I always need Jesus

 

 

READ Nehemiah 9-13

Just because Jesus came into my life, forgave my sins, and made me a child of God does not mean that I no longer need His saving power. Today, reading these chapters remind me that even the most glorious and even miraculous experiences of God in no way indicate that I have ‘arrived’ and all will be easy sailing from this point on. This part of the story describes a high point. It begins with:

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. (Nehemiah 9:1–3)

Chapter 9 continues with an incredible prayer of praise and recommitment, loftier yet similar to prayers I have made over the years after sinful mistakes and realizing how much I need God. The chapter ends with: “Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing . . . .” which my many journals will affirm, yet even with the power of God and the Holy Spirit’s leading, the pattern repeats itself. It takes a long time to realize that even the most heartfelt intentions are not enough. Sin is too powerful for my determination to overcome.

Yet these OT saints were determined. They said, “The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes.” (Nehemiah 10:28–29) And followed up with a list of things they would not do, including “We will not neglect the house of our God.”

But they did. And Nehemiah returned to deal with their sin, warning and correcting them for forsaking the house of God, disobeying Sabbath regulations, and intermarriage with foreigners, reminding them of the dangers of these sins and asking God not to wipe out all the good he had done in His service.

These OT people give the impression that the favor of God depended on their obedience. In some ways it did, yet they knew their salvation depended entirely on God’s mercy. He did not forsake them. Instead, He sent them a Savior, better than their own efforts, better than Nehemiah’s leadership, better than the laws that governed them but they could not keep. And just as the plan of God determined, they crucified Him — that by His death, He would be the mediator of a new covenant:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:11–14)

This is why salvation begins with Jesus but does not end there. That old sin nature still tries to rule, to do its own thing, even to serve God in my own strength just as the OT saints tried to do and failed. I cannot be what God wants me to be without the living power of Jesus Christ and a daily reliance upon Him, not relying on myself. As John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

This means letting the Word of God show me the ‘I parts’ that these may be confessed and be put out of the way so the Holy Spirit fills and rules all parts. This is a daily, moment-by-moment necessity — I always need the saving power of Jesus Christ.