The Plan Revealed

Does anyone noticing the wonder of Christmas know where this sense of wonder comes from? Do we understand the power of the Holy Spirit who puts hearts at rest, fills us with generosity, gives us this unusual joy that begins a few weeks earlier than the day? Do we know why our hearts are more deeply grieved at the losses of loved ones now more than ever? What is it about Christmas that brings out emotions, makes us smile at excited children, or even produces a ‘bah, humbug’ in attempts to avoid the delight of it?

I know Christmas is challenging for some. Those with limited budget, or no faith, or another faith, or the loss of dear ones, yet there is this thing in the air. Some call it the spirit of the season, or related to the delights of giving and receiving, but could it be that this is the Spirit of God reminding us that love came down? That He did not want heaven without us? That we, sinful and proud of our own goodness really know nothing about goodness until that Baby was born?

The reality of Christmas is that God loves us, yet He cannot welcome us to Himself because of our sin. Sin separates. It separates relationships, married people, fathers from their children, but most seriously, us from our Creator. What is He to do about that? Christmas is the beginning of a plan created long before humanity appeared:

He (Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you (1 Peter 1:20)

While the Jews who knew the promise did not expect a baby, nevertheless that was how the plan unfolded, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1:4)

Redemption’s blueprint was drafted in love: “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.” (1 John 4:10) His plan to deal with sin removed the barrier for all who respond to this Babe who grew to manhood, and who calls as the Father sends: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)

And for those who are called and who come, their lives are changed forever, and this is part of the wonder. The power of God, even is hinted to those at Christmas who know nothing or very little about the child born in a manger. For those who do, the Bible says:

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31)

And because of this, I see and feel the wonder this day, and most all other days...

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

PRAY: Lord, for many this season is only about gifts and glitter, a mad rush to measure up to the expectations of others — real or imagined. It can bring headaches too, and sad memories, pressures and no joy at all. For those who hurt or even hate this time of year, I pray that they will discover the plan of God that started before the world began, and was made known beginning with a baby in a wooden straw-filled manger who eventually cried “It is finished” from a blood-stained wooden cross.

Love God and show it . . .

 

This morning I’m thinking how sin can hurt other people and having my own way might be costly to others. Two incidents come to mind. One involves a person that I don’t like very much and it would be easy to have my own way and hurt that person’s feelings. The other is someone that I do care about, yet I’ve sometimes picked my own way without letting the thought of hurting them stop me from being selfish.

The last time I did that, I felt no guilt at all. Now I’m realizing the Holy Spirit is setting me up to think this: I know how my sin affects others, but what about the effect my sin has on Jesus?

God showed his love for me in that while I was still a sinner (Romans 5:8) which clearly says that time isn’t the issue: my sins happen after His death, but are still part of what He suffered. If I am facing temptation, I should be thinking of how yielding to selfish desires adds to what He suffered for me. He saved me from sin’s power so I don’t have to do that.

Today’s verse reminds me that His suffering was serious — “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. “(Hebrews 2:9) In serving as my substitute, Christ humbled Himself supremely. Why should I think it is okay to pridefully have my own way and take advantage of His humility?

Not only that, Jesus’ death on the cross was horrific death, not calm and peaceful. He experienced torture and agony. The curse of sin was the guilt and shame for every person who ever lived. He was not guilty of any sin of His own yet willingly suffered a weight that I cannot begin to imagine. Why should I take sin lightly or take His forgiveness for granted? With people I hurt, I can see their pain, but I cannot see the pain Jesus felt — and that is a hopelessly awful excuse to ignore it.

As today’s devotional says, God sent His Son who willingly came to die to redeem mankind, including me. This is amazing. He did it so I could become His adopted child (Galatians 4:4–5). Would I stomp on the loving grace of my physical father? No way. How then can I ignore the cost paid that made me a child of God?

MacArthur writes: “Only by tasting death as a man could He free mankind from death. Historically, kings have had someone taste their food and drink before they consumed it. Christ drained to the dregs the cup of poison rightfully meant for us before it could ever touch our lips. He substituted His death for ours, releasing us from the deadness of sin and bringing us into life with God.”

He was moved by love and grace to suffer for me. I did nothing to deserve salvation and much to deserve death. The people I hurt may or may not have done anything that prompts my sin, but I’m to be like Jesus and love them as He loves me:

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. (1 John 4:10)

Jesus died for all, then rose from the dead and is crowned with glory and honor and exalted to the right hand of the Father, where He will reign forever and ever. He is my great substitute, whom I can thank and praise throughout all eternity. Each time I sin, I am mocking the one who bore that sin and the guilt of it. Shame on me.

PRAY: Jesus, I can see that being righteous can be motivated by a selfish desire to be popular rather than wanting to glorify You and be like You. You did the will of God because You love us, but also because You love the Father and obeyed Him. I need to be more aware of why I do things, and who it really hurts when I do not obey You. It is important to love people, but that love is supposed to be the way that I show my love for You, not just to get on the good side of them. Forgive me.

PONDER: Among other horrors, Isaiah 52:13–53:12 says that Jesus “was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind” and that He was “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” He bore my griefs and carried my sorrows. While I esteem him smitten by God, He was pierced for my transgressions; crushed for my iniquities. My sin was laid on Him as He made intercession for me. While I cannot be my own Savior, I can love Him and show it by loving others — far better than I do.

 

 

Removing all guilt . . .

 

In Charles Todd’s wonderfully well-written fiction series, Inspector Ian Rutledge struggles with PTSD that includes something he did for which he cannot forgive himself. Who cannot identify with this? Guilt holds the human heart in a prison, one that often has invisible bars yet seriously affects life.

A hymn begins with this question: “What can wash away my sin?” The dictionary calls this washing as atonement with two definitions: #1: reparation for an offense or injury as in “She wanted to find a way to make atonement for her sins” and #2: the reconciliation of God and humankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

Rutledge already knows that he cannot find a way to do this himself. In nonfiction, I know the same reality. Only definition #2 works. The OT describes it over and over as involving the sacrifice of a perfect lamb before a holy God who will accept that sacrifice only because the sinner is looking in faith toward a future day when God Himself will provide a Lamb, a Messiah, who will ATONE for all sin for all humanity. The next line of the song is, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Scholars debate whether the root meaning of atone is “to cover,” “to ransom,” or “to wipe clean/purge” yet the last one seems most appropriate in the OT. The activities involving this are too many to describe here but the general understanding is that God told the people to atone for sin with the blood of a lamb. Much of their spiritual health depended on them faithfully taking this seriously. When the sacrifices became a ritual only, God’s anger brought judgment on His people.

The NT word for atone means “to have mercy on, to make atonement for, propitiate.” It means God forgives, turns aside His anger. By grace, sins are forgiven and people are reconciled with God.

Atone and propitiation both involving gaining or regaining the favor of one offended. 1 John 2:2 and 4:10 say this: “(Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world . . . . “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.”

Romans 3:25. “(Jesus) whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

The words translated atone and atonement used in the NT are strongly related to OT usage. Briefly put, Jesus is the person/place where God passes over our sins without punishing them because of Christ’s sacrifice. Two nouns and one verb point to Jesus as the priest who makes the atonement sacrifice, who is Himself that sacrifice, and even the place where atonement occurs. Everything I need for forgiveness, for the removal of God’s anger, and for atonement and reconciliation with Him is found in Jesus.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. What could be more incredible than having sin forgiven and guilt removed! Knowing that Jesus washed away my sin by shedding His blood and dying for me is the most liberating and wonderful reality! Even in fiction, when I read how people struggle with guilt I want God to open their hearts to this good news: Jesus atoned for all sin and sets us free from guilt and shame. Finding this freedom might not be how authors want their stories to play out, but it is certainly the will of God that no one should perish — He deeply loved this world so much that He sent His only Son to atone for our sin and wash away all that guilt so we could be reconciled to Him and set free from sin’s awful power. Thank You, Jesus.