Concerning Saul of Tarsus, the Lord said to Ananias: ‘This man is a chosen instrument to carry my name before the gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel!’ Thus, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Saul of Tarsus, whom I mentioned previously, was added to the other apostles, and that before he took the Gospel to Philippi, in Macedonia, he was called the apostle to the Gentiles, and by His obedience to the call, the Gospel reached the European Continent. The first person that became a Christian on the Continent of Europe was a Gentile lady, called Lydia. It is written concerning her that as Paul preached to the women that gathered by the river side: ‘One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God, the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my home. And she persuaded us.’ (Acts 16: 14-15) Thus began the great adventure of winning those Gods elected on the European Continent, and the first convert was a woman! What a wonderful beginning, and the end is not yet!

Jesus, on the cross, suffered a deadly rejection from God, for He was cursed for and died for our sins. Generally, all humans have suffered some kind of rejection, and know the awfulness of it, but to Jesus it caused a dreadful sorrow, He has never suffered, kthrough eternity, the awfulness of separation from His father, so deep was the shoch that He died immediately after it. Paul writes to the Galatians: ‘Christ redeemed us (‘us’ means all those that God calls, people that have been born again to a new life by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ) from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us, in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that by faith we might (Jews and Gentiles) receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.’ (Galatians 3: 13) This is what death really means: ‘being cut off from God’ living under a curse’! Thus, the life we live, both Israelis and Gentiles, is a living death, lived under the curse, unbelieving men are condemned already to the lake of fire (Revelation 20), without hope, lost forever. Because of sin, Jews and gentiles alike have lost all possibility of contact with God, they are dead spiritually, lost! Death in its true meaning, is what Jesus suffered on the cross, the curse, when He cried to God, in the midst of His great agony: ‘Eloi, Eloi (or Eli Eli), lama sabachthani? – which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27: 46) Some people believe that this was what he asked his Father to spare Him from, this cup of agony was to suffer rejection from His Loving Father! yet He said not my will but yours be done! It is written: ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Going a little father, (into the garden of Gethsemane) He fell with His face to the ground and prayed: Father, if it is possible, remove this cup from me, Yet not as I will, but as you will.’ (Matthew 26: 38-48) Three times He repeated the same prayer. Luke adds that angels had to come and strengthen Him such was the agony that He sweat drops of blood. I read somewhere that Jesus was actuallydying. Eventually, if this suggestion is right, He had to drink it!

So, Jesus suffered death in all its ghastly meaning, cursed for the sins of His people, this very cruel experience was brought in by the sin of Adam, thus as the Bible says: ‘He (Jesus) tasted death for every man.’ (Hebrews 2: 9) But death could not keep Him in its grasp, for, on the third day, God raised Him from the dead, which was the first day of the week! His sorry end was not for His sins, for He was ‘the spotless lamb of God which took away the sin of the world,’ for the sins of all, Jews and Gentiles alike, thus there is now only one way, for man to be saved from death and condemnation, and be reconciled with God, he must believe in Christ and accept Him as Lord and Saviour! There has to be this confession of faith ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’, followed by a personal commitment to Him!