June 2008 Chaplain's Corner
The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.
Chaplain's Corner - June 20, 2008
Rev. Rich Hines
Answering The Deepest Questions
This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain or a gospel minister in a jail, prison or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission – in the United States. All Scripture quotes are normally taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a text, any deviation from the NKJV text is placed within parenthesis signs (). These usually occur as direct translations from the original languages, or as notes from the original setting to help apply the text to today’s culture.
ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or to make a comment about a biblical text, or emphasize a statement.
When I was Chaplain, inmates often told me “In this place there are a lot of tears every night.” One thing is for sure, whether in jail or long-term prison, every inmate ponders their life and current situation. Many will begin to ask themselves some deep questions.
Maybe they see a television commercial or nature documentary showing a big cat chasing prey, an antelope running free on the American plains or the African savanna, or a bald eagle soaring through the sky. Not only are such images beautiful in their own way, they can lead the viewer to think about WHAT THEY WERE MADE FOR.
In the same way as a big cat confined behind zoo bars and pacing back and forth is out of their natural element, the inmate may begin to ask, “Was I made to rot behind the bars and the walls of this place of confinement?” A parallel question might be asked, “Is my way of living all a terrible and tragic falling short of the purpose of my existence?” If God is causing them to think these thoughts, then He’ll also show them their way of living, THEIR EXISTENCE, IS UNFULFILLING - BECAUSE IT IS NOT WHAT THEY WERE MADE FOR. This can lead to the deepest questions.
WHO AM I? WHERE DID I COME FROM? WHY AM I HERE? WHERE DO I END UP? These are the deep questions about being, and purpose, and even ultimate destiny. By the time someone is 30 years old, especially if they are a repeat offender, they begin to ask these kinds of questions.
20 years of jail chaplaincy convinced me that a higher percentage of unsaved inmates ponder these questions than the unsaved in "free society." The word of God speaks directly to them about these issues. Therefore, so should you!
You need to be prepared to answer these questions from the Bible. To begin to answer the first three great questions, “Who am I?” “Where did I come from?” and “Why am I here?” - you need to explain Genesis 1:26,27 to the questioning inmate(s). It reads:
26 Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our (again the plural Godhead) image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 SO GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE; IN THE IMAGE OF GOD HE CREATED HIM, MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM.
According to this text, God created mankind for two reasons: first, to be in His image and secondarily, to rule over His other creation on earth. Human beings are different in a special way from all other created things. I’ll come back to this truth later.
Furthermore, show them Genesis 5:1,2 and James 3:9.
Genesis 5:1,2
1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He MADE HIM IN THE LIKENESS OF GOD. 2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.
James 3: 9 - condemning the sinful use of the tongue says –
9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse MEN, WHO HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE SIMILITUDE OF GOD.
Start with the second question, “Where did I come from?” According to God’s word, humankind was not an accident! We can truly say “I was created by God.” So, the inmate can truly answer the second question, “I came in a very real sense, from God. “
Just that in itself is revolutionary for most of the people in your institution. Most of them were born out of wedlock with no legal father, so many tend to think, “I wasn’t wanted, I was just an accident,” or, “I certainly was not a planned person.” Tell them that may be true on a strictly human level BUT the word of God tells us it is God who opens or closes the womb (show them Genesis 20:17,18 and 29:31, 30:22). Therefore, tell the questioner, God planned you!
BUT WHY DID GOD PLAN AND CREATE ME? This gets into the third question, “Why am I here?” not in custody, but “Why do I exist and know it, hence - what am I supposed to be?” This is really another way of asking, “What is the purpose for my existence?”
According to these three passages, a human is to realize that the Triune God (one God in Three Persons, noting the “Us” and the “Our” in Genesis 1:26) made them for Himself. This fact is absolute reality, it is God’s truth made known to human beings from His word.
When the texts say God MADE (or created) mankind IN HIS “IMAGE” and after His “LIKENESS” or “SIMILITUDE,” it’s obvious from the word of God that this IS NOT talking about A PHYSICAL LIKENESS. That’s so, because God in His basic nature is a Spirit (see John 4:24). What is IMPORTANT to see from Scripture is that God made every other thing also, BUT NOT IN HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS.
ONLY MANKIND is made in His basic likeness! This greatly helps answer both the question “WHY was I made?” and the first question, “Who am I?”
WHO AM I? I am a special creation of God made by Him for a special relationship with Him UNLIKE ANY OTHER THING HE MADE. He made me for Himself! This means each human’s GREATEST REASON FOR BEING is to KNOW GOD IN AN ONGOING RELATIONSHIP. Tell the questioning inmate “That’s why you are here in this life, TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.”
BUT, RIGHT HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM LIES WITH ALL PEOPLE. From conception in the womb they are estranged from the God they were made to know and enjoy. The Scripture teaches this is true because of the presence of SIN.
Questioners need to understand this Bible word “SIN.” In the Chaplain’s Corner messages for June 2007 and July 2007, I tried to explain sin biblically. If you can, go there and help the inmate understand those messages, especially the one from July 2007.
For this message let me simply urge you to explain to the questioning inmate that sin is their attitude and actions of disobedience to the true God who created them. Furthermore, show them this verse in Isaiah 59:2 -
2 … your iniquities (your wickednesses, a synonym for sins) have SEPARATED YOU FROM YOUR GOD; and your SINS have hidden His face from you,…
Sin lies to the sinner. It promises fulfillment, but never really keeps that promise. Mankind was not created to sin and be outside a relationship with God. We were created to be in fellowship with God, and in that fellowship TO WORSHIP HIM ALONE.
Luke 4:8 …”You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him ONLY you shall serve.”
1 Cor. 10:31 “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Romans 5:12, and 1 Corinthians 15:22a explain what sin has done to us:
12 Therefore, just as through one man (Adam, the first man) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
1 Corinthians 15:22 echoes this truth when it says: “For as in Adam all die, …”
Sin brought death. Psalm 8:3,4 was written by a man who knew he was a sinner. He said to God:
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?
This humble question expresses wonder at God’s grace to reconnect with sinful mankind. He did this by becoming a Man, even Jesus the Christ. That’s why the end of 1 Corinthians 15:22 says: “… even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
This text is talking about a real relationship with God. The absence of that relationship is what the Bible calls death, being dead in sin. Not being in the relationship God originally intended for human beings is known as spiritual death, but being made alive in Christ, is called “Eternal life.” Note John 17:3, where in prayer, Jesus said to God the Father:
”And this is eternal life, that they MAY KNOW (that word “know” means a personal ongoing close relationship) You, the only true God and (know – implied) Jesus Christ whom You have sent (meaning, sent into the world to save sinners).“
Now we can address the final deep question. WHERE DO I END UP? Where am I going? In other words, WHAT DOES MY FUTURE HOLD? This is where the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ really starts to come into the picture.
Romans 5:18,19 picks up where Romans 5:12 left off (because verses 13-17 are one big parenthesis):
12 Therefore, just as through one man (Adam, the first man) SIN entered the world, and DEATH THROUGH SIN, and thus death spread to all men, because ALL SINNED—
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18 Therefore, as through one man’s OFFENSE (the parallel to “sin” in verse 12) judgment came TO ALL MEN, resulting in condemnation,
This is why they are unfulfilled and existing apart from their designed purpose, they are spiritually dead and under God's condemnation. They don’t have eternal life – which is a right relationship with their Creator. Once they see this, they can be taken back to David’s humble question in Psalm 8:4 -
4 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You VISIT him?
God’s ultimate “VISIT” in regard to estranged sinful mankind was in the WORK OF JESUS CHRIST AT THE CROSS. The sense of God visiting His creation mankind, is that He visited us to look after us – to take care of us. This is brought out in the quote of this verse from Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2:6, where the context is about God saving sinners.
In the NKJV - “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You TAKE CARE of him?”
Or in the NASB - “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You ARE CONCERNED about him?”
Romans 5:18-19 goes on to present the good news, the gospel of the work of Jesus Christ.
18 … even so through one Man’s righteous act (Jesus’ death on the cross in obedience to the Father’s plan) the free gift came to all men (meaning all kinds of men), resulting in justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s (Adam’s) disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s (Jesus’) obedience many will be made righteous.
Being made righteous by God happens concurrently with being given eternal life by Him. 1 John 5:11,12 says this-
11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 HE (OR SHE) WHO HAS THE SON HAS LIFE; HE WHO DOES NOT HAVE THE SON OF GOD DOES NOT HAVE LIFE.
The Holy Spirit through the same Apostle said: “He who believes in the Son HAS (right now) EVERLASTING (eternal) LIFE; and he who does not believe the Son SHALL NOT SEE (in the future) LIFE, BUT THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDES (remains, right now) ON HIM.” (John 3:36)
This is God’s word on every human’s ultimate destiny. Therefore, THE ULTIMATE QUESTION WHICH EACH HUMAN MUST ANSWER IS: “WHAT WILL I DO WITH JESUS CHRIST?” Will I believe in Him and have Him or not? Will I turn from living my way to wanting Him to change me and control me, or not? Will I trust in His death to totally take away my sin, or not? Yes, or no? There is no middle ground. The reality of what anyone does with Jesus Christ determines their ultimate destiny.
This fact urges the inmate and all other humans to make sure they’ve made the right choice. Listen to God’s word on this from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things are new.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us (even you, saved gospel minister to inmates) the ministry of reconciliation,
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing (crediting) their trespasses to them, and has committed to us (put your own name in here) the word of reconciliation (that is, the gospel message).
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: WE IMPLORE YOU ON CHRIST’S BEHALF, BE RECONCILED TO GOD.
The questioner can be totally reconciled to God because of verse 21 -
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, (in order) that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
In the greatest sense, this is what your ministry should be all about, helping people to be reconciled to God.
Rich Hines
Minister To Chaplains