2013-01-04
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, I was led to write about our need to acknowledge God’s sovereignty [PS 76: 1-3; JER 18: 6]. We know we have a Covenant Partner to Whom we can appeal for help when we need it [PS 46:1; PS 71:12; PS 86: 7], and that our Lord relates well to our trials [HE 4: 15; EX 2: 23b-25; PS 31: 7; PS 33: 13]. In addition, we can understand that God works through the Holy Spirit [ZECH 4: 6]. This prepares us to go on with a better understanding of what happens with our Covenant Partner when a believer is tempted by the evil one.
Our Lord promises us in RO 8: 1-2, 28, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death…And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.” My Friends, this is a huge concept for us to understand in one of the most useful chapters in the NT. Let’s look at (1 and 2) first. One might ask, why is there no condemnation, and to best understand this, we need to be reminded that the old covenant was the Covenant of the Law. What laws do is that they point out sin and condemn it. While this is useful to us to know what is wrong in God’s sight and what isn’t, we are left with guilt and in some cases, no way out. We might remember that the atonement for sin in traditional Judaism comes annually at Yom Kippur, after the beginning of the Jewish New Year [Rosh HaShannah-LV 23: 23-25; NU 29: 1-6] and Ten Days of Awe, during which one is asked to consider His relationship with God and compliance with God’s laws. Because the first to third century rabbis wrote the Oral Torah [as opposed to God’s written Torah], they had ballooned the number of commandments to follow from 10 to 613! No one, except Jesus Himself, could keep that many laws! The forgiveness at Yom Kippur given after confession of sin is only for one year [LV 16: 1-34; LV 23: 26-32; NU 29: 7-11].
But, we also must recall that people who believe in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, are no longer under law, but are now under grace [RO 6: 6,11; GA 2: 16]. That is why our covenant is the Covenant of Grace. The last week of His life, our Lord Jesus argued with the Pharisees in the temple about how traditional Judaism had lost understanding of God’s teaching, because it became legalistic and made form more important than content. When one believes in Christ, or in other words “is in union with Christ,” he is dead to sin and alive in Christ. It is by the grace of God that this is so [EPH 2: 8-10]. When in union with Christ, we become “new creations, the old has gone and the new has come” [2 COR 5: 17]. In RO 8: 2, the term “the law of the Spirit of life” actually means the Holy Spirit is the controlling power in our lives, not the desires of the flesh. A true believer actually wants to choose God’s ways, which are to avoid sin, because of the influence of the Holy Spirit. We can still sin, but now, we have the Holy Spirit to act as our conscience and let us know that we need to stop sinning, confess, and begin anew without repeating the sin. Under the circumstances, our loving God is telling us we won’t be condemned.
Now to RO 8: 28: Herein, God is telling us that we each have a calling, a purpose that God has already chosen for us [refer to EPH 2: 10]. Of course this purpose includes the doing of good deeds, but there is a greater part of our purpose that has to do with the legacy we leave behind for future generations. These are divided into our immediate and cosmic purposes by Pastor Rick Warren in his book, The Purpose Driven Life. Personal experience supplies proof to this author that when we live according to God’s principles, as modeled and taught by our Lord Jesus, things do work for our good. Having experienced a life of disobedience to God early on and then obedience to Him, I can see the huge contrast both in actions and consequences. Of course things are never as simple as I’m stating them here, but the principle is the same. God’s teaching is just as applicable as it has been in the past, is now, and always will be [HE 8: 13]. Our greatest challenge once we accepted Christ is to be willing to be sensitive to the direction coming from the Holy Spirit and courageous enough to follow it- even when it takes us away from our comfort zones. Let me end today with HE 13: 20-21. “May the God of peace, Who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work within us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we must utter our gratitude for Your great sacrifice of Your Son on the cross, so that we might be saved from spiritual death [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. Moreover, You have made it possible for us as Your covenant partners to be eternally forgiven. 1 JN 1: 9, “If we confess our ins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all wrongdoing.” So, Dearest Abba, we thank and praise You! One aspect of our covenant relationship with You is Your continual presence and intervention in our lives. We find that to be a blessing, because of Your superior wisdom, Your ultimate sovereignty, and Your unmatched compassion. When Jeremiah, in JER 18: 6, posed the question of who has the right to determine the form and function of the clay, the clay or the potter, the answer was clear. It is the Potter in our lives, You! You, as our Creator, deserve for us to obey You, especially since You have no evil in You [1 JN 1: 5]. You give us the experience of seeing how things work out when we do obey You, and it is good. Moreover, You have given our lives a purpose, our immediate one, that we can know and follow; it always involves the doing of good deeds which You have prepared for us. As I mentioned above there is also a cosmic purpose for our lives that extends beyond our own physical death. In Abraham’s life, for example, His cosmic purposes were to 1) establish the nation of Jewish people dedicated to the worship of You, the one and only God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 2) to establish the royal line of David, out of which our Messiah, Jesus Christ would arise. Our cosmic purpose is something we are not privileged to know until that time when we are in heaven with You. Neither our immediate or our cosmic purpose will be fulfilled if we don’t obey You. So, we confess our sins, ask You to forgive them, and hope You will give us the courage to obey You in the future. We ask that our lives be filled with the Holy Spirit, Who teaches us to trust in You and live with overflowing hope by His power. We thank You for Your provision and protection. We offer You praise for Your wonderful attributes and deeds. We welcome Your intervention in our lives, offering this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am commanded by the Holy Spirit to continue this “Our Covenant” series of messages with one more installment of the segment called “When We’re Tempted.” This time, we will look into the discipline that God gives us, if we allow it, for daily prayer and study of His word. These things are great helps to us when we are tempted by the evil one. There is a song which refers to God as my “Strong Tower,” and I will share what that means to me. When Paul wrote about the conflict of the body and the Spirit, in RO 7: 7-25, he gave us a great description of what goes on in each of us at the time of temptation. Without our Lord Jesus, we can do nothing but give in to it, because we are weakened by the demands of the flesh. Lord knows this is my personal cross to bear when I’m tired from working and don’t want to make the right choices in the kitchen! The only thing that keeps me from eventually weighing 500 lbs is the Holy Spirit prompting me to moderate. Even then, I’m far from perfect. To know that God loves us enough to keep with us and continue working on perfecting us (sanctifying us) through our struggle with sin, is fabulous! Let me end with JOB 11: 13-18, the words God gave Job’s friend, Zophar. “Yet if you devote your heart to Him and stretch out your hands to Him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your troubles, recalling them only as waters gone by. Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like the morning. You will be secure, because there is hope; You will look about you and take your rest in security.” Praise and thanks be to God!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson, 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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