Thursday, June 16, 2011

Why Did Jesus Ask John to Baptize Him?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked John to baptize Him? Wasn't He sinless? Wasn't John sent to baptize only people who had repented (Matt. 3:11)? Why this anomaly?

True--Jesus was totally sinless.

True--John was sent to baptize sinners only, and then only if they repented (pastors have no right to baptize people who have not repented!).

When Jesus asked John, he "forbad Him" because he knew He was sinless (vss. 13, 14). It makes more sense for You to baptize me, John said.

As Matthew writes, Jesus gave John a Bible study, extensive, thorough. He explained how the Father had sent Him to be the Lamb of God. As sinners at the sanctuary placed their hands on the head of an innocent lamb and transferred to it their sins, so Jesus was taking upon Himself all the sins of the whole world, "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21), "made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). He put Himself in the place of every sinner, took the guilt upon His own heart. (It wasn't the nails in His hands and feet that killed Him.)

Carrying this load, Jesus experienced repentance in behalf of every sinner. Without joining in our sin, He felt how every sinner feels. He prayed for us all, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." So terrible was the weight of our sin that He hardly felt the physical agony of the crucifixion. He was terribly tempted to conclude that His Father had forsaken Him. That cry of despair was no TV actor's script: "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The death Jesus died was the equivalent of our second death (read Psalm 22). He didn't go to sleep for three days and three nights; "Christ DIED for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3, 4), was resurrected from the DEAD, not from mere sleep, went to hell itself in order to save us from hell itself (Acts 2:27).

All this Jesus had to explain to John, until the prophet could see in Him "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (as he said the next day, John 1:29).

The repentance Jesus experienced in our behalf was not personal, for He had no sin of His own. It had to be a corporate repentance. As we grow closer to Him, we identify with Him. We learn that we have no righteousness inherited by our DNA; the sins of others would be our sins--but for the grace of a Savior, and then we can forgive others as we have been forgiven by Him. We will be like Him--experiencing a corporate repentance.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 15, 2003.

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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A Shared Substitution

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Ask any group of Christians, "Why did Jesus die on His cross?" and they will tell you, "He died as our Substitute." And that's 100% true. But what does it mean? How does that truth make any difference in the way we live?

We say, "He died instead of us," and that's true; He did. If you had been drafted in the American Civil War of 1861-65, you could hire a substitute to take your place and die instead of you; now you can enjoy life while he suffers and his loved ones mourn. "My substitute has taken my place!" It's a vicarious substitution. And you can think of the sacrifice of Christ in that same way. He died instead of you.

But is it a childish way of thinking of His cross? Is it basically egocentric?

The Bible goes far deeper: Christ's sacrifice is also a shared substitution. "I am crucified with Christ," says Galatians 2:20. "We were baptized into Jesus Christ, ... baptized into His death, ... buried with Him by baptism into death, ... plantedtogether with Him in the likeness of His death, ... our old man [the love of self] crucified with Him, ... dead with Christ." If all this is true, then "we shall also live with Him" (Rom. 6:3-8). But only IF.

One is the kindergarten, flower-girl-at-the-wedding idea of substitution--very, very true; but the other is the bride "growing up unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13), prepared to stand with Him side by side in the "marriage of the Lamb." It's a time for divine-human intimacy never before realized by the body of His church.

Apparently the Bridegroom believes the time has come for His people to "grow up." The long delay must weary Him. Does it weary you?

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 1, 2005.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Identifying Yourself With Christ

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

This mini-message is addressed to people who suffer pain.

The kind that the pills don't seem to help.

That keeps you awake at night:

(a) The Lord Jesus Christ is your Co-sufferer: No one ever suffered sharper, more excruciating physical pain than He did while being crucified (yes, the spiritual was so bad He hardly felt the physical pain; but don't minimize the reality that He endured in His physical flesh).

(b) The fact that the history is now past tense doesn't affect the present-tense reality of His identifying Himself with you in your pain: "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them, all the days of old" (Isa. 63:9).

(d) God never intended that humans should experience pain; as Jesus said in His parable of the evil man who sowed tares among the wheat, "an Enemy hath done this" (Matt. 13:28).

(e) By identifying yourself with Jesus, you transmute your lonely vigil with pain into a "fellowship [with Christ] in His sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). To "believe in Jesus" includes close identification with Him in His sufferings.

(f) The idea is not about earning a reward for yourself; it's about comfort for you in your pain now. Forget about any reward; you will be happy now and for eternity just for the joy of any personal "fellowship" with Him you have ever had.

(g) For sure, no matter how much you may hurt in your body, remember that somewhere there is someone who is in greater pain than you are, where their sky is darker, where their hope seems less bright: pray for that person.

(h) Then pray that the Lord may educate you, motivate you, inspire you, equip you, to minister a blessing to that person. The Lord will say to you, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matt. 25:23).

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 2, 2008.

Monday, June 13, 2011

A Clearer "Light"

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

The overwhelming majority of people do not care about Jesus and His "everlasting gospel" of Revelation 14. Especially in places where once upon a time the Holy Spirit worked with great power: Germany (where the Reformation was born), Scotland (where John Knox preached), New England (the Great Awakening), yes, England itself where Anglican churches now stand nearly empty on Sunday mornings and some are even being converted to mosques.

In comparison with how Luther's message shook Europe or how Paul's message turned his "world upside down" (Acts 17:6), our best endeavors today seem to be pale. Everywhere Paul went, one of two things happened: either a riot or a revival--well, wait a moment, he preached in the highly intellectual university city of Athens and not much happened (vss. 16-34). But to be fair we must remember that was the one time that Paul failed to preach what later he preached everywhere--"Christ and Him crucified." When he came to Corinth (1 Cor. 2:1-4) he turned the city "upside down" preaching the cross.

How can God judge modern multitudes who have never seen or heard the message, whose prejudices block all efforts to reach them? We try to preach in Europe and sophisticated America, and very little happens; is God giving up on the "first world"? And will present-day "revivals" in Third World cultures eventually repeat the history of great spiritual movements that have been replaced by pleasure-seeking materialism? Is poverty necessary for the success of the gospel proclamation? If so, it would seem appropriate for the church to pray for a really Great Depression.

But wait a moment: history proves that even disasters don't produce permanent revivals! World War II for example.

Revelation 18:1-4 suggests an answer: a Voice from heaven will indeed reach every honest-hearted person in the world when the message is clarified as "light" that can "lighten the earth with glory." The final work will not be so much noise (a "loud cry"), as clearer "light." God grant us to see it.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 16, 2001.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Learning From Hezekiah

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Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Boy Who Accepted the Call

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

When the little Boy of 12 watched His first Passover at Jerusalem, He wondered what it meant. No one could explain it to Him. He had to reason it out through His inspired mind and conclude that it meant that Someone sinless must come and be sacrificed as the Lamb of God.

What’s amazing is that this teenage Boy did not fight the conviction that He was called to die as the “Lamb of God”!

We know He accepted the call, because the first words we have from His lips were what He said to His mother when she later found Him in the Temple, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). That 12-year-old Boy was dedicated! He was the first of many who have out-thought their parents, and yes, their pastors, in understanding the leading of the Holy Spirit.

That “Boy” stayed dedicated to His Father’s “business” until He “set His face” to go to Jerusalem to be crucified (see Luke 9:51).

There are in the world today many teens who likewise hear and respond to the call of the Holy Spirit to dedicate themselves to the Lord Jesus. The nation’s religious leaders in the Temple in Jerusalem had no idea what was happening up in Nazareth in Galilee, while this Teen was growing up and while He was working as a carpenter. The Holy Spirit was teaching Him.

So there are youth today, some as young as 12, who are thinking very seriously, and responding to the Holy Spirit very deeply. They may be 144,000 in number!

Let them ponder that Youth of 12. He does not impose upon them the heavy burdens of Old Covenant living; He invites them to fellowship with Himself in joyous New Covenant freedom. Theirs will be the once-forever joy of proclaiming the message that will lighten the earth with glory (Rev. 18:1-4).

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 24, 2007.

Friday, June 10, 2011

The Day When Everything Got Straightened Out

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Life today is solemnly exciting--more than at any time in 6000 years: this is the cosmic, grand "Day of Atonement." It's the antitype of ancient Israel's one Day of days when the nation was in such heart-stopping excitement that they ate nothing all day. They (and God, too!) were on trial in an awe inspiring Day of Judgment. But now the real thing is going on.

In Israel, it was the one Day of the year when everything got straightened out and all questions were answered. At Day's end, the nation was in heart-oneness with God. In miniature, "the great controversy" (between Christ and Satan) was finished. Sin and sinners were no more. The entire nation was clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beat throughout. Sin and sinners were as no more. Life and light and gladness flowed from the Lord. It seemed to Israel, all things in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy declared that God is love--on that one grand day of the year, the Day of Atonement.

Now the message from our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, is this: "be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). "Atonement" is not obscure Latin, Greek, or Hebrew--it's pure simple Anglo-Saxon, "be at-one-with God." It's time for your doubts to be resolved, those deep feelings that He has not been fair with you. It's time to join that distraught father in Mark 9 who cried with tears (when everything seemed against him), "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). It's time for "Jacob" the Supplanter to wrestle with God and get a new name, "Israel."

But can we shake ourselves by our shoulders and just DO it--reconcile ourselves to Him? It means a change of mind (Greek, metanoia), which actually is repentance. Now wait a moment: do we have a self-start button to press for "repenting ourselves"? Acts 5:31 says it's a "gift" from our "Prince and Savior." A "gift" is not what you work for.

Which reminds us: the Israelites never "cleansed" their own sanctuary: the high priest alone always did it. It wasn't a works-trip for them. Yes, bitter as this pill may be for do-it-yourself legalists: we have to LET Him do it for us and in us on this cosmic Day of Atonement. He takes the initiative and we cooperate "through faith." So stop resisting the blessed Holy Spirit. Your High Priest loves you more than you ever dreamed He does. To understand, "behold" and "comprehend" what happened on His cross.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 7, 2003.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

What Is This Day of Atonement?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Some may ask, "What is this great 'Day of Atonement' when God calls for a special repentance from His people?" It is His final work in the Most Holy Apartment of the heavenly sanctuary. Christ Himself as great High Priest in His sanctuary is totally dedicated to bringing an end to the sin and suffering on this earth. Are we not called to understand, to be in full sympathy with Him?

The cosmic Day of Atonement is just what its name says--the Day of final reconciliation ("atonement" means at-one-with). It is not a difficult idea to grasp:

(1) It's when the alienated heart of humanity is at last fully reconciled to God and His holy law. Not that every human will submit to this work of "at-one-with"; many will refuse to their bitter end. But the Lord will succeed in winning a "remnant" to full oneness with Himself.

(2) They will demonstrate what "all men" could experience if only they would. This "remnant" will at last fully appreciate Christ for what He is. They will "grow up" out of the immaturity of "children" "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," "speaking the truth in love [agape]" (Eph. 4:13-15). Thus as their peers, in principle, they will "judge" all humanity.

(3) Opposed and ridiculed, they will "follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] whithersoever He goeth. ... In their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God" (Rev. 14:1-5). This is generally thought of as an impossible chimera. But if it doesn't happen, Christ will forever remain embarrassed and discredited. He died specifically to achieve this goal.

(4) But this "remnant" will never be conscious that they honor Christ. The more like Him they grow to be through sanctification of the Spirit, the more unworthy will they feel themselves to be. In the final Judgment they will not assume that Christ is inviting them, "Come, ye blessed of My Father." They will look around expecting Him to call others, not themselves (see Matt. 25:31-40).

(5) Fully at-one with Him, a group will "overcome even as [He] overcame" (Rev. 3:21). His Bride will have "made herself ready" for "the marriage of the Lamb" (19:1-8). Finally--His triumph!

(6) Then at last the sacrifice of Christ will have been fully vindicated--He, not they, glorified.

(7) Daniel and Revelation clearly teach that the hour of this great Day of Atonement is NOW.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 25, 2003.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

The "Mystery" Is Unfolding

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

A topic has been discussed widely in the media during the past several weeks: sex! But the Bible teaches fidelity in marriage. Paul says, "Let every man have his own wife, and every woman have her own husband, ... and let not the wife depart from her husband, ... and let not the husband put away his wife" (1 Cor. 7:2, 10, 11). What God wants to see is a life-long union. Why?

(1) He wants us to be happy, and fidelity in marriage brings happiness. (2) The lasting prosperity and stability of a nation depend on upholding solid family values. (3) Fidelity in sexual relationship opens a window where we can see the relationship of Jesus Christ to humanity. His name is "Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt. 1:23). The Son of God has fallen in love with the church, which is that remnant of humanity who have come to appreciate His love for humanity.

In Ephesians 3 Paul has prayed a profound prayer that the Father would grant His church "to comprehend" the grand dimensions of the love of Christ, agape"which passeth knowledge"; then in chapter 5 he tells us that the love of a husband for his wife is a reflection of that of Christ for His church. "A great mystery"? Yes, and a solemn, holy one, no topic for jokes; and in this great Day of Atonement the "mystery" is unfolding. While the world is sinking steadily ever deeper into the morass (or shall I say cesspool) of sexual depravity, the Holy Spirit is lifting a people higher and higher into a concern that the deepest yearnings of the Son of God for His people be understood, appreciated, and realized in preparing for "the marriage of the Lamb."

Yes, two opposite phenomena displayed before our eyes: the worldly ones becoming ever more corrupt, and a remnant church becoming ever more Christlike. Which side do you choose to dwell in?

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 6, 1998.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

You Don't Have to Build That Bridge!

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

Is there anywhere a human heart that by nature doesn't have a storm inside? If you are perfectly at-one-with God, you belong in Heaven. Well, at least, it's your job to help those billions who by nature share the universal human problem of alienation from God. "Why has He allowed ME to suffer? Why ME ... to endure injustice? Is God fair?" One may piously exude all the self-righteous phrases while deep inside unanswered questions destroy our "peace with God" (Rom 5:1). And it's not only teens who have that cauldron boiling inside; grey-hairs do, too.

Here's a shocker: the closer you come to Jesus Christ, the bigger you will realize your problem to be. Come VERY close to Him, and you will "taste" the depth of the darkness He experienced on His cross when He cried out, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken ME?" If one has never grown up out of innocent childhood, he may never think or feel on that level; but Jesus did. "Why doesn't God DO something?" is the heart-cry of the person who dares to think, not only about his own tiny little problems, but about the millions suffering from disasters and wars. And why do the poor have to suffer? And why must the innocent suffer so? "My God, My God, why have You forsaken our world?"

Back again to the cross on Calvary: in that total darkness, while He hung there in that deepest perplexity and despair, He made a choice--to BELIEVE that His Father was good even though everything was shouting in His ears that His Father was unjust. In total darkness, in the vastness of empty heart-broken space, He built a great bridge between alienated humanity and God. It's called the Atonement, the at-one-ment. If His Father has forsaken Him, HE WILL NOT FORSAKE HIS FATHER.

On His cross He built something out of nothing like He had created a universe out of nothing. At any cost, He will believe Good News. He will create Good News. You don't have to build that Bridge; all you have to do is believe that He built it.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 15, 1998.

Monday, June 06, 2011

CAN He, or DOES He, Save?

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

If Jesus Christ is "the Savior of the world" (John 4:42), doesn't that mean He can save a man from "committing adultery in his heart" when he "looketh on a woman" (Matt. 5:28)? Otherwise, the Bible is a farce. Our question is not, "CAN He save" but "DOES He"?

Unless you answer "yes," you're not much of a witness for Him, are you? And just "preaching" about it seems empty and helpless, and only deepens the guilt that many feel.

Legalism is not the answer, however stern and strict. According to the apostle John one can't deny reality: "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). By nature, you're drowning in it and you need a Life-Guard Savior 100 percent. Don't think your own will power will succeed.

Before you start your new day you have prayed, "Father which art in heaven, ... Lead [me] not into temptation, but deliver [me] from evil" (Matt. 6:9-13). If you log on to Internet pornography, aren't you deliberately canceling that prayer? You're walking directly onto the devil's ground, doing Peter's thing when he denied Christ by mingling with the worldly crowd who enjoyed the fun of watching Christ be crucified. By watching pornography you are crucifying Christ afresh in the person of the victims--supporting the business of their exploiters.

Jesus told it straightforwardly as only someone can who Himself goes to the cross: "whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27). Read the context of the previous verse: part of what you give up for Him is the woman (or the man!) who is the object of your personal "lust."

You don't know what to do until you learn. The grace of God actively TEACHES you to say "No!" exactly as Jesus Himself did (Titus 2:11-14). Now, thank Him, praise Him!

Join Christ on His cross and let self be crucified WITH Him (you're never alone). The New Covenant, not the Old, is the answer.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 8, 2003.

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Time to "Learn" That Song Now

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

I counted them--Jesus is identified in the Book of Revelation as "the Lamb" no less than 28 times! "Christ and Him crucified" is the Hero of that last Book of the Bible. None of the 66 books of the Bible so lifts up Christ and Him crucified as this last one! When Jesus explained to John the Baptist that He was "the Lamb of God" who must bear the sins of the world, and then the Baptist baptized Him, young John the disciple must have listened. All of his subsequent writings were imbued with that solemn, holy sense of wonder and appreciation for the infinite sacrifice of the Son of God.

At the beginning of his last book John marvels because He "loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (1:5). He cries his heart out in chapter 5 as he sees there is no one in the vast universe of God who can "open the [mysterious] book, and to loose the seals thereof. ... I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon" (you can't understand Revelation without tears, for it was written with tears!). Then one of the 24 elders (humans in heaven!) tried to comfort him: "Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof."

John strains to see the grand entrance on the stage of this "Lion," but he sees instead a "Lamb as it had been slain." He hears the 24 elders and the hosts of the redeemed sing unto Him who has "redeemed us to God by Thy blood. ... Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" (5:3-12). He sees a great multitude at last who "have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (7:14). They stand with the Lamb at last on Mt. Zion "and they sing a new sing before the throne" for "they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" (14:1-4). Their souls are captured for eternity by a heart-appreciation for a love "that passeth knowledge."

You may not be musically minded; but this is a song of experience, a heart-song of identity of self crucified with Christ on His cross, and it's time for us to begin to "learn" that song now.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 30, 2007.

Saturday, June 04, 2011

A Prayer That the Lord Always Answers

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

There is a prayer that we can pray that the Lord will always answer with His enthusiastic "Yes!"

It's when we ask Him for some bread of life to give to someone else:

(a) The story is in Christ's parable of Luke 11:5-13.

(b) You have been suddenly awakened at midnight by a dear friend who has come on a long journey.

(d) Your pantry is empty, not even a loaf of bread.

(e) So, you go bang on the door of your sleeping neighbor: "let me have three loaves of bread, not for myself, but for somebody else: a friend has come on his long journey and he is hungry. I am asking, so I can give to him."

(f) Your selfish neighbor doesn't want to help you; he and his children are deep in sleep; but you keep on banging on the door. You don't stop.

(g) Finally, so he can get rid of you he gets up and gets you the bread you are asking--for someone else.

Jesus told the story to illustrate what the Lord is NOT like: He loves to give when we need something to give to someone else. Even at midnight.

We become an essential part in His great plan of redemption for this lost world. We learn to participate by experience in His love for lost souls. Our naturally selfish heart has become awakened to the experience of His heart, which is love (agape).

Now we are one with Him; we have become reconciled to Him. We are at one with His heart of unselfish giving.

There is no greater joy in life. Come!*

______________

* Please read that last page of the last book of the Bible--Revelation 22.

From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 7, 2008.