A Child of God - Part 2

In part one we see that the children of creation betrayed their Father, the living God. In doing so they lost the legal right to approach God and are described by the Apostle Paul as "...without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Notice first, "without Christ." Although Christ had not come to redeem man for several thousand years after the fall, the fact is, there is no life, no ability or right to approach God without Him. Although Paul is addressing Gentiles here, he goes on to address Jews also. Though Jews had God's law, His oracles, yet, without Christ, they were no different than Gentile unbelievers in their approach toward God with the exception of the High Priest once a year under the law of Moses. So this applies to all people everywhere. We see this clearly as the Apostle Paul tells us, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5) and the Apostle Peter reveals, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Next, we see that man is a stranger from the covenants of the promise. In other words, man has no claims on God apart from His "Covenants" especially His "New Covenant" established through Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "But now He (Christ) has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises." (Hebrews 8:6)  Man had forfeited every right which God has conferred upon him at the fall. Before the fall, God had given man the lega1 right to approach Him and a stand before Him. We see this in the Garden. (Genesis 3:8) Although this was after the fall, it paints the picture of man's relationship with God the Father and His children. But now, do to man's betrayal, his treason, he forfeited his position and is described as "having no hope and without God in the world."  

Hopeless and Godless, and in the world where Satan has completely corrupted everything through sin, who also has the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), shows us that man's position apart from Christ, is certainly desperate. But more than this, as we saw in part one, man had become a partaker of satanic nature. Satan was now his father. (John 8:44) He is not only a subject of Satan, but is also become spiritua1ly dead. Adam was no longer able to stand in God's presence after he sinned. Furthermore, he was driven from the Garden of Eden God, and then God placed a cherubim wielding a flaming sword to block the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24) God would not permit man to eat of the tree of life until the sin problem had been settled. Think how awful it would have been if man had eaten of tree of life while under the sway of sin. Man would live forever and yet the destructive nature of sin would still have been unleashed upon the earth. In other words, all of mankind would follow in their father's footsteps, the devil, that is, "steel, kill and destroy" but never physically die.  It staggers the imagination to even try to think of something so horrific.

The Book of Job is seen as the oldest book of the Bible. Job recognized man's awful dilemma and need for a mediator, “For God is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both." (Job 9:32-33)  In other words, there is no mediator between man and God who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man before God. This is Job's cry for a mediator, but it is not the cry of Job alone. This is actually the cry of man throughout the ages. All through the ages man has created religions and every way possible to appease himself and hopefully be accepted by God. Yet the Bible tells us, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) This means exactly what it says, "for ALL have sinned!"  

Today, man can no more approach God without a mediator than he could in the days of Job or Israel. The deceptions of Satan have brought most of mankind to believe if they live a good moral life, that this is al1 God requires of them. By living a "good" life, and if there is a Heaven they have as much right to it as those who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. However, neither this kind of thinking, nor any amount of the finest education, nor the best of man's good works (feed the hungry, clothe the poor, etc.) will ever give him right standing with God. Proverbs tells us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 14:12) In all of mans efforts and so called good deeds, man needs a mediator. 

Although these truths may not be encouraging, the reality of such thing should bring every believer to grips with just how privileged each one of us are, to be a child of God. To have a Father whose only desire is to give His best to all humanity, especially to believers, His family. This should cause us to be just as caring and loving to others as our Father is to us. Jesus tells us, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11) The Apostle Paul tells us, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) These are but a few promises that we have in Christ. As we look ahead to what it means to be a child of God, I pray that we will never forget who and what we were, according to Ephesians 2:12, before the Father drew us to Jesus, the "Mediator between God and men."

Thank You For The Cross

Next Sunday we celebrate Resurrection Sunday. Although it will come and go, let us live everyday never forgetting where we came from and mostly let us never forgot what Christ did for us. Due to the fall of man in the Garden, all mankind has paid the price for Adam's act of treason, "just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men." (Romans 5:12) Man has lost his approach to God and is described by Paul as "without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Think about this. Man without Christ is hopeless, Godless, and in the world where Satan has the power over the system. (1 John 5:19)

To take this sorrow even further, man is described as having become a partaker of Satan's nature. He is not only a subject of Satan politically, but he is vitally united with him. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees when they feverishly tried to defend their self-righteousness, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Job had a startling encounter that also reveals man's state without a mediator before God, "Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying: Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?" (Job 4:12-17) 

This is the age old problem. This is the eternal problem that has confronted the thinking man of all ages. Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure in the presence of his Maker? Job also paints  a graphic picture of an aged man on his death-bed facing eternity and the approach of judgment. Job continues and speaks out of the agony within his soul. "Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile, I am  afraid of all my sufferings; I know that You will not hold me innocent. If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my hands with soap, yet You will plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes (self-righteousness) will abhor me." (Job 9:25-31)  

Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal and He is not under the bondage and guilt of sin as Job is. Job then utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human. "There is no mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both." (Job 9:33) In other words, there is no Mediator between man and God who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man. This is Job's cry for a mediator. But it is not the cry of Job alone. It is the age old cry of man, who in vain has worked hard to sooth their guilty sin laden conscience by creating various religions and or acts of the flesh. Some of the ways man has tried to appease his conscience come in the form of so called Christian cults such as Russelism, Mormonism and Christian Science. Others such as, eastern religions of idolatry, human and animal sacrifices and the beating of the flesh. Worshipers of Satan as well as others who go about committing murder and mayhem in the name of Allah which are considered good works. 

All of these twisted means are an attempt to get right with God. However, even in all of these things, God's character has not changed and man's fallen nature is still the same. Man today can no more approach God without a Mediator than he could throughout his entire history. Some men will even tell us that if they live a good moral life, that this is all God can require of them, and that if there is a heaven they have as much right to it as those who trust in the merits of Jesus of Nazareth, the one and only Mediator. Paul tells us, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) Peter tells us, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Only the people who have welcomed Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD and have received the life that He brings from God have an assured confidence that they can once again can approach God without guilt, condemnation or inferiority. Let no one deceive you. It is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone that one can, "...come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) "...and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3) The writers of the Bible all teach one great truth, "Man needs a Mediator." Today, scholarship if it is scholarship, knowledge if it is real knowledge, should lead all minds to the same goal. "How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?" (Job 25:4) As with Job, it is still the cry of the human heart, man needs a Mediator and that Mediator is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

Please take some time to ponder the words written here. There are people that you know who need Jesus the Mediator. He is the only one who can set people free from the guilt of sin. He is the only one whose sinless blood has paid in full the crimes of humanity. He is the only one who came to give life and give it abundantly. Let us never forget what He has done for us. So, now go and tell another person the Good News, Jesus is alive and "this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life." (1 John 2:25) PTL...

Jesus, The Great Mediator

Due to the fall of man in the Garden, all mankind has paid the price for Adam's act of treason, "just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men." (Romans 5:12) Man has lost his approach to God and is described by Paul as "without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Think about this. Man without Christ is hopeless, Godless, and in the world where Satan has the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14)

To take this sorrow even further, man is described as having become a partaker of Satan's nature. He is not only a subject of Satan politically, but he is vitally united with him. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees when they feverishly tried to defend their self-righteousness, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Job had a startling encounter that also reveals man's state without a mediator before God, "Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying: Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?" (Job 4:12-17) 

This is the age old problem. This is the eternal problem that has confronted the thinking man of all ages. Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure in the presence of his Maker? Job also paints  a graphic picture of an aged man on his death-bed facing eternity and the approach of judgment. Job continues and speaks out of the agony within his soul. "Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile, I am  afraid of all my sufferings; I know that You will not hold me innocent. If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my hands with soap, yet You will plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes (self-righteousness) will abhor me." (Job 9:25-31)  

Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal and He is not under the bondage and guilt of sin as Job is. Job then utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human. "There is no mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both." (Job 9:33) In other words, there is no Mediator between man and God who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man. This is Job's cry for a mediator. But it is not the cry of Job alone. It is the age old cry of man, who in vain has worked hard to sooth their guilty sin laden conscience by creating various religions and or acts of the flesh. Some of the ways man has tried to appease his conscience come in the form of so called Christian cults such as Russelism, Mormonism and Christian Science. Others such as, eastern religions of idolatry, human and animal sacrifices and the beating of the flesh. Worshipers of Satan as well as others who go about committing murder and mayhem in the name of Allah which are considered good works. 

All of these twisted means are an attempt to get right with God. However, even in all of these things, God's character has not changed and man's fallen nature is still the same. Man today can no more approach God without a Mediator than he could throughout his entire history. Some men will even tell us that if they live a good moral life, that this is all God can require of them, and that if there is a heaven they have as much right to it as those who trust in the merits of Jesus of Nazareth, the one and only Mediator. Paul tells us, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) Peter tells us, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Only the people who have welcomed Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior and have received the life that He brings from God, have an assured confidence that they can once again can approach God without guilt, condemnation or inferiority. Let no one deceive you. It is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone that one can, "...come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) "...and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3) The writers of the Bible all teach one great truth, "Man needs a Mediator." Today, scholarship if it is scholarship, knowledge if it is real knowledge, should lead all minds to the same goal. "How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?" (Job 25:4) As with Job, it is still the cry of the human heart, man needs a Mediator and that Mediator is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

Please take some time to ponder the words written here. There are people that you know who need Jesus the Mediator. He is the only one who can set people free from the guilt of sin. He is the only one whose sinless blood has paid in full the crimes of humanity. He is the only one who came to give life and give it abundantly. Never forget what He has done for you. So, now go and tell another person the Good News, Jesus is alive and "this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life." (1 John 2:25) PTL...

The Perfect Mediator

Now that resurrection Sunday 2015 has been celebrated, let us live everyday never forgetting where we came from and mostly let us never forgot what Christ did for us. Due to the fall of man in the Garden, all mankind has paid the price for Adam's act of treason, "just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men." (Romans 5:12) Man has lost his approach to God and is described by Paul as "without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Think about this. Man without Christ is hopeless, Godless, and in the world where Satan has the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14)

To take this sorrow even further, man is described as having become a partaker of Satan's nature. He is not only a subject of Satan politically, but he is vitally united with him. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees when they feverishly tried to defend their self-righteousness, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Job had a startling encounter that also reveals man's state without a mediator before God, "Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying: Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?" (Job 4:12-17) 

This is the age old problem. This is the eternal problem that has confronted the thinking man of all ages. Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure in the presence of his Maker? Job also paints  a graphic picture of an aged man on his death-bed facing eternity and the approach of judgment. Job continues and speaks out of the agony within his soul. "Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile, I am  afraid of all my sufferings; I know that You will not hold me innocent. If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my hands with soap, yet You will plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes (self-righteousness) will abhor me." (Job 9:25-31)  

Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal and He is not under the bondage and guilt of sin as Job is. Job then utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human. "There is no mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both." (Job 9:33) In other words, there is no Mediator between man and God who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man. This is Job's cry for a mediator. But it is not the cry of Job alone. It is the age old cry of man, who in vain has worked hard to sooth their guilty sin laden conscience by creating various religions and or acts of the flesh. Some of the ways man has tried to appease his conscience come in the form of so called Christian cults such as Russelism, Mormonism and Christian Science. Others such as, eastern religions of idolatry, human and animal sacrifices and the beating of the flesh. Worshipers of Satan as well as others who go about committing murder and mayhem in the name of Allah which are considered good works. 

All of these twisted means are an attempt to get right with God. However, even in all of these things, God's character has not changed and man's fallen nature is still the same. Man today can no more approach God without a Mediator than he could throughout his entire history. Some men will even tell us that if they live a good moral life, that this is all God can require of them, and that if there is a heaven they have as much right to it as those who trust in the merits of Jesus of Nazareth, the one and only Mediator. Paul tells us, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) Peter tells us, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Only the people who have welcomed Jesus Christ as Savior and have received the life that He brings from God, have an assured confidence that they can once again can approach God without guilt, condemnation or inferiority. Let no one deceive you. It is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone that one can, "...come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) "...and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3) The writers of the Bible all teach one great truth, "Man needs a Mediator." Today, scholarship if it is scholarship, knowledge if it is real knowledge, should lead all minds to the same goal. "How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?" (Job 25:4) As with Job, it is still the cry of the human heart, man needs a Mediator and that Mediator is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

Please take some time to ponder the words written here. There are people that you know who need Jesus the Mediator. He is the only one who can set people free from the guilt of sin. He is the only one whose sinless blood has paid in full the crimes of humanity. He is the only one who came to give life and give it more abundantly. Never forget what He has done for you. So, now go and tell another person the Good News, Jesus is alive and "this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life." (1 John 2:25) May the grace and peace of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all...

The Everlasting Covenant

The Bible records eight covenants established between God and man. However, of these eight covenants, there are only two contrasted throughout the Bible, the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant. It was from the Abrahamic Covenant that Israel and the Mosaic Law was established. Keep in mind that when the Israelite's were delivered from Egypt they had no government nor laws to govern them, so God gave them the law. It is the Covenant Law, with its priesthood, sacrifices, ceremonies and offerings. Within the law, God provided atonement which was needed, for not much longer after the law was given it was broken. The word atonement means, to cover. It is not a New
Testament term because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses, instead of merely covering.

The First Covenant did not take away sin, it merely covered it. It did not give eternal life or new birth but only a promise of it. It did not give fellowship with God, only a type of it. However, due to the covenant between Abraham and God, it gave protection to Israel as a nation, it met their physical
needs. God was Israel's Healer, Provider. and Protector. The Holy Spirit through the writer of Hebrews tells us, "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect." (Hebrews 10:1) So, we see that the Law and the First Covenant was a shadow of the good things to come. The animal sacrifices could never make perfect the man under the First Covenant, "For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins." (Hebrews 10:2)  

As we can clearly see, the blood of bulls and goats did not cleanse the conscience. It did not take away sin consciousness from mankind. The inference is that there is a sacrifice that takes away
the sin consciousness so that man can stand in God's presence uncondemned. The First Covenant was sealed by the blood of Abraham through circumcision. (Genesis 17:10-11) The New Covenant is sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ, God's own Son. "Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." (Hebrews 9:12) "Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." (Hebrews 8:1) 

Everything centered around the High Priest under the Old Covenant. Without the office of the High Priest, the people of Israel had no approach to God. Today, everything centers around our New High Priest Jesus Christ, under the New Covenant, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises." (Hebrews 8:6) To see these things from a greater perspective, we look at the Book of Hebrews, which has several vital contrasts; Moses and Jesus; Aaron, the High Priest, and Jesus the New High Priest; the blood of bulls and goats and the blood of Christ; the tabernacle of Moses and the tabernacle in Heaven. 

The Priest under the Old Covenant could only stay long enough to make the Atonement. We see in Hebrews how the tabernacle and all the vessels were cleansed with blood, "Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. 
Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Next, we see the climax of it all. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:21-24) This lets us see the contrast of the high premium that God places on the blood of Christ verses that of the blood of bulls and goats. As we come to value the blood of Christ as God values it, there will no longer come into question our standing and relationship with the Father. 

Because the Father accepted Jesus' blood when He carried it into the Heavenly Holy of Holies, He has become, by that act, the Mediator of the New Covenant. "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." (1Timothy 2:5) The reason man needs a mediator is because he had lost his standing with God when Adam sinned. Due to Adam's act of treason, mankind has no ground on which he can approach God. "...at that time you were without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Jesus is now the Mediator between God and fallen man. Although the blood of bulls and goats did not take away sin, it merely covered it temporarily, when Christ came, He redeemed all of those who had trusted in the blood of bulls and goats. "And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." (Hebrews 9:15) 

Under the New Covenant our sins are not covered, they are remitted, it as though they had never been, "not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another, He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." (Hebrews 9:25-26) The expression "end of the ages" means where the two ages met, the Old Covenant met with the New Covenant. The thing that stood between man and God was Adam's
transgression, but Jesus settled the sin problem, made it possible for God to legally remit all that we have ever done, make us new creations and give us eternal life through faith in the meritorious work of redemption in Jesus Christ.  

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of  reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) PTL

The Old Covenant had the Levitical Priesthood. The New Covenant has Jesus as the High Priest, and we as a Royal and Holy Priesthood. (1 Peter 2:7-10) The first priesthood had a temple in which God dwelt in the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant. (Exodus 40) In the New Covenant our bodies are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells within them. (1 Corinthians 3:16) As God was the surety of the Old Covenant, (Hebrews 6:13), now, Jesus stands as surety of the New Covenant, backing every Word in the New Covenant. He is the great Intercessor of the New Covenant. (Hebrews 7:25) 

Strong faith should be built into every believer upon the foundation of these facts. All the resources of Heaven are backed by Jesus in the New Covenant in His Blood. So, let us never forget, that under the New Covenant, "to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:26) "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:1-2) "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all...

Our Great High Priest

After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, we see that He "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High" (Hebrews 10:12), because He accomplished two tremendous feats.  First, He made redemption both eternal and available for all; second, He now sits as Mediator, (1 Timothy 2:5), Advocate, (1 John 2:1), Intercessor, (Hebrews 7:25) and Great High Priest. (Hebrews 4:14) Much time is spent studying what Christ has done for us, but it seems that very little time is spent on what He does in us, and even less on what He is now doing in His High Priestly office at the right hand of the Father.

His entire ministry from birth to sitting down at the right hand of the Father was certainly a tremendous feat, but now, praise the Lord, He ever lives to make intercession for us. Jesus died as the Lamb of God, (John 1:29), He arose as the Great High Priest. (Hebrews 4:14) He is a merciful and faithful High Priest, not in things pertaining to man but in things pertaining to God. The claims of justice had to be satisfied and the needs of man had to be met. It was necessary that as a High Priest, Jesus should make propitiation for the sins of the people. The Holy Spirit through the writer of Hebrews tells us, "But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." (Hebrews 9:11-12)

From where did Christ come to become High Priest? Out of hell. The place where He had gone as our substitute to satisfy the claims of justice that was set against rebellious humanity. He had to carried His blood into the heavenly Holy of Holies and seal the document of our redemption with it. (Hebrews 9:12) Now His blood is the guarantor of the integrity of our redemption. Just as the high priest under the first covenant carried the blood of animals into the Holy of Holies once a year and made a yearly atonement, Jesus carried His own blood in and made an eternal redemption once for all.

Under the Old Covenant to the Israelite's, atonement simply meant to cover sin. However, it was not the sins that man had committed that needed to be dealt with, it was mans sin nature, spiritual death, the nature of Satan that had to be ultimately dealt with and be put away, "...But now, once for all time, he (Jesus) has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice." (NLT) Mans sins were small things that could be wiped out or covered as we see under the Old Covenant. But our sin nature required God's own beloved Son to become sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) He became sin with our sin that we might become righteous. He took our spiritual death that we might have eternal life. He took our outlawed nature, that we might become the children of the Father. (1 John 3:1) Oh, the unmeasured grace of God unveiled in the sacrifice of Jesus.

It can be said that Christianity is a confession of the finished work of Jesus. It is a confession that He is seated at the right hand of the Father having perfectly redeemed us. It is a confession of our sonship, of our place in Christ, of our rights and privileges. It is a confession of our supremacy over sickness, disease, weakness, unworthiness and over Satan, all in the name of Jesus. Hebrews 4 reveals another wonderful aspect of Jesus' ministry at the right hand of the Father as our Great High Priest, "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrew 4:14-16)

He does not have a chance to take a vacation. He has no opportunity to step aside for a moment. No one else can act as High Priest, Mediator, Advocate and Intercessor but Jesus. He is a High Priest and the surety of the New Covenant. (Hebrews 7:20-22) In other words, every Scripture from Matthew to Revelation is backed up by the Lord Jesus Himself in the same manner that God became the surety of the Abrahamic Covenant. (Hebrews 6:13) Jesus is able to do this because He abides forever and His priesthood is unchangeable. (Hebrews 6:20, 7:24)

So, let us continuously consider Him in all His grace, His beauty and His overflowing love. Jesus our Great High Priest will forever meet every need of the believer from the moment he is born again until he is ushered into the presence of the Father at the end of life. PTL

Child of God - Part 2

In part one we see that the children of creation betrayed their Father, the living God. In doing so they lost the legal right to approach God and are described by the Apostle Paul as "...without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Notice first, "without Christ." Although Christ had not come to redeem man for several thousand years after the fall, the fact is, there is no life, no ability or right to approach God without Him. Although Paul is addressing Gentiles here, he goes on to address Jews also. Though Jews had God's law, His oracles, yet, without Christ, they were no different than Gentile unbelievers. So this applies to all people everywhere. We see this clearly as the Apostle Paul tells us, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5) and the Apostle Peter reveals, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Next, we see that man is a stranger from the covenants of the promise. In other words, man has no claims on God apart from His "Covenants" especially His "New Covenant" established through Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "But now He (Christ) has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises." (Hebrews 8:6)  Man had forfeited every right which God has conferred upon him at the fall. Before the fall, God had given man the lega1 right to approach Him and a stand before Him. We see this in the Garden. (Genesis 3:8) Although this was after the fall, it paints the picture of man's relationship with God the Father and His children. But now, do to man's betrayal, his treason, he forfeited his position and is described as "having no hope and without God in the world." 

Hopeless and Godless, and in the world where Satan has completely corrupted everything through sin, who also has the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), shows us that man's position apart from Christ, is certainly desperate. But more than this, as we saw in part one, man had become a partaker of satanic nature. Satan was now his father. (John 8:44) He is not only a subject of Satan, but is also become spiritua1ly dead. Adam was no longer able to stand in God's presence after he sinned. Furthermore, he was driven from the Garden of Eden God, and then God placed a cherubim wielding a flaming sword to block the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24) God would not permit man to eat of the tree of life until the sin problem had been settled. Think how awful it would have been if man had eaten of tree of life while under the sway of sin. Man would live forever and yet the destructive nature of sin would still have been unleashed upon the earth. In other words, all of mankind would follow in their father's footsteps, the devil, that is, "steel, kill and destroy" but never physically die.  It staggers the imagination to even try to think of something so horrific.

The Book of Job is seen as the oldest book of the Bible. Job recognized man's awful dilemma and need for a mediator, “For God is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both." (Job 9:32-33)  In other words, there is no mediator between man and God who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man before God. This is Job's cry for a mediator, but it is not the cry of Job alone. This is actually the cry of man throughout the ages. All through the ages man has created religions and every way possible to appease himself and hopefully be accepted by God. Yet the Bible tells us, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) This means exactly what it says, "for ALL have sinned!" 

Today, man can no more approach God without a mediator than he could in the days of Job or Israel. The deceptions of Satan have brought most of man to believe if they live a good moral life, that this is al1 God requires of them. By living a "good" life, and if there is a Heaven they have as much right to it as those who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. However, neither this kind of thinking, nor any amount of the finest education, nor the best of man's good works (feed the hungry, clothe the poor, etc.) will ever give him right standing with God. Proverbs tells us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 14:12) In all of mans efforts and so called good deeds, man needs a mediator.

Although these truths may not be encouraging, the reality of such thing should bring every believer to grips with just how privileged each one of us are, to be a child of God. To have a Father whose only desire is to give His best to all humanity, especially to believers, His family, should cause us to be just as caring and loving to others as our Father is to us. Jesus tells us, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11) The Apostle Paul tells us, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) These are but a few promises that we have in Christ. As we look ahead to what it means to be a child of God, I pray that we will never forget who and what we were, according to Ephesians 2:12, before the Father drew us to Jesus, the "Mediator between God and men."

The Need for a Mediator

Now that resurrection Sunday 2015 has been celebrated, let us live everyday never forgetting where we came from and mostly let us never forgot what Christ did for us. Due to the fall of man in the Garden, all mankind has paid the price for Adam's act of treason, "just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men." (Romans 5:12) Man has lost his approach to God and is described by Paul as "without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12) Think about this. Man without Christ is hopeless, Godless, and in the world where Satan has the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14)

To take this sorrow even further, man is described as having become a partaker of Satan's nature. He is not only a subject of Satan politically, but he is vitally united with him. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees when they feverishly tried to defend their self-righteousness, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Job had a startling encounter that also reveals man's state without a mediator before God, "Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying: Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?" (Job 4:12-17) 

This is the age old problem. This is the eternal problem that has confronted the thinking man of all ages. Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure in the presence of his Maker? Job also paints  a graphic picture of an aged man on his death-bed facing eternity and the approach of judgment. Job continues and speaks out of the agony within his soul. "Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile, I am  afraid of all my sufferings; I know that You will not hold me innocent. If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my hands with soap, yet You will plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes (self-righteousness) will abhor me." (Job 9:25-31)  

Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal and He is not under the bondage and guilt of sin as Job is. Job then utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human. "There is no mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both." (Job 9:33) In other words, there is no Mediator between man and God who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man. This is Job's cry for a mediator. But it is not the cry of Job alone. It is the age old cry of man, who in vain has worked hard to sooth their guilty sin laden conscience by creating various religions and or acts of the flesh. Some of the ways man has tried to appease his conscience come in the form of so called Christian cults such as Russelism, Mormonism and Christian Science. Others such as, eastern religions of idolatry, human and animal sacrifices and the beating of the flesh. Worshipers of Satan as well as others who go about committing murder and mayhem in the name of Allah which are considered good works. 

All of these twisted means are an attempt to get right with God. However, even in all of these things, God's character has not changed and man's fallen nature is still the same. Man today can no more approach God without a Mediator than he could throughout his entire history. Some men will even tell us that if they live a good moral life, that this is all God can require of them, and that if there is a heaven they have as much right to it as those who trust in the merits of Jesus of Nazareth, the one and only Mediator. Paul tells us, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) Peter tells us, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Only the people who have welcomed Jesus Christ as Savior and have received the life that He brings from God have an assured confidence that they can once again can approach God without guilt, condemnation or inferiority. Let no one deceive you. It is only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone that one can, "...come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) "...and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3) The writers of the Bible all teach one great truth, "Man needs a Mediator." Today, scholarship if it is scholarship, knowledge if it is real knowledge, should lead all minds to the same goal. "How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?" (Job 25:4) As with Job, it is still the cry of the human heart, man needs a Mediator and that Mediator is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.

Please take some time to ponder the words written here. There are people that you know who need Jesus the Mediator. He is the only one who can set people free from the guilt of sin. He is the only one whose sinless blood has paid in full the crimes of humanity. He is the only one who came to give life and give it abundantly. Never forget what He has done for you. So, now go and tell another person the Good News, Jesus is alive and "this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life." (1 John 2:25) PTL...