Christ Our Propitiation

Please don’t let that title scare you off. That is a beautiful and profound word.

Christ’s death turns away the wrath of God. The apostle Paul said Christ is our propitiation. He is a propitiatory sacrifice. It refers to what Christ did on our behalf before God.

We are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:24-25).

God gave His Son as the means of the propitiation, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). “In this is love, 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). A. T. Robertson said, “God could not let sin go as if a mere slip. God demanded the atonement and provided it.” It was “by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9).

The word “propitiate” in its classical form was used of the act of appeasing the Greek gods by a sacrifice, of rendering them favorable toward the worshipper. The sacrifice was offered by the pagan worshiper to buy off the anger of the god and buy his love. Note very carefully that this idea is not brought over into the New Testament. The LORD God does not need to be appeased nor is His love for sale.

In the New Testament it refers to the act of getting rid of sin which has come between God and man. The word hilasterion is used in the Greek translation of Leviticus 16:14 to refer to the golden cover on top of the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark, below this lid, were placed the tablets of stone upon which were written the Ten Commandments, which Israel had violated. On the Day of Atonement before the Ark stood the High Priest representing the people who had sinned. When the sacrificial blood is sprinkled on this cover, it ceases to be a place of judgment and becomes a place of mercy. The blood comes between the violated law and the violators, the people. The blood of Jesus satisfies the just requirements of God’s holy law which mankind broke, pays the penalty for man, and thus removes that which had separated between a holy God and sinful man, sin, its guilt and penalty. This is far removed from the pagan idea of propitiation. Jesus Christ is God’s High Priest who was both the Mercy Seat and the Sacrifice, which transforms the former from a judgment seat to one where mercy is offered a sinner on the basis of justice satisfied.

Bengel observed that God, “’placed before the eyes of all’ unlike the ark of the covenant which was veiled and approached only by the high priest.”

The LORD God set forth His Son, the Lord Jesus, as the One who would be the satisfaction for our sins. Because God is satisfied with the payment of the sin debt, His wrath is turned aside, away from the believing sinner. Christ absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf. He bore our punishment as our substitute.

When God looked down upon the sacrifice He judged man guilty, the payment was paid in full, and in His righteousness could therefore acquit the believing sinner who put His trust in the Lamb of God. That mercy seat is the place were God met man in His grace since the sacrifice turned away the wrath of God because His righteousness was satisfied. The guilty sinner is spared because of the death of Christ in our place. When God looks down upon the believing sinner He sees not our sins and guilt, but the blood of Jesus. He is our expiatory sacrifice that satisfied the righteousness of God. His death paid our debt in full and a holy God was satisfied.

All of the lambs in the sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to God’s perfect Lamb who would wholly remove our death penalty.

How do we know this is all true? We know we can trust God because a holy and righteous God tore the veil in the temple from top to the bottom. The moment Christ died it was like God the Father reached in and took hold of His outer garment and tore it from the top to the bottom in His mourning for His only Son. God tore the veil in two to open the way into His presence for all who believe on His Son as their sinless sacrifice who died as their propitiation. Bloody sacrifices came to an end in the temple because the death of Christ alone met all the holy demands of a thrice-holy God.

Have you placed your trust in God’s Lamb?

Or My Nothing.

Jesus is either my all or my nothing. He will accept nothing less. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

As Though I am Working For

I work willingly at whatever I do, as though I am working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give me an inheritance as my reward, and that the Master I am serving is Christ. Colossians 3:23-24 The Holy Bible, The New Living Translation

Today I commit everything I do into the Lords hands. That He will guide me on where and how to serve Him. That He will bless me with the tools to succeed. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Prayer: Please Holy Spirit always remind me the one I am serving is Jesus not man. I honestly request this in the name of the King I dedicate my life to serving, Jesus Christ. Amen

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you. indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it.

This photo and article @ Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah 2023 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it but it may not be sold without authors consent

“Christ Much and Christ More”

 Have you ever thought what it would be like if you could not die? How terrible it would be if your body had wasted away with a terrible disease and you could not die. I have conducted many funerals when loved ones have reluctantly said the deceased was better off because he was no longer suffering.

On the other hand, Francis Bacon echoed the attitude of many when he said, “men fear death as children fear the dark.” Apart from an intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ no man is prepared for his encounter with death.

Moreover, death for the believer in Christ is presented in the Bible as an improvement over the very best in this life. How wonderful it would be if Jesus came for us on the very best day this life could offer when everything is going great. It would not be a terrible tragedy. The Apostle Paul’s life was full and he could write, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 2:21 NET).

Paul did not say his death would be “better by far” because he wanted to escape this life. The death of the Christian is never portrayed as an escape or improvement on the worst of life.

The heartbeat of Paul’s life was Christ. “For to me to live is Christ and to die is better yet.” Christ was everything to Him.

H. C. G. Moule with keen insight said, “Life and death . . . look to him like two immense blessings, of which he knows not which is the better. On either side of the veil, Jesus Christ is all things to him.” The only difference will be that “on the other side” everything Paul longed for in this life “in Christ” will be more perfectly realized there.

The apostle’s desire was to “depart” and be with Christ. He had tasted the delights of God’s righteousness and longed for freedom from evil that he would never have in this life on the earth. He would know perfect freedom.

For the Christian death will be freedom from all sin, pain, suffering, persecution, cares, etc.

I am sure the apostle Paul had in mind that this freedom would mean that finally he would be like Christ in His perfect righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). Crowned with His righteousness! It is not our self-righteousness, but our being clothed in righteousness that Christ imputes to us (2 Cor. 5:21).

We will know him as he is known. Every spiritual truth that has puzzled us in this life will be clearly revealed to us in Christ. In that day we will know as he knows (1 Cor. 13:12).

But the blessed thought, most precious of all is we will be with him. Every born again believer will be with Christ. Yes, we know him and he is with us in our present life, but oh the fullness of our knowledge of him and his wonderful, glorious presence when we are with him clothed and crowned with his righteousness!

The Psalmist said, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15 NASB).

For the unbeliever death is an eternal separation from a righteous, loving God. It is something to be feared and dreaded. However, for the believer death is just the opposite; it is also precious to the believer just as it is to God. There will be no separation from him.

Moule says it well. For Paul it was a dilemma “between Christ and Christ, Christ much and Christ more, Christ by faith and Christ by sight.” And that is our dilemma, too.

As you read these words is it true of you? Do you long to be like Christ? Do you long to see Him in all His gory? Do you earnestly desire to be perfect as he is perfect?

The apostle John said, “And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure” (1 John 3:3 NET).

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Jesus Will Repay.

And all thou spendest, Jesus will repay. Mary Ann Thompson

Yes We All go Through That

Yes we all go through that experience of fear no matter how long we have walked with Christ.

But He will calm our fears by reminding us of how He walked through difficult and dangerous times before, He will send a brother or sister to encourage us with their reflections on how Jesus walked through the tough and dangerous times with them and or He will assure us through Bible verses. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Is Not Living According To

Being a Christian is not living according to a creed nor a religion but in walking daily with Christ. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Christian Perfection (2)

It is true that we will never be perfect in this life, but the perfections outlined by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are still those for which we should aim and that we should increasingly attain by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We are to aim at Christ-like character.  Jesus said, “Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

How good must a person be to stay saved?

I am a sinner.  Nothing I will do will ever be perfect.  What can I do to be saved and to keep saved?  Since self-efforts will not save us, we must receive the perfect righteousness that God has provided in the atoning substitutionary death of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Only the LORD God is perfect, and He works to perfect sinful man.

How does God work to perfect sinners?  There are three Biblical facts we must keep clearly in mind.

1.  We are sinners, and there is no denying that fact.  Sin is an offense against God, and He cannot ignore it.  Sin has to be dealt with completely according to His just standards.  This is why God the Father sent God the Son to die for our sins. Jesus bore the penalty for our sins in full, and canceled all claims of God’s justice against the believing sinner forever. God punished our sins on the cross of Jesus.  “By one sacrifice Christ has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).  Have you believed on Jesus Christ as your Savior?

How perfect must a Christian be?  The Christian believer must guide his life by the perfect, ethical standard of Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, “You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).

2.  The second principle we must keep in mind is that from the moment we believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior, God begins a work in us to perfect us in this life.  At the new birth, we are given a perfect standing before God in one sense, but it is also true that we are far from perfect in our daily life.

The apostle Paul distinguishes between two ways the word “perfect” is used in the New Testament.  In Philippians 3:12 he writes, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12).  Paul has in mind here absolute perfection – God’s perfect standard, absolute spiritual maturity, fully-grown just like Jesus Christ.  It is the same idea that Jesus Christ spoke of in Matt. 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

In the next sentence Paul tells us that even though he has already been declared acquitted before God on the basis of his faith in the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, he is still in the need of practical daily work of being perfected in Jesus Christ.  “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained” (Philippians 3:13-16).

“Perfect” in verse fifteen is a relative, spiritual maturity, indicating the stages of growth, hence, perfect in growth at certain stages.  Even as an elderly Christian, Paul had not arrived to sinless perfection, but he did not give up, and make excuses for sins.  All of his guilt is covered by the payment of Christ on the cross.  The penalty has been removed, but God is still at work in his daily practice of holiness.  Paul is not getting better and better so that one day he can say he is without sin in his daily life.  God has provided for us in His saving grace a provision for cleansing of sin and restoration of fellowship in the Christian’s life (I John 1:8).

3.  Our ultimate sanctification or what the Bible calls glorification will take place when we are presented perfect just like Jesus Christ, and it will take place in the moment of our death.  God’s work of perfecting the saints will take place when we see Jesus in glory and not before then.  At that moment we will be presented to God the Father sinless and complete (1 John 3:1-3).  We never know that perfection in this life.  We will in the likeness of Christ be pure and holy in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, wisdom, humility, obedience, etc.

What God began in your new birth, He will continue to work on throughout this life until He has perfected us and presents us perfect to the Father.  What God begins, He always finishes (Phil. 1:6; Rom. 8:24-29).  God will not give up on any born again believer.  He will keep on perfecting us until the day when Christ comes for us.

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you.

indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

Christian Perfection (I)

How good does a person have to be in order to be saved? Perhaps we can best answer that question by asking, how perfect is God?

Jesus said, “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

The LORD God told the children of Israel, “You shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2; cf. Deut. 18:13).

The Hebrew word tam or tamim means to be “without defect” or “without blemish.” The Hebrew sacrifices had to be “without blemish,” spotless and entirely without defect (Exodus 12:5; 29:1; 1 Pet. 1:19; Eph. 5:27). Another word shalem means “whole” or “complete.” That which is without defect or blemish is complete.

God’s righteous standard never changes because He does not change. God is the perfect standard or He would not be God.

Jesus used the word “perfect” (teleioi from telos) meaning end, goal, limit. It is the absolute standard of our heavenly Father. Such a person is perfect or fully developed “in a moral sense.” Therefore, in the moral realm it means “blameless.”

Jesus is the perfect example of that divine standard (1 Peter 2:21-25).

The word “holy” in Leviticus 19:2 gives us the reason for the sacrifices under the Mosaic law. God is holy and man is a sinner. Sin separates man from God. The source of our sanctification is “the LORD who sanctifies you” (20:8). The meaning is to set apart or separate.

God’s standard for man is complete, perfect, moral rectitude. To be acceptable to God every human being must be as blameless and sinless as Jesus Christ.

That standard of righteousness creates a moral and spiritual crisis for all mankind. The Bible tells us we have all sinned and fall short of such moral perfection. “There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God’s standard is a clean heart and it is evident from studying the Sermon on the Mount that no one can live up to its demands (cf. Matt. 5:20-25, 27). The center of our personality condemns us. Jesus said, “Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornicators, thefts, false witnesses, slanders,” etc. (15:18-20). It is the heart that has to be changed (2 Cor. 5:17).

I have a problem. I am a sinner. But my problem is even greater than I ever imagined. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Our sinning can be illustrated by an archer shooting his arrows from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Central America, at the North Pole. He will miss it every time. It will always fall short. No one will ever get to heaven by his or her own efforts because we miss God’s perfect standard.

God never lowers His standards to accommodate sinful man. His absolute holiness is the standard. He will not accept half-way or half-hearted obedience. God is infinite in His perfections.  Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  We are to be “brought to completion, full-grown, lacking in nothing.”

How can that be since what has been written describes me?  Great!  Because that is why Jesus Christ went to the cross and died as a sacrifice for sin.  “The wages of sin is death,” and Jesus died your death on the cross.  Based on the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus Christ as our substitute, God can now save us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  God credits to our account the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.  God dealt in full with our penalty by sending Christ to the cross to die for us.  When we believed on Christ, God the Father and Judge declared us acquitted based on the saving work of Christ.

Every Christian struggles with holiness in his life, and all of us will until we see Jesus Christ face to face (Phil. 3:12-16).

God makes us holy by changing us from the inside out (2 Cor. 3:18).  It is a progressive sanctification, not a once-for all sinless perfection before we die.

The ultimate goal of the believer is to live in harmony with Matthew 5:48, and “to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.”

We will be established “unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (I Thess. 3:13).

It is to those who strive to attain the goal that the victory is assured.  We will reach the ideal goal of perfection when we see Jesus in glory.  It will be the perfect gift to the believer (Psa. 17:15); Phil. 1:6; 3:12; II Tim. 4:7, 8; Rev. 21:27; 7:14).

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you.

indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

To the Comfort Animals

I pray I can be almost as good of a care giver to the comfort animals Poppa has blessed us with as He is with me. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah