2013-05-10
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, I was led to write about our need to study history along with the Scriptures, so that we can put them in the context God intended. We also saw how easy it is to misinterpret Scripture, particularly as the traditional Jews did –placing format more important than understanding God’s intent. In some ways, this is how so many splinter groups, like the Arians mentioned last week, come into being. They were the ones how misinterpreted JN 14: 28 to mean that Jesus didn’t always exist and was a creation of the Father’s. We were also given a view of the horrific persecution of believers in Christ that happened in Diocletian’s reign as the Roman Caesar.
Today, we begin a new segment in the Our Covenant series called “Higher Purpose for Us.” Deep down we know there is a higher purpose for our lives, that our lives as observant believers in the Lord Jesus Christ don’t stop at physical death. Because of Christ’s Atonement on the cross, we who actively live “in Christ” go on to eternal life with Him and with the Father [JN 3: 16; RO 2: 24-25; 1 COR 15: 54]. JN 5: 24 and GA 5: 25-26 are worth repeating from last week. [Christ’s words] “I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him Who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life…[Paul writing] Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” JN 11: 25-26 are Christ’s words in response to Martha at the time just before her brother, Lazarus, was brought back to life by Him. “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha told Christ she did. And so should we. We must understand that while we will all die physically, we do not have to die spiritually if we keep our faith strong in the Lord Jesus.
What greater gift could He or anybody give us, His covenant partners?!
It’s important that we remember the features of a covenant relationship. Moreover, we must understand that when we believe in Christ, we are in a covenant relationship with Him and with all others who believe in Him. What affects one of them, affects us! We are indeed our brother’s keeper. Their enemies become our enemies. Each of you who regularly reads my weekly devotions knows that I often cite RO 8: 29, “For those God foreordained He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” Now read JN 6: 53-54, [Christ speaking to the Jews], “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.” To traditional Jews, this must have sounded like heresy. However, Christ never lies. Instead, He was trying to get these people to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit, Who would gladly have given them faith. Sadly, they rejected Him, just as Isaiah had predicted 300 years prior to Christ’s earthly incarnation [IS 53: 3]. The terms “eat My flesh and drink My blood” are very disquieting indeed, but our Lord was trying to shock them with hyperbole and get their attention.
As a person who grew up in a traditionally Jewish home, I too might have been offended by such terms, had I not been blessed with an open mind. I was blessed by being in God’s sights my whole life, even though I wasn’t aware of that until in was in my mid-20’s. I am the only one of two of us from my genetic family who became a Messianic Jew, although one of my three brothers did accept Christ as His Savior too in his conversion to the Mormon faith. Today, when we believers take the host and the drink the wine, we are symbolically “eating Christ’s flesh” and “drinking His blood.” Believe me, this is a matter of life and death. Taking Communion with one’s heart means that his heart is “circumcised” in the manner meant by RO 2: 29, “No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”
We see this melding together in a covenant relationship and sharing of enemies in both the covenant of friendship between David and Saul’s son, Jonathan, as well as the conversion of Saul of Tarsis to the apostle Paul [1 SAM 18: 1-3; AC 9: 1-6]. We already know that David took on all the enemies of Saul’s family, and cared for all of Saul’s relatives for the rest of his life. In the case of Saul of Tarsus, he was Christ’s enemy all during the time he served the Sanhedrin [Jewish ruling council] in persecuting new believers in Christ. But Christ, in His infinite wisdom, had another plan for Saul of Tarsus. God had created Saul with remarkable qualities of scholarship and a keen lawyer’s mind. So the Lord Jesus knew this and shocked Saul on the road to Damascus. AC 9: 4-5, “’Who are you Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting.’ He replied.” (Read AC 26: 10-18, for more detail of the exchange between Saul and Christ). As we contemplate all that is written here, how can we not believe that we were not only created by God, but that those who are in a covenant relationship actually belong to Christ?!
PRAYER: O Lord, we understand that there is much that either You have not yet told us (because we are not ready for it), or that is too much for us to comprehend. RO 11: 33-34, “O, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor?” But all that is in Your word is the truth. NU 23: 19, “God is not like men who lie, He is not a human who changes his mind. Whatever He promises He does; He speaks, and it is done.” As for those things in Your word, You give them to us with clarity. When we have trouble understanding it, we can look at cross references, and You help us. Today’s message deals with a lot of intangible matters, requiring faith. But we can look back at Your history with us, and know that You want only what is in our best eternal interests for us. You have given us Your Son’s physical life on the cross, so that we who believe in Him might never perish but have eternal life [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. How blessed we are to be in the Covenant of Grace with You! Each day, our lives are filled with challenges of one sort or another. Some of them are too big for us to handle without Your intervention. So today, we ask for that, in an attitude of reverence for and awe of You. Help us to understand and appreciate all that the Holy Spirit gives us today and each day we are in prayer and studying Your word. We make this request of You with hearts of thankfulness and while offering You our forever praise. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am led to continue in the segment of “Our Covenant” messages called “Higher Purpose For Us.” We’ll look further into what it means to belong to Christ. We can place our trust in Him, because we know He loves us dearly and that He keeps His promises to us. 1 PET 1: 3, “Praise be to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” These words are His Treasure given to us. He directs us to live with righteousness and humble reverence for Him. He gives us everything we need to do this, as the earth and everything in it are His-only on loan to us for our use [GN 1: 27-29; PS 24: 1]. Throughout His history with us, He has kept all His promises, even through there are some concerning the final fate of mankind and the earth remain to be kept in the future. No matter who we are, as long as we believe in the Son, we can go about our lives, facing our challenges, knowing we are dearly loved. RO 15: 4, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Our value to Him is priceless. Each day, He works to teach us to be more mature in our faith, more purified from our sins. Such is the process of sanctification, His way of preparing us for eternal life of bliss and fellowship with Him. I will end with 1 JN 4 :19, “We love because He first loved us!” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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