Jesus is ever present in his church Daily Reflection for Thurs. 7th August, 2014 by Rev. Fr. Ugonna Vitus Nwosu. The assurance Jesus gives in the gospel of today is the ultimate security of the Church till date, and the gates of the underworld will never hold out against it (Mtt 16: 18). This implies that the church has enemies that fight against it and strive for its ruin. They are here represented by the gates of hell, that is, the city of hell; (which is directly opposite to this heavenly city, this city of the living God), the devils interest among the children of men. As Matthew Henry observed, the gates of hell are the powers and policies of the devils kingdom, the dragons head and horns, by which he makes war with the Lamb; all that comes out of hell-gates, as being hatched and contrived there. These fight against the church by opposing gospel truths, corrupting gospel ordinances, persecuting good ministers and good Christians; drawing or driving, persuading by craft or forcing by cruelty, to that which is inconsistent with the purity of religion; this is the design of the gates of hell, to root out the name of Christianity, they say, Come, let us annihilate them as a nation, the name of Israel shall be remembered no more (Ps.83: 4), to devour the man-child (Rev. 12: 9), to raze this city to the ground. This assures us that the enemies of the church shall not gain their point. While the world stands, Christ will have a church in it, in which his truths and ordinances shall be owned and kept up, in spite of all the opposition of the powers of darkness. For if the Lord had not been on our side, the heat of the enemy’s anger would have swallowed us alive (Ps 124: 1-3). This is evident in the so many travails (from within and from outside) which the Church has contended with and gallantly prevailed. It may be clear the ashes of some human elements’ scars are still evident but though we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us (2 Cor4: 9). There has been corruptions within the Church that are grieving and persecutions that are grievous, but neither fatal. The church may be foiled in particular encounters, but in the main battle we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us (Rm 8:37). For Jesus the mediator of the new covenant which the first reading talks about is ever present in his Church (Mtt 28:20).
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 04:00:00 +0000
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