Redemption And Its Claims

This is from the chapter "Redemption and its Claims" in T. A. Hegre's book The Cross and Sanctification:

"Friends, ever since the real slain Lamb, Jesus Christ the Son of God, died on Calvary's cross, God himself has declared an emergency: 'Get your shoes on your feet; have your staff in hand; eat in haste. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.' In the first generation after this great commission, the Christians obeyed (without the equipment we have today which we think are so necessary). They preached the gospel to every creature under heaven, recognizing that the proclamation of Christ, the slain Lamb, was an emergency affair. As a result, at that time every nation was told the gospel, for the Word declares it came to Colossae even as it 'was preached in all creation under heaven' (Col. 1:6, 23).

"Today, conditions still call for emergency measures. It is as if you saw someone reading a newspaper inside his burning home who knew not that his house was on fire. What would you do if he continued reading, even after you had called him to come out? You would drag him out, would you not? In the same way, since Calvary there has been for Christians a state of emergency so that instead of struggling for normalcy, every thing in life is to be evaluated in connection with what is most important. However, the most important thing in the world is not getting a new car, not security, not an income, but obedience to Jesus' last command: 'Go . . . into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.' Therefore, all Christians must live under emergency measures.

". . . Since Christians get no inheritance on earth, their roots are not to go down into the earth. He did not say, 'It is better that you do not have treasures on this earth,' for He was talking to disciples. To them He said exactly the same as had been said to the Levites (using different words of course). He did not actually say to His disciples, 'You shall not have a tribal possession in the land, for God is your possession.' No, He simply said, 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal' (Matt. 6:19). This is a definite command: 'Do not lay up treasure on this earth.' Why? The moth and rust corrupt and consume the things you try to save, but nothing will consume or touch treasure laid up in heaven.

"Many Christians are always saving things for 'rainy' days. However, we believe God will take care of the rainy days for all who have given their money to Him. Our possessions are in heaven, and certainly we can not lay up treasure on earth and in heaven at the same time. If we give ourselves for the purpose for which we have been saved--to evangelize the world--God will be our possession. The Apostle whom Jesus loved said in his Epistle: 'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' The Apostle John was not thinking about gross, coarse sinfulness; he was just thinking about 'this order of things.' We are not to set our affections on these things; we are not to love them, nor gather them. Jesus flatly forbids laying up treasure on earth.

"Friends, right now in many places in our country it takes ten thousand church members to produce one missionary and keep him on the field. Something is absolutely wrong. Christ's command to preach the gospel to the whole creation has been kept only once, and that by the apostles and the Christians of that generation. Since then, generation after generation have gone to their graves not knowing of God's saving love, not knowing that the blood has been shed, not knowing anything about the Lamb. Why? We have been laying up treasures on the earth. We have been living for self, not only in a sinful and gross way, but perhaps in a refined way.

"Some years ago a pastor friend of mine had in his congregation a widow with two sons. The elder was a fine young man, but the younger was wayward, willful, and a burden and grief to his mother. Usually when the younger son had done some wicked thing, his brother got him out of trouble and brought him back home. One day, however, the younger son packed his belongings and left home altogether. Hearing this, he pastor went to visit the widowed mother, but as he was about to knock, he first glanced through the glass in the door and for a while stood watching. Then, without going in, he turned and went to the field where the older brother was ploughing, and quietly remarked, 'I hear your brother left home.'

"'Yes, he has,' said the older brother, rather grumpily.

"'Well, what are you going to do about it?'

"'Nothing! He's made his bed, and he's going to lie in it. I've gotten him out of trouble many times, and this is the end.'

"'Well, you know what he will do, don't you? Wouldn't it be better for him at home?' remarked the pastor.

"'I suppose so, but I'm not going to go after him any more. I'm through!'

"Then the pastor made a suggestion: 'Let me plough while you go to the kitchen door and peek through the glass. Then come back and tell me what you saw.'

"So they parted. Before long the older brother was back and began to quit work for the day.

"'Have you changed your mind?' asked the pastor.

"'Well,' he said slowly and thoughtfully, 'nothing in my brother changed me, but one look at my mother's face has made a big difference! To see my mother weeping and praying for my brother even while she was working was just too much for me.'

"If we Christians really saw our Lord's face, if we saw Him weeping over the world as He wept over Jerusalem, maybe we would have a change of mind about evangelizing the world. We would ask Him, 'Lord, what can I do? If only You show me what can be done, all I have and all I am is at your disposal.' Once we have really seen Jesus' face, we will not lay up treasure on earth or disobey the commission to take the gospel to the whole creation.

"So few Christians recognize the total, unconditional claims of Christ--His absolute ownership. So few believe God's words, 'Except ye forsake all that ye have, ye cannot be my disciple.' If the truth from Exodus 13:2, 'the first-born is mine,' were believed and accepted, what a reviving work of God there would be! Possibly then we would not even need missionaries. One convert in a foreign land would witness to another, and that one to yet another. Finally the gospel would get to the border of a country where everyone would be bilingual. Then it would jump the borders from one country to the other, and before we knew it, the gospel would be over all the world. Perhaps that was God's original plan. But the Church is so far from obedience to God's ways that we have to use another method--foreign missionaries.

"In His well-organized plan of evangelizing the world, God has a place for every child of His. Are we redeemed by blood? Then we are not in the class of the ordinary Israelite but of the first-born. We are a Levite and not our own; we belong to God; we are under His absolute possession and control and are not to have possessions on earth. We are 'bought with a price'--body, soul and spirit--that we may fulfill our Redeemer's commands. His Blood claims all that it cleanses."