How the mighty have fallen

With thanks to http://mytheoblogy.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/the-autumn-transition/

The Levites were set apart as God's Priests from Exodus 32 for standing for God over the issue of the golden calf.

But then, Ezekiel 44:10 - "And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity." - how the might have fallen.

There is no other way to be saved - not even being born into the priestly tribe - only through faith in Jesus, and this by grace.

The Face

With thanks to https://pixabay.com/en/birth-child-baby-newborn-hand-466140/

I remember, from a couple of years ago, watching a very interesting documentary that attempted to explain, among other things, the development of the face of the growing human embryo.

The perfectly pleasant presenter was predictably flannelling on about how various parts of our head and neck were vestigial remains of erstwhile gills (sadly, even in this day and age, too many scientists still unswervingly believe this utterly illogical explanation!), but he did highlight something fascinating: that the face develops from three different parts: the left hemisphere of the face, covering that side's forehead, eye socket, nose, cheek, etc. (or maxilla), the right hemisphere, and the jaw (or mandible).

These three parts, he went on, gradually grow towards each other and fuse together, leaving only the mouth. The last part to fuse, he explained, was the philtrum - the groove running vertically from the bottom of the nose to the middle of the upper lip.

That got me thinking. Why did God do it that way?

ALL of creation points to Jesus in some way - that's the great glory of all creation, that it proclaims truths about Christ to itself and to the rest of creation. So what does this tell us about the way of things?

Whenever I see three of anything, my first thoughts, clearly, are going to be about the trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Here we have three parts of the face.

Speaking of the face itself, this is about intimacy: we, as God's children, are encouraged to 'seek his face'; on the other hand, the thought of God 'turning his face away' or 'hiding his face' is frightful to the writers of the Chronicles and Psalms; yet it is a great blessing to have God's face 'shine upon you'.

The thought of these three parts of the face coming together, yet leaving space for the mouth, makes me think of the tabernacle … bear with me!

The tabernacle was to be set up with the veiled mercy seat that kept the law and testimony in the west, the altar bearing the twelve loaves of bread in the north, the seven-branched, olive oil-burning, eternally-alight lamp in the south, and the bowl of incense in the middle of these three.

Symbolically (and this is all purely from hunting around the Bible - nowhere else), the “mercy seat” hidden behind the ‘veil’ represents the Father, the ‘table of shewbread’ represents the Son, the ‘menorah’ represents the Spirit, and the bowl of incense represents the prayers of the saints (that is, all of God's people) ... check out the table below.

	Tabernacle pattern	Cosmic reality
The Holiest Place (representing the Father)	Hidden from sight by a veil	“No-one has ever seen the Father …” (John 1:18)
	The veil is embroidered with cherubim	Cherubim stand guard over the way back to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24), where the Father is (Revelation 22:1-2)
	The veil is torn when Jesus “gives up the ghost”	Jesus granted us access to the Father when he died on the cross
The Table of Shewbread (representing the Son)	The table (bearing the bread) is made of wood, but the eye only sees the gold covering	The cross (bearing Jesus) is made of wood, but the eye reads the sign: “King of the Jews” (gold represents kingship)
	On the table are 12 loaves of bread	12 represents ‘governance’ (tribes / disciples in Israel, hours in day / night, months in year, etc.); … and there is much on bread representing Jesus, from “Bethlehem” meaning “home / house of bread” to Jesus’ words when he broke bread: “This is my body…”
	When transported, the table and its contents were cloaked in scarlet (representing ‘sin’) and ‘skin’	At the cross, Jesus – the one who ‘became flesh’ (Job 1:14) – “was made sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
The Menorah (representing the Spirit)	A seven-branched candle…	The sevenfold spirit (Revelation 1:4, 3:1, 4:5, 5:6)
	… burning olive oil …	Olive oil is used for ‘anointing’, representing anointing by the Spirit; fire represents ‘purification’, another work of the Spirit (our words ‘pure’ and ‘pyrotechnic’ have the same Greek root)
	… to give light to the whole room	God is Spirit (John 4:24) and light (1 John 1:5), as well as love (1 John 4:7), which ‘shines out’
The bowls of incense (representing the prayers of the saints	Rising up, a pleasing aroma to the Lord	Revelation 5:8 … ‘nuff said!

