“As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.” (Acts 4:1-4 NASB1995)

If we are of genuine biblical faith in Jesus Christ, and if we are following the Lord in surrender to his will, living holy lives pleasing to God, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as servants of righteousness in obedience to his commands, by the grace of God, and in the power of God, we will be persecuted. And if we are spreading the truth of the gospel of Christ to the people of the world at a time when lies are prevailing, we will be rejected and persecuted, and we will be opposed by those who prefer the lies.

And we will be opposed, rejected, falsely accused, persecuted, mistreated, and cast aside as unwanted and as unnecessary by religious leaders, too, who would wish to silence us or to retrain us to go the ways of the world and of the flesh, instead. For we live in a time when the gospel taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles has largely been rejected in favor of a “cheap grace gospel” which requires nothing more than lip service to God while the “believer” is still free to continue in sin and disobedience to God.

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

And so those of us still clinging to the Old Rugged Cross, i.e. to the gospel as Jesus and his apostles taught it, are in the minority. And we’re about to be squashed altogether, the way things are looking right now. Eventually that will happen because the Bible says it will. But here is the encouraging thing for me in all of this. When the religious rulers lay hands on us to try to stop us from speaking the truth to the people, if we have been speaking it to the people, and many heard, it may mean the salvation of many lives.

And for me, after a long stretch of persecution from others professing faith in Jesus Christ who rejected me and who regarded me as though I was trash to be thrown out in the garbage, and not as a woman of God to be honored and valued, the Lord did something in my life I would never have imagined. He put me on the internet and he told me to write down what he is teaching me from my times spent with him each day in his word and to post these writings on the internet so that a runner (herald) could “run with it.”

And I have no idea how many people’s lives have been touched by what God has had me write each day for the past 21 years, but I do know that these writings have gotten a large number of views from people in nations all across the globe. And one day a man from Africa wrote me and told me that his Bible teacher was teaching my lessons to them. Wow! And I believe there will be people in heaven because of what God called me to do, because they heard the truth and they believed it and they obeyed God, by God’s grace.

So, that is what encourages me, that people are listening, and they are hearing the truth of the gospel, and that many who hear will believe in Jesus Christ. And by faith in him, in his power, they will die to sin and obey God with their lives in being who he wants them to be from now to eternity, even if they get rejected and persecuted, too. For if us being persecuted and mistreated for teaching the truth results in the salvation of human lives, then all glory to God! Praise Jesus! It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!

It Will Be Worth It All

By Esther Kerr Rusthoi (1909-1962)

Sometimes the day seems long, our trials hard to bear,
We’re tempted to complain, to murmur and despair;
But Christ will soon appear to catch His Bride away,
All tears forever over in God’s eternal day.

Sometimes the sky looks dark with not a ray of light,
We’re tossed and driven on , no human help in sight;
But there is one in heav’n who knows our deepest care,
Let Jesus solve your problem – just go to Him in prayer.

Life’s day will soon be o’er, all storms forever past,
We’ll cross the great divide, to glory, safe at last;
We’ll share the joys of heav’n – a harp, a home, a crown,
The tempter will be banished; we’ll lay our burden down.

It will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ;
One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase,
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.

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