Posts in ‘Bible’
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The Animated Prodigal
Bob Kauflin just posted this animated interpretation of The Prodigal from Sovereign Grace Music’s recent release, Sons & Daughters at his blog and I wanted to share it because it made me weep at work. His post includes the full lyrics. May we all look like fools for the joy that we have in the family of God.
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Come, You Sinners
From October 28, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
As part of leading worship at Open Arms, I’m working my way through the songs we sing in order to explain them and promote thoughtfulness in our worship. One of the ways that I’m doing that is by doing commentaries on the songs. This’ll hopefully be the first installment in quite a large number of posts commentating on the songs we sing.
Theme
The theme of this song is clearly seen in the title and chorus. The song bids sinners, those poor, needy, weak, wounded, sick, sore, incapable of achieving salvation, to come. Come to what? To Jesus’s saving power. Jesus stands ready to save all who come to him, full of pity, love, and power. We respond to the summons, joyously arising and going to Jesus who has paid our debt completely through his atoning sacrifice. We go in great boldness, for there is no condemnation through the blood of Jesus. We can do this by no other means than the blood.
Observations
“Come” is the most frequently used word in this song. It is the chief aim of the song to both invite and to tear down every argument against responding to the call.
This song pulls no punches describing the sinner. However, it is easy for those who are self-righteous (saved and unsaved) to feel that they are simply calling others, sinners unlike themselves. This couldn’t be further from the case. This song glories in the reality that we are, this side of eternity, nothing more than beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.
The chorus of this song attempts to transition from the verses which are what makes the song so easy to not identify with for the self-righteous into an explicit call to identification with what you’re singing. “Let us arise and go to Jesus. His sacrifice our debt has paid…” The repetition of this should temper the strong tendency to sound simply like we’re calling people who aren’t like us. We are all still in desperate need of mercy for and grace to overcome sin.
This song glories in the work and character of Jesus. Jesus is portrayed as ready (eager?) to save us, full of pity, love, and power. His work of atoning and propitiatory sacrifice is displayed in detail. “View him prostrate in the garden, bloodied on the tree.” It is this in which we come!
Verses
The Garden Account (Luke 22.29-46):
And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Come, I will give you rest (Matthew 11.25-30):
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Self-righteousness (Luke 18.9-14):
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt; “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collecter. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
God’s great love (Ephesians 2.1-10):
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Method
By far the most extensive discussion of the sinner, the opening verse relentlessly attacks all honest consciences with a knowledge of their absolute poverty before the holy and righteous judge of all the earth. It moves quickly though, to the lamb who was slain to make a way for us. He stands ready to save you from your pitiful state, recognizing the very pity of it, loving you in it with his great love, and full of the very power by which to effect it.
View the wonder of his atoning work. The maker of the universe, the Lord of heaven and earth, the omnipotent, the omniscient, the all sufficient, Holy, Holy, Holy one, weeps tears of anguish and sweats drops of blood as he faces the cup his father has set for him. The price of our infinite offense against God is an infinitely worthy sacrifice. The Son made a way for us. Yes! This does for all suffice!
Though an honest conscience will feel nothing but shame and condemnation facing the weight of the sacrifice that was needed to save him, though the self-righteous may dream that the sacrifice was not for him, and though a weary sinner may think longingly of an imagined state in which it would be appropriate for him to begin his pilgrimage toward God, all is foolishness. Jesus’s sacrifice made a way for us through which God’s requirement at the start is simply our ‘weak yes’. Our realization that we have no hope apart from him. And our hearty faith towards the work he did.
We express faith in Jesus work by joyously moving towards him. We joyfully glory in his sacrifice which paid all our debt and made a way for us to glorify him and glory in him. There is no more condemnation through his blood!
Commentary
Come, you sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore.We begin by calling all sinners to come. We sinners are poor, needy, weak, wounded, sick and sore. Poor in that we come with nothing to offer to God; needy in that our predicament before God is desperate without every grace that God pours out to us; weak in that we are unable to bridge this gap, to present ourselves to God, to enact any saving activity on our own; wounded by sin to the point of death, weakening daily as we bleed out; sick mortally with our sin; sore, continually buffeted by the reality of sin, beaten by the accusations of the devil, condemned by our own consciences before this holy God.
Jesus, ready, stands to save you,
Jesus, though, is ready to save us. Not only from the first when we realize our adoption but to the last, when we step into the glories of our full adoption and our unmarred, radiant reflection of the glories of Christ.
Full of pity, love, and power.
He is full of pity, understanding our state having experienced it personally upon the adding of humanity to his divinity, being a good high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses, love, expressed perfectly on the cross, making us to be of infinite worth through his suffering an infinite punishment through no merit of our own at all, and power, able to save to the uttermost.
