I am doing a series of messages called BlackOut - Understanding The End Of The Age and this is Part 11. It’s important to listen to the whole series so you get each message in context. If you have not listened to previous lessons I encourage you to do that before you start Part 11.
I’m calling this series of messages BlackOut and basing it on a scripture in Isaiah chapter 60 verse 2 which says: “Behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you”. The scripture describes a darkness over the earth and a thick darkness upon its inhabitants. However, in the midst of great darkness we have the promise that the glory of God will be seen upon us.
What I am hoping to do through this series of messages is to help give you a framework for understanding our times in light of the word of God. It’s a view that has helped me navigate some complex topics throughout the years up to the present. Deception has become so widespread that it affects all of us today. It’s what compels me to do this series of messages because this series of messages titled “Blackout” is about deception. In a world of confusion, distortion of facts, extremism and outright falsehood the church is supposed to be a place of sound truth. Paul in I Timothy chapter 3 verse 15 called the church “a pillar and foundation of the truth”.
Paul is clear that receiving grace is not to result in no moral standards. In Romans 6:15 - 18 he says: “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
Grace is the free gift of Christ giving us the ability to live in the power of the Spirit free from the works of the flesh. Romans 8:2 - 4 says: “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
John, Peter and Jude all spoke of the danger of allowing lawless attitudes towards sexual sin to dominate our lives. Jude wrote one of the smallest epistles in the New Testament, but it’s packed with a punch striking right at the feet of the idolatry of lawlessness.
Jude was contending for the faith, and he was contending against those who turned the grace of God into a free for all with no restrictions.
Jude was saying what all the apostolic fathers clearly articulated which is to follow Christ then you must embrace the altar of the cross by denying yourself because there can be no compromise with sexual sin. To deny this truth is to deny that Jesus came in the flesh because you are denying the cross.
Jude 11 - 13 is speaking about those who proclaim this gospel of lawlessness: “Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”
The way of Cain is rejecting the blood sacrifice of the cross and doing your own thing. It’s being your own god and saying that you know better. Instead of bringing your sexuality to the cross it’s embracing the freedom of postmodern sexuality that says, ‘did God really say’? It’s saying I will do whatever my heart tells me, but the problem is as Proverbs 14:12 says: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the ways of death.”
Balaam was a man with a prophetic gift, but it was adulterated for profit and power. He became a false prophet when he became motivated by greed. Peter talked about those who entice unstable souls and adulterate the word of God promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption.
It’s the false message of grace that says you have the freedom to live however you want to live. It’s Gnostic spirituality that says believing in Jesus is enough. It’s gnōsis that saves you and your personal conduct does not matter. It’s a message that says Jesus wants you to be free to express yourself. You don’t have to take up your cross that’s religion, and we are free from religion.
Peter uses almost the same language in his second epistle and his added commentary brings additional insight. In 2 Peter 2:19 - 21 he says it's a false message that Jesus promises you freedom to get all you can get out of this life. Jesus never said be the best version of you. He never said do what’s in your heart. He said repent, turn, surrender and lay down your life. Peter is confronting the false Gnostic teaching that says you can do what you want, if you say you follow Jesus.
Confessing Jesus came in the flesh is not just saying you have the gnōsis that Jesus is lord, but it’s living a life that demonstrates that Jesus is Lord over your life. It’s a life submitted to the cross not just a belief like James said the demons believe and tremble. It’s a faith that is demonstrated by a changed inward life because of surrendering to the power and wisdom of the cross.
The gospel of lawlessness has consequences. Peter says: “whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
No that’s not legalism and religion, that is the clear teaching of the New Testament. Peter was warning us to completely dedicate our lives to the message of the cross because there is no middle ground with the flesh. Greed and sexual immorality are always married together, but they have no place in the kingdom of God. If you give your heart to them then you make yourself an enemy of the cross. Jesus, Paul, John, Peter, Jude and James all said the same thing.
Korah's rebellion is about pride and rejecting Christ authority over your lives upon whom our faith is established. Jude and Peter are not using Korah as an example of those who oppose the apostle set over them, which is a false teaching or opposing any church authority. It’s talking about rejecting the way of the cross which is rejecting the authority of Christ to rule over our lives.
Yes, I believe in mature servant leaders who help with conflict resolution in the body of Christ and I Timothy chapter 3 calls them elders or spiritual leaders. However, scriptures do not support the idea of apostles and prophets being over our lives as some type of spiritual covering. I will adequately address these false ideas as we go along.
A Christ Centered Perspective on Surrender and Devotion
Paul was talking to us about the authority of Christ over our lives when he said: “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” The New Testament clearly portrays Christ as being our head and us under his authority because there is one Mediator between God and man.
Aaron’s rod manifested in Korah’s rebellion was a picture of God’s authority over our lives, not a man. False leaders twist the scriptures to point you to their authority over your lives so they can draw people to follow them instead of pointing you to the authority of Christ over your lives through the cross.
All these examples Jude and Peter use are reinforcing the rejection of the cross along with our participation in living the cruciform life of faith. The text goes into a whole list of examples about those who have rejected the cross. No fear of God, fruitless trees, no root in the gospel, erratic behavior, openly throwing their sin in your face, living in the flesh and living in the shadows intertwined with the powers of darkness. It’s the behavior of what John called antichrist. It’s those living in the spirit of error and those who do not walk in the love of the Father.
The Deception of Apostasy: A Warning from Paul
I want to remind you of Paul’s words and what he said it would look like in the last days. He said you will see those who are: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” Apostates can talk about God and some even appear to be godly. However, it’s a different gospel. It’s one made in the image of man where you become your own god enslaved to the wickedness of your heart. It’s the gospel of lawlessness that allows you to live in your sin loving this world, but you have made yourself an enemy of the cross.
The wrath of God is a common theme in the New Testament. Did you know that? The New Testament opens with John the Baptist saying in Luke 3:7 - 8 as he spoke to the crowds coming to be baptized: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” John talked about repentance and fruit. He did not say “all you have to do is think the right thoughts”. Just follow steps 1, 2 and 3 so that you can prosper. He didn’t give us 5 ways to command our angels. He didn’t say look inside yourself to find the real you. He said look at your wicked heart, repent and turn away from wickedness.
Paul goes from Romans chapter 1:18 all the way through to Romans 3: 23 to show that the Jew who had the Mosaic Law and the Gentile who had the natural creation that: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Paul leaves no man standing because it’s the wickedness of man’s heart that is the problem. The creation speaks of God’s power and divine nature. The Mosaic Law showed us God’s moral standard. The book of Romans is taking us back to the Genesis story of man being made in the image of God and created to worship him.
God told man in Genesis chapter 2 to cultivate and keep the garden. The Hebrew word for cultivate is abad, and the Hebrew word for keep is shamar. These same Hebrew words are used to describe how the priest cared for the tabernacle of Moses. The tabernacle was a precursor to the temple of Solomon.
The priests were to cultivate and keep the tabernacle. In addition, we are told that God walked in the garden during the cool of the day. God also walked in the midst of the temple. The meaning is clear. The garden was a temple for God. Like the temple, the garden was the joining together of God’s space and man’s space - the intersection of the heavenly realm and the earthly realm.
The Crucial Role of the Heart and Worship in Shaping Behavior
The human heart is made for worship and there is no such a thing as non-worship. The redemptive story from Genesis to Revelation reveals the decisions we all must make about whom we are going to worship. Embedded and hardwired into the heart of man is the desire to worship. The problem is many times instead of acknowledging God and giving him his rightful place in our hearts that we exchange the truth.
Instead of choosing the narrow path of the cruciform life found centered in Christ we chose a substitute. Modernity is much more subtle in its idolatry, but whether you realize it or not you are shaped by that which you worship. It’s what you give your time, attention and money too. Jesus said the heart of man is like a well. It’s our center. It’s our core and what the heart is dedicated to is what our lives will display through our conduct. Inner motivation and affections make their impact on outward attitudes and actions.
Paul is unveiling the human heart to us in the book of Romans because the history of humanity whether Jew or Gentile is that we prefer to worship idols because they make fewer moral demands and promise much more freedom. It’s worship at the altar of McGospel where you can have it your way. The testimony of scripture, history and our own personal lives should tell us that being our own god is an easy pathway, but it never has a good ending.
You are promised freedom in the worship of sex, but it’s bondage, pain and heartache. At the heart of the Sexual Revolution was the resurgence of Gnostic spirituality which has transformed America's views of sexuality. Instead of sticking with the foundations of a Christ centered gospel the church has turned to deconstructionism. The deconstructionists found inspiration in reappraising Gnostic spirituality.
Deconstructionist Dilemma: Replacing the Foundations of the Faith with Special Spiritual Gnōsis
The deconstructionists have torn down what they saw as an oppressive heterosexual patriarchal system embedded in institutionalized Christian beliefs and practices. However, in their quest to modernize the Church they threw out the very foundations upon which the faith is built. Instead of returning to the roots of our faith they replaced the message of the cross. It’s been replaced with special spiritual gnōsis not bound by restrictions of any moral standards, immediately accessible and connected to the spiritual.
The Gnostic heresy supplants the truth and suppresses morality. It’s because there is no vacuum of worship, only the exchange of worship. Once you exchange your worship and embrace the lie, you then defend that which you worship because it’s now the god by which you find identity.
The reaction to the tearing down of moralized Institutionalized Christianity is to invert it with a lawless form of Christianity. However, it's a Catch 22 because you cannot escape the futility, bondage and wrath found in the false worship of idolatry. Paul in Galatians 6:7 - 8 says: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.” It's not hard to look at the church and American society to see that the reaping has been costly.
The Wrath of God: A Present and Future Reality
Let’s talk more about the wrath of God because it’s both a present and future reality. The wrath of God as a present reality is first realized through the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. Just like a farmer is going to reap that which he sows, the scriptures clearly teach that if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. The prosperity teachers make sowing and reaping all about money. The 29 times sowing and reaping is talked about in the New Testament only one has the context of giving money and that is found in II Corinthians chapter 9.
The book of Romans uses the word wrath 11 times. If you reject the loving God that sets boundaries speaking to us through the creation of his natural order and the Mosaic Law. If you disregard worshiping him, but instead fill your heart’s with idolatry the scriptures are clear that you will reap corruption. Corruption is what happens to our lives when we live them separate from the life of the Spirit. It’s what happened to Adam and Eve when they partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Death, corruption and the wrath of God.
The picture is that of a decomposing body where vultures begin to circle. You may not see the results quickly many times, but sin destroys lives. The lives of those who practice lawlessness and the lives of others who may become the victims of lawless acts. Have you ever watched a life destroyed by Meth? It’s a vivid picture of how fast a life can corrupt, fall apart and be destroyed by a flesh ruled life. It normally leaves a trail of carnage in its pathway, fracturing families and communities.
The gnostic heresy leads to destruction and confusion. Just think about the destructive behavior of transgenderism. To think that you can mutilate the body to release the true inner self as an act of free expression is confusion. It’s the ultimate end of destroying the flesh to create a new you and statistics show that it never produces the soundness of mind for which is being sought.
The levels of mental health problems in American society should concern us all. I do think there are varying reasons for this deluge of mental health problems, but it is primarily a spiritual problem. Paul spoke of this in terms of the wrath of God. Yes, call me old fashioned, but I do believe that repentance and turning to the mercy of the cross is a major solution to the mental health problem. As I previously said I am not against Psychiatrist, Psychologist or Counselors, but the root of mental health problems is rooted in the curse of sin. The main part of the solution for the believer is found in the cross.
God’s Wrath For Disobeying Civil Authorities
Paul also talked of the wrath of God being administered through the rule of law. I’m going to be addressing this more fully in the next chapter, but Romans chapter 13 Paul said those who uphold the law are: servants “of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” The government who administers laws for the protection and safety of citizens whether you like them or not the scriptures say they administer God’s wrath.
Yes, until Christ rules as king over this earth injustice will be in all societies and we should peacefully support justice. However, if you choose to fight against the government then be prepared to receive the wrath of the government. No matter how righteous you feel your cause may be, the governing authorities could become a tool of God’s wrath, and you may pay the price of jail time or death. It’s the price you pay for breaking the law so be sure to count the cost.
The Wrath of God and a Coming Day of Judgment
The vast majority of scriptures concerning the wrath of God look forward to the final consummation of the ‘day of the Lord’. History is barreling towards the second coming of Christ to this earth. It will be a day of great glory and great wrath combined when the ruling King of kings returns. The cross was to be a vivid picture of the wrath of God. Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion Of Christ is hard to watch, but it's one of the most graphic presentations of the cruelty of Roman crucifixion.
All of creation stopped to watch the lamb of God that stepped into time to be the propitiation of our sins and like a sponge absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf. The cross is where mercy and judgment kiss together, but you cannot separate the mercy of God from the judgment of God, or you neuter the power of the cross. In our day we want to strip out the consequences for sin.
We would rather not talk about sin, wrath and judgment since all of that is outdated Old Testament stuff. A false picture of a Jesus who tolerates the practicing of sinful lifestyles has been presented. Jesus is the pattern son, and we are to follow in the pathway of his dedication to the Father’s will. He did not just die for our sins, but he also set an example that we are to follow in our journey of faith.
Ephesians 5:6 says: “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” Colossians chapter 3:5 - 6 says: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.”
In 1 Thessalonians 1:9 - 10 Paul said to them that: “you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” Go open the book of Revelation and you will see that wrath is mentioned 11 times.
The Power of Propitiation: Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment in the Gospel
The gospel is that yes, the wrath of God is real. He judges sin and lawlessness, but in Christ we are covered under the power of the blood of the cross because mercy triumphs over judgment. Propitiation is one of those words that is not very well known today, but it lies at the heart of the gospel. It was central to the Mosaic Law and lay at the heart of the sacrifice system of worship.
Paul uses the word in Romans 3:25 in the context of saying: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” The author of Hebrews uses the word once speaking of Christ becoming a man in chapter 2 verse 17 saying: “he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
John in his first epistle uses the word two times. 1 John 2:1 - 2 he says: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” He then uses the word in the context of loving one another.
1 John 4:10 - 12 he says: “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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
Propitiation is all about blood sacrifice. It is the story of redemption from the fall where God stepped in covering the man and woman. It’s found in the life of Abel, Noah, Abraham and it was central to the law of Moses established on Mt. Sinai. As a matter of fact, the law says without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sins. It all pointed to the cross where mercy triumphs over judgment.
Yes, it’s only the propitiation of Christ's blood that can deliver us from the wrath of God. It’s why Jesus came, which is to give us freedom as a child of God to live in peace, reconciliation and the freedom of the Spirit. He wants us to be free from sexual dysfunction. Christ has come to help us through our pain and walk with us during our journey of faith. We just must let him into the door of our hearts. The only unforgivable sin is rejecting the Holy Spirit's conviction bringing you into a place of true repentance falling upon the mercy of the cross.
Embracing the Father's Heart in a Broken Society
John in his epistle spoke in very contrasting terms, but he could easily be called the apostle of love. The two encounters in the New Testament showing us the Father’s heart reaching into our sexual dysfunction were recorded in John’s gospel. He wrote his gospel showing us that Jesus was God, but in so doing he presented to us the heart of our merciful Father. It’s important as we walk through this fallen, broken and dysfunctional society in regard to sexual immorality that we embrace the heart of the Father.
John was the only gospel that told us the story of the woman caught in adultery and the woman at the well. In both stories we have a temple, a mistreated woman, societal rejection and systems of injustice. A lot could be said about patriarchal systems, the subjection of women and sexual abuse that is inevitable in such systems.
John gave us these two stories to look at something and I personally think he was showing us the merciful heart of the Father for those whose lives have been affected by systems of injustice and sexual dysfunction. The moral life that the New Testament clearly outlines is about freedom. The Father is trying to protect our lives from the inevitable destruction that sexual dysfunction brings into them.
The woman caught in adultery was not just caught having sex, but she was caught in an unjust system. We are left to assume a lot about this story, so the text gives us a little license to create the back story. It only tells us that the woman was caught in the very act of adultery. It does not say the woman was married.
As a patriarchal society this was most likely a married man and a young single woman. If it was a married woman, then where was the husband? According to the law of Moses he should have been present if she was married. The Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus teaching against the law of Moses. It seems they set this scenario up so it must have been a woman who could easily be manipulated and used for this occasion? She was a victim and probably already a rejected woman living on the outskirts of Jewish society.
The Pharisees bring the woman to the Temple where Jesus is teaching then sit her in the midst of the people. She is publicly shamed and then they misuse the law of Moses. Leviticus 20:10 says: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” The man, wife and husband of the wife would be present under the law so the judges could look at the evidence first and judge justly. It’s not what was happening here. What’s happening here is an abusive system unjustly using a woman of lower status and one who is clearly being taken advantage of by powerful men.
Jesus Cuts Right to the Heart:
He is sitting in front of the Temple with men who worship power and use weak women.
He’s looking at a bunch of snakes who use religion as a weapon to abuse.
He is looking at a bunch of men who have adulterated the very scriptures they claim to be protecting.
He is looking at a woman caught and used as a pawn of the power grab of men with wicked hearts.
He bends down to write in the sand. A lot of speculation has been made about what he might have written. I heard one commentator speculate that he might have written what was recorded in Daniel 5:25 when the hand wrote on the wall: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin.” Translated as: “you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
Jesus then looked up at the brood of vipers and said what Paul told us in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned, mess up and fall short.
Jesus then turned the tables on their self-righteous religious crowd and basically said to them you all have sexual sin in your hearts.
Jesus then looked at the woman and said bring forth the fruit of forgiveness and mercy.
We always need to have a heart of justice and restoration. Sexual dysfunctions affect us all and our society has been greatly damaged due to the false worship of sexuality. James in his epistle says it this way: “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Understanding our own weakness and frailty, fully dependent on the power of the cross must be our merciful attitude in helping those who have been overcome with sexual sin.
John also told us the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. It’s not just a story of worship, but it’s also a story about sexuality and societal rejection. John shows us the heart of the New Covenant in this story and the redemption Jesus came to bring as God manifested in human flesh. It was Jesus the prophet getting to the root of the issue which realigns everything with the heart of the Father. I do a more detailed explanation of worship in my free online School Of Discipleship found in Lesson 27: The Place Of Worship.
The Samaritan’s had exchanged their worship and suppressed the truth. Samaria had a history of idolatry. The Samaritan’s did not outright reject the law of Moses, but it was a syncretized form of Judaism. The Samaritans set up their own temple on Mt. Gerizim and had their own system of worship separate from Jerusalem.
The Transformative Power of Compassion in Worship
What you find in this story is that the woman at the well had been affected by a false system of worship and her own bad choices. The Jews had no association with the Samaritans and believed them to be an unclean accursed people. In the story we have Jesus a male Jew sitting at a well in Samaria at noon asking an outcast woman to give him a drink. I could go into a lot of detail about this story, but I want to focus on Jesus' compassion to this woman.
She was a low status Samaritan woman, and you couldn’t get much lower than that. It wasn’t just happen chance that Jesus went out of his way to encounter this woman. To get water at midday meant that she was shunned by society. What we see in Jesus' interaction with this woman is as a prophet he reads her heart. Now as all true prophetic ministry its purpose was to bring healing and restoration. The heart of the Father once again displayed through Jesus' life was to bring healing to those entangled in sexual dysfunction.
The story is not only a story about directing us to true worship from the heart, but how true worship is the pathway to the healing of sexual dysfunction. True worship bypasses geography, ethnicity and gender. Jesus reordered worship to the place of the heart because if he has your heart then he can heal your sexual dysfunction. The New Covenant is all about redemption and restoration. It’s not the absence of God’s judgement but it is that through the blood of the cross we can be covered with his love.
You cannot compromise with sin and lawlessness, but you can have compassion on the hurting. It’s what Paul was saying when he said: “knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” Jude said it this way: “keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” Our mission as the body of Christ is to be the broken bread and poured out wine showing compassion. It’s only because of the propitiation of Christ is where judgment and mercy kiss together.
The Transformative Power of Christ's Love
Paul in II Corinthians chapter 5 opens talking to us about resurrection from the dead and how we will one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We are free through the propitiation of Christ merciful blood from the wrath of God, but we will each stand giving an account of how we treat others. Paul continues saying in 2 Corinthians 5:14 - 15 that: “the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
I pray that this will be your attitude towards a world that has been overtaken with idolatrous views of sexuality. Let us be those who worship in spirit and in truth with hearts full of the love of our Father. Paul says in verses 17 - 21 that in Christ, we have been born of the Spirit and as new creations we are to display the love of the Father. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
I can testify that there is hope, healing and restoration in the love of God. He is compassionate, loving and helps us through our struggles. He works in us both the will and the do of his good pleasure. We just have to surrender our lives daily to the cruciform way of living with Christ.
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