2011-08-05
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, we looked to see how we are bonded first to God and also to other believers by the blood of Christ shed for us. When we entered into the Covenant of Grace, we professed real faith in the Son and repented of our sins. When others around us did the same, we were bonded to them as well, as our brothers and sisters in Christ. RO 8: 14-16 tells of our “adoption” into the family of God. Today, we are going to examine just how serious a bond this really is.
We can be said to be “pledged unto death.” Let the Lord explain. The Lord Jesus had some teaching on the taking of vows, which matters greatly, MT 5: 33-37. “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oath you have made to the Lord. But I tell you, do not swear at all; either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Simply, let your “yes” by yes, and your “no” be no; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” I have mentioned before that I had the unhappy circumstance of being married once before to a person who never kept his promises. That is why I have a personal credo: Don’t make a promise you can’t keep. If something happens to prevent you from keeping a promise made, be sure it’s a good reason that is out of your control, and explain fully what that reason is. This means think carefully before making a promise in the first place. If you make a promise, keep it, unless doing so has become illegal, immoral, or unsafe. Often we are sorely tempted to make a promise to another person, in an effort to appease them or look for simple solutions to complicated problems. While hard to do, we must avoid this temptation. There is a verse, PS 33: 13, “The Lord looks down from heaven and sees every person.” 99 % of the time, that should be a comfort to us, because what is being said is dealt with in PS 37: 23, “…He delights in every detail in their lives” in reference to the godly. That reserved 1 % of the time, He becomes aware of a promise made in haste or in one broken due to human foibles. He does what He can to correct the situation.
People need to know that we mean what we say. If, as Christ puts it, “our ‘yes’ is a yes and our ‘no’ is a no,” there is no problem with it. However, if our ‘yes’ only sometimes means yes etc, then the element of passive aggression enters into our behavior, or we simply cannot be counted on to keep a promise we make. In a short time, we would lose our credibility. If we “swear by our head,” we can’t change the color of our hair or anyone else’s. Here Christ is using hyperbole to shock us enough to make us see that God alone is in charge and has the power to make such changes. Of course, humans can dye their hair, but the natural color, the one God chooses, always shows up at the roots in time. I won’t bother you, Dear Readers, with much about my opinion that God’s choice is better for hair and eye color [designed by Him to match our natural skin color]. Hollywood would hate what I’m thinking right now, but we are who we are, and our chronological age can’t be altered. Sadly, our human society makes people think that being older is unacceptable, so people must dye their hair to look younger to avoid the real stronghold that the adversary has our society’s workplace-age discrimination. How I long for us to revere the wisdom that all those extra years of living can bring to our elderly people! Other countries treat them like the national treasures, and so many of them are. The evil one has indeed made inroads into our workplaces, some of our homes, our schools and institutions. We must take heed, so we can head him off at the pass! 1 PET 5: 8-9, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him and stand firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same, kind of sufferings.” There is nothing Satan would like more than to keep us from successfully being sanctified and purified by the Lord, being made ready to eventually rule in heaven by His side [RO 8: 17].
We must understand that a covenant like the one we are participating in is not only a pledge unto death, but it is borne out of love, cut in blood-the blood of the Lord Jesus shed to establish that new covenant in the first place. It’s appropriate to rehearse JN 3: 16 here. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Those simple words say so very much. Let’s be reminded of 1 COR 11: 23-25, the words that are spoken when Communion is taken. Notice how they dovetail in this construct of loving sacrifice for the gain of many. “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’” By professing our faith, regularly taking Communion, and living out the life the Lord meant for us in faithful obedience to Him, we are loved, blessed, and bonded in blood to Him and to each other-in love.
PRAYER: O Lord, never before have we taken the time to delve into words that we hear often and probably take for granted. It has been our habit to allow ourselves to make hasty promises we can’t keep, whether by design for appeasement or simply without thinking them through. We ask for Your help in showing us the way to no longer do that. We ask You to settle the Holy Spirit’s teaching on us, as to how to break this habit. It is our desire to keep any promises we make, and to make them in a carefully-considered way. We now understand that just as You were present and a Party to David’s covenant of friendship with Jonathan [1 SAM 18: 1-4], You are present and a Party to any serious promise we might make. We pray for Your guidance, by uttering PS 25: 4-5, “Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.” We simply can’t have wisdom in our daily lives without You and Your influence on us. You deliver us from our troubles and are our Hiding Place [PS 32: 7]. We acknowledge Your superior wisdom and discernment, praying for You to share it with us. PS 51: 6 and 119: 125, “Sincerity and truth are what You require; fill my mind with wisdom…I am Your servant; give me understanding; so that I may know Your teachings.” Our hearts are far from perfection, but we seek Your help in gaining eternal life. As David confessed, so do we. PS 51: 10-12, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” We offer You our sincerest praise and thanks for the powerful force for good that You are in our lives. These prayers we say in the name of the holy/mighty Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Just as we are bonded with God and with other believers in blood, the blood of Christ shed for us, so we are also bonded with love. Next week, we will begin by looking at some of the verses that help us to understand that this is a serious commitment leaving us pledged unto death. We are given our free agency to make a choice between whether or not we will embrace the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior. We are also given other choices, like whom will we marry?, will I stay in school and finish my education?, will I serve my country in the military? and so on. We should not be afraid of making carefully-considered commitments throughout our lives. However, there are many people who do have this fear. Without some commitments, our lives are empty and meaningless. Christ has told us, in JN 8: 32, “You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” What He means by that is that God’s whole teaching boils down to us choosing to believe Him when He tells us something. We need to accept that teaching from any other source won’t always be true. But on Him, we can rely that we are receiving the truth. There is real comfort in that, comfort not available to us if we refuse to commit to the Covenant of Grace with Him. The truth is that with participation in the Covenant of Grace, we can eventually live eternally in a blissful covenant relationship with the Lord. The alternative is spiritual death. It’s a no brainer to realize how important our commitment to our faith really is. Praise and thanks be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15