The World and the Word

                                The Ultimate Trump Card

Many of Jesus' healings and teachings while He walked the earth were symbolic of future events. The maniac of Gadara symbolized the very worst that Satan can do to humanity during the Tribulation period. The Tribulation period will be a time when total evil takes control of the world, and all humans will suffer terribly from war, famine, and insanity. God will allow the Devil to do his very worst to humanity in order to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God's Love can never fail. The maniac of Gadara symbolized the very worst that the Devil can do to humanity, and yet, that spark of the image of God still left in the maniac ran to Jesus to worship Him. Just as Jesus cast all of the total evil of the demons out of the maniac, so He will cast all total evil out of His world, and He will save the living image of God in all humans. The fact that Jesus returned the maniac to his right mind and sent him back to his people to witness about Jesus, so God will recreate all of the living souls and spirits and bodies of all humans to be righteous. Luke 8:26-39. God can use even the Devil to accomplish God's Will.

Jesus taught that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. Matthew 5:17. His Almighty Love fulfilled the law. Romans 13:8-10. The law is rigid and cold. A person can force himself to obey the law without loving anyone. The Pharisees and the Sadducees demonstrated that fact when they criticized Jesus for showing love and compassion on the Sabbath. Jesus tried to teach them that love trumps the law. Jesus taught them that David disobeyed the law when he ate the shewbread, but his love trumped it when he gave some of it to his fellows who were hungry. Jesus taught them that the priests in the Temple sometimes disobeyed the law, but they were blameless because they did it in a way that showed their love for God. Jesus informed those rigid and uncaring Pharisees and Sadducees that love can always be shown on the Sabbath, and to prove it He healed the man with the withered hand. Matthew 12:1-14.

One of the most profound statements that Jesus ever made is found in John 7:24. If a human adheres to the image of God within him and lives according to the love and compassion that God put into him, then he will be prone to make righteous and loving judgments in his dealings with others.

If a human realizes that the law was meant to show that he is a sinner in need of God's salvation, then that person will be likely to come to Christ when he hears the gospel to repent and believe and receive salvation by grace. Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:24; Romans 10:17. When living humans confined to the regions of death see the Almighty Love and Majesty of Christ in that great future worship service, they will choose of their own free will to repent and believe in the Lamb. Christ will save them by resurrection and recreation to live righteous lives on His new earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Matthew 5:5. God's Almighty Love never fails to trump total evil. I Corinthians 13:8.