2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Let me once again remind you how very much I appreciate your willingness to read my daily messages and that I hope they are helping you to keep your eyes focused on God. Today, I am led to write about how Christ’s Atonement eradicated the enmity that existed between those people who are or will become believers and the Deity Himself. We look at this in the context of how this changes the power that Satan has over us. While we as believers have the choice as to whether Satan has sway over us, those who don’t believe don’t have that choice. Herein is the strong motivation behind Christ’s Great Commission of MT 28: 19-20, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I will always be with you until the end of an age.”
Before we can obey this command, we are in need of getting our own spiritual houses in order. Three important citations remind of us of this. 1 JN 1: 5-6, “Now the message that we have heard from His Son and announce is this: God is light , and there is no darkness at all in Him. If, then, we say that we have fellowship with Him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our word and in our actions.” 1 JN 1: 10-11, “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and so there is nothing in him that will cause someone else to sin. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness; he walks in it and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has made him blind.” MT 5: 23-24, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
Now, we should look carefully at what made the choice to make peace with one’s brother and with God possible. RO 5: 1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.” It’s deceivingly simple. Christ died on the cross as the perfect sin sacrifice to eradicate the enmity that existed between mankind and God. Remember that all sin is ultimately against God. That’s the first step. The second is taken by those people who are or will be believers. They repent and come to faith in Christ. Now, I realize the road up to that point isn’t simple, nor is the path to eternal life taken after it. But, in this context, we need to focus on the amazing, powerful free gift of God’s grace that was carried out by Christ’s death on the cross and what that means to our lives [RO 3: 23-25]. RO 5: 8-11 really helps us to understand this process. “But God has shown us how much He loves us-it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! By His death we are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by Him from God’s wrath! We were God’s enemies, but He made us His friends through the death of His Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God’s friends.” Where does this leave Satan when we obey God? Out in the cold!
What does it mean to be “on earth but of heaven?” This question is approached in MT 6: 19-21 in which Christ is telling us to store our riches in heaven where rust and moth cannot destroy them, not on earth where they can be destroyed. It is seen again in MT 6: 24, “No, one can be a slave of two masters; he will hate the one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” The point is that it isn’t easy to live on earth and to deal with the rampant immorality and lack of ethics that is characteristic of the majority of people on this planet, those who are in unbelief. However, we as believers and friends of God, know that we must remain trusting and obedient to him, even if it makes us uncomfortable in the context of the world’s values. We can take comfort in knowing that as faithful tent-dwellers on earth, we are preparing the way for our occupancy of the mansions in heaven that will be our permanent home that Christ is preparing for us [JN 14: 2]. Satan will be excluded and forgotten there, even though he is able to make so much trouble here. An author by the name of Arnold wrote in his book, “Ephesians: Power and Magic,” that the non-believing Ephesians believed that their goddess, Artemis (Diana), had great power. This is how these people were deceived by the adversary. They begged Artemis to use her great power to raise their dead. We know that only God has the power to raise the dead, which is what He did with Christ and what He will do with those of us who endure in our faith [JN 20: 6-9, 19-23; RO 8: 29]. Through Christ’s Atonement, we can take comfort in knowing that we are God’s friends who no longer have to believe Satan’s lies or spend eternity with him.
PRAYER: O Lord, Your plan is in place, and we dedicate ourselves to being a part of it. The picture drawn in EPH 2: 20-22 of the place where You live through Your Spirit is where we want to be. “You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the Cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself. He is the One who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred Temple dedicated to the Lord. In union with Him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.” What a perfect description of the “koininea” relationship we desire with You and our fellow believers this is! While “living on earth and being of heaven” is difficult, You allow us to have a foretaste of the beautiful and peaceful eternal life we will have with You in heaven right here on earth, when we obey Christ’s new commandment of JN 13: 33-34. “And now I give you a new commandment: 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.” We can’t appreciate “koininea” until we appreciate the magnitude of what You did in sacrificing Your Son on the cross, making us Your friends. Nor can we enjoy this foretaste of heaven on earth until we express our genuine and humble gratitude to Him for suffering the pain that should have been ours [IS 53: 6]. We come before You today as sinners desirous of confessing and expunging that sin from our lives. We offer You our eternal trust, obedience, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, praise, and thanks. We adore and worship You with hearts open to Your graceful teaching, correction, rebuking, and instruction from Your word and through prayer. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I am led to share a word study from Kay Arthur’s book that will add to the depth of our understanding of the power God gives us to battle in spiritual warfare. There is also more to say about being “on earth but of heaven” too. Each day that we face trials and challenges to our faith perpetrated by Satan, we need to know that we don’t do it alone or without guidance. Our Lord is constantly there for us and is eager for us to seek Him out. He heals our wounds, comforts us with encouragement, and reminds us that He has equipped us for victory. Those are just a few ways that He demonstrates His love for us and His willingness to be a promise-keeping Covenant Partner with us. The fight with the devil while painful is definitely worth it. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn