Discerning the Difference Between Conviction and Condemnation

“He will convince the world of sin” (John 16:8)
Based upon this Bible text a more or less rigid evangelistic approach to conversion has developed. It is applied in the crusades of famous evangelists as well as in small street corner meetings in the big cities. From Sunday to Sunday evangelists throughout the Western world call the penitents forward to kneel at the ‘altar’ and pray the ‘sinners’ prayer’. Conviction of sin, it is maintained, is the first sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in a person.

Conviction
The old stories about famous revivals in England and AmericA almost invariably stress the terrific conviction of sin that descended upon the people when ‘the fire started to fall’. Following the persistent prayer of a small band of faithful souls, conviction used to strike the people whether they were seeking God or not. Sometimes fishermen out at sea in their boats were suddenly struck, out of the blue so to speak, and had to return home to repent at the feet of the man of God who was at the centre of this storm of the Spirit.

Even now certain literature repeat this theme over and over again, and almost all Evangelical and Pentecostal periodicals have regular bouts of breast beating and fervent calls to repentance. It may be expected that in secluded corners little groups of devout old ladies still pray for the Holy Spirit to come down and move in this manner. The Old Time Religion… , it was good enough for our parents, so why shouldn’t it be good enough for us?

Strangely enough, in our days the prayers of the devout old ladies seem to be heard less and less. It seems as if the days of the fire andbrimstone revivals are over somehow. The way in which people are’ saved’ nowadays appears to be different, gentler and more joyful and uplifting. Does this mean that the Holy Spirit has changed his ways? I should hardly think so. As likely as not, it is a matter of re-discovering the real ways of the Spirit.

If this is the case, it obviously is extremely important for us to fall in with this new approach of the Spirit and to get rid of the old and obsolete ways. This is not to say that ‘conviction of sin’ should be discarded, but rather that it should be put in its proper place and context. To do this, it is extremely enlightening if we link the text in John 16:8 with the additional words in verse 9, as follows: “The Holy Spirit will convict (or reprove) the world of sin because they do not believe in Me”.

It would appear that the Lord Jesus, by adding the last few words, drew a clear distinction between those who believed in Him, at that moment, and those who did not. For the last category the only remaining hope now lay in the promised coming of the Holy Spirit, one of whose functions it would be to convince them of sin. On quite a number of occasions Jesus himself had convicted his listeners of sin. Sometimes He was successful, sometimes not. He was unsuccessful in the fierce discussions with the Pharisees and the Jews in general, as recorded for instance in John 8. When He spoke to Levi the tax collector, it was a different case. Levi was quite prepared to accept the convincing words of the Master and act accordingly.

After having been baptized with the Holy Spirit, the apostles and evangelists carried on the work that Jesus had started. Their sermons showed clear signs of that activity of the Holy Spirit which Jesus called ‘conviction of sin’. They, too, were sometimes successful, sometimes not. Peter, among others, was quite successful when on Pentecost he upbraided the Jews for what they had done to the Messiah. On the other hand, Stephen in his final sermon was extremely unsuccessful. He provoked the members of the Council with his cutting words to such an extent that they gnashed their teeth, dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death.

It is striking that the New Testament places rather less emphasis on conviction of sin than present day evangelists tend to do, even though they are quite a bit more easy going than their predecessors of a hundred years ago. In Old-Time-Religion, conviction of sin has almost become a an indispensible sign of the first awakening of the soul towards God.

In the New Testament, it’s very much different. It stresses the Lamb of God and forgiveness of sin, but not so much conviction of sin. Conviction of sin therefore might not be such an indispensible sign after all. The words of Jesus in John 16 create the impression that conviction of sin is a last-resort attempt by the Holy Spirit to get through to those who refuse to believe in Jesus. When all other means have failed, when the cords of love have not stirred the hearts to a response, when the invitation of the Spirit and the Bride goes unnoticed, there is only one way left: the hard, upbraiding, incisive words of the Teacher of Righteousness. If they do not listen to these stern warnings, there is little hope left for them of ever finding their way to the heart of God.

We have to consider under what circumstances conviction of sin, and the kind of preaching leading up to it, will be successful. Clearly, the answer is: when there is faith, be it in potential or embryonic form. Faith is the requirement of God enabling his Spirit to start His work in a human heart. Where the gospel is preached, together with its proper conviction of sin content, that part of the world will react positively which is not completely hardened in heart, and therefore capable of showing faith in God. If the human heart is like a path, as the parable of the sower puts it, hard and unreceptive by the coming and going of evil spirits, it has to be restored to its natural condition first. This is done not so much by conviction of sin as by the casting out of demons in the name of Jesus; consequently restoring the path to its original condition of receptiveness.

The preaching of conviction of sin is usually based upon a rigid belief in original sin. Although claiming to preach the good news, many evangelists and preachers keep referring to human nature in their attempts to explain the presence of sin even in born again Christians. Man has to get rid of his ‘pig-nature’, I once heard an evangelist say. Being hard and unreceptive is regarded as the natural condition of the human heart. Of course this is not the case. Man may be downtrodden and hardened by evil spirits; he may have rocky patches of demonic presence in the field of his heart; the evil seeds of the thorns and thistles of sinful care may have been sown in him; yet the natural soil is still there. All it needs is to be restored to its original state to be able to receive the good seed and produce the fruits the farmer is looking for.

It is unnatural for a human heart to be hard and unbelieving. It is natural for man to respond in loving faith when he hears the good news of God’s love in Christ. Of course this response, in those who are desirous, includes conviction of sin, for who could draw near to God and not become aware of his sins? Yet the awareness of sin is not the wholesale conviction of the fire and brimstone variety but a quickening of the conscience by the Holy Spirit who points out actual sins, never without referring to the Lamb of God at the same time. For it is by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way, that we enter into the sanctuary.

The old fashioned conviction of sin has the great disadvantage of appealing to a certain unstable, guilt-ridden type of person. Instead of seeking and finding the love of God, they have a strong urge, almost a masochistic compulsion, to feel themselves crushed under a heavy load of conviction. The ensuing pardon is an emotional experience of such intensity that they will keep yearning for it and the preceding feeling of conviction for its own sake. I have known a man who used to say that he had been so ‘deliciously broken’. Being ‘broken’ under conviction was a treat to him, and he kept going back to it, by hook or by crook. In more than four years I never really saw him ‘come to the knowledge of the truth’.

I recall the time when I kneeled at the altar of a Pentecostal church weeping bitter tears of conviction. It did not do me much good, for the years following were the worst of my life. Only when my longing heart began to see God and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, did real change take place in my life. in the encounter with God, which was at the beginning of my life as a Christian, the problem of sin was settled almost in an offhand manner. Although I was deeply aware that it took the life of my Saviour to make possible the encounter, there were no upbraidings, no reproofs, only the searing reality of meeting God, of being accepted by Him as his child.

Encounter
Although there is a legitimate purpose for conviction of sin in those who do not believe in Jesus, there is little doubt that an encounter is a much surer and more excellent way of finding God. From the very outset the Lord has more for us than mere allaying of guilt and fear. He wants us to be restored to our original position of children of God. This is the way we were created and, exceedingly more glorious, this is the position to which we are re-created in Christ.

How did Moses meet God? In conviction of sin? No, in a burning bush experience that may have left him dumbfounded, yet fulfilled all the secret longings of his zealous heart. How did the majority of the apostles find Jesus? By means of an Old-Time-Religion experience of conviction of sin? No! They were young men whose hearts were full of desire to know the God of Israel and his Anointed One. So they gravitated towards the forerunner, John the Baptist. No doubt they repented and were baptized in Jordan. Then, one day, John said to them: “Behold the Lamb of God”. And that is exactly what they did. They went and looked at Jesus and saw Him, recognised Him for what He was: the Messiah of Israel. A11 Jesus said to them was: “Follow Me”. No fire and brimstone, no conviction of sin; just the Son of man who impressed his beauty on human hearts that had “faith working through love”.

But surely, somebody might say, Paul knew what it meant to have conviction of sin! I daresay he did. Paul, the persecutor, the murderer perhaps. Yet, it strikes me that in his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus there is no mention of his misdeeds. The Lord Jesus just appealed to his stubborn, misguided Jewish heart. The moment Paul saw who it was he persecuted, he changed, completely and thoroughly. Paul is the classic example of a man who was like a path in a field of corn. Murderous, fanatical religious spirits used him as they pleased, and his bewildered heart did not understand what was going on. Why should he, a man who so sincerely desired to serve the God of Israel, have that terrible urge to make others suffer, breathing threats and murder against those who belonged to the Way? He did not understand his inner condition, until he met Jesus. The encounter, not the conviction, is what changed Paul.

You will agree that the New Testament has very few cases, if any, of conviction of sin after the model of the Old-Time-Religion. You will also agree that the Pentecostal revival is marked by joy and deliverance rather than by conviction of sin. Doesn’t this go a long way in proving that the Holy Spirit is leading us back to a real understanding of his ways? This being the case, isn’t it about time for us to discard the old and obsolete ways? They may have had their value and validity a hundred years ago (something which is very difficult to ascertain in any case), in our days there is a new approach, a deeper understanding, a clearer vision of God and of his Son.

Whenever we are called to preach the gospel of our Master, we should appeal to the will, the faith and the love of the human heart. We should urge people to stand and resist the tormentors, to turn to God, to draw near to Jesus. We should tell people that they have been robbed of their rightful heritage for these many years. And while doing so, we should use the crowbar and the mattock of the name of Jesus to uproot the rocks and to crumble that pathway trodden by the evil powers.

And conviction of sin? When we preach the full gospel of the love of God, conviction of sin will take care of itself. This is the exact purpose of the work of Jesus: that the works of the devil should be destroyed. He does this work by the positive action of his Word and his Spirit, provided we are willing to co-operate in faith and love.

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come”, Let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price.

Hi! Madelene and others who visit here.
Many years ago I published the below article which I sincerely hope you might find helpful.

THE CRISIS OF GUILT
We see so many in the Christian family struggling daily with the shadowy jailers of guilt. The burden of guilt is not like a bullet, which has lodged in the body and can be cut out with a surgeon’s knife. The spirit is more vulnerable than the body; and not so easily healed. In spite of their acquaintance with the King of Righteousness, their shoes are weighed down by the powers of sin; the pockets of their garments are filled with all measure of guilt and condemnation. In truth, they can be likened to the ‘certain man’ of the Parable on his journey from Jerusalem to Jericho: they have fallen among thieves. They have been stripped of their entitled raiment of righteousness and are found lying ‘half dead’ by the roadside of the Christian Life.

Without an objective understanding of the ‘crisis of guilt’, any confession of righteousness in/thru Christ soon evaporates into mere sentimentality. Such escapes do not offer freedom. At best, they afford only a temporary reprieve.

If there is to be spiritual peace and freedom for our inner-man, there must come a time when there remains of our assailing guilt as there remained of Israel’s enemies: “not so much as one of them”. It is neither a matter of Pentecostal fervor nor mystical ecstasy. Neither is there room for those empty parrot-confessions of pretended faith. These are all of doubtful value and, for the most part, lead nowhere. It must be that one is enabled to gain insight into the Kingdom of Heaven and, consequently, a door is opened through which one can pass into a world of spiritual release and freedom.

What is Guilt?

Guilt can be said to be the property or treasure of wrath that attaches itself to the soul as a result of transgressing the inborn laws of God. The Bible terms this inner wrestling with guilt as “the wages of sin”. Therefore, it can be said that guilt is a quantity of negative wages or treasure of wrath affecting the inner man as a result of sin. These wages, although finding their source in the invisible world, are revealed in the visible world as fear, suffering, disease, depression, bondage, and then, ultimately, as the final wage or payment, death.

He Who Works Receives Wages

It is known that he who commits sin finds himself alienated from the Living God and places himself, whether knowingly or unknowingly, in the service of the Evil One. The words of the Apostle Paul confirm this fact: “Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that leads to sin that leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness?” Again, we read: “Now to a laborer, his wages are not counted as a favor or a gift, but an obligation — something owed to him”; “Every sin receives retribution; a reward or wage will be duly paid for every disobedience.” (Rom 6:16; 4:4; Heb 2:2).

To take the life of a man, perhaps, expires only a moment, but the pursuant guilt has the person declared a murderer. However, it should be recognized that this resultant debt is not on the wage list of God. Rather, it is on the wage list of the Devil. The Evil One is an exact employer who leaves nothing unpaid and, to be sure, he returns wages to all those who work for him. Lawlessness, as noted earlier, is rewarded with misery, pain, suffering, terror and then ultimately death. (We are speaking here of ‘death’ as being the fathomless sphere in the kingdom of darkness). Mark it well! It is the Evil One, not God, who is the cruel custodian of this negative treasure. It is only in the Devil’s ‘payroll book’ that man’s account is entered in debit-red.

Clearly, the Devil insists on paying the sinner his reward and man experiences the wages of sin as punishment. As this writing continues, we shall come to recognize that, while God recognizes the right of the Evil One to pay wages to those who work for him, nevertheless, in His great love for mankind, God gave up His Son to bear the wages of sin for us.

The Law: A Proper Perspective

For the most part, the Law given on Mount Sinai has been wrongly perceived by many of God’s people today to be a means through which God arbitrarily ‘screamed out the rules’ so to speak. Such a stance gives rise to the misconception that their God, growing weary to the intensifying depravity and lawlessness of His creation, assumed the posture of a revengeful and merciless prosecutor. Moreover, the Law is perceived to be the means through which the supposed hostility of God against His fallen creation could be openly exposed and exonerated through a crisis of guilt boiling in the hearts of all men. Such a conception is not at all cohesive to the facts. No, not in the least! To gain a proper perspective of the Law we must discard such a posture and determine the true motives and purpose of God when the Law was given.

True, it is a fact that Israel had been chosen by God to exercise righteousness and justice on the earth, (Gen 18:19). But it is also quite plainly apparent that, at the time of His introducing the Law on Mount Sinai, the sum spirit of man, (both Israelites and Gentiles alike), were overpowered by the powers of darkness and, to such an extent, that it had become increasingly injured and ineffective. The spirits of men were seen to be severely jeopardized in their ability to freely function as the bearer of God’s Law of their own merit and, as a consequence, were utterly failing to function as a testimony to God’s image upon the earth.

The Apostle Paul wrote of the Law: “For without the Law sin is dead — the sense of it is a senseless and inactive thing. Once I was alive and quite apart and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandments came, sin lived again, and I died — was sentenced by the Law to death. And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life, actually proved [to mean to me] death”, (Rom 7:8-10). Then Paul continues his discourse with the question: “Did that which is good then prove fatal (bringing death) to me? Certainly not! It was sin working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandments sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.” (Rom 7:13).

Therefore, understanding that the sole purpose of the Law was one of being a taskmaster or instructor to the crippled spirits of men and thereby enabling the discernment between good and evil, as well as their consequences, the Law cannot, in any sense of the truth, be perceived to be in the stance of a vengeful prosecutor.

One must recognize too that the fact that the Law was not laid down for the just, but as Paul declared, “for the lawless and disobedient”, (1Tim 1:9). Paul further explained to the Galatians: “What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added — later on, after the promise to disclose and expose to men their guilt — because of transgressions and [to make men more conscious of their sinfulness] of sin”, (3:19). Written on stone by God Himself and added unto by Moses in many other precepts and commandments, (Deut 4:13-14; 5:31), we see that the Law was given to expand and increase the trespass and thus making it more conscious to the beggarly spirits of men.

The Bible says that God was provoked with Israel for they always went astray in their hearts and did not know the ways of God. To them applied to what God said of the people before the Flood: “He is flesh!” (Gen 6:35). Men’s spirits did not correct the actions of the soul any longer, “Every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually”. This is why Israel needed an intermediary who stood in between the two parties. God ordained His Law by angels and through the intermediary of Moses purposed to make men aware and conscious of their sinfulness, (Gal 3:19-20).

Why didn’t God give the Law to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so many other faithful? Simply, because these men held fast to the promises! Although not having the Law, they were a law unto themselves for they showed that what the Law required was written on their hearts. A truly spiritual man does not require a law for he is free from every influence of lawless powers and for that reason his actions will also be lawful.

But, obviously, this was not the case with the people of Israel. When Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, wrote: “Behold Israel after the flesh”, (1Cor 10:18), he was reaffirming that the Law was given to a natural people. Paul repeatedly verified the fact that the people of Israel were not a spiritual people but a natural people — a people inwardly dead in their trespasses and sins.

Just as Adam in the Garden of Eden and similar to the declaration of Moses saying, “I have set before you life and death”, Israel also was told that he who kept the Law would be rewarded with life and he who transgressed would receive the negative reward of retribution and death.

Being largely ignorant of the battle against the spiritual foe in the heavenly sphere, the people of the Old Covenant were resigned to a struggle against flesh and blood. The powers of sin and death were at work, to be sure, but the mystery of lawlessness — its origin or secret — remained largely unknown. They had never known what it was to function as a spiritual people in the heavenly sphere. The mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven — of the unseen world — had not yet been revealed. Neither did they know what it was to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. That hour, as Jesus declared to the woman at the well, was yet to arrive.

Therefore, we see that in the Old Covenant the veil was not removed for Israel. Although the Old Covenant peoples were aware of the fact that there was an invisible world of the spirits, they did not know of it in terms of experienced reality. The unseen world was one of mysteries to them because they lacked the abilities inherent of a man born again of the Spirit of God and were, therefore, incapable of assuming positions of spiritual authority in that invisible world — the Kingdom of Heaven. In the unfolding scope of our Salvation, we see that it was Jesus Who is the forerunner of the first spiritual man and it was He Who first uncovered the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The good news of the New Testament is that, instead of the outward precepts made ineffective by our weakness, we now have the Lawgiver, a Teacher of Righteousness, and the Holy Spirit. Instead of attempting to please God by our own efforts, we now do the will and commandment of God by believing in His Son and loving one another, (1John 3:23), and this includes the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In this way, the heart of stone, (incapable of good works because of the inspiring presence of lawless spirits), is turned into a heart of flesh, (Ezekiel 36:26). In communion with the indwelling Holy Spirit and under His guidance, the heart of flesh enables us to live after the will of God. The letter of the Law meant constant sin and accusation. On the other hand, the Spirit of the Lawgiver in us bears witness with out spirit that we are the children of God and heirs of full salvation.

The Law: Witness for the Prosecution
With the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment, we read of a great white throne and of “the dead, great and small; they stood before the throne and the books were opened”. Here we read about ‘books’ (plural) wherein the works of people are recorded: the ‘Book of Life’ which disclosed the works of those who are not cast into the lake of fire and the ‘Book of Death’ which pointed to the works of those who were condemned, (Rev 20:11-15).

The immediate question is: how did this ‘Book of Death’ – the recorded collection of evil deeds – come into existence and to whom does it belong? It is evident that the contents consist of countless details to every evil deed of every individual. And it is also plainly apparent that the contents of these particular records are used as an accusation in an effort to justify the condemnation.

Admittedly, there is a rather puzzling fact concerning this image and, in particular, the subject of the books which should be resolved here at the outset. Here we have a judicial court case, which would, at first glance, appear to have a bewildering contrariety. It seems obvious that the judge is not the appropriate person to function at the same instance as a witness to the charge. In every proper sense of justice, the judge, prosecutor, witness and defendant are separate and distinct roles. The judge acts in the name of the law — in this case, God, from Whom comes the law. Is God then, as lawful Judge, to act at the same time as both prosecutor and witness against the defendant? This would be wholly illogical to any form of justice.

Determined to recognize that we cannot ascribe to God things which are unjust, we testify to the irrefutable truth that God is entirely just and holy and good and that He has no conversation with evil and even more so, mark it well here!, neither does He keep record of it.

To illustrate it plainly: If we were to localize the narrative of John’s vision into a formal court hearing and appoint the appropriate functions and roles, they would be as follows: the judge is God; the prosecutor is the Devil; the witness for the prosecution are the inborn laws of God recognized by conscience, (which is also engraved on tablets of stone by the finger of God as a helpmeet to the beggarly spirit of man), and, lastly, the defendant(s), a role encompassing all of mankind. It should be mentioned here also that, as an extension to our illustration, the defendants have opportunity also of summoning a witness to their defense. As this study continues, we will come to recognize that we have an “Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous”.

In order to accurately enter the records in the ‘Book of Death’, the prosecutor, whom we have illustrated to be the Evil One, makes use of God’s Holy Law. With the Law as his witness, the prosecutor is then able to verify the sins of men and thus record them before the sight of the Righteous Judge.

Therefore, we see that it is the Devil, who is very intent with these ‘books of the dead’; and it is the Devil who travels to and fro upon the earth seeking those of whom he may render wages and assert his legal entitlement over them so as to, in the end, devour them. Accordingly, in such a role it is abundantly evident that it is the Devil with the Holy Law as his witness — not God! — who stages himself as the ruthless prosecutor.

Of God it is said: “In His divine forbearance He had passed over and ignored former sins without punishment”. It is impossible to hold, therefore, that a God Who would mercifully forbear sin without punishment would, on the other hand, keep record of it. Moreover, it was God’s divine plan, established in eternity past, to reconcile the world to Himself through Him “Who was slain before the foundation of the world”.

Who Creates Conviction of Guilt?
In the Garden of Eden, God inquired of the first human couple: “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen 3:11). Here, within this seemingly simple inquiry, the most grievous treachery that has plagued man from the very beginning — the crisis of guilt — is exposed for what it really is. By virtue of the question itself, God had clearly admitted that He was not the accuser to their nakedness.

Pursuant to this fact, we understand that it is not God Who causes man to be convicted of guilt, but surely the Evil One. It is the Evil One, who, as the relentless prosecutor, insists on the conviction of sin — a posture we should note as definitely not coming from God. It is none but the ‘Accuser of the brethren’ who attempts to lend us the pretended piousness of condemnation and self-reproach inherent to his treasures of wrath. God, on the other hand, desires that we have “our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty conscience”.

Oh, but one may be quick to point to the Scripture wherein it states: “And when comes He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness and about judgment”, (John 16:8). In this particular case, by simply adjoining the following verse, we arrive at a much clearer insight of the whole: “About sin because they did not believe on Me”. The Lord Jesus, by adding the last few words, pointed to a definite distinction between those who believed in Him at the moment and those who did not. For the last category, their only remaining hope lay in the promise of the Holy Spirit: “When He the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth — the whole full truth” (12:13). One of the functions of the promised Holy Spirit would be to convince those, who as yet remained unbelievers, of their sin — but with the sole purpose of exposing their need of redemption.

But surely, someone might say, Paul knew what it meant to have conviction of sin and guilt! Paul the persecutor, the murderer perhaps. Yet, in his encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus, the striking fact is that there is no mention of his misdeeds. The Lord simply appealed to his stubborn and misguided Jewish heart. The moment Paul saw Whom it was he persecuted, he changed completely and thoroughly. He did not reckon with his inner condition of sinfulness until he had met Jesus. It was the encounter — not the conviction! — which changed Paul.

In Amos 4 we read that the Lord sent His judgments among the people but we also read, “Yet, you did not return to Me”. In the Book of Revelation we read too that God pours the bowls of His wrath upon the earth but men do not repent from their evil ways. Preaching conviction of sin, guilt, hell and damnation may, for sure, pressure the listeners into fear and anxiety — but it does not cause genuine repentance. The truly Good News is one of stressing the Lamb of God and of laying emphasis on the forgiveness of sins — not the conviction of sins.

The Good news of the New Covenant does not give room to a wholesale conviction of guilt among us. Our preaching should be intent at removing the crisis of guilt and breaking asunder the yoke of those who still labor under the stare of the Accuser. The Word narrates an account of the greatest contest of love ever witness and that, in itself, urges people to stand and resist the tormentors of their guilt crisis and turn to God, and to draw near to Jesus. The Good News is not that man deserves to boil in his guilt; rather, it is the acknowledgement that man has been robbed of his lawful inheritance for these many years and that “the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death”.

To Whom Were the Sacrifices?
In the Old Covenant, guilt was redeemed by a sacrifice in which blood was shed. We may now ask: To whom was the sacrifice made? Is God pleased by the incineration of a young ram — the life of an animal which He, Himself, created? Does God desire to see blood? No! Certainly not! But by surrendering an animal to death and fire, the one who offers sacrifice, (by virtue of the shadow of the reality), set himself loose from the grip of the Evil One. The sacrifice was the way that provisionally permitted man to satisfy his true creditor, which was the Devil — not God!

When he brought a sacrifice, the wages of sin was drawn to the attention of the one who offered sacrifice. There was the admittance that he had been employed by the Evil One, for during a certain period he had been a slave to sin. He had volunteered to yield his members to iniquity. The Evil One had every right to pay him the wages of sin, which is death. (The righteousness of God, on the other hand, consists in the firm acknowledgement that He will positively reward all good works). The Devil had a claim on part of the sacrificer’s life. In the ‘Book of Death’, this man or woman had been entered as an employee who was entitled to a satanic reward. Satan insists on paying the full reward for every lawlessness. God recognizes this right, for He is just. The negative reward of the Devil means debts which man must pay at the cost of his life — that is with his joy, peace and righteousness. The life of the man who transgresses is marred by the shadow of death — the realm of darkness. Then God said: ‘Take an animal that belongs to you, for the life of the animal that belongs to you is poured out in death, and thus your own natural life, which is under the control of the Evil One can be redeemed’. The sinner — mark it well! — did not offer his sacrifice to God, but rather to the Devil to redeem the debt recorded under his name in the Devil’s payroll accounts.

God finds no pleasure in sacrifice and offerings and has never demanded a burnt offering or a sin offering for Himself. The heathen sacrificed to their gods to change their minds or to mollify them. Their gods desired to do evil with man and for that reason they had to be appeased by means of sacrifices. The sacrifices, often that of a human, was thought to quench the wrath and revenge of the idol. The priests of Baal, for instance, “cut themselves after their customs with swords and lances until the blood gushed out of them”. But we have not a God who seeks sacrifice to somehow appease His bloodthirsty vengeance towards us. Not once do we read in the Scriptures that God is reconciled to man — for God’s thoughts towards man are constantly and continually good.

The sacrifices of the Israelites imaged the Great Sacrifice of the Father Himself when He surrendered the Son, Who said: “Lo, I come in the roll of the Book it is written of Me: I delight to do thy will O My God”. It is here where we must make a clear distinction of the matter — it was God Who offered the sacrifice! — not man. Our God, Himself, gave His only Son, Who went into Death of His own free will for our sakes. He, the Lamb of God expiated our guilt.

Our Reconciliation
In His marvelous plan of restoration, “It was God personally present in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against men their trespasses but canceling them; and committing to us the message of reconciliation — of the restoration to favor, (2Cor 5:19). Paul adds, “All this is from God”, meaning that this plan of restoration and renewal was born in the heart of God. In the same fashion the Bible states: “The Lamb of God which was slain from the foundation of the world”.

Through the immeasurable love of God mankind has been redeemed from the power of enmity. Even though they largely fail to recognize the fact, the whole of mankind has been reconciled to God. We Christians believe that God does not reckon our sins against us, neither now or at any time. The bill of our debts was presented to Jesus — not by God but by the Devil.

The word ‘reconciling’ (katallasso) denotes an exchange or barter. We could say, the exchange value as we receive something else in its place. Paul declared in Romans 11:15 that the price to be paid as a ‘reconciliation’ or exchange value for salvation of the Gentiles was the rejection of Israel. In Romans 5:11 the rejection of the Son is the barter or exchange, which led to our partaking of sonship. So Israel was rejected in exchange for the salvation of the nations and the Son of God was rejected in exchange for all mankind. So there is a substitution here, as Paul further writes, “For our sakes He made Christ virtually to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become endued with the righteousness of God”, (2Cor 5:21). So, Jesus took our sinfulness upon Himself and we received from Him the righteousness He had before God. He was made sin and we were made righteous. He bore our guilt and we were acquitted.

This message of reconciliation has now been entrusted to us. We Christians have the ministry of reconciliation, (2Cor 5:18-19). When we preach the Gospel, we do not present the world with a bill of hell and damnation but rather we are ambassadors of God to bring Salvation. God’s appeal to the world is: ‘do not resist. Accept the reconciliation for, almost unbelievably, He Who knew no sin has been made sin for you’. On this ground, the command to men is: “Be ye reconciled to God”.

Paul mentions the, ‘cup of blessing’ or thanksgiving which is an indication of our participation in the Blood of Christ, (1Cor 10:16). His blood was the exchange value on earth and it is an image for the life which he offered in heavenly places.

The message of reconciliation is the Good News of a contest of love on behalf of God Who paid our debts. Therefore, no natural sacrifices are required of us, for we raise the cup of thanksgiving for the grace and mercy He showed us. The Son of God was the sacrifice for our sakes. The Heavenly Father gave His own Son into the power of the Devil and of death and we thank our Lord that He freely offered Himself as a blameless Lamb for the redemption of our lives.

At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke of His blood that was shed for the forgiveness of sins. The word forgiveness never means a payment of debts. When the Father embraced the Prodigal Son, there was forgiveness without either of them ever mentioning the payment of a ransom. The integrity of forgiveness means putting aside — not recalling anymore.

In Matthew 26:28-29, where during the Last Supper the blood of the New Covenant is mentioned, the Lord uses a word which can also be translated by ‘deliverance’ or ‘release’. This usage also occurs in Luke 4:18 where we read of the release of captives. The blood of Jesus was the coin for the payment of the ransom that released the prisoners of the Devil. “Without the shedding of blood there is no release from sin”, “In Whom we have redemption, the release from the hands of the powers of sin”, (Heb 9:22; Col 1:14).

Jesus shed His blood in the visible world and when He did so His life was poured out in the unseen world. At that moment many prisoners were released from the realm of death. (Matt 27:52). In the same way, the Lord’s Supper indicates the release or redemption from the power of Satan. Of the Lamb of God it says, “For — by Thy blood Thou didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, (Rev 5:9).

A Parable: ‘A single Pearl of Great Price’
Having read the above, we come to see that our reconciliation to God was the result of the most magnificent contest of love ever to be witnessed. In truth, this contest of love was a heavenly transaction that wrestled with the principle of rightful ownership. God is just and He did not unlawfully snatch us out of Satan’s hands. He recognized the Evil One’s right to pay the just wages to those who had been his servants. And, it is for that reason that a transaction was deemed necessary.

God Seeks
The Lord Jesus declared, “The time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking just for such people as His worshippers”. James wrote that God yearns jealously over the spirit He made to dwell in us. God is spirit and He yearns that all men will function with their spirits in the heavenly places — that is, the human spirit uniting with God Who is Spirit and functioning with Him as His co-worker. It is His purpose that the human spirit should be His partner for eternity. That purpose and plan has never wavered a fraction — no, not even after the fall of man.

The Lord Jesus Seeks
The words and deeds of Jesus plainly testify that He, as the Good Shepherd, “goes after that one that is lost until He finds it”; “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost”. The lost are those who are overpowered by the prince of darkness and in service of the Evil One. The entire Word of God expresses the testimony of “How God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with strength and ability and power; how He went about doing good and in particular curing all that were harassed and oppressed by the power of the devil, for God was with Him”.

The Evil One Seeks
Peter stated quite pointedly, “That enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring in fierce hunger seeking someone to seize upon and devour”. He, too, seeks the spirits of men for himself. He is entirely lawless and he comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. Through this treachery, man becomes “sold into slavery under control of sin”.

The Parable of the Precious Pearl expresses the heavenly transaction in image of mankind being, ‘fine and precious pearls’; the Evil One as the, ‘dealer’ of such pearls; and the Lord Jesus being the ‘single Pearl of Great Price’.

The Lord Jesus unveiled, by virtue of this Parable, a mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven; that being of the transaction which enabled all of mankind to be justly transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light. Similar to the pearl merchant who was obsessed with the ‘single pearl of great price’, the Evil One was obsessed with Jesus and desired Him above all else and at any price.

The ‘Pearl of Great Price’ was perfect and without blemish. Where the Devil repeatedly attempted to tempt and sway Jesus from His appointed road, we read that He did not stray or yield to him. Indeed, Jesus wore the armor of God and knew the power of the Holy Spirit and, consequently, stood fast in the evil day. He persevered and determined to remain the property of His Heavenly Father.

The Evil One could not absorb such a loss. Just as the ‘dealer’ was obsessed with the ‘pearl of great price’, the Evil One too desired Jesus at any cost. Thus the stage was set for the heavenly transaction that would eternally testify to God’s boundless love towards man.

God, in effect, said to the Evil One: ‘Give me all the pearls you have and I will surrender to you the Son of My Love, a pearl of exceeding beauty”. The transaction was something to the image of exchanging a thousand tarnished copper pennies for the flawless ten-dollar gold piece. Jesus, the ‘Pearl of Great Price’ was exchanged for all the guilt-ridden damaged and injured human beings of all times and of all places. He was “betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification — our acquittal, and to make our account balance, absolving us from all guilt before God”, (Rom 4:25). The blood of Jesus, — His life — was the price that was demanded of the Father by the Evil One as lawful transaction to effect the repossession of the entire human race.

In Conclusion
The law of sin and death has absolutely nothing to do with God’s personal anger against sin — in the sense of outraged holiness or justice which would demand satisfaction at any price. Outside of God there is no life, so the wages of sin — of turning away from God — has to be death. Therefore, when we fell prey to the powers of sin and death and thus ended up in the clutches of the Evil One, God’s justice compelled Him to recognize the Devil’s right and lawful entitlement to us.

God has never assumed the posture of a prosecutor with His creation. Neither does He sit restless in His supposed vengeance upon man. God’s thoughts towards men are not thoughts of retaliation or revenge. When the Bible declares the words: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay”, it means that evil incarnate will be avenged — the real perpetrator of sin: against the, “despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere”, (Eph 6:10). God detached Himself from them by rejecting them and finally He will avenge Himself by casting them into the lake of fire. In this respect, the work of Jesus has begun: justice, (that is a judgment or separation between good and evil), is being seen to triumph in God’s people so that they may be holy and completely pure, (Matt 12:20).

Towards man, the Heavenly Father is continually “merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities”, (Ps 103:8-10). The Most High is absolutely goodness and always remains consistently positive towards His creation, as it is not His will that any should perish.

We who formerly lived under the law of sin and death and having suffered the suffocating crisis of guilt, can joyfully testify that the wages and rewards of the Evil One are quite starkly opposite to the good and positive endowments now known from Him Whom Jesus declared to be “the Father of all Who gives light”. We testify too that our delinquent debit-red account was a portion of that entire wage list for the whole humanity that was presented to Jesus in our stead. That is why the Evil One has no right to pay us the wages of death any longer. We have accepted, as declared in the Scriptures, that Jesus bore the wages and punishment for our sin in Himself, “that by going through death He might bring to naught and make of no effect him who had the power of death, that is, the Devil. And also that He might deliver and completely set free all those who through the haunting fear of death were held in bondage throughout the whole course of their lives”, (Heb 2:14-15).

Prior our repentance, our guilt was concerned with certain inborn laws of God. Because of the Evil One’s inspirations, we fell short of agreement with that inborn law and accordingly came into liability or debt. Nevertheless we should fully know that is debt or guilt has been fully dissolved by virtue of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Colossians it reads: “And you who were dead in trespass and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God brought together with Christ having freely forgiven us all our transgressions; having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (or bond) with its legal degrees and demands, which was in force and stood against us — hostile to us. This note with its regulations, decrees and demands He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to His Cross”, (2:14).

The literal meaning of the word ‘note’, (‘cheirographos’), indicates a handwritten declaration of being guilty. Now that note or declaration which we found to be threatening us, – make no mistake! – , was written by the Evil One. Yet, having heard the Gospel of Repentance, we reckoned with the fact that Jesus nailed it to the Cross — wiped it clear and entirely invalidated it. Therefore, we have the assurance that the Accuser has lost his vicious claim upon us.

One may recall where Joshua the High Priest was assailed with accusations from the Evil One (Zech 3:1): there we see Satan standing beside Joshua to accuse him of his uncleanness. However, the Lord rebukes the Evil One and prohibits his right to speak. Reading further, we note that the angel permitted Joshua to remove his soiled clothing and replace them with celebration apparel. The New Covenant heralds the joyous truth to the fact that we too, by virtue of the finished work of the Righteous One, Jesus, have a sure and secure propitiation with the Father and can, therefore, celebrate with robes of righteousness.

If we are assailed by a climate of guilt or coming under the accusing stare of the enemy, — much like Job’s complaint where he moaned, “My adversary sharpens his eyes against me” — we know that he is surely defrauding us with a perfidious lie. The defiant words of Job should beg us the courage to stand firm in the truth and thereby withstand the Accuser: “God forbid that I should justify you, saying you are right in your accusations against me; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. My uprightness and my standing with God I hold fast and will not let them go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days, and it shall not reproach me for as long as I live”, (27:5-6).ٱ