THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST: MURDER, TRAGEDY, OR THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY? (CONTINUED)

This Plan of Salvation, inaugurated by the divine Government, doesn’t jump out of scripture at every casual reader, but it’s a central theme throughout sacred writ. It was by this same plan that, although over time:

1. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
2. And that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
3. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth,
4. And He was grieved in His heart. 
5. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.
6. Both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air,
7. For I am sorry that I have made them.” 
8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:5-8 (NKJV).
9. The coming death of the sinless Christ upon Calvary’s Tree made it possible for the righteous Noah to benefit from God’s wonderful grace.
10. Other important characteristics of the patriarch Noah were “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:9-10 NKJV.
11. In other words, repentance and a sanctified life of obedience to God’s sacred law are essential for salvation. The wonderful news, however, is that we don’t do this alone
12. The promise is, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12 (NKJV).  
14. What could God do with the other travelers/pilgrims in the antediluvian age? They were idolaters, demon worshippers, antinomians, enemies of God, and haters of His people. Anarchy is nothing new. The arch-deceiver tried it in Heaven but was forcefully evicted along with his sympathizers. The Lord Almighty is a God of order. By rejecting The Creator’s Law and government, the citizens of Noah’s day who refused to follow his example chose death. Thus it was then, and thus shall it ever be. The eight billion people who populate our modern 21st Century world will face the same decision sooner or later. As The Lord Almighty has warned, “The land is Mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.” Leviticus 25:23. Every species of sin is just another form of rebellion against the Author of Life. What the bible clearly teaches repeatedly is that all sin leads to eternal death. Because sin is a source of intense pain to God. “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. And they shall know I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.” Ezekiel 6:9 (NKJV)
15. So it was. The flood was sent because God’s judgments against sin are inevitable. This is an indisputable fact. “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” Ezekiel 18:20
16. “Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.  And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.  All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.” 
17. The Almighty gained absolutely nothing from the evil doers of Antedeluvia: no service, no love, no obedience, no worship, no reverence, and no praise. They were just a source of continual pain and discomfort! Why, therefore, would He continue to maintain a system that kept them alive? On the contrary, however, “Noah was a source of continual pleasure to The Lord.”
18. (TO BE CONTINUED)