Preface To The Second Printing
1. Must God Plead With God?
   
2. How The Spirit Leads
   
3. Physical Reinforcements of Faith
   
4. Jesus' Physical and Spiritual Death
   
5. Is There Merit in Pain?
   
6. The Six Days of Creation
   
7. Adding Guilt to Anxiety
   
8. Wine and The Disciple
   
9. Revolution or Evolution
   
10. I Am That Disciple
    
11. When People Disagree
    
12. Is Unity Based Upon Seven Doctrines?
    
13. Our Seven Sacraments
    
14. Instrumental Music
    
15. The Mood of Worship
    
16. Justified Then Sanctified
    
17. Is Christian Our Name?
    
18. The Lord's Table
    
19. Righteousness That Exceeds
    
20. Neither Destroyed Nor Nailed To The Cross
    
21. The Right of Self-Protection
    
22. A Tree of Error
    
23. God is Limited
    
24. You Are Here
    
25. God is In Charge
    
26. Hook's Points
    
27. Lamentations of A Mediocre Preacher
    

MUST GOD PLEAD WITH GOD?

Other questions could serve as a title for this brief lesson: Is the Son more approachable than the Father? Does the mediator relay our prayers to the Father? Is "In Jesus' name" the password to approach the Father? Have disciples been reconciled to the Father truly, or does their life­long alienation continue to make a mediator necessary?

The key to those questions is whether disciples are truly reconciled to God or whether we continue in a state of alienation. We are alienated from God by our sins. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God . . . " (Isa. 59:2). In this sinful state we cannot approach God. Our only hope of reconciled fellowship is by means of a mediator who interposes between two parties as the friend of each to effect a reconciliation.

Jesus filled that role of mediation. "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. . ." (1 Tim. 2:5). Sin stood between us and God, but Jesus substituted himself for that sin. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). He occupied that sinful zone of alienation which formerly was the area of fellowship of God and man. In Christ, God moved into that area again, for "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Cor. 5:19).

God made his move toward man in Christ. Now man makes his move toward God in Christ also. Our transition is consummated through baptism into Christ (Rom. 6:3­4) by which we enjoy the remission of the sins that alienated us. So now our reconciliation is accomplished, and it is maintained by his atonement as we walk in the lilsht in our relationship in Christ (1 John 1:7).

No longer is there alienation and no longer is there need for someone to stand between us and God for we are reconciled. We are in Christ and in God while the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God dwell in us.

Must Jesus continually plead for us before an angry, or more remote, God? Such a concept of mediation was born of Catholic theology. His intercession does not consist of his offering prayers for us but in the continuous merit of his once­for­all atonement. "Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). He is our Advocate-"to call to one's side"-not to plead our case but to stand in our place as our propitiation. We continue to be in him, walking in the light of his fellowship, so that his offering continues to make us acceptable to God-reconciled (1 lohn 2:1­2; 1:7).

Do we pray to the Son or to the Father? If he is one who actively pleads each of our prayers before the Father as a mediator, our prayers should be to the Son. However, we have a direct line to the Father! We have unashamed boldness to talk with the Father because there is no alienation. He will hear us for Christ's sake. I used to chide the Baptists for praying "for Christ's salce" instead of "in Jesus' name," but it is because of what Christ has done, in his behalf, for his sake, that the Father hears us.

Didn't Jesus teach us to pray in his name? Yes. "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may beglorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it" (lohn 14:13~14). But what does "in my name" mean? Is it a required formula to make an action acceptable? Is it a sort of fraternal password without which an earnest prayer is vain? In his name we gather (Matt. 18:20), we baptize (Acts 2:38), we sing (Eph. 5:18­19), and "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord lesus, giving thanks to God through him" (Col. 3:17). That is rather inclusive! In view of this, how could we possibly demand that effective prayer must use the formula "in lesus' name" and overlook "whatever you do, in word or deed" as needing the same formula?

"In the name of" someone means "by the authority of" or "in behalf of" that person. In our whole­life commitment to Christ as Lord, whatever we do, in word or deed, is directed by our Lord and done in his behalf. It has nothing to do with saying "in Jesus' name" at certain specified times.

When we are in Christ, we are enabled and authorized to spear; directly to our Father because he has brought us to the Father. Jesus declared to Thomas, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:17). Now he has brought us to the Father, reconciled and in fellowship. He is not speaking of his relaying our prayers for us.

Have you ever heard a preacher use lohn 16:26­27 in a lesson or as a test? I have never heard it used. It does not fit our traditional concept of lesus having to pray for us or of his relaying our pra~rere. In his farewell discourse he assures, "In that day you will aslc ID my name; and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from the Father." He says he will NOT pray for us. Reconciliation shall have been accomplished and approach shall have been authorized through our High Priest. The Father is not more remote, austere, or vengeful than lesus so that lesus should have to plead for us. The Father himself loves us!

There is no example in the New Testament writings of a prayer "in Jesus' name" (See Acts 4:2430; 7:60; 1 Cor. 16:22). Ste'phen and John prayed to Jesus (Acts 7:59; Rev. 22:20).

If "in Jesus' name" is a necessary ritualistic password, then we all have erred in singing such prayers as "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah," "Be with me, Lord," and "Have thine own way, Lord."

It seems that we have difficulty handling anything that we cannot ritualize, program, put in a pattern, or over­simplify. In this instance it has caused us to fail to appreciate the security of our relationship with the Father making us feel a degree of alienation from him throughout life.

There are difficulties of interpretation that I have not dealt with in this brief lesson. For instance, there is the intercession of the Holy Spirit. But again, must deity plead with deity? Your more scholarly treatment of this subject would be read with interest.