December 2003 chaplain's corner
The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.

Chaplain's Corner - December, 2003
Rev. Rich Hines

This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior, and are serving as correctional or rescue mission chaplains within the United States.

Our web site indicates a link to enable you to "listen in real audio." Unfortunately, that feature will not be available for an undetermined amount of time. So you chaplains will have to read what I want to say to you in December, 2004, below.

This Christmas you can expect the world system of unbelief working through pressure from the public sector on the correctional system to want less about Jesus. At the same time, these forces will want you to say more about human diversity and man's supposed ability to create peace.

I am writing to remind you dear chaplain, that it is your duty to tell the truth: specifically that man cannot save himself, and that's one reason why God sent Jesus. As a Bible believing Christian chaplain your efforts and your messages need to be the exact opposite of what the world expects, especially this Christmas.

Good verses to post (CAPITAL LETTERS here for emphasis) and teach, and preach particularly this Christmas, would be:

"...that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall CALL HIS NAME JESUS, FOR HE SHALL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS." (Matthew 1:20,21)

"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS," (1 Timothy 1:15)

"The wages of sin is death, but the GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST our Lord," (Romans 6:23)

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world 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)

These verses all speak to the question of WHY Christ came into the world in the historical human person of Jesus of Nazareth. At the heart of our society's rejection of the Jesus defined and explained in the Bible, is human pride. Pride hates to admit wrongdoing. Most of the "religious" and so called "spiritual" part of our population as well as the totally secular ones, refuse to admit they are sinners against an all holy God.

Human pride working through man-made religions and perversions of Christianity stubbornly clings to self as the savior and mender of all human error and faults. Most people in our society find the word "sin," archaic and revolting. They recoil from it. So, neo-evangelicals (really the new liberals) try to appease the crowds, and come up with more palatable words like "mistakes" or "human problems." At best, Jesus is seen in their so called presentations of the gospel as one who can help us humans, if we work with Him, solve some "human problems." That's not the biblical gospel at all.

The biblical definition of the word "sin," is "lawlessness" (see 1 John 3:4). The logical question is, if sin is a constant breaking of the law (and the Bible says it is), whose law is broken? The simple answer is, an all-holy God's law is broken. Sin in the Bible is always first and foremost, AGAINST GOD!

In Psalm 51:4 the Holy Spirit given words to David, who had committed adultery and had ordered the murder of his faithful servant, Uriah, were: "Against You (God), You only, have I sinned." Sin offends the true God much more than it ever could offend the human victim(s) of it.

Returning to the four verses I began with, let me offer the following comments on their messages.

Matthew 1:20,21
"...that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins."

The context of these words from the heavenly messenger (an angel of God) was the explanation of Mary's pregnancy to Joseph her legal husband. Her pregnancy was not as a result of sinful human fornication, even adultery. Her pregnancy was rather a fulfillment of a 700 year old biblical prophecy of a miraculous conception without a human sexual act impregnating her.

The prophecy is found in Isaiah 7:14

"Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin (the context demands the same definition as we understand the word virgin today - a person that has never engaged in sexual intercourse) shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call His name (who He really is) Immanuel (which means: God with us)."

But why would God come to earth as a human male, "a Son?" The answer from Matthew 1:21 is: to "save His people from their sins."

But just who are "His people?" The answer is: all those who God makes into true believers. This verse does not explain HOW Jesus would save them, but WHY He came to earth as a human being. It was to save some sinners.

The second verse I have brought up also answers the question of Why He came to earth. Again we are told He came to save sinners.

1 Timothy 1:15
"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,"

Though similar to the angelic announcement in Matthew 1:21 that explains why Jesus came to earth, or we could say why Christmas happened, this verse stresses TWO OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS.

FIRST, it emphasizes that His mission of saving sinners needs to be HEARTILY ACCEPTED, which really means TO BE TRULY BELIEVED IN. You need to stress the fact of Jesus and His salvation from sin through His atoning death and resurrection, BUT YOU ALSO need to stress that just these facts alone do not save - but that each individual must truly believe in them, in order to be saved.

SECONDLY, this verse stresses Jesus' true Deity. When a Scripture wants to emphasize His humanity it uses the phrase "Jesus (the) Christ." But when it's His Deity, His being God, that is being stressed it uses the phrase "Christ (who is) Jesus." He is both at the same time fully God and fully human. But according to 1 Timothy 1:15, it was God as Jesus who came to earth to save sinners.

Don't ever let the current and growing pressure over "diversity" cause you to make Jesus just a man and not the ONE TRUE GOD!

You need to make Jesus' Deity clear in all your gospel presentations, even though it will infuriate the pagan, man-made religions of many. After all, that's exactly what Jesus' Apostles did in the 1st century. Do we today want to suffer less than they did? Are you willing to sell out the truth, the ultimate reality - in order to be well thought of, or politically correct? I sincerely hope not!

Don't cave in under the pressure from unbelievers. Give them a different message this Christmas than the one they want to hear, give them God's truth.

While still stressing the biblical Jesus (the man who is God) as the only Savior from sin, the THIRD verse goes a bit farther.

Romans 6:23
"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life IN JESUS CHRIST our Lord,"

The first phrase of this verse stresses a price to be paid for unbelief. That price is the judgment of God, eternal death. This death is spiritual and eternal. The concept of death is not a cessation of consciousness but rather of an eternal separation from God. In Scripture the opposite of eternal life is also God's full judgment against sin. You can show this from John 3:36 where Jesus said:

"He who believes in the Son has everlasting (eternal) life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the WRATH OF GOD ABIDES (remains) ON HIM."

The essence of sin is unbelief and the height of unbelief is to reject the claims of the biblically defined Jesus, who said to hardened unbelievers in John 8:21,24: "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come...you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

But this Christmas verse in Romans 6:23 states that instead of the eternal death we all deserve, Jesus came as the gift of God, ETERNAL LIFE. That's a Savior from sin's judgment - which is eternal death. Christ's entry into this world (Christmas) brought the best gift of all for sinful humans, eternal life. But again, that gift, that eternal life, is only for true believers.

Our FOURTH Christmas passage, which is in 1 John 4:9,10, focuses on God's love manifested in THE PURPOSE for His Son's being sent into the world:

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world 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."

The purpose for which Jesus, the Son, was sent into the world was to give eternal life through becoming a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of His people.

Inmates and staff and residents really need you to help them understand the biblical concept of propitiation. An all holy God who is immensely offended by our sin needs to be appeased. His righteous wrath needs to be turned away by being satisfied with an acceptable payment for the sin against which His judgment burns. Propitiation means a satisfaction and appeasing of the wrath, so that mercy can now be shown.

The righteous judgment of God is satisfied with an acceptable payment. The only payment for sin acceptable to God is that of an absolutely perfect sacrifice. That sacrifice is also called "the propitiation" because it propitiates the righteous wrath against sin. So in 1 John 4:10, "the propitiation" focuses the reader on Jesus' death at the cross. It alone can propitiate God's righteous anger against sin. Jesus came (Christmas happened) so that Jesus would die as the sin substitute and propitiate the sentence against the sin of His people.

You also can see and show others this truth in Hebrews 10:5-14

5 Therefore, when He (Christ Jesus) came into the world (at the first Christmas), He said: "Sacrifice and offering (i.e. of animals and other things) You (the Father) did not desire, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME.
6 In burnt offerings (animal sacrifices) and sacrifices for sin (prescribed in the Old Testament) You had no pleasure (could be equally translated "You had no approval," so God was not fully satisfied and propitiated by them).
7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come - in the volume of the book it is written of Me (it was foretold) - to do Your will, O, God."
8 Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire (or, want), nor had pleasure (or, approval) in them" (which are offered according to the law),
9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first in order that He may establish the second.
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
...
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Jesus came, Christmas happened, so that a perfect substitutionary sacrifice would be offered for sin. That's why he came and that's what He did.

Looking at Christmas as the birth of Jesus, who is God entering this world as a Man, and then on to His complete program throughout eternity to come, Isaiah 9:6,7 prophesied:

"...unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, (literally: 'God, the Mighty Victorious Warrior') which title foresaw His victory over sin at the cross as The Propitiation, and His yet to come victory over global rebellion in His return and earthly reign) Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." An exciting thing to contemplate any Christmas is not just His first coming in that manger so long ago, but at what it set in motion for His second coming in power and glory to set earth really right!


My challenge to you correctional and rescue chaplains this Christmas is to present these wonderful truths, no matter what you are told, or expected not to say!

Rich Hines
Minister To Chaplains - Aurora Ministries