I Am With You

The Prophet Jeremiah warned his generation to turn back to God to avert being destroyed by Babylon. Jesus warned the people during His days on earth to turn to faith in Him to avert being destroyed eternally by hell.

“But the sons of the kingdom [who should have believed in Jesus Messiah but did not] will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” [1]

Jesus uses the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in parables about the final judgment.

In the parable of the wedding feast, a guest who is not properly dressed is thrown into outer darkness, where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” [2]

The raiment he needed was the righteousness of Christ which God imputes to those who believe in His Son Jesus Christ.

Though invited to the wedding feast to be with God and His people, we must not think the invitation by itself saves us. We need a personal relationship with Jesus. We are not invited to the wedding banquet of God’s Son because we are better than others. On the contrary, we who enter, do so, because the Holy Spirit mercifully moved us to give our lives to Jesus knowing that without Him we would be lost.

Jesus also spoke of the wicked and worthless servant, who is cast into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth in Matthew 24:51 and 25:30.

Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” [3]

The devil wants us to doubt God’s Word just as our first parents Adam and Eve did. He doesn’t want us to be in paradise with God. He wants us to be in outer darkness with him. Jesus does want us to be with Him in paradise. He told the believing thief, the one who died next to Him on the cross, “Assuredly, I say to you, today, you will be with me in paradise.” [4]

So, the Church's calling today is great. We are called to...

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I [Jesus] have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” [5]

In other words, we are to help people believe in Christ so that they shall be saved.

Jeremiah protested against God’s calling at first. He said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” But the Lord told Jeremiah the same remedy for speaking and teaching that He tell us in Matthew 28:20, namely, “I am with you.” [6]

[1] Matthew 8:12
[2] Matthew 22:13
[3] John 10:10
[4] Luke 23:43
[5] Jeremiah 1:6, 8
[6] Matthew 28:19-20