2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
There is a special privilege that comes to people who take time regularly in their lives to study the Scriptures. I call my time doing this each day a God-directed “time out” from the daily routine of my secular activities and responsibilities. The privilege is being able to see the Trinity as the best friends I have. They are with anyone who makes study of the Scriptures a priority in his life, rooting for him to succeed, helping him when trouble comes, guiding him through difficult decisions, giving him discernment and insight into his relationships with others, and the list continues. Having this privilege in my life certainly improves the quality of it. Having lived without the Trinity, as I did in my earlier life, has allowed me to know the difference between life without Them and with Them. Things are not always smooth sailing; there are times when I’m put on notice that God requires me to make changes in my life to conform to His will. An example of this was His directive for me to improve my prayer life during the time Pete was unemployed. While these commands are not always easy to obey, they are always in our best interests. That was certainly true of God’s command to me. I mention this example because more information about how God’s prayer system actually works is revealed in today’s passage, 1 JN 2: 1-6.
1 JN 2: 1-6, “I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have Someone Who pleads with the Father on our behalf-Jesus Christ, the righteous One. And Christ Himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone. If we obey God’s commands, then we are sure that we know Him. If someone says that he knows Him, but does not obey His commands, such a person is a liar and there is no truth in him. But whoever obeys His word is the one whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God: whoever says that he remains in union with God should live just as Jesus Christ did.”
Let’s look at what the Scriptures reveal about the issue of an intercessor for us. Remember, our God is one God in three persons. RO 8: 26-27, “In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit Himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. And God, Who sees into our hearts knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of His people and in accordance with His will.” RO 8: 34, “Who then, will condemn them [God’s chosen people]? Not Christ Jesus, Who died, or rather, Who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with Him for us!” HE 4: 14-16, “Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest Who has gone into the very presence of God-Jesus, the Son of God. Our High Priest Who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. Let us be brave, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.” HE 7: 24-25, “But Jesus lives on forever, and His work as priest does not pass on to someone else. And so He is able, now and always, to save those who come to God through Him, because He lives forever to plead with God for them.” HE 8: 1-2, “The whole point of what we are saying is that we have such a High Priest, Who sits at the right hand of the throne of the Divine Majesty in heaven. He serves as High Priest in the heavenly Holy of Holies, that is the real tent which was put up by the Lord, not by man.” [See also HE 9: 11]. HE 9: 24, “For Christ did not go into a man-made Holy Place, which was a coy of the real one. He went into heaven itself, where He now appears on our behalf in the presence of God.”
Look at 1JN 2: 3, “If we obey God’s commands, then we are sure to know Him.” Isn’t this saying in different words, “We come to experience God as we obey Him; then He can do His work through us?” The latter quote is from Henry Blackaby’s seven realities [part of his course on “Experiencing God,” which I highly recommend to you]. When we want to show our love for God, we can do this by obeying Him. Here are two citations that deal with this issue. 1 JN 2: 5-6, “But whoever obeys His word is the one whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God: whoever says that he remains in union with God should live just as Jesus Christ did.” Now look at JN 14: 21, “Whoever accept My commandments and obeys them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves Me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him.” I hope that you will see both the consistency in God’s words and also how Scripture interprets Scripture.
Living just as Christ lived-now, that may seem like a tall order, but it is not one we have to do alone. No one ever said living “in Christ” would be easy. Christ made it clear that we have to follow the narrow path that is hard to take rather than the wide one which is easy. [See MT 7: 13-14]. But, we must go back to the most essential truth of JN 14: 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by Me.” We have the Trinity to help us and can offer help in the form of encouragement to each other. We are not alone in this effort and never have been.
PRAYER: O Lord, what You ask of us is sometimes difficult for us to do. But You never ask us to live “in Christ” without also equipping us with plenty of help. The greatest help You give us is Christ Himself, our Intercessor in heaven. You prepared Him for that job by making Him incarnate, so that He could feel our pain and know first-hand the temptations the adversary sends our way. You also sent the Holy Spirit to plead for us as well. What a loving Lord You are! As if that wasn’t enough, You also brought us into our congregations, so that we could help and encourage each other to remain on the narrow path You have opened to us. The Scriptures are Your love letters to us; that is something we should recognize. When we obey You, we respond in kind to the love in their messages in the way which You deserve. We offer You our adoration, worship, honor, trust, obedience, praise, and loyalty. You alone deserve the glory for any progress we make in the process of sanctification. We dedicate ourselves to making our progress with humility, like that shown to us by Jesus Christ. Most of all, we thank You for sending Your precious Son to die on the cross for us and to be an Intercessor to plead for us. In His holy name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the next section of 1JN 2, (7-11) which deals with God’s command concerning how our lives of faith can affect the faith of others. If you have read this morning’s message and believe in what has been said, then you can rest assured that our Father knows the difficulty of the challenge He has given us and that He loves us enough to see to it that we are not left on our own to achieve victory over the adversary. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn