2004-09-17
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Each morning that I sit down at my desk to write to you, I stand amazed at what the Lord gives me. He is impressing me (and I hope you) by the enormity of the task He is doing in civilizing mankind inch by inch, by transforming human hearts from sinful deceit toward the obedient faithfulness He wants in them. We can not only be awed by the size of this task He is undergoing, but even more so by the fact that He loves His human creation enough to stick with such a God-sized task.
Last week, we began looking at HE 10: 1-18, the passage which reveals how Christ’s sacrifice on the cross takes away sins. We saw how the Jewish practice of animal sacrifices foreshadowed Christ’s unparalleled one. They were greatly short of it in their temporary forgiveness. Had the people really been purified from their sins, they would have not felt guilty and continued the animal sacrifices of the ancient Jewish culture. Instead, the annual sacrifices served to remind people of their sins. Then came the bold statement that the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins in HE 10: 4. On one hand, we learned from RO 7: 7, that the Covenant of the Law informed mankind of what is sin and what isn’t. But, at that point in time there was no real salvation from slavery to sin, no real escape from feeling guilt. This difficulty was not first brought up in Christ’s time, but long before that in David’s with PS 40: 6-8. “You do not want sacrifices and offerings; You do not ask for animals burned whole on the altar or for sacrifices to take away sins. Instead You have given me ears to hear You, and so I answered, ‘Here I am; Your instructions for me are in the book of the Law. How I love to do Your will, my God! I keep Your teaching in my heart.” The author of Hebrews (who I believe to be Paul) begins HE 10: 5 with, “For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, He said to God…” and cites PS 40: 6-8 in verses 5-7. This is no accident, but is, in my humble opinion, God revealing the next step in His plan of salvation [His task of civilizing mankind] at exactly His perfect time. The latter is very often much later than mankind would like it to be. But our omniscient God knows when man is ready to accept what is revealed better than we do.
We must ask why Christ would be saying the same thing that David did long before His earthly ministry, and the answer is pretty clear. When the Holy Spirit weds with the spirit of a human, God takes leadership in that person’s life. God surely had leadership in David’s and in Christ’s, as well [RO 8: 15-17]. HE 10: 9-10 really illuminates this picture for us. [Christ speaking], “‘Here I am, O God, to do Your will.’ So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place. Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that He made of His own body once and for all.” Folks, this is huge! For the first time in human history, we have a perfect, once-for-all sacrifice, a replacement satisfactory to God for us sacrificing our own sorrowful, sinful lives. That grants us forgiveness for eternity. Once Christ gave His life on the cross, He was not left dead. Instead, He was raised to glorious eternal life at the right side of the Father Himself.
The self-centered parts of our minds ask the question: What’s in this for me? We need to examine how this magnificent truth applies to our lives in the twenty-first century. Let’s assume that we have repented and come to faith in Christ first. It means that believers don’t have to be riddled with guilt over past sins. They are forgiven [HE 8: 12]. It also means that we have the choice not to sin, although we are still capable of sinning [RO 6: 6]. For every believer, it means that we have entered into the Covenant of Grace, which commits us to a two-way promise to continue living righteously while God gives us His many blessings (which we don’t deserve). This covenant was sealed by His blood shed for us [1COR 11: 25]. All believers who endure in their faith can look forward to being raptured into Christ’s presence [1 THESS 4: 13-17], attending the wedding feast of the Lamb (our Bridegroom) [REV 19: 5-10], and the most extraordinary reward of all-eternal fellowship and bliss with the Father-permanent protection from spiritual death [JN 3: 16]. For those who reject Christ’s divinity and life-giving power, the consequences are eternal conscious torment in the lake of fire [NU 16: 33; LK 16: 23-24,26].
There is not a one of us who gets through life on earth without painful challenges to our faith. Those of us who choose to believe and obey God’s commands don’t have it any easier on earth than those who reject God, but there is a huge difference in the way we can deal with those challenges. It’s a bit like David who was able to slay the giant Goliath with a single stone hurled by means of a sling shot [1 SAM 17: 48-50]. How could this happen? God was with David! How could King Jehoshaphat lead the Jews into battle where they were greatly outnumbered by the combined forces of Ammon, Moab, and Edom without the loss of a single Jewish life or the release of a single weapon [2 CH 20: 1-30]? God was with them! How can we look forward to our own resurrection and eternal life as obediently faithful believers? Christ is the “first among many brothers [RO 8: 29], and God is with us [MT 1: 21, 23]!
PRAYER: O Lord, As a Messianic Jew surrounded by believing Gentiles, I can’t help but examine my life and say, “Thank you for being such a loving and faithful God.” It doesn’t matter from where a person comes or in which culture he was reared; if he believes in Your Son and has repented of his sins, Your grace is available to Him. So are Your blessings, including the gift of the Holy Spirit and many more, as long as he endures in His faith. Two passages from Your word have given impetus to me personally to persist in faith and dedicate my life to serving You, EX 19: 5-6 and IS 49: 6. You challenge each person by Your word to find the specific verses which are an impetus for him to do the same. Yes Lord, whatever it takes; You reach out to each of us to take the steps, make the changes necessary, to enable Christ to bring him back to Your side [JN 6: 39-40]. Your love for each of us can’t be measured or compared to love from any other source. It is that much deeper and greater. You loved us enough to create us in Your very own image [GN 1: 27]. Moreover, You continue to toil, often taking it on the chin, to sanctify Your human creation, so that Christ’s work on the cross will not go to waste. You want us redeemed. For that and so much more, You deserve for us to recognize our sins, confess them to You, and to acknowledge our inability to live righteous, pious lives without Your intervention. When we confess our sin and poverty of spirit (as we are do today in this prayer), You promise us that we will inherit Your Kingdom [MT 5: 3; RO 10: 10]. We know we still have work to do to alter our lives to conform to Your standards and give You our promise that we will do that work. You know that we must face painful truths about ourselves to do this work, and we dedicate ourselves to that task. You deserve nothing less than our eternal thanks and praise for Your presence in our lives, Your constant love, and for being the great and wonderful God Who You are. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
I’m led in my next message to continue examining HE 10: 1-18 at verse 13. RO 6: 9 lets us look at one more aspect of what we’ve been sorting out today. “For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again-death will no longer rule over Him.” When we put that together with the promise of RO 8:29 that “Christ is the first among many brothers” to die physically and be resurrected to eternal life, an extraordinary source of hope for believing mankind arises. Because of Christ’s Atonement, death will never again rule over us, if we endure in our own personal faith! Look how differently we can face the physical death of loved ones, the persecution and rejection that we experience for being believers, the pain and suffering of illnesses, and so on. Of course our lives aren’t suddenly easy while on earth. But each of us has a God-given purpose for which to live and a new perspective on the circumstances of our lives. My purpose is to serve God by keeping my faith strong, helping to build the faith of others, and moving beyond that to reach out to people who have no faith. The challenge before each of us is to keep on asking God these questions: 1) What is Your purpose for me now and in the future? 2) How can I best fulfill this purpose? 3) What must I do to be sure that I am living up to my end of the Covenant of Grace? These are questions we should ask often. From my own experience, I know that God will give us His “mid-course corrections” to keep us on His road to eternal life. Some of them won’t be easy, but they will all be worth the effort. God thinks each one of us is worth His effort!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn