Daily Bread  -  March, 2008

by Robert J. Wieland

We love to hear the story of David and Goliath, over and over, how he slew that giant with his well-aimed pebble (and the giant’s own sword, of course).

What was it that motivated young David to do this great deed? (The New English Bible says that young David had “bright eyes,” clear vision, 1 Sam. 16:12.)

It’s clear: David’s motive was not a desire to marry the king’s daughter Michal, nor any reward King Saul could give him. He was thinking only of the honor of the Lord: “Who is this pagan Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” He told Goliath, “I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, ... whom thou hast defied. ... that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Sam. 17:26; 45, 46).

Why do we serve the Lord, keep holy His true Sabbath, pay our tithe to the church, do missionary work, obey Titus 2:12 NIV by saying “No!” to ungodliness and worldly lusts? Is it that we are scared to give in to these lusts? For example, why do we say a decisive “No!” to the temptation to watch porno? Is it fear?

Or has the Lord delivered us from this Old Covenant motivation of self-seeking? Are we now thinking of the honor of Jesus Himself? (It’s so painful to Him, to be ashamed of us!)

The New Covenant motivation takes us to the cross of Jesus where we see for ourselves “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love of Christ (agape), “which passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:18, 19).

What joy, to forget self and serve the Lord motivated by His love!

The Lord Jesus Christ has done something, accomplished something, for the entire human race. To say it in terms that the Hindus can understand: He has paid the debt of karma that everybody owes.

Understanding this, the Samaritans at Sychar declared Jesus to be “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42); not that He would merely like-to-be, but He actually, literally, is “the Savior of the world.”

They were right; they had immediately taken the glorious step in understanding the gospel that theologians sometimes miss in searching for a lifetime. What many fail to grasp is Paul’s paradigm of contrast: “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20).

No one can deny that sin has abounded more and more, especially in this Daniel’s “time of the end” (Dan. 12:4); what we want to grasp is that in this cosmic race, the grace of Christ has thus far always kept ahead of the abounding sin. But that cannot not always be true.

There must come a time when His “much more abounding grace” reaches its limit. God is infinite indeed; but His grace is not infinite.

The “much more abounding grace” of Christ abounded sufficiently to enable Him to pray “Father, forgive them” for those who crucified Him the first time at Calvary (Luke 23:34); but when in the full light of revelation the world chooses to enforce the mark of the beast and thereby chooses to crucify Christ the second time and “put Him to an open shame” (Heb. 6:4-6), that “much more abounding grace” will have passed its almost (but not!) infinite limit. It will be the unpardonable sin for the world (with the exception of those who gain the victory over the mark of the beast).

Can an individual take this fatal step? Yes; thus let us today remember both “the goodness and the severity” of the Lord (Rom. 11:22). “Perfect love [agape] casts out fear—that is, all but the denial itself of agape. So, let us walk “softly” before the Lord as repentant King Ahab finally did (1 Kings 21:27-29). You’d be surprised to have formerly wicked King Ahab for a neighbor in the New Jerusalem, wouldn’t you? If so, and it may be so, that would be “the goodness ... of the Lord”!

The Sacramento BEE reports that the Florida Legislature has taken an action expressing regret for Florida’s involvement in the slave trade and oppressing slaves, back in the early 19th century.

Yet there is not one current member of the Legislature who has ever had anything to do with either the slave trade or oppressing a slave!

This apology officially expressed is therefore a “corporate apology,” or “corporate repentance.” Numerous organizations have expressed similar corporate repentance, including the Pope for papal persecutions inflicted by the Papacy on Christians of the Dark Ages.

We know that God’s official “books of record” contain the sins which we each would have committed if we had had the opportunity or been faced with temptation severe enough. That’s not bad news; it is simply an expression of the ultimate truth that each of us had a part in the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God. That’s our core human sin. “There is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22, 23). The New English Bible correctly renders the passage, “All alike have sinned, and are deprived of the divine glory.” No one of us is better or worse than our fellow man; we partake of a common fallen humanity.

Therefore we haven’t begun to repent until we understand that our core sin is involvement in the crucifixion of the Son of God. We are involved, because we are descendants of the fallen Adam. That’s what his sin in Eden involved, and we were all “in him.” And our text goes on to say that we have repeated Adam’s sin, so we are indeed personally involved corporately.

But there is fabulously wonderful Good News here: “And all are justified by God’s free grace alone, through His act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus” (vss. 24, 25).

His grace is “free.” Therefore everybody is equally the recipient of this “free grace alone.” Since it is “free” no one can be excluded. Christ on His cross endured the guilt of every human sin, which means according to Hebrews 2:9, He died the “second death” for every human being. That’s why Paul says that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). But people are free to reject what Christ has given them; this is the only reason anyone can at last be lost. (Maybe more tomorrow, the Lord willing.).

The Lord has always blessed us with special people “of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron. 12:32). The New English Bible says, “skilled in reading the signs of the times.”

God forbid that any of us should be so vain as to imagine that we are they when in fact we are “less than the least of all saints” (but even Paul felt that was what he was ; Eph. 3:8)!

But what would the present-day “children of Issachar” say that “Israel ought to do”?

Clearly: tell the world what is that most precious message that “God commanded “ should be proclaimed in “every church” and then given to the world.

It’s the message of “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1, 2) that Revelation 18:1-4 says must lighten the earth with glory: “I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” When he cries, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,” he calls on those whose hearts are honest to “come out of her, My people.”

When the honest-hearted hear that call, nothing will be able to stop them coming out—not family, friends, business. It will be the same call that came to Abraham when he was in Ur.

The Lord’s prayer that we are to pray continually is, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Through that inspired prayer this glorious goal will be our heart-burden continually, for by the much more abounding grace of Jesus, we are reconciled to His Father.

But His “kingdom” can’t come until the message of the “kingdom” lightens the earth with glory.

He has no other way to lighten the earth with the glory of His message except through His people. When you pray the Lord’s prayer, you demonstrate that you have been adopted as His child. No higher honor is possible for anyone!

Whenever someone spends his life simply believing in the Lord Jesus, the Lord is generous: He writes that person as having “labored” for the Lord.

This is evident from our comforting assurance in Rev. 14:13: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yes, says the [Holy] Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works follow them.”

The “henceforth” means from the time that the three angels’ messages go forth—which is our day today. The NEB says, “the record of their deeds goes with them.”

The “blessed” is not an empty compliment: these people are the elite in God’s great universe. The word means something! They sleep now; but Jesus speaks of them as being in a special class who are being “accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, ... Neither can they die any more: ... being the children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:35, 36).

“Their works” may be only a word spoken to some child about the much more abounding grace of the Lord Jesus, to help that child come out of the Old Covenant into the New. The final judgment is not the Lord digging up all the negative things He can find against us: He has identified Himself with us; He has forever become one with us in humanity (as well as remaining for all eternity the Son of God). The final judgment is a time when He loves to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:20, 21).

Do you feel that the best you are able to do in your whole lifetime is to be “faithful over a few things”?

Welcome to the fellowship of the happiest people in the world!

Rather than revel in dreams of walking the streets of gold and eating the fruit of the tree of life, why not revel in the thought of the Savior of the world saying to you, “Good and faithful servant”? Forget all the other joys; if some angel tries to give me a crown, I must say no thanks; lay it all at His feet.

He is looking forward to how much pleasure He will get in saying to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant”!

Now today, begin to “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:21)!

Joseph was next to the youngest of old Jacob’s sons, probably around 17 years old when his life was violently disrupted.

His ten older brothers were the true church of that day; they were the “ Israel” of the world, God’s chosen nation-to-be, and they rejected Joseph and hated him. (There are some people today who feel rejected by the true church of today!)

Sent on a self-sacrificing mission to help his ten older brothers, Joseph suddenly found himself the object of their bitter feelings of jealousy when they grabbed him and threw him helpless into a pit, lonely, hungry, probably bruised, while they sat down to enjoy the repast of goodies from home that Jacob had sent him to bring them. Then his brothers most cruelly sold him as a slave to some heathen merchants who came by, thinking of course that they would never see him again. (It was their hatred of “righteousness by faith” that motivated them to do this awful deed!)

As would any innocent teenager, Joseph was mystified by this sudden reversal in fortune; to be hated by God’s own “Israel, “ the “nation” God chose to be a blessing to the world—could any fate be more painful for a sincere teen to endure? (Sorry, Joseph was only the progenitor of a long list of prophets and “messengers” whom the Lord sent to help His people who rejected and hated Him through the centuries until they despised and crucified His own Son! The inspired historian says, “The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy,” 2 Chron. 36:15, 16).

If you are a teenager and your world has been turned upside down for any reason, and you are tempted to wonder if there is a God who cares about you, think on this:

(1) As the Ishmaelites from Gilead with their camels on their way to Egypt bore young Joseph away, and he looked for the last time on the hills where his father’s tent was, his heart thrilled with a choice not to let himself become bitter, but to consecrate his life to the Lord God.

(2) Sold as a slave to Potiphar in Egypt, Joseph was tempted to think that God had forgotten about him; and often today when things go against us we are tempted likewise to give in to that awful temptation; but choose with Joseph to believe in the Lord your God who is your heavenly Father.

(3) He will never forget you!

It was a beautiful Easter day here where we are, everything green, blossoms, life abounding wherever we look.

I came to my daughter’s home; and there as we celebrated as a reminder of resurrection to new life, a touch of mortality confronted me. It has affected the family dog, Penikka, an old friend of 11 years since she was picked up as an abandoned puppy. She is now beyond any medical care, and there is a touch of grieving in the family.

Modest as was this reminder of mortality on this beautiful spring day of new life, the thought can be a blessing if we take to heart an inspired prayer from the old saint, Moses: “So teach us to number our days, and apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

It’s a healthy thing for us to remember that we are mortal: the days we each have yet on this planet are “numbered,” which remains true even if the second coming of the resurrected Jesus comes within our lifetime (“the blessed hope” we cherish from the apostle Paul in Titus 2:11-14).

“Number our days:” a constant awareness that they are not infinite—this side of the coming of Jesus.

“So teach us”: a constant gentle reminder. It’s not a sad one; it’s a ministry of the Holy Spirit; this “teaching” is the work of the Comforter whom Jesus sends to us.

It’s good and healthful for teens: “Rejoice, O young man, in 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 ...” (Eccl. 11:9). The Lord is happy to watch youth enjoy their carefree years; but oh, true happiness is not froth: it is built on the consciousness of sober reality: we are mortal. But that reminds us that we will have immortality in Christ!

The Lord says, “Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” But that “judgment” is not a scary thought: it is simply the final, close, intimate contact with your best Friend who is your Savior. “There is no fear in love (agape), for perfect agape casts out fear, because fear hath torment” (1 John 4:18). He whose heart cherishes agape walks past all the holy angels into the very presence of God ... unafraid.

Now, you have today: “number” it, and apply your heart to this wisdom.

Have you ever understood and appreciated how many times the Lord in His great mercy has saved you from falling into some open (or secret) sin that would have ruined you?

For example, take Proverbs 22:14: “The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; he who is abhorred of the Lord will fall there.”

If the Lord has held you by the hand and preserved you from that “fall,” you can sing the Hallelujah chorus a thousand times. (Someone might be reading this who actually fell into the “pit,” and he/she feels bad; well, remember that if the Lord “abhors you” He still loves you; what He “abhors” is not you personally, but that kind of behavior; there is hope for you.)

If in spite of your love for money you have been enabled to remain upright in the face of temptation, again you can be profoundly thankful to Him; it’s not your “righteousness” that has preserved you, it’s His.

Maybe you have wondered how holy beings can sing over and over their praises to the Lord; that’s one reason—He has saved them from ruining their lives.

Isaiah comments about His special care for you, personally and individually: “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.” (He hasn’t promised that no voice will ever be raised against you—all He promises is that you will “condemn” that accusation and He will defend you from it. “‘This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,’ saith the Lord” (Isa. 54:16, 17).

The Lord is so good to us because of His much more abounding grace that we can make progress all our lives, gaining such victories, we can grow day by day “like a tree.” The time will come when we will find it is actually “easy” to say “No!” to temptation. Then Titus 2:11-14 will be fulfilled to us and we shall rejoice in it forevermore.

This mini-Bible study is dedicated to a special group of people who are heavily tempted sometimes to doubt that the Lord cares for them:

They are people who once knew abounding good health, but who have become infirm so they cannot do what they used to do.

Sometimes this change has come about simply because of old age; but it’s still painful to endure. But the Lord has taken pains to remind those who are old that He still loves them and cares for them: the Lord inspired the Psalmist to write his prayer, “Cast me not off in the time of old age” (Psalm 71:9). The Lord would not have inspired the poet to write those words unless He had wanted to make especially clear His promise that He will not forget, neglect, overlook, or cast you off when you become old and infirm. They, of all people, must “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. 3:6). It is their privilege to honor the Lord Jesus even when they become very old; and He will grant them the confidence, the assurance, that they are being faithful. This will make life interesting and worthwhile even to the last hour.

Sometimes it is because of an accident or an illness; in that case, it is especially painful to endure. (My own dear Grace suffered much in her old age because of an accident; but the Lord never forsook her, and thank the Lord she knew it and believed in His faithfulness; she demonstrated the preciousness of a firm faith in the Lord up to the last minute of her life. That was literally true!). Why one person must go through an accident or through an illness (like cancer!) and not another person, is not a question the Lord wants us to mull over; He loves all alike and He loves each of us in a special way.

If you have had to endure special trials but you have chosen to cherish the faith of Jesus (remember: the holy, sinless Son of God endures the hiding of His Father’s faith and screams, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matt. 27:46), remember when you meet Jesus personally (as you surely will, 2 Cor. 5:10!), you and He will have a special tete-a-tete; you will see that look in His eyes of recognition that you will know is infinitely reserved for you especially. Through all eternity you will cherish that special look.

And oh how you will rejoice forever, singing “a new song” that no one else can sing as beautifully as you can.

We thank the dear Lord for inspiring His apostle to write for us that precious Book of Hebrews. No other book in the Bible so clearly reveals Jesus Christ for us as our “Brother” in human flesh—the divine One closest to us, “sticking closer” to us than even the best of our human brothers: “There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). Jesus is that Friend.

That’s the One that Hebrews describes:

(1) You must know how close He is. It’s a heavenly “family” that Ephesians says you have already been “adopted” into (1:3-7).

(2) If your lonely heart cries out “Father!” Heaven looks upon you as already adopted into the Family (see Rom. 8:14-17). He respects your heart-choice. I can’t begin to describe what it means to be an “heir of God and joint-heir with Christ.” But that’s what you are by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice, the One who “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:13, 14). He did all this before we could say yes or no; it was already true before we were born, but He can’t force Himself on us: He did the giving of Himself, but He also gave us the freedom of choice—we can refuse the adoption. Don’t refuse it!

(3) An “heir of God and joint-heir with Christ”? Those are holy words; we pause as we even write them. Even the highest angels are not so honored or blessed!

(4) The angels must stand back with their hands folded as you march past them on your way to the Great White Throne where high above it stands the cross of Christ where you were “adopted” (cf. Rev. 20:11, 12). The angels can’t come as close as you!

(5) The love of God (agape) is what God says He is (1 John 4:8); it is high and holy, divine; it has to be “perfect” for “God is agape,” but John also says an almost unbelievable truth: that agape is “perfected in us”—in us who are weak and sinful (vs. 12). Ten thousand angels playing their harps and singing praise to God do not bring Him as much honor as does one lowly, hopeless, selfish sinner who opens his heart and permits that agape to transform him into the likeness of Christ in character. God is agape but the circuit is completed in you and me.

(6) You will enter the New Jerusalem not as a convict barely forgiven but as someone highly honored, “in Christ”!

(7) Say “yes!” to Him today.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked John to baptize Him? Wasn’t He sinless? Wasn’t John sent to baptize only people who had repented? (Matt. 3:11). Why this anomaly?

True—Jesus was totally sinless.

True—John was sent to baptize sinners only, and then only if they repented (pastors have no right to baptize people who have not repented!).

When Jesus asked John, he “forbad Him” because he knew He was sinless (vss. 13, 14). It makes more sense for You to baptize me, John said.

As Matthew writes, Jesus gave John a Bible study, extensive, thorough. He explained how the Father had sent Him to be the Lamb of God. As sinners at the sanctuary placed their hands on the head of an innocent lamb and transferred to it their sins, so Jesus was taking upon Himself all the sins of the whole world, “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), “made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). He put Himself in the place of every sinner, took the guilt upon His own heart. (It wasn’t the nails in His hands and feet that killed Him.)

Carrying this load, Jesus experienced repentance in behalf of every sinner. Without joining in our sin, He felt how every sinner feels. He prayed for us all, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” So terrible was the weight of our sin that He hardly felt the physical agony of the crucifixion. He was terribly tempted to conclude that His Father had forsaken Him. That cry of despair was no TV actor’s script: “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” The death Jesus died was the equivalent of our second death (read Psalm 22). He didn’t go to sleep for three days and three nights; “Christ DIED for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3, 4), was resurrected from the DEAD, not from mere sleep, went to hell itself in order to save us from hell itself (Acts 2:27).

All this Jesus had to explain to John, until the prophet could see in Him “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (as he said the next day, John 1:29).

The repentance Jesus experienced in our behalf was not personal, for He had no sin of His own. It had to be a corporate repentance. As we grow closer to Him, we identify with Him. We learn that we have no righteousness inherited by our DNA; the sins of others would be our sins—but for the grace of a Savior, and then we can forgive others as we have been forgiven by Him. We will be like Him—experiencing a corporate repentance.

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.

It crops up all the time—laments from church-goers who say they have gone to church for decades and heard legalism preached. But now they rejoice that the gospel of “righteousness by faith” is proclaimed. Thank God for any true change for the better!

But are there different kinds of “righteousness by faith”? Revelation 14 presents an “everlasting gospel” that validates itself by raising up people who truly “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” They prepare for the literal second coming of Christ (vss. 6-15). The author of the Book of Revelation also writes a series of warnings against false claims of “righteousness by faith” in which “we lie, and do not practice the truth;” “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;” “we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us;” “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, etc.).

Apparently the apostle John wants us to discern any “gospel” that does not produce obedience to all the commandments of God (all ten!). A preacher who says he is proclaiming the “gospel” but himself continues to “break one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so,” says Jesus, could be a highly sophisticated deception, yet not realize who he is (see Matt. 5:19).

There are those who say they belong in Revelation 14 and let themselves be fooled by a counterfeit “righteousness by faith.” The true “everlasting gospel” must produce obedience to all those commandments in the one himself who preaches it.

Is this concern a reversal again to “legalism”? “The everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14 is no legalism; it is a clearer understanding of the cross of Christ than has ever “lightened the earth with glory” (see its full development in Rev. 18:1-4).

The final crisis will be two opposite views of “righteousness by faith.” One will spin the Emperor’s New Clothes, multitudes rejoicing in “imputed righteousness” but not noticing it’s not imparted. “Covered” by what they assume is a spiritual insurance policy, they will go for “the mark of the beast,” which will be the most sophisticated counterfeit of “the everlasting gospel” the world has ever seen.

It’s time to seek some “eye salve” that can impart discernment (see Rev. 3:18).

The biggest, most important word in any language is the word l-o-v-e.

But it’s not the ordinary word of every-day language: it’s the word that the inspired apostle John used when he said that “God is love,” not that God’s characteristic is love, or that part of Him is love: no, John wrote that “God IS love” (1 John 4:8).

John wrote that “God is agape.” It’s the word that turned the world upside down when the magistrates of the city of Thessalonica complained that “these [men] that have turned the world upside down are come hither also” (Acts 17:6).

Not that two puny men could do that; what they were preaching was so powerful that the message did it; and the message was encapsulated in that word agape. It was a totally radical idea: true love, the real thing, is a love that loves bad people, ugly people, mean people, yes, your enemies.

It’s probably impossible for us to imagine what happened before the day of radio or TV or any flashing electronic news that encircles the world in a moment: the news that startled people went out worldwide: when Jesus of Nazareth was being crucified, spikes driven through His wrist-bones and ankle-bones, He prayed for the men doing that: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”(Luke 23:34). The one Gentile author of one of the Gospels was impressed to tell this detail, which neither the Jews Matthew, Mark, nor John recorded; the news went around the world by word of mouth: never in the history of Roman crucifixions (which were many) had a crucified victim of this unspeakable cruelty prayed for his murderers. This was NEWS!

People talked about it everywhere. The News catalyzed humanity: there were those who despised the divine Victim; there were others whose hearts were deeply impressed and solemnized. Like the honest-hearted centurion that Luke has to tell us about, they said, “Truly this was a righteous man” (vs. 47). In the end of time the world will again be lightened with a message that turns it upside down, a message that grips some hearts and reconciles them to God and to His holy law; and that goads others to enforce the “mark of the beast” against them. This will be the message of a fourth angel of Revelation 18:1-4 that brings to a triumphant conclusion the work of Christ’s gospel; the message of the three angels of chapter 14 doesn’t accomplish that great work; it can’t.

If we “let this mind be in [us] which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), we will learn self-denial. But that’s the lesson our fallen humanity doesn’t like; we always want our way, not surrender it and crucify self.

To crucify self can happen only as we are “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). When that “grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness” (see Titus 2:11-13), it’s Christ that is doing it; there is no other “university” on earth that can teach us to do that. Only Jesus can teach this young man who has just gotten married (and has written us) to say to his young wife, “not as I want, but as you want” when trials in their marriage come up (and they will no matter how idyllic their courtship has been).

And she vice versa!

It was at Gethsemane that Jesus as the divine/human Son of God came to the most wrenching temptation to love self. No one in the vast universe of God ever faced such a trial. In His human nature, Jesus did not want to go to that cross, not because He dreaded the pain and shame involved, but He recoiled against the second death that He knew was in the cross. “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39).

He had fallen, weeping and broken, and now He sweat blood as He chose to “resist unto blood, striving against sin” (Heb. 12:4). It would have been enormous sin if He had rejected the cross that the Father would lay upon Him. Christ must win His primeval battle with self, or the universe is lost in the great controversy.

Now, says Paul, I have learned from Him—“I [too] am crucified with Christ.” I kneel with Him in Gethsemane. Paul says, self in human nature is so strong that it was like sweating blood for Christ to say “No!” to self; but I, Paul, say “let this mind be in me, which was also in [Him].”

Now, Paul goes on to say, “nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me”(KJV). To respond any less than that, says Paul, would be to “frustrate the grace of God,” and that I now refuse to do, he adds (Gal. 2:20, 21).

The young married couple will wrestle with the conflicts of marriage. So do we all. Jesus’ lesson on saying “No!” to self will bring happiness and permanence to their oneness.

Let “Elijah” “turn their heart[s]” on this Day of Atonement (cf. Mal. 4:5, 6).

There is a chapter in the Bible that is clear as sunlight, but because of our fallen state our minds have confused it: Romans 5.

For some years after I was ordained to the gospel ministry and served as a pastor, I shied away from preaching about it. I too was confused!

But it was never God’s intention to confuse anyone. He simply wants us all to learn to share the joy of Paul who said, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14).

What is the message of Romans 5 in simple, understandable terms?

(1) It is based on the principal truth that everything that our fallen, sinful father Adam passed on to us as the human race, Jesus Christ has reversed. Christ has become the “last Adam” or the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:22). Adam passed on to us all a judicial verdict of condemnation, that is, death itself. Christ has given to us all a judicial verdict of acquittal. This is the only reason that the Father can treat every man as though he has never sinned, and can send rain and sunshine “on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).

(2) As soon as Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, the Son of God stepped in to be our Savior from that terrible, endless death. Thus Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

(3) It follows that Christ died the second death for the entire human race: “We see Jesus ... that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). That’s the real thing—not just a sleep for a weekend.

(4) It follows again that because He died every man’s second death on His cross, Christ has given every man a second opportunity to be loyal to the government of heaven. This is “a judicial ... verdict of acquittal” (Rom. 5:15-18, NEB).

(5) What Christ accomplished on His cross was to give to every man Esau’s “birthright.” You remember, Esau had it; not all the angels in heaven or hell could have wrested it from him; but he willfully, of his own free choice “despised” it and “sold” it for a “mess of pottage” (Gen. 25:34; Heb. 12:16).

It was by His sacrifice on His cross that Christ gave that “birthright” to us all. Now, hang on to it forever! (Maybe more tomorrow).

It’s been a little over a month since my beloved Grace of 66 years of happy marriage suddenly died. Some may assume that this is time enough for the grieving to be assuaged, but it’s not; I loved her dearly—tears still come.

But the Lord is with me through the Holly Spirit. Seven great truths of “comfort of the scriptures” (cf. Rom. 15:4) have become real:

(1) There is a very special “blessing” for her since she “died in the Lord”; her last words were praise to the Lord for what He had given her.

(2) She died in the special niche of time designated as “henceforth”: “blessed are they who die in the Lord from henceforth; yes, says the [Holy] Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them” (Rev. 14:13). That “henceforth” is a niche in time just after “they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” are identified at the beginning of “the time of the end” (cf. Dan. 12:4). They believe the messages of the three angels that preach to “every nation, kindred, tongue and people,” and their faith leads them to obey their messages (vss. 6, 7).

(3) My dear one publicly identified herself with those three angels by baptism into Christ and His remnant church, and thereafter by a life of self-sacrificing ministry—including 24 years of medical ministry in Africa. This of course gives her no merit whatsoever, for none of us are saved by our works; but her works of service and love demonstrated that her faith was genuine, and it’s our faith that connects us with the Lord’s salvation.

(4) Jesus says “they ... shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead” (Luke 20:35). That wonderful “accounting” process is going on just now; it is equivalent to what many thoughtful Christians have said is “the investigative judgment.” It’s a solid Biblical doctrine.

(5) Jesus also says, “neither can they die any more” (vs. 36). That is immensely comforting to me! (It is not true of me just now.) Jesus also said, “they are equal unto the angels” (vs. 36).

(6) He said in the same verse that they “are the children of God.” What a glorious special place to be in!

(7) And, finally, they are “the children of the resurrection.” They will be resurrected! Their eternal life is certain!

Tears in grieving are painful; but thank the Lord for His “comfort of the scriptures.” The sooner you know about that “comfort,” the happier you will always be.

It was Jesus’ most hopeless moment. As He hung on His cross in the darkness, Satan wrung His heart with a temptation of eternal despair: God has forsaken you! The most horrible conviction any human soul can have is of eternal aloneness and separation from God.

Psalm 22 tells His story: it begins with His blood-curdling cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” That is a cry out of hell itself. Nothing more terrible could be experienced by anyone, for ever. It explains why the apostles could say on the day of Pentecost that the Father would not suffer His crucified Son “to see corruption. Thou hast made known to Me the ways of life; Thou shalt make Me full of joy with Thy countenance” (Acts 2:26-28).

Yes, Jesus had to go to hell itself in order to save us; He had to drink the bitter cup to the last drop; He had to experience the unspeakable horror of aloneness that is hell itself. And He endured it by His own free choice, willingly. The apostles recognized how in Psalm 22 we read of Christ’s victory of faith even while He was in hell: “My flesh shall rest in hope; because Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:26, 27).

It was evidently a crisp, cold day when Jesus was crucified and buried; when His body was laid reverently in the new rock-hewn tomb of Joseph of Arimethea: “Thou shalt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.” The Father would not permit His Son’s body to touch anything that had been defiled by death. (The religious leaders of the then-true church wanted to dump His body on the Jerusalem garbage heap, but the Father intervened and said “No!”)

And He would not permit His Son to suffer the kind of death that Islam assumes for Him—a hopeless one. No; before He bowed His head and cried “It is finished” He foresaw the infinite joy that you and I will know: “Your heart shall live forever” (Psalm 22:26-28ff). Christ died gloriously triumphant.

I say, Thank You, Father, for granting Your Son in His incarnation this taste of joy: not that His heart should “live forever,” no, for He was dying the world’s second death; but He knew before He drew His last breath, “Your heart shall live forever.” In an infinite Titanic wreckage He knew He was going down forever, but “your heart” (yours and mine) shall live “forever.” Love like that deserves a response from you and me.

When you finally wake up after a wasted life and you realize that you’ve blown nearly all your original “capital,” you feel despondent. You’ve gone through one or two divorces, you’ve ruined your health by dissipation, your family have lost confidence in you, you need a job (and the strength to work at one if you can get it), and the loneliness you feel is oppressive. Maybe you have left some criminal record behind you. You feel that God has forsaken you.

You may not realize what is happening but God wants you to understand. You are in Galatians 3:22-24, which says: “The Scripture hath concluded [locked up] all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. ... The law was our schoolmaster [disciplinarian, Greek] to bring us [drive us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

The broken holy law of God has become your “jailer,” locking you up until you can learn to realize your lost condition. Nothing you can do can ease your burden; promising God that you will do better is in vain; all efforts to “pay” for your sins are useless. Nothing good you can do can make up for the sins you have committed. You cannot buy your way out of this prison-house. God Himself is not tormenting you—the holy broken law is tormenting you.

The only remedy is for that broken law to goad you, to drive you back to where Abraham was when he was “justified by faith.” That is the teaching of Galatians.

Next it says, “After that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster [disciplinarian]” (vs. 25). This blessed process of deep conviction of sin is the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it hurts! But it’s not God who is punishing you—He is only trying to impress upon you the reality that Christ was punished for you! You lay your sins upon Him, He is already your sin-bearer. This process of “the law working wrath upon you” (Rom, 4:15) is a ministry of mercy. It proves the Savior’s intimate, personal concern for individual you, through the Holy Spirit. It’s solid evidence that God loves you for yourself, that angels are your servants, that all Heaven is absorbed in your case. God loves sinners, and He especially loves a sinner like you who at last knows that he/she has “blown” it. Turn to Him. Now humble your proud heart and accept His forgiveness.

Have you ever noticed that the Bible spends more time talking about what God has done for the world, than telling what we must do for Him?
 

For example, there’s John 3:16: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Big, big gift!
 

But it doesn’t go on giving a list of things we must now do for Him. It simply says, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish”—himself (the verb form admits the idea of we sinners perishing—ourselves, that is, going on in a process which is in one sense mass suicide, self-perishing).
 

After all that tremendous giving on His part, God simply asks us to appreciate what He has done, to let our hearts “behold” the grand dimensions of the love He has given us (cf. Eph. 4:18). “Look!” “Ponder.” “Measure.” “Consider.” “Stop and think so you can appreciate to the point of broken-heartedness.” All the good works possible, follow.
 

Then Psalm 51 comes into the picture; instead of being like the Pharisee who thanks God that he isn’t as bad as “this publican,” instead of thanking Him that you haven’t done as badly as King David—committed adultery and murder, etc.; instead of that pride, you receive from the Holy Spirit the gift of conviction of sin, corporate sin; you realize that the sin of someone else would be your sin but for the grace of Christ. You realize at last that you are no better than King David at heart; you have no righteousness of your own.
 

If Jesus, the divine Son of God could be “made to be sin for us who knew no sin” (that is, as He hung on His cross, He bore the corporate guilt of all the sin of the whole world), then surely we can bear the corporate guilt of the sin of King David: we may now have a closer link with Jesus who bore the corporate guilt of us all.
 

And, dear friend: a closer link with Jesus means a closer link with eternal life. Don’t despise the gift of corporate repentance. Esau did, and he “sold” his precious “birthright.”
 

When the love (agape) of Christ can “constrain” us (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15), then there is no end to the works of righteousness that love will constrain us to do for the Lord. But that is not motivated by a desire for reward in heaven nor is it motivated by a fear of hell: God Himself is agape, and “agape casts out fear” (1 John 4:8, 18). It’s a new motivation that never ends.

A recent issue of NEWSWEEK has a cover article devoted to the problems of addiction—all the way from simple gluttony to heroin. Science is working to find a vaccine that will vaccinate us and thus deliver us; but to be in balance, NEWSWEEK also included an article by Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal entitled, “Sadly, There Is No Magic Bullet.” He says “we know from hard evidence that addicts can and do kick the habit. Volition counts” (my emphasis).

Dr. Rosenthal apparently is willing to let the Bible make a contribution.

Human volition has been highly honored by our divine Creator and Redeemer. Even the most wicked of earth’s inhabitants have been given the gift of free will; God will save no one against his own free will; neither will He permit anyone to be lost against his own free will.

The Bible makes a clear as sunlight statement about volition and temptation to indulge: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men [the Greek allows this good news thought], teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts [the substance of any addiction], we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11, 12).

Who is our “teacher”? “The grace of God.” Is that grace of God effective enough as a “teacher” to teach us successfully to avoid and conquer evil addictions?

The answer is a resounding yes if the grace is not frustrated and hampered. Paul says, in his outspoken Galatians, “I do not frustrate the grace of God” (2:21). Some will say that fear is a more effective teacher, hence we have videos and movies depicting the horrors of alcohol or tobacco addictions; lots of talent has gone into their production; their effectiveness is debatable.

Organized Christianity has been effective in “frustrating” the much more abounding grace that Paul says is greater than all the evil that Satan has invented (see Rom. 5:18-21).

Addicted or not addicted, let us “survey [that] wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died.” NEWSWEEK tried everything except that.

Does New Covenant faith make a discernable difference in one’s daily life? Can one see the change for the better?

Yes, a thousand times! Let’s look:

(1) If one will simply accept and believe those seven New Covenant promises that God makes to every believing child of Abraham (in Genesis 12:2, 3), his/her self-respect will be immeasurably lifted. Not his/her self-esteem, but self-respect. (There’s a world of difference).

(2) Self-esteem is praise or flattery of one’s self (“I’m handsome!” or “I’m beautiful!” “I’m better than someone else!”). It’s not good.

(3) But self-respect is solid appreciation for the “price” that Jesus paid for your redemption from hell itself. It grows within you the longer you live; it never becomes passé. Faith is well defined as a heart-appreciation for the self-sacrificing love (agape) of the Son of God.

(4) Thus New Covenant faith causes you to hold your head high, to lift your sagging shoulders, to open wider your drooping eyes; it’s all “in Christ,” and therefore it’s the actual beginning of eternal life.

(5) It’s not only “I believe.” It’s also the prayer, “Help Thou Mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24), an ongoing blessing the longer you live.

(6) It’s the Holy Spirit not only doing His first work for you, according to Jesus in John 16:8, which is reproving you of sin; it’s the Holy Spirit doing His second work for you—convicting you of righteousness; and yes, His third work also, convicting you that through the faith of Jesus which you have received, Satan is “cast out” of your heart and your life (vss. 10, 11). You are overcoming!

(7) There’s no greater joy in life.

