Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

While Jesus hung on the cross, Satan, the enemy of all righteousness, thought that he had finally won in fulfilment of Genesis 3:15. Here on the cross was the son of God suspended between heaven and earth and placed between two thieves. This was indeed an unholy trinity, with Jesus being first among thieves. One of the thieves recognising that Jesus was innocent asked for forgiveness and received it immediately, whilst the other condemned himself with his mouth (Luke 23:32ff). The devil had finally won or so it seemed, however we know that there was a twist to the story and that Jesus, during that period of separation from the Father, retrieved the keys of death and hell from Satan and redeemed humanity from eternal punishment. The gulf between heaven and hell was now bridged on the vertical plane, whilst the distance between cultures on the horizontal plane was closed. This all occurred because of the cross. Today we say to Jesus, “thank you for the cross.”