2011-10-14
Good Morning Dear Ones,
It isn’t often that we try to look at what God is actively doing as His part of the commitment of the Covenant of Grace. Instead we look at what we are supposed to be doing, and simply take God’s active work for granted. We should never do that, because He is working all the time for our good and gets not nearly enough praise and thanks for His part of it. The shedding of Christ’s blood for us is a huge sacrifice for the Father. He had to watch His only begotten Son be betrayed, suffer, be humiliated, and physically die one of the cruelest deaths over three days hanging on the cross that is known to mankind. Even worse, the Father had to experience separation from the Son, while the Latter was in hell for three days [LK 22: 42; MT 26: 45-47; LK 22: 63-65; LK 23: 18, 38, 45-46]. Christ’s work done on the cross was God’s way of making it possible for the salvation of mankind, at least mankind that would believe in His Son [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. The blood He shed reveals the intensity of this commitment on God’s part. It is true that covenant partners are bound to each other till physical death and for life eternal. HE 13: 5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”
If we look at the content of contemporary services and modern hymn books, something is missing. It is the subject of sermon that I heard about grace from our senior pastor recently. He spoke of our need to expunge sin from our lives and to appreciated the grace, unmerited favor, that God extends to us every day. EPH 2: 8-10 really reveals what the truth is. “For it is by Gods grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus, He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.” God has a plan for us, and when we conform to it, not only our immediate purpose for Him is accomplished, but so is one that extends beyond our physical lives really making a difference for Him, which is called our cosmic purpose. While we are alive on earth, we may not know our cosmic purpose, but there is always the hope we will learn about it in heaven. There is nothing trivial or unimportant about any of this. There is also nothing more appropriate to “karath beriyth” [the making of a covenant] than the shedding of blood for the salvation [benefit] of another.
We now can move into another segment of these Our Covenant messages called “Covenant is Universal.” In his book The Two Covenants, Andrew Murray gives the reasons why covenant are made. 1) There are advantages known to be derived from them. Covenant partners are more likely in the human realm to do business with each other, to accept each other as friends, to share a common bond that applies to their entire families, and to help each other when trouble hits. Of course there are more that can be added to this list, but this is a good start. 2) The uncertainty that exists between strangers is less likely. This gives people interacting a sense of security they wouldn’t otherwise have. When the Covenant of Grace is a part of this, we know without question that God will live up to His part in it. 3) A statement of services [expectations] is before the two partners. With the Covenant of Grace, both parties [and God, of course], are pledged to be up front and honest in their dealings. If not, the covenant is broken. A real breaking with the Covenant of Grace ends up with the human partner facing spiritual death, so it is a life or death matter. With God, He has made His stand on openness available to us in JN 15: 13-15, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. In stead, I call you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father, I have made known to you.” 4) There is a bond of amity and goodwill between the partners. In some ways, it’s like two partners in a business, they will both agree to work for the common good of their business. In a covenant with God, His human partner agrees to make God’s purposes and agenda his own. Thus they are working together for the greater good of both. God gets another soul brought back to His side in heaven, and the human has salvation, the gift of the Holy Spirit, justification, and eternal forgiveness of his sins. 5) There is a ground set for friendship and confidence in each other. Trust is built over time, but this is the ground set for building that trust. If my own experience as God’s covenant partner has taught me anything, it has shown me that I’ve had no greater happiness or feeling of well-being than I have had by recognizing my need to be in this covenant relationship with Him [MT 5 :3]. 6) The true value of this covenant is something simple words cannot express. One needs to experience it before he can truly recognize this value. It is good value that affects every facet of a covenant partner’s life. God’s companionship, His help, His wisdom, His patience and compassion, and the satisfaction from such a relationship can’t be acquired from any other source. It’s not possible to measure it’s value.
PRAYER: O Lord, Your companionship, help, wisdom, compassion, patience, forgiveness, and so many other graceful qualities can’t be found in any human, any other source. Without You, we are lost and without the kind of direction that will grant us pardon from our sins and eternal life. 1 JN 1: 9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” There is nothing wrong or old fashioned about dealing with the big elephant on the table, sin that leads people first to Hades (a place where unrepentant sinners who physically die inhabit until the second coming of Christ-MT 13: 42; REV 1: 18; REV 20: 13-15), then Gehenna (Hell-the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, where residents of Hades are sent after Christ’s second coming and final judgment-MK 9 :48; LK 16: 22-24; REV 14: 9-11; REV 16: 10). It is right to speak of painful choices, like the above, that lead to conscious and eternal torment, which is what hell is. When this is known, reconnaissance given to us by our covenant Partner, (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), we can make the choice that will lead us first to Paradise (the holding place for those who have physically died in faith before the second coming of Christ-LK 23: 42-43; AC 6: 59-60) and then, to heaven itself (an eternal place of bliss and sweet fellowship with God-2 COR 5: 6-10; REV 14: 13; REV 21: 1-4, 27). The only way to heaven is to be covered in the blood of the Lord Jesus [JN 14: 6]. That blood is the signal that a covenant relationship has been established in action from both parties to it, and that there is faith in the Lord Jesus at the time of physical death. We believe that Christ, Your Son, has been given the right to carry out the final judgment. DN 7: 13-14, “In my vision at night I [Daniel] looked and there before me was One like a Son of Man [Christ] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached this Ancient of Days [God] and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His Kingdom is the one that will never be destroyed.” We thank You, Dearest Father for all your openness, the direction You give us, the two-way channel of prayer, and Your word. You are to be forever praised and thanked! In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am led to continue with this segment on “Covenant is Universal.” We will revisit the work of Dr. H.Clay Trumbull from his book, The Blood Covenant in an effort to flesh out the universality of covenant relationships. It helps us to understand why our Covenant of Grace is so utterly important to our spiritual, emotional, even physical lives. We must understand that humans have four parts of their selves, each of which needs to be fed and actively nurtured. That is our physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual selves. Our morality affects every one of them, which is why we are so blessed to have prayer and God’s word. It is no accident that God organized us into faith communities [which is what each church congregation should be in His view]. If we wonder how our physical selves are affected by our beliefs, we must understand the psychosomatic origins of some illnesses. For example, people who are constantly under stress are more likely to have heart attacks. Having a well fed and nurtured spirit has the opposite effect of reducing stress. If any one part of our selves, is starving or abused, the other parts are deeply and adversely affected by this. On the other hand, when trouble happens from outside of ourselves and our faith life is healthy and vibrant, we are more likely to handle the trouble well, placing the stress and anxiety on the Lord’s ample shoulders. He is willing to help us with our burdens [MT 11: 28-30]. Our Lord is to be praised and thanked for being such a wonderful covenant Partner for us!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24 :15