September 30, 2006

The widespread or popular view is, “Christ could not have died the world’s second death, because He was resurrected! He lived again! Anyone who dies the second death is experiencing ‘Goodbye, life, forever!’” But this is a tragic misconception.

This popular view is in what Paul referred to when he said, “I do not frustrate the grace of God!” (Gal. 2:21). It’s a frustration of the truth of the cross of Christ, leaving it to be a meaningless icon on a church roof or worn as jewelry around the neck.

The “love of Christ” which “constraineth us” to selfless living for His glory is deprived of its power, for if He did not die our second death, then His death was only the sweet oblivion that our universal death is—a “sleep” (cf. John 11:11-13). Both of the thieves crucified with Him died that sweet death; they couldn’t wait to bite down hard on that sponge of narcotic given to all crucified victims (by the mercies of the Jerusalem Ladies Aid Society), so they could just pass out. No, that was not the “death” that the Son of God died. He refused to take that narcotic! He must “be made to be sin for us,” and feel our guilt to the uttermost.

It’s true that Christ’s Enemy in the great controversy has changed the holy Sabbath day, but his supreme achievement has been to rob the sacrifice of Christ of its significance, and thus cast contempt upon His love revealed at the cross. Covering up this truth reduces it to the dimension of our egocentric human affection which we call “love.” The result: his magnificent accomplishment after all the millennia of human history—the paralyzing lukewarmness of spirit that pervades Christ’s last days’ church (Rev. 3:14-16; 12:17). A true appreciation of what Christ accomplished at His cross would cure this last and greatest problem.

We can’t understand the cross unless we grasp what Paul says in Galatians 3:13: “Christ was made a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’),” referring to what Moses said, “He who is hanged [on a tree] is accursed of God” (Deut. 21:22, 23). That’s the horror in the darkest hell that Jesus gave Himself to (Acts 2:27). Christ is the only man ever who died that death—what yours and mine would have to be, but for Him dying it. Let the truth sink in; then you’ll be “constrained,” too (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

September 29, 2006

Pure down-to-earth happiness, what everybody wants but few find, is the theme of the psalms. Number 103 can be read as the secret not only of personal happiness, but of health and healing too:

“Bless the Lord, O my soul.” There’s only this one word in Hebrew for “bless,” transliterated as barak (in Kiswahili we still have “baraka,” the common word for happy blessings from the Lord; it came to us through the Arabic, thence the Hebrew).

“Don’t forget all His benefits,” is next. Our old hymn tries to say it, “Count your many blessings!” When everything has seemed to go wrong, and even death stares you in the face, can’t you “count” as one blessing the truth that the Son of God has died your second death? It can’t be wrong to revel in that, even if you’re drawing your last mortal breath! There’s life and healing in that reveling.

“Who forgives all your iniquities.” You can spend all day thinking of that “baraka.” (No day is long enough.)

“Who heals all your diseases.” Maybe we should recognize that there is a deeper truth therein—“who [continually tries to] heal” them, but is hindered by our continual state of unbelief. “To bless Him” instead of continually wailing, “Bless me, O Lord!” is a health-giving exercise “of my soul.” It’s a grand paradigm shift in thinking, a new departure in faith that is consistent with the new and deeper truths inherent in the “cleansing of the sanctuary.” They pervade living in this grand Day of Atonement. It’s a distinctly fresh thought in the popular “relationship” idea: a bride stands in a different “relationship” to the Bridegroom than does the flower girl at the wedding; such feeling for Christ (as He is suffering today) is healing to a soul sick with egocentricity.

“Who redeems your life from destruction.” You don’t pray your thanks to the angel who saved you from that car crash, but you thank the Lord for sending him.

“Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies ...” No more words can help your healing if you simply believe that!

September 28, 2006

Someone asks a pivotal question: what does the Bible mean when it says, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” in Philippians 2:12?

It sounds like the direct opposite of John 3:16, “ ... that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish ...” Is it the old “works salvation” again?

But a closer look shows that it doesn’t contradict what Jesus said.

The exact Greek word used is KATERGAZESTHE which means literally “carry out to the goal.” In his context, it is clear that Paul is not denying that our salvation is by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9); he doesn’t shoot himself in the foot by teaching opposites. The idea he’s getting across is not to “work FOR your own salvation” but let your salvation that God has already given you in Christ WORK ITSELF OUT through you. Don’t dam up the flowing stream (remember, Jesus says that if we truly believe in Him there will be a well of living water in us flowing all the time to refresh others, John 7:37-39, which He had quoted from Song of Solomon 4:15); now let it flow is the simple idea.

The “fear” Paul mentions is not Taliban terror; the idea is loving reverence, and serious living. What motivates us is not terror, but “the love (agape) of Christ constraineth us” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). The true gospel motivates us to be in dead earnest, and it melts proud, brittle human hearts.

The “trembling” is not what you would do if you were facing a firing squad; it’s trembling with happy excitement, like chills running up and down your back when you are thrilled about something superlatively delightful.

Then read on to verse 13 and it becomes crystal clear: all this is God working in you “both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (the fun He knows in saving us)—not you doing it! It’s simply love (agape) busy at work (2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Gal. 5:6).

And this apparently severe “works righteousness” text in Philippians is like a nut you thought was hard to crack but which has a sweet kernel inside.

And while your attention is focused on Philippians, read again the context of those seven steps that Jesus took in stepping down ever lower to save you from the second death He died in your place (vss. 5-13). And then sing for joy.

September 27, 2006

There’s a “we,” “us,” and “our” in Ephesians 1 that has been “blessed ... with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” who are “predestinated ... to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, ... to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made [them] accepted in the Beloved” (vss. 3-6). Who are those people in these first person plural pronouns?

Only one possible answer: the entire human race. We can’t inject Calvinist double predestination into God’s word! Christ is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42; 1 Tim. 4:10).

But how can you know you personally are “adopted”? You individually have a first-class personal validation of this “adoption” in the longing sigh of your lonely heart that cries out, “Abba, Father!” (see Rom. 8:15).

But you also have another personal validation of this “adoption”: the same text hints at it—“we suffer with Him” means that “we may also be glorified together.”

But Hebrews spells out more vividly this other personal assurance of your adoption into the family of God: “The exhortation ... speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” (vss. 5, 6).

Do you know disappointments, setbacks, disasters, crushing and humiliating heart-rejection? Your first thought is, “God has forsaken me!” But stay a little longer on your knees and you will sense the tie of personal kinship now being forged with Christ. He will never let Himself be “glorified” unless and until He shares the glory “together” with you, as Romans 8 said!

There’s every reason for you to be assured that you’ve been “adopted.” Now live like the son adopted, that you are; honor your Father.

September 26, 2006

In a special sense Ephesians and Romans teach that Christ the Son of God became the world’s second Adam and reversed the judicial condemnation that the fallen Adam brought upon us all.

Christ has given to “all men” a judicial verdict of acquittal, and in Himself adopted us. He is “the Savior of the world”(John 4:41), “the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:10). “The free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Rom. 5:18; of course, we are free to refuse the “gift” if we choose to).

Says Ephesians: “Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has ... predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:3-6).

But how can one know this personally? If you had some tangible, intimate evidence you could see, wouldn’t that make you happy?

Romans says yes, you have it: if your heart cries out “Father,” that is the evidence that you have been personally “adopted.” No human could cry “Father!” unless in a real sense he has been “born again,” or at least has begun to be born again: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear [as is natural for all humans], but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (8:15, 16; remember, a baby is a live son!).

Think it through: walk softly before the Lord, look to Him for guidance, cry out in your distresses, “Father!” and confess that like a child crossing busy traffic hangs on to father’s hand, so do you to Him—you have the evidence that God has adopted you as His child. Now demonstrate your adoption by how you live!

Hold your head high!

And there’s a second way by which you can know this personally; but time’s up. Tomorrow, the Lord willing.

September 21, 2006

The pope struggles to find words to apologize to world Muslims for remarks that actually were true. Al Qaida Muslims openly boast of modern Islamic intent to “convert” the world at the edge of the “sword.”

Horror rages anew in Darfur.

Politicians and statesmen of whatever political or national party fulfill what Jesus said, “Men’s hearts [will be] failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken” (Luke 21:26). Look at the pictures of the world’s leaders.

There is one Christian thinking that stands unique: the doctrine of “the Day of Atonement.” It calls for voluntary humbling of hearts in fasting and sympathetic prayer during this prophetic time of “distress” of nations. The “time” is the cosmic Day of heart-searching and reconciliation with God that began with the end of the 2300 year prophecy of Daniel 8. It was 1844.

“Sympathetic prayer”? Yes, in heart-union with multitudes living in terror in Darfur, or wherever fear stalks; in sympathy with the poor who want even for what we say are “the necessities”; in sympathy with the sick and in prison whom Jesus tells us not to forget; but above all, in sympathy with Jesus Himself who is forced to bear all this near-universal human pain and can neither slumber nor sleep as we can (see Psalm 121:3, 4; Isa. 63:9).

This universal Day of Atonement is the grand original of ancient Israel’s annual “tenth day of the seventh month,” their little day of atonement, the only one day of the year on which they were commanded to fast and sabbath-like cease their endless search for wealth and pleasure.

Today we are invited into close fellowship with the Savior of the world, to “sit with [Him] on [His] throne,” to share with Him executive authority in bringing to a triumphant close the great controversy between Christ and Satan (Rev. 3:21). At-oneness with Christ, reconciliation with His heart, is a privilege; it’s for all who want to be close to Him.

September 20, 2006

A young man writes: “I am a youth leader at my church. How do you suggest I present to them the ‘most precious’ truths of ‘the everlasting gospel’ (‘the third angel’s message in verity’)? Their attention spans are ever shorter. They are being attacked from every angle. Has somebody prepared Bible studies that grip their attention and hold them so they can learn the message and be truly converted?”

Some probably think they have done so, and doubtless the Lord has blessed their efforts. But very likely what they have done will be to you like King Saul’s armor was to young David when he was preparing to face the giant Goliath.

The Lord Jesus is still the Good Shepherd who is seeking those lost “sheep” of teens in your class (Luke 19:10). There are labyrinthine ways that “sheep” get lost; the Chief Shepherd is infinite in knowledge and knows how to reach those apparently unresponsive youth. But He needs someone to be His agent, and that is yourself. Thank God you have that responsibility.

You need personal tutelage from Him and He is ready to give it—not endless hours perusing biblical and commentary study; rather, hours in humble prayer. There is a way that those youth can be reached; probably nobody has printed a book or done a website that will solve your particular problem; but the Lord has a solution.

As a young man Jesus had the same specific, identical problem: how could He resurrect these “dry bones” of the people, the youth, of His day? The Father would wake Him in the morning to teach Him, that He “should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isa. 50:4). Only thus could Jesus have known each day what to say!

We are not saved by works; but listening to the Lord does require time and what is even more important—close attention. You are the man of Luke 11 who bangs on his neighbor’s door at midnight begging for bread—not for yourself, but for your guests, for you “have nothing to set before” them (vss. 5-9). But there’s good news in the story: he gets an answer! And so do you.

There is no pill one can take to excuse us from the exertion.

September 19, 2006

How much does God love you, personally? Your happiness (here and forever) depends on how you believe it. None of us was born already believing; we have all had to learn how to believe; and for that we need the Good News in the Bible. Winning the lottery is not the way to learn that God loves you; everything of human happiness you’ve been given can take wings and fly away.

You may say that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” sounds too far away—2000 years ago. But the Bible reveals His on-going love for you. For example:

(1) Your Savior takes you by the arm to lead you “in the paths of righteousness.” He actually takes you by your hand and says, Come, let’s go to happiness! He loves you like a father loves a little son who is just learning to walk. Read it in Hosea 11:1, 3: “I taught Ephraim [My people] also to go, taking them by their arms. ... I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” No, He doesn’t force you; but He does everything possible short of it. If you don’t refuse, He will be to you the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23.

(2) Isaiah says that He actually takes you by the hand to lead you to heaven: “I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee” (41:13, 10).

(3) If you make a mistake and take a wrong path in your blindness or foolishness, He does not forsake you. He will do for you what He did for Saul of Tarsus who was hell-bent on taking the wrong path. The Lord put obstacles in his path to make the wrong way seem like kicking against the goads (see Acts 26:14). Yes, the Lord made it “hard” for Saul to be lost! Isn’t that personal love?

(4) And the Savior continually reminds you that He has made His “yoke ... easy, and [His] burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).

You believe it, or you dis-believe it; but if you are having trouble believing it, He “helps [your] unbelief” if you will let Him (Mark 9:24). In fact, ask Him to; you can never perish if you pray that prayer.

September 17, 2006

Have you ever been crushed, broken in heart, humiliated? Felt that Heaven was closed against you, your prayers were unanswered? You’ve been stoned (like Stephen in Acts 7, that is!)? You were persona non grata at the throne of God? (Maybe only a few will care about this DDB). The most difficult place to endure ostracism is in the church that you love, because church fellowship sensitizes the most delicate and painful of human emotions.

There are several Bible characters who can serve as Encouragers of such who suffer:

(1) Joseph, sold as a slave by his own brethren, opposed ten to one, discarded like a piece of junk, wept broken-hearted at his prospects. But behold his magnanimity toward his “brethren” and his forgiveness of them (Gen. 45:1-8).

(2) David, hunted like a wild beast by the “anointed” king of Israel, Saul. When “the anointed of the Lord” wants to finish you off, you have reason to feel tempted to think God has forsaken you. How could God be with you when His chosen, “anointed king” is against you? Some when they have this sad experience give up in despair and commit a kind of spiritual suicide, which they must not do. They should give serious study to the psalms of David written when he was so bitterly persecuted by king Saul (there are many!). God saw fit to preserve these psalms, knowing that some people throughout history would have a similar experience to David. For example, read Psalm 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, etc. On and on! And then we have the psalms of David written when he was plagued with the results of his own sin (suffering even more difficult to endure!), such as 3 (when he fled from his own son Absalom), 7 (when Cush the Benjamite cursed him as he fled), 32 and 51, his penitential psalms, etc. With only one exception (Psalm 88), in his psalms of discouragement, David always ends up with his choice to “come boldly unto the throne of grace” and trust the Lord to care for him. All the psalms that begin in the minor key end up in the major key; only #88 is in the minor key throughout.

(3) Then there is Number Three: Jesus. Never was anyone more humiliated, heart-broken, insulted, condemned, as He was—by His own people. Taking our place, suffering all that we are called upon to endure, He cried out (as we often do!), “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” If your soul is tempted and you feel driven to discouragement, “consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your mind” (see Heb. 12:3). And don’t forget, do as He did: pray for your tormentors!

September 16, 2006

God’s love for a lost, despairing world is seen in the message of three mighty angels who “fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach ... to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people,” telling [1] that “the hour of His judgment has come,” [2] that “‘Babylon’ is fallen,” that is, apostate, fallen Christianity that should lighten the earth with truth but instead has embraced self-worshipping paganism in its heart, and [3] don’t “worship the beast and his image, [or] receive his mark” (Rev. 14:6-12).

The first message arose on time just after the end of the 1260 years that came in 1798, was given a first public presentation in 1831; a tragic rejection by the entrenched Protestant hierarchies made the “fall of Babylon” message relevant by 1844, and the identification of “the mark of the beast” has been proclaimed ever since.

But note: these three great angels can fly only “in the midst of heaven,” like a helicopter flying over the treetops; better than travel by oxcart, yes, but severely limited in their effectiveness. They use all the marvelous “increase of knowledge” provided by modern technology, satellite preaching, for example; but straining their resources to the limit, they could preach on for hundreds of years more, frustrated in their best efforts unless “another angel,” a fourth, comes “down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth [is] lightened with his glory, and he [cries] mightily with a loud voice ...” (18:1-4).

The most poignant drama of 6000 years is seen in modern “Israel’s” disdaining that “most precious message” when its “beginning” came in the closing decades of the 19th century. Consequent on that tragic unbelief has been the loosening of the grip of those “four angels” of chapter 7 who had been commissioned to “hold the four winds of the earth” until the sealing angels “have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads” (vss. 1-3). In simple language, the Savior of the world has thereby been frustrated in His purpose to bring to a triumphant close His “great controversy” with Satan.

The next item on the agenda: repentance for God’s own people.

September 15, 2006

When somebody important loves you and tells you so, you are flooded with happiness. As a wise writer once said, such love is a precious gift from Jesus. It begins with mother and father loving you; but we are to “leave ... father and ... mother, and cleave” to that other somebody important. Thank God for love!

But can you imagine how the biblical Daniel felt when a holy angel from heaven addressed him, “O man greatly beloved,” individually, especially (9:23; 10:11, 19). At this time, it was Medo-Persian rule. Likely, his three loyal friends of youth, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, were no longer around (we never hear of them again). He was lonely, still in exile, engulfed with perpetual paganism all around him, hated, envied by the leadership of the nation; he probably had no family; he had suffered an intimate personal violence unspeakable for a Hebrew—castrated in his teenage youth, apparently abandoned of heaven as a deserved spoil of divine national retribution.

But now an angel as a personal friend (unusual!?) throws into a conversation parenthetically this tidbit of information—the intelligences of heaven, what Paul calls “the whole family in heaven and earth” (Eph. 3:15), talk about him behind his back in endearing terms. He means something special at the headquarters office of God. They love him as an individual!

Daniel’s “works” did not evoke this special affection; it was his faith. He was respected as a kind of hero; when he had prayed with his windows open toward Jerusalem he had risked his life for devotion to this “family in heaven” (6:10). When he went into the lions’ den it was with a committed resignation, partly in trust that the Lord might deliver him, partly as surrender in case his being devoured by beasts might somehow honor God (as with Christians later in the days of pagan Rome). This reliance on God as “Father in heaven” knit Daniel’s soul with that of the Son of God who from eternity had committed Himself to be one with us. He was “greatly loved” by Him, and the angel realized it.

Wait on your knees, “wait, I say on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14). The same angel has a word for you, too. Your happiness will lead you to total obedience to all God’s commandments, to loving service (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

September 14, 2006

What is Islam? What relationship, if any, does it sustain to “the faith of Jesus”?

Answers are in Revelation which pronounces a “blessing” on the one “who reads” and even “hears the words of this prophecy” (1:3).

We know “God so loved the world that He gave” His Son; but the world hated Him, murdered Him, expelled Him; Heaven had to “receive” Him back. The Holy Spirit empowered those who believed in Him to fan out around the world with the gospel of His grace.

But the Enemy in the “great controversy between Christ and Satan” insidiously penetrated the church and corrupted it with renascent paganism, as the prophecy of Daniel 8 says. The church virtually became paganism baptized (evidences of this are legion in popular “Christianity”); the love of self became glorified in the church. Corruption flourished.

Then Islam arose as a scourge of apostate “Christianity.” Revelation 9 tells the story: it’s “a star fall[en] from heaven” that “opens the bottomless pit” and lets loose “the smoke of a great furnace” that darkens even the sun (verses 1, 2). If the world had not rejected and exiled their Son of God, this sad history could not have happened; Islam rushed in to fill a vacuum. The apostate “little horn” persona of Daniel 8 is the foundation on which the book of Revelation is structured.

Some great angel was commissioned to “signify” its message, to put it into cartoon form so that simple, ordinary people can get it (1:1). Read the naked Revelation 9, on your knees; note that it is followed by chapter 10 which describes the great Second Advent Movement of the early 19th century. Don’t despise scholars who have gone before you, but drink of water of life at its pristine source. The Holy Spirit will “show” you profound truth.

Then “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5-8); He does not call us to a fanatical suicide mission, but He does call us to take up our cross on which the love of self is crucified “with Him.” We can honor Him in this intense “jihad” “great controversy” of the last days.

September 13, 2006

Jesus Christ said that God is His Father; that’s easy for us to believe.

But He also said that God is our Father, too; and that’s our problem to believe. Can everybody in the world, the bad as well as the good, call God their Father? Or does He bear that relationship only to the righteous?

When you think you’ve been very good it’s easy to pray the Lord’s prayer which begins, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name ...” and you go on through it, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us ... , ... and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil ...” (Matt. 6:6ff,).

But when you have made a mess of your life, done wrong, and you know you are condemned as a selfish sinner, and as an “unprofitable servant” you deserve to be “cast out into outer darkness” (25:30), can you pray the Lord’s prayer? Can you say “My Father who is in heaven ...”?

That is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came from heaven to teach us to say: He came as “the friend of ... sinners” (11:19), and He invites “all” of us to “come to [Him]” and find the relief which is salvation from ourselves (11:28-30).

There is a cosmic Enemy who would deter us from coming and from praying the Lord’s prayer; perhaps you are sitting somewhere handcuffed, you know why; you even sense the condemnation of all humanity. You know “they” would “cast [you] into outer darkness” and hope you stay there forever. Now you face the greatest battle of your life, your battle of eternity: will you believe that the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is your Father, that “out of the depths [you] have cried to [Him], O Lord. ... If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You” (Psalm 130:1-4). Yes; and it’s your job (and our job) to believe it!

Pray the Lord’s prayer from your heart in your dungeon, and that will prove that you have been adopted as a child of God (read Rom. 8:15!).

September 12, 2006

Nobody wants one living next door, nor within 2000 feet of a school. They are worse pariahs than lepers in Bible times who had to keep away from people and shout “Unclean!” whenever anyone came near. These untouchables today are our “sex offenders,” and the very worst are the wicked men who murder innocent little girls.

The “Jessica Law” on our ballot in California is to be very severe on these people; they are the lowest outcasts of society.

How could they do such crimes? It’s hard to imagine unless it’s devil possession.

Is there any hope for them? Legal experience tends to say No. The recidivism rate is high.

Could there be among these incarcerated criminals one whose heart might possibly respond to the divine “Savior of the world” (John 4:42)? If so, the jail door would never again open for him; but could he find God truly?

Such would forever hate himself for yielding to do what he did; could one have been saved if in childhood he had heard the proclamation of “the faith of Jesus” how Christ in His incarnation had the same battles with temptation that we have, how He said “I seek not My own will but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30)? Even as a child He made that choice to “bear His cross” in self-denial! Yes, Christ always bore His cross on which self was crucified. And He would teach us to do so too, even as children.

Many have been deprived of this glimpse of the true Christ. The view that He took a different nature than ours has prevailed so nearly universally that multitudes have never learned how to say “No!” to self. And when “self” learns to have its way, the end can be horrible.

September 11, 2006

There is probably no one who doesn’t want the church to be truly awake, repentant, and alive with the joy of the Lord. We know that someday it will be (after there is a great shaking, after “Elijah” has come and done his work).

But is there anyone ready to take all the sins of the church, known and hidden, upon him/herself, realizing that apart from the grace of the Savior he would be guilty of them all? Or does each one of us feel that that would be impossible; we could never fall that low. “We’ve been brought up right!”

If such an insightful person could be found, someone who wouldn’t be praying, “Lord, aren’t they awful! please save them!” that would be a practical, corporate repentance that would do a world of good.

Someone came to the true church one time who found it in a terrible spiritual condition; yes, He must have prayed for that church; but He did something much more—He repented in the behalf of that church. He took all their sins upon Himself as though He were guilty of them all. So intimate and real was this “taking” that He “was made to be sin for [them] that [they] might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). He put Himself in each person’s place, knowing all the details from their conception on. He felt each person’s weakness as though it were His own. He felt the shame of his defeats, and the tearful longings for peace with God.

It was on His cross that He was “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” It was a horrible experience of “knowing”—hell itself. He felt in His soul that He was lost forever. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a victor. “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12). “He made His grave with the wicked” (vs. 9), the kind of a grave that has no end to it; and He did something that no other person in 6000 years has been able to do: He felt to the full the horror of it. (Anyone else would pass out long before.)

Thank God, He has disciples who are even now learning from Him.

September 10, 2006

The Bible is full of comforting, encouraging assurances of the heavenly Father’s unending love. He is the “wonderful Counselor” (Isa. 9:6) who alone understands us and all the labrynthine details of our lives since our conception (Psalm 139:7-17).

When the Bible pleads with us, “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20), the plea is for us to believe His character of love, that infinite though He is as the Ruler of the universe and His Milky Way, He is also the personal, intimate “our Father which art in heaven” whose heart yearns for you and me as if we were the only person for whom the Savior gave His eternal life.

His close, intimate love goes both ways—(a) forward into our future (“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” Heb. 13:5); and (b) backward to our very conception in the womb of our mother, according to that psalm.

We can’t “do” anything to earn salvation in the least; when the jailer in Philippi asked the apostles what he should “do to be saved” they told him frankly, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:30, 31). That means again, “be reconciled to God,” without which heart humbling all our law-keeping is vain.

Hebrews in the NT we sometimes think is over our heads; but after his brilliant teaching in chapters 1-12, Paul ends up in chapter 13 with a humble, simple, heart-warming request for us to “pray for HIM” as though he is as needy as any of us (vs. 18). So we get down on our knees here side by side with “our beloved brother Paul” (2 Peter 3:15), just as though he is with us in our little weekly prayer meeting; just like us, he prays for “a good conscience.”

As we face our future confident that the Lord will never “forsake us” or let go of our “right hand” (Isa. 41:13), so in our past let’s trust that He has led us unerringly. Part of our being “reconciled” to Him includes that confidence that His leading in our past has been only faithful love.

September 8, 2006

Some little thing happened just recently that has encouraged me. Ever since I discovered the new covenant “truth of the gospel” in Galatians (cf. 2:5, 14), I have longed to be able to encourage my church to come out of old covenant thinking into the sunshine of the new.

One overlooked place where old covenant ideas sometimes find lodging in our hearts is the songs we sing in worship. We think they don’t affect our spiritual experience, that it doesn’t matter what we “say” as we sing because we sing mindlessly—it’s just our custom to “have a song,” as it’s our custom to “have a little prayer before we start our meeting.” But our singing is as much prayer as is our so-called “praying” (often sadly, mere formality).

Well, a young man was leading the singing of “I Would Draw Nearer to Jesus, In His sweet presence abide ...” Very good, nice song; lovely tune; congregation singing enthusiastically. Then: “Constantly trying to serve Him, ...” The young man suddenly stopped. “Wait a moment! That’s old covenant! ... Let’s make that new covenant! ‘Constantly choosing to serve Him ... !’”

I was in the congregation; I had not intruded with a word. But I rejoiced that at last a young man had himself become alert to the reality that “Truth Matters” (the title of a powerful and excellent new book from Pacific Press Publishing Association). What we sing becomes a part of us even if we think our minds are inert; the old covenant ideas still get lodged deep within and affect our “Christian experience.” A “lukewarm” relation to our beloved “Faithful and True Witness” (Christ) becomes inevitable (cf. Rev. 3:14-19).

As we near the glorious finishing of God’s work in the world and the coming of Jesus, all the cobwebs and junk of legalistic, egocentric thinking will be swept out. Then when the Lord has a world church truly reconciled to Him, the world can be lightened with His final message (18:1-4).

September 7, 2006

It’s good news that the Lord will “send [us] Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The time specified means that it will be very close to the end of human history. Obviously, his coming is simultaneous with the closing work of Christ as High Priest in His Most Holy apartment ministry, which is that of the cosmic Day of Atonement. What makes the “news” so good is that Elijah will “turn hearts” in atonement (reconciliation; Mal. 4:5, 6).

Human hearts are the most difficult things to “turn” in the entire universe of God. It took the infinite sacrifice of the Son of God to “turn” even one (mine). “Elijah’s” work will be on a grand scale, obviously identical with that of the great “another angel” of Revelation 18:1-4, whose message “lightens the earth with glory.” Hearts of “fathers” and “children” will be “turned,” impossible to do unless at the same time “hearts” of husbands and wives are “turned” also. Divorce-alienations are the most challenging problems “Elijah” must face.

The miracle required is an undoing of Lucifer’s original rebellion in heaven, of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden, of the hatred of the scribes and Pharisees against Christ at His crucifixion. The miracle of those heart-reconciliations will be the final demonstration that Christ did not die in vain (cf. Gal. 2:21).

September 6, 2006

Can alienated, divorced hearts be reconciled? “Turning hearts” of course takes more than human wisdom, more than any “marriage counselor” can do. It’s interesting that the Lord sends “Elijah” to do it (Mal. 4:5, 6). Why does He not say “I will come and do it”? No, “Elijah” is the Lord’s special servant to do just that!

There are many programs and seminars offering “marriage enrichment” for couples in desperate need. Books are everywhere. Some divorced couples find their way back to love again; thank God.

But many are distraught because they do reverence the Bible as the word of God, and it clearly says that God “hates divorce” (Mal. 2:14-16); the weight on their hearts because of breaking up and living apart is enormous. (Proverbs says it’s better to live on the roof than with a brawling and contentious woman, 21:9; 25:24; the same—man!) The heart of the Lord Jesus yearns for those who just can’t “love” when it’s their duty to love. But He loves them. The Bible says that He also has had problems with His Bride-to-be (cf. the entire Book of Hosea; also Rev. 19:7, 8). Alienation is cosmic; the need for reconciliation is cosmic.

And the Bible just as clearly says, “It is not good for the man that he should be alone” (Gen. 2:18). (I don’t dare try to re-write the Bible but I often wonder, Isn’t it also “not good for the woman that she should be alone?” But I can’t say what God didn’t say.) When the mysterious providences of God bring two together in what they believe is “love,” their happiness is heavenly.

When Rev. 18:1-4 is fulfilled and the message of the great Day of Atonement “lightens the earth with glory” (the gospel of justification by faith in relation to the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary), will that truth bridge gaps and bring alienated spouses together? God says yes: He will “send Elijah ... before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn [hearts]” (Mal. 4:5, 6).

It will be a miracle as great as Jesus delivering the demon-possessed child in Mark 9:20-27. Jesus first told the boy’s father, “If you can believe, all things are possible.” Love is believing the “impossible.”

September 1, 2006

                     
The story in Numbers packs a powerful truth. The people were wallowing in Old Covenant darkness, forgetting that they were New Covenant children of father Abraham. “The soul of the people became discouraged on the way” (21:4). They indulged in bitter unbelief and rebellion. Pure sin.

The Lord took the blame for what He did not prevent. He permitted poisonous snakes to afflict them. Fear motivated the people to “repent and beg Moses to pray that the Lord would “take away” the snakes (they couldn’t pray!).

The Lord declined; instead, He appointed a way out for them: make one out of brass, lift it up so the people could see it on a pole; healing would come by simply looking.

Other than that, no one was asked to “do” anything. We “see Jesus made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death” “made to be sin for us” “who knew no sin,” “that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (Heb. 2:9; 2 Cor. 5:21). Same idea: “seeing.”

Worthy and unworthy people were treated alike: there’s no record that the “good” were immune. The snake on the pole was for “all men.”

Was the Lord teaching that law obedience is unimportant? No; He had another lesson for them that went deeper. Salvation is not secured by what we do but by what we “behold.”

The beholding brings “comprehension” of the “width and length and depth and height—to know the love [agape] of Christ which passes knowledge.” Then we are “filled with all the fullness of God,” ready for translation at Christ’s coming (Eph. 3:18, 19).