2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
We continue along the path that Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness, takes us. Because it is Lent, it is wholly appropriate for us to dwell on the subject of Jehovah Tsidkenu’s sacrifice on the cross for us of His only Son, Whom He adores. I’m not saying we shouldn’t think about that the rest of the year, but just that it is especially important now. No one likes to think of pain and suffering and surely not a Parent Who must endure that of His only Child. Peter understood this well and is a most interesting example of a person greatly altered by the miracle of faith given Him by the Father. We all know that in his younger years, Peter was a most impulsive person. He reminds me of a young puppy, full of both potential and impetuosity, at that stage of his life. With ordinary human perspective, no one would have thought he would end up being “a rock, and on this rock foundation I [Christ] will build My church…” [MT 16: 18]. In Peter’s later years, he wrote, “For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life handed down by your ancestors. It was not something that can be destroyed, such as silver or gold. It was the costly sacrifice of Christ Who was like a Lamb without defect or flaw.” [1 PET 1: 18-19]. The maturity of Peter’s faith as it evolved through supernatural intervention gives me the comfort of knowing that such an evolution is available to us, if we open our hearts to Jehovah Tsidkenu.
Isaiah, John, and Peter wanted us to appreciate the fullness of this extraordinary sacrifice on God’s part, the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. IS 53: 5, “He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed [KJV].” JN 3: 16 [KJV], “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 1 PET 2: 24-25, “Christ Himself carried our sins in His body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by His wounds that you have been healed. You were like sheep that had lost their way, but now you have been brought back to follow the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls.” What gorgeous language-“the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls” is! How can we not feel loved knowing that such a Deity exists and endured that pain for us?
At the time that Christ was teaching about the law, He revealed the awesome promise of what lies ahead for people who come to faith in Him. MT 5: 20, “I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful than the teacher of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires.” Our loving and righteous Jehovah Tsidkenu commanded us to do something that doesn’t come easily to us. We must work on expunging all the sin that remains in our lives. We must stretch toward the model for how to live set for us by Jesus Christ. However, God doesn’t just order us to do this without giving us the knowledge and direction of how to do this. To begin, He lets us know His perspective on sin through Isaiah. IS 64: 6 [KJV] “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” That is the same message that He gave us through David in PS 14: 1-3, “Fools say to themselves, ‘There is not, God!’ They are all corrupt, and they have done terrible things; there is no one who does what is right. The Lord looks down from heaven at mankind to see if there are any who are wise, any who worship Him. But they have all gone wrong; they are all equally bad. Not one of them does what is right, not a single one.” Paul cites this PS 14: 1-3 passage in RO 3: 10 again repeats its message in RO 3: 23, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the Lord.”
Once we are given Jehovah Tsidkenu’s perspective on our lives as sinners, He does not leave us to hang in hopelessness. Out of His mighty righteousness and compassion, He inspires Paul to help us see the significance to our lives of the work of the cross. RO 3: 24-25, “But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with Him through Christ Jesus, Who sets them free. God offered Him, so that by His death He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him.” Christ is a propitiation, a satisfactory sin-sacrifice that fulfills the requirements of Jehovah Tsidkenu’s righteousness. 2 COR 5: 21 gives us the essence of why this sin-sacrifice should mean so much to us. “Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made Him share our sin in order that in union with Him, we might share the righteousness of God.” Think about that-righteousness has been imputed to our account. We have been justified! We have been deemed, “innocent,” of our past sins and acceptable to Jehovah Tsidkenu! That, Dear Ones, is a good reason for us to never tire of meditating on the significance to us of the work of the cross and the love that our Jehovah Tsidkenu has for each of us.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have demonstrated Your power to bring even the most rebellious or the most impetuous of us to an abiding and mature faith in You. Paul and Peter are examples of that. If we understand the lesson here; it is that such faith is available to anyone who will open himself to it. This does not come to us by accident, for it is Your will and design. The death of Your Son on the cross opened the way for it at great emotional cost to You as His [and our Parent]. You allowed us to know through the writing of David, Isaiah, Paul, and others exactly what sin is and how it stains one’s life. You want us to understand that we all came to you as sinners, not one of us was exempt from the sin of Adam and Eve. Yet, You love us enough to want us to see that Christ’s death allows us release from the bondage to that sin. At this Lent season, we need to meditate not only on the significance to us of Christ’s suffering, but also on the love that You have demonstrated in commanding that it should happen. Through Your grace, You have granted us a share in Your righteousness. That is only one of many reasons why we acknowledge today how precious both You and Your Son are to us. For that and so much more, we humbly offer You our worship, adoration, trust, obedience, loyalty, honor, glory, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, our meditation on the significance of Jehovah Tsidkenu’s sacrifice of His Son continues. We are truly a blessed people when we have faith and live “in Christ.” Each day that the Father takes us along this path, we may be repeating something we already know, but He is challenging us to have deeper and deeper understanding. That is why through His love for us He encourages us to never tire of His word. God blesses each of us with the content of His heart. We can please Him by our positive and obedient response to that. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn