mercy in Jesus

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
Hebrews 8:12

This is a quote from Jeremiah 31, the Old Testament promise of a New Covenant to come with Israel. This covenant came in Jesus. He enacted it and offered it. He is the mediator of it. And grace is the distinguishing relationship.

I am glad that Jesus came to in mercy, grace, and with the solution to the dead-end drama of my sin! I needed it. And the more I am called into the lives of other people, the more I see the absolute beauty of this. We all are marred, wounded, and helpless in our sin. We are masters at sinning. Even as we want many times to desperately stop ourselves. We are powerless. But Jesus makes the difference. He came to our rescue.

I see Him bring hope and strength and the grace I desperately need. I am thrilled to see Him use that same grace to change the situations of those around me. I am overwhelmed by his intense mercy! My sins don't deserve such grace. But grace is the mark of my relationship with Christ. I want it to be what makes my life memorable. I want to help others discover the grace of God, the love of our Father, and the forgiveness we all need in Christ.


- Prepare your minds for action.
1 Peter 1:13

Jesus... our high priest

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Hebrews 7:26

The universal problem with mankind is that our sin separates us from a holy and just God. This has always been our problem. In the Old Testament, a necessary mediation between God and man took place in the sacrificial system. A priest would serve as the mediator, offering sacrifice and obeying the dictates of a holy God. The priest had to be God's choice (not man's), and had to even offer sacrifice for his own sins.

But in Jesus we have a great mediator because Jesus is both holy God and a sinless man. He came to be the sacrifice that forever would atone for sin. He is both priest and sacrifice. And His work ended the need forever to find a go-between in man for man because in love, He offered His life as the final and complete atonement. Now we can be at peace with God through trusting the sacrifice of Christ.

The passage describes our high priest as being holy. As God, that is the very essence of His nature. He is holy and distinct. He is innocent. He did not sin, yet took upon Himself via the cross all the sin of all the world of all time. He is unstained, yet by the stains of His blood, we are made clean. He is separated from sinners by a sinless life, yet able to identify with us because He was tempted like we are. And He is exalted above the heavens. He is the only priest worthy of worship because He is God. The Father was pleased with His sacrifice and has exalted His name above all names. It is at His name that every knee will bow in earth and in heaven.

Jesus is our high priest. Jesus is our sacrifice for sin. Jesus is our great God and Savior!


- Prepare your minds for action.
1 Peter 1:13

anchor of the soul

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain...
Hebrews 6:19

directionless,
fatherless,
helpless,
hopeless.
All words that
describe lives
born today
marred by sin
needing stable love

pointless,
useless,
purposeless,
meaningless.
Also words that
tell outcomes
for those
lost in sin
needing a savior

There is a Savior
Jesus is the anchor
the solid ground
God's wisdom
come to all
so all may know

direction
father love
help
hope
purpose
usefulness
meaning
in the anchor
of the soul




- Prepare your minds for action.
1 Peter 1:13

liquid diet or solid food?

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 5:12-14

Not all believers are ready for all biblical teaching. There are levels of maturity in the faith. Just like you can't feed steak to a newborn, so you can't expect strong doctrine to be desired by an immature Christian. There is something of a "learning curve" in the faith. There are basics that ought to be mastered first. You have to be able to hold the fork and knife before you can cut the meat into bite-sized portions.

There is an expectation also that as Christians mature in their faith, they move into training roles. The point of the passage was that the audience to which this truth was written should have had enough time to mature to that role. They should have been teachers. Instead, they were still sucking on a bottle of milk. They were unskilled. They were still infants at heart.

The gauge of maturity was familiarity with the Word of God and some practiced discernment from understanding scripture. This allowed the mature believer to distinguish right from wrong in terms of doctrine and practice. That takes both time and exposure. We have to know the Word of God by reading, studying, understanding, applying, and living out its truth in our lives. Then, and only then, can we truly mature to the point that the Bible is our "solid food".


- Prepare your minds for action.
1 Peter 1:13

vivisection

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.
Hebrews 4:12

The Word of God gets to the real issues. It cuts through our layers of lies and excuses. It gets to the real truth. It is sharp enough to lay open what needs to be known. It is powerful enough to change everything. It does this because it is the Word of God. God is truth. His Word is truth.

A Christian cannot have a casual attitude about the Bible. We must be a people who are all about the Word. We don't worship scripture. We worship the God revealed there. And if we want to see our Savior, we really have to go there. That is why a regular habit of time in the scripture is absolutely essential and non-negotiable for the believer. It nourishes us.

It is also the tool that God uses to get to us. It opens us up. It is the scalpel in the hands of the Great Physician. It shows us where we need to change AND it shows us how we need to change. It dissects our diseased souls and forces us to confront our wrong thinking, attitudes, choices, and actions. It always exposes what needs to change, but never in a way that leads to death. It may be painful to undergo its plunging revelations about us, but it is always good in the end when we obey and follow its directions. We come out of the "surgery" much healthier than we were before we let God's truth cut into us.


- Prepare your minds for action.
1 Peter 1:13

care to confront

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:13

This admonition calls believers into mutual accountability. It commands us to care in such a way that we encourage and compel one another to deal with the problems that our sinful hearts cause within our lives. The church is a place where Christians can honestly and openly deal with what is wrong in their lives. This is not a threatening environment. It is a caring community that truly exhorts its members to turn away from the deceits of our sinful thinking and actions.

This underlying command exists not so that the church is a company of busy bodies. Rather, it exists so that the church can actively pursue holiness. And that is a two-way path. The first direction is to identify the good that God wants us to do. That involves study of God's Word and obedience to the leading of His Holy Spirit. The second direction involves turning from the wrong thinking and actions that our sinful natures are bent to do. Almost always, the predominant factor in identifying a sin is the root of "self". If it is all about what "I want", my experience is that it is more than likely a sinful desire or action. When it is clearly a desire to do what "God wants", we are learning to encourage each other toward holy living.

I also am impressed with the urgency in this little command. We exhort one another "in the now", while today is still called "today". We should develop relationships in the Church that have this sort of urgency and practicality in them. And that can only come by getting close to believers. I think from a practical standpoint that it means that there are a few Christian friends who get this kind of relationship. I cannot say that I can confidently exhort 800 such people. I do believe I could get there with 8 of them. And that is why churches grow in holiness by growing "small" in their "in reach". It is one reason why at Mill Creek, LifeGroups are vital to the health of the church body. Without commitment to be in smaller groups we are leaving ourselves open to the deceitfulness of sin. With that commitment we are creating a place where we can encourage each other to Christlike faith every day, while it is called "today".


- Prepare your minds for action.
1 Peter 1:13

destroyed & delivered

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Hebrews 2:14-15

There are two concepts from this short passage of scripture that encourage us in the mission of Jesus. He came to do these two things, and Christianity is centered on this work of His. The first thing is that he destroyed the power of death over us. The text here says that the devil had the power of death. This is an interesting thought. Adam and Eve were cursed with mortality (and death) because of their disobedience. And at that root of the temptation to sin against God was the devil's big lie. Since that time, the devil has been working to ensure that death is his domain and that human beings received the full effect of the fall. Jesus came and dramatically changed that. He beat death for us by dying. He destroyed the power that the devil had over us.

The second concept is very personal. We are delivered from the slavery that our mortality brings with it. No longer is the outcome of mere death the essence of humanity. In Jesus, cursed humans are freed. We are given eternal life. Our souls will never perish. We are delivered from the worst that death can do to us (eternity without God in hell) and from the devil's power over us. We are set free from lifelong slavery.

So in the mission of Jesus to destroy death and deliver us from its bondage we have the greatest of human tragedies avoided. We can know life if we truly know our great Savior! That is the way in which the gospel is the best news possible!



- Prepare your minds for action.
1 Peter 1:13