TEXT: 1 KINGS 6:5-6 ROMAN 5:18-19; HEBREWS 7:9-10
"As one of them was felling a timber, his axhead flew off and sank in the river. "Oh no, master!" he cried out. "And it was borrowed!"/ The Holy Man said, "Where did it sink?" The man showed him the place. He cut off a branch and tossed it at the spot. The axhead floated up." (MSG)
"Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life./ For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (KJV)
" And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham./ For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him." (KJV)
As I meditate on the work of the redemption that is in Christ, I desire to be evangelised again: I need to be enlightened deeply about Christ and what He Has accomplished for and in me. Many believers in Christ have no idea of what they claim to have believed into. Some see Jesus as just a means to get what to eat and drink; others look up to Him for heaven: an escape root from hell. The Christ is more than these! When Christ went to the cross, He took all humanity there! Let me say it again, Christ took all humanity with himself to the cross. While on the cross, no man was wanting there: all people of all kinds of colour and race were tied down in Him. His crucifixion and suffering are ours as well. We dare to say that humanity has already paid the price for sin. The new head undertook this for all!
God Has only one answer to the plight of humanity, His son the Christ. The above scriptures under consideration both fortify and illustrate our stand. First, let us take a look at what happened in the book of 1 kings 6. The students in Elishah's school of prophets, discovered that their hostels had become too small for them, so they borrowed some axe and went to cut down trees for expansion of their hostels. While doing this, an axehead fell into the nearby river and sank down as usual. A cry was put across to Elishah and he cut down a branch and cast it into the place where the axehead fell. Consequently, the axehead emerged and floated on the surface of the water but the branch sank into the bottom of the river.
We noticed that the only solution to the above problem was the branch cut off and away from the stem of a tree. Jesus is the branch of the stem of Jesse. He was cut off from God by our sins. Sin sank every man. Sin makes A man to be heavy. As the axehead sank into the bottom of the river so did sin made us to sink down into the river of the wrath of God. Like the axehead, we were lost out of sight and drawning under the sea. God's only solution was to cast this branch in our direction: the branch sank and we emerged into the surface of the river. We floated up. Amen!
This is the gospel: He sank that we might emerge to the surface. He disappeared that we might appear before God and man. It would be injustice for the branch to sink and the axehead remains under the river still. The assignment of the branch is to call up the axehead: anything less than this is a failure on the part of the branch. Jesus cannot and did not fail in His assignment...He Has lifted us up out of the dept of the sea...we are floating now...this axe that was borrowed can now be returned to his owner! We have been returned to our God. This is what we believed into...He sank down that we might swim up to the surface. The branch allowed Himself to be drawned so that the axehead might be rescued. "The just for the unjust..." . Has He sank?..then we have emerged! Has He been cut off from the stem? Then we have been called up from the bottom of the abis of hell. My strong argument is that He sank and that for my rising.
Nothing in heaven, on earth and beneath can hold down a believer in the Christ. For whatsoever is born of God overcome the world and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Our faith in Christ is a victory...this is what we believe into. Something happened in the book of Number, the Israelites went to fight with a nation under the leadership of Joshua. So Moses stood on a mountain from where the battle field can be viewed. As long as Moses held up the rod in his hand victory was sure to Israel: reverse was the case if he dropped his hand with the rod. Aaron and ur had to put a stone under him to sit while they held up his hand until victory was secured by Israel.
Victory here was not dependent on anything but the rod being raised. Isaiah 11vs1 says, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:" Here we see the rod and the branch. We have talked about the branch now the rod here is Christ. Moses lifted the rod and victory was won. Jesus said, "...if I be lifted up from the earth I would draw all men to myself." To be "lifted up from the earht" is an idiomatic expression for crucifixion by the then Palestinia dwellers and the Roman government. May we see again and again that Jesus is both the branch and rod in our texts.
There are more to Christ than we think. God has no right, I say this in fear, yet boldly, to punish any man again, otherwise it would be double jeopardy! Why? Christ has sunk down... so, the axehead must justly emerged. Jesus has been bruised for our sins...the chestisement of and for our peace is on Him. All that would reject this pardon would be doomed for ever. Many are in hell not because God rejected them but because they rejected His provision in Christ. How shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation? We were in Him when God punished Him. He was not only our substitute but our joint-culprit...after which we became Joint-heirs with Him. Come! Come! Come to this truth...angels desire to look into it! Believest thou this?
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Emeka Joe Uzosike
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