| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
One With God, #6
Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (John 14:5—NIV)
The answer of the Lord Jesus to the above question shows us that the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John is not speaking of going to Heaven but of going to the Father; of going to a Person rather than to a place.
One might ask, "Just what is the difference?" The practical difference is that you cannot do anything about going to Heaven until you die. But going to the Father is something that is available to you right this very minute.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6—NIV)
We often preach that Jesus is the way to Heaven. Jesus is infinitely more than the way to the spirit Paradise. Jesus is the way to the Father.
Jesus does much more than tell us the way to the Father. Jesus Himself is the Way to the Father. In order to get to the Father we have to come through Jesus.
Jesus does much more than tell us the truth about the Father. Jesus Himself is the Truth of God revealed in human form.
Jesus does much more than give us the Life of the Father. Jesus Himself is the Life of the Father. When we eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood we are receiving into ourselves the Life of God.
It is time now for the entire Christian Church to turn its attention toward the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for it is for the purpose of reconciling us to the Father that Jesus Christ has come to us.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (II Corinthians 5:18,19—NIV)
"God was reconciling the world to himself."
No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son reveals the Father. Christ has come to us that we might be with Him in the Father. He has reconciled us to God by making an atonement for our sins. Now He is reconciling us to the Father by helping us gain the victory over trust in the world spirit, the passions of our flesh, and our rebellious self-will.
Both of these actions of reconciliation, the forgiveness and the removal of sin, are typified by the two goats of the Jewish Day of Atonement, one slain for the remission of sin and the other removed from the camp, symbolically removing sin from God's people.
I think the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement has begun today and will extend throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age (Millennium) that is soon to come with the appearing of the Lord.
The term atonement has many meanings. In my opinion the word that best sums up the various shades of meaning is "reconciliation."
To be continued.