DISCERN | MARCH/APRIL 2025

A Magazine of

MYTHS ABOUT GRACE

Discern magazine (ISSN 2372-1995 [print]; ISSN 2372-2010 [online]) is published every two months by the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, as a service to readers of its LifeHopeandTruth.com website. Discern’s home page is LifeHopeandTruth.com/Discern. Free electronic subscriptions can be obtained at LifeHopeandTruth.com/ Discern. Contact us at info@DiscernMag.com

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President: Jim Franks; Editor: Clyde Kilough; Editorial content manager: Mike Bennett; Managing editor: David Hicks; Senior editor: David Treybig; Graphic designer: Elena Salyer; Associate editors: Erik Jones, Jeremy Lallier; Assistant editor: Kendrick Diaz; Copy editor: Becky Bennett; Social media: Hailey Willoughby

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Finding Grace

If you could ask God for three things, what might they be?

Exodus 33:13-18 recounts someone doing just that, but what he sought from God probably differs substantially from what might rank first on your or my list. In a conversation with God Moses put forward three petitions:

• “Show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight” (verse 13).

• “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here” (verse 15).

• “Show me Your glory” (verse 18).

Space on this page limits the much deeper reflection that this account deserves on how these three points still relate to our lives today. However, the “Myths About Grace” article beginning on page 4 and our new booklet God’s Gift of Grace prompted some thoughts about Moses’ first request.

God’s way reveals God

Some people reason, I will do the commandments when I have good understanding! No, the ways of God are best learned by doing them; as you keep the laws of God, you begin to see their value. You begin to see that the commandments—the ways of God—are not just regulatory, they are revelatory. They reveal the way God Himself thinks and operates. They reveal God.

Connecting the dots

One plea. Two objectives. How do you connect the dots between the plea to “show me now Your way” and the objectives of knowing God and finding grace in His sight? How do those three things relate?

Well, consider this: the “way” in Hebrew literally means a road or path. Symbolically, it’s the way we walk in life. Moses understood that the more he knew about God’s way, the more he would know about God Himself. In other words, God’s way of living also reveals His character, His reasoning, His love.

Didn’t Moses already know God? Yes . . . to a degree. But though Moses was close to God—so close that “the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11)—he desired to know God even better. And he knew how—by learning and discerning His ways. As the psalmist wrote, “The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.” But then he added this key factor, “A good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (Psalm 111:2, 10).

Leading Israel weighed heavily on Moses and perhaps inspired his pleas to God. He had just witnessed what happens when people who have been delivered miraculously, have been given the commandments directly from God, and have made a covenant with Him, carelessly let their hearts turn astray. He seemed to sense that, as a mere human being, he needed more than just God’s law—he needed understanding, needed to really know God, needed the grace that comes from that relationship with God.

And that connects the dots: as we see and walk in God’s ways, we come to know and understand Him more deeply, and in that closer relationship we learn to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Grace is not, as the article in this issue points out, rooted in New Testament theology. Grace has always been an inherent part of God’s nature, and Moses is just one of His many people in the Old Testament who understood and valued that. God is gracious. It’s His way.

And, by the way, about that question at the beginning, “If you could make three requests of God”? There is no “if”—you can “let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).

And there is no better first request than “Show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.”

Clyde Kilough Editor

MYTHS ABOUT GRACE

By Kendrick Diaz

Grace is one of the most recognized concepts in the Bible, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood.

Alot of churches get some things right about grace—but they also get a lot wrong. The result? A confusing mash-up of true and false ideas about what grace really means.

Since grace is at the heart of salvation, getting it right isn’t just important—it’s essential. That’s why we’ve put together a short list of some flawed teachings to watch out for.

Some of these ideas may feel like gospel truth because they’ve held near-sacred status in the religious community for so long. And that might make it hard to see them for what they really are: myths.

But Scripture is to be our guide, not “the tradition of men” (Colossians 2:8; 2 Timothy 3:16). Holding onto misconceptions distorts our view of the true grace God extends.

Let’s clear the air and get a fuller picture of grace by addressing these myths head-on.

MYTH

#1

“Grace is only a New Testament concept”

Biblical grace relates to how God gives people undeserved, life-changing blessings, and so it actually shows up everywhere in the Old Testament.

Look at the story of Noah.

In just 1,600 years, the world had plunged into moral ruin. What God had called “very good” at creation was now completely corrupted. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man” (Genesis 6:5-6).

This should have been the end of humanity—no question about it. Generation after generation had rejected God’s way, leaving a trail of sin that infected every corner of the earth. By any standard of justice, it would have been entirely fair for God to turn the final page on humanity.

Thankfully, the story took a hopeful turn: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the L ord” (verse 8, emphasis added throughout).

Noah stood out, but he also had sin (verse 9; Romans 3:23). And yet, God chose him.

He gave Noah the honor of escaping the Flood with his family to repopulate the earth and to continue the story of God’s salvation. It was an act of grace—for Noah and, more importantly, for all humanity.

Thanks to God’s grace at this pivotal moment, humanity wasn’t abandoned as some failed experiment. It’s one of the clearest examples of God’s graciousness.

Yes, grace is often used as shorthand for Jesus’ sacrifice and the redemption He brought. And, yes, that one-of-a-kind event took place in the New Testament. But the mercy, kindness and compassion behind His sacrifice?

That’s always been part of who God is. Noah’s story is one of many Old Testament examples that remind us of that.

MYTH

#2

“Grace replaces law”

Based on statements by Paul that are taken out of context, some claim that grace frees us from having to obey the 10 Commandments.

One problem with this view is that it treats law and grace as if they’re in opposition. But this is a false dichotomy. Law and grace aren’t contradictory. It isn’t a matter of one or the other. The truth is, they’re complementary.

God’s law reflects His character and exposes all the ways we fall short of it (Romans 7:7). Without it, what benchmark would we have for striving toward “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13)? Would the Bible’s call for us to be “holy” in all our conduct make sense if we weren’t expected to follow God’s definition of holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16; Leviticus 19:2)?

Then there’s grace.

Slipups are real. On the journey to becoming more like God, we’re going to trip and sully ourselves with sin. It’s uncomfortable. It’s discouraging. But grace grounds us in the hope that, even after all we’ve botched, if we repent, we can move forward.

To say that grace replaces law would be like arguing that soap makes mirrors unnecessary. The logic doesn’t follow. Soap (grace) can clean the dirt and grime, but it doesn’t find or identify it. A mirror (God’s law) is still needed.

That’s why we need both. The law shows us how to think and act like God, but grace offers a reservoir of forgiveness to depend on when we inevitably fall short.

Law and grace aren’t at odds—they serve different, but complementary, purposes.

MYTH

#3

“Grace is earned”

Nowhere does the Bible teach that our merit earns us anything with God. In fact, God challenges this very idea when He rebukes Job: “Who has a claim against me that I must pay?” (Job 41:11, New International Version).

Obedience isn’t currency, and God doesn’t hand out checks for salvation based on how well we follow the rules.

This kind of thinking has its roots in first-century legalism. The legalist camp was largely made up of Jews who thought favor with God came from strict conformity to laws and the man-made hedges around those laws. The stricter you were, they reasoned, the more spiritual you became—and, in their minds, the holier you were before God.

But here’s the problem with works-based righteousness: not even the most meticulous attention to rules can erase a single sin from our past. That’s why we need grace.

Look at Paul. Back when he was a staunch Pharisee, he spent years chasing righteousness through the law. But eventually he learned something: by championing his own obedience, he was ignoring his past sins. No amount of obedience could cover the fact that he was a sinner. Only Jesus’ death could do that.

It’s helpful to know what grace isn’t, but our understanding needs to go deeper.

MYTH

#4

“Once grace is yours, you can’t lose it”

This is also known as the doctrine of eternal security. The name says it all: it’s the belief that once you genuinely receive grace, it can’t be lost, damaged or revoked. Your salvation is effectively locked away in a heavenly vault—secure forever, no matter what.

But this is a textbook case of cherry-picking verses and misapplying them to the rest of Scripture.

Take Romans 8:38-39, for example: “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There it is. Nothing can affect our salvation, right?

Not so fast. Just a few chapters later, Paul warns Church members that God “may not spare” them if they become unfaithful (Romans 11:20-21). That doesn’t make it sound like God offers anyone unconditional grace—it sounds like each person has his or her part to play.

Paul later told the Galatians: “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21, NIV).

Our sins are like massive debts, so severe they demand our lives (Romans 6:23). And, yes, when we recognize the weight of our sin and what it’s earned us, God calls for us to make a complete change in how we live. We are to totally surrender to God and His commandments—that’s Christianity in a nutshell.

But in the end, obedience can’t erase those debts. And without someone to pay them for us, collection day is inevitable.

This is where grace comes in.

It’s God’s solution. It’s His gift —Jesus’ sacrifice to wipe away those past debts. It’s not something we can earn, and it’s certainly not something we deserve. It’s freely given, completely independent of anything we’ve done.

Paul couldn’t have been clearer: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We can’t brag about earning what’s been freely given to us. That’s the whole point of grace.

Or take Philippians 1:6: “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” This verse is sometimes used as a blanket promise of salvation—no ifs, ands or buts about it. But is it? It doesn’t line up with Paul’s warning not to “receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Corinthians 6:1).

Philippians 1:6 shows that God is committed to working with us. He’s intent on fulfilling His promise to grant us salvation at Jesus’ return—but our faithfulness is also a factor here (verses 9-11). Yes, God is actively helping us as we seek the Kingdom of God. But that assurance isn’t the same as an ironclad promise that our salvation is guaranteed no matter what we do.

Paul, even after decades of working to build godly character, wrote, “I do not count myself to have apprehended [to have attained the resurrection, verse 11]; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

It was clear to Paul, as it should be to us, that salvation is an ongoing process. We can lose grace if we neglect to do our part.

God is faithful. God is gracious—but we can still reject that grace and fall away.

MYTH

#5

“With grace, sin can no longer harm our relationship with God”

Being shown grace doesn’t make us immune to the effects of sin.

When the Israelites turned their backs on their covenant with God, Isaiah boldly explained why God didn’t step in to rescue them. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

There’s a principle here. Sin drives a wedge between us and God. And if we don’t deal with that separation, the fallout can be devastating. Sure, grace offers forgiveness. But if we keep walking down the wrong path and refuse to turn to God, we’ll bear the full weight of our choices.

The author of Hebrews is even more direct about the danger of sin: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).

It sounds harsh, but here’s the good news: God is always willing to work with us. The key is repentance.

John says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Grace without confusion

False teachings about grace have been around since the first century, and they aren’t going anywhere now. We can spend all day dissecting the ways people have distorted grace, but by now you’re probably wondering: What is grace, really?

It’s helpful to know what grace isn’t, but our understanding needs to go deeper. Because at the end of the day, knowing the truth about grace is more than just a theological exercise—it’s about building a correct foundation for how we live.

When we understand it biblically, grace changes everything. It radically changes our relationship with God. It reshapes how we see ourselves. It puts our struggles into the right perspective. And it empowers us to live out the purpose God has in mind for us.

There’s more to discuss, which is why we’ve put together a resource to help you. Our new booklet God’s Gift of Grace is designed to answer your questions and give you a clearer picture of this amazing gift.

God calls us to discern the true grace from the false grace. It takes studying. It takes effort. But getting grace right matters so much, dear reader.

And the reward? A deeper, richer and more meaningful relationship with our Creator. D

DROWNING IN DEBT

By Mike Bennett

Has debt ever felt like an endless ocean or a towering tsunami?

Many people today are struggling to keep their heads above water financially and feel like they are drowning in debt.

Debt can affect your mental health and take a toll on your relationships. “In addition to the impact to your mental health, stress and worry over debt can also adversely affect your physical health and can lead to anxiety, ulcers, heart attacks, high blood pressure and depression. The deeper you get into debt, the more likely it is that your health will be impacted” (Kathryn Pomroy, “ What Are the Long-Term Effects of Debt? ”).

The burden of debt and the number of people affected are rising.

Debt can be a terrible curse, creating anxiety, family conflict and despair. How can you get your head above water and deal with debt?

“The average debt in America is $104,215 across mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and credit cards,” said Jennifer Streaks (Businessinsider.com).

According to the Financial Times , nearly 3 million people in the United Kingdom fell into financial difficulty last year, and more than 20 million in Britain are now living in vulnerable circumstances.

In the U.S., four out of five are in debt (Chris MacDonald, “Drowning in Debt: The Hidden Tsunami Engulfing American Households ”).

No matter what country you live in—if you are in debt, you are not alone. People everywhere have their stories of drowning in debt.

Debt stories

One woman, who asked to be anonymous, told about her traumatic experiences at age 24. She was without health insurance

and had a lot of medical debt from surgery two years earlier.

Then she broke her jaw in three places. “I didn’t even have the money to pay for a doctor’s appointment to tell me how to fix my jaw. I did have to beg others for the first payment for the surgery to fix my jaw.

“When the bills started coming in from that, from the previous surgery, I was overwhelmed, crushed, and scared.”

She added: “My debt was partly not knowing how to budget and live and partly because of circumstances outside of my control, such as my health.” (More about her story later.)

Expert debt story

Even today’s personal finance experts have their own debt stories. Dave Ramsey, whose name is now synonymous with getting out of debt, shares his story in his book The Total Money Makeover:

“It seemed every month I sat at that same table with the same worries, fears, and problems. I had too much debt, too little savings, and no sense of control over my life. No matter how hard I worked, it seemed I couldn’t win. I was to forever be a slave to some banker, to the government, and to the ‘needs’ of my family. When Sharon and I ‘talked’ about money, we ended up in a fight, leaving her feeling afraid and me feeling inadequate. The next car purchase, the next house, the kids’ college— our entire future seemed out of reach” (pp. 1-2).

Expert tips for getting your head above water

Dave Ramsey, like other experts, has turned his personal experience around and now teaches others principles for getting out of debt. Here are some of the basic steps his organization recommends:

1. Get on a budget.

2. Cut back on the extras.

3. Pause all investing.

4. Don’t take on any new debt.

5. Increase your income.

6. Start working the debt snowball.

7. Stop the comparison trap.

8. Start (or keep) working the Baby Steps.

(“ What to Do If You’re Drowning in Debt .”)

Much of the commonsense advice available today rests on biblical principles.

Biblical warnings and advice about debt

The Bible advises us to avoid borrowing, but if we do borrow, we must repay any money, and if we borrow something else, we must take care of it and make it good if it is damaged (Psalm 37:21; Exodus 22:14).

The Proverbs even warn about the dangers of cosigning on a loan

(Proverbs 22:26-27). All this is summed up in the proverb: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (verse 7).

Paul expressed this ideal along with a deeper spiritual message:

“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).

The dangers of credit card debt

Credit cards can be one of the most expensive ways to borrow money. Even as other interest rates come down, credit card rates can remain stubbornly high.

In November 2024 CNBC reported, “Lower-income households, who had to stretch to cover price increases, have been hit especially hard after the Federal Reserve’s string of 11 interest rate hikes lifted the average credit card rate to more than 20%—near an all-time high.

“Even as the Fed lowers its benchmark, the average credit card rate has barely budged.”

This is a real problem as average credit card balances in the U.S. have increased to $6,329.

Experts advise credit card debtors to stop charging anything new and to pay off the credit card balances as soon as possible.

Jade Warshaw, author of Money’s Not a Math Problem, advises the debt snowball method: listing debts from smallest to largest and attacking the smallest first (while paying the minimum payments on all the rest).

“When it comes to paying off debt, money is mostly about your mindset, not math. Once you get that first debt behind you, you’ll be on fire and ready to knock out the next debt!”

If you are more motivated by the math, however, the debt avalanche

method suggests paying off the debt with the highest interest rate first. Either way, experts encourage debtors to stick with it and not give up.

Mitchell Hockenbury, a certified financial planner in Kansas City, Missouri, said, “The worst thing that I see people do is throw their hands up in the air and think, ‘Well, I’m already in debt. What’s a little bit more?’ and they go out and spend money on dinner or buy something that temporarily makes them feel better” (as quoted in “4 Things Not to Do When You’re Drowning in Debt ”).

Budgeting basics

A budget is just a plan, and without a plan, it’s unlikely you can get out of debt and achieve your financial and life goals.

A budget involves writing down your income, as well as how you plan to spend it by categories, such as housing, utilities, food, clothing, transportation, insurance, health care, saving, giving, debt repayment, entertainment, etc.

A budget also requires some method of keeping track of what you actually spend. Reviewing this information leads to decisions— sometimes hard ones requiring you to say no or make tradeoffs—to make sure your spending doesn’t exceed your income. One resource for setting up a simple budget is our online article “ The Bible, Budgeting and You” with its “ Sample Outline Budget Reflecting Biblical Principles .”

Getting to your goals

Several of the people I surveyed for this article shared stories of the

despair of debt being conquered by prayer, priorities, perseverance and the kindness of other people. Several credited putting God first and faithful budgeting with helping them escape the debt trap. Here’s the rest of the story from the anonymous young woman with the medical debt.

“I clearly remember getting down on my knees, crying, and telling God that I didn’t know what to do, but I would not rob Him by not paying tithes, and I would do my best to have the faith to come out of this very difficult trial. It is still one of my most vivid and real prayers.

“The next day in the mail, two checks that covered my medical debt showed up . . I have no doubt that He heard my prayer.”

Tithing is the biblical practice of giving 10 percent of our increase to God, and financial advisers like Ramsey Solutions say not to stop tithing even while paying down debt. “The Bible never mentions anything about hitting the pause button on tithing. And in Malachi 3:10, God actually promises to bless us if we faithfully tithe” (RamseySolutions.com).

Another person I interviewed,

Lynda, gave this personal experience and advice:

“I always felt like debts would take ‘forever’ to pay off until I [learned to] set an amount, pay it regularly without fail and celebrate the little victories of the decreasing balance. Then [once it was paid off, I continued to] set aside that same amount in savings for the next rainy day.”

Lynda concluded with two pieces of advice: “Thou shalt make and abide by a budget!” and, “Live beneath your means.”

All this hard work and selfdiscipline pays off. As each credit card or other debt is paid off, the burden and anxiety lighten. Paying off the last debt is an event to celebrate! (Frugally, of course!)

Then you can redirect the money in your budget that was dedicated to paying off debt toward saving for emergencies, for your children’s education, for retirement and for other long-term goals.

There is a way out. The effort will be worth it!

To study more about this important topic, see our online articles “Dealing With Debt ,” “Christian Budget ” and “ Teach Little Kids About Money.” D

The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ— You Don’t Need It, Unless .

Many non-Christians question why they should care about the sacrifice of a God they don’t believe in. The answer requires looking beyond this life.

By Jeremy Lallier

The message of salvation is a beautiful thing—if you’re a Christian.

If you’re not, it can be a frustrating, laughable or even offensive thing. The apostle Paul had plenty of experience with that: “For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23, New English Translation).

I can’t count the number of times I’ve come across online posts that ask variations of this same core question:

“Why should I care about a sacrifice I didn’t ask for that claims to be payment for a debt I don’t believe in?”

From a non-Christian perspective, it must seem kind of crazy to hear someone tell you that two millennia ago, the Son of God sacrificed Himself on your behalf to pay the penalty you’ve incurred for breaking His laws, and so you should respond by completely changing the way you’re living your life.

Paul was right. That sounds like pure foolishness—to be told that there are rules you’ve broken (rules you didn’t know and never agreed to follow) and that now your life must be radically altered because someone paid the penalty before you were even aware of the problem.

Many people respond to that claim with some amount of incredulity. They didn’t ask for it, they don’t want it—they’re not even convinced they need it.

A life without the sacrifice

From a physical perspective, no one needs the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to make it through this life.

We are more than capable of living out the remainder of our lives without giving God a second thought—at the end of which, we will do what all living things eventually do.

We will die.

Some versions of Christianity will threaten nonbelievers with vivid descriptions of an

ever-burning hell or an eternity of isolation from God, but that’s not what the Bible says. It says “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

When we sin—when we knowingly or unknowingly violate God’s law (1 John 3:4)— we earn what billions upon billions before us have earned:

Death.

And in this state of sinfulness, life works exactly how humans have come to expect it to work. We live for a certain period of time (maybe long, maybe short), and our lives are filled with good things and bad things (maybe more of one and less of the other), we spend some time trying to find some purpose or meaning or lasting value in the whole ordeal, and then we die.

Without Christ’s sacrifice, that’s it. The end.

And if that’s all you want out of your existence—if you just want to appear as the briefest of blips on a timeline of events you were powerless to influence—if you want to disappear from the story as quickly as you appeared in it—if you don’t want to understand

why you’re here —then the skeptics are right. If you are concerned only with the here and now, you can ignore God. You can dismiss His rules. And you can brush off the sacrifice of a Man who lived 2,000 years before you were even born.

The conflict between flesh and God

But life is meant to be something more than a cosmic blip—and that’s why the sacrifice matters.

It matters if you’ve looked at your life and said, “No, wait a minute—this can’t be all there is to it. There has to be a purpose. There has to be a reason.”

Because there is.

There is a reason. There is a purpose. The God who created the entire universe—who set the stars in the sky and set the earth spinning in the inky void of space—also created you for a reason.

But there’s a problem.

That God has rules. Expectations. Standards for how we live our lives.

They’re not an arbitrary list of dos and don’ts—they’re the foundational building blocks for what it means to live a fulfilling life. God’s laws are designed to improve our lives and our character. They have clear, tangible benefits. When we ignore them or disobey them, we actively make life worse for ourselves—and for those around us.

The rules aren’t the problem. We’re the problem. “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Romans 8:7, New International Version).

In our default condition, we don’t mesh with God’s rules. Worse than that—we’re inherently hostile toward them.

Which means we’re going to break those laws. Sometimes (oftentimes) without even making a concerted effort to break them.

It’s just going to happen.

A lot.

And if sin is what happens when we break God’s law—and if our fleshly human minds are naturally inclined to break that law—and if the penalty for breaking that law is death—

Well, you see the problem.

In this scenario, if God has a purpose for us, it doesn’t matter, because we’ve shot ourselves in the foot from day one. We’re going to die, and we’re going to stay dead. That’s what we’ve earned.

A beautiful future— just out of reach

This is the moment when the value of the sacrifice starts to come into focus.

You have a purpose for existing. God the Father and Jesus Christ want you to live forever as a member of Their divine family. They want to bring you into a future with no more death or sorrow or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4). They want to share a productive, exciting eternity with you.

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And

The truth is, you don’t need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ— unless you want to be part of the future God has planned.

everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

But your own actions have cut you off from that future, and you’re powerless to claw your way into it.

The cost of sin is a life. And from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), Jesus and the Father resolved to pay that cost on our behalf.

“The goodness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4)—because of Christ’s sacrifice, repentance can lead to forgiveness, and forgiveness can lead to salvation.

A plan that includes everyone

But again, all this will make a difference only if you want your life to have meaning and purpose. You’re free to ignore it entirely—as long as you’re content with a life completely disconnected from the reason for its own existence.

I don’t think anyone is truly okay with missing out on that.

But there’s another facet to this whole plan, and it’s one we can’t afford to ignore:

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).

The only reason things start clicking in our minds—the only reason we come to appreciate the preciousness of the sacrifice we didn’t ask for that pays the penalty for rules we weren’t even trying to break—is because God the Father personally chooses to help us understand.

We can’t will ourselves to understand the future God has in store for us. Only God can help us see it—and help us want it. Which also means there are billions who have lived and died without having been given that understanding by God.

But they didn’t die without hope.

God’s plan is huge and comprehensive. In this article, we are only briefly touching on concepts with an incredible depth and breadth. If you want to dive deeper, you can do that by downloading four of our Journeys: “Knowing God ,” “ The Problem of Evil ,” “ The Plan of God ” and “ The People of God .”

But for now, suffice it to say that God is a fair, merciful and loving God, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He has a plan to give everyone the opportunity to join His family—including those who died without understanding their potential in His plan.

The truth of the matter

The message of salvation is a beautiful thing—if you’re a Christian. “To those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24, NET Bible).

To others, it’s often a stumbling block or else just plain foolishness—for now.

And that’s okay. God is patient, and He’ll help everyone to see the truth of the matter at the right time and in the right way.

The truth is, you don’t need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ—unless you want to be part of the future God has planned.

And behind that truth is another, equally important truth:

You do want to be part of that future. D

HOW LONG WAS JESUS IN THE TOMB?

By Phil Sandilands

Jesus said He would be in the grave three days and three nights. But can you get three days and three nights from Good Friday to sunrise on Easter Sunday?

Basic math shows you can’t fit three days and three nights into the narrow time period between afternoon on Good Friday and sunrise on Easter Sunday. Those are the times that most Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

So how long was Jesus in the tomb?

Was He wrong when He gave a sign about being in the grave for three days and three nights?

Or are the Good Friday and Easter Sunday traditions wrong?

Why the religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign

The religious leaders of the first century knew that God had promised to send a conquering Messiah. But the leaders overlooked prophecies that talked about a Messiah who would suffer and die to bear the sins of humanity (for example, Isaiah 53:4-6).

Since they didn’t understand that the Messiah would first come to die and only later return to rule, they saw

Jesus as a fraud. They rejected Him and constantly looked for ways to entrap Him.

The context of Jesus’ “sign of the prophet Jonah”

In Matthew 12:38 we read, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’”

The Pharisees had already seen plenty of signs from Jesus. But because Jesus didn’t fit their preconceived idea of the Messiah, they were already plotting to destroy Him.

No miracle, no sign, was going to convince them otherwise, and Jesus knew it. So “He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’” (verses 39-40).

Would this be three full 24-hour days, or just parts of three days?

Look at a quote from E.W. Bullinger’s notes in The Companion Bible: “The fact that ‘three days’ is used by Hebrew idiom for any part of three days and three nights is not disputed . . . But, when the number of ‘nights’ is stated as well as the number of ‘days,’ then the expression ceases to be an idiom, and becomes a literal statement of fact . . . Hence, when it says that ‘Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights’ (Jonah 1:17) it means exactly what it says, and that this can be the only meaning of the expression in Matthew 12:40” (Appendix 144).

Jesus said that the only sign He would give them that He was the Messiah was that He would be entombed for three days and three nights—exactly 72 hours.

That poses a problem for the traditional counting from late in the day on Good Friday to the morning of Easter Sunday.

Adding it up

Let’s look at two “bookend” scriptures that set the time for us.

First, when was Jesus buried?

“Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed . . This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near” (Luke 23:50-54).

Biblical days begin at sunset, which would have been around 6 p.m. in the Holy Land at that time of year. So just before 6 p.m. would start the count of three days and three nights.

Now look at John 20:1-2:

“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.’”

This doesn’t tell us when Jesus was resurrected, only that the tomb was already empty even before daybreak. That would have been around 6 a.m., marking the very latest the count could end.

Friday evening at 6 p.m. to Sunday morning at 6 a.m. would be only 36 hours. That’s two nights and one day. And that is a full 36 hours short of the required time in the tomb.

If Jesus were in the tomb for only 36 hours, then by His own words, He wouldn’t be our Messiah. How do we reconcile this?

Misunderstanding the weekly and annual Sabbaths

God’s weekly Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday night.

Luke’s Gospel account calls the day of Christ’s death “the Preparation,” with the Sabbath drawing near. Since the weekly Sabbath started at sunset Friday evening, many assume that Christ’s death was on Friday afternoon and He was buried just before sunset.

But what is often overlooked is that there was another Sabbath during this time.

John 19:31 states, “Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”

Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Passover

Holy Day Sabbath

Jesus entombed (Luke 23:50-54).

What’s a “high day”?

Women buy spices for Jesus’ body (Mark 16:1). Women rest on weekly Sabbath (Luke 23:55-56).

In addition to the weekly Sabbath, God also instituted a handful of annual holy days. They’re special Sabbaths that come once a year and can fall on other days of the week. These special Sabbaths are sometimes referred to as “high days.” We know that Jesus died on Passover. What holy day came after Passover?

Leviticus 23:4-7 tells us, “These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.”

The Passover is immediately followed by an annual high day: the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. An annual Sabbath can fall on different days of the week, and in the year Christ died (A.D. 31) the Feast of Unleavened Bread began at sunset on a Wednesday. So, the preparation day that John and Luke wrote about would have been that Wednesday—not Friday!

Jesus was buried just before 6 p.m. on a Wednesday, so three days and three nights later would put His resurrection on Saturday afternoon just before sunset. This means that when the ladies came to the tomb before sunrise on Sunday morning, Jesus had already been resurrected the previous evening.

The

complete picture of the three days

and three nights in A.D. 31

Joseph of Arimathea placed the body of Jesus in his unused tomb just before 6 p.m. The annual high day called the first day of Unleavened Bread began at sunset that Wednesday evening and ended at sunset on Thursday.

Women find tomb empty (Luke 24:1). Jesus rises (Matthew 12:40).

Let’s pick up the story in Mark 16:1:

“Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.”

The Sabbath here was the high day, the annual Sabbath. So, this was happening Friday, after the holy day, during the daytime when the shops were open.

In Luke 23:55-56, we read, “And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.”

They bought the spices and fragrant oils on Friday and prepared them, but then rested on the weekly Sabbath, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

They had to pause their activities and observe two different Sabbaths after Jesus was crucified. We can’t make sense of the story without understanding this. But when you understand the annual and weekly Sabbaths, it makes perfect sense and provides a logical explanation.

Continuing in Luke 24:1: “Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.”

They came to anoint Jesus’ body, but found an empty tomb because Jesus had already been resurrected Saturday afternoon.

This timeline fits all of the relevant scriptures. See it graphically displayed in more detail in our “Chronology of Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection Infographic .”

Yes, Jesus was the Messiah who came to die for the sins of humanity. His death paved the way for our reconciliation to God and eventually our entrance into His eternal Kingdom. And as He prophesied, He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth— proof that He is our Messiah! D

On the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus observed the Passover with His disciples in a new way. How did this festival’s meaning and observance change?

Jesus and Passover: How Did Passover Change Under the New Covenant?

By David Treybig

During His last Passover service, Jesus broke bread and declared, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took a cup of wine, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant” (Matthew 26:26-28, emphasis added throughout).

These modifications to the traditional Passover brought enhanced meaning to this festival, providing an annual reminder of the benefits offered through the New Covenant.

As we approach the first of God’s annual festivals, which will begin

on the evening of April 11, 2025, let’s review how its meaning was transformed.

The observance and meaning of Passover under the Old Covenant

The institution of Passover is recorded in Exodus 12. At the time, God was bringing 10 plagues upon Egypt to free the Israelites from their bondage. For the last plague, God said He would “strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment” (Exodus 12:12).

To prepare for this final plague, each Israelite household was to

slaughter a male lamb or goat at sundown on the beginning of the 14th day (verse 6). The animal was then roasted and eaten that night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (verse 8).

The Israelites were to apply some of the blood of the lamb or goat to the doorposts and lintels of their homes, serving as a symbol of God’s protection.

As God explained, “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout

your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance” (verses 13-14).

The Israelites were instructed to remain inside their homes that night, and any remaining roasted meat was to be burned the next morning (verses 10, 22). As God had forewarned, “it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock” (verse 29).

The observance and explanation of this important evening and night was to be taught to future generations. “And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households’” (verses 26-27).

Origin of the name

How Passover got its name is pretty straightforward. Exodus 12:11-13 says that God would “pass over” the houses that had blood around their doors. This act of divine protection was to be observed as a reminder of the night God “passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt” at “midnight” (verses 27, 29).

The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus confirms: “We . . . call this festival

Pascha, which signifies the feast of the passover; because on that day God passed us over, and sent the plague upon the Egyptians; for the destruction of the first-born came upon the Egyptians that night” ( Antiquities of the Jews, Book 2, chap. 14, sec. 6).

Importance of Passover

Observing the Passover was extremely important for the ancient Israelites. Anyone unable to keep it because of being unclean or on a journey could do so a month later (Numbers 9:10-11). No other festival had such a provision. Furthermore, any Israelite who failed to observe the Passover was to be “cut off from among his people” (verse 13).

The Exodus Passover was a necessary event to free them from bondage so they could journey to Sinai and enter into a covenant with God (the Old Covenant).

The New Covenant Passover is necessary to free us from the bondage of sin and enable us to enter into a New Covenant relationship with God.

New Covenant meaning and symbols

Jesus observed His final Passover with His disciples at the beginning of the 14th day of the first month. On this momentous evening, however, He instituted new symbols with deeper meanings. This occasion set the precedent for the Christian Passover.

Foot washing

The new Passover service established by Jesus began with foot washing, a symbol of humility. This was not part of the Passover service God gave the ancient Israelites in Exodus 12.

During the meal, Jesus “rose from supper . . poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded” (John 13:45). Jesus then explained the significance of this act.

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him” (verses 14-16).

Bread

The next symbol of the New Covenant Passover is the breaking and eating of unleavened bread. “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body’” (Matthew 26:26).

While unleavened bread had also been part of the Old Covenant Passover (Exodus 12:8), under the New Covenant this broken bread that was blessed now represented Christ’s body, which was beaten during His crucifixion for the forgiveness of our sins and the healing of our physical infirmities (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24).

The unblemished lamb or goat of the Old Covenant Passover prefigured Jesus, whom John described as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29; compare 1 Corinthians 5:7).

Wine

The third element of this new Passover service was wine, symbolizing Jesus’ shed blood for the forgiveness of our sins and ratification of the New Covenant.

“Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’” (Matthew 26:27-28; compare Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:11-12).

Eating the unleavened bread and drinking the wine, with faith in their symbolic meanings, bring the promise of eternal life. As Jesus stated, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day” (John 6:54).

The opportunity to receive eternal life is one of the better promises offered under the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6).

The Passover service established by Jesus concluded with the singing of a hymn (Matthew 26:30).

The New Covenant Passover is a deeply meaningful observance for thousands of Christians around the world today.

For further study, see “Passover: What Did Jesus Do for You? ” and “Questions and Answers About the Christian Passover.” D

Distinction Between Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread

While the Feast of Unleavened Bread, observed for seven days immediately following Passover (Exodus 12:15-16), is closely connected to the Passover, these two festivals have different meanings.

Under the Old Covenant, Passover, which occurs on the 14th day of the first month (Leviticus 23:5), commemorated God’s judgment on Egypt and His sparing of the Israelite firstborn (Exodus 12:12). It is a festival, but not a Sabbath rest.

The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, observed from the 15th to the 21st day of the first month (Leviticus 23:6-6-8), symbolized the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. As God instructed, “You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, since on this very day I brought your tribal divisions from the land of Egypt. You are to observe this day from generation to generation as a perpetual ordinance” (Exodus 12:17, International Standard Version).

But the Jewish religious leaders in the first century followed a precedent that had merged the two festivals into a seven-day observance (Mishnah Pesachim 9:5). Still, many Jews continued to observe the two distinct festivals spanning “eight days” (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 2, chap. 15, sec. 1).

These variances help explain why Jesus was not accused of breaking God’s law by observing the Passover with His disciples at the beginning of the 14th day of the first month while the Pharisees did so the following evening (John 18:28).

Jesus frequently chided the scribes and Pharisees for following the traditions of men rather than the commandments of God (Matthew 15:6; Mark 7:5-9). He referred to these spiritual leaders as “hypocrites” and “blind guides” (Matthew 23:15-16).

Under the New Covenant, the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread continue to have distinct meanings. Passover commemorates Christ’s sacrifice—the ultimate fulfillment of the lamb slain for the Israelites’ protection (1 Corinthians 11:26). The Days of Unleavened Bread symbolize letting Christ live in us and the ongoing process of leaving sin behind, just as the Israelites left Egypt (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). D

By Bill Palmer

TTh i n gs Become A ll Men All TO

The apostle Paul wrote that he had “become all things to all men.” What did he mean, and what impact should this principle have on Christians today?

he first-century church at Corinth was rife with problems. At least one member was involved in heinous sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 5:1). Believers were taking each other to court (1 Corinthians 6:1-6). There was a shocking lack of unity (1 Corinthians 1:10-13).

It was to this troubled congregation that the apostle Paul declared he had “become all things to all men” so that he “might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).

What exactly did he mean by this expression, and why did he write this to the Corinthians?

Corinth and the first-century world

The apostle Paul lived and worked in a pluralistic society, a melting pot of European and Near Eastern cultures. It was full of contrasts, and

every city or town he visited presented new challenges as he preached the gospel.

Corinth itself was a microcosm of the Roman world. That’s because its location on the isthmus connecting the Adriatic Sea and the Aegean Sea made it an ideal seaport. As such, Corinth experienced a continual influx of people, ideas and customs from all around the Mediterranean.

In no sphere of the Roman Empire were the contrasts more striking than with religion. In fact, because “new religions and new deities were introduced from various places” within the empire, “the [New Testament] era was a period of religious instability throughout the Greco-Roman world” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 494).

As a result of the Diaspora, or the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian captivity, religious beliefs and practices varied widely even among the Jews. These differences were reflected in the tension between religious groups, such as the Pharisees and Sadducees.

“Become all things to all men” in practice

When Paul wrote that he had “become all things to all men,” he was describing his approach in preaching the gospel. His life had trained him for this approach—from an early age, he had been exposed to different cultures, beliefs and traditions.

Paul straddled two worlds. Although he was “of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin” (Philippians 3:5), he was born and spent time in Tarsus, an important center of “advanced Hellenic culture” (Michael Grant, Saint Paul, p. 13). He was even a Roman citizen from birth (Acts 22:28), a rarity for Jews.

Paul’s experiences enabled him to interact with people from a wide variety of backgrounds. He understood that before he could expect people to hear him out, he first needed to establish common ground with them.

Modern speakers understand this principle. In an article about persuasion, author and Harvard instructor Carmine Gallo asserts that “the fastest way to engage an audience is to make a personal connection with them” (Inc.com). This is true now, and it was true in the first century.

When we look more closely at Paul’s “sermons” in the book of Acts, we can see this approach. (This approach also accounts for some of the differences in the letters he wrote to different congregations.)

To the Jews

Luke recorded summaries of three of Paul’s public addresses (called missionary sermons by many commentators) in the book of Acts.

The first was given in Antioch in Pisidia (not the same as Antioch in Syria). Pisidian Antioch was an important commercial center as well as an important military and administrative outpost for the Romans in Asia Minor.

Paul spoke in the synagogue, tailoring his message to the Jews. He established common ground by reviewing the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, showing how much of it pointed to Jesus Christ (Acts 13:16-41).

This review of their shared history emphasized the common ground Paul had with his fellow Jews. Ironically, his message

had a lot of similarities to the speech Stephen gave to the Sanhedrin (Acts 7) before he was stoned, with Paul (then referred to as Saul) consenting to his death (Acts 8:1).

To the uneducated

The second message Luke summarized was one Paul gave in Lystra, a backwater village (Acts 14:15-17). Though ruled by veterans of the Roman army and wealthy Greek merchants, the bulk of the population largely consisted of uneducated native Lycaonians.

When Paul healed a man who had never been able to walk (verse 8), the superstitious crowd ignorantly concluded he and Barnabas were gods (verses 11-12). It was all they could do to restrain the crowd from worshipping them.

The message Paul preached to this group didn’t include the history of Israel, which would have meant nothing to the Lycaonians. He also did not speak about higher Greek culture or philosophy.

Instead, he spoke about the natural world, highlighting God’s love through natural blessings. And he urged the people to “turn from these useless things to the living God” (verse 15).

To the philosophers

In stark contrast to the previous messages is the one Paul delivered at the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, in Athens. This hill was the seat of the Athenian court, which “exercised a general censorship in matters of religion and education” (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 1, p. 298).

Luke wrote that Paul had already spoken in the synagogue and in the marketplace (Acts 17:17), but did not provide details on those messages. Instead, Luke wrote a synopsis of Paul’s defense before the Athenian court.

In that address Paul pointed out that the Athenians had already recognized there might be a god who remained unknown to them (verse 23). Then he launched into a discourse about the true God, who made everything and everybody (verses 24, 26).

In his message, Paul briefly quoted Greek poets (verse 28) to establish a connection. The first, Epimenides, wrote that “in Him we live and move and have our being.” The second line, “we are also His offspring,” appeared in poems by both Aratus and Cleanthes.

All things to all men

From these examples it’s clear that Paul carefully considered his audience each time he spoke. This approach, however, was not limited to his evangelistic outreach. He lived it, and he urged Christians to live it.

Paul’s statement about becoming all things to all men comes after his discussion of his role as an apostle (1 Corinthians 9:1-18). In his position, he could have insisted that the members support him financially. But instead, he considered their specific situations and attitudes and chose not to make that demand. Why? Paul did not want to “hinder the gospel of Christ” (verses 12-13).

It was in this context that Paul wrote that he had “become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (verse 22).

In this letter, however, it is evident that Paul intended the members in Corinth to live by the same maxim.

Meat offered to idols

One of the problems in the church at Corinth that required Paul’s attention was the question of eating food offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8). Some of this meat ended up for sale in the marketplace. Some members thought it was a sin to eat this meat, viewing it as spiritually contaminated.

Paul explained there was no real significance to meat that had been offered to idols because the idols were not truly gods (verses 4-6). However, there was another issue at stake. Some members did not understand as Paul did, and they still struggled with the issue. They viewed eating such food as wrong.

For those members, eating that meat would have been sin because it compromised their

conscience (Romans 14:23). Seeing another member of the congregation eat that meat would have troubled these “weak” members and defiled their conscience (verse 7; see our article about “Romans 14” that also addresses 1 Corinthians 8).

Of course, Paul didn’t sin or encourage anyone else to sin in order to be accepted by others. He stressed the importance of God’s commandments (1 Corinthians 7:19). (To learn more about what Paul actually meant by being under the law, see “ Law and Grace: Jesus vs. Paul? ”)

Paul was urging the Corinthians to refrain from putting stumbling blocks (verse 9) before their brothers and sisters in Christ.

A troubled church

The church at Corinth desperately needed to adopt this attitude. The congregation was deeply divided over leadership and other issues. Members were taking each other to court rather than striving to understand one another.

It’s no surprise, then, that Paul’s words are recorded in a letter to this troubled congregation. They needed it, and so do we. This concept of becoming all things to all men is an enduring one. It was essential for the spread of the gospel in the first century, and it is essential for the modern Church.

Becoming all things to all men today

What about you personally? Is Paul’s approach to life relevant to you in yours?

It is. Our world today is also deeply troubled, and it is deeply divided. Following Paul’s example of becoming all things to all men will help you connect with other people.

This approach boils down to our willingness to look through the eyes of other people. We must consider their needs, their fears, their hopes and their level of understanding.

That means listening to them and learning about them, not just putting forward our ideas and plans. Most importantly, it means loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. D

God said His creation was very good. How would He rate our stewardship of what He’s entrusted to us? What’s the proper balance in caring for the creation? Why?

By Mike Bennett

If God gave you a beautiful brand-new car, how would you treat it?

Hopefully you wouldn’t trash it or enter it into a demolition derby.

But neither would you put it up on blocks and never use it, would you?

Could this modern example help us see how we should care for God’s creation?

God’s creation is very good

Six times in Genesis 1 we are told that God saw what He had made,

CARING FOR GOD’S Creation

and it was good (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25).

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (verse 31, emphasis added).

In fact, His creation proves that He exists and even reveals some of His invisible qualities.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

In this passage the apostle Paul makes it clear that God wants us to recognize Him as the source of the creation and to be thankful

for it (verse 21). He points out the foolishness of worshipping the creature (or the creation) rather than the Creator (verse 25).

He decries the corrupted minds that led to abandonment of natural sexual relations and the adoption of greed, violence and the invention of new forms of evil (verses 26-30).

His description of the firstcentury Roman world bears a strong resemblance to our modern materialistic world.

God does not want us to worship the earth, and He doesn’t want us to destroy it (Revelation 11:18). So what does He want?

How God cares for His creation

We can learn a lot by reading how God cares for His creation, as well as by looking at the regulations He has given in the Bible.

Psalm 104 paints a beautiful portrait of the Creator’s care for His creation. God designed the earth and all its interconnected systems to continuously support the flora and fauna He made.

“He sends the springs into the valleys; they flow among the hills.

“They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

“By them the birds of the heavens have their home; they sing among the branches.

“He waters the hills from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works” (Psalm 104:10-13).

Notice also how Jesus Christ described God’s loving care for the birds and the flowers—and His even greater love for His human creation:

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap

nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? .

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:26, 28-29).

The God who waters and dresses the flowers and does not forget the sparrows (Luke 12:6) is well aware of those who share His concern for the creation—and those who abuse and destroy it.

God commands us to care for His creation

God’s commands have often been misunderstood. What God said in Genesis 1 and 2 has been interpreted from a human perspective as giving humans permission to trample on and exploit the earth without regard to factors such as pollution and sustainability. But we’ll see God never gave mankind permission to destroy the earth.

Let’s look at God’s instructions to Adam and Eve and all of us, their descendants.

After saying that He created us “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), He said:

• Fill the earth and subdue it (verse 28): God designed the earth for human habitation, and when cared for properly, it can support a large population. He did not intend the problems of overcrowding and urban blight, but He also did not intend anything like a one-child policy with all its unintended consequences. Subdue is also translated “govern” (New Living

Translation) and “bring it under your control” (Contemporary English Version).

• Have dominion (verse 28): Humans are not the highest animal, but we are created in God’s image and thus the highest creature. And we are to learn to lead and serve as God leads and serves. He is not selfish, but loving. He leads and serves for the benefit of those He has dominion over.

Jesus Christ described both styles of leadership in Matthew 20:25-28:

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.

“Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

The dominion God intends does not destroy but is truly beneficial.

In addition to all the animals, God also blessed men with the land, water, agricultural produce and minerals (Deuteronomy 8:6-10). We are to learn to responsibly make use of the earth’s natural resources.

• Tend and keep it (Genesis 2:15): God gave us a job to do, cultivating, maintaining and looking after our surroundings. Our productive efforts should not only provide for our needs, but preserve the part of creation entrusted to us.

Humanity seems to gravitate to extremes. Some seem to worship the earth and consider mankind a pest that the planet would be better off without. Others seem to believe that no matter how much we exploit the earth, it will bounce back, or we will be able to engineer our way out of the damage we cause.

God does not approve of either extreme. He teaches us to steward

His creation. We are to use the earth He has loaned to us—not to abuse it.

Creation is temporary

Physical life is temporary. The physical universe itself is temporary! God designed it that way. It is all part of His ultimate plan.

Our bodies and our environment are products of God’s creative genius, but they aren’t intended to be permanent. Even if we succeed in lengthening our lifespans and preserving our planet, they will eventually end.

God wants us to realize this life—this universe—is not all there is. We should care for our flesh and blood and maintain our material possessions, but realize it is all fleeting.

In Romans 8, Paul personifies the creation as suffering and decaying, but still anticipating what’s next in God’s plan. “The whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs” (verse 22).

Creation is eagerly waiting for the birth of the children of God (verse 19). Converted humans, created in the image of God, are to become fully like Him as children of God forever!

What we learn by caring for God’s creation is eternal

Some of Jesus’ most memorable teachings were about the importance of caring for what God has entrusted to us.

In His parable of the talents, for example, the servants who were faithful and productive received this praise that we would all like to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over

a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:23).

By caring for the portion of God’s creation in our sphere of influence, we are learning to be faithful and wise stewards of everything that will be entrusted to us for eternity.

And what does God have in mind for us to inherit?

nHow about “all things” (Psalm 8:6; Romans 8:32; Revelation 21:7)? God created all things, both physical and spiritual (Colossians 1:16), and He wants to share it all with us!

Our loving God wants us to become His children and “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17; study this further in the online article “Joint Heirs With Christ ”).

In the meantime, as we strive to become more and more like Jesus Christ and to be faithful stewards of everything God has blessed us with, we await a bright future. After Jesus Christ returns to the earth to rescue humanity, He will bring “the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:19, 21).

Our planet that now groans under humanity’s selfish and destructive choices eagerly awaits this time of refreshing (verse 19)!

The earth will again experience the beauty and harmony of the Garden of Eden, and people will learn to care for God’s creation. It will be the start of an eternity beyond our wildest dreams.

Too good to be true? See more about what God promises in our free booklet The World to Come: What It Will Be Like D

Answers to Your Biblical Questions

Q:What is the first day of the sacred year on the [biblical] festival calendar? What happens on that day?

A:This year, the first day of the sacred year falls on March 30, 2025.

God instructed the ancient Israelites as to when His sacred year began so they could know when to observe the days that He set apart as holy. In Exodus 12:2 God spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”

On the 10th day of the same month, the Israelites were to take a lamb or goat—a male of the first year—without blemish (verses 3-5). Then Exodus 12:6 says, “Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.” God commanded the Passover to be observed on the 14th day of the first month, at twilight. And “on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord” (Leviticus 23:6).

God’s annual festivals and holy days represent God’s plan of salvation for mankind. However, the first day of the sacred year is not listed as one of God’s annual holy days, and He does not command us to observe the first day of the sacred year as holy. It is a marker of when God’s sacred calendar begins.

The Church of God has determined that the calculation of the new year has been faithfully followed by Jewish scholars for hundreds of years. Our article “ Festival Calendar: Which Calendar Should We Use? ” explains this in more detail. Please also watch our video series “ Feasts of the Lord ” for a better understanding of God’s plan of salvation for mankind.

Q:How does the Church [of God, a Worldwide Association] stand on saluting the flag and saying the [U.S.] pledge of allegiance?

A:

We do not think it is wrong for Americans to salute the flag or say the pledge of allegiance, though if someone felt he or she shouldn’t do these things, then we believe he or she should not, since whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

Christians are citizens of the Kingdom of God, which will be established at Christ’s return. However, for now, we still live in this physical world, and those of us in the United States are also citizens of the United States.

In John 17:16 Jesus said about His disciples, “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” In verse 15 He stated, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” So even though we are not of this world, we certainly are in this world.

The Pharisees asked Jesus if they should pay taxes (Mark 12:13-17). His reply made it clear that we should pay our taxes. In one sense, it is showing allegiance to our country and government to pay our taxes. But this is not an idolatrous act at all. Likewise, for baptized Christians to salute the American flag is not an act of worship, but rather an act of showing honor and respect for the country we live in (a country that God Himself has blessed).

Paul addresses this in Romans 13:1-7. In verses 6-7 he said, “For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”

A good thing to remember about America’s pledge of allegiance is the phrase “one nation under God.” This allows us to pledge our allegiance inasmuch as our nation remains under God. We are bound by the laws of our nation, but only to the extent to which they are not in conflict with God’s laws (Acts 5:29).

So, we believe we can show respect and honor to our country by saluting the flag and pledging allegiance to the United States of America without committing idolatry or becoming entangled in the affairs of this world.

If you have questions, submit them at LifeHopeandTruth.com/ask-a-question

Wonders of

GOD’S Creation

The Right Beak for the Job

Have you ever tried to eat a pine cone?

You shouldn’t. That’s a bad idea.

But if you did try (and, again, you shouldn’t), you’d discover that the seeds are tightly packed under the tough scales of the cone and difficult to extract— especially for a human who, we cannot stress enough, should not be ripping up his or her lips trying to eat pine cones.

Crossbills, on the other hand, are literally built for eating the seeds out of the cones of coniferous trees. God designed them with specialized beaks that are perfectly suited to pry between the scales of a cone while extracting the seeds with their tongue.

What’s more, crossbill beaks aren’t a one-size-fitsall solution. Different species of crossbills are better suited to open cones of different species of conifers thanks to their unique beaks. The white-winged crossbill, for example, prefers the cones of white spruce trees.

Pictured: white-winged crossbill ( Loxia leucoptera)

Text by James Capo and Jeremy Lallier

Photography by James Capo

Walk as He Walked

Jesus Calms the Storm

By Erik Jones

After a tiring day, Jesus withdrew to the sea to rest. But when an unexpected storm arose, it provided a powerful lesson for the disciples—and us.

After the woman at the Pharisee’s house washed Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:36-50; see “Walk as He Walked” in the January/February 2025 Discern), He continued attracting and teaching large crowds. While in Capernaum (Matthew 13:1), Jesus went out to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, perhaps seeking a moment to relax and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.

As He sat there, “great multitudes were gathered together to Him” (verse 2). What may have begun as some time for rest quickly turned into a teaching opportunity. To better address the large crowd, Jesus got into a boat, pulled out a little way and taught them while they gathered along the shore. This prevented the crowd from pressing in on Him and allowed everyone to see and hear Him more clearly.

Jesus’ approach in this teaching session was quite different from His approach in the Sermon on the Mount . While He presented that message in a clear and direct style, Jesus primarily used parables to teach this audience. (To learn why Jesus sometimes taught in parables, read “Parables of Jesus .”)

The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) record that He shared at least nine parables during this teaching session. Since the Gospel writers likely condensed His words for brevity, Jesus may have taught this crowd continuously for two to three hours, or maybe even longer.

By the time He finished, Jesus was physically exhausted.

Jesus and the disciples set sail

Afterward, Jesus and the disciples set sail for the other side of the sea, giving Jesus a muchneeded break from the persistent crowds. Exhausted, Jesus quickly fell asleep on a cushion in the back of the boat (Mark 4:38), possibly the cushioned rower’s seat at the stern. This detail reminds us that while in the flesh, Jesus fully experienced humanity, including the physical and mental exhaustion that comes after a long, demanding day.

What happened next makes this one of the most dramatic stories in the Gospels.

A violent storm descends on the Sea of Galilee

After Jesus fell asleep, a powerful windstorm unexpectedly struck the small sea—technically a lake—causing violent gale-force winds. The waves grew so strong that water began pouring into the boat faster than the men could bail it, making capsizing or sinking a serious danger.

Sudden storms are not unusual there. Because the Sea of Galilee is surrounded by mountains and hills, cool air from the mountains can collide with warm air rising from the sea, causing sudden turbulent storms. This storm seems to have brewed without warning because at least four of these men were commercial fishermen and would have discerned signs of the storm if there had been any.

The disciples genuinely feared for their lives. Perhaps it was the most dangerous storm they had ever experienced.

Despite the howling winds, pounding waves, violent rocking of the boat and screaming men on board, Jesus continued sleeping peacefully in the stern—as if nothing were happening.

“Don’t you care that we are drowning?”

The men, realizing they were helpless to stop the boat from sinking, finally aroused Jesus from His slumber.

“Teacher,” they desperately cried, “don’t you care that we are drowning!” (Mark 4:38, New Century Version). The Moffatt translation captures their attitude a bit more sharply: “Teacher, are we to drown, for all you care?”

Moments of fear and panic can expose our weaknesses. Though no one would fault the disciples for being frightened, their approach revealed two significant issues.

1. They questioned Christ’s concern for them. They had already experienced multiple circumstances in which Jesus showed immense compassion and concern for all kinds of people. They had seen Him

travel great distances to heal strangers at a single request. His example was always characterized by selfless concern for others.

These were His closest friends—men He literally handpicked from the multitudes to be specially trained as His pupils and emissaries.

Though He was patient with them, they should not have doubted His concern for them.

2. They should have found security in Christ’s presence. If those in the boat with Jesus had truly internalized who He was—the Son of God and God’s Anointed—they would have known with absolute certainty that He could easily save them.

Even a basic understanding of the messianic prophecies would have been enough for them to know that the Christ was not going to perish in a tragic boating accident.

This should have made them feel secure, knowing that as long as they were in the boat with the Messiah, they were safe. Trusting and obeying God involves more than emotion—it requires thoughtful and well-reasoned faith. In this case: He is the Messiah prophesied to save His people from their sins, so there is no way His life will end in a random tragedy. He will not die here, and we can safely trust in Him.

Jesus, staying composed and calm, “stood up and commanded the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet!

Be still!’” (verse 39, NCV).

In an instant, both the winds and waves obeyed His directive. In the blink of an eye, the raging waters went from fierce and turbulent to calm and peaceful.

The experienced fishermen among them knew that no storm ends this abruptly. They would have instantly recognized this was a miracle, not the natural passing of a tempest.

Just as the centurion had recognized weeks earlier, this wasn’t simply about performing a miracle—it was about authority. Jesus possessed authority over the demonic realm, sickness and, as this clearly demonstrated, even the forces of nature.

But the disciples were still trying to fully come to terms with exactly who Jesus was (verse 41).

Lessons from the story of Jesus calming the storm

After calming the waters and observing the fear, awe and confusion on their faces, Jesus calmly

asked: “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” (verse 40).

Jesus’ two questions were designed to prompt them to think.

They had already witnessed many awesome miracles. He had changed the chemical composition of water, healed diseases, raised the dead and commanded demons to flee. In essence, Jesus was urging them to consider why they still assumed His power and authority had limits.

Why were they still limiting Him?

Even a gentile centurion, who may have known little about the messianic prophecies, had enough faith to believe Jesus’ authority had no limits. Why hadn’t this group, His own disciples, fully grasped that yet?

As we reflect on this two millennia later, the real issue isn’t the disciples’ slowness to grasp Jesus’ power—it’s whether we fully comprehend it today. Do we internalize and fully trust His authority and power, especially now that He reigns enthroned at God the Father’s right hand in the third heaven (1 Peter 3:22)?

Do we fully trust His unwavering concern for us? Have we placed our security squarely in His hands? Do we truly understand that He cannot be limited?

Many years later, a wiser and more mature Peter encouraged Christians to “cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7, Revised Standard Version). Having likely been one of the men in that boat with Jesus, perhaps Peter reflected on that stormy night as he penned these words.

Trusting in God’s unwavering care and limitless power, especially in moments of intense anxiety, is one of the central lessons of this remarkable event. (For help in dealing with doubt and uncertainty, read “ ‘You of Little Faith.’”)

Be prepared for the storms

This account reminds us that God doesn’t always shield us from the storms of life. The disciples followed Christ out onto the water but still encountered a life-threatening storm.

It reminded them—as it should remind us today— that genuine Christianity does not guarantee a lifetime of perpetually smooth waters.

Anchoring our faith in His power and authority will help us confidently face life’s storms as we . . . Walk as He walked. D

A Soft Answer in the Sahara

It was two days after the horrifying 2023 Hamas attacks against Israel. The Muslim world was ablaze with passionate hatred against the victims.

My wife and I, on a trip planned long before the slaughter, were walking through the ancient Medina of Tozeur, an oasis known since before the Roman Empire in what is today the Sahara Desert of southern Tunisia. We had driven from the capital, Tunis, on the Mediterranean coast, through very fertile lands, part of the breadbasket of the Western Roman Empire, before reaching the sands of the Sahara and finally this oasis.

Oasis in the desert

It was fascinating to pass suddenly from miles of barren sand and rock to lush greenery, fed by springs, in this small paradise. The pre-Roman date palm plantations of the city are surrounded by the unforgiving desert, where summer temperatures can reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 Celsius) in the shade during the day, but winter temperatures can drop below freezing at night.

it is also furious with the United States, the main supporter of the Jewish State.

“So, where are you from?” asked the old merchant. This is frequently the opening question in a sales pitch.

I didn’t think quickly enough to give an evasive and safe answer. “We’re from the U.S.,” I answered innocently.

His face contorted into a snarl: “You’re a Jew!” he shouted at me.

I responded calmly, “No, I am not Jewish.”

“But you like Jews,” he spat, the hatred clear on his face.

A soft answer

I paused a moment to think. What would be a wise response? Part of me wanted to give him a piece of my mind about the injustice of it all. But I couldn’t listen to that part. An answer came: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1).

The Medina, old Tozeur, is a maze of streets and alleyways lined with high-walled houses, hemmed by mud-brick walls, many of them crumbling with age and neglect. It felt as if we’d gone back in time.

From affable to angry

We stopped at a picturesque tourist shop where an elderly, affable-looking owner, lounging in a long robe and flipping his worry beads, beckoned to us.

My wife and I were speaking French with everyone we met. When the Muslim world is furious with Israel,

I answered the wrathful man simply: “I try to love everyone.”

He recoiled as if I had slapped him. It seemed he was expecting harsh words in response to his. After a moment, his face softened, and he said quietly: “C’est une réponse juste.” That is a just answer

His own religion must teach something similar, at least in the abstract. After that, it seemed, we returned to simply being fellow human beings, in the brotherhood of man. His rage and his passion abated, though not the desire to sell us something.

We finally left the shop with some souvenirs, a few dinars less in my pocket, and at peace with one another. I will remember the truth of that gem from the Word of God and the effect of a soft answer in the Sahara.

Joel Meeker