2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
Later on in this series of messages, we are going to take a good look at our Kinsman-Redeemer, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. However, at this juncture, I am led to see a very special way that He is created differently than an ordinary person. This comes through to us in JN 14: 30-31, “I cannot talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over Me, but the world must know that I love the Father; that is why I do everything as He commands Me. Come, let us go from this place.” From the citations in my messages over the last two days, it is clear that mankind is born into sin because of the original sin of Adam and Eve. However, we must remember that Christ does not have a human father in the genetic sense of the word. That means that He didn’t inherit the original sin. He was born of a virgin, made pregnant by the Holy Spirit [MT 1: 20]. The words in the JN 14 passage above were spoken by Christ just before He was to be crucified and later resurrected. He was reassuring His disciples of things they didn’t yet understand. 1) He was planning to follow God’s command given to Him to send the Holy Spirit, to indwell in the believers and help them have the discernment to hunger for and understand the word of God. 2) He knew that God had allotted a limited time for Satan to be the ruler of the world and for sin to happen. 3) Christ also knew that He had been training the disciples to carry the message of His love and the Good News to follow, so that His church (the Body of Christ) could be established to provide opposition to Satan’s evil. Christ spoke several times beforehand about His own impending death, but LK 18: 31-34 reveals the extent of His disciples’ ability to receive His message at that time. “Jesus took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘Listen! We are going to Jerusalem where everything the prophets wrote about the Son of Man will come true. He will be handed over to the Gentiles, who will make fun of Him, insult Him, and spit on Him. They will whip Him and kill Him, but three days later He will rise to life.’ But the disciples did not understand any of these things; the meaning of the words was hidden from them, and they did not know what Jesus was talking about.” We must understand that in all these matters, God’s timing is perfect.
When we examine the Scriptures carefully, one truth that emerges from them is that while God knew ahead of time that the adversary would exact his evil on mankind, He was also building a hedge of protection for those of us who would come to faith and endure in it. I find it so comforting to know that there has never been a minute of our lives in which God wasn’t in control, nor will there ever be. One aspect of this hedge of protection God has built around believers is His preparation of the Son to be as empathetic as He is. God knew that Christ’s ministry and suffering was His “on the job training” for being our High Priest Who opened the heavenly Holy of Holies and Who is our Advocate and Intercessor with the Father [HE 8: 1-2 & 9: 12]. HE 2: 14-15 and 4: 15 reveal this training and the task God had set before Christ. “Since the children, as He calls them, are people of flesh and blood, Jesus Himself became like them, and shared their human nature. He did this so that through His death, He might destroy the devil, who has the power over death, and in this way set free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death…Our High Priest is not One Who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest Who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin.”
John reminded us of God’s control over the situation on earth including Satan’s dirty work in JN 12: 31, “Now is the time for this world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown.” If that is hard to remember when we are in pain, we must know that God gave us this message to help us keep focused on the bigger picture. The subject of the Bible succinctly is: God wins; Satan loses. For three days after Christ’s death on the cross, it looked like Satan had won. Yes, he had won that battle; but, when the stone was rolled away from the entrance to Christ’s tomb, it was empty. Hallelujah! Sadly, in today’s society the majority of the people are what Kay Arthur terms the “living dead.” They don’t know Christ and the blessings that faith in Him yield, and/or they have rejected Him. EPH 2: 2 and JN 14: 30 tell us that these people are under the dominion of the prince of the power of the air. They do what their bodies desire [RO 8: 6], are motivated by self rather than the Spirit, and are dead to righteousness-the opposite of the people spoken of in RO 4: 6-8. Should we believe that Satan can keep them all in his camp? I think not! My reason for saying this is to bring up our responsibility as believers to obey the great commission of MT 28: 19-20 and reach out in faith and love to those of the “living dead” who the Holy Spirit can still bring to life. The others, Dear Ones, are lost forever, just as their ruler of the world will be.
PRAYER: O Lord, from our limited human power and perspective, we see the task You do through the Holy Spirit of separating the ungodly from the righteous, the unfaithful from the faithful, as enormous. And yet, You honor us by sending Your Son to the cross so we can be saved, granting us faith in Him through Your grace, giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit so we can understand Your word, and then inviting us to join You in that work. For those of us who are diligent and trusting of You, willing to obey Your commands, You allow us to see into our future through the prophecies of the Bible. You give us whatever small inkling of Your perspective we have to capacity to perceive. It is enough, Dearest Abba, to motivate us to withstand the painful arrows that Satan shoots at us and to remain obedient to You enduring in our faith. You have shown us You are our Leader Who guides, corrects, encourages, rebukes, motivates, protects, blesses, and provides for us. You offer us healing and escape from the misery of a lifestyle of sin. Your patience and compassion for us is unparalleled. O Lord, You trained Your Son not only to die for us and be resurrected as the “first among many brothers,” offering us hope [RO 8: 29], but You prepared Him to be our Advocate and Intercessor with empathy and understanding. His tearing down of the Inner Veil, both on earth and in heaven with His death, opened access to You for all of us who enter into the New Covenant. Satan will never have power forever. We join the Psalmist in offer words of confidence in Your protection in PS 62: 5-7, “I depend on God alone; I put my hope in Him. He alone protects and saves me; He is my Defender, and I shall never be defeated. My salvation and honor depend on God; he is my strong Protector; He is my Refuge.” We humbly offer You our confession and utmost adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, honor, glory, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
While it is difficult day after day to present “combat intelligence” on so negative a personage as Satan, it is important for us to see the balanced picture which includes God’s superiority over the evil one. When we better understand God’s attributes and His good deeds for us, we will see clearly the hedge of protection that He built around all believers. That is why He inspired Paul to write in RO 8: 28, “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love Him, those He has called according to His purpose.” If we take the time to look for it, we can see evidence of God’s love all around us. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn