The Lethargic Philosopher

Someone once called Jesus of Nazareth “the Man for others.” It was a woefully inadequate description, of course. The Lord Jesus Christ is far more than that. Infinitely more. And yet . . . the appellation is not untrue, and may at least serve as a signpost on the journey to “the greatest story ever told.”

For if we reflect on how astounding it is for selfish, sinful folks like us to encounter a real, live Man-for-others in our midst—a true man, who actually walked upon this earth, leaving footprints, and whose wounds could be touched by Thomas—we may also begin to understand that, in order for Him to be there and be such a man, and in order for us to be hearing His voice, He has to be a whole lot more than that—nothing less, in fact, than what the Scriptures reveal Him to be: God made manifest in flesh. And He must have done all that was needed to become our Savior and our Lord.

Then we may find ourselves exclaiming, with the apostle Paul, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). And we may find it entirely credible that a Day is coming when every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, will exclaim: “Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13).

If that should happen, then faith in “the Man for others” will have been our first step on the journey from self-centeredness to godliness and eternity.

“For a child was born for us, a son was given to us . . . Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

“Every one who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life . . . for God loved the world in this way: He gave . . .” (John 3:16).

When a gift is given, it is “like the morning light when the sun rises on a cloudless morning, the glisten of rain on sprouting grass” (2 Samuel 23:4). Because God has given, we must give. And because He keeps on giving, we can give. In this way, God’s own gift-giving flows to us and through us, and we find ourselves giving, too—echoing His giving, somehow—and ordinary life suddenly becomes extraordinary.

Our eyes open to see that all we have is God’s, and we want to give what we have because we cannot help wanting to see His purposes fulfilled. We throw open our homes and welcome strangers into our lives, host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind, feed our enemy when he is hungry, and when he is thirsty we give him a drink. Then ten percent is more likely to be what remains than what is given, and we might even catch a glimpse of a future when, in our giving to others and our being given to by them, no one goes without.

That is why, when all seems lost, when the good things we once had, the stuff, the people, even the dreams, are all gone, and long gone, when the sun of our hopes has sunk far below the horizon and the stars stubbornly refuse to appear; when we stand in the dark, sightless and empty-handed, bone-tired and stone-cold inside, and the Man for others, God’s One and Only Son, has the audacity to issue us one of those absurdly impossible commands of His, like “Feed My sheep!” or “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature!” or “Sell whatever you have and give to the poor!”— in a heartbeat, our mouths are filled with laughter and our own tongues startle us by saying, “Yes!”

“The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness!” (Lamentations 3:21-23)

Oh, yes, Lord.

—TLP

Dear Pastor ______________,

I was concerned about a statement you made in your Sunday message on Romans. If I heard you correctly, you said that our faith is “what motivates God to save us.” To illustrate this, you said that when God looked down from heaven and saw that you, as a young boy, had faith in Jesus, the sight of that faith moved Him to forgive your sins and justify you.

Of course, I may have misunderstood, or it may have been just an unfortunate choice of words. But, if that is what you really meant to say, I must respectfully disagree with that way of explaining saving faith. As I understand the Bible, it teaches that faith is simply the means by which God saves sinful men and women. It is not His reason for saving us, nor does it inspire or prompt or move Him to save us. I think faith may be compared to a rope that God uses to draw us out of a well into which we have fallen. Rather than empowering or motivating God, it is simply His instrument or tool—the way that He saves people.

Sunday’s message sounded as if you believed that grace is God’s job and faith is man’s job–as if salvation were a compound of divine grace plus human faith, with the human part inspiring or calling up the divine part. Needless to say, the biblical statement in Ephesians 2:8-9 (“by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift”) conveys an altogether different idea.

Certainly saving faith is not something we engender by ourselves. It is not something we sinners produce independently of God, entirely out of our own resources, and then offer or furnish toward our salvation. I am sure you would agree that the triune God is very much involved in our believing. As I see it, we sinners would not even be able to go to God the Father and beg Him for the gift of salvation if His Spirit were not already at work in us, convicting us of sin, revealing His Son Jesus through the Word, and opening the sin-blinded eyes of our hearts to the truth of the Good News. But, if God is deeply and actively involved in the production of saving faith, if that faith is in some sense divinely inwrought in human hearts, if God’s Spirit illumines the mind so that it can and does perceive the truth, if God’s power awakens or quickens the sinner’s moral nature, can it really be said that our saving faith is what motivates or moves Him to save us? Isn’t there a work of God in us that precedes our faith—a work of supernatural grace? Wouldn’t you agree, then, Pastor, that God—not the sinner—takes the initiative in salvation? Couldn’t saving faith be described as our divinely enabled response to what God has done?

I find many verses in the Bible—no doubt you could point out many others—that speak of a pre-salvational work of God in bringing sinners to exercise saving faith in Jesus. In Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is called “the source and perfecter of our faith.” Acts 16:14 tells us that Lydia became a believer when “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was spoken by Paul.” Acts 14:27 tells us that it was God who “had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles,” many of whom consequently believed. 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 says that God takes away our spiritual blindness and shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ. Acts 5:31 and 11:18, as well as 2 Timothy 2:25, speak of God as granting or imparting repentance to certain men to know the truth. John 6:37 and 44 tell us that God draws some men to Himself. Romans 8:28-30 speaks of God’s calling certain men, whom He then justifies and eventually glorifies.

Wouldn’t it be truer to say, then, that God motivated our faith, rather than saying that our faith motivated God?

While faith is necessary for men and women to receive the benefits of salvation, it does not seem right to treat it as the cause or basis of anyone’s salvation—much less the divine motivation for it. I feel sure you did not mean to do that, Pastor _________. But I am concerned that the words you used might have left some folks with the wrong impression that we earn or merit our salvation by our faith—that our faith somehow makes us deserving of it, or that by believing we contribute something of value to God’s inexpressible gift. Yet I think you will agree with me that never in Scripture are sinners said to be saved on account of their faith. Rather, it is through faith that salvation comes to men; it is through faith that Christ’s perfect righteousness is imputed to them. Faith is merely the channel. It is Christ who saves, not our faith. Every Christian should understand that our receiving His great gift of salvation with faith’s empty hands adds absolutely nothing to His finished work.

As to what it could be—besides His amazing love, which you did mention on Sunday, and His glory, which is the end of all His works—that motivates God to save a particular person, might it not be best simply to say that we do not know? Deuteronomy 29:29 says: “The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.” This would appear to be one of those “hidden things.” Maybe we’ll understand it better by and by. But, then again, maybe not. Some of our greatest hymn writers seem to feel that way. For example:

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me he hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for his own.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Of one thing I am sure: whatever it was that motivated God to save a wretch like me, it was nothing in me—no noble and holy character trait, no meritorious work or deed, because there weren’t any. I figure the motivation must have come from His side, not from mine. It was His love that got a hold on me, not my love that got a hold on Him! Could we perhaps say that God is self-motivated? You know, as Isaiah 40 says:

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
or who gave Him His counsel?

Anyway, there are many, many mysteries surrounding our salvation, and there is certainly a great deal that I don’t know. And, believe me, I have little love for bitter theological quarrels and controversies about such matters. They rarely seem to accomplish anything, and usually generate far more heat than light. What is important to me is that the Lord receive all the glory that is His due for saving us, and that His redeemed understand that their salvation is all of grace.

I would not have anyone imagine that the writer of the song, “O Happy Day,” which we sang last Sunday, was patting himself on the back for having believed! It is not a song of self-congratulation (God forbid!), but rather one of joyful praise and thanksgiving to our Savior and Lord. To God alone be the glory! On that point, at least, I hope you will reassure me that we are in complete agreement.

Abiding in Him,

–TLP

“Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you make it salty? Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with one another.” (Mark 9:50, HCSB)

How are we to understand this teaching of our Lord? For one thing, the notion of salt that isn’t salty strikes us as something ludicrous and nonsensical, like the logical impossibility of a circle that isn’t round, but actually square. Can salt lose its flavor? What in the world could Jesus mean by this?

According to one interpretation of Mark 9:50, asking that question would amount to asking something like this: “Can a regenerate man ever lose his grace? Can a Christian lose his salvation?” If that is indeed its meaning, the answer is not in doubt: “No, the salt will never lose its flavor, because the blood of Christ shed for our sins will never lose its power!”

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet
There’s one thing I know
For he loves me so . . .

Most commentators, however, understand this verse to be speaking, not about salvation, but about discipleship—a major theme of Mark’s Gospel as a whole, as well as of the preceding section (vv. 33–48). Some suggest that Jesus is referring to someone who appeared outwardly to be a true disciple, but proved eventually not to possess the inward properties of one. But such a reading hardly does justice to the actual language of the verse, which speaks of that which really was salt, but has now lost the distinctive properties that rendered it useful and valuable. Still others—more plausibly, we think—read this verse as a warning to believers, lest they lapse into a backslidden condition, lose their former dedication and commitment, and thus become useless and unprofitable servants of the Lord. Many of us, however, would hesitate to assert that a backslidden Christian is “no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men,” as Jesus says in Matthew 5:13 about salt that has lost its taste, but would recommend praying for such a believer and seeking his restoration as more appropriate treatment than the usual response of trampling.

We propose instead to interpret Mark 9:50 in light of Matthew 5:13–16, that other well-known passage about salt, in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which Matthew explicitly tells us was addressed to followers of Jesus. “Salt” plainly serves there as a metaphor for the disciples of our Lord gathered around Him in that place, to whom He says, “You (plural) are the salt of the earth.” In light of Jesus’ teaching there, and taking into account the immediate context in Mark’s Gospel, the subject of Mark 9:50 may not be any of the above-mentioned issues—neither eternal security, nor hypocritical profession, nor the cure of spiritual declension. The plural and reciprocal pronouns in this passage—“yourselves,” “one another,” and “you (plural)”—are further evidence that Jesus may not be directly addressing this teaching to the individual believer at all, but rather to believers collectively.

Specifically, we believe He is speaking of how His followers (who, from Pentecost onward, at least, will constitute “the church”) are meant to function as a fellowship in the world. Not only are they to be “the salt of the earth,” they are to be “the light of the world,” “a lamp . . . on a lampstand,” “a city situated on a hill.” It is not the Lord’s intention that they live in isolation, either apart from unbelievers or apart from each other, but that they spread throughout the world and permeate it as a redemptive community of faith, working together to proclaim the good news and plant growing fellowships in every town and city and nation (cf. Mark 16:20; Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 16:4–5). They are called to be “a special people, eager to do good works,” and are urged to “be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works” (Titus 2:14; Hebrews 10:24).

Our Lord’s Great Commission for the church that He promises to build is expressed in the Gospels in a variety of ways. The command in Matthew 28 to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach is only one of these. Another is His command to shine: “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” In each case, Christ is conferring on His church a specific function and usefulness in this world. The same is true, we would suggest, when He designates the community of disciples collectively as salt.

Salt, of course, is universally used and appreciated as a condiment, an enhancer of flavor. In the ancient world, however, it was prized above all as a preservative for foods, such as fish and meat, which would putrefy without refrigeration. Although it is, of course, impossible for chemically pure salt to lose its saltiness, many commentators note that what passed for salt in the ancient world was often a far cry from pure sodium chloride, and might contain a great many impurities, such as gypsum, If the true salt were to be leached out of this mixture, the white mineral residue that remained—even if it still looked like salt—would be no good at all for the purpose of food preservation. Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23–79), a Roman naturalist in New Testament times, recorded this observation in his Historia Naturalis. Even if this historical information were not available to us, however, the point of Jesus’ statement would remain the same if taken purely hypothetically, as a statement of what would be the case if salt were somehow found to have lost its saltiness.

The first part of Mark 9:50 says that salt has a practical purpose, a specific usefulness, whether as a food preservative or flavor enhancer. That is why one keeps it around. Salt is always valuable. It is good. But if the “salt” in a certain household is found to have lost its preservative properties, if it has lost its saltiness, if one discovers that it is not really salt any more, what can one do except throw the useless stuff away?

The same might be said of a body of believers—a local church. What if a local assembly can no longer fulfill the purposes for which Jesus planted it? Perhaps this faith-community has become too compromised by the world. Perhaps its members have abandoned the love for the Lord that they had at first. Perhaps they have grown tolerant of false doctrine and immorality. Or perhaps they have lost their spiritual vitality and become utterly indifferent or lukewarm. Suppose that the glory is departed, the saltiness gone. What should the Lord do with this fellowship of saints? If they do not repent, may He not come to them and remove their lampstand from its place?

The Scriptures unequivocally teach the perseverance of individual saints, and just as unequivocally that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Christ’s church, characterized in the creeds as “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” But the highway of history is littered with the wreckage of the local churches of yesteryear. Some of those whose names are recorded in the New Testament are no more than ruins today, visited only by Christian tourists—who may find in the rubble food for thought.

The second part of Mark 9:50 says that the disciples of Jesus should have salt “among” or “in” themselves (Greek en), and be at peace “with” one another (also Greek en). Like many Old Testament proverbs, this statement consists of two half-verses in synonymous parallelism. Scholars say that “have salt among yourselves” may mean “share salt,” an idiomatic expression for eating together, partaking of a meal together—an activity that is emblematic of fellowship and peace.

(See, for example, Ezra 4:14 in the literal rendering of the English Standard Version, “because we eat the salt of the palace”; and Acts 1:4, where the Greek participle sunalizomenos may be rendered “taking (or eating) salt in common” or “sharing a meal together,” connoting table fellowship, a special union of friends, being at peace with one another—a connotation similar to that of “breaking bread together.” This word, used in that sense, is found in many early Christian writings.)

If this interpretation is correct, then in Mark 9:50b Jesus is exhorting the disciples to live together in peaceful fellowship, to “get along” with one another—apt counsel indeed, in the context, considering the ugly rivalry they have just displayed in 9:33–37. How will their fellowship be salt for the world if it is torn by jealousy and dissension? Paul exhorted the believers at Thessalonica: “Be at peace among yourselves” (1 Thessalonians 5:13). That was a very tall order, given what we know of ourselves; and history testifies that the church’s record of compliance has been spotty, at best. But, according to John, Jesus expects even more: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). When people see this peace and love prevailing among us, Jesus’ disciples, they may also see that our Master is the preserving salt this dying and decaying world so desperately needs.

Grant, Lord, that we Christians may always have salt among ourselves, and be at peace with one another!

Charles Krauthammer, a conservative columnist, just wrote a very pessimistic column about the dim prospects for defeating Obama and his socialist agenda. Many other older conservatives gloomily concurred that it’s all over but the shouting – it looks as if all is lost.

One young commenter named Zurvan on the delightful conservative blog Bookworm Room responded to this rather passionately as follows:

“. . . I would like to say no, all is not lost. Unless you let it go.

The attitude I see among conservatives is frankly astounding; never have I encountered a group more eager to surrender. Forget fighting the good fight. Forget the American Dream. Just lie down and rot. THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE TELLING YOURSELVES AND ANYONE LISTENING.

I’m not even twenty years old yet, my country is in the worst shape it’s been in since the Depression, and all you can say is ‘sorry kids, we didn’t feel like standing up to the bullies’? That’s it!?

I never fully understood the saying ‘civilizations don’t die, they commit suicide’ until now. Some conservatives almost sound like they’re looking forward to oblivion!

Do you know why the progressives have taken over the country? It’s because they fight. They fight, and they never give up. They can wait decades and still have the passion to fight till the end of time, because they BELIEVE IN THEIR CAUSE.

Conservatives, on the other hand, just glower and moan and play Cassandra while never lifting a finger to defend themselves. Newsflash, guys: You can’t win an ideological battle if the extent of your philosophy is a death-knell!

So, it looks like the younger generation can expect no help from our elders. You want to abandon us, fine. We want your support, and all you can do is tell us how horrible our lives will be. While the rest of you hobble off to the crypts, we’ll be on the battlefield. I had hoped you’d have the decency to aid us, but who needs you? You work for the enemy! You fall over yourselves to let them win!

So go on, curse the darkness. I WILL LIGHT CANDLES.”

Although Zurvan addresses his elders in rather harsh tones, I must say I like his spirit! I would nevertheless have to say that Krauthammer’s pessimism appears to be justified, humanly speaking.

But we Christians should not be speaking – or even thinking – merely humanly. Admittedly, we have no revelation as to what God will or will not do in this situation. But we do know that God is there, and we know that all things are possible with Him. So, it seems to me that we can at least say, with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

“Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)

But I think we can say and do more than that.

Krauthammer and many other conservatives are depressed because they see – perhaps correctly – that even if conservatives (defined very broadly here as those men and women who care about our country and its future, value the freedom that our forefathers fought and died for, and understand that socialism is a destroyer of nations and peoples) make a comeback in the November elections, this will still not be enough to thwart Obama’s assault on America.

Okay. Point taken.

Now . . . what else needs to happen, and how can we help it happen? Didn’t the God who is there give us minds and hearts and voices and hands, presumably in the expectation that we would use them. If not now, when?

And didn’t the God with whom all things are possible assure us that He is a God who answers prayer?

When he calls out to Me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble.
I will rescue him and give him honor. (Psalm 91:15)

So . . . let’s see if we can figure out what candles need lighting, go out and light one or two of them, and call upon the Lord.

—TLP

DID YOU EVER TALK TO GOD ABOVE?

by Frances Towle Rath

Did you ever talk to God above?
Tell Him that you need a friend to love.
Pray in Jesus’ name believing
that God answers prayer.

Have you told Him all your cares and woes?
Ev’ry tiny little fear He knows.
You can know He’ll always hear
And He will answer prayer.

You can whisper in a crowd to Him.
You can cry when you’re alone to Him.
You don’t have to pray out loud to Him;
He knows your thoughts.

On a lofty mountain peak, He’s there.
In a meadow by a stream, He’s there.
Anywhere on earth you go,
He’s been there from the start.

Find the answer in His Word; it’s true.
You’ll be strong because He walks with you.
By His faithfulness He’ll change you, too.
God answers prayer.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Grace has been defined as “the totally undeserved yet freely given gift of God that saves us.”

God’s grace working in our lives creates faith. That is one of the profoundest truths of Christianity; and, sad to say, it is not always understood. A popular gospel song gets it right, I think, when it speaks of the Spirit’s moving in human hearts,

Convincing men of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him.

The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that fallen human hearts simply aren’t naturally receptive to the things of God (Romans 3:10–­18; 1 Corinthians 2:14). Apart from God’s enabling grace, saving faith in the heart of a spiritually dead sinner just doesn’t happen (Acts 18:27).

Of course, God will not do the believing for you! He doesn’t believe in your place. In the Holy Scriptures and through His human “ambassadors” (2 Corinthians 5:20) He speaks to you, earnestly imploring you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are not yet a child of God, please understand that it is not God, but you, the sinner, who must exercise faith unto salvation.

And yet—“so that no one may boast”—the Scriptures would also have you understand that you do so having been awakened and made alive and enabled to believe by the grace and power of a merciful God.

When, as a helpless sinner, you stretch out the open and empty hands of faith to receive the free gift of God—eternal life—it is a good thing for you to know that underneath those weak and trembling hands of yours, steadying and upholding them, are the everlasting arms of the Almighty. Then you can give all your thanks and praise and worship to the One who is the Lifter of hands and heads, the Opener of eyes and hearts (Exodus 17:12; Psalm 3:3; Luke 24:31; Acts 16:14). Then also you can rest assured that His arms will be there for you always.

For what God creates, He also sustains. And He will sustain the faith of His child, because He has said, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

The Scriptures teach that we are saved by grace through faith. “By grace” means that our salvation depends wholly on God’s action in Christ, and therefore rests securely in Him. “Through faith” says that the means God uses to make this salvation ours, the way He brings it to men and women, is the faith of the believer.

To put it another way: my salvation is the gift; God is the One who gave it; “by grace” is why and how He did it; “through faith” is how I received it; and it is all of grace from start to finish.

It is a big mistake when I turn my receiving God’s gift of salvation into a human achievement, as though I could say, with a tone of moral superiority and the unmistakable accent of hard-edged spiritual pride: I was saved by my faith which I created by myself and which I decided all by myself that I would place in Jesus Christ. As Paul says, our salvation is “not of ourselves”; in no sense is it self-generated or self-created.

By calling salvation through faith a “gift,” the Bible is telling us, first, that our salvation came from outside of ourselves, from God the giver; and, second, that we neither bought it with something we possessed nor earned it by something we did.

Come, everyone who is thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you without money,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost! (Isaiah 55:1)

Self-salvation is simply not possible, and all human efforts to achieve it—religions, philosophies, the sacred cows of science and technology, or that great American idol, the “self-made man”—are worse than useless.

Brothers and sisters, we sinful men and women have nothing that we can bring as our own to the living God. Even our response of faith, which is the means by which we appropriate God’s gift of salvation, is as much His gift to us as all the rest, and we cannot claim the slightest credit for it. This salvation that we possess through faith is a grace-gift that God gave to us when we were still helpless and dead in our sins (Romans 5:6); and even if we can’t fully wrap our minds around this truth, even if we can’t explain how He does it, even though we may never completely understand it all, we ought to give the glory for it to God, and God alone.

He deserves it. It is His due.

And we will all be a lot happier and better off when we stop trying to rob Him of what is rightfully His.

—TLP

A Linen-Closet Epiphany

It is by little things, Lord, that the immensity of Your love breaks through.

Things entirely superfluous, no doubt, in the Great Scheme of Things, and too trivial-seeming to add to a prayer list already unmanageably long.

All that I didn’t exactly need, but Your hand has provided anyway.

Like that washcloth Kathy was so determined to pack for me.

“If you put a damp washcloth in the dryer with those shirts and let it run for a few minutes, the wrinkles will disappear.”

I would never have done it, of course, being past caring about such things.

Looking in the mirror and seeing only the flotsam of a shipwrecked life, wrinkles seem supremely irrelevant.

But Kathy looks at me and sees—oh, Lord, I don’t know what she sees!—a man, I suppose, who shouldn’t be wearing wrinkled clothes.

And “washcloth” is one of the many words in the language of her unreasonable love.

Which is why, when I unpack my suitcase and notice that the washcloth I wouldn’t have used isn’t there, sadness fills my mind.

I remember then: she tried so hard! But, the bathroom door having been locked by one of our sons who was taking a shower, the linen closet was temporarily inaccessible.

And we were running late with no time to spare.

So we hurried off to the airport, and the washcloth got left behind.

In the slough of despond into which I tumble now—it doesn’t take much to do it, Lord, when you live on the brink—doubts and fears swoop and dart, like bats, about my head.

“What did I come halfway across the country for? To chase a will-o’-the-wisp degree that recedes into the distance the more I pursue it and probably wouldn’t do me any good anyway?”

“Why isn’t there a phone in this place? How would I call for help if I got sick? If I were to die of a heart attack at night, I wonder how long it would take them to discover my body?”

“How will I get to class in the morning from all the way over here if it rains? Oh, why didn’t I have enough sense to bring an umbrella?”

Gloomy and dispirited, I explore the vacant rooms, testing water faucets, peering into bare cabinets and empty drawers,

Until, sliding open one closet door, I am suddenly confronted by—washcloths!

A baker’s dozen, I determine, counting them as I laugh aloud with wry delight.

“Exceedingly abundantly, above all that we could ask or think”—a phrase from one of Kathy’s favorite Bible verses comes to mind.

And I am hilariously reminded that You are in this place and perfectly in control, that Your watch-care extends to the smallest details.

Somehow I know that all is well, and will be well: You will work all things together for good, perhaps in entirely unexpected ways. Your perfect love casts out my fear and drives all doubt away.

A stack of washcloths in a linen closet has startled me into Your presence, and in Your presence is—

Well, Lord, for a Puddleglum like me, I’m afraid “fullness of joy” is a state of mind rather beyond reach—this side of heaven, anyway.

But, to my surprise, something else is not:  I find I have—for the moment, at least—perfect peace and rest, in the hollow of Your hand.

Lord, I have read that You appeared to Moses long ago in a burning bush in the desert of Midian—an event scholars solemnly designate a “theophany.”

And I know that in ancient Israel David composed psalms to You and called You “the Lord of hosts”—though scholars debate precisely what he meant by that.

Moses, of course, was a very wise leader and a man of great faith, and David was a mighty warrior and king—a man after Your own heart, the Bible calls him. Both were Very Important Persons in the history of salvation. Little wonder that You appeared to such as they.

But now, to a timid, foolish old man, approaching the end of a very unexpected and not very important life, whose faith is little and whose strength is small, You graciously appear in a linen closet.

I hardly think scholars would dignify this event with a name.

But You, Lord, will know precisely what I mean if I address my future prayers—sometimes—to “the Lord of washcloths.”

—TLP

Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy;

is not boastful; is not conceited;

does not act improperly; is not selfish;

is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs;

finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, HCSB)

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8, HCSB)

THE UNCHANGING LOVE OF GOD CHANGES EVERYTHING

This message is about God’s agapē love—the eternal, unselfish kind of love that delights to seek the good of the other. It’s about reaching out in love to one who is different, who is unlovely, who is hostile, who is an enemy. It’s about giving love freely to one who doesn’t love in return, to one who can never repay you and might not even thank you.

It’s about how God loves you and me.

(1) God’s love does not change.

The love of God is eternal and unchanging because it is the very nature of God, who is eternal and unchanging. It flows from the very nature of the Trinity. Love existed between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before the foundation of the world—before anything was created. God did not need the world, nor did He need us, in order to be able to love. He is Love—always has been, always will be. No, the love of God does not change; it can no more change than God Himself can change.

We need to know that. We, His redeemed ones, need to know the certainty of that. At times He may rebuke or discipline or correct us, but His fundamental heart-attitude and commitment toward His own never wavers for an instant: He is always for us, never against us (Psalm 56:9; Romans 8:31). Praise Him, our Redeemer’s love for us will never change!

(2) God’s love changes us.

A poet has written, “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.” The Bible tells us that God is “working in us” (Hebrews 13:20-21). His love is on the move in our lives, at work in us, transforming us, overcoming sin’s power and effects, equipping us in every good thing to do His will, re-making us into what He created us to be. Apart from His working in us, we can neither witness, nor worship, nor understand the Scriptures properly, nor pray, nor flee immorality, nor love one another in Christ , nor love our enemies—apart from His love working in us, we can, in truth, do nothing good at all.

Perhaps you have heard messages on “Christian living” or “discipleship” that seemed to boil down to something like this: Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know you were truly accepted by God? Wouldn’t you like to be welcomed and embraced as His child forever? Doesn’t your heart long to receive His love and favor? Well, I have good news for you, friend! God gave mankind this Book so that people everywhere could know His rules and requirements for right living. All you have to do is determine to live by those rules, and as long as you continue doing that, you can be absolutely certain of His love. Amazingly, messages like that are sometimes described as “good old-time gospel preaching”!

But that is not proclaiming the liberating Word with the power to break humanity’s chains. That is only announcing to people that they are, and will forever be, prisoners. It is a terrible thing to promise men and women Good News, and then hand them a set of rules. When God’s children ask for bread, to give them a stone instead, and to give it in God’s name—that is a dreadful thing. It is a fearful thing. Do you recall what Paul wrote to the Galatians about Christians who try to live by “works of the law,” by human effort? He said they are “foolish” (3:1). Do you recall what he wrote about a preacher or teacher who tries to pass off something else as the gospel? He said, “Let him be accursed!” (1:8).

God be praised, the Bible has much better news for us than that! For the gospel is not something we must do, but rather the proclamation that what we could not do, what we could never do, God has done for us in the crucified Christ. To believers struggling with the problems of living and longing to be more like Jesus, longing to be conformed to the image of the Son, God says: “Because you have received My love as a gift, freely given by grace, and because that love is working in you now, you can change—and you will. Trust Me!”

The only solid foundation for Christian living, the only starting-point for true spiritual growth and discipleship, is the assurance that His love’s got a hold on you, and that He’ll never let you go. Only when you know that you are firmly rooted in Him in this way can you be built up in Him and established in your faith (Colossians 2:7). Only then can you trust God’s love to keep on working in you, hour by hour, day by day, year by year, reproducing in you the character of Christ, motivating and enabling you to change according to His Word through the power of His indwelling Spirit. The grace, the inclination, the power to change—they all come from Him.

Every hope, every joy, every promise, every blessing, every good and perfect gift we have, in this age and the next, flows from what God did at Calvary and its outworking in our lives. In Jesus Christ our Lord, God comes to us and gives Himself to us, freely and unconditionally, to do for us and in us what we cannot do ourselves (Romans 8:2–4). God’s only Son took on our humanity and reconciled the world to Himself; and now, by the Word and by the Spirit—His two loving hands—He is drawing people everywhere to Him and lifting them up into communion with the Father (2 Corinthians 5:19; John 12:32; Hebrews 7:19). As one of our gospel songs puts it:

And from the depths of sin and shame

Through grace He lifted me.

O praise His name, He is still lifting me! Why, on some days it becomes blindingly clear to me that He’s all that’s holding me up! Then—once the initial panic attack has subsided—I remind myself, “Well, He’s enough, isn’t He?”

So then, my beloved . . . work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2)

(3) God’s love is given freely in Jesus Christ—especially in His death on the cross.

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! (Romans 5:8)

He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all . . . the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Romans 8:32, 39)

Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

The cross of Christ is much more than just an illustration of God’s grace; it is the ultimate expression and embodiment of it. It was, is, and will forever be the defining act of God, His self-definition, His defining moment.

Who is the true God? How can I know what He is really like? Ask the Bible these questions, and it will lead you to Calvary. Search every galaxy in this vast universe of ours, if you will, but you won’t find a satisfying answer anywhere else than on top of that hill.

Many of you were taught an acronym for grace: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Perhaps you have heard it repeated so often that it has grown old for you. But I hope you will not disdain it. It is a way of remembering the most important truth in the whole universe: The grace of God comes through our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and died in the place of us hell-deserving rebels at Calvary.

(4) God’s love calls forth our love in response.

Someone has rightly said, “Christianity is not a philosophy of life, but a love affair.” That is so true. As many of us have tried to tell our unbelieving friends, being a Christian doesn’t mean just “being religious,” it means having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But it is also true that to speak of a loving relationship implies something mutual. Love invites reciprocation; it takes two to make a relationship grow. Doesn’t the love of God in Christ—the glorious, superabounding grace of His Calvary love—call us to love Him in return? Isn’t that why we sing, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all”?

By nature, however, we sinful men and women are unmoved by God’s love (1 Corinthians 2:14). For some of us, it means nothing one way or the other—a matter of indifference, really. Others among us—those who have the reputation of being “sensitive, seeking souls interested in spiritual things”—find the notion that God loves us . . . well, interesting. Still others find the whole idea utterly foolish, or even dangerous. All in all, our natural response to being told that God loves us ranges from merely polite (“Why, thank you! What a sweet thing to say!”) to contemptuous (“So? Your point? Look, why don’t you go tell someone who cares!”) (Isaiah 1:3-4).

Now, I realize that most of us like to see ourselves as basically tender-hearted, warm-hearted, caring, decent, idealistic individuals for whom loving God and loving our neighbor comes as naturally as breathing. But the Bible says that when God—who is the ultimate Realist—scans what’s inside our chests, what He actually finds there is so hard and cold that it would interest only a mineralogist (Ezekiel 11:19-20).

When we do love God, then, we need to know that our love exists because of God’s love. It is our divinely-enabled response, called into being by God’s prior love. “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). For people like you and me to love God at all took nothing less than a miracle of love and grace.

Has it ever struck you that some of our worship songs almost seem to be bragging about the love that we have for God? We seem to be singing, “Oh, how much I love Him! I’ll bet He’s never seen a love like mine before.” Actually, our love for Him, even at its best, is a paltry thing, a pitifully small thing, compared with the love He deserves. Our love has an awful lot of growing to do.

This new life in Christ we’ve been given is a work in progress. Our justification is complete, to be sure, but our sanctification—our practical sanctification, that is—is still a construction site, and a messy one at that. He’s not finished with us yet. Still, you and I do love Him now, don’t we? That may not be something to brag about, but it is something to thank God for!

Let’s not flatter ourselves. You and I are not good people. Don’t listen to those who tell you otherwise; follow their advice, and it will kill you. Whatever they say, you and I were never on the Road to Glory. We were on the Other Road. You know the one I mean—the broad one with the wide gate, leading somewhere else entirely, someplace not good (Matthew 7:13).

But something has changed. Something is true now that was not true before. We have received mercy. Someone has begun a good work in us; and it’s not just on the surface, but penetrates all the way through. Things are going to be different. We have a future and a hope. It’s going to get better now. And that’s more than just a feeling: you really can know these things. Because God is there, and He is not silent. He has spoken, and the Word He has spoken has spoken to you.

Love has come, and that has made all the difference. The love of God has made all things new.

His unchanging love has changed everything.

Praise Him!

—TLP

(1) The Bible was meant to be read aloud. This ministry should never be performed as a mere routine duty, but should be done in a meaningful way that allows God’s Word and Spirit to engage the hearts, understandings, emotions, and wills of those who hear—and thus transform their lives.

(a) It is not enough for us to read the Bible alone in our personal devotions. We should also read Scripture together with family and friends; and, even more important, we should read Scripture aloud in our public assemblies, when we meet together as a church.

1 Timothy 4:13—Until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching.

Colossians 4:16—And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

1 Thessalonians 5:27—I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers.

(compare Exodus 24:7; Deuteronomy 31:11; Joshua 8:34–35; Nehemiah 8:1–8; 9:3; 13:1)

(b) The public reading of God’s Word has always been one of the most important things Christians do when they gather for worship. It is a non-negotiable.

Justin Martyr (c. 100–165): “On the day which is called Sunday, all who live in the cities or in the countryside gather together in one place. And the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as there is time.”

James F. White (1980): “The first step toward making our worship more biblical is in giving the reading of God’s Word a central role in Christian worship on any occasion.”

Gary Furr and Milburn Price (1998): “When the role of Scripture in worship is negligible, when Scripture is used only to launch a sermon, what is communicated is that the Bible is marginal in Christian life, too. The use we make or fail to make of Scripture in our worship says far more about Christian discipleship than we may realize.”

(2) We should learn to read the Bible aloud well. If we are serious about wanting to give preeminence to God’s Word in our gatherings, not only must we make it our regular practice to read it aloud, we must also learn to read it well.

(a) Our reading of a Scripture passage must be expositional: it should aim to make the sense clear and enable the audience to grasp its truth and coherence.

—It should not be hurried.

—It should not be mechanical, monotone, or sing-song.

—It should not sound plastic or canned, like a radio or television commercial.

—It should not be theatrical or overdramatized.

—Its contents, length, and tempo should never be made subservient to the worship music.

—It should accurately convey the ideas and emotions that the Spirit led the author to set down.

(b) In some cases a Scripture reading may benefit from a very short introduction that recalls the background of the passage or locates it within the Bible as a whole.

(c) We should read Scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments that adequately represent and reflect the extraordinary range and depth and richness of God’s Word, not shrinking back from declaring the whole counsel and plan of God (Acts 20:26–28): both lament and praise, law and gospel, command and promise, warning and encouragement, history and prophecy, narrative and teaching, the depravity of man and the glory of the cross, sin’s awful condemnation and the indescribable gift that is Christ, the persistence of thorns and the sufficiency of His grace, the terrors of God’s wrath and the wonders of His redeeming love.

(d) Our tone of voice and manner when reading Scripture will naturally vary according to the contents of the passage, but it must be always respectful, never flippant or casual: the way we read should reflect the Bible’s immense spiritual value and divine authority; it should communicate the high esteem in which we hold God’s Word.

(e) We must take care not to convey the impression that the Bible is just another book, a collection of random inspirational sayings, or “ancient words” venerable primarily for their antiquity and literary beauty.

(f) It may be helpful to remind our hearers and ourselves aloud, before and after the reading: “This is the word of the Lord,” or “The Word of God for the people of God,” or “Listen to what God’s Word says,” or, simply, “God’s Word.”

As Thomas Edward McComiskey says eloquently in his helpful book, Reading Scripture in Public: “It is a high privilege to give audible expression to the mind of God which is resident in the words of Scripture.”

–TLP

(1) Get Connected. The Heritage Foundation, one of the largest and most responsible conservative “think tanks” around, has done a tremendous amount of research about why our government and economy are malfunctioning today. Here is their mission statement: “To formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.” As you can see, the Foundation is not a specifically Christian organization, but surely there is nothing there that a Christian cannot or should not support. They have recently spun off a new 501(c)(4) group that they are calling Heritage Action for America. This group will do political advocacy work, which the Foundation, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, cannot do. Sign up on their site, get linked in to their network, inform yourself about the issues, and start calling members of Congress to get Obamacare repealed—for starters.

http://heritageforamerica.org/

(2) Get the Vote Out. Not satisfied with that? Want to get out there and really “do something”? Become a precinct committeeman and help forge the Republican Party into a real and attractive alternative to the party of socialist thugs currently in power. The Precinct Project’s Blog has information about how you can make this happen. Then, hit the streets, pound the pavement, meet some of your fellow Americans, and get them to the polls on time. What is more, you can vote—as a precinct committeeman, yes, you can!—for Republican Party leaders who will steel themselves against the mysteriously irresistible temptation to be a totally boring party of Democrat clones—and losers to boot.

http://theprecinctproject.wordpress.com/

(3) Get the Word Out. Proclaim the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Don’t be ashamed of it. It is, and always will be, “God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

To change men’s wicked hearts, to reconcile men to their Maker, to heal the wounds and repair the terrible ravages made by sin—surely that is a tremendous task, a mammoth task—one that God, and God alone, can do. And yet, wonder of wonders, He does all this and more—does it every day—and does it freely, without money and without cost (Isaiah 55:1)—drawing to Himself men, women, and children from every nation, tribe, language, and people. He does it through the message of the cross, the preaching of Jesus Christ, the crucified One, who “was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities.” And this same Jesus promises, “the one who comes to Me I will never cast out” (John 16:37), and reiterates four times, “I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54).

Surely this is a good word! I know of none better. Let’s preach it, brothers.

Better and more limited government, together with a freer economic system more conducive to prosperity, could prevent and eliminate a great deal of human suffering and hardship. It could also make it easier for us to cultivate a more moral and humane civil society for everyone’s kids to grow up in.

As Christians, though, we realize that there are severe and narrow limits to what politics and economics can do. Government is not God. The State cannot play the role of the Messiah. When godless men vainly attempt to cast it in that role, they succeed only in producing monsters, demonic Leviathans. The last century saw several of those gruesome creatures. Must we sit idly by and watch while another one is birthed here in our own land?

What is more, even if somehow—by the grace of God—the State is confined to its proper sphere for a time and productivity thrives, the universal human depravity that is the curse of Adam’s race will remain. Sin will continue to make the smartest of men stupid. A majority of the nation’s citizenry is, alas, entirely capable of going to the polls and not only shooting themselves in the foot, but in the head as well. Human beings have always been their own worst enemy—and, of course, the Devil is always prowling around, looking for ways to egg them on.

How then shall we live? Work hard, in the strength that the Lord gives. Do good. Make things better, as He enables. Strive to make them as good they can possibly be in a fallen world.

But expect no utopias in this age. Say daily to your yearning, utopian soul, “Peace! Be still! There’s a new world coming. Wait patiently on the Lord, and He will bring it to pass. Depend on it.”

And, meanwhile, wherever you go, wherever He plants you, don’t forget to tell men and women the good news of salvation, of the one Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again with life and liberty to all who believe.

A return to Constitutionally limited government; a renewed commitment to the Rule of Law (rather than executive decrees and judges who render verdicts with scant regard for the Constitution, stare decisis, or even common sense); just and reasonable laws aimed at promoting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; a judicial system that is neither corrupt and nor compromised by ideology; a free-market economy (the only kind that can create wealth) set within a larger moral framework where sensible boundaries are fixed to market power and measures are in place to protect the weak “beyond the market”; and a strong defense force that can protect our country against its Marxist and Muslim terrorist enemies and the governments that sponsor and enable them—all this, even if we could attain it, would fall infinitely short of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Of course it would.

Nevertheless, if the Lord tarries, these things could make a considerable difference for good in the lives of men, women, and children today, as well as for the unborn (!) and for the next generation. And the Bible tells us—the life of our Lord on earth tells us, too—that the kind of difference they could make, though perhaps not an eternal one, is nevertheless not a matter of indifference to our God. That is why we Christians have a duty and responsibility to work and fight for these goals.

By this I mean that we need to take a firm stand, together with other like-minded Americans, against every misguided attempt to build a messianic state, and work to contain the powers and activities of government within their proper sphere. Our goal should be to minimize the burden of government and maximize its efficiency in providing those limited but essential blessings that it is within the power of human government to deliver.

What America needs is good government, not a surrogate God. Surveys show that the majority of Americans believe there already is a God who governs the affairs of men, and I suspect many of them also realize that His headquarters is not in Washington, D.C.

Most Christians I know don’t want their churches to be involved in political activities. I agree. A church is the wrong place for electioneering. The Bible does not exhort believers to assemble on the Lord’s Day for a “meet the candidates” event. But the kind of “political activity” by individual Christian citizens of which I have been speaking here is simply an expression of practical Christian love, and doesn’t need a church banner waving over it. It belongs under the heading of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Our Lord drew special attention to this commandment as one of the two that “all the Law and the Prophets depend on” (Matthew 22:37-40). The apostle Paul proclaimed that the entire law is fulfilled in this one great imperative (Galatians 5:14). James, the Lord’s brother, dubbed this “the royal law” (James 2:8).

What I am saying is this: One way you can love your neighbor is by fighting to protect him from the socialist thugs who would enslave and impoverish him, and who even now are preparing a still heavier yoke and yet stronger chains. Speak out. Refute lies. Spread truth. Organize. Vote the bums out of office and restore Constitutional government and some semblance of fiscal sanity to the land.

But I am also saying this: As a Christian, you can hardly be content to let the matter rest there. You know, as the apostle Paul also knew (Romans 1:14-15), that you have another, even more vital, obligation to your neighbor—another debt of love you owe, which is also a commission given to you by the Lord:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Should Christians in our country be fighting for America’s future and for good government, or should they be proclaiming the gospel?

I would suggest that this is not one of life’s Either/Ors. Think Both/And.

And get involved.

—TLP

Dear S,

With regard to our after-class conversation about what the Lord Jesus was doing in the interval between His death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day, here are a few points worth considering:

(1)  While we may not know exactly what he was doing, we do know for sure where he was. He was in paradise. He said so.

Luke 23:43—And He said to him, “ I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Now, I am aware that some Bible commentators believe that “paradise” is a different place from the heaven where God dwells. They understand it to be a temporary holding place where the Old Testament saints waited to be led into heaven by the Lord at His coming. Well, maybe—although I would note that there are only two other mentions of “paradise” in the New Testament that come to mind (2 Corinthians 12:4 and Revelation 2:7), and it appears to me that both of them can be perfectly well understood as referring to heaven.

2 Corinthians 12:4—He was caught up into paradise. He heard inexpressible words, which a man is not allowed to speak.

Revelation 2:7—“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

In any case, the relevant point here is this: Is paradise the same as hell? The answer is obvious: Surely not!

(2)  We also know who He was with during the three days. Jesus’ spirit was with the Father. He said so.

Luke 23:4—And Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I entrust My spirit.” Saying this, He breathed His last.

Here Jesus seems to be quoting Psalm 31:5, which is declaration of hope. Surely He is indicating that His physical and spiritual suffering is finally at an end, and that He looks forward to His spirit’s being welcomed into heaven by God the Father. Is there any indication that He expects to suffer yet more for our sins in hell? Stephen cried out in the same words at the time of his martyrdom (Acts 7:59). Did Stephen mean then he was headed for hell? Surely not!

As he died on the cross, Jesus committed His spirit into the hands of his Father. Is hell the dwelling place, or eternal abode, of God the Father? Surely not! True, God is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7–10); but hell is not His home address! So, do these words mean that Jesus’ spirit was about to be tormented by the Devil during the coming three days, suffering the pains of hell in our stead? Could that conceivably be what it means to be in the hands of the Father in Paradise? Surely not!

(3)  We also know where our sins were during those days, and where they are now and will remain forever. When Jesus’ cross-work was finished, when His once-for-all substitutionary sacrifice on Calvary was accomplished, at that moment all our sin-debt was paid in full. There simply was no more atoning for our sin left to be done! The Bible teaches that He bore our sins “in his body on the cross,” not in His spirit separated from His body in hell during the three days after the cross while His body was in the tomb.

John 19:30—When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” Then, bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

In Greek, “it is finished” is tetelestai, which means “it is accomplished” or “it stands finished” or (possibly) “paid in full.” What it does not mean is a deposit, or a down payment, or a first installment. It does not mean half-done or half-baked. It means Jesus had totally finished the redemptive work God the Father had given Him to do. It is forever done. It is over.

Colossians 1:22—But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him . . .

Colossians 2:14—He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.

Hebrews 10:10—By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

Hebrews 10:12—But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

1 Peter 2:24—He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by His wounding you have been healed.

It is true that Christians differ on the interpretation of Acts 2:27, Romans 10:6-7, Ephesians 4:8-9, 1 Peter 3:18-20, and 1 Peter 4:6. Frankly, some of those passages are not easy to understand, especially the verses in 1 Peter. As for me, I remain unpersuaded—even though I have heard it preached by pastors I respect—that any of these passages teaches that Jesus went into hell between the crucifixion and the resurrection. I try to keep an open mind about it, though. Many in the history of the church have understood them that way. They could be right. Be that as it may, however one interprets these passages, the Bible unquestionably teaches that Christ’s substitutionary atonement for sin was accomplished through the shedding of His blood, which means it had to do with the incarnate Son’s suffering and dying in his physical body on the cross, not with what happened during the three days afterward.

Even those orthodox theologians who have found support for a doctrine of a descent of Christ into hell in these verses never suggested even for a moment that He was suffering further for our sins during His sojourn there. No event after the cross accomplished or contributed anything to our redemption. We are saved by the blood of Christ. We were redeemed on the cross, not in hell. God’s wrath against sin was poured out on Christ in his death at Calvary and in the suffering that preceded it, not in what came after it.

Of course, Christ has by no means ceased to be active on behalf of His own. He has a vitally important present ministry, too—such as keeping us saved and interceding for us as our High Priest. There are also some very important things He will do that are still in the future, according to the Scriptures. But his work of atonement was completed at the cross.

As I see it, then, anyone who teaches that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was insufficient for salvation is a false teacher spreading a destructive heresy that strikes at the very heart of the Christian faith.

Matthew 26:28—For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:22—. . . without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

I know that the “Weekend in Hell” theory has a certain history in the church, and is currently promoted by some popular preachers; but we ought to believe the Bible, rather than the cleverly-devised myths and fables of men. The unbiblical and dangerous modern version of this theory, which has Jesus suffering as an actual sinner in hell for three days and being tortured by the Devil there in order to complete his atoning work, has been taught by false teachers of the cultic Word-Faith movement, such as Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, and Joyce Meyer, as well as by some extreme Charismatics. It seems to have originated with E. W. Kenyon, a 19th-century faith healer who was definitely not a teacher of sound doctrine. While I would never suggest that any Christian doctrine ought to be rejected solely on the grounds of “guilt by association,” the list of teachers associated with this theory certainly does not weigh in its favor.

In the words of a recent Bible expositor with a flair for humor—I regret that I cannot recall his name—the upshot of the matter is this: “The only thing the Devil had during the three days the body of Christ was in the tomb was a headache—because he knew Christ’s soul and spirit were in the presence of the Father, and they were not in hell.”

I urge you to consider these things well, with prayer.

Sincerely,

TLP