“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”

— 1 Timothy 2:5

Have you ever stood on one side of a canyon and marveled at the canyon’s depth and breadth? Can you imagine what it would take to bridge such a chasm?

Our sinfulness has created an unfathomable chasm between us and God, but Christ has bridged it. He is our Mediator, the One who connects us to God the Father. How do we know this? First of all, Jesus said so. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.” Jesus said this because He is God, the Creator of the world, the One who existed before anything else existed. He promised that one day He would come in the flesh to save us, and He did. He conquered the power of sin and death.

Second, no one else has the qualifications for the job. Sin separates us from God, and only a sinless mediator can remove it. Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius all taught that certain behaviors would enable humans to reach God, but they themselves never promised to save anybody. And even if they had made such a promise, they could never have come through. Like us, they were sinful human beings. They had no power to save, and we can never save ourselves regardless of the number of good deeds we do. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace, by believing in Christ. Christ promises to save all who believe in Him, and He can follow through on His promise because He is sinless and because He is God.

As our mediator, Christ exercises a three-fold office. He is prophet, priest, and King. As prophet, He saves us from our ignorance of sin. The greatest prophet the world has ever known, Christ seasoned His words with grace, and the common people heard Him gladly. As priest, He saves us from the guilt of sin. He was a perfect priest because, being sinless, He could offer Himself as a perfect and holy sacrifice, paying for our sin once and for all. As King, He saves us from the dominion of sin over our lives. He is the King of kings before whom every knee shall bow.

Today give thanks that Christ has become your mediator, building a bridge between you and God the Father.

“The devil would have us set
ourselves forth as our own savior.”

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

— 1 Corinthians 13:13

Faith. What a magnificent thing it is to have faith in God. Faith lifts us to new heights. Do you believe that God is with you, that He will never leave you, that He will help you, that He will turn everything for your good? What a tremendous difference to know that you’re a child of the King, a member of the House Royal; that you will live forever; and that God will do great things through you.

Hope. How marvelous to have hope. Do you have the confidence that God will accomplish His perfect plan in your life and that He’ll bring you to Paradise to live with Him forever? That hope destroys the dark gray cloud that obscures your pathway, and it opens the view to your destination: the glorious, radiant, setting sun that will give way to that new and eternal morning of Paradise.

Love. Who is your best friend in this world? You probably cherish most the person who brings out your best. As the sonnet says:

I love you not for what you are but for what you are helping me to become Overlooking my faults and reaching down into my heaped-up heart And making of the lumber of my life, not a tavern, but a cathedral.

When others help us reach our potential, we know they love us, and in return we love them.

Faith, hope, and love produce a joyful life. As we cultivate faith, hope, and love in our Lord, He gives us joy. I encourage you to memorize Scriptures on faith, hope, and love and to speak those verses back to the Lord in prayer. Sing His praises in your daily worship. As you do these things, He’ll bring His joy into your life.

“Joy is prayer—joy is strength—joy is love—
joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”
Mother Teresa

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

— Philippians 4:13

Every time you open your mouth, think a thought, express an attitude, or take an action, you have a choice to do something positive or negative. Which do you most often choose?

Years ago, Art Linkletter encountered a little boy with an extremely positive attitude. On his television program, Linkletter asked the six-year-old boy, “Do you know why you were selected to be on my program?” The little boy said quite confidently, “Because I’m the smartest boy in my class.” Art asked, “Oh, how do you know that? Did your teacher tell you?” “No,” he replied, “I just noticed it myself.” No negative thinking there.

Do you face life with a similar positive outlook? Do you respond to difficult situations by saying, “By the grace of God I can.” Or do you give up before you start, saying, “That would be too hard for me.” A positive person will almost always find a way of turning a stumbling block into a steppingstone. In every situation, a positive person will ask, “Is there anything good about it?”

How do you respond to wrongdoing? Do you respond with criticism, condemnation, or gossip? Or do you respond with prayer, knowing that God can use you to bring His grace to another person’s life?

If you find yourself tipping over into the negative side of the positive-negative continuum, I have good news for you: Attitudes aren’t biologically determined. We don’t come into this world destined to look at life one way or another. Instead, the Bible says that old things can pass away and all things can become new. That includes our attitudes. For that reason, we need to immerse ourselves in God’s Word, the greatest accumulation of positive thinking the world has ever seen. As we read God’s Word and seek Christ first, He makes us new, positive, and joyous people.

Do you anticipate a potentially negative situation today? If so, good. You have an opportunity to develop a positive attitude toward challenging situations. Today, allow God to work in your heart to grant you a positive outlook on life.

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much
by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles
which he has to overcome while trying to succeed.”
Booker T. Washington
(Former Slave)

“. . . for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind . . . he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

— James 1:6, 8

Have you ever heard the old song, “You gotta accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, and don’t mess with Mr. In-Between?” Today, let’s talk about how we can avoid negative thinking, because if we harbor negative thoughts, sooner or later they’ll destroy our lives.

One day a man tried to start his car with a jumper cable. Instead of connecting the correct part of the cable to the positive pole of the battery, he connected it to the negative pole. That mistake sparked a terrible explosion, and because of it, the man became permanently blind. In the same way, many people blind themselves by connecting to the negative pole of life.

Negativity is like a witch’s wand that attaches itself to a person’s forehead. The wand kills and destroys whatever it points toward. It may point toward the person who wears it, or it may point to others. You probably know people who walk around with that wand permanently pointed at their own lives. You can recognize them immediately by their negative thoughts: “I’m nobody . . . I really don’t amount to much . . . I don’t have many friends . . . I’m not too smart.”

Others take that wand and point it outward. These people fail in life but blame their failures on others: their parents, their spouses, their bosses, the system, the corporation. They never accept responsibility for their own downfall. Some even point the wand at God. They say, “God could never love me. I wonder if there even is a God.”

We all have negative thoughts at times, and often we don’t recognize them. While we can’t avoid all negativity, we can turn our attitudes into more positive perspectives. Today ask God to show you your negative thoughts and to give you the ability to look at the bright side of life.

“I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed,
and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people
who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.”
Booker T. Washington
(Former Slave)

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

— 1 Peter 5:8

Have you ever done something sinful, something that seemed so exciting and promising at first, only to feel empty after actually doing it? When we pursue sin, we’ll always feel that way—left high and dry.

This empty sensation reminds me of a story told by the preacher Clovis Chappel. Once there was a Christmas party in an orphanage. Beneath the tree were all sorts of beautifully wrapped packages. With all the children gathered around him, Santa Claus passed out the gifts. As he did so, everyone excitedly opened his or her present, enthusiastically examining each new toy. Everyone, that is, except for one young man, who was often picked on by the others. With no package to open, he sat, crestfallen, in the corner. Upon realizing his bad fortune, everyone became quiet, and all the children stared at him. Just at that moment, the man pretending to be a benevolent Santa Claus reached behind the tree, pulled out the biggest box of them all, and handed it to the unfortunate boy. The young man’s face lit up! Excitedly, he tore away the ribbons and wrapping paper and pulled off the lid only to find an empty box. As he stared despondently into it, all the children laughed. How cruel.

But there is a sense in which we are like that unfortunate boy, when we willfully try to grab Satan’s empty boxes. Life is filled with empty boxes, and we each take our turn at playing the fool. “Give me the goods,” we say, and Satan hands us a beautifully wrapped but empty box. What are these empty boxes? Sin. Satan says, “Oh, just one little lie” or “one little look” or “Everybody’s doing it.” But when we give in, we realize he has taken us again, promising the world but delivering nothing.

The devil is the great illusionist, the great liar. He promises all manner of delights. He promises excitement, but in the end he clothes his victims in filthy rags, hunger, and misery. If these people decide to turn around and return to their Father’s house, Satan sends all the bloodhounds of hell after them to overwhelm them with temptations and pull them down into the miry clay. How foolish is the man or woman who believes the promises of the father of lies. Every good gift comes down from above, not up from the pit with its hook that pulls you into the lake of fire.

Have you opened any empty boxes lately? If so, ask God to forgive you and show you how to pursue His righteousness. As you seek God, He’ll help you discover the excitement and abundance of living obediently in Him.

“We must not so much as taste of the devil’s broth,
lest at last he bring us to eat of his beef.”
Thomas Hall

“… He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.”

— Mark 16:6

What does it take for you to believe something that seems out of the realm of possibility? Most of us need to see some hard evidence before we lend credibility to the incredible. This is also true when people hear of Christ’s resurrection. In fact, many people will develop all sorts of theories before believing that God incarnate rose from the grave.

