2004-12-10
Good Morning Cherished Ones,
How comforting that God should cherish each and every one of us, despite our imperfections! I think it’s because He knows when we are striving to be more Christlike in our ways. That is why I love PS 37: 23-24 so much. “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” I’m directed this morning to continue writing about how Christ fulfills the Law. What a great Replacement He is for the legalism and focus on ritual that traditional Jews practice. That is one way that the Father extends grace to us.
We must begin with MAL 3: 1, the last in a long line of OT prophecies regarding the coming of Christ. “The Lord Almighty answers, ‘I will send My messenger to prepare the way for Me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant.” The obvious messenger being referred to here is John the Baptist, who appears in MT 3: 1 for the first time in the NT. However, there is another symbolism which has caught my attention and relates to this. You’ll remember that Jesus appears on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses, who found the Law and was the mediator of the old covenant, and Elijah, who restored the Law to Israel [MT 17: 3]. The coming of Elijah has great meaning to the Jews, because it symbolizes the end of their misery, the day when they have finally laid down their disputes with each other and brought peace [shalom]. That focus on the people’s attitude bringing it about is in direct contrast to the concept of grace as a gift from God in the new covenant. Long before the time of MAL 3: 1 [about 433 BC], Isaiah [who wrote sometime between 740-692 BC] prophesies in IS 40: 1- 5, “’Comfort My people,’ says our God. ‘Comfort them! Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven. I have punished them in full for all their sins.’ A voice cries out, ‘Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God! Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind will see it. The Lord Himself has promised this.’” The exact connection between Elijah and John the Baptist isn’t clearly explained in the Bible, other than to say that both were announcers of the coming of the Messiah. If I may take a guess, it might have meant that God tried to initiate Christ’s incarnation at an earlier date and then simply realized mankind wasn’t ready for it. But that’s only a guess on my part, without anything concrete to substantiate it. As for the Transfiguration, it would certainly make sense for the one who found the Law and mediated the old covenant [Moses] to appear with the one who restored the Law to Israel [Elijah], and the One Who fulfilled the Law [Jesus Christ] to appear together.
I love PS 119, the longest one of these God-given songs. It has 22 sections, each representing a letter in the Hebrew alphabet, a concept from God, and something connected to the Law. PS 119: 89 appears in the section on Faith in the Law of the Lord and the twelfth Hebrew letter, lamed. “Your word, O Lord, will last forever; it is eternal in heaven.” The concept for that section is that learning and wisdom are not obtainable without the Scriptures [the word of God]. Now, one might ask: What has this got to do with the coming of the Messiah? The answer to this connection is found in JN 1: 1-5, “Before the world was created, the Word already existed; He was with God, and He was the same as God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through Him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without Him. The Word was the Source of life, and this Life brought light to mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.” It is helpful to realize that the concept for the previous section, the one that contains PS 119: 81-88, A Prayer for Deliverance, is that God’s crowing accomplishment is going to be salvation for mankind. We know that is accomplished through none other than Jesus Christ, the Word of God the Messiah, and the Fulfillment of the Law, for Whom traditional Jews are still searching.
The grace that comes to us through the Covenant of Grace sealed in Christ’s blood calls us to more righteous living than the Scribes and Pharisees of old, according to MT 5: 20. When we live “in Christ,” we are enabling His leadership in our lives to lead us to obeying that directive from the Sermon on the Mount. This is one more way that Christ fulfills the Law. RO 8: 4, “God did this [sent His own Son] so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.” This is God’s will and an integral part of His plan for His children whom He cherishes beyond our ability to measure.
PRAYER: O Lord, we offer You thanks that You have released us from bondage to legalistic dependence on ritual in our worship. We thank You that through our faith in Your Son we are freed from slavery to sin, as well. You have given us redemption and called us to a richer, more rewarding life, than one filled the old guilt which comes from human judgments initiated by the adversary. A life lacking both forgiveness and humility is no life at all. Instead, it is a living hell which leads to eternal conscious torment from which there is no escape. We never deserved the great sacrifice You made of Your Son on the cross, but we are more than grateful for it. We recognize that it is the starting place for those willing to repent of their sins and have faith in Him. These two things brought us Your acceptance of us in the process of justification. We are aware of how You have blessed us by the indwelling of Your very own Spirit. Our desire is to open our souls wide to Him and to follow the guidance He gives us. His leadership in our lives leads to us fulfilling Your purpose for us, both immediate and cosmic. He leads us to the understanding that You are in the process of sanctifying us, preparing us for the time when You will call us home to eternal life in heaven with You [glorification]. Today’s prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving. We also thank You for giving us the equipment outlined in EPH 6: 10-18 to be victors in Christ in spiritual warfare against the enemy and his cohorts. It would be no good without the power and authority to use it that Christ gives us. EPH 1: 18-20 reveals to us just how immense this power is. “It is the same power that the Father used to raise Christ from death, to be seated at His right side in the heavenly world.” Coupled with the thanks in this prayer, Dearest Abba, we must also offer You eternal praise for Your generosity, love, willingness to keep Your promises, patience, compassion, faithfulness, righteousness, and direction. Your very presence in our lives blesses them. You are to be praised for giving us Your Son’s teaching, His Atonement, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We offer thanks and praise to You in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
The Holy Spirit amazes me in teaching us so much about how to have a new heart, “transformed inwardly by the renewal of our mind” [RO 12: 2]. He has given me more to say next week on the subject of how Christ fulfills the Law. I stand in awe of our God, Who uses me each week to share His teaching with us. You probably remember the old adage about the best way to learn something is to have to teach it to others. The same applies to writing about something. I keep having to go back to 2 COR 5: 17 and it’s connection with COL 3: 9-10, which teaches us that being a “new creation” in Christ [2 COR 5: 17] means that God is constantly renewing us in His own image, so that we can gain a full knowledge of Him” [COL 3: 9-10]. With this in mind, we can reread MT 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, with a completely different and more profound understanding of God’s will for each of us. There will be a time when God is going to ask me to spend some time writing about what His love means to us, how we can reflect it, and how it compares to the evil one’s approach to things. But that is for a later time. Right now, each of us can focus on what Christ’s presence means to us individually and as congregations in our lives. If we stop and think about it, God wouldn’t ever reveal Himself to someone who was constantly rejecting Him. To those who are seeking Him out, they will find Him and be blessed abundantly by getting to know Him better. We must keep in mind the promise He makes in JER 29: 12-13, “Then you will call to Me. You will come and pray to Me, and I will answer you. You will seek Me, and you will find Me because you will seek Me with all Your heart.” We believe in a God Who loves us and is eager to bless us eternally. For what more can we ask?
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn