Hearing too much or listening not enough?

Looking back on decades of faith in Christ, I recall often skipping through the gospel message with the vain thought that I already knew that. Only lately I realized how important the biblical good news is for daily life.

How many years did I beat myself up for every mistake, forgetting that all was put on Christ and He gave me His righteousness? How many times have I patted myself on the back for whatever I did instead of glorifying the enabling power of my Savior? How often have I grumbled and complained instead of being thankful for the wonder of life with Christ and how He takes care of all needs? Or how often have I wasted time and energy because my heart was bent on my way instead of His?

The gospel tells me that I am a new creation, reconciled to God and have peace to be enjoyed and a job to do, not wasting anything following my own ideas.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17–19)

My sins are forgiven. No need to beat up myself:

(Jesus) 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 9:12–14)

All the foolish things I’ve ever done, even the foolish thoughts that pull me away from glorifying God and being thankful, have been forgiven. Christ took all of my sin on Himself and died that I could be set free from its penalty and power.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1–2)

Pity the churches where the gospel is rarely told. We who believe need to hear it every day, listen to it with a raptured heart and fully realize what it means to the real or false guilt that we experience. The gospel fills me with joy. My heart dances to know that my salvation is a done-deal. God has prepared a lifetime of things for me to do and because of Jesus, I can and will do them.

PRAY: Jesus, You are the reason for all good things. Not only that, I am so thankful that Your Word says You will restore the years the locust has eaten. In the end, You wipe away all tears and all will melt into forgetfulness. Thank You for the joys of this day and the assurance of forever.

Noun or Verb?

 

My dreams are often nonsense and I wake up laughing. The dream I had last night was like that. A woman kept asking people to answer a riddle with a verb instead of a noun. This dream ran through my mind when I read several hundred words in my devotional about the blood of Christ, ending with this statement: “Nothing is more practical, more important, or more delightful to the people of God than the blood, the precious, effectual, cleansing, redeeming blood of Christ.”

The dream made me think: is the blood (noun) what is stressed here, or is it the verb — Jesus died that all these benefits would be mine?

The reading begins with telling how those who heard the gospel and “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.’ ” (Acts 11:18)

In English, the dictionaries say ‘repentance’ is a noun. In Greek, the dictionaries affirm it as a verb, an action word. I don’t think this is a riddle. It seems that all the verses quoted about the blood of Christ are using this noun as a euphemism for the verb that Jesus died for my sin, an action that is a riddle to those who are blinded by their sin.

The idea of atoning blood is first suggested in Genesis when God killed an animal to provide skins to cover Adam and Eve. Then His people were commanded to kill a lamb so the angel of death would pass over them when He destroyed the firstborn in Egypt. His law said “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.” (Exodus 12:1–14) And the NT often points to the blood of Christ as vital to forgiveness, how God purchased His people and justified them. It says we were bought with a price, brought near to God, and can walk in His light because of the blood that cleanses us from all sin.

While the Bible clearly says that through Christ, God “reconciled to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20) these statements all refer to one action — the death of Jesus Christ which is identified by words about His shed blood. And He did it for us:

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 9:12–14)
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:10–14)
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…” (Hebrews 10:19–20)

We have victory over Satan because Jesus took our place: “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11) and because He has cleansed us, we “have washed (our) robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14)

PRAY: Jesus, Your actions on my behalf made possible all things: repentance, forgiveness, redemption, justification, cleansing, victory — a page of positives… including the grace and enablement to obey, love, reject self and sin, go out, share, and more action verbs. And You remind me of all this with a silly little dream and the rich language of Your Word. Oh, what a wonder You are!!

Even the hidden dirt . . .

 

A current television commercial for laundry soap says that a garment may appear clean but under ultraviolet light, it has a great deal of concealed dirt. Of course this soap is supposed to cleanse all dirt that the human eye cannot see.

Scripture talks about CLEANSING and getting rid of sinful impurities. While several passages tell us to do it, the reality is that we need God’s power to rid ourselves of sin. Mere self-effort might make me look good to others, but I don’t need ultraviolet light to know that my life has all sorts of stuff that I can easily hide.

In the OT, the sacrificial system used a word for CLEANSE that was more about ritual than doing the actual job. The NT says, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” and “Christ 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 9:12–14)

In other words, the sacrificial system is like ordinary soap, but the sacrifice of Christ is the real deal that can get right to the bottom of things. When a person is redeemed by putting their faith in Him, He cleanses all the dirt, even the stuff that no one knows or sees.

King David knew about this cleansing. Filled with guilt over his sin with Bathsheba and her husband, he prayed, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 51:2) He used a different word for CLEANSE, this time a far deeper cleaning job than mere ritual. He did not want to go through the motions but to be pure and clean before God.

God used the same word speaking through His prophets about His plan for His rebellious people:

"I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me." (Jeremiah 33:7–8)

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be great . . . . On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.” (Zechariah 12:10–13:1)

That day came. The blood of Christ was poured out and the sin of the world exposed by the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. Cleansing is available to all — with this caveat:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:16–21)

John completes this thought with this invitation:

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:5–9)

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Allowing Jesus to rid me of sin, even sin others do not notice, requires light from His Word to exposes it and faith in Him to wash it away. What an awesome truth — God CLEANSES sin!