... And then check out the diagram below … symbolically, this reassures us that our prayers reach to, and lie at, the very heart of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

Composite from http://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/TAB4The_Ark_of_the_Covenant.htm, http://www.rawganique.com/Images/Swatches/HC1-040811-56.jpg, http://bibleabc.net/l_rev/images/bowl-70118.jpg, http://truthinmotion.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/bowl-of-incense-smaller.jpg, http://trivialdevotion.blogspot.co.uk/2011_06_26_archive.html, and http://www.thegalileeexperience.com/store/menorahs-candelabras-/menorah-tiberias-style-brass-regular-5-8-39-39-/prod_80.html - with thanks!

And so, just briefly back to the face again: what do the three parts fuse around?  The mouth.

And what does the mouth do?  Speak, converse, talk, chat, communicate, ...

And what is prayer?  Speaking, conversing, talking, chatting, communicating with God!

... Awesome!

The Lamb - Part 1

(With thanks to http://www.foxfirefiber.com/newsletter.html - accessed 17.03.13)

Sermon for Kew Baptist, 17 March 2013 (with a grateful nod to Glen Scrivener!)

Steve Levy, of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Swansea, recently preached a sermon …on preaching! … In which he emphasised how the words of a good sermon will certainly sound foolish, as it is the power of God that saves, not the power of the preacher ... so I would like to start by praying!

[Pray]

I’d like to read what I think is an excellent example of words that sound foolish to us, but that come in the power of God!

Revelation 6:15-17 says:

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

… So, the kings of the earth, great leaders, war heroes, the rich, the famous, the powerful, the influential - everyone, in fact – will, it is prophesied, resort to talking to inanimate mountains and rocks (who, it must be remembered, don't have a long history of engaging Man in conversation!) in a desperate attempt to find protection from the terrible wrath of ... a small, bleating, wobbly-legged, bundle of wool!

If that didn't sound foolish enough, Revelation 5:13 adds:

...every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them (say) “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever!”

Again, I get the 'him who sits on the throne' bit – getting honour and glory ‘n’ all - but ... the LAMB?  What is this fixation with the young and ovine all about?

John the Baptist gives us the short answer in John 1:29-34:

...he saw Jesus ... and said, “Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ … I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him … I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The slightly longer answer will take us through some of the history of God's interaction with his people.  We're going to follow this little study on the lamb, stopping off very briefly in Genesis 22, Exodus 11-12, Isaiah 53, and Mark 14-15, but focussing mainly on The Passover and The Cross.

So, first of all Genesis 22:1-8:

... God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

And he said, “Here am I.”

He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.  And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.  On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.  Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”  And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son.  And he took in his hand the fire and the knife.  So they went, both of them, together.

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!”

And he said, “Here am I, my son.”

He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

So, here, we have a father and his son; the son is called his 'only son' whom the father loves; it's early in the morning when the son is led out with two other men, the wood upon which the son is to be sacrificed placed on his own back; and, on the third day, the father confidently reports that his son will return after the sacrifice.

Sound familiar?!  If we needed any more help as to what this event was prophesying, Solomon provides it, in 2 Chronicles 3:1, as he starts "to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem (which is) on Mount Moriah"

Interestingly, here, Abraham prophesies that The Lord himself will provide a lamb for the sacrifice ... yet THIS time, in verse 13, a ram is provided.

But let's get back to lambs!

Next we're into Exodus 11-12 and The Passover.  To preserve you from my voice for the next quarter-hour, Katy’s going to read a slightly abridged version, just leaving out repetitions or points not related to the lamb specifically:

The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt ... About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.  There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again.

But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

This month shall be for you the beginning of months … the first month of the year for you ... on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household ... according to what each can eat ... Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old ... and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.  Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.  They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs ... you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord.  The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are ... when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Moses expands on the instructions a little:

Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood … and touch the lintel and the two doorposts.

None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.  For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

Then, it happened:

At midnight the Lord struck down 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 the livestock.  And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

So, again, as with Abraham’s story, it’s Firstborn Son vs. Lamb!

The gods of Egypt, representing all gods that are not the one, true, living God, are about to be judged by the one, true, living God, and every household who align themselves to, or worship, these false gods will live only at the cost of their firstborn son.

But the one, true, living God - being the God of love as he is - has offered an alternative: a lamb.  “There was not a house where someone was not dead” after The Lord had passed through … the question was, would that dead ‘someone’ be a son or a lamb?

As it represented Jesus, this lamb had to be without blemish (representing Jesus’ being without evil); it had to be male (representing Jesus being the self-sacrificing Bridegroom to his Bride); and it had to be a year old (representing Jesus’ having completed his appointed time of ministry before his own sacrificial death).

On the tenth day of the first month, the lamb was taken into the household for whose salvation it was to be sacrificed, and kept there, inside, until the fourteenth day of this month.  For five days, then, this farm animal lived in the house as ‘one of the family’.  This represents how Jesus came in our flesh to make his home amongst us (and, for those who like numerology, perhaps the five days represents Jesus’ showing, during that time, that he fulfilled The Law?)

The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel then kill their lambs “at twilight”, or – as an alternative translation puts it - “between the two evenings”, which is an odd phrase that possibly refers to the two evenings that occurred on the day Jesus died, as reported in Matthew 27, Mark 15, and Luke 23.  Here, night-time fell at around noon, and the light only reappeared at 3pm, at which time Jesus gave up his spirit.  The Israelites then eat the flesh of the lamb, personally identifying with the saving work achieved by the sacrifice.

This offer of a lamb was a true gift from God - a “Get out of jail free” card, for those familiar with the board game ‘Monopoly’ - and, if a household heard God’s call, through Moses, to take this gift he offers, trusted that he is as good as his word, and showed their trust on their lintels and their doorposts, their own firstborn son would be spared.

Individual status would not be taken into account: “every firstborn … from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne … to the firstborn of the slave … the firstborn of the captive … in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock” would die.  No, this is all about faith – do you trust God or not?  It’s black or white; there is no grey area here – it’s a simple yes or no.  And the Lord makes a very clear distinction between those who do trust him and those who do not.

But what does trusting him actually look like in this situation?

I want to introduce you to three hypothetical Israelite households living in Goshen that night…

Meet the Cohens: they are very religious – they’re always inviting Moses over to have him share the words of God; they’re always praying and talking to each other about Father Abraham and singing spiritual songs; and they’re always doing good deeds around the neighbourhood for the widows and orphans.  On one level, they’re quite disappointed about The Passover: they don’t want God to pass over them, they’d like him to come in, examine their lives, and they’d like to hear the words “well done, good and faithful servant!”  On the other hand, a command is a command, and they follow obediently, carefully putting down two coats of lamb’s blood around their door.

Not like the Fagins: they weren’t going to be going anywhere that night anyway because their whole family had been served ASBOs.  They are commonly known as being drunkards, gluttons, liars, gamblers, swindlers, benefits cheats, notoriously promiscuous … they avoid Moses like the plague (if you’ll pardon the pun) so it’s only by fortune that they’ve heard what he said about the lamb’s blood anyway, and they really don’t think it will do any good because they’re sure that the Angel of Death has had their card marked from a long time ago.  But, equally, they’ve nothing to lose by doing it, and there is the possibility that God will be merciful if they obey this once, so they splash the basin of blood on the lintel and doorposts.

Then there’s the Leaveys: they’re not as wicked as the Fagins, but then they’re nothing like as good as the Cohens either.  They keep phoning up the Cohens saying “ok, we’ve killed the lamb and we think we’ve applied the blood the way we’re supposed to, but we’re not sure – could you spy through your window over the street and say what you think? … And do we really think it will make the difference?  What if the Angel of Death doesn’t see it, I mean it will be dark out there!...” … they pace up and down all night wondering if they’ve done enough and done it right enough …but, nonetheless, the blood is around the door.

… So, which of these families will end up with the dead son in the morning?

None of them!  If the blood was on the door, God wouldn’t look in to check on any further details, he would stay the destroyer’s hand and move on to the next house.  It had nothing to do with the moral character, standing in society, or even the state of heart or mind of the people inside the house, and everything to do with the presence of the blood on the door.  It was the fact that the blood was there that gave full protection from any further scrutiny.

It wasn’t even about how much faith they had in the blood – he never mentioned doubts, fears, worries, and concerns – he didn’t discuss how the people were to feel about it at all!  He simply asks to be trusted to know what he is doing.  You could have been as doubt-filled and concerned as you like but if the blood was on the door, no-one was coming in.

In stark contrast to what we normally hear from the pulpit (or, frankly, from any other would-be teacher), it wasn’t about what was on the inside that counted, but what was on the outside!

This resonates with the idea of Christ’s righteousness cloaking our nakedness as we stand before the judgement seat, such that the Judge looks at us and, only seeing Jesus, pronounces us innocent.

Salvation is nothing to do with your own performance and everything to do with Jesus’.  Christ saves you by His blood – not by anything in you.  It’s not about the quality of your living, speaking, acting, praying.  It’s not even about the quality of your own faith.  It’s only about the blood.  It’s the quality of His death, not the quality of your life.  1 John 1:7 says “the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies us from EVERY sin” – no sin can get past this purification.

We just need to remember to hold up this gift of the blood (alone) in our defence in the face of the judgement.

But, therein, lies a huge problem: we, as human beings, are invariably forgetful!  This is why the Bible and creation are littered with reminders – in fact, the Bible is not a book about doing so much as remembering.

And so, in this case, God calls for a regular reminder (Exodus 12:14-20):

This day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord … you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute for ever.

Interestingly, it is not called the Feast of The Lamb, or even the Feast of The Lamb and Unleavened Bread, as you might expect from the prominent place lamb has on the Passover menu.  It’s just the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

For those who are saved, Jesus was The Lamb who was sacrificed once for all so that no further sacrifice is required.

On the night that he was betrayed (the day he was to become The Passover Lamb), Jesus appears to change the Passover meal for all future years, from the eating of the lamb, proclaiming his sacrifice that buys freedom, to the breaking and eating of bread in remembrance that he had given his body to be broken in our place, and to the drinking of wine, in remembrance that his life was poured out in our place.

I said I’d go through Genesis 22, Exodus 11-12, Isaiah 53, and Mark 14-15, focussing mainly on The Passover and The Cross.  I’ve done half of this – if you’ll allow me, I’ll go through the second half next week.

In the meantime, if you have tasted of Jesus and seen that he is good, please take and eat communion with us this morning in remembrance that he died and was raised to eternal life so that we might live with him for eternity.

Before we do, let me thank God as we pray together: Father, thank you for your son, who - doing only as he saw you do – sacrificed himself in order that we might be with you forevermore.  Help us always to remember, to remind others, and to be reminded by others about your love for us, your wisdom for us, and your power for us.  Help us to be content in all things, living life to the full, knowing and enjoying you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Guest blog...

I understand, sir, that you are really interested in learning about the religion of the Christians, and that you are making an accurate and careful investigation of the subject.  You want to know, for instance, what God they believe in and how they worship him, while at the same time they disregard the world and look down on death, and how it is that they do not treat (other) "divinities" ... as gods at all, although on the other hand they do not follow ... superstition ... You would also like to know the source of the loving affection that they have for each other ... I certainly welcome this keen interest on your part and I ask God, who gives us the power to speak and the power to listen, to let me speak in such a way that you may derive the greatest possible benefit from listening, and to enable you to listen to such good effect that I may never have a reason for regretting what I have said.

... Look at the things that you proclaim and think of as gods ... the things you serve.  (You) adore these things, and in the end you become like them.  That is why you hate the Christians, because they do not believe that these objects are gods ... Christians are not the slaves of gods like these.

... For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs.  They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life.  This doctrine of theirs has not been discovered by the ingenuity or deep thought of inquisitive men, nor do they put forward a merely human teaching, as some people do.  Yet, although they live in (eastern and western) cities alike, as each man's lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth.  They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners.  Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land.  They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring.  They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed.  It is true that they are "in the flesh," but they do not live "according to the flesh."  They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.  They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require.  They love all men, and by all men are persecuted.  They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life.  They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance.  They are dishonored, and in their very dishonor are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated.  They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect.  When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought to life.  They are treated ... as foreigners and enemies, and are hunted down ... and all the time those who hate them find it impossible to justify their enmity.

To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world.  The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world.  The soul dwells in the body, but does not belong to the body, and Christians dwell in the world, but do not belong to the world.  The soul, which is invisible, is kept under guard in the visible body; in the same way, Christians are recognised when they are in the world, but their religion remains unseen.  The flesh hates the soul and treats it as an enemy, even though it has suffered no wrong, because it is prevented from enjoying its pleasures; so too the world hates Christians, even though it suffers no wrong at their hands, because they range themselves against its pleasures.  The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and its members; in the same way, Christians love those who hate them.  The soul is shut up in the body, and yet itself holds the body together; while Christians are restrained in the world as in a prison, and yet themselves hold the world together.  The soul, which is immortal, is housed in a mortal dwelling; while Christians are settled among corruptible things, to wait for the incorruptibility that will be theirs in heaven.  The soul, when faring badly as to food and drink, grows better; so too Christians, when punished, day by day increase more and more.  It is to no less a post than this that God has ordered them, and they must not try to evade it.

As I have indicated, it is not an earthly discovery that was committed to them; it is not a mortal thought that they think of as worth guarding with such care, nor have they been entrusted with the stewardship of merely human mysteries.  On the contrary, it was really the Ruler of all, the Creator of all, the invisible God himself, who from heaven established the truth and the holy, incomprehensible word among men, and fixed it firmly in their hearts.  Nor, as one might suppose, did he do this by sending to men some subordinate - an angel, or principality, or one of those who administer earthly affairs, or perhaps one of those to whom the government of things in heaven is entrusted.  Rather, he sent the Designer and Maker of the universe himself, by whom he created the heavens and confined the sea within its own bounds - him whose hidden purposes all the elements of the world faithfully carry out, him from whom the sun has received the measure of the daily rounds that it must keep, him whom the moon obeys when he commands her to shine by night, and whom the stars obey as they follow the course of the moon.  He sent him by whom all things have been set in order and distinguished and placed in subjection - the heavens and the things that are in the heavens, the earth and the things in the earth, the sea and the things in the sea, fire, air, the unfathomed pit, the things in the heights and in the depths and in the realm between; God sent him to men.

Now, did he send him, as a human mind might assume, to rule by tyranny, fear, and terror?  Far from it!  He sent him out of kindness and gentleness, like a king sending his son who is himself a king.  He sent him as God; he sent him as man to men. He willed to save man by persuasion, not by compulsion, for compulsion is not God's way of working.  In sending him, God called men, but did not pursue them; he sent him in love, not in judgment.  Yet he will indeed send him someday as our Judge, and who shall stand when he appears?

... For God, the Master and Maker of the universe, who made all things and determined the proper place of each, showed himself to be long-suffering, as well as a true friend of man.  But in fact he always was and is and will be just this - kind and good and slow to anger and true; indeed, he alone is good.

...And so, when he had planned everything by himself in union with his Child, he still allowed us, through the former time, to be carried away by undisciplined impulses, captivated by pleasures and lusts, just as we pleased.  That does not mean that he took any delight in our sins, but only that he showed patience.  He did not approve at all of that season of wickedness, but ... when we had shown ourselves incapable of entering the Kingdom of God by our own efforts, we might be made capable of doing so by the power of God.  And so, when our unrighteousness had come to its full term, and it had become perfectly plain that its recompense of punishment and death had to be expected, then the season arrived in which God had determined to show at last his goodness and power.  O the overflowing kindness and love of God toward man!  God did not hate us, or drive us away, or bear us ill will.  Rather, he was long-suffering and forbearing.  In his mercy, he took up the burden of our sins. He himself gave up his own Son as a ransom for us - the holy one for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, the righteous one for the unrighteous, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal.  For what else could cover our sins except his righteousness?  In whom could we, lawless and impious as we were, be made righteous except in the Son of God alone?  O sweetest exchange!  O unfathomable work of God!  O blessings beyond all expectation!  The sinfulness of many is hidden in the Righteous One, while the righteousness of the One justifies the many that are sinners.  In the former time he had proved to us our nature's inability to gain life; now he showed the Saviour's power to save even the powerless, with the intention that on both counts we should have faith in his goodness, and look on him as Nurse, Father, Teacher, Counselor, Healer, Mind, Light, Honor, Glory, Might, Life - and that we should not be anxious about clothing and food.

If you too yearn for this faith, then first of all you must acquire full knowledge of the Father ... that he sent his only-begotten Son, and to them that he promised the Kingdom in heaven which he will give to those who love him.  And when you have acquired this knowledge, think with what joy you will be filled!  Think how you will love him, who first loved you so!

To him be glory forevermore.  Amen.


... edited from www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.x.i.ii.html ... also see (hear!) http://www.theologynetwork.org/the-breeze/2011-05/the-breeze-004--the-letter-to-diognetus