Daily Bread  -  March, 2007

by Robert J. Wieland

One of the most popular axioms that everybody has on their lips continually, even the most righteous of people who say they wait for the second coming of Christ, is this: “Death awaits all of us, everybody has to die.” You see the statement over and over in church publications. It’s just taken for granted everywhere.

But the Bible squarely and directly contradicts it.

“We shall not all die,” says the apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 15:51.

Then he explains more minutely what will happen, in 1 Thess. 4: “We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (vss. 15-17).

Yes, there will be some people who will be “alive and remain” at the coming of Christ, who will be ready to meet Him, and who will be translated.

Obviously they will have “overcome, even as [Christ] overcame” (Rev. 3:21). Although they are living in the same “flesh” and “nature” all of Adam’s descendants have always lived in, they will have “condemned sin in the flesh,” even as Christ did (cf. Rom. 8:3).

If everybody has to die on and on, century after century, and millennium after millennium, how could Christ win the “great controversy” with Satan? This nearly universal axiom is not good gospel news. It’s just not truth.

Just because some sincere Christians were disappointed 162 years ago does not mean that this fundamental truth of the gospel is not true. We must never abandon this good news!

It happened 162 years ago—a group of people joined a New York Baptist farmer, William Miller, in expecting the Lord Jesus Christ to return in fulfillment of His promise, “I will come again” on a certain date, October 22, 1844.

Of course, they were mistaken and their experience became known as “the Great Disappointment,” for it was widely publicized. Their belief grew out of the study of Daniel 8:14, “Unto 2300 days [which they correctly understood as literal years], then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” It was the general assumption in the churches that “the sanctuary” is this earth to be cleansed with fire at the second coming. The assumption was wrong but they had the date right: “the sanctuary” is the heavenly one to be cleansed by the heart preparation of a people ready to meet Jesus when He does return.

Does the genuine Holy Spirit ever permit people to be “disappointed” if they haven’t studied? Yes! He permitted the Lord’s disciples to suffer a terrible disappointment in His crucifixion, because they misunderstood the event. The true Holy Spirit was working in that 1844 movement for it heralded the beginning of Christ’s closing ministry as High Priest in the Most Holy Apartment ministry of the heavenly sanctuary, just as Pentecost heralded the beginning of His ministry in the first apartment.

But the ridicule heaped on William Miller has burgeoned into a dislike to think of anyone living to see Jesus return. “Everybody will die” is freely said repeatedly; but the apostle Paul boldly says the opposite: “Listen! I will unfold a mystery: we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet call. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:50-52).

Now the question faces us: is the second coming of Christ near? Can we still cherish what Paul also said is “the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”? (Titus 2:11-14).

In our zeal to ridicule that sincere and godly Baptist minister of long ago let’s not sacrifice a fundamental Bible truth for today. Jesus is coming again—soon. And He intends that people now living will see Him come. Maybe more tomorrow.

The Bible doesn’t say it’s a sin always to be angry. A person who can’t get angry is probably a wimp. But the anger is always under strict control of love, which is why you never want a day to pass without making a particular wrong right as far as possible.

Satan constantly tries to intrude but you never give him permission, and he can’t intrude unless you do give him permission! We can be sure that the Lord is very angry watching all the injustice going on in this world. The more like Jesus we are, the more angry we are at injustice to innocent people. And we are also angry at injustice shown to Jesus Himself. He doesn’t deserve to be “crucified afresh”! Paul is emphatic: “be angry!” Just don’t sin at the same time (Eph. 4:26 [Psalm 4:4]). Don’t be a dishrag.

Spectacular corporation embezzlement is the news of almost every day. Even within church organizations it sometimes happens. Africans have sometimes claimed that London was built with wealth stolen from them in colonial days, especially days of slavery. To what extent First World people enjoy their luxury at the expense of Third World people, the most enlightened economist will find it difficult to estimate. But God’s angel economists have it all tabulated accurately.

The only safe way to prepare for the final judgment is to count all that we possess as not ours, but only lent to us temporarily to be used in trust for those less fortunate than ourselves. If you own a piece of property, don’t call it “mine.” Abraham did not possess even a foot of real estate, and he is our “father.” When Jesus died, He had no money to bequeath. All He had was His robe, which the soldiers gambled for.

“Steal no more”! A good prayer to pray is, Lord, give me the grace from your much more abounding store, to realize that I can claim nothing in this world as really mine! But I do have a Savior.

[From  Ephesians:You’ve Been “Adopted” by the author of “Dial Daily Bread.”]

There is no checklist where you tick off “works” item by item which you think you have performed. That can lead to spiritual pride, or equally, to despair, because it’s the essence of Old Covenant living. It’s deceptive because it appears on the surface to produce results—outward “obedience to the law.”

But New Covenant living is a constant choice to believe the Lord’s promises. It’s a constant renewal of the distraught father’s prayer who prayed because of his demon-tormented son, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). You can never perish while you pray that prayer! Even if you live to be 100, you’ll still be praying it, but you’ll be having victories constantly.

Paul says we are not to climb up to heaven to get righteousness, but the Lord Jesus descended from heaven to give it to us: “The righteousness of faith speaks in this way, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above), … but what does it say? ‘The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach)” (Rom. 10:6-8). Instead of waiting for you to climb up into Heaven, the Holy Spirit is coming down to where you are. The Good Shepherd looks for and finds His lost sheep.

New Covenant living is the kind of life that Abraham lived. We don’t read that he ever made any promises to God, but he chose to believe God’s promises to him. They were these:

(1) “I will make of you a great nation.” In other words, you will have fulfillment,—super. You will be somebody (all this is Genesis 12:2, 3).

 

(2) “I will bless you,” which means simply, make you happy,

 

(3) “And make your name great.” You’ll become all you really want to become, in Him.

 

(4) “You shall be a blessing” everywhere you go. In other words, you’ll always be making other people happy. It’s life to the full!

 

(5) “I will bless those who bless you.” God will reward people who help you.

 

(6) “I will curse him who curses you.” This has to be, as part of the blessing on you. You are under the Lord’s special protection.

 

(7) “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” That’s Christ, of course; but you are “in Christ” now, so you share in that joy.

Responding to these promises is beyond the level of mere emotion; all true obedience is based on the principle of simply believing these promises, that they are made to you. Ask the Lord to hold you by the hand as you follow Him step by step; He does!

[Excerpted from  Ephesians:You’ve Been “Adopted” by the author of “Dial Daily Bread.”]

Is the Book of Hosea the story of a finally lost love? If the world’s novelists had written it, the answer would have been yes. But Jesus Christ is in the business of restoring broken lives! Hosea’s love was not finally lost.

The prophet was reconciled to the Lord, obedient, and at-one. He loved that woman Gomer with the love the Lord had given him for her, in spite of her infidelities. Her lovers had all failed her and she went down into horrible personal ruin. Her husband “bought” her later in a slave market for a paltry sum (3:2); how more deeply crushed could any woman feel who was once loved by an honorable man? And she couldn’t blame him!

We hope that in some way the grace of the Lord Jesus could manifest justification and repentance to her clearly enough to rebuild a healthy sense of self-respect. No man could enjoy living with any woman with a shattered, unrestored sense of self-worth. The much more abounding grace of Christ teaches and imparts a healthy sense of sober appreciation for one’s own being and the gifts that He has given us with the measure of His grace realized (cf. Rom. 12:3; 2 Cor. 5:15-18).

We hope that when this poignant drama ended, Hosea and Gomer could walk off stage hand in hand and heart with heart in a blessed reconciliation and mutual love, until death did them part. In fact, we know that, because the original love tragedy on which Hosea’s and Gomer’s story is based did end, or rather will end, in glorious restitution of love for the Lord (3:5). And the Lord is too good to His children to permit poor Hosea to end his life broken-hearted, when His, the Lord’s heart, will be restored. (If anyone reads this who has suffered a love tragedy, please read Hosea.)

The reason why this book is in the Bible? Hosea was the Lord’s last effort to save Israel from ruin by the Assyrians. They put an end to the kingdom in 723 B.C. after their impenitence was hopeless. Elijah had tried to save them some 150 years earlier; what made the problem most difficult was that under Jeroboam II the kingdom had enjoyed great prosperity and material success. Just like Laodicea, the people and their spiritual leaders continually said, “We are rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing” (cf. Rev. 3:14-17). Hosea’s Israel and our Laodicea have an identical problem.

The question has troubled many who love the Bible and who want to think right thoughts about the Lord:

Why would He tell His faithful, dedicated prophet to “love a woman” who was “an adulteress,” yes, “a harlot”?

We remember with that word in Hosea 3:1, 3 the inspiring thought of a modern writer who said, “Love [of a man for a woman] is a precious gift which we receive from Jesus.” Then the problem of Hosea becomes even more perplexing.

If the Lord Himself “said” this to the prophet, it must be that He gave the “gift” to this man of loving this particular woman. And indeed the Bible is clear beyond question: our Creator and Redeemer is interested in our conjugal happiness; it was He who created us “male and female” and caused “the man” in the Garden to realize that “it is not good that [he] should be alone,” that he yearned at heart for someone to love who was “answering to him,” in other words, the right woman. The God of happiness “brought her to him” (Gen. 2:18, 22), like He brings every married couple together in that delightful happiness.

Now millennia later the same “LORD God” has virtually “brought” a woman named Gomer to His prophet Hosea and said to him, Love this woman! If the Lord gave him love for her, the poor man is a helpless captive; he simply says, “I love you truly!”

If you are surrendered to the Lord, you don’t rebel against the love that He has given you! (Which is another way of saying you don’t commit divorce, for the Lord says He hates it, Mal. 2:16). The Lord’s prophet Hosea is a flesh-and-blood man, tempted like anyone; but he is not fickle. In this drama he is cast in the role of representing the Lord, and the fickle woman is cast in the role of Israel. And Hosea is not merely play-acting temporarily; this is not a drama running a few nights in the town theater. This is his life.

This Bible book says something to us today. Is the soul of the Lord’s church fickle? Are we as poor, blind, and naked as ancient Israel was in Hosea’s day? More tomorrow.

Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus made a promise that we hang on to: “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3). World population desperately clings to that as their only hope. Otherwise, our future is worse even than if the whole world were to become another Baghdad.

The second coming of Christ is not bad news even to those who say they don’t believe in Him, for many, when they finally hear the gospel presented clearly, will believe. They’ve been waiting for it all their lives. And for those who finally steel their hearts and souls against it, they’ll be glad that their hell is now at an end. Christ is always only “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,” as the angels originally said (Luke 2:10).

The coming last days events have terrorized many who say they long for Christ to come again, but they cannot bear the bad news that has given so many youth their nightmares and frightened them out of the church. The “mark of the beast,” for example, enforced by a death penalty as Revelation 13:15 predicts: it’s not God’s intention that our lives be shadowed by that heavy cloud of apprehension. Those who have come to understand “the everlasting gospel” of 14:6, 7, “the third angel’s message in verity,” walk into that crisis with “the joy of the Lord” on their faces. It will be the greatest soul-winning thrill they have ever known because at last the glorious days Isaiah predicted in chapters 49 and 60 will be happening all around them. (God will never let Isaiah come to nothing!)

Fear? Those who believe in Jesus won’t know it, no matter how precarious their situations may seem to be. They have at last learned what the love is that is agape, which “casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). It does it! At long last they have looked at the uplifted cross on which the Son of God died the world’s second death; they have “comprehended with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.” Super-astounding as the truth may be, they are “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19). How could the desperate rantings of a frustrated devil with his empty “mark of the beast” threats disturb their peace now?

They are not enduring these trials “alone”! “Lo, I am with you always” is ringing in their souls’ ears. “Yea, though [they] walk through the valley of the shadow of death, [they] will fear no evil, for [the Lord] is with [them]” (Psalm 23:4).

How are we to receive the Holy Spirit? He Himself of course is the same Person all through the ages; but His ministry in these last days has a different focus. We need to understand how:

(a) He manifested Himself at Pentecost 2000 years ago in the “early rain.” But in the end of time He will manifest Himself in the “latter rain.” “Rain” of course is rain, the same H-two-O whether it comes to sprout the planted seed, or whether it comes to ripen the grain for harvest; but its mission is vastly different. Another way of recognizing the difference is to consider the second coming of Christ in contrast with His first. They are not the same; in one He comes to die on a cross for the sins of the world, in the other He comes as King of kings and Lord of lords.

(b) The “early rain” was a gift that marked Christ’s ministry in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary; His ministry in the “latter rain” is a gift that comes from Christ’s work in the second apartment. When the High Priest enters the second, He closes the door to the first. Either His people “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:4) or they open themselves to deception by a counterfeit high priest in a counterfeit first apartment sanctuary (cf. Matt. 24:24).

(c) The “early rain” prepared people to die and come up in the first resurrection. This blessed ministry continued until the end of the 2300 year prophecy of Daniel 8:14. Then came a profound change—the blowing of the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:15-19). The great High Priest is determined to see the great controversy brought to its climactic end; He is not in favor of its being extenuated for centuries more!

(d) This disturbs lukewarm people who would be content for time (and sin) to go on indefinitely, content for Jesus to postpone His second coming for a generation or two more. To face the close of probation and live through the seven last plagues—isn’t there an easier way to get to heaven?

(e) But the “latter rain” prepares people to go through that Time of Trouble and to stand before Jesus and meet Him personally when He returns (1 Thess. 4:16, 17).

(f) They must eventually elect to receive the latter rain with all that it entails, or renounce their faith they have long professed. The time to choose may be near.

A young man from far away has just written a letter saying he has recently gotten married, and he is asking the Lord to help him be true to one woman and to know how to love her.

That’s a prayer for the gift of the much more abounding grace of the Lord to be obedient to His holy law; it’s a law of love (agape), and although obedience to it is contrary to the fallen, sinful nature we have inherited from our fallen father Adam, such a prayer is a request for the “mind” of our new or “last Adam” or second Adam.

Such a prayer is therefore in harmony with what Philippians 2:5-8 tells us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” That “grace of God” wants to be our “Teacher,” actually “teaching us” how to say “No!” to the constant impulse of our fallen, sinful nature to indulge self and thus “let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus” (see Titus 2:11-13, and check the NIV rendering which in this instance is good).

We don’t want to go through life and end up at last with a defective understanding of that “grace.” Let’s stop a moment and look:

(a) It “brings salvation to all men,” just what we need. If that’s true, it has brought the gift to you personally (and it’s true!). Let’s not waste precious time arguing how near that grace has brought this salvation—whether the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit placed it in our hands or merely within our reach; good people have argued both views (like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?); what’s solid truth is that the Lord Jesus Christ has given Himself to you (cf. John 3:16), and you receive the Gift or you crucify Him afresh.

 

(b) That grace “teaches us to “deny” self—when a life of self-denial strikes us as the most miserable existence imaginable. Calculus or nuclear physics or chemistry would be an easier 101 university course than learning Christ-like self-denial. But never mind; that “grace of God” has set itself to the task of “teaching” you. It’s like my university professor of long ago: when I came back from Africa and enrolled in Greek translations I found that the Greek I had learned in college years was practically gone and I couldn’t keep up with all these bright young men in class so I’d better drop it. She said, “No, hang on; and I guarantee I’ll see you through to a pass.” She did; even an “A” at last! Don’t jump the Lord’s class!

Time’s up; maybe we can look at this “grace tuition” again tomorrow.

The path to happiness and stability for any marriage lies via the cross of Christ. Even in the case of those who are not [yet] Christians, the happiness they have is the gift of Christ, for He is “the true Light which gives light to every man who comes into the world” (John 1:9).

Christ is the world’s Creator, and He is also the world’s Redeemer and Savior (4:42); it was He who said “‘it is not good that man should be alone; I will make a helper comparable to him.’ ... And He brought [the woman] to the man. ... Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they [two] shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:18-24).

But it was at the holy moment of the cross that the world caught a glimpse of what love (agape) means. That word includes love of man for woman and her response to his love—sexual love, for we read, “Husbands, love [with agape] your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. ... So ought husbands to love [with agape] their own wives” (Eph. 5:25, 28). The command of God to love becomes the most exquisite joy man can know.

Thus, says an insightful writer, “Love [between husband and wife] is a precious gift which we receive from Jesus.” It’s a miracle seen all over the world in all time, that the Lord Jesus gives that “precious gift” of true sexual love for one woman to one man; love is by its very nature “jealous” (S.S. 8:6, 7). It would be cruel for the Lord God, our Creator and Savior, to give that true jealous love for one woman to two men, thus creating a lifelong pain for one. (There must be a distinction between sexual infatuation that dies overnight, with that “precious gift” which is “strong as death.”)

The Lord Jesus has warned us that in the last days “because lawlessness shall abound, the love [agape] of many will grow cold” (Matt. 24:12). The “light” that is yet to “lighten the earth with glory” (Rev. 18:1-4) will include the light of agape shining in the hearts of husbands and wives who have been awakened by the ministry of the last-days “Elijah” (cf. Mal. 4:5, 6; 2:14-16).

Is there a halfway mark between being a fool and a wise person, in the words of Solomon? It seems that each of us ends up being one or the other. (And we ’re often surprised how we turn out.)

The publican’s prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13) is one we love to pray; but is there one in the Bible, “God, be merciful to me, a fool!”? Can a “fool” (in Solomon’s and David’s descriptions) ever be really converted?

One king of Israel confessed he had “played the fool and erred exceedingly” (1 Sam. 26:21), but we never read that he prayed the Lord to be merciful to him, a fool; King Saul died with his career in ruins. I remember a college president who once confessed (after an affair), in Saul’s words, that he had “played the fool and erred exceedingly.” King David may have felt good through much of his reign, that he had done better than his old enemy, King Saul, and had not “played the fool,” but after his affair with Bathsheba and her lawful husband’s murder, he may have had a little greater sympathy for Saul. The distance between a wise person and a fool can be a hairline.

Yes, the Lord can have mercy on a fool, even though “The Fool’s Prayer” is in the poetry book and not the Bible (Edward Sill wrote of the king after he had commanded his jester to “pray,” “The room was hushed; in silence rose / The king, and sought his gardens cool, / And walked apart, and murmured low, / ‘Be merciful to me, a fool!’”). King Solomon hopefully understood that the world’s Savior can save a fool; the Lord Jesus has sympathy for anyone who feels himself thus worse off than a common sinner. Even though a “fool” appears to have less latitude in asking for mercy, he can cast himself on the Lord for salvation from being himself, and know the Lord can save even fools.

(a) Christ is continually inviting lost people: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden” (Matt. 11:28). No human soul’s burden is heavier than that of a repentant fool.

 

(b) Said Christ’s enemies: “This man receives sinners, and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). He has a special sympathy for the down and out, for those who despise themselves.

 

(c) He was born in the lowliest place imaginable; from a Child He carried the apparent painful stigma of an illegitimate birth; He chose to die under the stigma of being cast out, despised, forsaken by the King of the universe, His own Father (Matt. 27:46).

 

(d) No fool can fall any more painfully low.

When Paul says we must “all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10), he does not denigrate what the apostle John says about judgment and agape. John says:

(a) “Everyone who loves [with agape] is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). The obvious implication: if we haven’t learned how to love with agape, we don’t know God. That’s what he says next:

 

(b) “He who does not love [with agape] does not know God, for God is agape” (vs. 7). Highest equation in the universe!

 

(c) “In this the love [agape] of God was manifested toward s us, that God has sent His only begotten Son ...” (vs. 9). We learn agape only by long beholding the sacrifice of Christ to the point that we don’t “know anything except Christ and Him crucified” (cf. 1 Cor. 2:2). The heart is won. Now the Lord Jesus wants an entire world church so enlightened by His agape, and so won by heart.

 

(d) “In this is agape, not that we loved God [with agape], but He loved us [with agape] ...” (vs. 10). His church does not take the initiative; the Bridegroom does that, and she does the responding to Him.

 

(e) “Agape has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world” (vs. 17). “Keeping the [ten] commandments” is preparation for the final judgment; but according to John, the one supreme question we will be asked as we stand before the Lord Jesus in final judgment will be, “Have you learned how to love (with agape)?”

 

(f) Paul agrees: “Love [agape] does no ill to a neighbor; therefore love [agape] is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10)

All these many long years, the Bridegroom-to-be has longed for His beloved to “grow up” out of childhood unto “the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). We cannot duplicate the sacrifice of Christ on His cross, but we can learn to appreciate it. If any bridegroom has that from his bride, he will have a happy marriage.

Growing up should be great fun; kids love to do it, even before their time. A world church may appear to be very lethargic; but don’t make a superficial judgment.

The Bridegroom is not finished yet. Keep your heart alert to what He may do.

Does the Bible teach a “balanced” view of righteousness by faith, so salvation is 50 percent by faith and 50 percent by works? If that question is too easy, then is it 99 percent by faith and 1 percent by works?

It appears superficially—on the surface—that the apostle James says it’s 50/50 by both: “ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” ( 2:24). He seems—superficially—to contradict Paul, for Paul says boldly that “by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8, 9).

When he says emphatically it’s “not of works” he means not even 1 percent. His impassioned Letter to the Galatians is on one side of the perennial debate: “I do not frustrate the grace of God [even 1 percent ‘works’ will frustrate that grace!]: for if righteousness come by law, then Christ is dead in vain” (2:21). There’s no “balance” between righteousness by faith and righteousness by works (Laodicean lukewarmness hot and cold water “balanced;” this confusion is Laodicea’s problem).

The apparent conflict (it troubles many) is resolved as clear as sunlight: salvation is TOTALLY of grace through faith, but the “faith” is not dead; it’s a living faith “which works.” Its fruit: obedience to all the commandments of God (Gal. 5:6). James is not pitting faith against works or vice versa; he pits a living faith against a dead faith. “Faith without works is dead”! Both apostles are totally agreed on that.

In modern language, “law righteousness” can be translated as “egocentric motivation.” Paul points us to Christ’s cross: in His sacrifice, was He motivated even 1 percent by egocentric concern for Himself? His assurance to the believing thief APPEARS to say yes (“Hang on, fellow victim; you and I will be in Paradise today!”). But that was in the morning when the sun was shining; “at the sixth hour there was darkness over all land” including the heart of the Son of God. He cried, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He “poured out His soul unto death,” even the second (Isa. 53:12). Not even 1 percent of an egocentric motivation—totally love for us, none for Himself.

That was agape.

The current excitement about the “Lost Books of the Bible” perplexes many. As time goes on, Satan’s deceptions become ever more puerile. There will “arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24).

The present pseudo “discoveries” (for example, the “bones” of Jesus!) are an alluring temptation to people who want supposed “historical science” added to their faith. These “books” have a common thesis: to destroy confidence in Jesus as the true Christ of the Bible: His divinity and His purity of character. Consider, for example, His alleged sexual liaison with Mary Magdalene—a tale perfectly crafted to justify modern cultural engrossment with sexual immorality and infidelity.

The fundamental misperception that pervades all apostate thinking is natural immortality. This grand deception dredged up from ancient paganism is calculated to destroy the message of the special love of Christ. So cleverly has it been invented that the lethal false doctrine marches right into the once-sacred precincts of what Paul calls the “ temple of God” (2 Thess. 2:4).

If the human soul is naturally immortal, Christ could not have “died for our sins” (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3, 4), for the pagan-papal doctrine destroys the reality of any death that He could die. So blatant is the deception that one has to deny the most obvious of truths to embrace it.

Thus true Christianity squares off against the false on the battlefield of the doctrine of love: when the apostle John declares that highest of truths that “God is love,” he is not declaring that God is the childish self-seeking emotion we humans have assumed is “love”; he is saying that God is agape (1 John 4:8), an entirely different idea.

Agape is a love unheard of in the world apart from the revelation of Christ, a love that dares to go to hell in order to save us (Acts 2:27), that “empties” itself (Phil. 2:5-8), that “pours out [its] soul unto death”(Isa. 53:12), what the Bible calls “the second death” (Rev. 2:11; 20:12-14). It’s a love that “constrains” (motivates) the one who appreciates it, to live “henceforth” not for self, but for the One who went to hell to save us (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

Long before the holy Sabbath was changed, the evil contestant in the great controversy sought to destroy this understanding of agape in the early church (cf. Rev. 2:4). The Protestant Reformation will not be completed until agape is restored and recovered. Its loss is the source of worldwide lukewarmness in the church.

“Who is Jesus Christ?”

This simple question has engrossed the minds of sincere theologians and pastors for the better part of several centuries. Whenever it is suggested that He is the Savior of the world, the Savior of every man, severe caution has been expressed: don’t slide into the evil doctrine of Universalism for the Bible is too clear that many will eventually be lost and go into the lake of fire after the second resurrection when they gather around the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15).

So the idea has prevailed that Jesus Christ cannot be the Savior of every man unless every man first receives and believes Him. It’s only those who “believe in Him” who will not “perish,” John 3:16 says.

A few years back a prominent evangelist declared to young people worldwide that “Jesus wants to be your Best Friend,” but the idea is of course that He can’t be unless you open your heart, etc. (A very thoughtful, enlightened writer once wrote a book entitled Steps to Christ that said that Jesus Christ is already your Best Friend; then the publishers put out an edition for youth that said on the back cover, “Jesus Wants to be Your Best Friend.” This highly popular idea is intended to preserve the necessity of obedience to the law; true, no one persisting in willful disobedience to the ten commandments will be saved eternally; he couldn’t be happy!)

But there is not yet unanimity among theologians and evangelists as to who Jesus Christ is. They cannot embrace strict Calvinism that says He has predestinated some (“like the sand of the sea”?) to be lost eternally, and a few others to be saved eternally. (That idea has to be out.)

Hence an idea that rejects strict Calvinism—Jesus Christ is potentially “the Savior of all men” IF they take the initiative to elect Him to be so. Through the better part of several centuries this idea has prevailed.

But wait a moment. The problem is—therein lies the basic root of the idea that the sinner’s ultimate salvation is due to his own initiative; and there lies the source of the nearly universal lukewarmness that pervades the church in these last days (Rev. 3:14-21).

What the Bible has been saying all along is that Jesus Christ is already the “Savior of the world” (John 4:42), the Savior of “all men”(Rom. 5:18), the sinner’s Best Friend; but those who will be lost at last have chosen to resist and reject Him through unbelief; they have “frustrated the grace of God” (Gal. 2:21). This simple disclosure clarifies the theological conundrum.

The bottom line: repentance at last comes into focus (Rev. 3:19).

A California Highway Patrolman shoots herself after leaving a note, “I’m no good.”

If ever a prominent person had reason to think he was no good, it was great King David who committed two monstrous crimes at once in committing adultery and then murdering the lady’s husband and keeping mum about it all for about a year, deceiving everybody in the kingdom. It took a prophet from God to wake him up.

His reaction was not suicide, for he did frankly confess that he felt he deserved death—the real kind, the eternal death of being “cast ... away from Thy presence [of God]; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). What he felt he deserved was what the New Testament speaks of as “the second death.”

The full realization of his true guilt was necessary before his self-respect could be built. No one can think of himself with genuine self-respect unless he knows the full dimension of his unworthiness and guilt—that’s just Reality; and that dimension? Guilt for the crucifixion of Christ. That is the sin of the human race; when the Bible says “all have sinned,” and “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:23; 10), that is what it means. Let’s not try to argue out of it saying, “If I had been there I would not have voted to crucify Him! I’m innocent of that!” You don’t know what you would have done, for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).

Your true and genuine self-respect that nothing can overthrow is built on that realization and confession. It is a corporate sin that is universal but universally (almost) unrecognized.

What this CHP suicide needed was that corporate realization plus the understanding that Christ’s forgiveness of those who crucified Him extended to her also (Luke 23:34); if your load of unconscious guilt is lifted by that faith and knowledge of truth, it will be impossible for you ever to say to yourself or to anyone else, “I am no good.”

Every baby born into this world comes with a deep conviction of judicial condemnation “in Adam” (Rom. 5:18); but at the same time he also comes into the world under a blanket of the Father’s judicial forgiveness with His verdict of acquittal “in Christ” (same text).

That’s what the Father says about you “in Christ.” But of course you can rebel and refuse to receive the gift. But believing the truth puts a smile on your face forever.

It’s a pity no one told the CHP suicide in time.

Just before His crucifixion, the Son of God made a promise: He will “draw” all men to Himself, that is, will reconcile all men to the Father, He will give all who are thirsty, to drink of the water of life, and He will give all who are hungry to eat of the bread of life, IF ... His people will lift Him up to be seen crucified for all men and crucified by all men (cf. John 12:32, 33).

Christ died for the world, the death that “every man” would die were it not that He gave Himself for every man, and yes, to every man.

All that the fallen Adam did to bring a condemnation upon every man, Christ as our second or “last Adam” did to bring a verdict of acquittal to the same every man. He reversed what Adam did; Adam cursed, Christ blessed; Adam brought us eternal death; Christ brought us eternal life.

Adam brought darkness, Christ brought us light. Adam alienated us all from God, brought us into the world separated from Him; Christ brought us into the world reconciled to Him IF we will receive His message of atonement. (He has already done the reconciling in principle.) He will force no one against his free will, but He says, “Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17).

“Whosoever will.”

That includes every Muslim who “will” let his heart “come.” They may have been taught to deny He died on His cross; but their conscience cannot deny that love for every man in that He died his second death. This truth of life only in Christ is free for all to believe. Those who choose to disbelieve, bring eternal separation upon themselves, while those who believe the News of His love already receive the gift of eternal life in Him.

The much more abounding grace of the Lord is stronger than mistaken information imbibed in childhood and youth; when the angel of Revelation 18 lightens the earth with glory, truth will cut through long held prejudice; God knows how to speak to His “other sheep ... which are not of this fold”(John 10:16), and they will hear His voice and their prejudices will disappear like morning dew. He will have a people who can lift up “Christ and Him crucified” and can reach those hearts.

What message does the Bible tell us to proclaim to Muslims?

(a) “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus [the Messiah] whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3)

(b) The “true God” [Allah, in Arabic] has revealed Himself as the One who Himself is “love” (1 John 4:8). But the word for love is agape, a different idea than we humans have and understand for love.

(c) Agape is the kind of love that loves our enemies and prays “for those who despitefully use us” (Matt. 5:45). That is the teaching of both the Old and New Testaments.

(d) We humans cannot understand it except as we see it revealed in Christ the Messiah, who “being in the form of God, counted not equality with God something to be grasped but emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a servant [a slave]; and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).

(e) That “death of the cross” involved His taking upon Himself all the evil and sins of the world and dying the death that is “the wages of sin” (Rom. 6:23), which is the real thing—“the second death” in which there is no hope of a resurrection (cf. Rev. 20:12-14). This is what it means that “He poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12). This is the true definition of the love (agape) which God says He “is.”

(f) The miracle that confirms the truth of the gospel is that this message of the cross when rightly presented converts selfish, cruel, worldly human hearts and people learn to be unselfish and to love others even as Jesus.

(g) The human heart is melted by the story of this truth of what Christ accomplished on His cross. As the second or “last Adam” He encompasses the whole human race in Himself; when He died, “we all” died with Him and in Him (2 Cor. 5:14); also, we were resurrected “in Him” and that says something to us—that love of Christ “henceforth” motivates us to live “not unto self, but unto Him who died for us and rose again” (vs. 15).

(h) God wants every person to be saved eternally who is willing to let God’s Holy Spirit enter his/her heart; by the Holy Spirit (1 Tim. 2:3-5). Christ is drawing every one to Himself. But we have been given freedom of choice; God refuses to compel anyone. He wants only free-willed disciples.

(i) If one does not resist that powerful grace that is unbounded, he will be drawn all the way in repentance and eternal salvation.

“Conventional wisdom” says that if you follow Christ, your path is difficult; and if you follow the world, your path is easy.

But the Lord Jesus Himself says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).

And for those who think they have a hard time in trying to follow Jesus or had to suffer opposition and persecution, He adds, “I will put upon you none other burden” (Rev. 2:24). He doesn’t want us to suffer torture!

Granted, He doesn’t force anyone to “take up [a] cross and follow [Him]” (cf. Luke 9:23), but He invites us to choose to follow Him into eternal life in the kingdom of God. He knows that we have inherited from Adam a sinful nature and how sin is contagious and habit forming; He knows that when His Father says that He “so loved the world that He gave” Him to be our Savior that we have an inward battle in learning to “believe in Him” (John 3:16). Unbelief (or dis-belief) is natural for us; we were born that way. We can learn to believe.

The distraught father of the possessed boy in Mark 9 gives us a lesson. When Jesus told him frankly, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes,” he broke down in tears and said, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (vss. 23, 24). Steeped in your natural unbelief, you can choose to believe. Then you will learn.

A new birth is needed every step of our way, but the Good News is that He loves us so much that He actually makes the path to eternal ruin a “hard” one. This again is contrary to “conventional wisdom” that says it’s easy to just slide down hill into hell. An example of truth is what the Lord Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus as he was indulging his natural hatred of righteousness in persecuting the church. In love for his soul, the Lord confronted him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). It was a miserable life Saul was leading!

The Old Testament also teaches that God loves us so much that He has put obstacles in the downward path to ruin: “Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns” (Hosea 2:6), “He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass” (Job 19:8), “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9), “He has blocked my way with hewn stone” (Jer. 3:9).

None of these Good News texts says that the Lord forces anyone to be saved against his will; but taken together they assure us that He continually tries His best to direct us into the path of life. Let’s believe Him!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world (John 4:42). But what does He save the world from? What is salvation? Is it merely a physical resurrection, carrying on the same existence which we now have, with new bodies? Or can we say that salvation is deliverance from the sin that plagues our present life?

And if we have not known what that deliverance from sin is now, will we be able to enjoy any kind of a “resurrection”?

We humans are not “saved” by being delivered utterly from “the flesh,” but by receiving power to rule over the clamors of our “flesh.” The “much more abounding grace of God” actually “teaches” us to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, [that] we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world” (Titus 2:11, 12). This is to rule over all the evil tendencies and desires of “the flesh” which we have inherited from our fallen head of our human race, Adam. We humans do not develop character by being delivered from the realm of temptation, but by receiving power to conquer all the temptation.

That is salvation.

The Savior does not try to save us in a way that would leave us limp and characterless, by putting us in a place of no temptation; no, He came to us humans just where we are, in the midst of all our temptations. He came in the very flesh such as we have and in that flesh He met all the temptations known to that flesh and conquered every one of them right up to the moment when He cried “It is finished!” on His cross and bowed His head and died.

By means of that conquest, He has brought victory over the flesh to every soul in the world who will open his heart to receive that “faith of Jesus.” Hot-house tree plants that have never been outdoors and never known cold and wind are helpless to endure real life and can never develop into strong trees; the Savior of the world is busy as our great High Priest “saving” a people who will be happy meeting Him face to face when He returns, who will not be ashamed in His personal presence. They must not be surprised that temptations assail them, or that trials them. That is evidence that the High Priest is actually working on their case! Good news!

Let Him work!