2002-12-18
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
When I first heard the Gospel, I had a real problem. My total experience until then was that of being raised as a traditional Jew. Any mention of the name, Jesus Christ, was either characterized as the biggest fairy story ever perpetrated on mankind or as an emotional “crutch” used to soften what a person finds outside his ability to emotionally handle. You’ll notice that this last sentence deals with emotions and the word spirituality isn’t used here. It would be arrogant of me to assume that every traditional Jew in the world was raised the same way. No doubt there are some very spiritual traditional Jews. However, in the experience I had, traditional Jews were far more rational and social than they were spiritual. Nothing was ever done for the synagogue or others without being paid in actual money. One went to temple, because it was the thing to do, and it was expected of you. If you didn’t, you were soundly accused of turning your back on your heritage. One’s social life was almost entirely made up of other traditional Jews. I remember at one time, a Mormon boy befriended me in school. We were too young to be dating, so we just were pals. When my father found out about that, he was infuriated and immediately took steps to see to it that distance was put between this boy and myself. In this anecdote, it is easy to see the erection of artificial human-made barriers, the same ones which kept the cultural groups of my day divided into ghettos. We can also see how prejudice is carefully taught. What you didn’t understand, you were to abhor and fear.
Yesterday, we began looking at EPH 4: 4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; there is one God and Father of all mankind, Who is Lord of all, works through all, and is in all.” We looked at the first two elements: 1) one body and 2) one Spirit then. Now, let’s pick up with the third element: 3) one hope to which God has called you. That hope is the one that comes from the Gospel. Perhaps the clearest statement of this comes in 1 COR 15: 1-4, “And now I want to remind you, my brothers, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. That is the Gospel, the message that I preached to you. Your are saved by the Gospel if you hold firmly to it-unless it was for nothing that you believed. I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures [IS 53: 1-12]; that He was buried and that He was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures [PS 16: 8-10; MT 12: 40; AC 2: 24-32]…” Verses 5-8 of this passage reveal those who witnessed this remarkable event, so as to convince questioning mankind of its authenticity. I believe it to be quite significant that evidence for the truth of the Gospel is found in the OT. Look at PS 16: 8-10, “I am always aware of the Lord’s presence; He is near, and nothing can shake me. And so I am thankful and glad, and I feel completely secure, because You protect me from the power of death, and the one You love You will not abandon to the world of the dead.” We all know that IS 53 is the prophetic passage about the suffering Servant, and that Christ’s life is the only one that fits it to a tee.
I wanted to know why it is that so many traditional Jews, in North America at least, take the attitude with which I was raised. The Scriptures speak of a veil that is placed in front of the eyes of a Jew, one that causes him to refute Christ’s deity and His role as our Messiah. 2 COR 3: 14, “Their [traditional Jews] minds, indeed, were closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.” My observation of this took me back to my days in the Jewish synagogue classroom. It dawned on me that we never studied directly from the Old Testament. It was always a study of the rabbinical commentaries of the OT. There was always a human spin put on what God had written. I had been kept from direct contact with the Gospel! When I asked a rabbi not too long ago about this, his comment was, “we don’t always include IS 53 in our studies.” And there it was, the Gospel was excluded!
This topic wouldn’t be appropriate if I didn’t return to the main issue at hand, creating the unity that is God’s will for the church and seeing how we can be worthy of the blessings God showers upon us. Belief in the Gospel is essential for that kind of worthiness. It’s why there has to be some way that people who physically died in faith before Christ’s incarnation are given an opportunity to come to faith in Him. The evidence this is true is seen in MT 17: 3 with the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Christ in the Transfiguration. And so, I must continue discussing this all-important topic of one Gospel, one hope to which we are all called, in tomorrow’s message. I’m led to share some crucial citations that illuminate this issue then.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have told us clearly what the purpose of the old covenant, the Covenant of the Law, was in RO 7: 7. “Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, ‘Do not desire what belongs to someone else,’ I would not have know such a desire.” The desire was there from the moment the original sin was committed by Adam and Eve and we inherited it from them, but we were unaware of it. The Law made us aware of it and delineated what is acceptable to You and what is not. Nowhere in this statement of purpose is there any comment about salvation. That issue is not brought up in the old covenant, because mankind was not ready in Your opinion for it at that time. In Your own perfect time, You chose to replace the old covenant with the new one that JER 31: 31-34 prophesied. This happened when You sacrificed Your Son on the cross as the once-for-all, sufficient substitute sacrifice [HE 10: 10]. This was Your way of paying the price necessary to buy us out of the marketplace of slavery to sin. He alone was qualified in Your sight to take on all the sins of mankind, and He suffered mightily for it. His blood poured sealed the new covenant, the Covenant of Grace, that we live under now [1 COR 11: 25]. This covenant is all about salvation, and all we must do is to repent and believe in Him to be saved. Salvation and the Holy Spirit You sent to dwell within each believer, Who helps us to understand Your teaching and perceive Your presence in our lives, are gifts to us through Your most excellent grace. It doesn’t matter to You whether we are Jew or Gentile, this hope of salvation revealed in the Gospel message of peace is for all of us [RO 1: 16]. This is the only Gospel which is the hope to which You call us. Today we recite the words of PS 40: 9-10 to reveal the content of our hearts. “In the assembly of all Your people, Lord, I told the Good News that You save us. You know that I will never stop telling it. I have not kept the Good News of salvation to myself; I have always spoken of Your faithfulness and help. In the assembly of all Your people I have not been silent about Your loyalty and constant love.” We stand before Your altar today to humbly confess our sins and to offer You all the adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, thanks, and praise we have to give. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I am led to share some of the citations that will help us to see how we must be worthy of the blessings God’s love propels Him to send our way. His faithfulness as our Covenant Partner is a pressing reason by itself for us to endure in our faith and follow Christ’s model for this personal and very real relationship that we have with the Father. Just as Christ told us to love one another in JN 13: 34-35, so we must also love Him. We do this by obeying His commands and placing our trust in Him [JN 14:21; PS 34: 8]. It is God, Who is the Source of real happiness, fellowship, and security. No other source can provide that for us. His greatest motivation is made clear. He loves each of us beyond measure! What comfort we can find in that. He knows it isn’t always easy for us to obedient, but He knows the content of our hearts and has the compassion to be patient as we grow in the maturity of our faith in Him. That is our God, and He is awesome! Peter and I send you each our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn