Happy Resurrection Day! Understanding the danger of the Babylon Mystery Religion today, starts with understanding the spiritual battle that Paul was waging at the beginning of the Dispensation of Grace. He fought idolatry, introducing the resurrected Savior to the world. He knew that filtering out all of the religiousity of those who had accepted the grace of God, and the forgiveness of sins, and building a firm foundation that was to last for generations, would take a supernatural effort.
Paul would have to be sober and vigilant in his mission to spread the precious gospel he was given charge of as the apostle to the Gentiles. 1 Corinthians 15:30-32 help us to understand the suffering he did for the gospel. He would have never subjected himself to such persecution if Jesus was just another dead religious teacher. Because he had met the resurrected Lord, and knew that the tomb was empty, empowered him to suffer all that he had suffered for the cause of Christ.
Paul records, on several occasions, all that he endured to get the message of the cross to the Roman world. 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
2 Corinthians 1:8-10: For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
2 Corinthians 11:22-28: Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
From the beginning of Paul’s life in Christ, he met resistance and persecution, all the way to the end, when he was martyred at the command of Caesar. 2 Timothy 4:1-8 records Paul’s final challenge to Timothy. Paul was ready to be offered. He had fought a good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith. He is our greatest example of how to live for Christ!
We would do well to reflect on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ every day, as Paul stated in Philippians 3:10-14: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The resurrection of Christ is the blessed hope of our resurrection!
