Propitiation

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

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 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 4:9-10)

One of the words that has become a real problem for those wanting to understand the truth about God's justice and character shows up in these verses. In fact, these two verses are the only place this word shows up in the Bible unless you include the Greek Old Testament where it is translated 'atonement'.

The problem with the way this word is currently used commonly by most theologians and teachers is that it strongly implies that God is, or at least was, in desperate need of appeasement for the offense that our sins caused inside of Him. This appeasement model of salvation is pervasive throughout most of Christianity and also shows up in nearly every other major world religion. However, as I have been learning over recent years this contradicts the clear teachings of Jesus Himself who said unequivocally that there is no difference between Him and the Father.

This clear statement of Jesus presents a powerful argument against the appeasement model which raises all sorts of questions about the real meaning and purpose of the cross of Christ along with how to explain this word propitiation that John uses here. John, more than any of the other disciples, seemed to grasp the true mission and spirit of Jesus and sought to convey that more clearly than any other Bible writer. That is why it seems so incongruent for John to suddenly insert into a letter filled with some of the clearest statements about the purity of God's agape love such a word that many would imply reinforces something different than pure love, unless one is willing to compromise the purity of the definition of agape love.

It is extremely important to approach this study with an open mind and heart and to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to discern the truth about Jesus in light of what He Himself taught about God rather than relying on our preconceived notions tainted by centuries of dark assumptions about God. What does this word actually mean and what did John have in mind when He made these statements about Jesus? It is important that this confusion be cleared in our thinking if we are to have confidence in the day of judgment as John asserts we need in 1 John 4:17.

As usual, I start with Strong's definition of the Greek word behind the term used and find this:

hilasmos - atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator: –propitiation (Strong's)

Atonement is another word that carries quite a bit of baggage with it similar to propitiation. However there is actually more clarity in this word if its roots are carefully unpacked. This word comes from two English words one of which is very old and obsolete. The obsolete word was 'one' which back in those days was used as a verb. A usage of this word could have been, “I am going to go over to my neighbor and one them with me.” This word 'one' literally meant to resolve differences, to reconcile, to restore peace and harmony between two individuals who had tension or offenses between them. Thus, the current word atonement literally means to bring into harmony two parties that were not in harmony before. This is exactly what Paul spoke of when he talked about our need to reconcile with God.

I looked up the word expiate from Strong's definition on the internet and found this definition:

expiate - to atone for; make amends or reparation for: to expiate one's crimes. (Dictionary.com)

This reflects the common usage of these terms which is no surprise, for that is exactly what dictionaries claim to do, to explain the most common meanings that currently are assumed for words that we use today. But just because the majority of people assume a word means something in no way should be taken to mean that our current understanding of a word is what God intended it to mean thousands of years ago in a different language. I always have to question the real meaning of any word that interferes with the singular truth about what God is like that Jesus came to reveal to the universe.

This is what John has to say in his first letter:

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1 John 1:5; 4:8, 18)

From John's perspective, light and love are synonymous. Because of this there can be nothing in God that in any way resembles or employs the dark ways of His accuser. God does not participate in violence; He does not take offense, for offenses themselves are sin and in God is no sin. Therefore, God has no need to let go of any offense over sin because He has never taken offense to start with.

Most of the problems we have with legal-sounding terms in the New Testament is because many of those words were not actually translated from Greek but were borrowed from Latin versions of the Bible. And Latin is literally the language of law, so it is no surprise that using Latin to convey ideas that did not originate in that language is going to skew our perceptions of what the original author may have been trying to say. Let me go a bit farther in my search for the true meaning of this word propitiation to discover significant clues as to what John was really trying to say here. Following is a definition I found online that exposes the earlier meaning of this Latin word.

propitiation

late 14c., from L.L. propitiationem (nom. propitiatio) "an atonement," from L. propitiare "render favorable," from propitius "favorable, gracious, kind," from pro- "forward" + petere "go to" (see petition). Earliest recorded form of the word is propitiatorium "the mercy

seat, place of atonement" (c.1200), translating Gk. hilasterion.

propitiation. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/propitiation (accessed: August 21, 2012).

When this definition, the mercy seat, is applied to explain the word propitiation, a whole new door is opened up to understand what John was really trying to say about the mission and purpose of Jesus' death. A good understanding of the Old Testament sanctuary and its services is very helpful to know what this is talking about, for the symbols embedded in that system reveal enormous truths about the whole plan of salvation that are often misunderstood. But even more important is that we examine the sanctuary system from the perspective of first immersing ourselves in the teachings and life of Jesus and what He said about His Father so that the symbols and protocol carried out in the sanctuary services that were shadows of Jesus and His ministry for us with God can be more clearly perceived.

Without going into great detail at this point, the Mercy Seat was the central place on the most sacred piece of furniture in the whole sanctuary, located in the Most Holy Place where the most intense revelation of God's presence was manifested. It was on top of the Ark of the Covenant which had underneath its lid (the Mercy Seat) the (1) 10 Commandment Law on the tables of stone, (2) the Rod of Aaron that had budded miraculously and (3) a jar of Manna preserved from the time when God had provided food every day for the Children of Israel when they were wandering around in the desert for forty years.

Once a year on the most important and solemn day in the whole Jewish calendar called the Day of Atonement, the high priest after going through a routine of thorough ritual and physical cleansing took blood from a sacrifice representing the sins of all the people from the whole year into the Most Holy place. There in the intense presence of the Almighty God the priest sprinkled this blood of Atonement on the Mercy Seat to represent the cleansing of the sins of all God's people who had likewise gone through a number of days of ritual cleansing and heart searching to putting away of all sin and ill feelings from their own hearts. This was to bring about at-one-ment between God and His people.

This whole process was representative of humanity's desperate need to be restored back into trust and harmony with the Holy God from which we have been estranged so that we can be reconnected fully to the Source of life from which we have been largely alienated since Adam sinned in Eden. This Mercy Seat demonstration in the sanctuary service was to reveal to us one of the most important elements of Jesus' ministry for humanity. But unless we understand Jesus' relationship to the Father and believe Jesus' own words that the Father feels no different about us than Jesus does, we will be susceptible to false insinuations about God that will confuse us at best and will generate fear in our hearts instead of the necessary trust and love that John speaks so urgently about in his letters.

If we substitute the phrase mercy seat in place of the word propitiation in these verses, it starts to become easier to see what John was trying to say about the purpose and motives that prompted Jesus to lay down His life on the cross. In no way was Jesus seeking to appease an angry, offended Deity in heaven like the pagans believed about their gods. Rather, Jesus was seeking to appease an angry, offended humanity that was filled with resentment, bitterness and hostility toward a God they had been led to believe had threatened to use violence against them and whom they blamed for all the pain and suffering taking place in this world.

The blood of an atonement offering sprinkled on the Mercy Seat represented the blood of Jesus splattered over the ground and all over the cross and even over the streets of Jerusalem when angry sinners had finally gotten their hands on the God they hated so deeply as they vented their rage against Him in every way they could to intensify His suffering. Yet to the amazement of all who were thinking at all by the time it was over, it was noticed that throughout all of that ordeal they had never been able to entice or induce even one hint of resentment, bitterness or desire for revenge on the part of Jesus. (see 1 Peter 2:21-24)

The cross of Christ is the clearest demonstration of the non-violence of God. The cross of Christ reveals that nothing we can ever do to hurt God can in any way diminish His passionate love for us in the slightest. The cross of Christ and the spirit He demonstrated toward all of His enemies clearly reveals that God never takes offense but rather has always viewed all of us with nothing but pure compassion, love and forgiveness even while we were His enemies.

Learning the LIght

So Jesus said to them, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light." (John 12:35-36)

Just pondering these words and noticing the three points highlighted here is so profound I want to just absorb it without analysis for awhile. I sense that there is so much about to explode into my heart and mind from this that I need to adjust my thinking so as to be as open as possible and not prevent my heart from catching anything the Holy Spirit may want to share with me. (Selah)

What is even more fascinating is the immediate context for these statements. These words of Jesus seem almost disconnected from the questions directed at Him related to His previous comments. On the surface at least, it appears that Jesus is intentionally ignoring the doubting questions of those who insistently seek to deny the truth about His divinity. That in itself is a powerful lesson for me to learn.

So often I feel compelled to answer people's questions directly. Yet I have learned – or should have learned by now – that too often people's questions can be temptations or manipulations to draw me into an endless argument which has no outlet but darkness. I have become more aware as of late of the vital importance of paying attention to the condition of the spirit, both my own and that of those I am interacting with if I want to keep my inner peace. There simply are too many potholes in which I can receive injury and drop into shame needlessly by getting entangled in quibbling over things that can be simply diversions to pursuing a saving relationship with my Savior.

Many of these diversions are all too familiar to me as many of them were the mainstream issues of debate and teaching during my formative years. I now have so much to unlearn from religion and so much to learn from Jesus that I simply cannot afford to waste my time arguing about things that are clearly rooted on fear rather than faith. That BS detector has proved extremely useful for me for analyzing whether something is worth discussing or whether it is a diversion to keep me preoccupied while my spirit is being poisoned at the same time. If I sense that a person is motivated primarily by fear and is seeking to impose that fear on me, I immediately feel alerted to my need to seek a higher perspective and be reminded of the many things I am being taught from God that give me a completely new view of reality and my own identity in Christ.

The people around Jesus wanted to draw Him into a debate about popular beliefs about the Messiah. Their misconceptions about what the Messiah was supposed to be like and what he was supposed to do was the main reason that most people rejected Jesus as being the right one to fulfill that role. The life and teachings of Jesus were so radically out of sync with their Scripture based opinions about their expected Messiah that most simply could not see how He could be considered a viable candidate to fulfill those prophecies. Many of them had read the Scriptures and knew what they said, but their hearts had been so darkened by religious assumptions that they refused to challenge, that they simply could not reconcile the radical discrepancies between Jesus and their expectations of a deliverer.

The more I have been learning about the true character and nature of God the more I see that we are little if any different today. Every system and version of religion that I know of today carries similar baggage and prejudices as those that so blinded the Jews of Jesus' day. And those prejudices so hardened their hearts that at times Jesus simply turned away from even discussing them as He did at this point in His conversation with them. Rather than be drawn into arguing over the validity or accuracy of their opinions about the Messiah, He simply dropped down to the real issue that lay beneath the problem of their misunderstanding and tried to speak to their hearts instead of just their head. He began to warn them about the dangers of clinging to traditional interpretations and prejudices instead of opening their minds and hearts to view things in a completely new perspective as He had been seeking to share with them for so long.

Interestingly I have found myself in a similar situation just in the past few days. I got caught up in an online discussion with a group of people who long to learn and share much more about the emerging truths of God's character. I share that same passion and so I was drawn into a discussion that emerged among them via emails about a book that one of them had written. I have not read much of that book yet, but what I have read seems to be interesting at least and I intend to go further as I find the time.

However, in this discussion the apparent leader of this think group began to try to discredit the book and warn people that he believed it contained false information. The tenor of his comments disturbed me and particularly because he never presented any valid evidence of what he disagreed with in the book. He simply inferred that there were points in the book that he felt could not be substantiated and that his personal views about a technical difference were the only views acceptable.

I hesitated at first to get involved, but since I had initiated a relationship with this man a few months ago and had become somewhat acquainted with him as a result, and also because we have just finished an intensive study of Matthew 18 in our church that lasted over three months in which it became clear how Jesus wants us to resolve differences, I decided to take the risk and send a private email to this man appealing for him to be a bit more gracious and humble in the way he was writing about those with whom he disagreed.

The response I received from him gave me mixed feelings about what was going on in his mind and heart. But I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and continued to read with interest the intensifying debate between a number of his friends about the book. One of them very helpfully condensed the opinions of each person involved in the debate so at last I could figure out what the real issues were in plain words. But when I saw what was being contended it became more apparent that this leader seemed to have a spirit of contention that was all too familiar to me from people in my own past. I can all too readily recognize that spirit of divisiveness and subtle pride cloaking itself as humility but that is really religious arrogance. I am not saying this to judge anyone but simply from observing that spirit in all too many people I have known from my past.

The problem that immediately arises is that I am all too vulnerable to having that same spirit myself. We detect most readily in others the issues that are often unresolved in our own hearts and I am keenly aware of that. How to approach someone per the instructions of Jesus in Matthew 18 to seek resolution while avoiding being triggered to reflect the same spirit requires a great deal of prayer, humbling and intense communication with the Spirit of God for a higher perspective and a right spirit beyond what comes naturally. It is so easy to judge someone who is judging you or others but it takes divine wisdom and close dependence on the Spirit of Jesus to adopt a spirit that is humble enough to not become triggered by the potential ignitions that may result from approaching someone about their faults.

When it became evident in the email discussions that this brother was unwilling to alter his tone and was agitating others and creating distress, I reluctantly decided to try one more time to appeal to him to reconsider his tone and spirit. I had no interest in getting involved about the facts of the debate as to whether they were true or not, but rather I wanted to point out that the spirit in the hearts of those involved were far more important than the accuracy of facts, as important as that can be. This time I sent the email to all involved and prayed my way through it with great trepidation seeking to humble myself as much as possible while composing it.

What resulted was almost surprising. Several people immediately responded with joy and relief and appreciation which made me feel affirmed and encouraged. To my amazement the one who had written the book and was under the most attack responded by accepting all the blame for what the other antagonist was doing as if he had been the one at fault. But sadly the main person creating the tension reacted defensively again as he had done each time previously. At that point I decided my input was enough for a group of people I had never even met and felt it was time to go back to observer status.

The next morning which happened to be Sabbath during my meditations with God I collected a number of verses that were emerging in my mind as personal encouragement for my own heart. I had no intention or thought of sharing them with anyone else, but as I finished I felt impressed to simply post them to this group as a neutral offer of encouragement for any who might be open to it.

What happened next greatly saddened me. Instead of taking it at face value as simply a list of interesting and potentially encouraging Scriptures, the leader who has been defending himself insistently from the very beginning and blaming everyone else for all the problems, sent me a return email strongly suggesting that I am in great danger of being deceived by worldly delusions involving meditation and other like issues popularly being attacked by conservative critics today. I immediately sensed that I was coming into the crosshairs of a potential avalanche of criticism from a person who may likely indulge in this on a regular basis and that the best way to deal with it was to not fuel the attack by any response. I do not want to become defensive for I know that anything I say will only be used to attack me further. I am all too familiar with that technique by those who's spirit is reflective of the great accuser of the brethren.

As I read this passage this morning I felt God reaffirming this lesson for me, for Jesus had to deal with critics constantly and is the perfect pattern of how to relate to such people. Only the Holy Spirit from Jesus can give us the wisdom and peace and keep us in the rest that God has for those who trust in Him. I do not want to allow anyone to steal the growing peace that I am enjoying in God, and those who insist on dwelling on a spirit of fear and want to infect others with that debilitating spirit, I need to avoid getting involved with whenever possible.

These words of Jesus are a warning and admonition to my own heart in my present circumstances. He has been reminding me lately that the many things He has been sharing with me from the Word and other sources about His true nature and how He relates to us are not just exciting pieces of cognitive information to collect and share with others. These things must transform my own heart and the way I relate to situations and people if I am to be changed by them and not lose them. I must not just learn the wonderful truth about God's character but I must allow that truth to be worked out in my choices each day. I must walk in the light while I am being blessed with increasing light before events in this world make it much more difficult to see the light.

By choosing to walk, or act on the light of emerging truth and seeking to open my heart to embrace and believe at the deepest level these stunning revelations about God that I have been learning, the result will be – according to Jesus' own words – that I can become a son of the Light. I like that. I find that encouraging and it inspires hope in my heart that He will finish the work He is doing in me.

The Alternative to Forgiveness

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. (John 3:14-21 NRSV)

This concept of reversing magnetism in relation to debts or offenses that we have been learning about is still opening up new insights to me. The concept of proportional repulsion or attraction that is linked to the level of the original debt which of course is reversed by an equal amount of forgiveness has even more interesting and compelling implications.

Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little. (Luke 7:47 NRSV)

If a person owes a great debt and is forgiven as was the case with the debtor in Matthew 18, there is potential for an enormously powerful attraction if the forgiveness is believed and embraced. Unfortunately that debtor never embraced the reality of his forgiveness and as a result his sense of obligation was never relieved.

This is what alerts me to another effect of this principle. Even though the tension pushing them apart was very high because of the enormity of the debt and that tension was intended to be transformed into an equally compelling attraction through the reversing power of forgiveness on the part of the king, because there was no faith exercised by the debtor he never entered into the bonding that the king had intended for him.

This is telling me that the key ingredient in this transforming act of forgiveness is the faith of the person being forgiven – faith in the person who has forgiven them.

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God... (Hebrews 6:1)

If a person refuses to believe in the forgiveness,

then by default he is choosing to believe the opposite which only

continues the offense and even deepens it.

Unbelief is really clinging to suspicions about the character and intentions of the creditor.

In addition the person rejecting the reality of the forgiveness is

going to feel even more guilt, shame and condemnation.

But this is not because they are no longer forgiven but rather that

in their mind the opinion about the one forgiving them is propelled into even deeper suspicion.

They are quickly moving away from reality and in their deceived mind the only option left is to believe evil about the person seeking reconciliation. This is what the Bible terms the hardening of the heart.

Now I am seeing that the principle of proportion is still at work. Originally this principle can describe the proportion of love and affection as linked to the level of forgiveness experienced as we saw with Jesus' reference to Mary and Simon.

But when forgiveness is refused through unbelief then

the law of proportion works in the reverse direction.

When our mind insists that we are not really forgiven after we have been educated that we are,

then we will experience some or all of the following symptoms and many more.

We will go into deep denial that we owe any debt whatsoever and simply try to blot it out of our thinking. Of course this is hard to do when evidences of the facts keep haunting us and especially when we get around the person whom we have rejected.

We may fall into deep despair and feel terror of impending punishment.

We may become paralyzed with fear and become paranoid about even little things as we suffer from the consequences of living outside of grace.

For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27 NRSV)

We may also try to suffocate our feelings of fear and guilt by

throwing ourselves into a frenzy of work to pay off our debt even though if we were rational (which is less and less under these circumstances) we know that this is an absolute impossibility. Apparently that is what this debtor tried to do.

However, any and all of these options will still leave us experiencing

the principle of proportional suffering determined by the size of our debt.

Yet sadly all of these things are completely needless

because forgiveness is a continuous reality that is always present and we can embrace it at any moment.

This is exactly what causes much of our problem with God.

Because most of us believe that forgiveness is conditional with God

we are trying to work off our debts to Him and

are living in unbelief about His assurances of forgiveness.

Some of us live in constant terror of punishment and

many Christians assume that this is supposed to be normal.

We have embraced the lies about God circulated by His great accuser and

we suppose that God wants to keep a certain level of fear in our hearts

to motivate us to keep in line with His rules.

But this is a scheme of the enemy to prevent us from entering into the rest and the love that Jesus came to give us.

The real problem is that as long as we cling to our false ideas

we often absorb from religion or culture about God and salvation,

we are really storing up the very fuel of wrath inside of ourselves

that will serve to destroy us when the real loving God shows up in person.

But because we cling to false assumptions about Him,

then when we see His passionate love up close

we will feel that our greatest fears are confirmed for

we will interpret the passion we see on His face as anger instead of love and forgiveness.

This is what is behind the cry of those who have clung to lies about Him as recorded in Revelation who are calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. (Revelation 6:16 NRSV)

Truly our greatest danger is unbelief.

Unbelief in the reality of forgiveness prevents us from experiencing the magnetic drawing of our gracious God into deep bonding with His passionate heart of love.

Unbelief in the truth about how God feels about us and how He treats sinners blocks us from properly interpreting the passion on His face.

Unbelief hardens our hearts and distorts our perceptions of reality until our thinking becomes completely backwards from what is real.

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light...

So what is your story? Who has been cruel to you? Perhaps bitterly cruel. What injustice have you suffered? How have you been mistreated? Perhaps miserably so. Who has cheated you? Abused you? Mistreated you? Lied to you? Lied about you? Maybe it was last week. Maybe it was a lifetime ago. As you remember your suffered injustice, how does it affect the way you view the future? Or let me put it another way: What are you waiting for? Are you waiting to get even? A chance for payback? An opportunity to exact your revenge? If so, you have no future.

You may get even, you may achieve payback, you may gain your revenge, but you will stay forever chained to the injustice done to you. You are in danger of forming your identity around your injustice in such a way that it forever shapes your future. Even if you get even, you will still drag that ball and chain with you. In looking for an opportunity to be cruel to the person who was cruel to you, you will become a cruel person. And in becoming a cruel person, your cruelty will, in all likelihood, not be limited to the person or persons who have treated you cruelly. In seeking the opportunity to repay cruelty with cruelty, cruelty will become your identity, your lifestyle, and your character. Tragically, you will do the very thing you hate: you will inflict cruel injustice upon others.

Worse yet, you will become the very thing you hate. This is how evil perpetuates itself. This is how evil moves from host to host until the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Evil is only defeated when someone absorbs the blow and forgives, thus ending the cycle of evil. Absorbing the blow without retaliation by exercising the option to forgive is not weakness or acquiescence with injustice; it is taking up your cross and following Jesus. It is following Jesus to Calvary, and there ending evil through the triumph of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not weakness; it is the power of God – the power of God to overcome evil by depriving evil of a host for retaliation. (Unconditional p.83-84)

And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. (Matthew 18:34-35)

The choice is ours – yours and mine.

Our choice will be influenced and will in turn shape our views of how God views us and treats us.

Our choice in this matter determines our eternal destiny, not because God will punish or reward us but because there are natural principles at work here that have their unavoidable consequences.

Belief in the truth as it is in Jesus will unlock our heart

and will use the principle of proportions to draw us inexorably into

the atmosphere of heaven where real healing will begin.

Our assurance of how much we are really loved and forgiven will work

to effect real transformation from the inside out.

Belief opens our heart to feel the passion of God firsthand

which in turn energizes us to feel more alive, to feel worth and value and discover our true identity as designed by God.

Belief allows Jesus to enter into and permeate our lives,

to dwell in us and to impart His divine nature into our humanity

so that His life will be reproduced in our daily lives and in our interactions with others.

Forgiveness is a reality that is irrevocable.

God's love for us is a constant reality that is unstoppable, unavoidable and cannot be diminished.

The deciding factor that determines whether we will enter into abundant life

or will experience our greatest fears is our choice of how we will respond to these truths.

The power of our mind to create an alternative reality is amazing and the decisions we make each day about how we will relate to God's offer to transform us is what will shape our opinions about Him which in turn affects our future decisions about Him.

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:31)

Casting Out the Counterfeit

"Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. (John 12:31-33)

After exposing myself to an in-depth intensive on Matthew 18 for the past 3-4 months this passage takes on significantly deeper meaning. My recent study has opened my mind up to a clearer understanding of the real issues surrounding the death of Jesus and has also unmasked some of the confusing assertions that people have believed about the cross.

These verses come on the heels of an event that many also struggle to make sense of in the story of Jesus. Some Greeks had come wanting to have an encounter with Jesus and then Jesus prays to His Father from a troubled heart. Immediately the Father responds by speaking publicly His affirmation over His Son and the interchange revolves around glorifying the Father's name. Then Jesus begins to speak of evicting the ruler of this world and drawing all to Himself.

I am coming to believe that this truth about the eviction of Satan as the ruler of this world and Jesus replacing him is one of the most misunderstood parts of the gospel. There are so many confusing and conflicting ideas and doctrines surrounding these issues that we are kept largely in the dark about the importance of this. But the reason this is so is because Satan knows that when we begin to take hold of the real truth of what Jesus is speaking of here that he will lose his power and influence over us and he will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening.

In the process of finishing up Matthew 18 the concept of living 'in Christ' has begun to emerge and to take hold of my attention. I have not spent much time researching this concept though I have heard about it off and on for a number of years. But I am beginning to realize that having a correct understanding and even more importantly having a vital experience of living 'in Christ' is the only effective preparation that will be useful for those of us living in these times of the end. It is our woeful lack of awareness about what it really means to be 'in Christ' and to have our lives radically transformed through that relationship that is our greatest danger.

As I began to do some research along this line to discover for myself what this phrase that shows up so many times in the New Testament really means, I started to perceive some very compelling truths about the meanings of a number of key elements in salvation. From heaven's perspective this world has been hijacked and taken over by a spurious representative who claims that he represents all of us as the legitimate leader of this planet. However, his claims to be the head of this world, the rightful ruler of humanity has some serious flaws that have not gone unchallenged. Nevertheless, he has been seemingly successful for thousands of years in maintaining this claim of ownership and rulership through various means of fraud, deception and intimidation – all elements of his counterfeit system of governance.

Because Adam, the original and rightful ruler of this planet, relinquished his role to Satan as the ruler of this world and subsequently died, there was no one else to represent this planet in the councils of heaven. Up until the death of Jesus Satan was able to insert himself into those councils as the rightful representative of this world seemingly successfully, though I suspect he aroused a great deal of mistrust and doubts on the part of most all the rest of the representatives there.

Part of Satan's problems with his claim to be ruler of this planet is that unlike all the other representatives, Satan is not the same order of beings as those he claims to represent. And since Satan is not a human it raises very serious questions about the legitimacy of his claim to represent humans. But his trump card was that since there were no qualified humans able to represent this world and able to make the trip to the heavenly meetings, he was the only one available. And since the legitimate assigned ruler of this world had given over the position to Satan in the beginning, then his credentials had to be accepted even if there were questions surrounding their authenticity. Through deception, fraud and even suppression of the truth Satan was able to maintain his position in the heavenly courts for around 4000 years.

But God had a plan whereby He intended to challenge the validity of Satan's claims to this world and to upstage him and expose the massive scheme whereby Satan had been able to maintain his cruel tyranny over humanity. But for us to properly follow the logic in this intrigue that took place over this planet between Christ and Satan we have to understand some key issues from heaven's standpoint and perceive the real concepts involved in salvation. Otherwise we become confused by the egocentric ideas promoted by religion and instigated by the great deceiver to keep us in the dark about what has really taken place. And more importantly Satan wants above anything else to prevent us from knowing about the great victory Jesus accomplished to rescue us from the tyrannical dominion of Satan's kingdom.

First of all I believe it is important to establish that every kingdom is in reality a dominance over the minds and hearts of people, not an issue of territorial control only. The whole concept of dominion as primarily an issue of territory can be misleading. Unless the individuals who occupy a region are loyal to someone that person asserting control really does not have the control they claim they do. Thus it has been important for Satan's claims to have validity to bring everyone under the dominance of his thinking and his ways of governing so as to validate his claim of being the prince of this world.

From the very beginning of sin there has been a power struggle on this planet over the allegiance issue between God and Satan. And ever since Adam and Eve began to have children and Cain became the human leader of the openly rebellious the vast majority of humans have come down on the side of living selfishly which is Satan's badge of allegiance. Selfishness is the control mechanism implanted into the heart of every human being and passed along genetically that Satan has successfully used to keep in place his claim of legitimacy. Adam and Eve were not created with this trait and so Satan felt that because this virus was so resistant to being eradicated and so successfully passed to every human being that his claims as prince of all those who reflected his basic mindset could stand forever.

One of the core accusations that Satan issued against God long before even this world was created was that the claim of God about being totally selfless and loving was a fraud. Satan has always asserted that selfless, humble, self-sacrificing love was an impossibility and that it did not even exist. He went to great lengths to convince as many as possible of all the intelligent beings that God was really hiding behind this front of claiming to be selfless while all along He was simply manipulating people's perceptions to think He was selfless while all along He was really doing it all for His own benefit.

It is easy to fall into that line of thinking ourselves. When we hear that God wants all of our worship exclusively, it is very easy to begin to wonder about the selflessness of God's character. All of us must have wondered at one time or another about how God can claim to be selflessly loving and yet demand our worship, our affections, our time, our money and our total allegiance. We struggle to explain these things and make them fit into our perceptions of what love means and often end up redefining what love must really be in the process and water down the truth about pure love. This is exactly what Satan wants us to do for it keeps us in the dark about the real truth of God and causes us to view Him with at least some of the same suspicion that caused one third of the angels to abandon their allegiance to God.

But even coming closer to a true understanding intellectually about the issues at stake is not sufficient to release us from the domination of Satan's control over our hearts. The kingdom of darkness has far deeper roots in our souls than any of us can ever imagine and it requires a strategy and a power far greater than any of us yet appreciate to extricate us from the dominion of sin. But this is exactly what Jesus came to do and He fully accomplished that work that He came to do on this earth and wrested the title of representative of this planet away from Satan forever.

But it is extremely helpful to understand the issues involved in our salvation, our deliverance from the kingdom of darkness if we are to actually enter into and experience the victory that Jesus accomplished on our behalf. Otherwise in our ignorance and rebellion we may reject the option of freedom that Jesus created for us at the cost of His life and embrace any one of the many counterfeit explanations that Satan has created to divert us from really being delivered from his control.

There is the issue in question about our representative being of the same order of beings as those they represent.

There is the issue of availability for that representative to actually show up in the councils of heaven.

There is the issue of the acquiescence of those being represented to the one claiming to represent them.

There is the issue of the legitimacy of using coercion and deception verses freedom to choose. Satan claims that since Adam and Eve freely exercised their freedom of choice to let him have their job that this transfer of authority extended to all following generations. But Jesus asserts that that transaction was conducted without full disclosure and was based on fraudulent claims and therefore can be declared null and void.

All of these issues and more are directly discussed in the New Testament rather openly, but because we have not placed them in the right context we have largely missed their significance to the main issue of our salvation and have thought they were just legal details to be argued about by theologians. But these are not matters to be left for others to grapple with in our place but are vital life and death matters that each one of us needs to comprehend and experience. If we are to ever enter into the freedom and joy of the deliverance that Jesus has opened up for us we must get a more accurate understanding of the real issues in the great war that we are caught up in and that affects our destiny for eternity.