2010-10-22
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week we looked at how everything God does is based on His covenant. Today, we will see the ultimate goal of this series of messages, which is understanding of the covenant of Grace and Christ’s blood shed for us. It is clear that a covenant is a two-way agreement. What may not be so clear is that some covenants are between partners of equal stature, and others are not. Our covenant with God surely belongs to the latter category. It is a sacrificial agreement, meaning that both we and God have sacrificed something or Someone in order to be a party to it. In God’s case, we revisit JN 3 :16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but will have eternal life.” God’s intent in making this huge sacrifice is clear from JN 6: 39-40 [Christ speaking], “And it is the will of Him Who sent Me that I should not lose any of all those He has given Me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day. For what My Father want is that all who see the Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day.” Further illumination comes in RO 3: 24-25, “But the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with Him through Christ Jesus, Who sets them free. God offered Him, so that by His death He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him.” These very basic verses help us to understand that by suffering, dying on the cross, and thus, losing His physical life, Christ opened the door marked “faith and salvation” to all who are willing to repent of sin and believe in Him. This is the only clear relief from an existence led by the desires of the flesh on a one-way trip to both physical and spiritual death.
There have been prophecies throughout much of mankind’s history that the work of the devil begun with the original sin [GN 3: 1-6] would be vanquished in the lives of those willing to believe in Christ (at some point in history) long before it really happened. PS 2: 6-9, “’On Zion, My [God’s] sacred hill,’ He says, ’I have installed My King.’ ‘I will announce,’ says the King, ‘what the Lord has declared. He said to Me, ‘You are My Son; today I have become your Father. As, and I will give You all the nations; the whole earth will be Yours.’” Another prophecy is the story of the suffering Servant in : IS 53: 1-12 and again in MAL 3: 1, “The Lord Almighty answers, ‘I will send My messenger [ref. to John the Baptist] to prepare the way for Me. Then the Lord [Christ Himself] you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant.”
The sacrificial part of the Covenant of Grace for us is giving up a life led by the fleshly desires we inherited and taking on the lives of disciplined believers in Christ. Family relationships may have to be broken for this. MT 10: 34-36 reveals Christ’s attitude on this tough situation. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law; a man’s worst enemies will be the members of his own family.” I can testify to this from first-hand experience with it. That is because the Covenant of Grace creates a wide gulf between the members of a traditionally Jewish family with their Messianic Jewish relatives. The same is true for any believer in Christ and others who reject Him. Traversing that gulf is a long, hard effort indeed! MT 10: 38-39 lend further illumination. “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow in My steps is not fit to be My disciple. Whoever tried to gain His own life will lose it; but whoever loses His life for My sake will gain it.” On the faith side of that gulf is what I believe to be heaven’s very gate. The sad truth is that while “many are called, few are chosen” [MT 22: 14]. We don’t always understand in the beginning what we learn from COL 3: 3-4, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God . Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you too will appear with Him and share His glory!” Really appreciating that will take some spiritual maturity.
Since so much must be given up, a person might ask: why enter into such a covenant in the first place? We do so, in this author’s humble opinion, at the hand of the Holy Spirit. We have learned that we are given true and eternal forgiveness for our sins [HE 8: 12] and justification [being deemed innocent and acceptable to God-RO 4: 3] at the time we come to faith in Christ. What we don’t yet understand is the full impact of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit [RO 8: 14-16]. I believe there are times when the Holy Spirit impels us to accept a commitment even before we understand it’s full impact on us, because He sees the higher perspective of God that we don’t see. As we mature in the faith, we may have a better view of it, but our view is never as thorough and complete as the Father’s, the Son’s, and that of the Holy Spirit- while we are still on earth. Why does God allow this? My own feeling is that He knows we have a lot of maturing to do and wants to be sure that as many of us as possible gain a blissful eternal fellowship in heaven with Him. So, we stand at heaven’s very gate, and we may not even realize it fully at the time!
PRAYER: O Lord, this amazing sacrificial covenant, the Covenant of Grace, is a gorgeous revelation of the goodness of Your heart and Your love for Your human creation. Because we have free agency and You love us this much, we can sorely disappoint You with our rejection, or we can bring You to glee with our acceptance and cooperation with You in this covenant. After all, our emotions are patterned after Yours [GN 1: 27]. Humans stood before Christ’s very face during His incarnation on earth and didn’t recognize Him for Who He is. Scorned and rejected, He went to the cross, carrying the world’s sins with Him. His suffering brought to life prophecies of ancient times. And still You went through with His death on the cross and His resurrection as the “first among many brothers” [RO 8: 29] to show us that we too could be saved. Blessed salvation from a life lived in sin leading to sure spiritual death is the greatest gift You have ever given to mankind. Along with that, we are forgiven- our sins forgotten, justified, given the gift of Your Spirit, and matured through sanctification in preparation for that signal moment when You call us to our permanent heavenly home with You for eternity. During our earthly journey, there are times when You choose to heal us, guide us, protect us, teach us, sanctify us, bless us, and carry us through trials that seem overwhelming to us. PS 6: 4, “Come, O Lord, and make me well. In Your kindness save me, “ we can pray, all the while knowing You are listening and are eager to answer our prayers. Here are other prayers we offer up to You: PS 25: 4-5, “Teach me Your ways, O Lord. Make them known to me. Teach me to live according to Your truth, for You are my God, Who saves me. I always trust in You.” PS 139: 5, “You are all around me on every side. You protect me with Your power.” IS 50: 4, “The Sovereign Lord has taught me what to say, so that I can strengthen the weary. Every morning He makes me eager to hear what he is going to teach me.” We offer You our eternal thanks and praise for being Who You are and for doing the courageous, generous deeds You do for us. You are our Refuge, Rock, and Redeemer. We offer up these prayers to You in the holy and mighty name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Savior. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: We will begin examining the Messenger of the Covenant next week. We can’t really understand covenant theology without getting to know our Lord Jesus even better than we already do. It was His making His presence known in my own life that changed its course entirely to a more constructive one. It was He Who gave me the chance to know the joy of serving others over living a self-centered life that is always asking, what’s in it for me? I can witness to the reality that faith in Christ can do the same thing for anyone, as I have been a believer long enough now to have seen this happen to so many people around me. It is my hope that writing about the Lord Jesus, my Yeshua, will strengthen the seed of faith that has been planted in anyone who reads these devotions, as it has in me in writing them. The Holy Spirit is in charge, and He plans to take us on quite an interesting ride. So hop aboard and get ready for a life-changer which comes out of strengthened faith that will empower us, give us peace, help us to cope with trials, lead us to stretching toward God’s perspective, and help us fall deeply in love with Him and with God’s word. God wasn’t lying when He used Paul to say, in RO 8: 1, 28, “There is no condemnation for those who live in union with Christ Jesus…We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15