In praying for the lost, You brought to my mind Romans 5:7-8:
:7 "for one will hardly die for a righteous man, for perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die,
:8 but God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
What came to my mind was the hardness of heart, the fallow ground in the heart of the one I was praying for. How all his life he lived the first part of this scripture..."all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us have gone his own way,...but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Is 53:6
What man, who on this earth would be crucified, the most lowly, cruel, humiliating way to die, and to suffer the deepest most painful separation from God His Father, for someone that hated Him, for a criminal, an enemy of Him? Romans 5:7 says "perhaps for a good man...." but there is ONLY one sacrifice... Hebrews 10:12 that has redeemed all sinners if they choose to receive Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
Jesus
Christ was willing to "carry...up to the cross" my sin, your sin, the
sin of the whole world for even those who do not seek Him now, for those
with hardened hearts toward Him, who despise Him.
People who have not experienced the salvation through Jesus Christ, are according to God's word, blinded by the devil, (2 Cor 4:3-4) and their hearts are fallow ground.
Hosea 10:12 ...in speaking to Israel whose hearts had turned away from Him... "Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the LORD...
Fallow means "untilled" ground; hardened; Break up meaning "freshly till".
In other words, yield to God so that He can sow goodness, truth, righteousness and salvation into the soil of one's heart and the blindness be lifted to see "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This is the only place His Glory will be found!
