2017-06-30
Good Morning Dear Ones,
It’s been a while since I cited COL 1: 15-20 about Christ’s supremacy. These words will help us to understand the hope He gives to us as individuals and as His church. “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God; the Firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible or invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And, He is the Head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the Firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.”
Our human perspective has limitations, which makes it much easier for us to believe by knowing that God’s second personality provides us with a form of Him we can perceive-that of a godly man. While hard to comprehend, we are told outright that Christ existed before ordinary mankind did, as the Being that carried out God’s decision to create the earth and all on it. Sources of human authority are included in this, and we’re told in DN 4: 17 and RO 13: 1 that they are with us out of God’s will. That’s a good reason to obey them. We can take comfort that Christ is the “First among many people to be raised from death to life” [RO 8: 29]. We must remember that Christ is supreme in all things, and that if we’ve seen Christ, we’ve seen the Father in JN 14: 9and 11, i.e. He has the fullness of God. In the greatest hope Christ gives the church, we are brought to peace with God by His suffering on the cross and resurrection [JN 3: 16; RO 5: 9-11]. 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!” [See also: RO 8: 17]. (If you are wondering why I have included so many citations from the book of Romans, it is because it’s first 12 chapters are the greatest presentation of Christian doctrine and its last four chapters the greatest “how-to” be an observant Christian that we have).
For those of you who are believing Gentiles, you too are included in every blessing membership in Christ’s church gives, along with believing Jews [DT 32: 43; PS 117: 1; IS 11: 10; RO 3: 19 and 15: 9-13; EPH 3: 6; REV 5: 5]. This mystery of God, which is Christ in us, is open to all who believe. We receive the Holy Spirit and a direct line of two-way communication with the Father. This allows us to plumb the depths of God’s wisdom and teaching. All of this gives us tremendous hope. RO 11: 25-26 [LK 21: 24; RO 9: 18] helps to answer a question that all Messianic Jews (those Jews who accept Christ as their personal Savior) have about the souls of their traditionally Jewish relatives. “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening, in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel shall be saved…” [IS 45: 17; JER 31: 34]. This gives those of us who are Jews, who believe in Jesus real hope, even though we don’t have the details of how this will be carried out. Paul was inspired to say, in COL 1: 22-23, “But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation --if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the Gospel. This is the Gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and, of which I Paul, have become a servant.”
PRAYER: O Lord, we are Your servants and friends, loyal and deeply in love with You and Your word. We come to Your mighty throne in reverence and awe, heads bowed and hearts open to Your Spirit. Each of us can look back into our past to find when and why we came to faith in Jesus Christ. For some, it was so gradual that this moment is hard to discern. For many others, myself included, there is an identifiable time when we can say a warm, loving faith in Christ spread over us, ending our sorrows and bringing us the hope discussed here. You are a generous, loving God—One Who has changed our lives from sadness to deep, inner peace. Happiness came to us unexpectedly, and we learned we can have the freedom and confidence to approach You any time. We no longer feel alone and unloved. You have promised never to abandon us, and we can take You at Your word. We can no longer be afraid of death and can have great hope for our eternal future. You share Your remarkable perspective with us, even though we are not capable of such perspective on our own. You have taught us how to fend off trouble that comes from poor choices, ignorance, and impetuousness. We praise and thank You for Who You are and what You do. In Christ’s holy/mighty name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m commanded by the Holy Spirit to write about how Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant for His church in my next devotion. There is a cross hanging on my wall and a replica of one of the nails that affixed our Lord Jesus to the cross on my desk. These things are reminders of the hope His death on the cross and my faith in Him has given me. My life before He was in it was one surrounded by intellectual competition and spiritual immaturity. Both my parents unintentionally made my upbringing and that of my three brothers quite dysfunctional. This was a sad, stressful, and unhappy time in my life. I questioned if God was real and if He cared at all about me or the groups to which I belonged. All the while, my Lord Jesus was watching over me and advocating with the Father for me. I just didn’t know it! I felt hopelessness. As time went on, my Lord called me to faith, making Himself known to me. By the change in my life circumstances and new people coming into it, the Lord was forcing my heart to open to the Holy Spirit, to joy and a sense of humor. By age 25 I began to proclaim genuine faith in the Lord Jesus, and by age 39, He called me to become God’s servant in ministry. It’s a path that is unusual and with many crossroads along the way, but it is God’s path given to me. I can now serve others and proclaim the Gospel in view of my longtime studies of His word. For that and so much more, I am deeply thankful. Praise be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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