Part 6
Mt. 26:39 possible, let this cup pass me by. Yet not as I will, but as you will." We cannot imagine all that was in that cup. But he was ready to accept it, and although he did not feel God's nearness, he still gave his spirit into the hands of the Father. That is the only way to overcome the works of the devil.
When I think of Jesus, I see his cross rooted in the earth, towering to the heights, with arms stretched wide to embrace all who come to him. The cross is the only place where there is complete victory over temp tation, sin, and the devil. There is no other place.
God wants to reveal the greatness of the cross to us. We all know about the cross and its meaning; we all believe in it; we are probably all moved by it; but I believe God wants it to cut like a sword through our
hearts. I don't think any one of us can imagine what it means that Christ experienced godforsakenness so that we might find forgiveness of sin and eternal life in God.
We must pray for all obstacles in our hearts to be overcome so that we may experience the death of Jesus in its entirety. We are not yet moved enough by his in nocent suffering and death on the cross. Jesus gave his blood so that every repentant heart might receive for giveness of sins. His arms are wide open, as they were on the cross, for all repentant believers.
We know that many things depend on our will, and yet we know we are unable to bring ourselves to a rebirth of the Holy Spirit such as the people expe rienced at Pentecost. We must give our souls, minds, and hearts to God and say, "Change them!" We need to be changed in all that concerns the past, the present, and the future, to be gripped by Christ's painful death and by his resurrection.
It is because we are concerned with ourselves –be cause our hearts are full of self-love, envy, and other things–that we cannot respond as the people at Pente cost did. At that time the Spirit came and pierced their
Heb. 4:12 hearts like a sword cutting through bone and marrow. And so it must be our plea today: Give us thy Holy Spirit and pierce us. Have mercy on us, and change us to the depths of our being!
If we want to tread in the footsteps of Jesus, we must recognize that there is an hour of God for everything, whether it is marriage, mission, persecution, or death itself. We may no longer determine our own timing for these things, for we have surrendered ourselves in such a way that God's hour is our own hour –whether of joy, sorrow, or drinking a bitter cup to the dregs with Jesus.
For those who are dearest to me, I wish nothing more than that they be ready to drink the bitter cup to the last. It is much easier for us than it was for Jesus, because he has gone before us in the way of suffering to the end. We must be set on fire with such love to him that we can drink the cup destined for us to the last drop with joy.
Jesus went the way of the cross for our sakes. But he suffered in vain if we are not willing to die for him, to lose ourselves for him. Let us ask God that our thoughts and feelings are moved by his death on the cross, his descent into hell, his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven.
You must find the humility of the cross. You can search the whole world, but you will find forgiveness of sins nowhere except at the cross.
We cannot encounter Jesus without encountering the cross. His person emanates the way of suffering. Through his sacrifice his great love for all men floods our hearts and becomes in us an urge to go out to save those who are in the grip of darkness. If we love Jesus, the desire to suffer for him will well up quite naturally. I cannot imagine how one can follow Jesus without a deep understanding for his way of suffering.
We need to get past our personal struggles to experi ence the great thoughts of God. To experience personal salvation through the cross is important, but to remain at this stage is useless. The cross is so much greater than the personal; it embraces the whole earth and more than this earth.
There are secrets that only God knows. Christ's death on the cross is one such mystery. The Bible says that
Col. 1:20 through the cross not only this earth but also heaven and all the powers and principalities belonging to the angel world will be reconciled to God. Man, and perhaps even the angels, cannot know the mysteries that lie behind all this. But one thing we know: Christ overcame death, the last enemy. And through the cross something took place which had power far beyond the limits of our earth, far greater than our souls can com prehend.
Salvation
From a letter: In his parable of the ten virgins, Jesus emphasizes the reality of punishment for sin and the loss of eternal salvation. The thought of eternal pun ishment is certainly frightening. But John writes that complete love drives away fear, for fear still thinks of punishment, and he who thinks of punishment does not love fully. The tension between these two poles–the fear of punishment and the love that drives away all fear–can be overcome only by the experience of love.
Mt. 25:1-13
1Jn. 4:18
If you love someone very deeply, you will not be afraid of him. In the same way, if you truly love Jesus, you will not fear him. You cannot serve Jesus out of fear.
It is God's will that all men should be redeemed and that none should be lost. Yet the Gospels also say very clearly that none of us will be saved unless we experi ence rebirth through the Holy Spirit, unless we go through repentance and conversion and find faith. And Jesus, who has greater love than any man, speaks clearly of damnation. Even though God is almighty,
2 Pet. 3:9
and even though it is his express will that all be saved,
Rev. 5:6 he does not force his will on us –his nature is that of
Mt. 3:16 the lamb, Christ, and the dove, the Holy Spirit. So it depends on us as individuals whether or not we open ourselves to the grace of rebirth. First, however, we must become lowly and broken, for rebirth is not pos sible without sharp judgment. God's judgment is love.
Rom. 8 In Romans 8 Paul speaks about the salvation of the chosen or elect. One might ask, "What about the oth ers? Will they also be saved?" Peter throws light on this question in his second letter, where he writes, "It is not
2 Pet. 3:9 that the Lord is slow in fulfilling his promise, as some suppose, but that he is very patient with you, because it is not his will for any to be lost, but for all to come to repentance." It is clear, then, that God wills that everyone, including his enemies, may repent and find salvation. But we should not become guilty of playing with his patience.
When Christ is victorious in our hearts, it is not the result of a slow evolution –it does not mean becoming better and better. It means judgment and then change. Lukewarmness is not a choice. A person will either turn completely to Jesus or will ultimately be judged.
The whole idea of the damnation of sinful man is very hard to accept and reconcile with the love of Jesus as he so powerfully revealed it on the cross at Golgo
tha. But anyone who remains bound by sin cannot enter the kingdom of God, otherwise the world would continue divided and evil. We do not understand the fullness of God's love. Yet we do know that Jesus car ries the sins of the whole world, and that he stands before the throne of God. His sacrifice for the redemp tion of the world is the central point. We should never lose sight of that.
Rev. 5:6
As a child I always had the feeling that someday the masses–the working class –would be moved to come nearer to God. Perhaps I was influenced by the many anarchists, socialists, and religious socialists who stayed at our house. But when I was older I read in the Book of Revelation how one bowl of wrath after another would be poured over the earth, and still men would not repent. This was very hard for me. I could not accept the idea of only a very small fraction of human kind being saved. It went against my whole way of thinking. I searched the Bible –the Prophets and the New Testament –with this one question in mind.
Rev. 16
When I read the Gospel of John, I came across the place where Jesus says that judgment will come over the earth: "The prince of this world will be driven out, and I shall draw all men to myself." I do not know how Jesus will do it, but I do believe that he will draw all men to himself, and that he did not die on the cross for just a few people. Jesus says that the way to truth is narrow and that few people will find it, that most peo
Jn. 12:31-32
ple walk the broad way that leads to damnation. This is undeniably true, but it would be terrible if we were to think that we ourselves had found the narrow way, and if we had no love for those who go the broad way.
The eighth chapter of John begins with the Pharisees wanting to stone a woman caught in adultery, and it ends with their wanting to stone Jesus. Jesus angered the Jews because he spoke frankly about who he was, what his task was, and how he had come to save hu mankind. The chapter raises a decisive question for us and for every individual: Are we willing to believe Jesus' words, or do we doubt them? Jesus says that if we do not believe, we are slaves; we are not free even if we think we are free. He says that there is no other way to find freedom, redemption, and liberation than through faith in him.
Jn. 8:1-11
Jn. 8:59
Jn. 8:34-35
He also says, "If you do not believe, you will die in your sins," and "Those who obey me will never see death." These words had to be said, for they are the truth, and they stand for all time. If we find faith, we will find freedom from sin, from the fear of death, and from the lovelessness of our time. But if we do not find faith, we will remain slaves to these things. The challenge to each of us is to love Jesus and accept the freedom he offers us.
Jn. 8:24
Jn. 8:51
In the parable of the ten virgins Jesus is not speaking of the world but of Christians. All those who went to
Mt. 25:1-13
meet the Bridegroom were virgins; that is, they were all Christians. But five of them were wise and five foolish. They all had the outward form –the vessel. But they did not all have oil. The oil of which Jesus speaks is the Holy Spirit, the life that comes from God, and only five of them had that.
In the Beatitudes we see the marks of those who have the Holy Spirit. They are poor in spirit, they mourn, they are meek, they hunger and thirst for righ teousness, they are merciful and pure of heart, they are peacemakers, and they are persecuted for righteous ness' sake. In fact, the whole Sermon on the Mount tells us how we should live: we should never come to prayer without forgiving our brother; we should love our enemies and bless those who curse us; we should not collect money or treasures on earth; we should put our whole trust in the Father; and we should use no force.
Mt. 5-7
It is a sharp judgment that the foolish virgins are not allowed into the kingdom of heaven, and this is a two-fold call to us. The one is to watch and wait for the Holy Spirit so that he may change our soul and our being, and so that we may be reborn –so that we are touched daily by Jesus. The other is to live for those who are with us on the way to meet the Bridegroom, and to call them to have oil in their lamps. The outer form is not enough; it is not enough to live in com munity or to follow the outer forms of Christianity even to the last. Discipleship must spring from a living heart.
It may be that God pre-ordains certain people to be his own. It is clear that John the Baptist was chosen before his birth, and I can also imagine that the Apostle Paul was meant to be what he was a long time before he was born. But if there is such a thing as certain people being ordained by God to be his, even before they are born, then how is it with all the rest? In the Old Testa-
Lk. 1:15
Ezek. 18:23 ment we read, " 'Have I any desire,' says the Lord God, 'for the death of a wicked man? Would I not rather
that he should mend his ways and live?'" And in the New Testament we read, "It is not God's will for any soul to be lost, but for all to come to repentance." So the Bible makes it clear that God wants all men to be saved.
2 Pet. 3:9
Lk. 22:31-32 Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Behold, Satan demands to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren." I think Satan demands to sift us too, and we must ask Jesus to pray for us that our faith may not fail, also for the sake of our brothers.
Lk. 22:54-62 Whenever I fail, I keenly feel the words: "The Lord turned and looked." I am sure that Jesus has turned and looked at us many times – very sadly. When Jesus said that Peter would deny him, he was not just stating a predestined fact that left him untouched. It pained him even though he knew beforehand that it would happen. It was the same with Judas. When Jesus shud
dered and said, "One of you will betray me," he suf fered real agony. May we all have an open heart for the
Jn. 31:21 look Jesus gives us. He wants to protect his followers, but even after they are chosen by him they are still in danger of being lost.
Woe to us if we think we will get to heaven because we live at the Bruderhof. If we believe this, we don't love Christ enough.
Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that Jesus came not only for the Jews but for all men. He goes on to say, "The true Jew is not he who is such in externals; nor is the true circumcision the external mark in the
Rom. 2:28 flesh. The true Jew is he who is such inwardly." In the same way, the true Christian is not recognizable outwardly –even if he is baptized. To pour water over a person or immerse him in water is in itself no help toward salvation. "True circumcision is of the heart, directed not by written precepts but by the Spirit; such a man receives his commendation not from men
Rom. 2:29 but from God." This is an important point: faith is not made up of written precepts. Paul was referring to the Law of Moses, but today too, we can be enslaved by written laws –this is one of our dilemmas at the Bruderhof. We must never give up the freedom of the Spirit, in which alone we can find peace in God.
Even if we do not completely understand the thoughts of Paul regarding salvation, the heart and
the sense of his words are very easy to understand: the Pharisees kept the Law but were still proud hypocrites, whereas "our argument is that a man is justified by faith, quite apart from his success in keeping the law."
Rom. 3:28
You may wonder about the millennium, the resur rection of the just, and the future of God's kingdom. Simply leave it all to God. We face many mysteries re garding the future; we do not know the reason for this, that, or the other. The main thing is that in the end God is all in all. He will triumph over all evil and over all that is hostile to him. That should be our greatest expectation.
1 Cor. 15:28
The Kingdom of God
It is quite clear that the kingdom of God cannot exist where bombs are being dropped on people, whether guilty or innocent, where there is racial hatred among men, where there is such poor distribution of food that some people starve while others have surplus food, or where people cannot find work because of automation.
If we really see the injustice of the world for what it is, we will long for the kingdom of God. Only when the hearts of men are moved toward love and peace will his righteousness break in. Those who remain unmoved, however, cannot take part in the kingdom. Therefore John the Baptist said, "Repent, for the king-
Mt. 3:2 dom of God is at hand." And Jesus said, "Seek first the
Mt. 6:33 kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be yours as well."
Jesus came to prepare all men for the kingdom of God, which has not yet come, as we know only too well. He told us that the kingdom will be among us when we love God with our whole heart and soul, and when we love our neighbor as ourselves. If only we would do this, not just in words but in deed!
Jesus came not as a great king or president but as a humble baby. That is what people have not under stood. He proclaimed the coming kingdom of God. There has perhaps never been a time when this is more urgently needed than the present. Men have more power than ever, and the power of their weapons is frightening. The relationships of people, races, and nations, are unsolved, and those who have money rule. Jesus says we should become poor. If we obey him Mt. 19:21
and give up worldly privileges and power over people, our hearts will be freed for the kingdom of God. Oh, if we could only glimpse what this kingdom means: repentance, glowing love, and God's rulership above everything!
Nations are building their freedom and security on the most dangerous weapons that have ever existed. Yet we are called to build our security on something else – that which is of God. And we long that something of God might be given to all nations. It is not enough to lead even the most perfect life of peace in church com munity. Our longing will be satisfied only when the whole earth comes under the rulership of God, not the rulership of force.
Jn. 6:11 When Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, a remarkable thing happened: the
people wanted to force him to become their king. But Jesus said to them, "You come to me because I have fed you," and he rejected them. Then those who wanted to make him king left him. Some of them were even hostile. After this Jesus said to the Twelve, "All the others have gone away; do you want to leave me now too?" We must be ready to answer this question: Do we also want to leave?
Jn. 6:15
Jn. 6:26-66
It is significant that the people wanted to make Jesus king only after he gave them bread. This did not happen even when he raised someone from the dead. There is nothing wrong in itself with expecting God to give us bread, or expecting Jesus to fill our needs. Jesus taught us to ask our Father for our daily bread. But what he so sharply rejects is the building of a kingdom on that mammonistic level. He would rather lose his disciples than build his kingdom on a false foundation.
Jesus offers to give himself to each one of us to the extent that we become one flesh and one blood with him. This is not a philosophy, but real food; it is life. It changes everything in anyone who experiences it, not only for that moment but for all eternity.
Christ promises us eternal life in a kingdom based on faith, not on work and bread. Usually a king de mands the blood of his subjects. But Christ gave his blood for his subjects. He gave his life and his body for the lives of others. At the time Christ offered his body to his disciples, he had–as far as we know –the larg est following of his lifetime. But after this, many left him. That is why Jesus asked the Twelve, "Do you also
Jn. 6:67-68
want to leave me?" Peter's answer is wonderful: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Your words are words of eternal life."
It is important for us to decide whether we want only a nice church with Jesus as its king, or the way of the cross. This must be very clear to us: Jesus' way is the way of the cross, of complete personal change, of a society on a completely different basis than work and bread and privileges. We must be willing to be sur rounded by enemies and to be despised for going his way.
The way society has developed in this century of such tremendous injustice and bloodshed shows us that salvation and redemption cannot come from men; they must come from God. All the more we must call on God to reveal once again his kingdom of righteousness and justice among men.
Jesus is the kingdom of God. When he forgave sins, that was the kingdom of God. When he gathered his friends in unity, that was the kingdom of God. When he drove out demons and impure spirits, that was the kingdom of God. Every deed of his mission among men was the kingdom of God.
I sometimes wonder whether our community has not completely forgotten the kingdom of God, and
whether the distinction between personal salvation and the kingdom is clear enough to us. Both are of great importance. Eternal salvation is very important –it is wonderful to experience the nearness of Christ and to be redeemed by him. But the kingdom of God is still greater!
The nearness of the kingdom of God cannot be mea-
Mt. 4:17 sured in terms of time. Jesus said "The kingdom of heaven is at hand!" And paradoxical as it sounds, it was nearer at that time than it is now. It was not nearer in terms of time, but in terms of space.
Jas. 5:16 The kingdom of God must be fought for and wrestled
Mk. 9:29 for. The prayers of men and women have tremendous influence in this fight.
If we love Christ and his cause, we will have the inter est of his kingdom at heart. Christ came to this earth and suffered in order to bring the kingdom on earth, and his church is entrusted with the very great task of mission for this kingdom.
What a mighty thing it is to live for God's king dom! Do not shrink back. Live for it; look for it, and you will find that it is so powerful it will completely overwhelm you –it will solve every problem on earth. Everything will be new, and each person will love the
other in Christ. All separation brought about by death will be overcome, and love will rule.
The commission we are given by Jesus as a church is to work for his kingdom and his future reign. There is nothing greater on earth than to work for this. Let us live intensely and use our time for the kingdom! Let us love one another!
God needs a place on earth where he can break in. Such a place was there in Mary, whose willingness made it possible for Christ to be born in Bethlehem. If God can enter in even one place, whether in Bethle hem, China, Russia, Vietnam –in a human heart any where –it is like the opening of a door. If the door to a room is opened even a little, light can come in. And if God's light enters and moves the hearts of just two or three people on earth, it will affect all the rest. It will even affect presidents, prime ministers, generals, and soldiers. I cannot believe that humans are so isolated from one another that it has no effect.
Just as through Adam the whole of humankind fell, so through Jesus – the "second Adam," the true man, and God himself –the whole of humankind can find freedom, healing, and redemption.
Rom. 5:12-19
Let us call upon God and ask him that we may fight for his kingdom. The more deeply we enter this fight,
the more deeply we will experience the cross of Christ, the resurrection, and Pentecost –and the nearer the kingdom will be to us. Live intensively in the expecta tion of the Lord! He who does not wait for the Lord in every aspect of his life does not wait at all. I ask my self every evening, have I really loved enough, hoped enough, fought enough, worked enough? The expecta tion of the kingdom must lead to deeds.
Karl Barth* once said that the kingdom of God must be revealed to us as something completely different from us, something completely independent from us which we cannot mix with our own selves. This is, I think, a very important recognition. Unless we die to ourselves for his sake, we remain in opposition to him and unworthy of him.
God could have closed human history at Golgotha, when Jesus overcame the devil and death. But he did not do that, and evil had a further chance. This is a mystery to us. Many people from all nations are won for the kingdom of God, but many others are misled. I do not dare to guess why this is so, but I know that God is the ruler of the universe and that his judgment must stand. We read that those who are misled, those who "worship the beast and its image," will receive its mark on their forehead or hand and will drink the
Rev. 14:9-10
* Karl Barth, Swiss theologian, 1886-1968
wine of God's wrath. We don't know when this will happen, or when the breaking in of God's kingdom will come, but we must raise our children so that they are ready to stand firm when it does. Our children must be courageous enough to stand for the truth.
How does the kingdom of God relate to the last judg ment? How will the kingdom come, and what will it be like? Much is shown us through the sayings of Jesus himself, through the writings of the early church, and through the working of the Spirit in the individual heart. Yet Jesus said that the hour of the coming king dom was known to the Father alone and that even he, the Son of God, did not know when it would come. We can approach these questions only with greatest awe, reverence, and caution. At the same time, though, we see how very concerned the early Christians were with the coming of the kingdom. All the words of the apostles point to it.
Mt. 24:36
We do not know how near or far we are from the kingdom of God in terms of time. But we know we can be very near or very far from it in spirit, and that is the decisive question. Jesus said that we can expect signs of the coming kingdom, and some of these signs are evident today. Yet he also said that the last day would come like a thief in the night; that is, at a mo ment when no one expects it or is thinking about it.
Lk. 21:9-11
Lk. 12:39-40
There are many mysteries we cannot solve because God wishes to keep them hidden. But we can rejoice in this: the coming of the kingdom is certain, and it is a kingdom of peace, victory, and justice.
We do not know why God allowed death and evil to enter creation, yet we do know that man let himself be seduced by evil. In the same way, we do not know what struggle God carried on against evil before the creation of man, or the proportion and nature of man's task in this struggle, but we do know that it was a decisive struggle and that it brought the Son of God himself to the cross.
In the Revelation of John we read of a battle that will take place in heaven at the end time. The church – as the Body of Christ–has to carry on the same battle here upon earth. Just as God did not spare the suffer ing of his own Son but delivered him up to suffer the greatest need, so too, at the expense and sacrifice of the church, the kingdom will break in.
Rev. 19:11-21
The separation of the spiritual from the material, of the soul from the body, is death, but unity is life. Jesus brought the message of a new kingdom where soul and body, spiritual and material, will no longer be separated. In this new kingdom the Creator will be one with his creation.
When we look at the earth as it is now, we see that judgment is inevitable. In fact, the sin of men is al
ready carrying out this judgment. Yet if we deeply consider the words of Christ, we will find that grace, mercy, and compassion will triumph over judgment.
We expect a new heaven and a new earth, but we must not trouble ourselves with exactly how and when the kingdom will come. We know only that it is com
2 Pet. 3:12 ing. And since Peter says that the church must expect, help, and hasten on the coming of God, we know it is our task to see that something of his kingdom is re vealed and made living among us.
In the beginning, even before the creation of the uni verse, was the endlessly loving Father, God, and with him the Word, which is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. At the end of time, too, God alone will rule. Groaning creation will be redeemed and the universe
Rev. 7:17 will be joyful. There will be pure joy, love, harmony,
Rev. 21:4 and justice. God will wipe away every tear, and there will be no death, sorrow, or pain. The longing for this time burns in the heart of every being, spiritual or hu man.
What a great gift it would be if we could see a little of the great vision of Jesus –if we could see beyond our small lives! Certainly our view is very limited. But we can at least ask him to call us out of our small worlds and our self-centeredness, and we can at least
ask to feel the challenge of the great harvest that must be gathered – the harvest of all nations and all people, including the generations of the future.
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