Daily Bread  -  November, 2008

by Robert J. Wieland

As we seek to understand whether the church can hasten or delay the promised second coming of Jesus, we need to ponder who is “the Lamb’s wife” who must first “make herself ready” (Rev. 19:7, 8). Those who say the church can do nothing to hasten the return of “the Lamb” tend to be perplexed on this issue.

They see Revelation 21:6-27 as defining “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” as the literal “city” of the New Jerusalem. This raises a question: if “God is [its] builder and Maker” (Heb. 11:10), how can the “city which hath foundations” be said to “make [itself] ready”? And further, wouldn’t Jesus be guilty of idolatry if He loves a material city of golden streets, walls of jewels, and literal gates? When He cried out to the old city, “O Jerusalem, ... thou that killest the prophets” (Matt. 23:37), was He addressing its literal gates and stones, or the people who inhabited it? When you were married, did you love the bride or your house?

When John in vision saw “the Lamb stand on mount Zion,” was it the literal city or the “144,000 who had His Father’s name written in their foreheads”? As John saw them, as a group they apparently had by that time “made [themselves] ready,” for “they sung as it were a new song before the throne [and] ... [followed] the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. ... Without fault before the throne of God” (Rev. 14:1-5).

No woman in the world is worthy to be the Bride of the Son of God! But all through the Bible His church in a corporate sense is said to be the object of His conjugal love. Neither Luther nor C. S. Lewis had much use for the Book of Revelation. But those whose hearts yearn for Christ’s soon return are thrilled with its message; they don’t help to save themselves by a legalistic do-it-yourself method, but they stop resisting “the Lamb” and they let Him “wash” them “in His blood.” And they let Him GIVE them the GIFT of special repentance (3:19). Is it not in that sense that the Bride, “the Lamb’s wife,” can “make herself ready”?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, expressed some Good News that all of us can receive.

The angel Gabriel had just appeared to her, informing her that she was to become the mother of the Messiah.

She said: “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, for He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:47, 48).

The Good News that we can accept is that whenever we see and confess that our “estate” is “low,” the dear Lord “regards” it.

In the case of Mary, the Lord wonderfully exalted her to worldwide, permanent honor.

The Lord does not want us to suffer the pain of being in a “low estate.”

He exalted Mary very highly, and although we may not be so highly exalted, yet it is sure that the Lord will “exalt” us in our little sphere and “give [us] the desires of [our] heart[s]” (Psalm 37:4).

The Lord does not desire us to suffer the privations of sickness, ill health, or poverty; and although we may be called to endure such things for a time, yet we are to cherish the hope and trust that the Lord will relieve our plight, and will “exalt” us appropriately in our place.

“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).

That’s a BIG promise!

Now let us learn what it means to “delight” ourselves in the Lord.

It’s a happy “safari” before us!

Thanksgiving is traditionally the day for eating turkey and maybe other unhealthful foods, sometimes even to excess, and then saying we are thankful for it all. But the person who has begun to glimpse the reality of the Gospel as good news better than we have thought, will find something else crowding out mere thanksgiving for material blessings: a deep sense of gratitude for Christ dying our second death for us.

It’s something we mortals think very little about. The Gospel as Good News evokes from honest human hearts a profound sense of gratitude. But such a sense is impossible unless we appreciate the value of what we have received, or what it cost the Savior to procure it for us. Sometimes explorers have noted that very primitive people have no sense of gratitude. They simply take what is given them with no show of saying thanks. They just do not realize obligation until they become educated. Our preoccupation with material blessings at this season of the year is the direct result of our not understanding what it cost the Savior to redeem us:

(1) We say it with reverence—He died our second death (Rev. 2:11; Isa. 53:12). And His human nature suffered as did His divine nature. His sweating drops of blood in Gethsemane bears witness to the soul-agony He went through. And the hatred and ingratitude of those He came to save did not make His burden any lighter.

(2) He gave Himself forever to the human race. How would you like to give your entire life to living in a leper colony in the African jungle—never to come home again? That is infinitely inadequate to portray the eternal sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

(3) With His blood He bought the life and happiness of every human being, even of those who do not believe and who hate Him. He has made it possible for the wicked to enjoy life (if enjoy they can!). His grace is given, not merely offered, to every person. So, more clearly than we can realize, “Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15).

Mary, the mother of Jesus, says something that is of great encouragement to us.

When the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would become the mother of the Lord Jesus, she said that God had “regarded the low estate of His handmaiden” (Luke 1:48).

When we consider our true “estate” in the eyes of the Lord, we too are constrained to confess that we are in a “low estate” (the Greek word means humble).

But as soon as we become willing to confess that precious truth of the reality of our humble place, we have this encouragement: the Lord “regards” our “low estate”! The word “regards” means He notices it, and He will lift us up.

He will raise us up from that “low estate.” In the case of Mary, she was raised up to where she said, “from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”

We may not be raised up to that very highly exalted place, but for sure we will be “raised up” to the highest level of honor that we can endure without becoming inordinately proud (which would ruin everything!).

The Lord God is Almighty, yes; we know that. But He also is in need: there are some things that even He cannot do.  There is some soul in the world somewhere that even the Holy Spirit cannot reach without our help. When young Isaiah was in the Temple of the Lord, He heard the Lord’s voice describe the desperate condition of His people, “a people of unclean lips.”

But the Lord confessed how much even He needed someone’s cooperation:

The Lord Himself asked, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Even the great and mighty Holy Spirit needed someone to “go,” someone to “send”!

Young Isaiah said, “Here am I: send me” (cf. Isa. 6:1-8).

Please—you be willing also! The Holy Spirit is calling again today for someone to “go.”

What Solomon says sounds almost like a put-down for youth: “Rejoice, O young man [and of course, young woman], in the days of thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will being thee into judgment” (Eccl. 11:9). In other words, enjoy yourself in your pride, but—judgment is coming. The Good News Bible renders it, “enjoy your youth. ... Do what you want to do.”

Youth is when we make decisions that last for all our lives, even for eternity. There’s many an old man, feeble long before his age, in nursing homes who was a great star in his “rejoicing” youth. He did what he “wanted to do.” The thought of judgment didn’t cross his mind.

And there are many old women in the same places, shriveled in body and in spirit (the last is what’s important!) who were beauty queens in their youth. They did what they “wanted to do.” They also never thought they would ever get old.

And we’re all the same: proud of what God gave us which somebody else doesn’t have. We strut about, displaying ourselves. (“All” of course means both sexes, equally.) Is there a remedy?

Youth are just as ready to believe the only remedy, if only they can learn what it is. Isaac Watts summed it up nicely: “When I survey the wondrous cross / On which the Prince of glory died, / My richest gain I count but loss, / And pour contempt on all my pride.” Is it possible that YOUTH can do that?

God Himself would never humiliate anyone before others. Our natural human pride (which all of us inherit) has its own way of turning what we cherish into ashes. Blessed beyond measure is the youth, boy or girl, who has been privileged to SEE what happened on that cross.

A mystery comes unraveled as we compare Hebrews with Exodus. The problem has been to find out what God actually said to Israel when they were at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. The scholars have wrestled over this for centuries. Now it comes clear, with the help of that New Testament book.

In that confrontation just before God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone, He made a generous proposition to His people. But the King James Version makes it sound like He told them, “If you will first get a perfect record in obedience to all My commandments, then I’ll bless you.” And of course, the people wanted that blessing, so they promised, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (vss. 4-8). The bottom line idea that many have had is that the Lord Himself was to blame for starting the Old Covenant with all the misery and ruin it brought on ancient Israel.

But now, investigation reveals that God had nothing to do with forming the Old Covenant. It was the people’s idea 100 percent. The mysterious word translated “obey” in verse 5 is SHAMEA in the original language, but it doesn’t mean “obey” as its primary meaning. It means, “listen to My voice” (the word “voice” gives it away, so “we” should have seen this centuries ago).

Here’s where the New Testament Hebrews comes in to help us. Now we see where and why the Old Covenant was a failure from the word go: “the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (4:2). It was useless hearing, without faith “mixed in”!

This insight makes the Hebrew verb SHAMEA in Exodus 19 come alive: what God proposed to Israel at Sinai was, “If you will listen to My voice and not at the same time brace yourselves against what I am saying, if you will listen with faith ‘mixed in’ with your listening, I promise you that you will be the most wonderful people on earth, etc., etc.”

Thus it is clear that what the Lord was wanting to do at Mount Sinai was to renew to Israel the same NEW Covenant He had promised to Abraham! He listened to God’s “voice” with faith “mixed in.” The legalism problem was all Israel’s fault from beginning to end.

And the Good News to you and me is this: if we are struggling with sin and selfishness (who isn’t?), the remedy is to LISTEN to what the Lord says and stop at the same time resisting what He says. Listen with faith. Listen and believe. Then will come all the obedience we’re so concerned about.

Someone says that whenever we preach about Esau selling his birthright and then weeping tears forever after; she is afraid.

We should not be afraid of Satan, for he is a defeated enemy. And fear is not the motivation by which we come to Christ; it’s His love that draws us, not craven fear. We come to Him because our shriveled up little selfish hearts are stretched outsize with an appreciation for Him, appreciation of what He has done for us in dying our second death. He went to hell to find us and to save us! And He gave Himself to that second death for us, which is hell itself.

But there is someone we should be afraid of—and that is self.

We cannot trust self; it is our nature to be at “enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7). That means that if we were left to ourselves without a Savior, that’s what we would do: sell our precious birthright.

So, yes, we should be afraid!

Life today is much the same as life was for young Moses in Egypt long ago. He had a “birthright” but being just as human as we are, he was tempted to “sell” it in exchange for what Hebrews calls “the pleasures of sin for a season” (11:25).

“The pleasures of sin” are always only “for a season.” They are always to be feared!

Moses was given a special resurrection so he could join Enoch and Elijah in heaven (who were both translated without seeing death; see Gen. 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11; Jude 9).

But Moses firmly decided that he would not sell his birthright. Even from a boy, Moses settled in his mind his choice to be true to God. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Moses stood firm like a rock in the midst of enormous temptations in wicked Egypt.

Temptations today attract the young as they appealed to young Moses; but he said “No!” to them.

The little book of Titus is our lifeline to sanity and overcoming: “The grace of God [not craven fear!] brings salvation to all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.” It teaches us how to live “soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” which is wicked as was ancient Crete where Titus lived and ministered.

But Paul cannot teach obedience to the law of God without presenting the sacrifice of Christ “who gave Himself for us” (2:11-14). Contemplating and appreciating that sacrifice saves us from selling our precious birthright today!

The Lord Jesus Christ is a Man, as real as any human is on earth; He is the Son of God, totally divine; but He is also the Son of man, totally human.

He has many names; one of them is “Melchizedek.” Do you know Melchizedek?

The name sounds strange to us; but we need to get acquainted with him.

We cannot say that he was Christ Himself, but for sure, he was a type of Christ who is our heavenly High Priest.

The truth about him is not lost in the complexities of theological acumen; Melchizedek was the great High Priest for the world, more than for Israel only. That’s where you and I come into the picture: we are what the Bible calls spiritual Gentiles, and we need a priest who is greater than the priests of mere Israel were.

Melchizedek was the Gentile sinner’s link with God, the assurance to lost people everywhere that God cares about them, those of us who stand on the outside in the dark watching the party go on in the lighted house, where there is feasting and merriment and we wish we could be inside. Melchizedek is our high priest—ordained outside the Israelite nation.

His name means “king of Jerusalem” as it was before David ever entered the city; Melchizedek was “king of Salem, that is, king of peace” (Heb. 7:2).

Representing Christ, he is our High Priest who never has to “slumber or sleep”(Psalm 121:3, 4).

If you wake up in the wee hours of the night, you can pray to Him; He is there.

If you are laden with the heavy burden of guilt for sin, He is on duty as your High Priest with His forgiveness for your sin. He has taken your sin upon Himself; He was “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin”—and it was our sin that killed Him (see 2 Cor. 5:21).

He has done everything to save us; is there nothing we are to do? There is something for us to do: not a list of good works that we do to earn salvation, no; we are to believe what He has done to save us, and the supporting text is John 3:16; but what does it mean to “believe”?

It means to let our heart appreciate what He has done, appreciate the cost of our salvation, appreciate the length and breadth and depth and height of that love (agape) that led Him to His cross to die for us (Eph. 3:17-19). It’s our poor shriveled up worldly hearts being stretched outsize to contemplate, think about—well, the right word is, appreciate the love (agape) that led Him to die our second death, to go to hell, to surrender Himself for eternity for us.

Yes, there is something appropriate for us to do: “behold,” look, look, and look, at “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world”).

The Lord Jesus Christ loves His church on earth so much that He has sent seven special messages to His world church in seven eras of its history since the time of Jesus and His apostles. They are recorded for us in Revelation chapters 2 and 3:

“ Ephesus”(2:1-7) is the first church, that of the apostles. The Lord Jesus is happy with that “church,” for He commends them for enduring persecution and for thinking clearly and exercising inspired discernment (“you cannot endure them which are evil”). The Christians there have “labored” patiently.

But He has one thing against that “church”: “You have left your first love [agape].”

Careful scholars have detailed how the leaders of the early church step by step abandoned the truths of agape and substituted the pagan Hellenistic concepts of love. The people blindly followed them! The Dark Ages had begun with that false doctrine imported.

Even the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century did not succeed in completely overcoming the Hellenistic ideas that had watered down agape.

What happened was that there developed a superficial view of the extent of the sacrifice of Christ on His cross. The idea was lost that Jesus had not only gone to sleep for a weekend before His resurrection, but that on His cross He had actually died the “second death” of the whole world (see Rev. 2:11, and 20:6, 14). He was serious when He screamed while on His cross, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Christ endured going to hell!

In consequence of losing this great truth of what happened on the cross, the early church soon fell prey to Hellenistic ideas imported into the church, one of which was the pagan doctrine of natural immortality. Today almost all Christian churches handicap themselves by holding to that Hellenistic idea.

Those who mistakenly received that false Hellenistic idea were still seventh-day Sabbath observers; but having accepted that pagan doctrine, they soon abandoned the true Sabbath and embraced the observance of the great “day of the sun” (Sunday) in place of the Lord’s true holy Sabbath. Now the Dark Ages became even darker.

But there is Good News: the Books of Daniel and Revelation pinpoint the end of the Dark Ages as coming at the close of the 1260 years of papal supremacy, which began in 538A.D. and extended to 1798 when, for the first time, the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation began to become widely understood.

Fast forwarding to the end of those Dark Ages, we find that the Holy Spirit raises up a world-wide people who distinguish themselves as those “who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17).

That is what is happening today, the world around. Come, take your place with them! The Lord Jesus has prepared a “place” for you there.

There are two prayers that the Lord always loves to answer:

(1) “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

(2) “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation” (vs. 12).

Both prayers are prayers of penitence.

The Lord does not want to humiliate us or to rub our nose in the dirt; He wants us to lift up our heads, not in proud arrogance but in the full consciousness that He is happy with our spiritual condition.

Repentance is not painful sorrow; the painful sorrow should give way to sober rejoicing that we have been reconciled to God and we are “at-one” with Him.

The word “atonement” is not a mysterious Latin word that theologians in ivory towers use in their theological stratospheric discussions.

It’s a simple old Anglo-Saxon word that means only to be at-one-with someone from whom you have been estranged.

The Lord is not estranged from you; He needs no “atonement” to reconcile His heart to yours.

Even if you have sinned grievously (and this message is always written with the prayer that it may reach someone who has sinned grievously and feels estranged from the Lord), the dear Lord Jesus says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden” (Matt. 11:28).

That includes bad people. He loves sinners! Even bad ones, and worse ones.

“Prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:10). The context has to do with tithe-paying—but the basic idea is that the Lord wants us to try Him, put Him on trial. The Lord won’t forsake the one who confesses that he believes that all he has is the gift of the Lord—that’s the basis of tithe paying. The point is that the Lord welcomes doubters, people who have to struggle to believe how good He is to sinners.

The Lord Jesus is the divine Son of God but He is also the Son of man; He is a Person; He is near to us; He is real; He doesn’t manifest Himself to each of us visibly and personally because if He did, there would be no faith involved, and salvation is only by faith.

Therefore it’s because of His love for us that He abides within the vail, so we can learn what it means to believe.

If you have known this, you have been blessed with happiness. If this is new for you, then your day is “made”—now and forever:

“Blessed is the man [or woman] who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at My doorposts. For he who finds Me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord” (Prov. 8:34, 35).

The word “blessed” means “happy.” From your first moment of consciousness when you awake in the morning, your thought becomes a prayer: “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation” (Psalm 51:11, 12).

Your first wakeful thought is not a desire for a cup of coffee; but you are hungry for some word from the Lord, you are thirsty to “listen” to the Holy Spirit.

And we are talking about “blessedness,” which is true happiness for here and now. Not a “pie in the sky” kind that leaves you miserable here and now.

There is a prayer that is one hundred percent sure to be answered, and it does not depend on some so-called worthiness on our part. The most unworthy sinner in the world can pray this prayer and know that God hears it and treasures it:

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

It’s true—the Lord loves sinners; they are dear to Him because Christ came very close to them, in fact, He was “made to be sin, who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). His enemies complained, saying, “This Man receiveth sinners” (Luke 15:2). Jesus was happy that they said this!

His job is forgiving sinners and cleansing their hearts and preparing them to be at home and to be happy in His eternal kingdom.

Let Him do it to you!

Jesus said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

But that frightens some people, for they know that they have not been “born again,” and they don’t know how to be “born again.”

Jesus never says “ye must” do this or that, if it is impossible, or even difficult.

Let’s read His context, and it will become clear, and it will be wonderful Good News for us:

(a) Verse 5: the being “born again” is not what we do, but what the Holy Spirit does in us “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (vs. 8). To be “born again” is not a do-it-yourself enterprise.

(b) Any person born in this world has a parent who brought him/her to birth; no one can “born” himself (excuse my lack of vocabulary—we don’t have a word for it!).

(c) Here is a job for a Divine Obstetrician; the Holy Spirit does the new birth work;

(d) And we let Him do it

(e) And He will do it if we don’t frustrate Him. (People who love Bad News won’t like this.)

(f) That divine “wind” is forever blowing seeds of heavenly truth into our minds and hearts, through various means; maybe a hymn you heard, a sermon you heard, or a book or an article you read.

(g) We may not know where the seeds come from, or when, or how; but they find a lodgment in our hearts, or in our consciousness somehow.

(h) Then comes the struggle!

(i) The Holy Spirit will not force His presence, or those “seeds,” against our will;

(j) The “seeds” have life in themselves, and so they sprout.

(k) Now, if you and I do not practice an “abortion,” the new life comes to birth within us.

(l) You haven’t “saved” yourself; you have let the Lord Jesus save you through the ministry of the ever-present Holy Spirit.

(m) This “new birth” is not the fruit of a terrifying fear; it is the fruit of the “much more abounding grace” of Christ. Your heart is melted as you “behold the Lamb of God,” as John the Baptist said (John 1:29).

(n) You “behold” Him on His cross; you begin to appreciate what it cost Him to save us; your heart is “enlarged” to “comprehend” the grand dimensions of that love (agape), as David says: “Thou shalt enlarge my heart” (Psalm 119:32).

Let Him do it!

The great King David had fallen from his dizzy height of honor into the dreadful pit of adultery, and then gone further into sin by a deed of murder to cover it up.

He felt that he was lost forever. His nights were filled with tears. He says, “Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer” (Psalm 32:4).

It’s vivid writing: he thinks of a killer drought when every drop of moisture is dried up; that’s his heart!

People sometimes misunderstand the story of King David. They know that the Lord still loved him and forgave him his sin, and they read into the story the wrong idea of a license to sin. They say, “King David was forgiven his sexual sin; now go ahead and do it, don’t worry, the Lord will forgive you, too.”

But that’s the wrong way to read David’s story. Yes, the Lord forgave him; but let us note, David came within a millimeter of losing his soul forever. He cries out in anguish, “My sin is ever before me. ... Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (51:3, 11).

David actually tasted the horrid anguish of being in hell forever. There is nothing worse to experience than being forsaken by the Lord. How would one feel being dumped on the moon all alone forever?

David tasted that; he’d had enough. Never again did he want to transgress the holy law of God.

No, don’t do that evil deed that your lustful heart craves. Satan can never force you to do it; and remember that the temptation to do it is not the sin of doing it. But Jesus says that the deed can be done in the heart if it is your choice to do it when the opportunity comes.

Here’s where the little Book of Titus comes into focus:

“The grace of God [not craven fear!] ... teaches us to say ‘No!’ to ungodliness and worldly lusts” (2:11, 12; NIV). The battle with the sin of lust is won in the heart by choosing “in Christ” to be loyal to Him, learning how to say “No!” Satan has to depart; you are the boss. The Lord Jesus has set us all free from sin. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again ...” (Gal. 5:1).

Sometimes standing still is great progress.

There is a little Biblical Greek word that has within it a world of meaning: anti.

You’ll find it in Hebrews 12: “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for [anti] the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, etc.,” (vs. 2).  Our common translation lends a whiff of possible egocentricity; Jesus endured the cross because He saw a great reward awaiting Him at the end if He endured it.

In contrast, the Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich Lexicon of New Testament Greek (p. 72) says that the primary meaning of anti is “instead of.”

If that insight is valid, we have Hebrews 12:2 saying that “instead of the joy that was set before Him, [Jesus] endured the cross, ...” etc.

What “joy” lay before Him?

“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Christ was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities; ... in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15, emphasis added). He had laid aside the prerogatives of His divinity and shared human life with us in His incarnation, as we must live it—all “yet without sin.” At the young age of 33, as is true of all young men, He was just leaving behind His human youth and taking upon Himself our adulthood, and facing a career before Him.

He was already aware of His marvelous divine gifts; for example, in His public speaking He could hold a crowd in attention all day; He saw a marvelous future opening before Him. Crowds wanted to crown Him the King (John 6:15). The “joy” set before Him was boundless. No man on earth has been so tempted by “joy” placed before Him.

Yet because He loved us, Jesus chose the way of the cross, “instead of” the “joy that was set before Him.”

In His divine preexistence, Jesus had made a covenant with the Father to give Himself for the salvation of this lost planet; now in His incarnation, He ratifies that covenant.  He will “set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Satan will seek to turn Him aside from that sacrifice (see Matthew 16:22, 23), but Jesus will reject every temptation to want to “live.” He has chosen to go the way of the cross and the way of sacrificial death.

The Greek scholars in this instance are right: the word anti means “instead of.” All the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height ... [of] the love (agape) of Christ” is hidden in that little word anti.

Living in our flesh, facing our temptations and above all the inward desire to live, Jesus fulfills the divine covenant He made with the Father aeons before; He will go all the way to hell and take upon Himself the guilt of all our sin; He will become “made ... sin for us, who knew no sin”(2 Cor. 5:21). He has died our second death.

There is only one thing we can do—let His love constrain us to live henceforth only unto Him who died for us and rose again.

The age of 33-1/2 is a prime age for all able young men.

At that age, you are just entering the excitement of being an adult; you are still young, just out of your youth; the beginnings of maturity are being seen and felt in your being; you are in that little period just between youth and manhood.

Your dreams for your life’s accomplishments are now the brightest and most hopeful. All of your natural abilities are at their best.

And that was the age when Satan attacked the young Man Jesus, and killed Him by crucifixion.

The Bible is clear that Jesus in His incarnation was “in all things ... made like unto His brethren” (Heb. 2:17) “As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same”(vs. 14).

As a young Man of 33-1/2 Jesus looked forward to life, just as we do at that age; He was indeed the divine Son of God, but He had laid aside the prerogatives of His divinity and chose to face life and to live it as we do with only one difference—“yet without sin” (4:15).

His consciousness was like ours at that age; for 33-1/2 years Jesus had successfully resisted all of Satan’s temptations, and had conquered him. And Jesus had come as the long-promised Messiah to the Jewish people; but ”He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).

Yes, He was the divine Son of God; but does that mean that in His consciousness as One of us He was omniscient at that time?

He knew of His coming death for the sins of the world—He had known it ever since at the age He was attending His first Passover with Joseph and Mary Jerusalem. He said to them then, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). He looked at the white robed priest slaying the Passover lamb and He knew deep in His soul, that the Lamb of God was Himself.

When He returned later to Nazareth, the village children tried to get Him to play with them in their games; but He couldn’t put His heart into playing games. His mother Mary was perplexed by Him; already old Simeon’s prophecy of her was beginning to be fulfilled, “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul”(2:34, 35). Imagine the horror of her soul when she had to watch her Son be crucified!

In the resurrection day I hope I can have a minute sometime to thank her for being the mother of our Savior! No other mother has endured the burden that she did.

And I will kneel and thank her Son for saying No! to all the earthly joy that could have been His at the age He died for us.

Have you ever been angry with God? For any reason? You prayed for something that you felt you needed, maybe healing, maybe happiness in marriage, maybe for a child, maybe for an honest job—and your prayer wasn’t answered. Seemed like Heaven was closed to you. This is a common problem many people have; and some just turn their backs on the Lord. “If He doesn’t care enough for me to help me, I’m through with Him!” But that’s not the solution! Let’s try to help a wee bit:

(1) God never promised He would be your lowly servant, to come and go at your request.

(2) He never promised that His children would be exempt from suffering, disappointment, pain. If He did “exempt” them, people would profess to follow Him who only wanted material benefit. Heaven would get crammed with hypocrites.

(3) Though He hasn’t promised you “exemption” from what all human beings have to endure, He has unequivocally promised to give you grace (an inner peace) to endure your pain, sorrow, disappointment, in a way that honors your Savior.

(4) That endurance (Rom. 5:1-5) immediately admits you to the privileged inner circle of those who are “partakers of the sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 4:13).

(5) Bearing your suffering (whatever kind) in that spirit then qualifies you to be a member of the Lord’s University Teaching Staff where you are given the joyous labor of helping someone else in his/her suffering. I’m serious! A Christian psychiatrist told me that a humble lay member who has genuine faith and sanctified understanding, can help a needy person as much as psychiatrists can. (I didn’t say that—he did.) See Exodus 19:4, 5; if Israel had been willing to believe the New Covenant, they would have become a “kingdom of priests,” psychiatrists.

Of all the billions of people who have lived on planet earth in the past 6000 plus years, only One has died what the Bible says is “the second death” (you will find it mentioned in Revelation 2:11 and 20:14).

That One is Jesus.

If He had not died our world’s “second death,” He would not have the right to accept the plaudits of the Samaritans who said He is “ the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

By dying our “second death,” Jesus has earned the right to save us in His eternal kingdom, for “the wages of sin is death,” and that’s the real thing—the second (Rom. 6:23).

The idea that Jesus just went to sleep for a weekend is infinitely far from the truth. It has to be true that anyone who suffers the awful physical pain of crucifixion would want to be able to sleep for a weekend—it is so terrible. But that is not what Jesus did!

When He was on His cross, He screamed in agony, “My God why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). That rejection by His Father was worse than all the agony of physical crucifixion; He was dying the world’s second death, enduring the condemnation of the Father for the sin of the world (He was “made to be sin, who knew no sin,” (2 Cor. 5:21).

He bought all our sins with His blood; we have no right to keep them any longer! He bought all our souls with His blood—we don’t belong to ourselves any longer.

It’s just simple honesty that we give ourselves and all we have to Him; and that is the only way to be happy in this world in the midst of all the trials that we have.

That is the message of 2 Corinthians 5:20, 21—“be reconciled to God.” Don’t any longer be on the outs with Him. Be “one” with Him.

Someday you and I will be in God’s eternal kingdom of glory, thanks to our Savior. We’ll look back on our earthly pilgrimage, wondering why it took us so long to overcome our worldliness, our selfishness, our sinful addictions, yes, our Laodicean lukewarmness. We will see that pure “river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1).

“The Lamb”? Yes, the crucified Christ. We will at last understand why Paul said long ago that he would “glory” in nothing else “save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14), why he “determined not to know anything among [us], save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). We will then begin to understand, “clear as crystal,” how Christ as the Lamb of God “tasted” our second death, endured the horror of hell in our behalf, endured being made the “curse of God,” “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin,” experienced in Himself all the agony of the total of all our human terror multiplied by the unspeakable agony also of divine terror, endured to the fullest the reality of every man’s worst nightmares,—and then at last we will sing with new understanding the anthem, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Heb. 2:9, Gal. 3:13, 2 Cor. 5:21, Rev. 5:12).

But what a pity if we can’t begin to understand all that today! Or can we? If we could, we would find the victory over our worldliness, our sinful addictions, yes, our deep-seated selfishness, not sometime far off in eternity but NOW, today. True, a little child can’t appreciate what happened on the cross; he/she can only laugh and coo and enjoy his superficial level of life (thank God he/she can!). But who of us is content to remain a little child forever? Is it not time to begin to “grow up into Him,” to “come” into “the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown person, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13)?

Ask the Father to lead you to His Son’s cross so you can begin to see what happened there. You’ll never be the same person again.

Suppose when you were little, your parent(s) did not know how to teach you, train and nurture you in love. So, now you have problems inherited ever since childhood. (Sometimes you even hate yourself for the way you feel or act!) Can you overcome the handicap that has been yours since childhood?

(1) Your Father in heaven knows all about it. He does not blame you for what you had nothing to do with before you were accountable. He loves and respects you as an individual for whom Christ gave the sacrifice of His life.

(2) Still, God cannot excuse defects of character that ruin your own and others’ happiness even though you acquired them through DNA or in less-than-perfect childhood upbringing. He has given us a Savior whose special job is to save us FROM our inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil. He is the great Physician who heals wounded hearts. We don’t need to carry around the defects that our parent(s) saddled upon us.

(3) This promise is in Psalm 27:10: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” Not that they willfully abandoned you on someone’s doorstep. Your parent(s) “left” you in the sense that they didn’t know how to help you. There was a point beyond which emotionally they couldn’t give you what you needed, and it was no fault of theirs. (Perhaps they inherited weaknesses from their own childhood! The problem goes back to Adam, really.)

(4) Therefore, you will find healing in letting the Savior write the fifth commandment in your heart which says, “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12). “In Christ” you can “honor” them as the parents that they WOULD have been if only they had known Christ better as their Savior. (That fifth commandment is a promise more than a stern command when you see it as the New Covenant. Even if you feel like a youthful friend of mine who said he could never “honor” his alcoholic father, the principle of corporate guilt and corporate forgiveness enables you to “honor” them “in Christ”).

(5) At the very point where your parents failed, that’s precisely where “the Lord will take [you] up.”

There is not a man (or woman!) in the world who has not been tempted by lust.

But we must hasten to add that temptation itself is not the same as sin; the Lord Jesus Christ was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”(Heb. 4:15). Thus we learn that it is possible to feel the temptation to lust very severely, but if we say “No!” to it and if we do not give in to the temptation, it has not become sin. Thank God!

The sin itself begins in the heart, for Jesus said, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:28). Still, the sin is not in the temptation; the sin lies in the purpose already cherished, the choice, to do the deed when the opportunity arises.

Paul’s Book of Titus is one of the smallest in the Bible, yet it contains the message wherein is the power to overcome all temptation to lust:

(a) The salvation power does not lie in fear of being lost; that’s not how we overcome lust.

(b) “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us ...” (2:11, 12, NIV).

(c) That “grace” of God is revealed, demonstrated, in the sacrifice of Jesus on His cross. The death that He died was not merely physical pain followed by a welcome weekend of sacked-out sleep; He died the different kind of death, the death that is enduring the curse of His Father on sin.

(d) He was “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin”(2 Cor. 5:21), the most horrible experience in the universe of God.

(e) The death that Jesus died is spoken of as “the second death” in three places: Revelation 2:11 and 20:6, 14). Again, the most horrible death imaginable, the hopeless one—God save us from it!

(f) There is no need for any of us to die that death, even if we are tempted severely by lust: Jesus has already died that death for us!

(g) We have all heard many times that “we are saved by faith.” But what is faith?

(h) The answer is clear and powerful: faith is a heart appreciation of the love (agape) of Christ as demonstrated in His sacrifice on His cross.

(i) You say your heart is cold?

(j) “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). Look, look, look.

There is a prayer that we can pray that the Lord will always answer with His enthusiastic “Yes!”

It’s when we ask Him for some bread of life to give to someone else:

(a) The story is in Christ’s parable of Luke 11:5-13.

(b) You have been suddenly awakened at midnight by a dear friend who has come on a long journey.

(c) He is hungry.

(d) Your pantry is empty, not even a loaf of bread.

(e) So, you go bang on the door of your sleeping neighbor: “let me have three loaves of bread, not for myself, but for somebody else: a friend has come on his long journey and he is hungry. I am asking, so I can give to him.”

(f) Your selfish neighbor doesn’t want to help you; he and his children are deep in sleep; but you keep on banging on the door. You don’t stop.

(g) Finally, so he can get rid of you he gets up and gets you the bread you are asking—for someone else.

Jesus told the story to illustrate what the Lord is NOT like: He loves to give when we need something to give to someone else. Even at midnight.

We become an essential part in His great plan of redemption for this lost world. We learn to participate by experience in His love for lost souls. Our naturally selfish heart has become awakened to the experience of His heart, which is love (agape).

Now we are one with Him; we have become reconciled to Him. We are at one with His heart of unselfish giving.

There is no greater joy in life. Come!*

______________

* Please read that last page of the last book of the Bible—Revelation 22.

Fast forward today to the last part of the last book of the Bible—Revelation.

In chapter 20 we come upon the last great Judgment, when the second resurrection has already happened, and every human soul who has ever lived finally stands together before the Great White Throne. He who sits thereon is Someone very special before Whose face “the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them” (vs. 11).

The opening of the “books” is a simile for the final Judgment that faces every soul.

Every human soul who is saved will give thanks and praise to the Lamb one hundred percent for his/her salvation.

Every lost soul will face a revelation new to him/her: each will realize too late that Christ has already died for his/her sin—there is no need for them to come into final condemnation except they have treated the sacrifice of Christ in the same way that Esau treated the birthright that was his already. He “despised” it and “sold” it for a tiny, temporary indulgence of “appetite.”

When he realized what he had done, he cried buckets of tears (Heb. 12:16, 17), but he could not undo what he had done.

Esau’s judgment is more factually said in the Genesis story: Esau “did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright” (25:30-34).

All his life he tried to “repent” with his tears, but the birthright was gone forever.

Have you ever thought what your “birthright” is? It’s the eternal salvation that Christ has already purchased for you with His blood. And has given to you already.

The way Romans 5 describes it is this: “The gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man’s sin [Adam’s]; for the judicial action, following on the one offence, resulted in a [judicial] verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace, following on so many misdeeds, resulted in a [judicial] verdict of acquittal. ... It follows, then, that as the result of one misdeed [Adam’s] was condemnation for all people, so the result of one righteous act [at Christ’s cross—the only one ‘righteous act’ ever performed on this planet!] is acquittal and life for all” (Rom. 5:15-18, REB).

At the end of the 1000 years the lost will at last understand this. They had the birthright, it was in their hands, but they threw it away.

Father, save us from ourselves, today!

There is a strange parable in Luke 16:1-12 that has puzzled people for hundreds of years. What do you make of it? Some wise commentators have even suggested that Luke made a mistake in putting it in his gospel—that Jesus could never have said such a thing. And it does appear that Jesus is praising dishonesty! Admittedly, this is a hard nut to crack, but if we succeed, there’s a sweet kernel inside.

What’s the story? This manager worked for a rich man, and embezzled his money. When he knew he would be fired, he made friends with a lot of his master’s debtors by cheating the master all the more, and ingratiating himself with them by slyly reducing their debts to the big boss. Then when he got thrown out on the street, he had some place to go; these people, grateful to him, gladly took him in. So at least he had room and board for the rest of his life.

Now, here’s the shocker: the big boss praised the wit and cleverness of the rascal, and Jesus tells us to go and do the same. He says that such clever street-wise people have more sense than God’s people! Now, what can this possibly mean?

(1) It’s obvious, the Big Boss in the story is the Lord Himself.

(2) It’s not so obvious but equally true, the scalawag steward is you and me; yes, WE have embezzled our Lord’s goods. Don’t try to argue out of it; we are eternally and infinitely in debt to Him. It’s too true, we have no righteousness of our own, not even 1%. Now, if you can’t get beyond this, you’ll miss the sweet kernel in the nut.

(3) We’re all going to get fired. Jesus says in vs. 9, “when YOU fail.” (The KJV rendering is correct, not when IT fails, that is, your money.) And it’s not IF, PERHAPS, MAYBE. It’s WHEN WE fail, for fail we shall, most assuredly, for in the judgment we won’t have an iota of our own righteousness to help us.

(4) So, says Jesus, get busy right now and ingratiate yourself with needy people all around you; use what time or money you have left to make friends for eternity.

(5) Then when you get to the pearly gates and you know you don’t deserve entrance, some dear soul will step up and say to the Lord, “This person helped me out when I was in distress; he gave me the gospel, that’s why I’m here. Please let him in.”

(6) THAT will make you happy!

It’s easy to say, “Oh yes, I believe John 3:16, that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, etc.,’ but my problem is I can’t believe He notices me out of the six or seven billion people He has to love! Divide that love into a fraction of one-seventh billion—how much am I getting?”

And so many people go through life to their bitter end with human hearts bereft of that spine-tingling divine love. And if their human loves have failed them, they are all the more forlorn. If you would like to realize the close connection you have missed, take a good look at Psalm 139, word by word. It’s something good to read while you are on your knees. It’s a direct conversation with God, hand touching Hand. A few highlights:

(1) Fly to Timbuktu to get away from His love, but it follows you there (vss. 5-10).

(2) He took the time to create YOU bone by bone, sinew by sinew, nerve by nerve; yes, even every one of your brain cells designed to appreciate His concern for YOU. No scientist working with his electronic microscope could be more fastidious (vss. 13-16).

(3) All your foolish wanderings, your sins, your blindnesses, He has noted and forgiven in advance because He persists in loving you (vss. 14-16).

(4) There’s a “secret” between you and Him that no other human on earth can penetrate (vs. 15). He treasures that individual secret touch. When at last you look into the eyes of the Son of God you will recognize that although He knows all your guilty secrets He still loves and respects YOU.

(5) God never sends you a printed birthday card—He thinks specifically of YOU personally, and has a billion private good-will thoughts toward you as an individual (vss. 17, 18).

(6) Such love enlists you as a co-worker with Him in the great controversy raging between Christ and Satan. You cease being an empty cipher in this conflict, and share with Him the battle and the victory (vss. 19-22).

