Don’t Lose Heart

By / Dec 14


Knowing Ourselves and Knowing God

By / Nov 23


Accepting the Gift, Seizing the Challenge

By / Nov 16


Worthy Is the Lamb

By / Nov 9


Luther’s Reformation of Congregational Praise

By / Oct 26


The Welfare of Our City

By / Sep 7


The Faith That Approaches Jesus

By / Aug 31


Enter into God’s Rest

By / Aug 10

This evening we find ourselves right in the heart of the book of Hebrews. As with any piece of literature, if you are going to jump into the middle of what’s been written, in our case Hebrews 4, it’s important to understand the basic flow of the material, and this is especially true when our passage tonight begins with the word “therefore.”

The majority of scholars have taken note of the structure of the book of Hebrews, viewing it as being carefully crafted in the form of a sermon. It’s a “word of exhortation” (13:22) written down to be read out loud to the author’s intended audience.

He begins by saying that long ago God spoke to our fathers, the patriarchs, the families of Israel, by the prophets—such as Moses, Isaiah, Joel, Jeremiah, and others—but in these last days, God’s word has come to us in his Son, whom John the beloved calls the person of the Son, the Word…the Word of the Father.

The Hebrews author is giving us an overview of redemptive history, and how God has spoken to his people throughout the ages; he is outlining the direction in which all history is moving, right up to God’s consummate goal.

Now, Hebrews has a number of distinct features that are not as clearly seen in much of the New Testament. For example, the faith spoken of in Hebrews 11 is not directly addressing Paul’s particular focus of a faith whereby a believer is justified before God, but rather refers to the persevering faith of the OT saints who are, as Stephen Baugh says, “simultaneously participants in and witnesses to the world to come.” Another emphasis in Hebrews is that of the heavenly high priest in which the author’s intent is to focus the believer’s gaze upon Christ who is now in heaven. As believers, we look not only upon Christ as our crucified and resurrected Lord, but we are to fix our eyes upon the ascended Christ who is our “merciful and faithful high priest” (2:17) who “sat down at the right hand of” God the Father in heaven (1:3).

What is fascinating to note is the literary structure of Hebrews and how it serves the purpose and intent of the author. Throughout Hebrews we find a sustained alternation between exposition and exhortation. The first two divisions of Hebrews, have sections of exhortation—earnest appeal to the church—surrounded by sections of theological exposition, that serve to develop the theological themes of Christ’s high priesthood and unique sacrifice. And it is these sections of exposition that act as a foundation for the word of exhortation that is addressed to the church, that they would enter into the rest of God. One can sense the real pastoral heart and purpose of the author, a shepherd’s heart, urging and encouraging these believers to hold fast to their confession of faith, to strive to enter the promise of God’s rest—a rest that is still future.

This evening, this passage calls for us to look at three things: firstly, the promise of entering God’s rest still stands; secondly, this promise is anchored in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, our great high priest; and then thirdly, the pastorally-motivated exhortation by the author that extends to each one of us.

The Promise of Entering God’s Rest

What is vital for us to understand Hebrews 4 is to see how the writer of Hebrews views his audience, a new covenant people. They are in an analogous situation to the people of Israel, who under Moses’s leadership were travelling through the wilderness towards Canaan. Israel was a pilgrim people. They had come out of land of Egypt, and as a pilgrim people were on their way to the Promised Land. And so, the author employs an historical analogy, saying that the promised rest that stands before the church today is analogous to the promised land of Canaan which stood before Israel when they were journeying through the wilderness.

He has three geographic regions in mind: Egypt (the people of God are brought out of Egypt, the world), the wilderness (the place of trial, where the testing of one’s faith takes place), and the Promised Land (the land of rest, the future Sabbath rest for the people of God)—this is the movement found across Scripture; a movement from wilderness to land and rest.

The author says that the good news of entering God’s rest came to his hearers, the new covenant people of God, just as it came to the old covenant wilderness community. The promise was held out to them, and it is held out to us—to enter God’s rest, to gain entrance to a better country, a heavenly homeland (11:16).

Illustration: some of you may not understand the contrast before wilderness and rest—it’s the camping-types amongst us. My parents, their ultimate vacation, put their tent into their 4×4 and head for the African bush: no electricity, no toilets…not my idea of fun. We do NOT go to the desert to get rest, that’s biblical! Vacation better.

The overriding thrust and purpose of the book of Hebrews is that as a word of exhortation, the wilderness congregation would enter into God’s promised Sabbath rest. Now, God’s rest is to be viewed in contrast to the wilderness situation. Here believers are at work, they are not yet at rest, which is still future. Their present reality, wilderness, is a place of hardship, temptation, toil, and trials. It’s a place where one’s faith is tested (3:8), and it is also a place where God is at work in and amongst his beloved people (3:9). Wilderness is the place where God’s people have come out of Egypt, out of the world, but have not yet attained God’s perfect rest. Wilderness is the interadvental period for the new covenant people of God, meaning: it’s the period between Christ’s first coming and his second coming.

The people of Israel were in the Wilderness forty years. After just three days of being in the Wilderness, they grumbled against Moses because the only water they could find was undrinkable—it was bitter. In the second month they grumbled against Moses and Aaron, which was really grumbling against the Lord for the lack of food, wishing that they had died back in Egypt under the hand of Pharaoh. But in the wilderness, God fought for them against their enemies, rained down manna from the heavens for them to eat, made the bitter water sweet to drink, caused their clothing and sandals never to wear out, and God went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 14:14). God was with them in the wilderness to bring them to the Promised Land, the place of rest.

In Heb. 4:4, we find the author quoting Genesis 2:2 which speaks of the Sabbath, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” Now, the institution of Sabbath functions as an anticipatory sign, a pointer to a future and greater reality, an end time rest, a Sabbath rest, one that is still to be entered into. This is also true of Israel when they entered into the Promised Land, the land of rest. The Promised Land pointed towards the true and greater eternal rest in which all God’s people would enjoy perfect communion with him, free from all trials, sins, sicknesses, and temptations. Heb. 4:8 says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.” This other day, the day later on, is what Abraham and all the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11 were anticipating and looking forward to. Abraham anticipated a land of promise, the land of Israel, but beyond that, he also “looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (11:10). The Hebrews author says of all these Hebrews 11 saints that they “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (11:13), anticipating a better country, a heavenly homeland… they desired to enter God’s promised rest—a rest that God had entered into on the seventh day after creating all that was made; an eternal rest to which all of creation pointed.

Yet because of Adam’s sin in the garden he did not enter into God’s rest, but was placed outside of God’s garden-temple, alienated from God’s presence and cut off from the tree of life. Adam was to have entered this rest by obeying God’s word, and in doing he would overcome the temptation and testing that came his way. He failed, and so fell. Yet, the second and last Adam, Christ perfectly obeyed God, triumphing over the serpent in the wilderness by God’s word, and ultimately in his death and resurrection, making a way for his people to enter in to God’s promised rest. The rest that God entered into on the seventh day, is the rest that those united to Christ would one day enter at the consummation of all things; enjoying eternal communion with God.

Jesus, the Son of God, Our Great High Priest

Hebrews 4:14, the final verse in our text, functions to bracket off an extended section of exhortation, one that begins right back in Heb. 3:1 which says, “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.” Heb. 4:14 says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

Five times, scattered throughout Hebrews the author says that we have a high priest “who is seated at the right hand” of God (1:3, 1:13, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2). With this in mind, the author’s intention is that we, a wilderness congregation, might understand that the end of Christ’s ministry was not his death on a cross, but pointed all the way to his redemptive ministry as heavenly high priest.

The Old Covenant earthly tabernacle with its high priest and offerings has been done away with. They were temporary, provisional, earthly copies and shadows of heavenly, enduring realities. They themselves were pointers, signposts to the true and perfect heavenly realities. The true and original heavenly tabernacle was set up by the Lord, not by the hands of man, with the ascended Christ as the great high priest.

From Heb. 3:1 to Heb. 4:14, the writer highlights the faithfulness of Jesus as high priest, and goes on to exhort his hearers, a new covenant wilderness congregation, in the light of the unfaithfulness of the old covenant wilderness congregation, to be faithful to God and his word, and then goes on to stress the compassion of Christ our great high priest, who can sympathize with our weaknesses in a wilderness or desert place, himself experiencing suffering, trial and temptation during his humiliation.

Christ’s saving work as heavenly high priesthood brings two things into focus for us:

  1. The sins of his people

  2. The intercession of Christ for his wilderness people.

John Murray highlights this wonderfully; he says, “The intercessory aspect of the priestly function must never be divorced from the propitiatory” (Vol.1, 56)—to propitiate, not a word used much today, means to turn away the wrath/anger of God by means of a sacrificial offering. John Murray is saying that Christ’s prayers for his people as heavenly high priest cannot be separated from his sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of his people, and by which the wrath of God was appeased, and God and man are reconciled.

The one who laid down his life for his sheep now intercedes for them; the one who suffered unto death for his people, now prays for his people who experience suffering, trial, and temptation in the wilderness until they are brought to glory. Paul says of Christ in Rom. 8:34, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Friends, the one who was put forward as a substitutionary and perfect sacrifice for the sins of his people, to turn away the very wrath of God by his own blood, now “lives to make intercession” (7:25) for his own that they may enter into God’s Sabbath rest.

Christ as heavenly High Priest is what grounds this exhortation to hold fast. For, “since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heaven, Jesus, the Son of God,” in other words, because this is the case, “let us hold fast our confession.” The author of Hebrews is driving home the point that the ministry of Christ as our great high priest before God in heaven should give us much hope in our wilderness pilgrimage.

All that we need for traversing the wilderness are found in Christ alone. The high priestly ministry of Christ is not only to purify this people from sin, but to bring them through the place of wilderness into God’s promised enduring rest.

This leads us to my third point:

Let Us Strive To Enter God’s Rest, Holding Fast Our Confession of Faith.

Heb. 4:1 begins with the word, “therefore,” reminding the church of the unfaithfulness of old covenant wilderness community who died in the desert, and so failed to enter into Canaan, the Promised Land. They did not enter because they hardened their hearts, they were a stubborn people, having been deceived by deceitfulness of sin, and they put God to the test amidst their own unbelief and disobedience. The author now turns to his hearers, and urges him to enter into God’s rest.

My mother enjoys photography, and uses a number of different lens determined by the kind of photo that she’s attempting to catch. What we have in our text, is it’s as if the author has used a wide-angle lens to capture the big picture of Scripture, overview all of redemption history, and now uses a portrait lens which is great for group shots or individual portraits, and he has overviewed the entire narrative of Scripture to exhort them, all with the goal of convincing these pilgrims to press on with faithful perseverance by lifting their gaze heavenward to the Son of God seated at the right hand of God; urging them to hold onto the truthfulness and surety of God’s word, rather than being like the Israelite wilderness community under Moses who heard Gods’ word, yet put God to the test, and little by little hardened their hearts through unbelief and disobedience.

The writer of Hebrews exhorts this new covenant wilderness congregation, and in turn us today, with two images: 1) the unfaithfulness of Israel under Moses in the wilderness—we see that Jesus, Stephen, and Paul also all point to their poor example; 2) and then secondly, and the primary image, the faithfulness of our merciful and compassionate high priest who has gone before us. He lives to make intercession for his wilderness people, sympathizing with our weaknesses, bear us up before his Father in heaven.

While it is today, hold on to your confession that Jesus is the Son of God; while the promise of rest is still stands, let us strive to enter into God’s rest, for one day he will return and this wilderness period of putting off sin, of facing hardship, suffering, and trial will be no more. In the words of Paul, let us “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12b-13), let us “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).

Hebrews is not merely rich exposition about our heavenly high priest, but it is doctrine for life, a pastorally-oriented sermon given to strengthen and exhort the church amidst weakness and trial. Those who have been united to Christ are being conformed to the image of Christ, the Suffering Servant. Becoming like Christ involves sharing in his pattern of life: the patterning of suffering unto glory (Phil 2:5–11; Rom 8:14–17).

Peter speaks about Christ who suffered for you, leaving us an example, so that we might follow in his steps (1 Pe. 2:21). The life of the believer is not a life devoid of trials and suffering. But, the one who made the founder of our “salvation perfect through suffering” is “bringing many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10).

Let us heed the encouraging words of the author of Hebrews to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of [us] you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Heb 10:23-25), “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:1b-3). “Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” (12:28)

The word of God that has come to each one of us is a word to hear and it’s a word to heed. God has climactically spoken in his son, Christ Jesus. God humbled his people in the desert teaching them that “man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3).

Friends, there is a soberness about the wilderness, as we pilgrim by faith towards God’s rest. Yet there is a great sight for our eyes, Christ our heavenly high priest. We serve a great God who gives what he requires and supplies what he demands. Grace and mercy are there to assist you in your walk towards rest.

If you are experiencing trial at work, or great difficulty in a relationship, persecution because of the gospel, sickness, temptation, deep loneliness or abandonment, or you may have been unjustly sinned against… may you find grace from your heavenly high priest who has gone ahead and lives to intercedes for you. You may be grumbling in a wilderness environment, tempted to love money and the world, or even to turn your back on Christ, may your hold to your confession, finding grace and mercy to enter into God’s rest. Christ “will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb. 9:28).



Giving through Church Partnership

By / Jul 27


Sing a New Song

By / Jul 6


Ambassadors for Christ

By / Jun 29


The God of Peace!

By / Jun 22


Suffering and the Silence of God

By / Jun 1


Holy God, Holy People

By / May 18


For Richer or For Poorer

By / May 11


Strength, Courage, and Weakness

By / May 4


What Is a Christian?

By / Apr 27

Do turn in your bibles to Romans chapter 6 and verse 1. We find ourselves a third of the way through Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, and in the opening verse of chapter 6, Paul addresses a troubling conclusion that some Christians had reached on hearing the gospel. They had rightly understood that when the Law of Moses was given, the seriousness of sin was more clearly seen. And so, where sin increased, grace as seen in the saving work of Christ, increased all the more. The troubling part was that these Christians had then inferred that if grace increased because of sin, should they not continue in sin so that grace would increase all the more?

And Paul cries out, “God forbid!” (μá½´ γένοιτο) From the depths of his being he protests, “By no means!” He states, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (1b), and Paul’s instinctive reaction is, “May it never be!” This strong reaction is grounded in his understanding of the gospel, of what it is that God has done in Christ. What Paul is really saying is, “do you not know what it means to be a Christian, to be in Christ?”

Being united to Christ is what it means to be a Christian

There are three occasions in the NT when the word Christian is used (Acts 11:26, 26:28; 1 Pe. 4:16). It appears to have been an antagonistic term that was first used by non-believers in Antioch; we see also that Jews who were hostile to the faith had earlier called followers of Christ, “Nazarenes.” But for Paul, it doesn’t appear that he ever used the term Christian in any of his writings or sermons. But, what he does use is a little phrase, over and over again; one that he uses of himself. He says in 2 Corinthians 12 (vs.2) that “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.” He speaks of being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), of being united with Christ at the time of his death and resurrection (Rom. 6:6), and of being in Christ by faith. Yet Paul also mentions a time when he was outside of Christ, at the end of his letter to the Romans (16:7) Paul speaks of Andronicus and Junia, names that are probably not going to make the list of most popular baby names in America for 2014, but he speaks of them as those who “were in Christ before me” (ESV, NASB) or “in Christ before I was” (NIV).

This language of being “in Christ” is the language of union, union with Christ. In our text this evening Paul speaks of those (vs3) “who have been baptized into Christ”; (vs4) “who were buried with him”; (vs5) who “have been united with him”; (vs6) that “our old self was crucified with him”; (vs8) who “died with Christ”. This language of union with Christ is very easy to miss on the pages of the NT and to gloss over without realizing its rich theological significance. But when you see Paul’s emphasis of the believer being united to Christ, you start to see this language of union on every page, in every text, and even if Paul does not specifically mention the particular words “in Christ” or “with Christ”, his understanding of union with Christ informs everything he writes.

The way in which Paul addresses the outlandish thought of “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” is by highlighting the believer’s union with the exalted Christ. He says in verse 2, “How can we who died to sin still live in it? (vs2b), we were united with Christ in his death.

A two-Adam anthropology

Paul’s letters are not written in the format of extensive 1000 page theological works, they are letters that were often occasioned by particular situations that arose in a church or a region—be that relational problems, theological error, or difficulties experienced. And it’s in dealing with these real life issues that Paul’s profound theological insights are seen. This is very apparent with our text tonight. Now, in the previous chapter, Romans 5:12ff, he explains how God deals with all of humanity. He says that, “sin came into the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12). God had covenanted with Adam in the Garden of Eden, “not for himself [Adam] only, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in that first transgression” (WSC Q.22). Paul sees Adam to be acting as a federal head, a representative before God for all humanity. Having shown Adam’s representative character, Paul goes on in chapter five to contrast two men, two representatives, two federal heads, two Adams. These are the two Adams Paul discusses in 1 Cor. 15—the first Adam of the Garden of Eden, and the second and last Adam, Christ. There are no persons before the first Adam, and there is no one after the second and last Adam, who is Christ. This is how God deals with humanity, and within this representative structure, our own individuality, responsibility and choices are still affirmed.

Paul does not distinguish humanity as it stands before God in terms of race, language, age, gender, upbringing, education, political alliances, or any other socio-economic category. This representative structure, what we could call a two-Adam anthropology, transcends all boundaries and is enduring. And so what Paul is saying is that all people are comprehended as being either in Adam or in Christ, and therefore united to Adam and his disobedience and so death, or united to Christ and his obedience and so resurrection life.

It is exceptionally helpful to understand the big picture story seen in Scripture, to see how God’s redemptive purposes are unfolded in history; how from the foundation of the world, from creation forward, as Lane Tipton helpfully notes, “God has ordained to give himself (and all of his benefits) to a holy people in a holy realm through an obedient federal head,” a representative. Adam, our representative, did not obey God and his covenant, but sinned and so died. And thus Adam did not come to inherit the promises of God to him and his posterity; that which had been held out to him was life beyond the threat of death, to live forever in a realm where there is no sin and no serpent, and there would be an unbreakable union with the living God. But because of his sin, Adam and all in him lost that which was promised, and they have no hope without a redeemer, without a mediator between man and God.

The wonder of the gospel is this: what was lost by the first Adam in his sin has been secured by the second and last Adam, Christ, in his life, death, resurrection and ascension! Christ’s perfect obedience to God’s covenant is climactically seen in his death on the cross—as a sin-bearing substitute, bearing not his own sins, for he perfectly fulfilled the Law of God, but bearing the sins of his people with all of their guilt, he bore the full wrath and curse of God upon the cross, and died to redeem his people by his blood, that they might no longer be in Adam, but be united to him, Christ. All of Scripture centers upon Christ and what he has done.

Dying and rising with Christ: no longer under the enslaving power of sin, but walk in newness of life

Now, for Paul, the representative character of these two Adams is the background of his response to the question, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (6:1) And his answer to these Roman Christians is that we cannot continue in sin, because we died to sin when we died with Christ. Three times he reminds these believers of the implications of them being in Christ by faith. He says,

  1. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (vs.3)

  2. We know that our old self was crucified with Him (vs.6)

  3. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. (vs.9)

In verses 3 and 4, we find Paul using the language of baptism and burial for the first time in his letter to the Romans, he uses the language of baptism and burial to further underscore the reality of this union to either Adam or to Christ. The last three verses of Matthew 28, some of the final words of Christ before he ascends into heaven, concern what has come to be known as the Great Commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” One aspect of our baptism, as Sinclair Ferguson so wonderfully describes, is it functions as a naming ceremony. We are baptized out of the name of Adam and into the name that gives you access to the one Triune God of Scripture. It is a visible sign, not meant for all humanity, but like circumcision in the Old Testament, baptism is a distinguishing mark of the covenant people of God, the church. Paul is saying to these Christians, “do you not grasp what it means to be baptized into Christ—that you “were baptized into his death,” that you “were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (6:4).

Paul says that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). You see, if we have died with him, we shall live with him. He says that “our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing” (6:6). This old self is not simply a reference to my life before Christ, what I used to be like before I cleaned up my act—got a few skeletons out the closet. No, this old self is the old man, the man seen in Romans 5 who is united to first Adam in his sin, death, and condemnation; the man without God, without hope. Paul is saying something very radical: that when Adam sinned, we sinned; when he died, we died in him; and that when he was condemned, we were condemned in him. This is the old man that Paul says was crucified with Christ, in order that the body of sin, that old man, “might be brought to nothing” (6:6), THAT “we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (6:6). What Adam didn’t realize in the Garden of Eden is that his self-declared independence of God would not result in true autonomy, but rather in servitude to a new master, the serpent. When we died to sin, we died to sin as a controlling power; there has been a definitive breach with sin. We died to sin as a master over us that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, under its reign and dominion, for the body of sin has died with Christ, and we have been transferred from one realm to another, from death to life, from being under the yoke of slavery to sin, to rising and walking in newness of life, from being in Adam, to being united by the Holy Spirit to the resurrected and ascended Christ.

And so, all that I was in Adam has been brought to an end, I died. To be a Christian is to be one who is no longer in Adam; you are now in Christ, and Christ is in you.

Union with Christ explained—sinner as trespass and as enslaving power

Paul views sin as having two primary characteristics: (1) Sin is rebellion against God and violation of his law such that man is guilty as he stands before God; (2) but also, sin as we’ve already seen is an enslaving power, it corrupts the core of man’s being.

Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:3 that “Christ died for our sins.” Meaning that he died not only for our guilt but also our slavery to sin. And so, what Paul is getting at is that he who has died with Christ has been freed from sin to rise and walk in newness of life.

Friends, we have hope, hope for our struggle with sin, our wrestle with temptation—all of salvation is a work of God, not only your justification, but your sanctification too. In Christ, we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ, our new master and Lord. Man was first created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27), and yet because of his sin, man fell. But now, because of the gospel, those in Christ are being remade, are being transformed into the likeness of him who is the very image of God, Christ himself. Paul notes in Romans 6 that this transformative work is both the gift and work of God, and the work of those who are in Christ. This working out your salvation is grounded in what God has done in you, and what he continues to work in you. In Romans 6, Paul says, “you have died to sin” (6:2); and then later says, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (6:12). In Galatians 5, Paul says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (5:25).

Therefore do not let sin reign

He is saying that because Christians are those who have been baptized into Christ’s death, because we have been buried with him, crucified with him, as those whose body and soul have been united to Christ, Paul says in verse 11, “you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Now Paul is not talking about sin as guilt in our Romans 6 text, he did that earlier in the letter, he’s talking about sin as power, the reign of sin.

As those who died to sin (6:2), “consider yourselves dead to sin” (6:11). As those who are no longer under the reign of sin, do not let sin reign in your mortal body. Paul is not saying that those in Christ never sin, but rather that those in Christ are those who are no longer under the mastery and enslaving power of sin. We must not think that sin is no longer present or that it does not tempt us or even indwell the believer, but rather we who are in Christ no longer belong to sin, but to Christ. Paul is not saying that Christians do not feel the lure of sinful desires, but those in Christ are no longer sin’s slave.

Friends, in Christ we have hope, we have been united to the one who became for us “wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ became wisdom from God for us. Wisdom that transcends this age has broken into this world from God, and is seen most clearly on the cross, Christ himself. What appears to be such foolishness, the second person of the Trinity taking on flesh, living a blameless life, and then the God-man being crucified on the cross, is the very of wisdom of God broken into this age. Christ has become righteousness, sanctification (Jn. 17:19; Heb. 2:10-11) and redemption for us, his people. In your wrestle with sin, there is no aspect of salvation that is found outside of Christ. Calvin says, “If we seek redemption, it lies in his [Christ] passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Gal. 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven” (Institutes II.xvi.19).

Conclusion

All that we need is found in Christ, in Christ alone. And if we are separated from him, we are separated from all that he accomplished in his death and resurrection. In believing upon Christ, we receive Christ himself. If you have received Christ, you are in Christ and he is in you. You are his and he is yours. All that is in Christ is yours, and all that was yours has been transferred to him. It is with our whole person, body and soul, is united to Christ, and though our outer man, our body, is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). And there will come a day when every last vestige of addiction to sin will be thoroughly abolished in the resurrection body. Christ has come once, and he will come a second and final time. With him will be all those saints who have died and gone ahead to glory. And together with them, all the believers will at once receive their glorified resurrect bodies.

The kingdom of God has both come, and we await its consummate coming in Christ’s return, “how can we who died to sin still live in it?” I urge you to look to Christ, believe upon him, trust him—the Lamb that was slain, the heavenly High Priest—forsake sin, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ, and present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (vs13). May we echo Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s prayer, “Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made.”

Friends, God will give you grace and see you to the end, holding you until your faith gives way to sight, and until union becomes communion with God Most High. What a marvelous gospel, what an incredible God. 



Rising Doubts

By / Apr 20


Our High Priest

By / Mar 30

Introduction

Poor Dorothy – she wants to go home. A hurricane has lifted her up into the land of Oz, and only the Wizard of Oz can help her. She travels along the yellow brick road and picks up three friends, each of whom who is hoping the wizard will help them. They finally arrive to his capital, then timidly, even fearfully walk the long hallway into the entrance of the throne room. There before them in all of his terribleness is the frowning wizard, demanding to know what right they have to appear before him. He condescends to give them what they ask, but for a price – to bring to him the broomstick of the evil witch of the East. They have got to earn his favor, even if it means risking their lives.

Poor Dorothy; poor cowardly lion who jumped through a window so frightened he was by the wizard. But we know the truth – that the wizard was a fraud, no more than a mere man with nothing to give. And yet, what then can we expect, standing before the true holy God? We truly are unworthy. We stand before a truly almighty, all holy God and there is no brain, no heart, no courage to win his favor. How can we appear before him for help? Do we look to Jesus for help? Do we dare, when we know how we have failed him? He said his friends were those who obeyed his commands. Considering our track record, will he consider us his friends?

Text

Let’s look at our text. The context is that believers are wavering in their faith (2:1; 3:19) leading to transgression or disobedience (2:2; 3:12-18). And so the author writes in 2:1-3:

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Be careful of drifting from the faith. Don’t be disobedient. At the end of chapter 3, he gives the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness as an example of unbelief:

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief (3:16-19).

There is that connection again between unbelief and disobedience. One leads to the other. Why are they wavering? They lack confidence in Christ – either that his work is not sufficient or that he begrudges interceding for them. Why do they lack confidence? It appears that the trials they are going through are making them waver. Maybe they didn’t realize what they were buying into. Maybe they were looking at their neighbors around them and see that their neighbors seemed to be doing fine. Maybe they engaged in sin and found out that it felt good. Whatever the reason, they waver, and their wavering leads to sin, which all the more leads to wavering.

And so the author solemnly warns them. Take heed; don’t be like the disobedient, unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness. Then the conclusion in 4:11-13:

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Those are sobering words. Don’t they make you squirm a little bit? Every thought, every intention of the heart are exposed to our judge. How now do you feel about appearing before him?

Verses 14-16 lay forth what our author wants us to know and do.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

He wants us to “hold fast our confession.” What does that mean? Our confession is our confession of the gospel. It is the confession by which we are saved – that Jesus is Lord (Rom 10:9); it is the confession of Christ’s incarnation, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2); that he is the Son of God (1 John 4:15); it is the confession of our hope that we have in Jesus Christ to return (Heb 10:23).

We are to “hold fast” to that confession. Grip it tight; do not let it go. Why are we not to let it go? This is the interesting, surprising thought process. The author has been warning of the dire consequences of unbelief and of disobedience. And we would think, especially after the comment that we stand before the judge to whom we must give account and who sees everything, that he would say something like, “strive to earn favor with God.” Strive to be better, to obey the commandments. He does say to strive, but to strive “to enter that rest.” What rest? The Sabbath rest of Jesus Christ by which one rests from his works (cf 14:9-11).

The dangerous sin of the believer is not resting in the work of his Savior. It is failing to believe that Jesus did the necessary work to save from sin. So the author spends most of his epistle explaining the priestly work of the Son of God, showing how it was fully effective in removing the guilt of sin.

“We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” He passed through the heavens. The sacrifice he offered upon the cross was accepted; and so he rose from the grave; he ascended into heaven. Indeed, he has entered into the true heavenly temple, of which the earthly one is but a copy. He has entered into the holy of holies with his blood offering, and he has made full atonement for his people.

The covenant nation of Israel had a high priest who entered into the holy of holies once a year to make a similar atonement. But he had to first offer a sacrifice for his own sin; and then he had to make that offering year after year, because whatever he offered was never sufficient. But our high priest is the “great” high priest; the priest who needed no offering for himself, for he was perfect; the priest who needed to offer only one offering because it was sufficient for all of his people all of the time. His work of salvation was complete. Believe it; rest in it; look to no one else; look to nothing else; by all means do not look to our own righteousness or works.

But one might still object. “I know that I cannot earn favor with God by my works. I know that my only hope is in Jesus Christ. But what if he has given up on me? I have failed him again and again. He died on the cross for me, and what do I have to show for it? I sin; I sin the same sins. I disappoint myself with the sins I commit. Surely he must begrudge the sacrifice he made for me.

Now listen to the next sentence in verse 15:

15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The great high priest who is at God’s right hand in his throne room – that high priest “sympathizes with our weaknesses.” He has compassion for us because he understands us, and he understands us because he has been in the same circumstances as we.

What does he understand? What has he experienced that we have? He has been tempted. Yes, but temptation has no impact on him. Really? Look at 2:17-18:

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Note verse 18: Christ “suffered when tempted.” He was hungry when tempted by Satan to make bread. He was a nobody when tempted to demonstrate his power to jump from the temple. He had the cross in front of him when tempted to go around it by worshiping Satan. We suffer from temptation precisely because the temptation proposes to meet the need we feel. But Christ’s sufferings went further. We give into temptation because the temptation itself burdens us too heavily. We give in simply to get rid of the burden of temptation. Christ never gave in. He fought against every temptation every day, never giving in, never removing temptation’s burden.

And he bore the sufferings that came precisely because he did not give into temptation. We give in to temptation to satisfy our cravings. We might feel guilty about eating or drinking or whatever it may be we indulge in, but we at least satisfied our thirst or hunger or other craving. He remained thirsty and hungry and unsatisfied. He suffered from the lack of what the temptation would have fulfilled.

But he was God! He could handle it! He was also man. He possessed the same flesh as we. He knew hunger; he knew thirst; he knew the same needs and urging that all human flesh feel. And though he was divine, he did not avail himself of his divine qualities and resources to overcome temptation. He did not call down his legion of angels. Rather, he learned to avail himself only of the same resources we have. Consider 5:7: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”

What did Jesus do when suffering through temptation? He prayed. Why was he answered? His reverence for God. He was not heard because of his special connection in the Godhead. He was heard because, however great the temptation may be, his desire and determination to please his heavenly Father was even greater.

Note verse 8: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” How could the Son of God have to learn obedience? Had he been disobedient? He, of course, was never disobedient, but before he took on flesh and dwelled in glory, he did not undergo the continual assault of temptation that we do. By leaving his home in glory and by taking on our flesh, he then learned through experience what it is like in human flesh to obey his heavenly Father.

But let me take this all back to 4:15 to the main point for us. Because Jesus suffered in the flesh, he qualified to be our high priest precisely because he could then be sympathetic with us sinners. What good does it do us to have a high priest who is able to mediate between us and God, if the high priest does not care to do so? But Jesus does care. Chapter 5:2 says of the high priest: “He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.” Our high priest was never beset with sin, but he did know what it was like to withstand the temptation to sin in weak flesh.

He was beset by temptation, “yet without sin.” He did learn obedience, so much so that he was “made perfect” as 5:9 states. He was made the perfect sacrifice that once and for all was sufficient “to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Again, he thus was able to pass through the heavens into the holy of holies to mediate our salvation before the holy God. As critical as it is to have a high priest who is sympathetic, it is even more important to have a high priest who heard by God. We have a sympathetic, effectual high priest.

And so verse 16 concludes:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Listen to the author. He makes very clear that we are sinners, whose guilt is laid bare before our divine judge. Any effort to redeem ourselves, to make amends, to offer reparation is worthless. And yet, he bids us to draw near to God’s throne with confidence. Remember Queen Esther’s fear when her uncle Mordecai urges her to go before the throne of King Ahasuerus on behalf of her people? She could be put to death. What should we expect, sinners appearing before the throne of the holy God?

But we are bid to draw near with confidence knowing that the throne before which we appear is the throne of grace. This throne of grace is a reference to the mercy seat in the holy of holies. It was made of gold and placed over the ark of the covenant. On the seat were two gold cherubim who faced each other and their wings spread over the ark so as to form a throne for the King of kings. It was before that throne that the high priest would enter into the holy of holies with the blood of a sacrifice to make atonement for the sins of God’s people.

The author is saying that our great high priest has already entered and sprinkled his own blood on the mercy seat, and that blood was sufficient! Our great high priest atoned for our sins completely; he paid the full price. And he did it gladly! He did not, does not begrudge the work of our mediator. And so we are to come forth in confidence of the work that our Lord Jesus Christ has done. Jesus is true to his word.

So we are to come near “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Mercy and grace is what we will find before the throne – not judgment, not rebuke. The mercy seat truly is the source of mercy because of the blood sprinkled upon it, the “precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

The throne of grace truly does provide the grace that we need to help us in our time of need. Our King will give to us the resources we need to face our trials, to bear up under suffering, to wage the ongoing battle against temptation and sin. And he will give to us gladly because of the mediation made by his Son, our Brother, who is our High Priest.

Lessons

I selected this passage for my last sermon because it is one that I turn to time and again when members of my flock have come for counsel. Suffering and giving in to sin take a toll on us. They wear down; they cause us to waver in our faith. Suffering leads us to wonder if God cares; sin leads us to wonder how God could care.

How many more times can we confess the same sin before God says enough? Maybe that is why we suffer? God is displeased with us. We’ve got Jesus, but how pleased can Jesus be with us? He died on the cross for us, and what do we have to show for it? We have failed him again and again. How could a true follower of Christ be such a sinner? Maybe he tried his best to save us but our hearts are too hard. Maybe he did go to the cross with joy for what we would become, but now that he sees how little progress we have made, how could he rejoice over us?

I know. Those have been my thoughts as well. Satan accuses me of my failures and unfortunately Satan is accurate. But here is where Satan is not accurate – when he claims that my High Priest either cannot or will not make atonement for me; when he claims that my Savior failed on the cross in regard to me, or that he no longer desires to intercede for me. It is then that I know Satan is true to who he is – a liar.

For me, for us, to fear that we will not receive mercy before God is to express not doubt in ourselves but in our Lord Jesus Christ. When I realized that, I learned to back off. However humble it may seem to say that I “hope” to be saved or that I “hope” God still approves of me, it is actually a statement of utmost arrogance. Am I prepared to say, “You did your best Jesus, but it wasn’t good enough? I am too tough of a case for you. I know you went to the cross for me, but my sins are too great for you; my hardened heart is too much for you to overcome.” I don’t have the nerve to go there. If God’s Word says that Jesus passed through the heavens and offered his own blood of the mercy seat, God’s throne; if God’s Word says that my Lord is sympathetic toward me because I am a sinner – who am I to doubt? And if God’s Word bids me to come with confidence – a confidence that is placed in Jesus to be true to his calling as High Priest – how can I disobey and not enter into the Sabbath rest of Jesus Christ?

No, with confidence I must now draw nigh. Before the throne my Surety stands. My name is written on his hands, as are yours who call upon him.



The Secure Way into the Holy of Holies

By / Mar 23

Hebrews 10:19-22, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

In verse 20 and 22 the author of Hebrews continues to show the believers the immense blessings that we can now enjoy in Christ.

In verse 20 he encourages the readers to trust in the fact that now they can enjoy free access to the Holy of Holies, the celestial throne where God reigns. The main objective of entering the Holy of Holies, through the blood of Jesus Christ, is to worship him.

In this verse the writer shows the way through which we can come to the Father. The new way is not only new but it is a living way. This way is not a temple, not an earthly sanctuary, but it is a person: Jesus Christ, who through his death on the cross provided the opening of his own body as a secure way to enter into the presence of the Father. Again this way is the sacrifice of his body.

In verse 21 the author of Hebrews gives an additional reason as to why we can have communion with the Father in his sanctuary. This reason is that Jesus is not only the way but he himself is the priest of the celestial temple. He is interceding for us with the objective of assuring us of the certainty of a free and secure arrival to the throne of grace even though we are weak and feeble.

Verse 22 includes a calling to come closer to God trusting in his sacrifice and his priestly intercession.

Let us analyze the contents of these three verses and let us put our faith in the solid foundations that the Scriptures provide so that we don’t lose confidence.

Verse 20, “by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh”

In verse 19 the writer said to the readers that now we have the freedom to come into the Holy of Holies and that this only can be done through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 20 he explains the sense in which the blood of Christ gives us that blessing.

He says that we have the freedom to enter into the Holy of Holies but, what is the way to arrive at such a place? The priest in the Old Testament had to go through the Holy Place and then go through the thick veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. What is the veil that we must cross as believers to go into the Holy of Holies? There is no veil anymore because it has been ripped from top to bottom when the Son of God cried out, “It is finished.” This announced that the material veil was destroyed forever and was replaced by the body of Jesus who was ripped on the cross to give access to anyone who trusts in Christ alone. Only through his body can we enter into the Holy of Holies.

Jesus also said that no one could enjoy eternal life, that is to live in the presence of God forever, without eating his flesh and drinking his blood. JOHN 6:51 – 56, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

The only way that men can arrive at the throne of grace, the celestial sanctuary, the presence of God, to the perfect communion with the Creator is only through faith in the sufficient sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. If we look for any other way we will never be able to arrive.

The celestial sanctuary is way too far from man. It is above the heavens. The distance between the Holy God and men is enormous. The abyss is beyond comprehension. However, the ladder that Jacob saw, going from heaven to earth, is also our ladder.That infinite ladder is the body of Jesus sacrificed which connects man to God. Today the believers can have access to God by climbing this ladder through faith to arrive at the presence of God in the celestial abode.

Jesus himself declared that there is no other way to come to the Father. It is only through him, through his broken body. That is, accepting by faith that only his death on the cross and by the shedding of his blood he cleaned us to present us to the Holy Majesty of God. “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one can come to the Father but through me” John 14:6

Many religious people think that they can pray to God and that God will listen to them because God is good. Others think that when they die God will allow them into his kingdom, simply because they were religious, kind and even by practicingphilanthropy. To think that we can obtain divine favor for our merits is a grave error that takes anyone to eternal damnation.There is nothing we can do nor can we ever be sufficiently good in our own to deserve heaven. Anyone who thinks this way,clearly shows that he does not know God. God is the creator, absolutely perfect and without blemish, who does not tolerate any sin in his presence. His perfect holiness demands absolute perfection without such, no one can have communion with Him. Such perfection is only the perfection of Christ in us through faith alone, in Christ alone, which is given to us by God as a gift by grace alone.

Lev. 11:44 Joshua 24:19 Psalm 24:3-4

V. 20b…That he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.”

This expression has been analyzed by several experts in the Greek language of the bible and have come with several possible interpretations.

Ernest Trenchard confirms that the veil is the body of Christ. Jesus in his body covered the way to the Father but when he was sacrificed on the cross through his broken body he opened the way to the Father and showed the glory of God.

Some see the veil of the temple as a type of the beauty of Jesus. Remember that the veil of the temple was of an exquisite beauty. It was a magnificent work which its foundation was linen, with threads of cardenia, purple and crimson colors all tapestry and adorned with cherubim. The holiness of Christ which was evident in his daily holy conduct was the exact representation of the purity of God which showed the gapthat existed between God and the creature.His life example was perfect but it alone could not save man. This perfection only showed men there sin and their imperfection. The perfect life of Jesus became a clear reminder that without such sanctity no one can see God. It showed that only he who has a pure heart and clean hands can come into God’s presence. The problem is that no man is totally pure in front of God. And no man could come to God only imitating the perfect life of Jesus. That is impossible. If Jesus would save men, it was not by example but by his sacrifice and his broken flesh.The veil of the temple was extremely beautiful but it separated men from God. The braking and ripping of the beautiful body of Jesus was the ripping of the beautiful veil that separated the sinners from God. His death, after living a perfect life,would provide the reconciliation of men to God that leads them into the presence of the Father. The holy example of his life would have not been the way of salvation if he had not die on the cross.

Arthur Pink makes an analogy between Jesus and the veil. The same way that the veil on one side is in contact with the Holy of Holies and on the other side it is in contact with men, in the same manner Jesus was meeting the same requirement by being divine and human. He had direct contact with the Father,he himself is divine but also human. In this manner he is the only one who was in intimate inseparable contact with God and with men. Christ ALONE was that veil, that when it ripped on the cross established a bridge between the inner sanctuary the holy of holies and the exterior sanctuary the holy place where the church stands.

This way is called by this theologian, “new” (prosphaton) which means newly sacrificed, newly dead, newly slated. This expression takes us to Genesis 15:10,17 where we see the rite of partition, the cutting in half of two sacrificed animals as a ratification of the new covenant.

This is an entrance way that never becomes old. The sacrifice of Christ is always fresh, freshly occurred, newly realized. It can never be repeated, it never becomes old or obsolete. Its benefits are always available for ever. The fact that this theologian called this way “NEW” this does not mean that the saints of the Old Testament did not enter through it. Arthur Pink said regarding this matter, This word “NEW” cannot be taken in an absolute sense as if it did not exist before the death of Christ. If the saints of the Old Testament had to go also through this way, then why is it called “NEW”? It is called new to distinguish the old way of the covenant of works from the new way of the new covenant that now had become fully manifested due to his eternal vitality that never becomes old in Jesus. (2)

This way open through Jesus is also called, a living way. Even though this way was opened through the death of Christ, this is not a dead end way. It is a living way, because Jesus did not stay in the tomb but on the third day he resurrected according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:4). The entrance door is Jesus and Jesus is alive. (John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”) This way is alive because of its perpetual efficacy: it has spiritual and vital power in our access to God. It is alive in its effects. It effectually leads to eternal life, to a full and abundant life, fulfilling what Jesus said: “ I came that they may have life and have it abundantly John 10:10. It is called the living way because all that symbolizes Christ must be represented in possession of life. That is why we read regarding Jesus as the living stone, the living bread and other similar symbols. (Adolph Saphir) (4)

Verse 21. “And since we have a great priest over the house of God,”

The believers do not only have a new and living way to the Father, but also he, who is the way the truth and the life, is also the Great High Priest. This is the expression that the Jews used for the High Priest. Our salvation is so secure that there is no way to lose it. We have Jesus as the entrance door, Jesus is the way were we will walk to God and when we will arrive there, we do not fear at all because there we find our High Priest interceding for us and giving absolute guarantee of being accepted by the Divine Majesty. (Romans 8:24 and Hebrews 7:25) Jesus is not only our way but our guard and protector, he makes sure that we will never go astray no matter how fragile we are. It is just as the prophet said “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.” (Isaiah 35:8)

Jesus is definitely a Great Priest and his greatness produces trust. Samuel Perez stated this way, “He who is sublime in glory, whose condition is infinite is also great in grace and compassionate and has understanding mercy towards believers whose condition is weak and fragile.” (5)

This Great Priest labors over the house of God. This means that all his people are under his care. If we want to enter the Holy of Holies, He is the one who has to receive us and present us to the Father. He himself will complete in us the work that he began in us. The Lord will show us everything regarding our ministry inthe Holy of Holies. Only through Jesus our prayers and spiritual offers will be accepted, even though they are weak and fragile. He is the one who gives us light and celestial power. He is the one who gives us life in the Holy Spirit. When it becomes difficult to walk the way to the Holy of Holiesand to understand the power of the blood, then we only have to look unto Jesus. He will guide us and teach us. He is the Great Priest over the house of God.

He taught us already how to pray as we are on the way. Jesus, the Great High Priest takes the prayers of his people and as our only Mediator, presents them to the Father. The Father gladly accepts them because they have been perfected by the blood of His Son who has the responsibility to take care of the House of God (Heb 3:6 ; 1 Timothy 3:15.) The believers are absolutely secure because they have a Great High Priest who represents them.The Great Priest never loses any one of the family. He and them belong now to the same family of God. ( Heb. 2:11)

APPLICATIONS

Some religions today keep splendid and gorgeous rituals with many great ceremonies, golden objects, luxurious vestments very similar to the Old Testament, with the intention to give certain glory to God. But that extravagant luxury, without a contrite heart, only serves to remind men that the distance between them and God is so great that it becomes impossible to come near to God. The distance between God and men because of sin becomes impossible to reconcile.The Jewish people with all their ceremonies, rituals and luxurious vestments were telling themselves that they did not have The Way to reconcile themselves with God. It is the same in the case of the luxury and rituals of Roman Catholicism where priests become the intercessor without power beyond the appearance of vestments and rites. Christian congregations do not have luxurious ceremonies, nor special adorned vestments for their ministers, nor especial places for pastors because the veil was ripped apart by the sacrifice of Jesus.Now we are all priests empowered to cross the veil to enter into the Holy of Holies in the presence of God and see the splendor and majesty of His glory in His heavenly court. Now only by faith alone in Jesus alone, who is the way and ripped veil, we can come close to God.

Andrew Murray, in his commentary on this passage made applications like these. The veil that separated us from God was the flesh. Sin has power on the flesh. Only by eliminating sin in the flesh can the veil be opened. When the Lord Jesus came in the flesh, he ripped the veil of the flesh by living a perfect life and by his death, he destroyed both the power of sin and the flesh. This reminds us of the law that required the sacrifice of flesh to enter into the Holy of Holies. The believer understands the power of the blood when he compares the tyranny of the sinful flesh with the power of the dominion over the flesh by death through faith in Christ. The believer cannot do this on his own power but by the power of Christ. The Word confirms to us that those who are in Christ have been crucified with Christ. The cross is the place for the flesh. In communion with the Son of God we can enter behind the veil. Oh what a glorious Way! It is the new Living Way that Christ opened for us by which we have the freedom to enter into the Holy of Holies, only through the blood of Jesus.

We pray that God will guide us as we walk the Way by the power of the Holy Spirit and with a life full of the same Spirit. The Way is not other than the broken flesh of the veil of the body of Jesus.

Dear ones, it does not matter how insignificant you feel in the house of God. Not matter how sinful you think you are, if God has given you faith in Jesus, “the Way”, by the power of the Holy Spirit by his effectual calling, then the veil has been open for you through the body of Christ. Come look unto Jesus, look at your Great High Priest who has already looked at you with compassion, tenderness and understanding of your weakness and frailties and who has already purified your conscience in regard to sin. When doubts and fears assault you, do not be afraid, look at your Great High Priest – Jesus, who says, come. I did it all for you. Look at my marks left by the cross. Come trusting completely on your Savior who opened the veil to enter in the presence of God My Father. Come enter into the Holy of Holiest, looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of your faith, who knows you by your name.



The All-Encompassing Gift

By / Jan 12

Introduction

We come to the conclusion of a four-part series on “Our Gifts in Christ.” We began with the gift of Christ himself, how everything we receive from God the Father is received through Christ. We looked at the gift of being specially chosen by God to receive these gifts. And then we considered the specific gift of salvation as described through adoption, redemption, and forgiveness. In conclusion, verses 9-10 present how far reaching the gifts in Christ are, or how all-encompassing the gift of Christ really is.

Text

Up to now, we have been thinking of our gifts as those given to each of us individually. The Christ gift is my gift that God has given me. God the Father has chosen me before the foundation of the world to receive the gift of salvation. I have been adopted, redeemed, and forgiven. All of this is true, but the apostle Paul is now taking us beyond ourselves to the big picture of what God the Father is leading everything to in Christ, God the Son.

9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

We need to back up just a phrase to “in all wisdom and insight,” in verse 8. The line of thought then is this: God has given us the wisdom and insight to know the mystery of his will. The mystery is not that of a riddle which we had to be given the cleverness to figure out. Rather, it is the plan, the purpose of God which he had not fully revealed until Jesus Christ came and fulfilled his atoning work, and even then, not until the Holy Spirit gave the understanding for the apostles and early church to discern what all was taking place in Christ.

What then is the mystery of God’s will? Verse 10 supplies the answer.

10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Here is an instance in which the explanation of the mystery is a mystery. What fullness of time? What things – everything that exists? What exactly is meant by “unite.” The Greek word is rare, only being used one other time in the New Testament in Romans 13:9 where the commandments of the law are said to be summed up in the command to love one’s neighbor. The word can also mean to gather together.

To get to an understanding of this mysterious explanation of the mystery of God, we are going to explore how the Scriptures move along this thought of uniting, as translating in our version. We will begin with the epistle of Ephesians.

Go down further in the chapter, beginning with verse 15:

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (1:19-23).

Paul has been celebrating with his readers the blessings of the salvation that they have in Christ. He is saying now to his fellow saints that his prayer for them is to really know what their hope in the future entails, how truly wondrous in riches is their inheritance. It encompasses more than being individually saved from condemnation, even more than getting to go to heaven when one dies. Christ’s work involves more than a rescue operation. He did not merely go into enemy territory, bring out prisoners, and then return to whatever he was doing before.

When God the Father raised Christ from the dead, he then lifted him up to and seated his Son at his right hand. That was not merely a show of affection, but a positioning of authority and power. He is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Here we see Christ’s greatness and power. But there is more. God the Father “put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things.” Christ is not only the greatest, he is ruler; he is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is ruler over all things.

Neither the Father nor the Son were content with rescue; they determined that is was time to overthrow the rebellion of Satan and his legions altogether. The cross was the beginning of that overthrow. But it is not complete, as we well know through experience. The enemy is as active as ever with his legions. Where are the forces of Christ? Where is his army?

Now the wonder truly begins. God the Father gave Christ “as head over all things to the church” (v. 22), the church which is “his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (v. 23). This is a complex passage, to be sure, but I think one point that we can take away from it is that the church is Christ’s army. It is through the church that Christ wages battle against the enemy, at least the battle that involves this world.

This seems incredulous to us, if only because we look at ourselves and one another, and think, “Me – a warrior?” If we use ourselves as the starting point, we should scoff. But Paul is not spurring us on to look within ourselves at the power we possess; rather, his prayer is that we will have the eyes of faith to see the power of God at work in us through our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. What should we be seeing?

See what God has already done. Individually, we walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air (2:2); now we are actually walking in the good works that God prepared us to do (2:10). How did that happen? Because God “raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (2:6). That is God’s power at work. We have changed and are changing.

But now go further. In Christ’s saving us he has caused the salvation act to include more than individual reconciliation with God; it is a reconciliation that brings together two divided groups of mankind. There are many divisions, of course, among the human race, but there is the one great divide when it comes to a relationship with God. There is the Jewish nation, and there is everybody else classified as the Gentiles. Paul is frank about the division. He tells the Ephesian Gentiles if 2:12 that as Gentiles they were “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

He says of his Jewish kinsmen in Romans 9:4-5: “They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”

What? Were we second-class citizens? Yes, we were, until Christ came.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (2:14-19).

There is now no division in our relationship to God – we who are in Christ are one. We are not a collection of saved individuals, some of whom are nearer to God than others; many of whom remain disconnected with one another. We are fellow citizens, fellow members of God’s household, fellow members of Christ’s one body.

Paul describes this inclusion, this reconciliation as the mystery of Christ that was imparted to him and which established his own ministry to the Gentiles. As he goes on to explain in chapter 3:

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

So for the early church, the great mystery to comprehend was that the church went beyond just including the Jewish covenant people, but involved a uniting, a gathering in, of Gentiles from all nations.

Is this then all that the mystery entails – that anyone – Jew or Gentile – who comes to Christ will be saved? No, there is more. God’s plans to not involve only human beings whom he has elected to be saved. His grand work of redemption is not limited to snatching his chosen people out of the world but of transforming the world itself. This is the God who “created all things” (3:9). The plan of our verse 10 is to unite “all things in Christ.” In verse 11, we are told that God works “all things according to the counsel of his will.” And verse 22 reminds us that God has placed “all things under Christ’s feet.”

So what does this mean? Does God intend to save all people? Are all things that have been evil going to be turned to good? It is an inviting thought. But the Scripture is not there. Scripture does not present a scene where all who are wicked – be they human or spirit – will be transformed and reconciled to God. Rather, they will be cast out, thrown into the lake of fire, shut out from the heavenly city gates.

There will be someday a restoration of all things in the sense of peace, harmony, and justice prevailing in God’s kingdom. But that restoration takes place, not because evil is transformed but because evil is banished along with all creatures who remain under its influence.

This restoration includes creation.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now (Romans 8:19-22).

What is creation looking forward to? The day of the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1). Creation is looking to the same thing we are for ourselves in which our perishable bodies will be changed to imperishable bodies. Creation is looking to the end of decay, as our own bodies are. Death still infects creation, as it infects our bodies. But the day will come when death will be no more. The day will come when the former things have passed away and all things remaining will be united, things in heaven and on earth.

There will be a day in which there is no division between heaven and earth. There will be no longing for a heavenly home. This world will not be a place that we are passing through. This world will be a heavenly abode in that paradise will be restored.

And we will not believe in heaven by faith. There will be no contrast between the things that are seen and the things that are unseen, for everything will be seen. All things will be united. There will not be the things to be believed by faith and the things we can see clearly. We will see all things clearly. For all things – all of creation, all that is of the spiritual world, all that is a part of our existence – will be united, gathered together, summed up in Christ who is over all.

Listen to this glorious exposition in Colossians 1:15-20:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

This is the glorious future – a world described in Revelation when the bride is joined with her husband. On that day “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (21:4).

Yes, that is our hope, there lies the riches of our glorious inheritance. What then does this mean for us now. We long for such a day precisely because it is not the world we live in now. There seems to be no uniting or gathering in Christ. Divisions seem to be multiplying and the division between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world only growing further apart. The church seems to be a far cry from being a conquering army. The forces of evil seem to be far greater in number and power.

But what seems to be is not what truly is. Our glory is veiled, but our glory exists, nevertheless. What we see and believe by faith is nevertheless more real, more lasting than what we see with our eyes. But one thing we need to be doing is a better job of seeing with our eyes.

We see the church declining in number and influence, but that is only because we equate the church with the western church. Great strides are being made in Africa and Asia, enough so that the majority of the Christian church will soon be in what used to be considered unfertile land. As exasperated as we may feel with what is happening in our territory, be assured that the enemy is exasperated with the ground lost in land he once had sealed.

We see estrangement and division within families and personal relationships. Jesus warned us that such divisions would result in following him. But for all the division, everyone of us can attest to how Christ has united us or others we know with people who formerly were enemies. The gospel goes forth because so many former enemies have become reconciled in Christ. Its power has been displayed, not in the vanquishing of foes, but in the reconciling of foes to one another. It has been displayed in the power of forgiveness. We know that. We can attest to it, whether it is in being forgiven or possessing the will to forgive.

Reconciliation is happening. It has happened throughout the centuries as the church grew and dominated western culture. And even as the church’s influence seems to be declining, yet there is peace among the nations precisely because they have adapted Christian values. The post-modern, atheistic western society does not realize how much indebted it is to the principles of Scripture and of the gospel.

Do not let the clothing of the church’s meekness lead you to underestimate the power of God at work. We know through Scripture that God’s power is most shown in our weakness. We know that he delights in the salvation of those not considered wise or mighty by the world. We know  – that he has entrusted the gospel in jars of clay. Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God is like the seed planted in the soil and grows we know not how.

The world is not out of control. History is not a never-ending circle going nowhere. It is moving forward under the sovereign control of God, who has placed all things under Christ, who is our head. We are on the side of the Lord of Hosts who is subjecting evil forces according to his plan and time table. It will be in the fullness of time – when all has come about as God has determined – that what is now known by faith will be made reality to everyone – friend and foe of God, regenerate and unregenerate. The day will come will all will bow the knee before Jesus Christ – whether out of willing obedience or out of coercion. The day will come when evil will be doomed, not reconciled, but condemned and cast away. Then the world and the heavens will be united in glory and peace and joy.

There may be some of you who refuse to accept this prospect. Is that because you have thoroughly studied the scriptures and examined your own heart in light of God’s Word? Or is it because you have merely accepted what a society that has rejected God propounds and it seems the easiest thing to believe? You are here on the earth but a brief spell. We are speaking of what takes place for eternity. Is it not worth the effort to search out? Is there anything more important than what takes place forever? God is the God of all things, including you. Will you deny him? Ignore him? When the fullness of time arrives, you will not be able to do either. Why not now join with the choirs of angels and sing blessing to his name?



The Salvation Gift

By / Jan 5

Introduction

Though Christmas has passed by, we are still considering the gifts that have come to us as a result of Christmas – the gifts of Christ. We have considered the gift of Christ himself and how all other gifts come through him. We have considered the gift of being chosen in Christ. The gift tonight is like the Christmas package I receive from my oldest sister each year. There are always multiple gifts. The salvation gift is three-fold. With it comes adoption, redemption, and forgiveness.

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Purpose of Salvation

Before we get to the what, our passage takes us to the why of salvation. Why are we saved? What is God’s purpose?

We may think that the answer is too obvious. God saved us because he loved us and did not want us to suffer. As 2:4 expresses it: “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us” saved us. And that is true. Simply put, God took pity on us and saved us from the judgment that our sins brought on us.

But salvation fromsomething is not the ultimate goal of God. Rather, he saved us from sin that we might be saved for a good purpose. Verse 4 teaches what that good purpose is.

that we should be holy and blameless before him.

As with all New Testament concepts, they are taken from the Old Testament for the simple reason that they fulfill what the Old Testament has pointed to. The Old Testament version of the New Testament gospel is the exodus. That is the great event of salvation for the Jewish people. That is the event of being saved from bondage, just as the church speaks of being saved from bondage to sin. But being saved from bondage was not the whole story then. Yes, God sees the affliction of his people; he hears their cries, knows their sufferings and so sends Moses to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to deliver them safely to a land flowing with milk and honey.

However, as soon as they cross the Red Sea they are taken to Mt. Sinai where God makes a covenant with them and delivers to them the Ten Commandments and other laws. Here is what he says to them:

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;  and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:4-6).

God’s purpose in saving his people from bondage was so that he could set them apart for himself as a holy nation. The premise of the law and of the religious structure with its temple and sacrifices was to this end – that they might truly become a holy people. Yes, he wants to bless them; he wants them to prosper and to be happy. But the blessing and prospering and the joy were to come out of the holiness by which they lived and glorified their God.

The ultimate end presented in Isaiah of the joy that would be theirs when they reach their glorious destiny is a depiction of holiness.

Say to the daughter of Zion,

     “Behold, your salvation comes;

     behold, his reward is with him,

          and his recompense before him.”

And they shall be called The Holy People,

          The Redeemed of the Lord;

     and you shall be called Sought Out,

          A City Not Forsaken (Isaiah 66:11-12).

With the same understanding, the apostle Paul presents the purpose of salvation – to “be holy and blameless before [the Lord].” What exactly is meant by that phrase? Does it speak of the standing that we have before God in our relationship to Jesus Christ – our justification? Or does it speak of what we are actually becoming and will become fully through sanctification? Is it the legal transfer of Christ’s righteousness to us or the infusion of real righteousness through the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us?

Commentators differ, but I cannot understand the need to make a distinction. The rest of Ephesians and all of the New Testament make no sense if we are not to be growing in sanctification. Though we are accepted now, justified now, in Christ, our very hope is to someday be transformed, to be fully like Christ. When we do appear before our God, what else would he want than a holy and blameless people?

But there is no hope of obtaining that end if we are not first justified in Christ, accounted now as holy and blameless in him. There is no sanctification without justification first taking place. However well we may do in accomplishing our resolutions to live holy lives, if we are not first justified in Christ and have our guilt removed – made blameless – the resolutions become mere covering of filthy sin that remains.

And so, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be accounted holy and blameless in Christ before him, so that we should become holy and blameless on the day that we must appear before him.

To help understand, turn to 5:25-27:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,  that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

There is the same phrase. What are we taught? Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. He accomplished the work of redemption and cleansed her so that he might on the final day, when he returns as the Bridegroom, present her as his Bride, holy and without blemish. The process of sanctification – of being prepared as a bride cannot begin until the bride is first redeemed by the bridegroom. And so, we are set apart and accounted blameless, so that we might become holy and blameless within.

Now, let’s explore the terms used in describing our salvation gifts.

Adoption

In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ

This first term, “adoption,” could also be described as a purpose. We are saved that we might belong to God. Or one could say, to be saved is to be adopted – to be made a child of God.

According to the gospel of man, we are all children of God. He is our heavenly Father and we his offspring whom he lovingly cares for. There is one reference to mankind in general as God’s offspring, but that is in the context of the apostle Paul quoting a Greek poet. God the Father, does in his mercy provide for all mankind but also for all creatures as well. It is true that we are as man made in the image of God, but the whole narrative of Scripture is the consequence of us marring that image. Yes, we were intended to be the children of God, reflecting his image, and experiencing the blessing of belonging to him.

The problem, however, is the fall; the problem is that we were cast out from God’s presence in consequence of the fall. We were kicked out of the family. We were disowned. This is our dilemma. We have lost our inheritance. We became “by nature children of wrath” (2:3). What is our hope? What can we do to get back into the good graces of our Father? The answer is “nothing.” The door has been shut. There is no going home.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,” because “In love he predestined us for adoption,” has taken us in. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are (1 John 3:1).

In Christ, through Christ, we have been adopted as the children of God. Take time to understand this. One can receive a favor without being a member of the family. We have heard the expression said of another:

“She is like a daughter to me.”

“He has been like a dad to me.”

“We treat him like he is part of the family.

But the very term “like” means he or she is not a real son or daughter or father or mother. He or she is not really a part of the family. As much love as there may be, as much good intention, when the time for dispersing an inheritance, there would have to be specific words in a will for the person who is like family to share in the family inheritance.

But when we became justified in Christ; when the exchange took place – our sin to Christ; Christ’s righteousness to us – when we exercised faith, then the adoption papers were signed and we became family. This is the point of Galatians 4:4-7:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

There is a reason Paul writes “sons” instead of “children” or “sons and daughters.” The son receives the inheritance. And whether you are male or female, regardless of your ethnicity, or anything that might seemed to have disqualified you, once you are redeemed through Christ, your inheritance is as legally secure as it can be. You belong to God, and you will receive your now rightful inheritance.

Redemption

How then do we get adopted? Many couples and individuals would like to adopt children, but it is not simple. There are laws to observe, costs to bear. And if someone else has a claim on a child, good intentions cannot release him from those claims.

That is our problem. Someone has a claim on us. Satan claims us. Remember? We got kicked out of the house, and when we did, he claimed us. We are in bondage now – bondage to our own sin, which has no intention of letting us go. And the law is on their side. We are lawbreakers. We cannot be let go without paying our penalty, and our penalty is death. What is our hope? What can we do to satisfy the law and make ourselves available for adoption? The answer is “nothing.” “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,” sent us his Son so that

In him we have redemption through his blood, (v. 7).

The term for “redemption” means to pay a ransom, to pay a price. Kidnappers will release their captives for a price. Slaves can be  released if a high enough price is paid for them. To redeem a person is to pay a price to satisfy the owner or captor.

We must be careful in our understanding. I have spoken of Satan having a claim on us, of sin being our captor. Are we to understand, then, that God had to pay a ransom to Satan, or in some way satisfy the claims of sin? It is neither Satan nor sin that holds the papers for us; it is the law, which we have broken. A criminal can lead you astray and even put you under duress to commit crime. But if you are caught and sent to jail, it is not the criminal who must be satisfied but the keepers of the law.

God owes nothing to Satan but condemnation. And Satan, by the way, does not want to give us up for any price. Nor does sin. But we have broken the law and justice demands our punishment. And even should we want to redeem ourselves, sin maintains such a hold on us that we are in even greater bondage to it than the bars placed around us by the law.

What is our hope? What can we do to redeem ourselves so that we are freed from both the righteous punishment of the law and the cruel bonds of sin? The answer is, “nothing.” “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,” sent his Only Begotten Son to die on the cross and so redeem us from our guilt and from the bondage to sin. “You were ransomed…, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

The price has been paid. The ransom has been delivered. Sin has no claim on us; the law no longer has a record of us as law-breakers. God has redeemed us through Jesus Christ.

But then, we ask, how can we face God who had to pay such a price? Do we not at times feel guilty about this? We look at the cross; we see the price paid to redeem us; and then we look at ourselves and see so many sins committed by a person who supposedly has been redeemed from the bondage of sin. What is our hope? What can we do to prove ourselves worthy of this redemption so that God will approve of us? The answer is “nothing.” “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,” through the redemption of his Son provided for

the forgiveness of our trespasses (v. 7)

Understand that redemption is not bail. A price is not paid for us simply to be released until judgment comes. God is not the angry father who posts bail to get his foolish son out of jail. We are not the son walking out of the jail cell with our head hung low, ashamed to meet the eyes of our father.

We are justified. Christ did not merely buy us with his blood; he cleansed us with his blood. We are released from prison, not because Christ paid off officials and not merely because Christ completed our sentence. Our sentence has been stricken from the records. The case against us has been dismissed. This is what “the forgiveness of our trespasses” entail.

This is what infuriates Satan, our accuser, who is foiled by Jesus, our advocate.

Satan: Judge, you cannot release this prisoner! He has not paid for his crimes!

Jesus: Honor, there are no crimes on the prisoner’s record. He must be released.

Satan:  Of course there are crimes. Let the records be read. Where are the records? Who has tampered with the records? This prisoner belongs to me!

Jesus: The only records we have are adoption papers, which show that he belongs to God his Father.

Satan: But that could not have happened. The law forbids it!

Jesus: The law would have forbidden it, but its demands for justice have been satisfied. This prisoner was redeemed.

Satan: By whom?

Jesus: By me.

Satan: How?

Jesus: By my blood.

Judge: The prisoner’s trespasses are forgiven. His record is expunged. He may go home to his Father.

These are our salvation gifts – we have been adopted; we have been redeemed; we have been forgiven. And the despair that we could never change; that we could never aspire to be holy and blameless is now turned to a very real hope. For he began a good work in us will carry it to completion. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit; our Lord abides in us; we have been reconciled to God our Father.

Lessons

This passage strikes just the right balance for how we are to live as Christians. We are not to live in fear of rejection. We have been adopted into God’s family. He is our Father. We are not considered part of the family as long as we keep up appearances. Nor are we considered the black sheep of the family. Our sins are forgiven, and to be forgiven by God means that our sins are forgotten. Jesus is not ashamed to be called our brother; God does not begrudge having brought us in. And so we can live with assurance of belonging and not being cast out.

But because God has saved us for the purpose of being holy and blameless before him, we have a noble purpose for living. We do not use our freedom to be self-indulgence, to sin freely. Rather, we use our freedom to live lives that are pleasing to our holy Father. Without Christ, we were not free to live such lives; with Christ we may now do so. And so, our freedom compels us all the more to be concerned with living righteously.

Do you not want such a life, you who have not yielded to Christ? Do you not want to belong, to be adopted into God’s family, ever secure in his love? Do you not want to be redeemed, to be freed from the claims of the sins that bound you? Do you not want to know forgiveness – real forgiveness, a forgiveness that does not hold your past, your failings over your head but removes them completely? Do you not want to live with purpose, knowing that you are living for the God who created you and this world? Do you not want to know your Creator as your Redeemer?

Then receive the gift of salvation. Jesus Christ offers it to you. Will you not accept?



Giving Thanks with My Whole Heart

By / Dec 29


The Chosen Gift

By / Dec 22

Introduction

My wife and I enjoy receiving cards in the Christmas season. Some have annual newsletters. Some include pictures. Some just have a signature. But it doesn’t matter to us. It is nice to be thought of. A friend took the time to let us know that we are, indeed, friends.

The only time when a card loses its charm is when the names of the senders are merely printed.  Once we received a card that the giver wrote and printed nothing. The one advantage was that we could use the card to send to someone else. What was made clear was that we were little more than names on what must have been a long list.

Our passage is intended to assure us that the gift of Christ we received did not fall into our hands because our names happened to appear in a list. We received our gift because God the Father personally chose us to receive. We were, and still remain, very much in his mind.

Text

…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…

Last Sunday, we explored the wondrous gift of Christ himself and all the other gifts we receive through him. I hope that those of you who followed along the recital of gift after gift, blessing after blessing were indeed blessed as we counted the uncountable riches we have in Christ. But there may have been some of you who also doubted that such blessings really could be yours or secured for you. What if you were to lose them? What if you received only a portion? Because, if you were saved by chance; if you were saved by your own wit, how secure can your salvation and the blessings that accompany it really be?

Verses 4 and 5 tell us that we receive all these blessings in Christ because God chose us; he predestinated us to receive them. We were not pulled out of a lottery basket. The gift of salvation was not handed out indiscriminately and we happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Look at verse 4. God chose us in Christ, when? When he had time to observe us and measure our worthiness? He chose us before we were born; not just before we were born; before God had laid the foundation of the world. Before God created the world, he had chosen us to belong to him; he had chosen us to be holy and blameless before him. Yes, God had chosen us to be his holy people, and even the Fall, which brought in sin and death, has not succeeded in changing his original intention.

Because God chose us in Christ, he assured that Satan’s intent would be foiled, that the Fall itself would be turned into a means to all the more display his glory. Those whom God chose to be his would be made his through the work of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan’s intent was to rob God of his chosen people. That intent failed because his chosen people were chosen in God the Son.

Verse 5 fleshes this out further. God predestined us – predetermined, foreordained – to be adopted through Jesus Christ. It is true that Satan succeeded through the Fall in cutting all mankind off from the gracious covenant relationship with God. We were cast out of the Garden. We were barred from the Tree of Life. Far from being holy and blameless, we became guilty sinners. It appeared that Satan foiled God’s good purpose.

And yet, even as God pronounced judgment, he foretold how his good purpose would be fulfilled.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

There would be, literally, a seed of Eve, an offspring who would battle Satan and win victory. That offspring would be Jesus Christ, the Son of God made flesh. His victory would take place upon a cross. He would suffer his own wound, but he would also strike the decisive blow against the Enemy. He would bring us near to God by his blood. He would become our peace, reconciling us to God through the cross, thereby killing the hostility between us and God. The result is that instead of being enemies of God, we become his adopted children.

All of this would take place “according to the purpose of his will.” It would happen not according to God’s hope, but his good pleasure, another synonym to use with purpose. We have heard such expression in movies with kings. Someone will ask, “What is the pleasure of the king?” meaning what is the will of the king. And whatever the will is is what will take place.

These concepts of God choosing us, predestinating us, and then carrying out his will to make us his is conveyed throughout the first two chapters.

Verses 9 and 10 read: “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ  as a plan for the fullness of time.” God is making known his will, according to his own good pleasure. This purpose is carried out in Christ, according to the way God planned it to be. God is not rewriting his plan as he goes along. He is not winging it. He is not figuring it out as he goes along.

Verse 11 piles on the terms: “In Christ we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” We have been predestined. We have been predestined according to the purpose, the good pleasure, of God. God is the one who works all things according to the counsel of his will. He works all things, not some or most things. He works all things according to the counsel of his own will.

Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,

          or what man shows him his counsel?

Whom did he consult,

          and who made him understand?

Who taught him the path of justice,

          and taught him knowledge,

          and showed him the way of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13-14)

Chapter 2 presents God carrying out his will. Verse 4 reads: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”

We were dead; we were not men and women dying who grabbed oxygen masks just in time. We were dead. But God made us alive together with Christ. He acted according the purpose of his will.

First, he sent his Son: “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4).

“When the fullness of time had come” – when time reached God’s timing – God sent forth his Son, as he had planned, to make redemption available. So then, did God merely plan the means of salvation and then leave it up to us to take hold of it? Was it the means of salvation that was predestinated? In other words, did God choose the type of people who would be saved – namely, any who would choose Christ – and then left the choice up to whomever might lay hold of it? Thus, as the beginning of verse 8 states, “by grace you have been saved through faith.” By grace – by God’s gracious work of sending Christ – we are saved when we by our own choice exercise faith.

This seems reasonable as one reads through Ephesians 1-3 and sees how much of it is speaking of the church, which is now made part of the covenant that exclusively belonged to the Jewish nation. The rest of chapter 2 and first half of chapter 3 address the mystery of God’s will to include Gentiles as partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. And, indeed, 3:11 uses the same language of God’s will is this regard: “This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But then, how do we come into the church? What makes us considered saved? It is the faith that we exercise as individuals. It is not the church that is saved, which then includes whatever individuals might happen to choose to believe. It is we individuals in 1:13 – “when [we] heard the word of truth, the gospel of [our] salvation, and believed in him” – who make up the church. The guarantee of an inheritance is made to us as individuals. The whole point of the doxology in chapter 1 is to give us individual assurance that we have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. It is not the church that has been sealed, and we then are included individually as long as we maintain our policy premiums. We are sealed.

Verse 2:8 continues: “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The faith we exercise to receive our inheritance is God’s gift to us. It does not come out of our own works. There is nothing that we can point to in ourselves to explain where the faith comes from or even to explain why God should give us faith. No one may boast. We might then do good works once we are in Christ, but we find that even those works were prepared by God beforehand.

God has planned our salvation. He has chosen who will receive salvation. He has planned the means, according the purpose of his will. He has carried out his will toward us.

Lessons

So let us join with the apostle Paul in proclaiming “Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ.” But then that is what many of us who have been chosen are reluctant to do – blessing God because he has predestinated us. Something doesn’t quite seem right about it?

Why does this doctrine bother us so? For some the problem is what predestination implies about free will. How can we have free will if our salvation is predestined? For others the issue is one of fairness. How can it be fair for some to be predestined to be saved and others are left out? And then others simply point out that there are verses that specifically say God wants all persons to be saved. How can we make sense of them if predestination is true?

These are challenging questions and worth pursuing. But for this time, I want us to consider why it is that Scripture teaches us the doctrine. Besides this passage, there are two other significant ones that present the subject at length. As we read them, observe the reasons why the subject is brought up.

First is John 6:35-44:

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out…  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘Ihave come down from heaven’?”  Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Here is Jesus giving an open invitation: “whoever comes to me shall not hunger.” He then observes: “you have seen me and yet do not believe.” How then does he explain this lack of response? He has a tougher crowd than usual to convince? No, he states: “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” They will come, and when they come they will never be cast out. Members of the crowd grumble, Who do you think you are? Again, Jesus responds. Grumble all you want, but the reason you do not come to me in faith is that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (v. 44).

Why does Jesus respond this way? He seems to have two points to make. One is that, contrary to appearances, he has not failed to achieve his purpose – in this case to win over his audience. He has done his part – give the open invitation. God the Father will then carry out his own purpose in drawing those whom he has chosen to give to his Son. The other point is to assure the chosen, that those whom the Father has determined to give will indeed come and that they may be assured of their reception.

The other passage is Romans 9: 6-20:

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,  and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”  And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,  though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call—  she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”  As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!  For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

Paul also wishes to express that there is no failure on God’s part regarding salvation. “It is not as though the word of God has failed.” The promise of salvation is made in advance “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call” (v. 11).

He is assuring his readers that God has not failed but also that their own inclusion is not some glitch in the divine computer system. They are children of the promise, not children who slipped into a system designed for another people. Their reception of God’s compassion lay not in their “human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (16).

What does that mean for us? He has got us and he will not let go. God chose us before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to receive the gift of Christ, his Son. He gave us as gifts to his Son, and the Son shall lose no one whom the Father has given, and he shall raise us up on the last day.

He anticipates the same objections we have raised. His basic answer is, do not question our Creator. Neither he nor Jesus nor any other biblical writer takes effort to defend God. They simply explain what he is doing and give us assurance that God is just, that he is merciful, and that he will carry out whatever his will concerning us may be. Or to put it simply – let God be God.

Can you do that? You will acknowledge that as a created human being you have limited ability to understand the mind and ways of your infinite, eternal Creator. Surely you will admit that he can think and do things that you cannot think all the way through. Can you not let God be God?

But it doesn’t seem fair; it doesn’t seem to be loving! Look at the Cross. What do you see? The babe of Christmas is now the sacrificial lamb of Good Friday. Do you, a sinner, believe that you understand justice better than God? His Son hangs on a cross for your sins. Are you prepared, because you can’t figure out the fairness of his choosing to give you his Son, to then accuse him of injustice? You know your heart – how sinful it is. Are you really going to place yourself in the position of saying of God what is merciful and what is not? Of determining what is the act of love and what is not?

Can you not simply hold out your hands, receive the gift your Father has chosen to give you, and then give thanks, accepting that your Father really is the smartest Father in all the world and that he loves you more than anybody else, and that all you need to do is trust him to know and to do what is best. That is why he is telling you through his Word about all this choosing and predestinating. He is say, “My child, I’ve got you. I have never not had you. I have always known you, always chosen you to be mine, and I have worked everything out to make you mind. I will never let you go. Trust me.”

And then, if anyone is here who has never come to Christ, and you ask if that is because you are not chosen; then come now and answer the call of Jesus Christ, and test his promise that whoever should come to him, he will never cast out but raise you up on the last day.

You may think you are here by chance. Is it not likely that he has brought you into this sanctuary to hear this message at this time, so that you might come to Christ who calls you?



The Christ Gift

By / Dec 15

Introduction

We are in the season of gift-giving or, depending on what excites you more, gift-receiving. We have the wonderful assistance of ads to help us with the process. Some gifts, we are told, are gifts “that keep on giving,” like the annual subscription for Sports Illustrated my brother gives me. There are practical gifts, gag gifts, sentimental gifts. There are gifts that are “just right” for the specific relationship. And then there is the “perfect gift.” That is the store card or general credit card that allows the recipient to purchase whatever he or she really wants. Of course, the greater the money amount on the card, the more perfect the perfect gift becomes!

For four Sunday evenings we will consider the gifts that God our Father considers to be the true perfect gifts that keep on giving blessing after blessing. This evening we begin with the gift through which all the other gifts come.

Text

Let me read our text, and you should not have difficulty understanding what that special gift is.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

The special gift is the Christ-gift. Consider how just in these three verses he impacts everything.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

Paul is an apostle in the church made that way by the will of God. But Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus. If he is not an apostle of Christ Jesus, he is an apostle of nothing. It is the Lord Jesus who stopped him in the middle of the road to Emmaus, who gave Paul the commission to carry his name “before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel,” even to “suffer for the sake of [his] name” (Acts 9:15-16). Paul received the gospel not “from any man” but “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12). And that gospel was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. An apostle is commissioned to carry a message. Without Christ, Paul has no commission and no message.

But it not just a matter for Paul of not having a career. Without Christ, Paul himself remains lost. He has no Savior, no redemption. Paul had considered himself an apostle before Christ; he was an apostle for the law. He was so zealous in his cause that he embarked on a journey beyond the bounds of Palestine so as to promote the law and arrest law-breakers. But his credentials as law-keeper and law-enforcer were but rubbish. Without Christ, all his attempts at having a righteousness of his own came to nothing. But God gave to him the gift of Christ, both to save him and to make him an apostle.

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

Paul addresses his readers. They are saints, i.e. they are “agios,” people who “set apart” by God. That is the essential meaning of saint. The saints are made saints because they are set apart in Christ Jesus. As the verses will make clear, they are chosen by God in Christ (v. 4); they are adopted as God’s children through Christ (v. 5); they are redeemed by Christ’s blood and receive forgiveness of their trespasses in him (v. 7). Without Christ they were dead in their trespasses and children of wrath (2:1, 3). But they were made alive with Christ and shown kindness in Christ Jesus (2:4, 6).  It is in Christ Jesus that they are brought near to God by his blood (2:13). It is upon Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that they grow into an “agios” holy temple in the Lord (2:21). Without the gift of Christ they are not saints. If they are set apart for anything, it is for destruction.

“In Ephesus” may or may not be in the original. This could have been a letter intended to be circulated among churches that included Ephesus. The other main descriptor of the readers is that they are faithful. The saints are faithful, but they are faithful in Christ Jesus. They have faith in Christ, but that faith is not their own; it is a gift of God. The power that God the Father gives to us to be faithful is the power that he worked in Christ. We are filled with the fullness of God as we know the love of Christ. We were given grace and gifts by Christ. We grow into faith and knowledge of Christ. We live according to the way we “learned Christ.” We walk in love “as Christ loved us (5:2). We are light in the Lord (5:8). Whether we are wives or husbands or children or parents or even slaves, we live with Christ as our model. There is no sense of faithfulness if we are not faithful in Christ and to Christ.

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, we have seen Paul as he is in Christ. We have seen his readers (and us) as they are in Christ. What of Christ himself? Verse 2 sheds light on this. The greeting, which is the same in every epistle but one, places the Lord Jesus Christ on the same level as God our Father. It is from both that believers receive grace and peace.

This is different from saying that God our Father blesses us with grace and peace through Christ, although such a teaching is true and is the primary teaching of the epistle. As much as it is true that God our Father blesses us in and through Christ, we are not to understand that to mean Christ is merely an instrument which God the Father makes use of, such as he may do through angels and even fellow humans. There is no similar statement of anything coming from God the Father and from an angel or an apostle or anyone. To raise Christ on such a level is to equate him with the Father. Therefore to be connected with Christ as saints set apart for him, or to receive anything in and through him, is to be connected with God himself.

Verse 3 brings to clarity and fullness what the previous two verses have presented and which sets forth the premise of the first three chapters.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

God the Father is “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We who know Christ know God the Father as the Father of our Lord. That is how we know the first Person of the Trinity. Apart from Christ, we do not know him, we do not relate to him.

To give an example, in the context of Tenth Church, I have my own identity. You know me as Marion or as Pastor Clark or whatever it is you call me. When I am outside of Tenth, specifically when I am outside of Tenth and with my daughter, I am known as “Sarah’s dad.” “So, you are Sarah’s dad. Everybody, this is Sarah’s dad.” Take away Sarah and I am unknown and have no relationship, no connection with many people.

This type of identity is more fused between God the Father and the Son. Yes, there are two, even three distinct Persons in the godhead. Even so, none of the Persons exist or acts outside of the other. They act interdependently. I actually do have a life outside of and independent from my daughter. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always working (mysteriously to us) together.

But also the point for us is that we cannot know God the Father except in relation to Christ, nor can we receive the blessings of redemption or the “spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” except in that relationship. Jesus’ words in John 14:6-10a is instructive.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

We do not know God the Father apart from knowing him through God the Son, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we may not refer to him as God our Father if we do not know God the Son as our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea that we worship the same God as any other religion simply is not true. The Trinity is not how we conceive God from our Christian perspective; the Trinity is the one true God. If we do not worship God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we worship a false god.

The last half of verse 3 brings us to the clear, all-encompassing point: who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It is in Christ that God our Father blesses us with every spiritual blessing.

What are these spiritual blessings? That is what the first chapters present, and what the remaining chapters are based upon. We will look at some of them in more detail over three weeks, but let’s list them all now.

There is the blessing of being personally chosen by God to belong to him; there is the blessing of being changed from sinners before him to becoming holy and blameless. We who objects of wrath are adopted as his beloved children. We receive his glorious grace. We are redeemed, forgiven of our trespasses. We are given an inheritance of glory which is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. We are awakened to hope; we are given power. We were dead in our trespasses and have been raised to life. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. We have been given faith and re-created to do good works, which themselves are gifts for us.

We who are gentiles were brought near to God. We have been united with believing Jews, being made one with them in God’s covenant. We are with them fellow citizens in God’s kingdom. We are united as a temple for God. We now have boldness and access to God.

These gifts, which are of immeasurable value, are poured out on us. God’s grace is lavished upon us. He gives them all of out of his love for us, a love that he has because he is rich in mercy. Our primary challenge is to comprehend the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us, to know the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love that actually surpasses knowledge. Our great Giver is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. In other words, God blows out of the water any wish list we might come up with.

These are all spiritual gifts, gifts which flow from God the Father, are found in Christ, and come by way of the Holy Spirit. But they also include what may be called the common grace gifts – gifts which are distributed to and among those without Christ.

First of all, if that promise had never been made in Genesis 3, that there would come one day a Redeemer who would crush Satan and redeem God’s people, there would be no purpose in letting the history of the world proceed – a history that includes much good along with the evil; a world that contains much beauty and pleasure along with ugliness and pain. There would be no common grace gifts without the promise of the Christ-gift.

And though the unregenerate surely enjoy common grace blessings, they cannot share in the same joy that we possess who know the Giver because we are in Christ. You have experienced this, perhaps even this past Thanksgiving. However much thankfulness is expressed (and usually little or none is), you have felt sadness that they could not/would not give thanks to God whom they know in Christ. Whatever it is they make express delight in – be it nature or relationships or good fortune – they cannot give thanks and praise where it is due; they do not know the Giver; they miss the point of it all, as they do every Christmas season. Indeed, the very attempt to manufacture a season of joy reveals the emptiness of an unregenerate people who do not know Christ, who cannot receive gifts from God through the Christ-gift. Somehow the season all on its own magically unites families, creates romantic love, fulfills the desires of children, whatever it is that we are aching for. But that is the wishful thinking needed for a world that does know the Giver of the Christ-gift.

Lessons

What about you who do know the Giver. You know the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you feel blessed? As you enter into the season of joy, do you count your uncountable blessings that you have in Christ? Do you bless God for blessing you?

It is easy, so easy as to be expected, that we allow the cares of living to crowd out reflection and thanksgiving for the spiritual blessings we possess. What we see and experience in the flesh is more real to us than what we know by faith. But now you have that opportunity to reflect on what is the greater reality, to give thanks for the gift you have received from your Father.

Do you feel alone? Do you have no family or are estranged from your family? That is painful, but don’t forget the spiritual blessing and reality that you have been adopted in Christ into the family of God your Father. You will not be estranged from him, never be cast out; the one relationship that matters most is the most secured, because it is sealed by God the Holy Spirit.

Do you feel poor? You have lost your job or stuck in a job that doesn’t pay enough? That is worrying, to be sure, but don’t forget that your are the richest person in the world. You possess the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints. You possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And you will not lose of penny of what you possess. Your inheritance is kept safe and you are kept safe until the day you receive your heavenly, glorious reward.

Do you feel threatened or despised? You have been redeemed from slavery, from death, from anything that has held you in bondage and would seek to harm you. Your sins are forgive…your sins are forgiven. You were dead; you have been raised to new life. And all this has taken place because God your Father is rich in mercy; because in his mercy he loves you with a great love. Who then, what then, should you fear?

Yes, life is difficult; it is painful, filled with grief. And yet the trials of life all the more should stir in us hope, desire, pleasure, thanksgiving for the spiritual blessings we have, blessings that cannot be taken away, blessings that are assured of coming to full fruition in glory. Blessings that are ours in Christ because we possess the blessing of Christ himself. We possess the Christ-gift.

We possess Christ. He is ours. It was unto us that this Savior was born. He is our Redeemer. He is our Light who shined in the darkness of our sinful hearts, who still shines for us as we make our way through a dark world. It was to us that a child, a son was given to be our Ruler, to sit on the throne as our King. He has won our forgiveness and has claimed us as his own. He is our good Shepherd who cares for us and knows us by name. He protects us, he feeds us. He is our High Priest who intercedes for us. He abides in us and we in him. He is our Friend, our Brother. He is not ashamed of us; he loves us and is merciful to us. He will not let us go, never cast us away.

To you who do not possess such a gift, would you not now receive it, receive him? Christ is not being withheld from you. You may be on the naughty list, but all the more then will he freely become yours. As Jesus himself said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). It is only when you refuse to accept that you are a sinner that he does not become your Christ-gift. Will you let pride prevent you from receiving the gift that brings with it every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places? Is your intellect offended? Your moral character? Your sense of independence? Will you be the kind of person who refuses good gifts because they are not given on your terms?

All you need is a humbled heart, a meek heart to receive him, and Christ will enter in. To all who receive this gift, who receive Christ, let us delight in him and bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.