible; “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart,” (Gen 6:6). (bold=my emphasis)

Soon, man would wage yet another battle in the war against God. In their arrogance, they rallied together and began building a tower that would reach heaven. This wasn’t done in the name of God. This wasn’t done to glorify their Creator. This they had done to “make for ourselves a name,” (Gen 11:4).

And it is said, “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city,” (Gen 11:7-8).

I will stop here. The whole of the bible recounts man’s ongoing war with God. The battles are strewn throughout; the stories of war, however, are overshadowed by God Himself and His plan to end the war; the war man started.

Decisively, In the fullness of time, (Eph 1:10), God sent His Son into the world with all deity within Him, (Col 2:9), to put an end to this war; to sign a peace treaty with His body and blood.

However, there were a few things that needed addressing before Jesus, the Son of God, drafted and signed that treaty between God and man.

People needed to be loved. The sick needed to be healed. Crowds needed to be instructed in righteousness. Leaders needed to be corrected. Man needed to be equipped to live under the treaty Christ Jesus was preparing to establish.

Jesus spent three years of ministry drafting this treaty between God and man. He knew from the beginning it would not be easy. Christ knew what signing this treaty truly meant. But He loved them. He loved us. The signing of the treaty was more than worth it to prove His love.

When the day came to pass, Jesus signed the treaty. The treaty was crafted from His body and He signed it with his very blood. As He hung there on the cross, He declared; “It is finished,” (Joh 19:30). The war was over.

As Jesus hung there on the cross and uttered those three words, “It is finished,” He was not speaking to the onlookers. He was not speaking to His disciples. He was speaking to His Father in Heaven. The war was over.

Before Christ ascended back to His right place in Heaven, He declared His Great Commission. He said to His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation,” (Mar 16:15).

What was the gospel? It was the good news. It was the recounting of man’s war with God; how God, through Christ, ended the war.

And just like those remnants of soldiers discovered on the various islands throughout the pacific, some never received word that the war between man and God was over. Some who even received word declaring the end of the war, didn’t believe it.

And this is where we find ourselves today. Our world is filled with peoples that either never heard that the war was over, or they simply don’t believe it. In fact, it is the latter who insist on the futility of advancing against God.

For believers, the war ended over 2,000 years ago. Those who walk by faith, (2 Cor 5:7), and accept freely the grace and righteousness, “apart from the law,” (Rom 3:21), imputed to us by Christ no longer live in the midst of this great war.

We [believers] are free to live in His peace; in His righteousness, with God. Being thankful for this peace [grace] we have with God; we strive to live in the manner Christ taught us.

We live in confidence of God’s great promise to Abraham and therefore we boldly and unashamedly proclaim God’s treaty [gospel] to all peoples.

©2019 Clayton Moore, Pastor of Ministries, Acts 5:42 Ministries
The War is over All Rights Reserved!
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