Tag Archives: Christ

How Much More!

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HOW MUCH MORE!

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not   part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Heb. 9: 11-14).

“How much more” is a rabbinic teaching method. If the lesser is true, then the greater has even more weight than the lesser.

If the earthly high priests went into the Most Holy Place to offer animal blood on the Mercy Seat in the earthly tabernacle which made the worshippers ceremonially clean, but was not able to cleanse the conscience, how much more did the blood of Christ which He offered in the heavenly tabernacle, make the worshipper spiritually pure before God!

The Levitical high priests ministered in a sanctuary which was nothing more than a copy of the true sanctuary in heaven. Everything they did was only a copy of what was done in heaven. From God’s perspective, Jesus was “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13: 8). Before the earth and its bounty came into being, God’s plan was already in place to redeem mankind through the blood of His Son. Although His death took place at a specific time in history, its effects covered the whole span of time.

The religious leaders were offended with Jesus because He claimed to have the right to forgive sins without a sacrifice. In their book, no sacrifice meant no forgiveness because they did not realise that every sacrifice offered on the altar in the temple was merely a picture of what had taken place before the creation of the world. If they were trusting in the blood of animals for forgiveness, their faith was misplaced. Only Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). John the Baptist recognised His sacrifice long before He was crucified.

If the blood of animals was able to make the offerers ceremonially clean, how much more then, is the blood of Christ able to make the sinner clean by removing his sin forever. It is not just covered – it is removed, as the Azazel – the scapegoat, was driven into the wilderness after the sins of the nation were symbolically pressed on him. The prophet Isaiah recognised the significance of Jesus’s sacrifice in his vision of the suffering Servant.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53: 6).

Once again, as we gaze on the sacrifice of Jesus, we see the Trinity at work, fully involved in the redemption of mankind. God the Father was there – His plan in action through the Son and through the Spirit whose anointing on Jesus enabled Him to offer Himself without flinching as a perfect sacrifice of atonement to God.

The Holy Spirit was God’s agent through whom Jesus was conceived, anointed for His ministry, ministered the works of God, died, and rose again. He was given to us to live in us as the perfect representative of Jesus, giving us the same power that Jesus had to live in harmony with the Father as His beloved children. How foolish of the readers to think that they could go back to the old system to save themselves from persecution and experience the same benefits they had from the death of Jesus! It would not work for them and it will not work for us.

Even if we are not Jewish and do not fully understand the significance of their priesthood and sacrificial system, the fact remains that it is only through Jesus that we can enjoy the benefits of complete forgiveness, cleansing from our sin, a clear conscience before God and full acceptance with Him through the ministry of our great high priest.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Son Over God’s House

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THE SON OVER GOD’S HOUSE

‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,’ bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. (Heb. 3: 5-6)

The origin of Paul’s thought lies deep in the language and culture of God’s ancient people. For forty years they were nomadic shepherds, on a migration from Egypt to the Promised Land. They lived in tents and had to adapt their lifestyle to the uncertainties of their precarious existence, being totally dependent on God for their protection and provision. Their pictographic script and language reflected this period of their history.

The concept of a son and his role in the family pictures this time in their lives. The Hebrew word for son is ben, hence, for example, Jacob named Rachel’s second son, Ben-jamin, son of my right hand. Written in Hebrew, the word ben is made up of two letters, b and n, the vowel being understood. The letter b – beth – is a picture of the floor plan of a tent meaning ‘house’, and the n – nun – is a picture of a seed, which means ‘to multiply’ or ‘to continue’.

A son, then, is one who ‘continues the house’. It is the son’s role not only to continue the family line in natural descendants but also to perpetuate the beliefs and values of the family to the next generation so that the heritage of the family will not die out. This concept is captured in God’s instruction to Israel in Deuteronomy 6.

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments thatI give you today are to be on your hearts, Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deut. 6: 4-9)

In a real sense, Moses’s house was limited to his wife and family although he was a ‘father’ to the nation. He was not God’s appointed son, but a servant in God’s ‘house’ – His people Israel. Jesus was appointed by God’s decree to be a Son at a specific moment in time, called ‘today.’

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ (Psa. 2: 7)

As God’s Son, therefore, it is Jesus’s role to ‘continue the house.’ Through supernatural birth by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in those who receive Him, who believe in His name, He restores to the family of God every wayward and alienated son or daughter who returns to the Father.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit who is His counterpart on earth, He leads them back into His truth and teaches them the values and practices of the kingdom. Moses could do no more, as a servant, than give God’s people His instructions. He could not internalise them by writing them on their hearts. He could not remove their stony hearts or give them a heart after God.

Only the Son, through His perfect obedience to the Father even to death, could be the atoning sacrifice which paid sin’s debt and satisfied the Father’s justice.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Heb. 2: 10, 11)

Through HIs work, Jesus both taught and demonstrated the way of life God intended for His family and He provides the power for returning children to be true sons and daughters of the Father through the Holy Spirit who lives in them.

How, then, could anyone think of going back to the old religious system which did nothing for them but bring them into bondage again to a system which told them what to do but could not provide the power to obey? Only Jesus, God’s Son, can enable His brothers and sisters to become like Him. Only He can actually ‘continue’ God’s house. We have the evidence of His power to deliver on His promises by the family He has brought home over 2000 years.

Is He faithful over God’s house? Has He continued the house? Has He reproduced Himself in His spiritual descendants? Has He passed on the values of the family? In spite of the many who, down the centuries have twisted and distorted the values and teachings of the kingdom until they are unrecognisable as reflecting God’s character and His ways, there is still the remnant who are faithful, and are true sons who  ‘continue the house.’

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Dead, But Alive

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DEAD, BUT ALIVE

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3: 1-4).

The ‘elemental spirits’ of which Paul spoke still hold sway over the minds of unbelievers, ‘But,’ said Paul, ‘you have died to the ideas and beliefs and philosophies which are lies spawned by the devil to keep you in bondage.’ You have died to the demonic spirits responsible for the lies you believed, and they no longer have the power to influence your life and do to you what you believed they could do.

How sad that there are still many believers in Jesus who also believe in the power of the devil to ‘attack’ or harm them outside of God’s control! We have to make up our minds, once and for all, about who is in charge. What we believe is of vital importance because it is what or who we believe that ultimately has the control of our lives.

Jesus’s first words, after His inauguration into His public ministry at His baptism, when He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, was to announce, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is here!’ What was He saying? ‘Get your thinking straight. God is in charge!’ Prophet Isaiah had the same message for his people when the world seemed to be turning upside down for them:

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ (Isaiah 52: 7)

What better news can there be in a world that seems to be spinning out of control? The solution is to believe what is true, not what seems to be true or what those who think they are in charge are claiming to be true. The only thing that will steady us in a world gone crazy, is the knowledge and assurance that God’s appointed king is on His throne.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and their rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath saying, ‘I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain’ (Psalm 2: 1-6).

Paul’s counsel is: ‘You know it; now believe it!’ When you watch the news on TV or read the goings on in the newspaper, screen the information through the truth – who is in charge? Set your heart and mind on the non-negotiable truth that God has raised Jesus from the dead and given Him the name and the position of highest authority (Phil. 2: 6-11). In spite of appearances, Jesus Christ will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15: 25).

Why, then, does the world, and often our own lives, seem to be so out of line with who we know God to be? Where is the peace and joy that Jesus insisted He came to bring? What about suffering and evil? Why do bad things happen to good people? How does that line up with God being in control?

It all depends on our expectations. If we think that the real life Jesus came to bring is about living a trouble-free existence in this life, we have misunderstood His message.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world’ (John 16: 33).

We cannot expect to live a perfectly untroubled life in an imperfect world. We are surrounded by imperfection and cannot escape the consequences of Adam’s rebellion. The good news is that God uses it all, good and bad, to shape us for the real world which is still to come.

God has one overriding purpose in permitting us to be part of the suffering – the purifying of our faith, that is, bringing us to the conviction that, in spite of everything, He is in charge and He is trustworthy.  Why? Because what we believe will determine who controls our lives.

In every adversity He demands that we keep our hearts and minds steadfastly committed to the truth that He is good and that He is in charge.

These have come (all kinds of trials -1 Peter 1: 6) so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1: 7).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Heart Of The Matter

Christian Life, , , ,

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spirits of this world why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’ These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack value in restraining self-indulgence (Col. 2: 20-23).

Paul’s use of three words gets to the heart of the matter – the matter of the heart. Religion with its rules and regulations may be able to control behaviour to a point but it can never restrain the passions of the heart. Jesus made it clear that the problem lies much deeper than what we do. The issue is what we are. Even the Jews, who had God’s Law – and if there were any group of people who would have been acceptable to God, it would have been them – were under the wrath of God because of their evil hearts.

Paul’s sorrow, both here in the case of the Colossians who were in danger of being lured away from their faith in Christ through Gnostic philosophy, and the Galatians who were tempted to become embroiled in Jewish law, was that they were being fooled by ‘human wisdom’. From the outside these teachings appeared to make sense, but their demands were no more than cosmetic. You can stick a plaster on a cancer but it will not cure it.

Paul knew that there was only one cure for a heart that was at enmity against God. Remove the reason for the rift and restore peace. There is only one person who had the power to do that – God Himself, because there was nothing any human being could do to bring about reconciliation. We are the offenders and God the offended. It is the offended party who must reach out with forgiveness before the breach can be healed. The offender’s responsibility to initiate reconciliation once the offence has been removed.

This is exactly what Jesus Christ did for us. He removed the offence by paying the price for our sin and He initiated reconciliation by representing us to the Father.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them . . . (2 Corinthians 5: 17-19a).

Self-discipline may curb unruly behaviour for a while but it cannot change the heart. It may control choices temporarily but it can never control desires and appetites. There is only one thing that can effect permanent change – a new heart.

God knew that! He promised His people under the old dispensation that He would do exactly that through the Holy Spirit, but it was to be part of a whole new order of things.

‘For I will take you out of the nations: I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ezekiel 36: 24-27).

How futile, then, to try to follow self-imposed rules when they have no power to change the heart.

The issue is: Who do you believe? If you continue to believe the lies of principalities and powers, they will continue to rule your life. If you believe that Jesus overcame these ‘elemental spirits’ at the cross, they no longer have power to influence your life. You are free from their deception to live under the authority and power of the Spirit of God who lives within you.

The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Cross Our Refuge

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THE CROSS OUR REFUGE

When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross  (Col. 2: 13-15).

These are three of the most powerful and the most liberating verses in the whole Bible. Let me tell you why.

There are two things which believers struggle with – the penalty of sin and the power of sin. Satan has a weapon which he uses against us constantly – lies. His lies translate to uncertainties in our minds. Am I really forgiven? Why do I still have troubles and problems? Is God punishing me for things I have done wrong? Is the devil attacking me?

Satan would love us to believe that he still has the power over us, but he is a liar, and his lies have been exposed. It was at the cross that his lies were brought to light and his weapons taken from him. The only power he still wields over us is his deception. He can manipulate us when we believe his lies.

Let’s handle our misgivings one at a time.

First the issue of forgiveness. Does God still punish us when we sin? The answer is a resounding ‘NO!’ The Bible makes it clear that Jesus was the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all those whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world (Rev. 13: 8).

Since God is eternal, not subject to time, He planned that the sacrifice of His Son on the cross, although it happened at a point in history, would be sufficient to provide forgiveness for all people, for all sin, and for all time. Why then the sacrifices of the Old Covenant? The sacrificial system of the Mosaic Covenant was intended to be a visual aid for the people. Their faith was in the promise of God’s forgiveness through His Lamb, not in the animal blood that was shed.

The Jewish leaders were outraged when Jesus forgave people without offering a sacrifice. They did not understand that He could forgive sin on the basis of His sacrifice which was effective from the beginning of creation.

This means that our sin was forgiven before we were even born. Can God, then, still punish us for the sins we commit now? Again a resounding ‘NO!’ Why not? Because He would be acting illegally and against His own nature. In any justice system, it is illegal to punish a person twice for the same crime. How much more, then, according to God’s justice, would it be wrong for Him to punish sinners for sin for which His Son has been punished.

Why, then, do God’s children still suffer? Why do things go wrong in our lives? Why do bad things happen to good people? The answer to this question deals with our second misgiving? Is the devil attacking me? Once again the answer is ‘No!’ This demands the question, ‘Who is in charge?’ Jesus’s message to His people when He came was, ‘Change your mind. God is in charge.’ When Jesus died and rose again, His clear message was, ‘The devil is a liar. God the Father is in charge,’ and He proved is by raising His son from the dead.

Your troubles and mine are not punishment but discipline. There is a great deal of difference between punishment and discipline. We cannot escape the hardships in this life because they are part of the consequences of Adam’s sin. However, God directs them and works in them for our good.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Rom. 8: 28).

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what children are not disciplined by their father? . . . They disciplined us for a while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness (Heb. 12: 7, 10).

Through Jesus’s death and resurrection, we have the assurance that God has forever dealt with our sin and with the devil. We can now have complete confidence that we are His children and that He is training us now for our life with Him forever.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.