Have you ever heard of the “Fraud Theory”? This theory asserts that Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, but rather, the disciples stole His body from the grave and then proclaimed Him risen. But the Fraud Theory doesn’t mesh with the facts. For example, something happened to the disciples that changed them instantly from cowards to courageous men. The disciples credited this change with seeing the risen Christ, and despite numerous retellings, they never changed their story.

Dr. Principal Hill, a nineteenth-century theologian, put the Fraud Theory to rest when he said:

You must suppose that twelve men of mean birth, of no education . . . formed the noblest scheme which ever entered into the mind of man . . . You must suppose, also, that men guilty of blasphemy and falsehood, united in an attempt the best contrived, and which has in fact proved the most successful for making the world virtuous; that they formed this single enterprise without seeking any advantage to themselves . . . with the certain expectation of scorn and persecution; that although conscious of one another’s villainy, none of them ever thought of providing for his own security by disclosing the fraud, but that amidst sufferings the most grievous to flesh and blood they persevered in their conspiracy to cheat the world into piety, honesty and benevolence. Truly, they who can swallow such suppositions have no title to object to miracles.

How true that is. The Fraud Theory cannot stand against the evidence of the disciples’ passion and steadfastness for the cause of Christ. You and I can rest assured that Christ’s resurrection is no fraud. Christ has risen indeed.

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ and
Christianity stand or fall together.”
Josh Mcdowell

“And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain . . . But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:14, 20

Are you afraid to die? If so, you’re not alone. That fear is quite natural. But Jesus has solved this problem, the most incredible problem humankind has ever faced, generation after generation. Death has endured since humanity’s fall, and people have asked, “If a person dies, will he or she rise again?” By rising from the dead Himself, Jesus gave us irrefutable evidence that the answer is “yes.”

But people have doubted the truth of Christ’s resurrection. Some of the most brilliant and skeptical minds of the last two thousand years have attempted to disprove it. But all those efforts have yielded nothing but the truth—that Christ rose from the dead. Let’s consider some of the facts that these skeptics have had to address. First, the Christian Church has endured and grown until it has become the largest organization on the planet today. That growth began in the first century, when the apostles began to preach that Jesus had risen from the dead. Next, to disprove the Resurrection, skeptics have had to explain the empty tomb; the broken Roman seal (if someone broke a Roman seal, he or she received the death penalty); and the Roman guards, who faced sure death if they left their posts or fell asleep on the job. Most important, skeptics have had to dispute Christ’s appearances after His resurrection. The people saw Him, heard Him, touched Him. He fixed breakfast for his disciples. He ate fish with them. He appeared to five hundred people at one time. Furthermore, the apostles were transformed. One day they huddled in an upper room fearing for their lives, but soon after that they boldly proclaimed Christ’s resurrection in public. And all except John died for what they proclaimed, sealing their testimony in their own blood.

For these reasons and many more, we have a sure foundation for our faith in Christ’s resurrection. Because we know the Resurrection really happened, we know Christ has conquered death, and we no longer need to fear it.

“. . . the evidence speaks for itself. It says very clearly—
CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED.”
Josh Mcdowell

“And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center.”

— John 19:17–18

Did you know that the Jews have built a bus stop at the foot of Golgotha? Bus after bus lines up there, waiting for passengers. When a bus leaves, it passes right by the mouth of the “skull.” Once I was standing near the bus stop with a church tour group, and I pointed out the features of the skull. As I did so, four or five people not associated with our group came to see what I was pointing at. They couldn’t figure it out. To them Golgotha meant absolutely nothing.

But it should mean something to all of us, because there all the ingredients came together for our salvation. The first ingredient is humankind’s sin. If people had never sinned, Christ wouldn’t have had to come to earth and die for us. The second ingredient is God’s justice. God must punish sin because His eyes are too pure to look upon it. If He didn’t punish it, He wouldn’t be God. Combining humankind’s sin with God’s justice always and inevitably produces Hell. Therefore, we need the third ingredient: the infinite, inexpressible unfathomable love of God. The Creator’s love for His creation compelled Him to die for the creature’s sin. How vast is the love God has for you and me, past our ever understanding it.

Someone once said to a minister, “There are hundreds of religions in the world, and they all have their own ideas. How do you know yours is right?” He replied. “No, there are only two religions in the world. They are either ‘do’ or ‘done.’ The other religions in the world teach that man will be saved by what he does: Do this and don’t do that. But Christianity is the only religion that teaches ‘It is done.’ It is finished.”

Which religion do you trust for everlasting life? Look toward Golgotha, where the three ingredients came together perfectly, providing for your salvation. There Christ proclaimed, “It is finished.” Thank God today for granting you eternal life because of what happened at the Place of the Skull.

“Beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand,
A shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land,
A home within the wilderness, a rest along the way
From the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day.”
Frederick Maker

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”

— John 12:32

When you think of Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross, how do you want to respond? Christ’s crucifixion has a magnetic quality, drawing people to Him, and as long as we keep it centrally focused, people will continue to come to Christ. Some churches don’t understand this, attempting to attract people in other ways. Unitarians, who have denied and rejected the atonement of Christ and the deity of Christ, don’t have the power to attract people. One of their leaders in Birmingham, England, said that Unitarianism failed to “draw.” The English public will not attend their chapels. Though Unitarians seem bewildered by this, it’s no mystery. These churches don’t “draw” because they’ve thrown away the magnet.

We don’t need big signs or flashy worship services to attract people to Him. Christ’s humble sacrifice has more magnetic power than anything any church could concoct.

Let’s take a quick look at the immediate impact of the Crucifixion to catch a glimpse of its awesome power. At the cross, the centurion—who had nailed Christ’s hands and feet to the cross—saw darkness cover the sky, the sun cease to give light, the rocks quake, the earth tremble, and the tombs open. Upon witnessing all this, the centurion said, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). History tells us that this man went forth to follow Christ. A few weeks later three thousand more were drawn at Pentecost, then five thousand more, then multitudes of priests and elders and scribes were drawn, and then an exceeding great multitude were drawn, until finally the Roman Empire itself was overwhelmed by the magnetic power of Jesus Christ to draw men to Himself.

Why does the Crucifixion have so much drawing power? Consider the agony Christ endured. Hanging, a firing squad, electrocution, the gas chamber—the pain of all these forms of execution could never compare to the excruciating pain of crucifixion. Jesus submitted Himself to a slow death by suffocation that could have taken several days. The Crucifixion shows God’s incredible love for us, the love of a Father who would give His only Son to endure the penalty for the world’s sin.

Today, meditate on the Christ lifted up for your sake, and let the power of His crucifixion draw you nearer to Him in love and gratitude.

“It was not the character of Christ, not His justice, nor
His proclamations, nor His preaching, nor His teaching,
but rather it was his death that would draw men.”

“He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’”

— Matthew 26:39

What was in the mysterious cup that appeared before Christ’s face there in the darkness of Gethsemane? First of all, the cup contained all the sin of the world. Imagine you’re visiting the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. You walk into a large, sealed room full of hundreds of vials containing diseases—cancer, AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea—every dangerous and foul disease known to man. You see a technician unstopping each vial, one by one, and pouring the contents into a large beaker. How would you react if the technician asked you to touch the beaker? And if the technician asked you to drink the contents, what terror would fill your soul? But all of that is nothing compared to the cup of sin which Jesus drank.

The second element in Jesus’ bitter cup was God’s abandonment. By drinking that foul cup, Christ became the arch-criminal of the universe, full of sin. God, whose holiness prevents Him from looking at any sin, turned His back on Christ, His Son, leaving Jesus abandoned and alone.

Third, since God must punish sin, He poured on Christ the great fiery cauldron of His wrath. More than that, Christ, rejected by humanity and abandoned by God, was then given over to the demons. He sank to the bottomless pit of Hell, where the demons fell on Him with fang and claw.

All of this was in the bitter cup. But the most important thing about this cup is that it wasn’t Christ’s cup at all. It was ours. The sin was ours. The abandonment, the fiery punishment, the demons should have been ours. But Christ drank the cup for us. And because He did, today the cup of Christ is one full of blessings—love, pardon, peace, and joy. This is the cup He now offers to you and me. Take and drink of the love and freedom you can now enjoy because of the sacrifice Christ has made.

“We may not know, we cannot tell what pains He had to bear.
We only know it was for us He hung and suffered there.”