Saturday, July 31, 2010

The Covenant of Promise

Genesis 15:6-18

God counted Abraham as a righteous man, though there is ample evidence that Abraham did not live like a righteous man. The reason that God viewed Abraham as righteous was that Abraham believed what God told him, and God called this “faith”. That faith made Abraham righteous in God’s eyes, though his actions spoke otherwise.

God has always chosen to deal with man on the basis of covenant. In covenant, two parties decide upon an allegiance, swearing to one another by the killing of an animal and eating of a covenant meal. If one party breaks the covenant, they are held accountable by death, thus you did not enter these things lightly.

When the Lord chose to give Abraham a promised land, Abraham wanted proof that he would inherit it (Genesis 15:8). God then introduced covenant to Abraham, asking for a specified number of animals to be sacrificed. Their bodies were to be divided and placed apart with a walking space in between the pieces. The two parties involved in covenant would then pass between the pieces, stopping to cut their hands and then bind them together to mingle their blood with one another. Then they would eat and converse to seal the covenant.

After Abraham places the carcasses on the ground, he sits and waits on God to do whatever it is that He is going to do. In the meantime, the fowls of the came down upon the carcasses and Abraham worked to drive them away. God sees this action and makes a crucial decision. If God enters covenant with Abraham, then Abraham must live up to some pre-set, specified set of rules. If he fails, he breaks covenant and God must kill him. This negates his inheritance, for he won’t be around to take what God wants to give him. This poses a great problem, which is characterized by Abraham’s action in driving away the birds. God needs to make this covenant happen in way in which Abraham puts no effort into it, and has no standard to live up to. The only way to remove the possibility for Abraham to fail is to remove Abraham. Thus, God puts him to sleep during the ceremony.

While Abraham sleeps, God passes between the pieces of animal in the form of “a smoking furnace and a burning lamp” (Genesis 15:17). The smoking furnace is a type of God, the booming voice of Mt. Sinai, while the burning lamp is a type of Jesus, the light in a dark place. God literally cuts covenant with Himself, for He won’t break the deal on either end. When Abraham awakes, God tells Him all that He has given him, and He gives Abraham no requirements to keep.

When you accept Christ, you are not entering into a Covenant with God; rather you are receiving the blessings of the Covenant that Jesus made with His Father. Jesus shed His blood in this Covenant so that you would not have to. You get the inheritance while Jesus paid the price. Paul said that when we accept Jesus, a powerful thing happens to you: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). You and I are living under the same promise that Abraham was, without any obligation on our part. We can rejoice that we get the benefits of Covenant because Jesus paid our price. Hallelujah!

Friday, July 30, 2010

No More Curse

Revelation 22:1-4

What a beautiful scene is laid out in front of us in this text. The pure river of water of life flowing from beneath the throne of God, with the Lamb Jesus sitting there as well; all of it a picture of God’s wonderful provision and love. It takes place in the new Paradise, known as New Jerusalem on the New Earth which is our eternal home. God’s provision, as wonderful then as it is now, provides living water and trees which are “for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).

There will also be no more curse on this New Earth. The earth that we occupy dwells under a constant curse of death. When Adam sinned in the Garden, God told him that from that day forward, “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Genesis 3:17-19). God also multiplied a woman’s sorrow in conception and cursed her to dependence on her husband, with him being over her. There was also an obvious separation placed between man and beast, as before the fall, Adam had perfect interaction with them.

Death is the most obvious result of the curse, as all of us will meet that same fate someday. When Christ died at Calvary, He became the curse for us so that we could live in the blessings. His death at the cross conquered the entire universe, but He has yet to take claim of all that He conquered, choosing instead to allow time to pass so that more people will accept His payment.

The author of Hebrews wrote that Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever and then sat down on the right hand of God. From that moment forward, that same Jesus is waiting as one-by-one, all of His enemies are made His footstool, meaning that Jesus is resting His feet over the forces of darkness, but He has yet to put all things there (Hebrews 10:12, 13). The very last thing that He will slide up under His victorious, nail-scarred feet will be death, thus finishing the curse (1 Corinthians 15:26).

The scene of Revelation 22 also shows us that the name of Jesus will be written in the foreheads of the redeemed for eternity. We will bear a mark on us that identifies us with Him, and this is the opposite of the mark of the curse of this world. Satan will duplicate this action during the Great Tribulation with what we refer to as “The Mark of the Beast”, but where his denotes a curse, God’s denotes a blessing.

This action of the marked forehead providing the cure from the curse was first introduced in Genesis 4, when God told the murderous Cain, “Now art thou cursed from the earth” (Genesis 4:11). Cain complained that his punishment was greater that he could bear and he appealed to God for help. God, who is rich in mercy, marked Cain in the forehead so that anyone who saw him would not kill him. What could God have placed on the forehead of Cain that would make a potential killer back away? It must be something that identified Cain as being protected from God, for the curse shrinks away from the life-giver. Just as we are marked in the New Earth, Cain was marked in the old one. Thank God for His wonderful grace and mercy!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

From Death to Life

1 John 3:14

We have all heard talk about passing from life to death; how we slip out of this mortal coil and into the next world, but there isn’t much talk about passing from death to life. The only place that we might hear such talk is at a Christian funeral, when the minister mentions the deceased as having picked up the next life. Thank God that we have better news than that!

John mentions the believer passing “from death unto life” (1 John 3:14), meaning that before you met Christ you were indeed “dead”. Paul said that you were “dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world…” (Ephesians 2:1, 2). Prior to our conversion, we had never really lived at all, awaiting the new life that only Jesus can provide, while we walked with all of the other sinners, in the course of this world.

The moment that we place faith in Jesus Christ, He enters our heart by the Holy Spirit and seals us until the day of redemption. This sealing is so that nothing can come in and nothing can get out. We are protected from the outside world and its influence and we cannot “lose” who we are inside. We may or may not be aware of all of these things when we accept Jesus, but the happen nonetheless.

God does not wish for us to be ignorant of all of the beautiful things that are happening inside of us, so John gives us a way to know that we have changed by showing us a fruit of our salvation. Many things will change about us when we get saved, but one thing that we cannot change on our own is how we feel about other people. In fact, if we have bad feelings toward someone, many of us will say, “Hey, I can’t change how I feel”. How correct we are! This is why John chooses the subject of loving one another as a way of knowing that you are saved.

When you come to Christ, he sheds His love abroad in your heart. As you accept His love for you, your love for others grows accordingly. In fact, it is impossible for you to know how loved that you are in the sight of God, and not give that same love out to everyone that you meet. I am often struck by the testimonies of new converts who cannot put into words what has happened in them since they met Jesus, but they can all make one, common statement, “I feel so much love!” This is the perfect work of Christ in their life, and they give that out with their action and their smile.

You know that you belong to him when the thing that you can’t change on your own is changing automatically. You truly cannot change how you feel about people, but as you change how you view your Father, and you accept His love for you, those other feelings change in turn. Our proof that we are as close to God as we claim to be is our feelings towards fellow believers. Take that litmus test in your own heart, and give God glory for the great things that He is doing and that He has done.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Stamp of Approval

2 Peter 3:15, 16

The Apostle Paul must have had a moment or two in his ministry where he wondered if he was preaching the right thing. When confronted in the streets over his doctrine by Alexander the coppersmith, no one in Paul’s entourage stayed with him when he gave his rebuttal (2 Timothy 4:14-16). It must have been a lonely time, to look around and see that no one believes what you are preaching. Perhaps it crossed his mind that God had chosen the wrong person, for maybe one of the men who walked with Jesus in the flesh while He was on this earth would have been better accepted by the people.

As you study the composite whole of Paul’s message, you find that it is unnecessary, and even possibly counter-productive to have someone who walked with Jesus be the first preacher of the New Covenant. The message of New Covenant has nothing to do with the walk and lifestyle of Jesus Christ, which is why we never see Paul making reference to the things that Jesus did. Paul knew that Christianity is not about emulating the things that Jesus did, but about allowing His life to be lived through us because of His resurrection from the dead.

Any reference that connects Christianity with how Jesus would do things will invariably link works to righteousness. It subtly teaches the believer that they should be walking better, talking better, etc, so that they can know “What Would Jesus Do?” This type of lifestyle leads to condemnation and guilt, for you will never live up to the standard of Jesus on a day to day basis, and grace never demands that of us. Grace is a free gift, and if we must earn salvation, then it ceases to be by grace that we are saved.

Paul needed a good, old fashioned, honest endorsement for his message from someone who people trusted, and in the Apostle Peter, he found that man. Peter closes his final epistle by putting his stamp of approval on the ministry of Paul, even stating that the wisdom that Paul had concerning salvation was “given unto him” (2 Peter 3:15). Peter knows that the message that Paul is preaching did not come by intelligence or studying, but by divine revelation.

Paul’s writings are complex and they cover a variety of intricate topics within the framework of God’s grace and goodness. Peter said that Paul’s messages contained “some things hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3:16), so don’t be dismayed if you struggle within the writings of Paul even today. Pray for revelation of Paul’s message, where the Holy Spirit can reveal to you the powerful truths behind this wonderful author of God’s grace and mercy.

I must tip my cap to Peter in this situation, for his endorsement did not come easy. Paul openly rebuked Peter for acting one way in front of Gentiles and another way in front of Jews (Galatians 2:9-14). Peter could have rebelled against this and rejected the ministry of Paul, but instead he changed and became open to the message of pure grace, which affected not only his ministry, but ultimately the entire world.

The stamp of approval has been given to the message of grace, and it has been given by those who walked with Jesus Himself. Don’t run from the wonderful news of radical grace, for only that will radically change your life.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Good Days

1 Peter 3:10

Though the world that we live in may be tossed with financial woe, and the people around us seem nervous for their future, the saint trusts in a certain God. We find that it is possible, through the finished work of Jesus to love our life and to rest in the wonderful moments of knowing our Savior.

The Apostle Peter felt the same way, giving us a way to “love life, and see good days” (1 Peter 3:10). In order to have this happen in our lives we are to “let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:” (3:10). “Guile” is craftiness or deceit; so Peter is instructing us to speak that which is good and honest.

Paul warned the believer about speaking evil, saying that it should be “put away from you” (Ephesians 4:31). He also gave us an example of what evil speaking might sound like, and it is not “cursing” or telling dirty jokes. Paul said, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 3:29). When we communicate with others without using the grace and mercy of God in our speech and in our approach, Paul says that this is “corrupt communication”. How many times have we spoken to people with a judgmental attitude, administering law and works into their lives?

When we speak to one another in this manner we grieve the Holy Spirit of God (3:30). The Holy Spirit wishes to minister grace to each person that we come in contact with, but He is limited by the words that come out of our mouths. Don’t grieve His design and desire by saying things to others that are not covered over by the grace of Jesus Christ.

As we minister these words of hope and grace into people’s lives, we begin to love life and see good days (1 Peter 3:10). One of the reasons that we love life more when we minister grace to others is because we begin to rest in the grace that God has for us. Actually, it is impossible to minister pure grace to those in your life if you do not have an understanding and acceptance for grace in your own heart. Life is “worth the living” when you rest in His finished work.

Note that Peter says that you will “see good days”, not “a good day”. When we are resting in Christ, ministering His grace to the world around us, it is not just an occasional day of happiness in Jesus, but there are multiple “good days”. In contrast, when Paul tells the believer to put on the whole armor of God in order to stand against the tricks of the devil, he says that he is preparing us for the “evil day” (Ephesians 6:13). In the world there is an evil day, but in Christ there are good days!

Accept His mercy and grace towards you, and then minister that into someone’s life and watch your good days increase. May these “good days” begin today!

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Better Covenant; The Better Promises

Hebrews 8:6-8

If you were to ask many Christians, “What makes the New Covenant a better covenant?” many would respond, “We don’t have to kill lambs anymore”. This is due to the fact that Jesus died for sins, thus there is no need for animal sacrifice when we fail. Let me be blunt, if that is all that the New Covenant accomplished then that was a royal waste of time.

Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry than his priestly predecessors (Hebrews 8:6). He brought in a “better covenant, which was established upon better promises”. The purpose for bringing a better covenant was because the first covenant was found to have fault (Hebrews 8:7). The fault was not within the law itself, for it was holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). Instead, the fault was in the people on the other end of the covenant, “For finding fault with them…” (Hebrews 8:8). The “them” is Israel and Judah, just as it would be you or I.

The first covenant was faulty because it demanded perfection from a people that could never live perfect. No matter how hard someone tried, they would always be found in contempt of the law in one area or the other. Either they did things that were contrary to the law, or they failed to do the many things that the law demanded. Even in the atoning system of the Old Covenant, man was condemned constantly. If you failed and brought a sacrifice before the Lord, everyone saw you bring it and they knew that you had sinned in some respect. The law provided no privacy and no personal relationship. It was cold and it was distant, unable to help you in any way.

Jesus came to live that Old Covenant to perfection; fulfilling all of its many demands. When He died at Calvary, He cut a New Covenant with His Father, taking the faultiness out of the way. We were at fault under the Old Covenant for we could not keep the Law. Jesus has no fault, thus He stepped into our place and cut the Covenant between His Father and His perfect life. Now, we are the recipients of Jesus’ work, receiving benefits of a Covenant that we are not obligated to live up to.

The Old Covenant held man’s sins against him, while the New Covenant says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). The Old Covenant is now decayed and truly old, “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13), so to return to it for guidance or instruction is to go back to a system found faulty by God.

We have a better covenant and a better promise because we have a better sacrifice. Jesus did what no lamb or bull or goat could ever do; He removed the sin problem (John 1:29; Hebrews 10:4). If we are still dealing with sin it is because WE are doing it and not resting in what HE has already done. When we fail now, we are covered by the better covenant and the better promise and the knowledge of that causes us to live as we should, for His New Covenant is written on our minds and in our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).

Thank God for a better covenant, where Jesus keeps His end of the deal with the Father so that we get the blessings of heaven. Hallelujah!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Denying the Power

2 Timothy 3:1-9

In the last days before the return of Christ, there will be perilous or troublesome and dangerous times. This will be characterized by a “falling away” from the faith (2 Thessalonians 2:3), with various other identifiers in men’s lives as well (2 Timothy 3:2-5). This time period has been preached with great warning for many years, with messages pointing at men’s lifestyles and the lack of holiness that they exhibit as evidence that we are approaching the end.

If you have an understanding of what Paul and the rest of the early church was preaching in the time of the New Testament, it becomes easier to see what they meant by a “falling away” or “perilous times”. Paul preached a doctrine of pure grace, in which man is saved by faith alone, apart from his works and that salvation is a complete justification based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. Paul considered God only as righteous as His willingness to save man based upon faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

For Paul to prophecy of a time when the church would fall backwards or experience perilous times, he was seeing a time when the most accepted message in the church would not be the message of pure grace. That time is upon us, when there is more and more a mixture of pure grace with the trappings of law. Many churches specialize in preaching grace to the sinner and works to the saint in an attempt to “balance out” the message of law and grace. What man calls balance, God calls mixture! (Luke 5:36-39).

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power therof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5). I used to interpret this verse to mean that many people speak of holiness and living right but they deny the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost, thus they are denying the power source. Paul never gives any such indication in his writings, but does in fact give us the answer to this statement. In his letter to Rome, Paul tells us what the power of God is, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). The power of God is the good news of Christ’s finished work; namely, the message of pure grace. He then goes a step further, showing us true godliness and where it comes from, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17). Within the power of the finished work is where true righteousness grows. If we want godliness, we must want pure grace!

There will always be those who like Jannes and Jambres standing in front of Moses (2 Timothy 3:8), resist the truth. We must not back down from telling others of the wonderful love of God just because there are some who deny salvation could be that simple. Never back down from the message of pure grace, because it truly is the power of God to see men changed.

We are in perilous times, when people are hearing less and less of the glorious good news of God’s grace, but do not be dismayed believer. You and I are also living in an awesome time, when God is raising up voices all over the world to tell mankind of the love of the heavenly Father and of His awesome finished work. Will you be one of those voices today?