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You are cordially invited to attend meetings on righteousness by faith beginning this Friday evening (March 7) at 7:00 p.m. in Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Murfreesboro Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2815 Elam Road (just off I-24 exit #84, Joe B. Jackson Parkway). Meetings will continue all day Sabbath and evening and Sunday morning (9:30 a.m.). Speakers: Robert J. Wieland, Paul Penno, Dan Peters.

I have been asked, “Why do you speak so often about the New Covenant?”

Because it’s so prominent in the Bible. In Genesis we read of a son closer to the truth than his father was—Abraham. His father Terah never got completely out of his idolatry of moon worship; he started out in obedience to the call that the Lord had sent to his son Abraham, but he ended up stuck in the half-way point (what is now Iraq). Only Abraham went all the way to the Promised Land, and worshipped the One who made the moon.

But even he desperately needed the New Covenant; the Lord had given him this fantastic promise that he would have a son even in his old age (which required that his wife Sarah become pregnant in her old age!). In true Old Covenant way both tried to “do” what only God could do; the result: disaster still with us these millennia later—the strife of the Middle East.

The story tells how Abraham and Sarah waited long for the fulfillment of the promise, and were so happy at the end that they named the baby “Laughter” (Isaac). Their story is vitally connected with the great Plan of Redemption for the world.

My questioner also asked, “Is it impossible for anyone to be saved under the Old Covenant”?

The reason may be that he realizes that vast numbers of professed Christians are living an Old Covenant life and don’t know better. Answer: don’t dare to resist the New Covenant when the Lord lets you learn about it.

Multitudes of sincere people in all churches need to understand; and the Lord will not permit the great plan of redemption to come to its triumphant close without that message being proclaimed worldwide.

The joy that thrilled the hearts of Abraham and Sarah at the birth of Isaac must be shared with many receptive hearts (Rev. 18:1-4). Then the end can come (Matt. 24:14).

Joseph, the younger son of Jacob and his beloved Rachel, is an example of how the New Covenant is a blessing to a youth. When his ten older brothers cruelly rejected him and sold him to be a slave to the Midianites who then sold him to the Ishmaelites, who took him as a slave to Egypt, Joseph’s New Covenant faith kept him from utter despair. Of course, the young lad cried and cried as he saw in the distance his father’s home disappear; but also his heart thrilled through and through with a resolve to dedicate himself totally to the God of his fathers.

No youth could make such a resolve unless New Covenant faith was his; it wasn’t some superior virtue that Joseph had—it was his faith that “worked.” It was through that New Covenant faith that God was able to hold his hand and keep him from falling into the pit of despair that so many disappointed people fall in to.

The New Covenant does not consist of a “bargain” that God makes in agreement with His people; it consists of the Lord’s out and out promises to bless them. Of course, they respond, but their response is not “works,” it is faith—believing and appreciating His promises, being moved by them.

When Joseph was later tempted so alluringly by Potiphar’s wife, again it was his New Covenant faith that preserved him from falling. God held him by the hand; it’s not that Joseph did nothing and just let the Lord save him; he did something very important—he believed those promises. His heart was moved with a deep appreciation for the love of his Savior.

Although he lived in Old Testament times, he was experiencing the New Testament vision of being moved by the love (agape) of Christ. Joseph was in tune with Paul’s idea of the love (agape) of Christ moving his heart to the point where he dedicated all he had to the One who so loved him that He went to the cross and died there his (Joseph’s) second death.

The Lord loves us no less than He loved Joseph back then.

People are often scared to think about the “two covenants” (the Old and the New), for fear that it’s a theological puzzle beyond their understanding.

In truth, it’s the simplest problem in the Bible to grasp: the New Covenant is the promises of God to Abraham and to his descendants by faith (that means you if you believe John 3:16)—that He will bless you abundantly now and forever.  That’s the New Covenant (you can read the seven promises in Genesis 12:2, 3). In contrast, the Old Covenant is the promise of the people at Mt. Sinai to “do” everything that that they think God requires (Ex. 19:8).

Under the Old Covenant we see the Ten Commandments as ten stern demands. But under the New, we see them as ten glorious promises that the Lord will save us from the sin mentioned there. For example, the seventh: under the Old Covenant it’s a stern demand that we never covet our neighbor’s spouse, never look on someone lustfully, etc.

But under the New Covenant, it’s a promise that the Lord will hold us by the hand forever and save us from falling into that hole (the wrong woman, or man) that Proverbs 22:14 says is a “deep pit.” The wonderful promise applies to us in our teenage years, also. (That’s when it’s especially precious.)

But is there no condition regarding what we must do?

Yes: we must believe the Preamble to the Ten Commandments. We must believe that by virtue of His sacrifice of Himself on His cross, the Lord Jesus has delivered us “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” By becoming our new Head of the human race, our new Adam, Christ has adopted the human race in Himself  (Eph. 1:3-7); He has become the “Savior of the world” (John 4:42—that is, in a legal or judicial sense), but “especially” so of “those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:10). That’s the practical. His love (agape) constrains us to live joyfully unto Him; self-sacrifice for Him is a joy.

That’s the truth of the Ten Commandments Preamble. You must believe it. Choose to. You believe; let Him “help [your] unbelief” (He will!  Mark 9:24).