2004-09-24
Good Morning Cherished Readers,
I’m led to continue writing about the huge task God is doing in civilizing mankind and in trying to bring us back to Himself for eternity. We’ve been looking at HE 10: 1-18 and begin with verses 13-14 today. In verses 11 and 12, God inspired Paul to discuss how the many animal sacrifices that the ancient Jews made didn’t take away their sins. [Even the Yom Kippur –Day of Atonement-sacrifice of a goat for the nation only yielded forgiveness for one year]. In contrast, Christ’s sacrifice of His physical life on the cross opened the way for believers to enjoy eternal forgiveness. HE 10: 13-14, “There [at the right side of God] He now waits until God puts His enemies as a footstool under His feet [a direct citation of PS 110: 1]. With one sacrifice, then, He has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin.” With these two verses we are given some significant information from God that should have profound impact on the decisions we make, how we live our lives, our attitude toward the Father and the Son, and our understanding of God’s plan.
Anyone who has read the Scriptures should understand that God’s plan is to be entirely consummated after glorification of the believers and the events of the Tribulation [as described in Daniel and Revelation] take place in our future. By glorification, I am referring to the rapture [1 THESS 4: 13-17] and the conversion of our mortal bodies to immortal resurrection bodies [1 COR 15: 42-50]. Putting Christ’s enemies “as a footstool under His feet” is a pictographic way of saying that evil will be conquered once and for all, as outgrowth of the events in Revelation. At that point, Christ will be entirely victorious; Satan and all his evil will cease to exist other than in the lake of fire and sulfur. REV 12: 12 lets us know that Satan’s anger arises out of the fact that he knows he will be defeated and has a limited time to do his dirty work. Since no one knows, “neither the angels in heaven nor the Son,” the exact moment when the day or hour Christ will come [MT 24: 36], we find it is urgent to examine our lives against God’s teaching and make the changes necessary to conform to it. Our decisions, even our interests, should be grounded in God’s word. That is why the Psalmist in PS 119: 93 wrote, “I will never forget Thy precepts: for with them Thou has quickened me.” To quicken is to give life, and eternal life with Him is God’s goal for each of us.
Never once have I strayed from the issues that Christ brings up in the Sermon on the Mount. Instead, we are seeing their many implications on our lives through God’s word. It’s impossible to miss the consistency of His word from GN 1:1 to REV 22: 21 this way. HE 10: 15-18 explain that the Holy Spirit also gives us His witness. One can see that the entire Trinity is involved in this huge, God-sized task that the Father is faithfully performing in bringing mankind back to Himself for eternity. Once again JER 31: 31-34 is reiterated in HE 10: 16, “’This is the covenant that I will make with them in the days to come,’ says the Lord: ‘I will put My laws in their hearts and write them on their minds.’” This same statement has been made in numerous places in the Scriptures [EX 6: 7; EX 19: 5-6; DT 6: 4-9; DT 11: 13-22; IS 49: 6; JER 31: 31-34; JER 32: 38; EZK 11: 19-20; EZK 36: 28-29a; 1 COR 11: 23-26; GA 3: 29; REV 21: 3, for example]. HE 10: 17 repeats the promise God makes in HE 8: 12 when He says, “I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer.” One of the questions for which we will have to await an answer in God’s perfect time is: how will we deal with our memories of close loved ones who have rejected Christ once we are in heaven? Perhaps, we will forget them, just as God is promising to forget our past sins. Unveiling the details of heaven, other than knowing it will be better than anything we’ve experienced on earth must be left to future. The main issue is our need to trust in God. HE 10: 18 finally concludes with a final repetition of what should already be crystal clear, “So when these [sins and evil deeds] have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed.” Christ’s Atonement and our faith in Him is sufficient to do the job.
Once again, the Scriptures are leading us to examine how our own individual and congregational lives stack up against the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle. If this seems repetitious to us, we must understand that this is crucial to the God Who loves each of us so dearly. For many years now, God has allowed one challenge after another to come into my life. That I am still here trying to grow in my faith is testimony to how much He is trying to lovingly and patiently mature my faith and perfect me. He could have given up on me a long time ago, but He doesn’t. He won’t abandon anyone who clings to faith and makes His best effort to appreciate Who He is and the many blessings He bestows upon us. Those who are pastors, teachers, and leaders are even held to a higher standard, because their decisions and actions effect a larger number of people. Whether or not an individual belongs to this group doesn’t matter. The precepts in this verse still apply: JN 15: 5, “I and the Vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without Me.” Our awesome God is eager to be our Help, Guide, and Protector [IS 46: 1; PS 32: 8; PS 62: 5-8].
PRAYER: O Lord, week after week, we come together to Your altar to acknowledge the joy of Your mighty presence and Your righteously applied power in our lives. We recognize that we can’t really accept Your compassionate and loving invitation to join You in Your work without Your help. You give us Your consistent truths throughout the Scriptures [OT and NT] to guide us and encourage us to learn through the stories of the people in them. You give us the values that Christ spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount [MT 5-7] to cause us to see that eternal life with You through practicing them is the only right choice for how we should live our lives. Your Son in, JN 13: 34-35, commands us to “love one another. As I have love you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are My disciples.” Each of us is a convert to faith in Christ, whether born into a Christian home or not. For You bring each individual to the place in his life where he must decide to accept or reject Christ. Faithfully, You stand by and watch some of us pledge heartfelt faith and repentance, while others ignorantly, arrogantly reject the Son. Despite this latter group, You diligently stand by and keep loving all Your creation. You know that You have to accept the disappointment of seeing some of mankind cast down into the lake of fire and sulfur for eternal conscience torment. We know You have feelings, Dearest Abba, and can’t enjoy their foolishness. With steadfast love, You offer the rest of us the blessing of faith, salvation through Your Son, the Holy Spirit to dwell within them, the word to guide them, lessons through our interactions [personal, congregational and evangelical], and spiritual growth through the circumstances of our lives. In the end, this group will come back to You in joyous victory through Christ forever. We are eager for this eternal life of bliss and fellowship with You. We dedicate ourselves to worshipping and serving You in heaven as Your friends. And so, Dear Father, we consecrate ourselves to getting rid of our sins, confessing them, and offering You our eternal praise and thanks. Your glory is richly deserved and beyond compare. In Christ, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I will follow God’s direction by writing more on how the new covenant solves the problem of the sinful human heart. We’ll look at some Scriptures that will give us more of God’s light and appreciation for the work of the cross. In the meanwhile, let me share with you something that came out of an interview between Dr. Robert Schuller and Dr. Laura Schlessinger recently. Dr. Schuller asked Dr. Laura how she felt about her husband. Dr. Laura piped up, “I am a lucky women to have him in my life. He is so supportive and good to me.” It came as a surprise to her when Dr. Schuller said, “no, Dr. Laura, you are blessed!” Each of us needs to realize that the good things that come from God in our lives are not left up to chance-any more than Christ’s work on the cross was a chance event [COL 1: 20; 1 PET 1: 20-21]. All good comes from God, and He planned for us to have it in our lives because of His profound love for us. Do we deserve it? I think that we don’t, but He gives it to us anyway. That’s the kind of God Who deserves our praise, thanks, and worship-the God we have in our lives. We need to spend some time recognizing the difference between blind luck and grace-driven blessings. Dr. Laura learned an important lesson that day.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn