The welcome we give to immigrants from other countries is one of the reasons I am very proud and thankful to be an American!  I know from my travels over much of the world that there is still no other country with our level of freedom, opportunity and prosperity.  And I know it is all because of our Judeo-Christian foundation as a nation—which is rapidly eroding and imploding around us! One of the reasons God blessed ancient Israel was so that she could be a blessing to the nations around her as well as to the aliens living among them.  When God originally called Abraham, He said to him: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:2-3; 18:18).  It was God’s observable blessing upon Israel that caused people from all over the ancient world to travel there.  We can see this “alien invasion” of Israel on the Day of Pentecost.  Doctor Luke in Acts tells us that there were “...staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5).  And as a result of their visit to Israel and Jerusalem, thousands of them were blessed with the infilling of the Holy Spirit and became members of the very first church.

But while the Jews were commanded by God to accept and love the aliens living among them, they still generally remained racially and ethnically separated from the foreigners living in their land—just like many Americans do today with the immigrants living among us.  And the Jews largely maintain that same racial and religious segregation today in Israel.

THE AMERICAN SMELTING POT

But America was different from ancient or contemporary Israel.  We became the great “smelting pot” in which various racial, ethnic and religious groups became ”...one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” as we proudly recite in our Pledge of Allegiance.  And it is that “liberty and justice for all,”  that continues to draw people to our shores from every corner of the earth.  Those immortal words (as best as Patt remembers them) inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty are still unique and unparalleled in the annals of national history…

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shores.  Send me, the homeless, tempest tossed to me.  I lift my lamp beside the golden shore.”

So America is still the first “nation of choice” for the down-trodden, abused and marginalized people of the world.  That’s why we are the only country that has to build fences to keep people out—rather than put up fences to keep people in!

It has been incredible for me to be personally involved in the lives of many “aliens, foreigners and immigrants” who have come to America from other troubled countries.  Whether from Haiti, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Burma, China—it has been a great joy and privilege to seek to “love them as yourself,” as the Bible exhorts us.  Let me give you one incredible example…

BHUTANESE-NEPALI REFUGEES

Back in 1998, God sovereignly connected me with some key Bhutanese refugees living in 7 internment camps in East Nepal.  They were part of 125,000 Bhutanese of Nepali decent that were expelled from their country by the king because of their political demonstrations for more freedom and human rights.  It seems that even in this beautiful Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom known as Shangri-La, freedom was severely limited.  The king was considered to be divine and ruled with absolute power and authority.  He was not yet ready for the winds of democracy, freedom and equal rights to blow across his land.  So in one fell swoop, 125,000 considered dissidents were expelled from Bhutan.  Since they were originally of Nepali descent, they fled across the borders to East Nepal where they were concentrated into 7 major refugee camps.

Year after year they languished in these make-shift camps built of bamboo, thatch and plastic. Bhutan stridently refused to allow them to return.  Their lands, homes and farms were given to other Bhutanese. Nepal did not want them. India would not allow them in to further swell their teaming hundreds of millions of people. So for 19 long years they lived in these Refugee Camps. But God providentially led us to those camps through our strategic partnership with Pastor Hanok Tamang. It was through his vision that we first traveled from Kathmandu to East Nepal to secretly entered the camps which were under the UNHCR, or United Nations High Commission for Refugees. One of the first people God sovereignly networked us with was a converted Buddhist witchdoctor who was pastoring a small underground church in one of the camps.

It was also on that pioneer trip that we met a key young leader named Santosh Ramdan.  He had been dramatically converted while in prison in Bhutan as a political dissident.  Now he had a passion to do something positive and practical to help his people.  As we clandestinely visited the various camps, Santosh shared with me his vision to start some Weaving Centers in the various camps to teach the women a trade and give them something positive to do to occupy their time.  So through the support of our partners in America, we helped him construct 7 different Weaving Centers from bamboo—which was all the UNHCR would allow.  As these women and men learned to weave and sew, the Gospel was also sown in their lives.  In time, each of these centers also morphed into “underground churches.”  For the next decade, the Gospel spread throughout these camps and scores of churches were planted.  I was privileged to visit there many times to preach, teach and hold seminars in those camps. We know from Santosh and the other pastors that more than 25,000 people became Christians in those 7 camps.

Now after 19 years of living in this no-man’s land bordering Bhutan, India and Nepal, the UNHCR decided to begin repatriating them to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  As always, America accepted the largest group of these Bhutanese Refugees.  There are now over 6,000 who have been resettled in Atlanta, toward a goal of 16,000 who will come to the “Hot-lanta .”  And wonder of wonders, Santosh is one of them!  And just as he did in the Refugee Camps, he immediately began ministry among the Bhutanese and Nepali immigrants.  He has recently started a new church there that is growing weekly. And all of the other pastors that we used to support in the Refugee Camps who have come to America or Canada have also started churches that are vibrant and growing!  There are already large groups of Bhutanese refugees in states like Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas and Ohio.

There is still the same need for employment for many of these Bhutanese Refugees—especially the women. The men are often able to get jobs of some kind.  The children are quickly integrated into America by the school system. But the women have the least amount of education and speak little or no English.  So they languish in their apartments with little or nothing to do but to watch TV programs they do not understand!  But then, given the content of most TV shows, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

THE AMERICAN TAPESTRY

Since our beginning as a nation, America has always been a multi-ethnic tapestry of people from around the world.  Originally the majority came from Europe and Africa.  But across the years, our American ethnic diversity has become one of the most cosmopolitan and complex in the world.  And every year the ethnic and religious cultural strands become more multi-colored in our national tapestry.  But as the Master Weaver, God continues to sovereignly weave a unique national quilt called “America.”  And tragically, like other countries struggling with ethnic diversity, we are pulling apart as a nation along our ethnic seams!

However, God is also doing another kind of weaving here—just like He did inthe Bhutanese Refugee Camps in East Nepal. By His sovereign grace, I was donated a wonderful set of expensive hand weaving looms and lots of yarn by a friend who did weaving as both a hobby and business. When she decided to retire, she graciously donated all of those looms and weaving supplies to me.  I have been storing them for over 3 years trying to find where the Lord wanted me to deploy them. At first I thought of shipping them in a container to one of our self-help projects in Africa. But we could never get it worked out.  So we continued to pray and seek the Lord’s perfect time and place to deploy these items.  And then Santosh arrived in Atlanta from Nepal!  So he came up recently and we loaded all of the weaving supplies on a rented U-Haul truck that he took back to Atlanta.  A wonderful African American sister allowed him to store these things in her basement while we look for a permanent place to set up this weaving operation for these Bhutanese Refugees.  If you live in the greater Atlanta area and know of a place that might be available, please let us know ASAP.  We need your prayers and partnership in this physical and spiritual tapestry God is weaving in Atlanta!

So God continues to build His Kingdom in the most unexpected and unlikely places—like Refugee Camps in East Nepal and among the “aliens” living among us here in America.  He is now continuing in Atlanta what He started in Bhutan and Nepal decades ago.  We do serve an incredible God who is sovereignly orchestrating all things for His Kingdom and glory!  And America continues to play a key role in receiving and embracing these “aliens, foreigners and immigrants” from around the world.  God has literally brought the world to America.  And we are not only to extend to them the freedom, justice, equality and opportunities we enjoy—we are to “love them as we love ourselves.”  We are to minister to them in the Spirit and Name of the Lord Jesus!  Only then will they enjoy the greatest liberty of all—which is the spiritual freedom from sin and self through the transformation of the Lord Jesus.  And if we do not seek to convert them, they will convert us—which they are doing in great numbers.

Finally, I need your financial help in partnering with beloved partners like Santosh.  I encourage you to send in a special “God Bless America Gift” to help us meet both the spiritual and physical needs of these dear people through the love and compassion of Jesus Christ!  You can give online or through the mail. In my next email I will be sharing some other strategic Kingdom-advancing partnerships and projects I know you will want to invest in spiritually and financially…

May God continue to bless America so we can bless the needy of the world and the aliens among us in His Name,

SATAN HATES FATHERHOOD

This attack on the family through assault on fatherhood is no accident. It is the specific diabolical design of the arch enemy of the family—Satan.  You see, he especially hates the unique Christian revelation of God as Father—perhaps more than any other truth revealed in the Bible. The Fatherhood of God is the primary revelation and incarnation that Jesus came to the earth to reveal and demonstrate.  That’s why He said: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:11).  He further asserted: “I and the Father are one…the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father” (Jn. 10:30, 36).  So Jesus and the Father are one in nature and purpose.  He came for no lesser reason than to incarnate the Father’s heart of love and compassion for His children.

Since Jesus came to reveal the Father, Satan has done everything through his perverting power to destroy or distort the concept of father.  It matters not to the devil whether he does it through death, desertion, divorce, disease, distortion, deception, depravity, disaster, displacement, dissipation or distraction.  The end result is always the same—fatherlessness.  As the arch enemy of the family, Satan continues to “steal, kill and destroy” family relationships (Jn. 10:10)—beginning with the fathers!  He well knows that every distortion of human fatherhood skews our perspective of God as our Heavenly Father.

So the devil always has us men in his crosshairs!  He is always eager to “take us out.”  To do so, he uses any and every tool of sin, rebellion, immaturity or carnality to cunningly assault and destroy us fathers.  When the strongman of the marriage and family is bound, the wife and children are all spiritually and emotionally vulnerable and Satan can “rob his house” (Matt. 12:29).  Today in America and around the world, Satan is “robbing us blind” as men and fathers!  All around us there is a carnage of hurting, fatherless children—many of which are grown up and married. Cut loose from a healthy and holy relationship with their earthly fathers, the children live lives of spiritual, emotional and relational insecurity and inferiority.  There is a life-long existential hole in their soul from a broken father relationship.  They wear a relational tag over their hearts that screams out fatherless!  This relational vacuum hurts and haunts their lives and relationships consciously or unconsciously day and night. Some of the fatherless try to compensate through anger or aggression.  Others try to do so through over-extension, over-achievement, over-spending and over-consuming. It manifests itself in their sense of “not belonging”—even in church.  They feel like unwanted orphans in the universe.  They manifest a sense of rootless and restlessness because they have an acute sense of fatherlessness.

UNIVERSAL FATHERLESSNESS

All over the world I have seen this sense of fatherlessness in the empty faces and hollow, longing eyes of abandoned orphans, street children or refugees.  Whether they are the victims of warfare, genocide, natural disaster or displacement, they have a father vacuum that they are desperately hoping that someone will fill!  I saw it in the children who suddenly lost their fathers in the tsunami waves that washed over Asia.  I saw it in the children who were kidnapped from their families in the Congo and Sudan and forced to be “child soldiers” by maniac leaders.  I saw it most recently in the lives of children who suddenly lost their fathers in the Haiti earthquake.  I have seen it all of my life in American teenagers who grew up with an absentee father through divorce, desertion, dissipation or death.

The net result in all was a life-long sense of fatherlessness.  And this Father’s Day will see millions more join the rootless ranks of the fatherlessness.  For many, their fathers did not return from the war in Afghanistan or Iraq.  For others, their fathers were capriciously killed through murder or an automobile accident.  Others lost their fathers slowly as diseases like cancer consumed their vitality and reduced them to impotent shells of manhood.  Some lost their fathers through the quick suicide of a bullet or the slow suicide of alcohol.  Some lost their fathers emotionally and relationally through diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia.  Others had their fathers taken from them through a prison sentence that will last for years or for a life time.  With their father’s incarceration, they were also locked up in a prison of hopelessness because of a terminal sense of fatherlessness.  And without the intervention of the healing love and grace of God, they will live out their lives with a gaping vacuum that wants to suck in anything and everything around them that will anesthetize the loneliness of fatherlessness.

MY OWN SENSE OF BROKEN FATHERHOOD

I want you to know that I have not written the preceding words from a sense of safe aloofness and impersonal detachment as a “preacher.”  I have written them as an involved friend, partner and counselor to countless numbers of fatherless people I have been describing.  More than that, I have written out of my own broken heart as a father and grandfather.  Let me explain…

The picture at the top of this newsletter is of 4 of my grandchildren whom I have not been permitted to see in over 2 long, lonely years!  When that picture was given to me on Father’s Day a few years ago, it brought me such great joy as a grandfather.  It hung above my desk where I am writing this article—along with pictures of my other 7 wonderful grandchildren whom I have a wonderful and rewarding relationship with.  Now I have had to take that picture down from the wall because it brings me such pain and heartache.  It only reminds me of the broken and estranged relationship I have with my oldest daughter, Trish, and her husband, Joe.  It reminds me of the hugs of 4 grandchildren who used to jump into my arms as their “Pop.”

While it is unnecessary to go into the painful details of the cause of the estrangement between my daughter and me, the bottom line is that Trish is cut off from us, her 3 siblings, 7 nieces and nephews, many uncles and aunts on both sides of the family plus all previous friendships and partnerships that are in any way related to us as her parents.  I could never have dreamed or imagined that this kind of brokenness and estrangement could invaded our family!  After all, we raised our 4 children “by the Book” through God’s love and grace.  And Patt and I have been life-long teachers and counselors in the areas of marriage and family relationships.  How and why could this have happened to us?!  We have sought to love and serve God all of our adult lives.  Surely God would give us some “spiritual insurance” against such Satanic assault!  But no, like every other family, we are not immune to the disease of broken family relationships.  So for two long years, the brokenness has continued—even worsened.

As a result of this alienation and estrangement, Patt and I—along with our other 3 children and their families—have not been allowed any contact with them.  No visits are allowed.  No “grandparent rights” are permitted.  No phone calls, emails or letters are accepted.  In years past they were weekly and almost daily—initiated by Trish and our grandchildren as much as by us.  For the past 3 years there have been no “family vacations” together as in years past—when we usually took our annual “family picture” for Christmas cards.  All Christmas presents, birthday presents, anniversary cards to parents or children are refused and returned—from us, her brothers and sister or from cousins.  Now there have been 2 long and lonely years of losses in family events that can never be repeated, rerun or restored.  And at every special family event we are ALWAYS aware of the 6 empty places at the table.

Besides the tragedy of our own personal pain, as parents and grandparents, is the very poor witness of this whole family breakdown before a watching world—whether Christian or non-Christian.  You see, all of us involved profess to be “dedicated Christians.”  And both my son-in-law and I are “Christian leaders” who head our own ministries that have a strong “family focus.”  Oh the painful irony of that spiritual contradiction!  Oh the subtle danger of spiritual pride and Biblical justification of indefensible positions motivated by rebellion and insecurity!  Satan’s greatest desire is always to defeat us with our own weapons as we increasingly put a spiritual and Biblical veneer over our selfishness and disobedience!  Truly, all of our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, as Jeremiah warned (Jer. 17:9).  I know my own heart is!  As C.S. Lewis said: “I have my own heart, I need no other, to convince me of the total depravity of man.”

Why am I sharing this pain with you?  Because so many of you are experiencing the same thing in some broken or estranged relationship with one of your own children, grandchildren or step children.  There is not a family alive that has not—or will not, face some degree of this family alienation and relational carnage due to sin, rebellion, carnality and immaturity.  And it is always motivated by a willful rebellion that refuses all steps or overtures that would lead to forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration.  So I share my pain as a father in the hope and prayer that my transparency will help other parents and fathers who are struggling with similar problems of alienation and estrangement. Believe me, I understand in my gut exactly what you are going through!  It matters not that I am a preacher and teacher.  As Christian leaders, Patt and I live and play by the exact same set of parental and relational rules that you do.  We do not have any special favors from God because we are “full time Christian workers.”  Quite the opposite.  The higher your Christian profile, the easier target you and your family are for the evil one.  That’s why he especially likes to take down Christian leaders, marriages and families!

LESSONS WE ARE LEARNING AS PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS

Like most life-impacting lessons, this one is being learned through much pain, heartache and soul-searching.  With the Psalmist we have “wet our pillow with tears” many nights (Ps. 6:6; 42:3).  It has added many grey hairs to our heads and negatively affected our health as we have grieved day and night over this brokenness with our firstborn daughter.  With David we have cried out again and again: “How long, how long, O Lord?!” (Ps. 6:3; 13:1-2).  But God is teaching us important lessons that we pray are maturing us personally.  And our parental pain is giving us greater ministry to other parents and grandparents facing similar family struggles.  Let me outline a few painful lessons I am learning and re-learning through this.  Each is drenched with my own blood, sweat and tears as a parent and grandparent.  Obviously, each of these principles are the worthy subject of chapters of writing, reflecting and teaching. But at this point I will only outline them for your prayerful consideration…

• Principle of Sovereignty:  It has brought us comfort to remind ourselves as parents that none of this caught God off guard.  He knew this was in store for us before He ever gave us Trish as a baby.  So He is fully in control in all of the areas of life that we have little or no control over—which is most everything!  Only that assurance gives us a measure of livable peace as parents.
• Principle of Truth:  Ultimately, we know that God’s truth will prevail and triumph—whether or not we live to see it as parents and grandparents.  As my mother used to remind us in situations like this: “The last chapter has not been written on this yet—and God will write it according to His perfect will.”  We all either ultimately submit to the truth, or we are broken by it.  God’s relational laws cannot be broken. We only break ourselves against them.
• Principle of Honor:  One of the foundational principles of the Bible is that children are to “honor their fathers and mothers” throughout their lives.  It is the first law with the promise that honoring parents results in a long and happy life on the earth.  Conversely, dishonoring one’s parents is tantamount with dishonoring God—which has severe spiritual consequences in this life and the life beyond.
• Principle of Relationships:  As I shared in the first part of this article, nothing is more important to God than relationships.  The eternal relationship of love and unity is one of the revealed mysteries of the Trinity that is not taught in any other world religion.  God is a relational God who calls us into a relationship with Himself through the Lord Jesus.  So the only thing we will take out of this life are our relationships based in Him.  All else will be left behind.  So in this short life, the greatest route to happiness and holiness is to love God and love others—beginning with our family members.
• Principle of Parenting:  Just because you teach and live the right spiritual and Biblical principles does not mean that every child will always choose to walk in it.  Since they have free wills of their own, they always have the freedom to choose a different path.  There are no guarantees in parenting that assure a 100% success—at least in the short-run.  But God always guards His principles sown in the lives of children—whether we live to see them fully embrace them or not.
• Principle of Firstborn:  Because God claims the firstborn of every womb, Satan counter-claims that same child and makes him or her a special life-long target of spiritual, physical and emotional attack.  So parents and grandparents, pray much with and over your firstborn child and grandchild!  It will be yours and their greatest defense against the evil one.
• Principle of Transparency:  While we have been careful not to “shout this from the housetops” because of our desire for reconciliation, in private we have sought to be vulnerable and transparent with people selectively and sensitively.  Through the years, we have found that our truthfulness and transparency opens the way for others to come out of the darkness and defeat of silence and hiding.  Our vulnerability becomes a bridge that others can walk on toward spiritual and emotional healing.
• Principle of Reconciliation:  Because God is a God of love and reconciliation, we are always to be motivated by the same desire.  In every situation where there is alienation, we are called to be agents of reconciliation—which is always costly.  There is no such thing as “cheap grace” or “painless reconciliation.”  The cross proves that.
• Principle of Thinking: We either take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, as the Bible teaches—or those alien thoughts take us captive.  And when it comes to both our thinking and acting, we all have an infinite capacity for rationalization and self-justification.  As Proverbs teaches, a man’s ways are always right in his or her own eyes.
• Principle of Consequences:  Every choice in life comes with a price tag.  There are no inconsequential decisions.  There is no neutrality when it comes to the results of our choices.  The law of sowing and reaping is inviolate.  We always “reap what we sow” in every area of life—positively or negatively.  There are always irretrievable losses when it comes to sin and disobedience.  Once things are done, they cannot be un-done.  We live with the consequences to one degree or another for the rest of our lives.
• Principle of Faithfulness:  God is a faithful God who will never leave or forsake us as parents and grandparents.  As our Abba, Father, He understands the pain of estrangement with rebellious children or grandchildren.  After all, everyone of us as members of Adam’s fallen race is born with an innate streak of rebellion that manifests itself overtly or covertly throughout all of our lives.
• Principle of Joy:  Finally, God can and does give His supernatural sense of joy in the midst of our family storms.  While we may not experience much positive feelings and “happiness” as we struggle with these broken and estranged relationships -- we can have that joy of the Holy Spirit.  It is a fruit of His indwelling presence that goes beyond our external circumstances.

Those then are a few lessons Patt and I have been learning and relearning in the last several years—which have been some of the most difficult in our 45 years of marriage!  I once thought it would “get easier as you get older.”  Not so!  It’s just the opposite.  It seems that God saves the biggest battles and biggest giants until our final seasons of life. That’s when Abraham and Sarah faced theirs.  That’s when Joshua and Caleb faced those ominous “giants in the Promised Land.”  If they could successfully do so in their 8th decades of life, by God’s grace, I will do so in my 6th and 7th decades—and beyond if He gives me more years!

Thanks for letting me openly “share my heart” and “spill my guts” with you as friends and partners.  I know this has been a long email—and one that you did not expect for Father’s Day.  But is the most intimate and transparent one I have ever written!  Patt and I strongly desire your prayers for us and for Trish and Joe and their 4 children—Victoria, Jack, Elizabeth and Rebekah.  Pray with us that God would soon give us lasting reconciliation and reunion as an extended family.

Finally, in the days of the New Directions musical ministry, we used to sing a wonderful song by Andrea Crouch, “Through It All.”  Many of you will remember the chorus: “Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.  Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon God’s Word.”

So God is still good—all the time!  Even on Father’s Day when there are absent places at the Sunday dinner table—whether yours or mine and Patt’s.  His unconditional love never fails.  His mercies are still new every morning.  “Great is His faithfulness!” (Lam. 3:23).

Under His Fatherhood,

PS:  Please pass this email along to any of your friends who might also be struggling with a broken family relationship.  Perhaps our Father’s Day story can bring some comfort and hope to them.

Perhaps the greatest and most succinct summary of the Gospel is found in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” In these beloved words from the lips of the Lord Jesus, the “whoever believes” opens the door of salvation to everyone – regardless of age, race, color, gender or station in life.  It matters not whether one is Jew or Gentile…young or old…male or female…rich or poor…educated or uneducated.  Salvation is open to anyone and everyone who “believes in Him.”

The moment God’s sovereign love and grace redeems and regenerates a person, they become a member of God’s “forever family.”  They are a part of the church…the elect…the ecclesia…the people who have been sovereignly “called out” of the world by God.  They are members of the “Fellowship of the Redeemed.”

God’s purpose for the cross was to purchase a people for Himself, “…a people belonging to God.”  Peter reminded us of the unbelievable price God paid to purchase us.

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (I Peter 1:18-19)

It is incomprehensible to the human mind that God would pay this kind of purchase price for us!  If we have an ounce of honesty in our hearts, we know we are unworthy of that!  Because of our sin and rebellion, we are not worthy of the blood of animals – much less the “precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect!” 

It is glorious to know that He has called not just us, but people from all over the world. “…with Your blood You purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9)  I have had the joy of seeing many people become a part of God’s chosen race and royal priesthood – from Africa, India, China, Bhutan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Haiti, the Bahamas, Burma, America, Europe, Central America.  I have seen them delivered from paganism, animism,  Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam.  I have watched God liberate them from the ideologies of Communism, Marxism, Maoism, scientism, atheism, agnosticism, secularism, materialism and nihilism.  As Christ has given them a totally new direction in life, He has brought them out to serve Him as His priests and priestesses. 

As we saw in yesterday’s study, the Apostle John told us that Jesus “…loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.”  But He did that for a very specific purpose, so that He could make of us “…a kingdom of priests to serve His God and Father…”  (Revelation 1:5-6)

This verse reminds us of an important principle: “Purchase presupposes purpose.”  In other words, no one purchases anything – especially something costly and valuable – unless he or she has a purpose in mind for it.  The same is true about God.  He did not purchase us from a life of sin, selfishness and self-seeking just so we could continue to “do our own thing.”  No, He purchased us so that from that moment on we would “do God’s thing,” so that we would leave our petty kingdom behind and enter His glorious eternal kingdom.  As members of His kingdom, we are to live as a “…priest to serve His God and Father.”  We are “saved to serve.”  We no longer “serve ourselves” but rather we serve our God and Father by serving others.

Or, to quote John further:

“You have made them to be a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they will reign on earth.”  (Revelation 5:9-10; c.f. 7:9)

Talk about a high calling?!  Talk about new self-worth and self-esteem?!  This is it!  A new vocation worth living for – and dying for!  Paul exhorted us that “Whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God.”  (I Corinthians 10:31)  In other words, if you can’t do it for God’s glory, then don’t do it at all!  It’s not worth the time, energy and effort if it is not for Christ.  It has no eternal value.  As the little rhyme reminds us, “Only one life will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”

When we do all for “the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:12), our work will have spiritual purpose…a divine edge…an eternal perspective.  And only then will it be challenging and fulfilling for us and a blessing to others.  Regardless of your vocation or calling in life, Paul gave these words of instruction:

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  (Colossians 3:23-24)

When we Christians learn to apply this principle in our work, we will transform the marketplace for God’s glory and honor!  Our business will be His business.  Our purpose will be to accomplish His will.  If you are an entrepreneur, the market place will be your ministry.  If you are a nurse, homemaker, architect, electrician, politician, secretary, computer expert, doctor, lawyer – you name it – you will be His messenger of the Gospel, His servant.  His purpose will become your purpose.  His will will become your will.  His kingdom will replace your kingdom.  His passion will be your passion.

Can you begin to see yourself as a servant in your work or as a priest in your family?  Don’t live any other way.  To live other than, “…for the praise of His glory”, is to depreciate the cross and devaluate the blood that Christ shed for you.  But, if you will live, love and serve Him for His honor and glory, then one day you will hear Him say,

“Well done, good and faithful servant…Come and share your Master’s happiness!”  (Matthew 25:21)

Throughout this study, it has been my prayer that these thoughts and scriptures will help you have a greater passion for the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, who is revealed in the Inscripturated Word, the Bible.  I also pray that you will never be able to see a cross representing the death of Christ in the same way.  From this time on, I hope that every silver, gold, brass or wooden cross will be blood stained in your spiritual eyes.  May you live your life with a new passion for Christ, because of His great passion for you as demonstrated by the cross!

Because of His passion,

To order a copy of The Passionate Christ, please send a check for $15, made out to Impact of Hope, and mail it to:
Impact of Hope International
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Prior to His incarnation, Jesus had eternally preexisted in glory as the Second Member of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  He came from glory and would return to glory – but only through the cross.  That’s why He prayed to the Father, in His High Priestly prayer, the night before He was crucified:

“Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You…I have brought You glory on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do.  And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began…Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world.”  (John 17:1-5; 24)

But it was through the infamy of the crucifixion and the ignominy of the cross that God’s power and glory were manifested!  Sovereign grace transmuted man’s very worst into God’s very best!  What looked like man’s victory was really his defeat.  What appeared to be God’s defeat was in reality His victory over sin, death and the grave!  The cross became the greatest symbol of God’s grace and His glory!

That’s why Paul came to see that he should “…glory in the cross” of Jesus Christ.  (Galatians 6:14)  That which he previously saw as Christ’s shame he now saw as his gain.  Through the Holy Spirit, Paul came to see the infamy of the cross as his own source of infinite grace.

Paul clearly understood, from personal experience and from years of ministry, that the cross of Christ represented the very wisdom of God and the power of God.  It was for that reason that “preaching the cross” was his greatest passion and highest priority.  Note these “power” passages from his pen to the saints living in Corinth:

• “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”  (I Corinthians 1:17)
• “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (I Corinthians 1:18)
• “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jew and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (I Corinthians 1:22-25)

It is easy to see from these verses that Paul clearly understood that the “power of God” was in the finished work of Christ on the cross.  These crucial verses prove that there are several “religious practices” that, while very important, are not the essence of the Christian witness.  Let’s briefly look at them.

First, the essence of the Gospel is not in rituals like “water baptism”.  While baptism is definitely an important part of the Christian life and a central part of the Great Commission, as we find in Matthew 28:19-20, Paul knew that it was not the source of power for the believer.  I believe that a new believer identifies with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ through water baptism – as well as identifies with a local group of believers.  But the power of God flows from the cross!

Secondly, the essence of the Gospel message is not in human reasoning manifested through “knowledge or wisdom.”  Although Paul was certainly one of the most educated men of his day, he knew that apologetics, arguments or debates would never bring about salvation for any one.  God’s way of salvation through the cross “made no sense” to the natural mind.  It was a bunch of spiritual “foolishness” to the unregenerate mind of man.  While scholars and thinkers of his day (and ours) scoffed at the message of the cross, Paul proclaimed it as the “wisdom of God”.

Thirdly, the essence of the Gospel message was not some special revelation that was manifested through “miracles, signs and wonders”.  While the supernatural certainly had a validating role to play in Christ’s life and ministry (Hebrews 2:4), as well as in the life of the church (Mark 16:20), Christians were never to build their faith upon them.

It was the Jews who constantly asked Jesus to “prove Himself” by performing signs and wonders.  (John 4:48)  The Greeks wanted to “think their way to heaven.”  But Paul preached that the only way to heaven was through the cross!  It was not something that could be reasoned or proven by miraculous signs.

“Where is the wise man?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe…For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”  (I Corinthians 1:20-21, 25)

All of us – wise men, scholars, philosophers, Jews, Greeks, Gentiles – must bow humbly before the cross of Christ, which is the power and wisdom of God.  It is because of the centrality of the cross that Paul boldly proclaimed, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jews, then for the Gentiles.”  (Romans 1:16) 

Sometime today, read Isaiah 53, slowly, prayerfully and thoughtfully.  It contains the essence of the cross, written hundreds of years before it ever happened.  This passage truly contains some of the most astounding words ever written by man!

Echoing the verses from Isaiah, the Apostle Peter summarized the blessings and benefits of Christ’s crucifixion – and our response to it.

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.  For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (I Peter 2:24-25)

Because He bore our sins in His body on the tree and by His wounds we have been healed, we are to live transformed lives.  We are to die to sin and live for righteousness.  That and that alone is the “power of the cross”.

One final note of clarification needs to be made here regarding the phrase, “…by His wounds you have been healed.”  There are many who teach that this verse promises physical healing for all Christians.  But the clear context is spiritual healing not physical healing.  Remember Peter said that Christ “…bore our sins in His body on the tree”, not our sicknesses and suffering. [John also emphasized this when he wrote about Christ, “…who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.”  (Rev. 1:5; c.f. Romans 3:25)]

The verb that Peter used for “healed” is in the past tense, meaning that “healed” is an accomplished fact, completed at a specific time in the past.  I am not saying that there is no physical healing provided through Christ’s death on the cross.  There is definitely physical healing provided by Christ’s sacrifice, but it is sovereignly bestowed, a gift if you will.  However, it is a gift that is not given to everyone.

The promise God gives is clear, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)  That is an absolute and unconditional promise for salvation – i.e., spiritual healing.  There is no such verse that promises absolute and unconditional physical healing.  I wish there were!  We can claim it or positively confess it all we want, but nothing can manipulate God to perform healing by our command or our confession.

It is an inescapable fact for all of us that “…the outer man is wasting away.” (II Corinthians 4:16)  All of us “…who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”  (Romans 8:23)  It matters not whether we are believers or unbelievers…redeemed or unregenerate…saved or lost – we will all face sickness and suffering “unto death” in this life.  Jesus’ atoning death did not save us from that.

However, His glorious physical resurrection as the “firstfruits” from death and the grave assure us that one day we will have a glorious resurrection body like His.  (I Corinthians 15:22-27)  Until then, we have the absolute assurance of our spiritual adoption through salvation on the basis of Christ’s death on the cross.  Our full and final “adoption as sons” will not take place until our physical resurrection, at which time the “redemption of our bodies” will take place.  Then there will be absolute physical healing to go along with our absolute spiritual healing that took place at the moment of our salvation.

Until such time, God has the authority to sovereignly grant temporary physical healing on the basis of Christ’s death, in accordance with His perfect will.  I use the word “temporary” purposefully because even when God grants physical healing, the person still dies from sickness, disease or by an accident.  No one dies from nothing!

The “power of the cross” is absolute and universal when it comes to the spiritual healing or the regeneration of our spirits.  But our total and eternal physical healing will come only at the “resurrection of the just.”  Until that time, like Paul, let us remember the cross, focus on Jesus’ sacrifice and, “preach Christ crucified..the power of God and the wisdom of God”!!  (I Corinthians 1:23-24)

The majority of purveyors of peace today are like the ones of old of whom the Lord said, “They dress the wounds of My people as though it were not serious.  ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”  (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11; Ezekiel 13:10; I Thessalonians 5:3)  The panacea of peace that they offered was an illusion because they promoted and promised peace with no necessary preconditions.

Many definitions of peace say it is the absence of certain negative things, like freedom from: disorder, war, conflict, strife, etc.  From a Biblical perspective, peace is not just the absence of the negative, but the presence of everything necessary to give us a sense of wholeness…well-being…completeness…calm…control and tranquility.  So let’s look at God’s definition of peace.

In the Old Testament, the word for peace is shalom. Besides being the familiar Jewish greeting, it also means wholeness, prosperity, health, safety and completeness.  As you would expect, all lasting shalom comes from the Lord.  The Bible reveals that man can only have true peace when he is in a right relationship with God.  That right relationship is manifested by righteousness or “right living.”  Here are two examples:

“The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be a quietness and confidence forever.  My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.”  (Isaiah 32:17-18)

“I will make peace your governor and righteousness your ruler.  No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.”  (Isaiah 60:17-18)

We can clearly see that righteousness is the root and peace is the fruit.  One produces the other.  It is for that reason that the Bible says, “There is no peace for the wicked.”  (Isaiah 48:22)  The wicked have no peace because they have no righteousness.  In contrast, we read:

• “He promises peace to His people, His saints.”  (Psalm 85:8)
• “Great peace have they who love Your law.”  (Psalm 119:165)
• “The Lord blesses His people with peace.”  (Psalm 29:11)
• “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)

Since God is the “Lord of Peace” (Judges 6:23-24), we find Him constantly entering into a “Covenant of Peace” with people.  (Numbers 25:2; Isaiah 54:10; Ezekiel 34:25; 37:26; Malachi 2:5)  Throughout the time of the Old Covenant, God often pointed toward His coming Messiah who would be the very Incarnation of Peace:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.”  (Isaiah 9:6; c.f. Micah 5:4; Zechariah 8:10)

Here’s another incredible Messianic verse (or prophecy) that was written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.  It will help bridge our thoughts into the New Testament peace of the cross.

“Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Whereas shalom is the normative Hebrew word for peace, eirene is the dominant Greek word.  It means: “Wholeness, an inner sense of well-being” and it is found in every book of the New Testament except for 1st John – 90 times in all.  Spiritual peace is a key theme in the New Testament and eirene builds on the foundation of shalom in the Old Testament.

Since Jesus is the theme of the Gospel message and the focus of the New Testament witness, we would expect peace to be constantly related to His life and ministry.  But Jesus did not bring ultimate spiritual peace through His birth – but rather through His death.  His redemptive and reconciling death on the cross opened the way for an eternal peace that came from a restored relationship with God.

Peace was Christ’s parting gift to His disciples.  “Peace I leave with you.” Jesus said. “My peace I give you.  I do not give you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  (John 14:27)  Even before His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus said to them, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace.”  (John 16:33)  The first thing He said to them after His resurrection was, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19, 21, 26)

The apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things…making peace through His blood shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20; c.f. 2:13-15)  It is easy to see that spiritual peace is inseparably linked to Jesus Christ and His death on the cross.  It was His shed blood that brought about the permanent eternal peace that man could never achieve through religion or good works.

Again Paul wrote:

“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 4:25-5:1-2)

God wants us to live in peace (Romans 8:5-6; Hebrews 12:10-11) in every area of our lives – spiritually, martially, relationally, vocationally.  Not to live in the peace of God is to depreciate the blood of Christ!  To not be an agent of peace in every sphere of influence God gives us is to live below the standard set by our “Prince of Peace.”

One Bible scholar summarized Biblical peace this way: “Peace is an attribute of God; is revealed through Christ; is mediated by the cross; is a chief fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer.”  (Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, Bill Mounce, pp. 503-504)

The subjective sense of well-being flows directly from an objective relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  On the basis of the cross, we have a harmonious relationship with God that results in harmony with others. That’s why all authentic followers of the “Prince of Peace” are to be ambassadors of His kingdom, proclaiming and living out the “Gospel of Peace”. (Ephesians 6:15; c.f. Romans 11:19; 12:18; I Thessalonians 5:13; Hebrews 12:14)

I want to close this study with some more wonderful verses, some of which we have read before.  May they be a six-fold benediction upon your life of the peace that is yours through His blood.  Read them…pray them…believe them…memorize them…meditate on them – until Christ’s peace permeates every fiber of your being!

• “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way.” (II Thessalonians 3:16)
• “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:6-7)
• “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”  (Colossians 3:15)
• “May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.  May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”  (I Thessalonians 5:24)
• “Now may the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way.” (II Thessalonians 3:16)
• “May the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.” (Hebrews 13:30-21)

Shalom!

That is “the profit of the cross”.  All that Christ gave up on the cross was for our gain.  It’s called The Great Exchange.  Listen to Paul in II Corinthians 8:9.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

God exchanged all that Christ is for all that we are.  His riches for our poverty…His righteousness for our sinfulness…His perfection for our imperfection…His obedience for our disobedience…His power for our weakness…His life for our death…His heaven for our hell…His all for our all!  That is the profit of the cross.

Again, in Hebrews, we find the promise of all that is ours, of all that we profit from, because of Christ’s passion for us.  On the basis of His finished work “once for all”, let us study the following verses.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for His who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  (Hebrews 10:19-25)

Time and space do not permit us to go to great lengths in examining these verses, but let’s outline 10 of them that naturally flow from this passage.

1. New Covenant:  First of all, the author began by saying “brothers”.  That means we are in a new covenant relationship.  Jesus did not come to make us slaves – but God’s sons and His brothers.  As Jesus said earlier in Hebrews 2:10-12, “Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.  He says, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers…’”  This was a family message to the sons and daughters of God – and now to us!
2. New Confidence:  We no longer have to shrink back from God, or be reluctant to approach Him.  “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place.”  Christ’s passion invites us to move close to Him, and not just once a year like the Old Testament saints did on the Day of Atonement, but any time…from any place…for any reason because God welcomes our presence and loves for us to come to Him.  See Hebrews 4:16.
3. New Comfort: “…and we have a great priest…”  Hebrews 4:15 confirms this: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”  Sympathize comes from the Greek word, sympatheo: sun, meaning “with” and pascho meaning “to suffer”.  We are comforted because Jesus suffers with us when we are tempted and tested in our Christian lives.  He can sympathize with us because He suffered first.  Buddha cannot offer that kind of sympathy and comfort.  Neither can Mohammed, Allah or Krishna, just to name a few.  Only Jesus is the sensitive and sympathetic High Priest, our comforter.
4. New Calling: “…over the house of God…”  Our new calling as believers is to be members of God’s house, His church.  The word for church in the New Testament is ecclesia, meaning “those who are called out”.  So we are called out of the world and called into the Body of Christ.  We are a part of His house because we are believers who are brothers and belongers!
5. New Conviction: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”  We are not separated from Christ and far away from God.  We have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:12-13), and this gives us the firm conviction that His blood has provided the way.  We have no doubts or fears that we are somehow still foreigners.  Rather, we have the “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”
6. New Cleansing: “…having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”  Because of sin, every person lives with a guilty conscience, a condemning sense that we are unclean inside and out.  But because of Christ, our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with His blood. We have been washed and are now clean.  It is not the water of baptism that cleanses us, but the “water of the word”.  (Ephesians 5:26)  We are “washed by the blood” unto salvation and we are “washed by the water of the word” unto sanctification.
7. New Certainty: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”  Hope is one of the great themes of the Bible.  In the New Testament, it comes from the root word elpo meaning “confident expectation” or “solid assurance”.  We as Christians have this hope because of the faithfulness of God.  God’s nature is immutable, that is, it never changes.  He cannot be anything but a faithful God because faithfulness is His nature.  Even when our faith fails, His NEVER does!  We can put our   full weight down on that fact and face life with a new certainty.
8. New Compassion: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” On the basis of Christ’s passion for us, we have passion for Him and for others.  We are to be concerned for fellow Christians, exciting and stirring up their love and good deeds.  As you may already know, the word here for love is agape.  It is not self-serving love, but self-giving love full of good deeds.  It is the kind of love that caused Jesus to be moved with compassion by the spiritual and physical needs of the people, to the degree that He did good works on their behalf.  (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32)
9. New Communion: “Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing…” We must spend time together as believers.  That’s why the words koinonia…together…fellowship…communion were the normative and descriptive words of the early church in the book of Acts (2:42-47).  They just loved being together.  Of course, it was the person of Jesus Christ that was their basis of communion.  Without Him they were a very diverse and divided lot!  But the agape passion of Jesus drew them together in a radical new fellowship called “the brethren’ – which also included “the sistern”!  But, if you “give up meeting together”, and try to “go it alone”, there cannot be any communion.  And without it, you lose one of Christ’s aims for His family, the communion of the saints.
10. New Concern: “…Let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  One of the reasons for not giving up meeting together was so that they could encourage one another.  The gift of encouragement is one of the greatest and most practical ways for us to express our love and concern for each other.  It does not cost anything to give it.  All it takes is some thoughtfulness, availability, time, kind words, appreciation and agape.  Jesus said it would be this kind of love and concern that would prove to the watching world that we were His disciples.  (John 13:34-35)  This concern is to increase more and more as we get closer to “the Day”: the second coming of Christ, the judgment day.

So, my brothers and sisters in Christ, there is great “Profit in the Passion” for us and for others if we will believe it by faith, lay hold of it in hope, and express it through love!

Several New Testament passages use this word.  (The King James Version, New American Standard and English Standard use the word “propitiation”.  The New International Version uses the word “atoning sacrifice”.)  As you read through them below, note that propitiation leads us into the very heart of the Gospel and into the presence of God.  Take the time to meditate on these verses because the concept will deepen your spiritual life, moving you from the “milk of the word” (I Peter 2:2) to the “meat of the word” (Hebrews 5:12).  It is a theological truth for serious Christians who have left the “…elementary teachings about Christ” and have gone “…on to maturity”.  (Hebrews 6:1)

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.”  (Romans 3:23-25)

“My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”  (I John 2:1-2)

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  (I John 4:9-10)

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…for surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham.  Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:14-17)

The question around which the whole issue of propitiation revolves is: “How can sinful man approach a holy God?”

Without exception, this question is at the heart of every religion.  And every religion’s answer, except Christianity’s, is: “We approach God by good works.”  Whether it is the myriad of pujas or offerings in Hinduism, the 8-Fold Path of Buddhism, or the 5 Pillars of Islam, every religion is based on “works righteousness”.  But the problem with works righteousness raises another question. “How do I know if my work is good enough or if I have done enough?”  In other words, “How can a sinful person ever produce ‘good works’ that are good enough to meet the standards of a Holy God?” The answer is: “He can’t!”

All of our good works are ineffective and inadequate.  We’re trying to please God with counterfeit currency.  Besides, we have nothing to offer God.  It is only what He offers us. The spiritual principle, from the writings of Paul, showed us that, “What God’s holiness demanded, His grace provided.”  And he said it best in Ephesians 2:8-9.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”

God extended grace to us because “God is love.”  (I John 4:8)  As we stop depending on our good works and accept by faith Christ’s perfect work for us on the cross, we understand propitiation.  The primary word in the Old Testament, used 150 times, that pointed to propitiation was the word atonement, meaning: “a covering that conceals a person’s sin and makes it possible for him to approach God”.  (Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, Lawrence Richards, p. 82)

Perhaps you are asking, “What provided the ‘covering for sin’?”  Great question.  The answer brings us to the very heart of the Passion of God as demonstrated in the Passion of Christ.  The covering was provided by nothing less than blood!  This “principle of blood” runs from Genesis to Revelation.  It is the scarlet thread that weaves the Old and New Testament together.  Let’s look at one scripture from each of the Testaments.

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. “ (Leviticus 17:11)

“This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep…In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  (Hebrews 9:20-22)

Under the Old Covenant, animal sacrifice was required, “blood for blood” or “life for life”.  Atonement was not possible otherwise.  But with Christ’s coming and sacrifice, the normative word was propitiation, a merciful, atoning sacrifice, not of animals or human life, but the once- for-all blood of Christ’s on the cross.  His blood fulfilled the law’s requirements.  There was a finality about Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for us.  “Tetelestai!”  Remember our study of that word?!

The book of Hebrews connects the spiritual dots from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant…from the earthly tabernacle to the Heavenly Tabernacle…from the human high priests to Christ our perfect High Priest…from the covering of the atonement to the propitiation of the blood of Christ.  Note these words of finality concerning Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross.

“When Christ came as High Priest…He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”  (Hebrews 9:11-12)

“…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”  (Hebrews 10:10, 14)

I hope and pray that this chapter has brought you spiritual assurance.  The Passion of Christ and the Propitiation of Christ – the atoning sacrifice of Christ – are inseparable.  Through His blood, you are clean and can approach God with confidence!

One of the great Gospel songs, text and music by Robert Lowry, summarizes the all-sufficiency of the blood of Jesus.

“What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon this I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing, this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Naught of good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace.  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness.  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain:
Oh! Precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.