(7) Now you welcome His searching investigative-judgment of your inner heart (vss. 23, 24).

I was reading the Book of Hebrews (bedtime reading? Yes!) in the Revised English Version (REV), and came across an interesting little detail:

In chapter 9, verse 28, the word “eagerly” occurs (but not in the KJV!):

“Christ ... will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him” (emphasis supplied).

The original language supports the little touch that the REV supplies.

(a) Those who believe and appreciate the pure gospel of Jesus eagerly want Him to return a second time.

(b) Their lives are dedicated to await His second coming because they have immersed themselves in the story of His first coming in the Gospels. They love the story.

(c) They pray the Lord’s Prayer with deep conviction: “Our Father which art in heaven, ... Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6.10). Soon! Yes, in my lifetime!

(d) There is nothing they want to see happen on earth as much as they want to see the Father’s will be done on earth.

(e) To this end they have dedicated their lives. Each new morning, and throughout each day they keep praying, “Father in heaven, take not Thy Holy Spirit from me; what do You want me to do today?”

(f) Eagerly awaiting Christ’s second coming gives those who love His gospel the joy of something heavenly to live for and work for, young or old.

(g) Join them today!

There are many worried people in the world today, especially the USA. The reason: the “economy” has taken a serious downturn.

The giant car makers, GM, Ford, Chrysler, are feeling the pinch.

Mervyns, a big and popular clothes store chain, is closing up its shops.

Many other shops and eateries are giving up, and business leaders are frankly worried.

It’s trite just to say, “Don’t worry; all will be well.” Rather, it’s time for some prayerful thinking.

We may be entering a really serious economic depression. This writer remembers 1929-31 when we were sometimes hungry for simple food. The great car makers came out with some really nice new models; but we couldn’t buy one. My father had to work for a dollar a day; and I mowed nice big lawns for a quarter. (Maybe we weren’t very smart!) But let’s read the Bible:

(a) The Lord “suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, ... that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deut. 8:3).

(b) This is a deep insight into how the Lord in heaven views our economic “depressions” down here on earth: He “suffers” them!

(c) He has a purpose in “suffering” them: to teach us something valuable to learn.

(d) Yes, of course, He loves us; but His love is serious—it includes valuable tuition.

(e) The Lord gives a serious warning about our common, everyday eating:

(f) If we gobble our food down thoughtlessly (easy for us to do!), without appreciating the infinite cost that the Son of God paid to make it possible for us, “we eat and drink damnation” to ourselves, “not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:20, 29).

(g) Thus simple daily living impinges on eternity; we are never far from judgment.

(h) But that’s Good News for anyone whose heart appreciates the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) that drove the divine Son of God to His cross, to die our second death.

(i) Let your heart be “enlarged” (Psalm 119:32) to contemplate, to “comprehend” what it cost Him to save you (Eph. 3:18)!

The Book of Hebrews is not cold, rational, sky-high theological philosophy; it’s intimate heart-to-heart fellowship “in Christ.” Your heart is warmed by the grace emanating from the heart of the Hebrews writer.

In chapter 2, Jesus assures us that He is our “Brother” in the flesh; and He is not ashamed to tell all the holy angels and inhabitants of unfallen worlds above, that we are His “brethren”(vss. 10, 11). He confesses to all the holy angels that even He, the divine Son of God, was not worthy to be our High Priest until He was “made ... perfect through sufferings.”

You would think that Jesus, the divine Son of God, was already “perfect” and therefore didn’t need any sufferings to “make Him perfect.” This inspired statement opens up a world or a universe of deeper understanding.

When sin arose in God’s universe, the situation moved Him to do things He had never done before; sin moved Him to an expression of love (agape) He had never revealed before. God is infinite; but He is not infinitely impassive! His own immense heart of agape was moved because its depths had never before been so stirred and opened up to the view of the unfallen universe, and yes,—the gaze of the world.

Not even the wisest, mightiest angel knew how to reach the impenetrable depth of the heart of a fallen human; and even the divine Son of God was helpless to do it until He gave Himself to die our “second death.”

Now, and only now in that light, can Jesus reach the most far-wandering heart of a lost human soul.

Because Jesus “poured out His soul unto death,” “even the death of the cross,” the Son of God who calls us wandering sinful people “my brethren,” can reach that wildly lost human heart!

If you are praying for someone, let your prayers be informed by that “much more abounding grace” of the Savior.

If you are desperately praying for yourself  (and this sinner does), take heart; He will not withdraw the energy of that seeking love that the Holy Spirit communicates to us.

The Bible Book of Hebrews is often thought to be over our heads generally, but actually it is good bedtime reading. The Lord wants us to get a blessing from reading it. The important Figure in the book is someone named Melchizedek, a Priest appointed by the Lord to be our High Priest.

First of all, we ask what is a “High Priest”? He is the spiritual father of the nation of Israel. Everyone looks upon him as a friend; you would see him automatically as someone on your side. He is a wise counselor, and he does not hesitate to tell you the full truth about yourself, because only the truth can make you free (John 8:32).

The Father has appointed Jesus to be our High Priest; but in order for even Him to become qualified, He must suffer as we suffer.

That “suffering” must include His being tempted to sin, even as we are tempted, but must include also His gaining the victory over every temptation to sin: “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15, emphasis added).

Thus He “can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that He Himself also is compassed with infirmity” (5:1, 2).

It is clear therefore that in becoming one of us in His incarnation, the Son of God “took” upon His sinless nature which He brought with Him from heaven, our fallen, sinful nature which He assumed here on earth.

So fully did Jesus become as one of us yet without sin that when He prayed He had to “offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, ... and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all that that obey Him [hear Him]” (5:7-9, emphasis supplied).

Read about Him; drench yourself in His story.