Chorus
View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your maker lies.See this terrifying beauty of Christ’s passion! The maker of heaven and earth, unknown of sin, possessor of infinite power, worth, magnificence, glory, union with the Father and Spirit, wisdom, lies weeping on the ground. Crying tears of anguish at the cup that’s being passed to him. Sweating great drops of blood as his disciples sleep a stone’s throw away, unable to stay awake despite his groaning. This one who’d never known pain or indecision struggles in his humanity to own the will of God for himself. Everyone has abandoned him, and will abandon him still more before the end.
On the bloody tree behold him;
Remember the cross! Never forget the cross! It is the matter of first importance. If Christ had not died and risen, our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins! We are to be pitied above all men for having such a ridiculous hope. Our end would still be to burn in hell for ever, never knowing the joy of the Father in the face of the Son through the power of the Spirit. We commit a grave error when we relegate the cross to the beginning of our lives as Christians instead of realizing its overwhelming pride of place in every day of now and eternity. God’s justice and mercy perfectly displayed once and for all; his glory finally vindicated; his justice fully exonerated; his great love for us perfectly known.
O Sinners, this does for all suffice.
Praise God! For yes, this does for all suffice!
Chorus
Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;Come boldly to this mercy seat. Not because your conscience is clear, for all honest sinners are condemned continually by their conscience. Nor because you believe you have a right to be there, as the dishonest sinner is prone to do, believing somehow that they have been good enough to relate to God. Do not commit the error of believing that you’re too bad for God to save you, or that you’re too good to need God’s salvation. On the one hand, you make God a weakling, too impotent to overcome your sins. On the other, you make God’s worth paltry, and you make the sacrifice of his Son overkill.
All the fitness he requires
Is to feel your need of him.This is all! Know your state. We are all on a level playing field before this holy God. The best of us, the worst of us, the mediocre; all stand condemned on our own and yet justified by his Son.
Chorus:
Let us arise and go to Jesus.
His sacrifice our debts has paid.We respond to all these things by arising and joyfully going to Jesus! What greater news is this, knowing our state, that our state is covered and washed and that we now have boldness of access to our Father’s throne. In fact, with Jesus, we approach the very bosom of God and lay our head on his breast, like John at the table with Jesus, listening to his secrets, exchanging our affections. Our debt is paid! Hallelujah!
And there is now no condemnation
Through his blood. Only through his blood!By this, through this, and only this do we come uncondemned. Jesus, thank you for the blood!
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Reflection on Hebrews 10:11-18
Mine:
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 sin, 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.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,
then he adds,
I will remember their lawless deeds and their sins no longer.
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sins.
Real:
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.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,
then he adds,
I will remember theirs sins and their lawless deeds no more.
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Diff:
I can’t seem to get my unified diff output to work correctly. I have no idea why. It makes me sad.
However, you can see from the above that basically I screwed up the sins vs. sin in what Christ did. During the whole process of memorizing this I struggled with whether or not sin was plural, and I kept thinking it changed between lines. Also, I messed up the order of lawless deeds and sins in what the Spirit adds.
Observations:
I love how God not only makes the law more unavoidable in the present age by putting it on our hearts and writing it on our minds, but then he also takes away the law’s guilt-inducing power by forgetting our sins and our lawless deeds. It’s like he is at once making us more worthy of guilt and more able to approach him without shame. In fact, it’s not like that, it is that.
I struggle with the idea of Messianic Jewish communities even now. I heard a ‘good’ argument for them at Onething this past year in that there is going to be a Jewish presence at the end of the age when Jesus returns that welcomes their promised Messiah with ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ as he rescues them from the hands of the Antichrist’s army at the sound of the trumpet (Romans 11, Isaiah 63, Revelation 19, Matthew 23.37-39) and so even if you believe that Jesus is the Messiah and has indeed already come, there’s clearly evidence that perhaps you should remain Jewish and continue to practice Judaism until the second coming so you can be there for him. However, a strong part of me rejects this because of testimonies such as Hebrews 10:18 where it clearly states that if you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, there’s a new order to things. There is no longer any offering for sin, a clear tenet of the Jewish faith, because the sacrifice has been made. What does it mean to be Jewish and Christian? It means as much as to be Christian and Buddhist or Christian and Muslim. In other words, it’s a contradiction in and of itself. It’s as meaningless as saying I’m a Christian and an American. We are aliens here on this planet, pilgrims on our way towards our home. We are called to be a culture of our own within the culture that is hosting us. So why would you be both Jewish and Christian? It doesn’t make sense to me.
Christ’s kingship has been inaugurated and yet not realized. However, his silence at the present time, his allowance of evil to continue, should not be taken as a sign of weakness or death. There will come a day when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead. All of his enemies shall be made into a footstool for his feet. This speaks, I believe, of his active role in their punishment throughout eternity. It is one of the hardest things for me to realize that we will rejoice in heaven at the judgement of God. The saints sing songs in worship to God that he destroys Babylon the great and causes her smoke to ‘rise up forever’ (Revelation 19. The concept that we will not know that God has judged our friends and family members and the fallen world around us who rejected him and his love is one that cannot be found in scripture. His very judgements will be the subject of our rejoicing. We will then see them perfectly and realize their righteousness. It’s a terrifying thought to me. I know too many who I couldn’t say with any confidence will be with me there. May this drive me to seek their good and God’s glory.
Thank God that the work is completed in Jesus!
I understand that this has been incredibly irregular anyway, but just to be clear, I feel like God is calling me to memorize all of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). This is going to take me a considerable amount of time. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll do it chunks that I can post here as I go along or whether I’m going to wait till the end. It probably makes sense to do the former, but we’ll see. Wish me luck and keep me accountable if you’re so inclined.
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I want it to be rich
On Sunday we went to see our friend’s babies get dedicated (three babies all with the same set of grandparents!). The preacher at their church is an older man (80s?) and has been saved for a long time. What hit me so much was not really the message that he gave but how rich his relationship with God was (or is rather).
It pains me how much of that I lack. I know I’m making progress. In fact, I could not be happier with my progress (by God’s grace). I feel constantly stretched and tried and it feels good, even if I don’t respond well to the trying.
I don’t know what a rich relationship with Jesus looks like. I think a key to experiencing that is getting into the Bible more. I have a daily reading plan but I don’t feel like I’m “eating the scroll.” I feel like I need to be meditating on Scripture (a.k.a memorizing, but not mindlessly). If Jesus IS the actual Word than I feel like an idiot for not doing it sooner because how obvious is that?!
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Reflection on Hebrews 9:11-14
Mine:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then by 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 sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies 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.
Real:
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 sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies 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.
Unified Diff (A little boo this time, the Emacs fill had unfortunate splits. Oh well.):
2,7c2,7 < come, then by 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 < sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and < with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the --- > 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 sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls > and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the 9c9 < spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience --- > Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscienceI think the phrase that hit me hardest in this particular section is:
If the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
The reason I love this so much is that it speaks to the fact that it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance and allows us to serve him whole heartedly.
The fact is that under the old covenant and the law (which we are always judged by, and in fact even more strenuously so (Matthew 5-7)) you lived with the constant weight of the need to perform. And the problem was that you were always failing. There was never anyone who didn’t have to show up at the yearly Day of Atonement with offerings for the sins that they had committed. Everyone, every day (depending on how honest they were with themselves), sinned in various ways, and each of the sins warranted punishment of some kind. If I was under that system, I can tell you exactly how I’d feel: hopeless.
But God was gracious and gave the sacrificial law so that people could be cleansed from their sins. Despite that, that system gave rise to the most self-righteous people, the Pharisees. These were people who felt like they didn’t really sin. Maybe they had some little petty sins here or there, but for the most part they were perfect, and everyone who couldn’t man up like they had was a sinner and deserved judgement.
But you see the thing is that if our conscience isn’t clear before God then we lose our energy to serve him. Why serve someone who’s constantly mad at you unless you do something? It’s exhausting living in a relationship like that. When someone’s love for you is predicated on your ability to do what they want, and you can’t ever do what they want, then you’ll just give up, even if they give you a systematic way to receive their forgiveness that you can do fairly easily.
That’s where the covenant that Christ inaugurates improves so much upon the old covenant. Under the new covenant, our sins are forever abolished and thus we are freed from dead works and stale religion. Instead, secure in the knowledge that through Christ we are delighted in and over by God, we can serve him with our whole heart knowing that when we fail, it’s been paid for. It’s both our conscience and our flesh that Christ purifies with his blood. Amen!
I find the juxtaposition of Christ’s purification of our conscience from dead works and the serving of the living God intriguing. The problem with the gospel of mercy is and has always been that it can lead to licentiousness. People have always taken the knowledge that God will not judge us for our sins any longer and used it to say, “Well then I can do whatever I want!”. This of course is a confusion of the gospel. I say again that it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. Without repentance, we haven’t understood the gospel at all.
I’m not sure if I’ve written about this here before (A quick google search didn’t turn up anything.) so I’ll just introduce it like it’s new. One of the ways that I’ve come to understand the gospel most clearly is a concept that I call Graceful Failure.
To understand the gospel it’s very important to understand the seriousness and gravity of sin. One sin is worth eternal, literal, conscious damnation under the active wrath of God. It’s useless and audacious to attempt to argue against the goodness of God because of this. God defines goodness and reality and we who are fallen and finite can’t hope to understand his reasoning. Suffice it to say that any blaming of God for our sin is a useless exercise. We sinned. We deserve judgement. End of story.
But God, in his inestimable mercy, chose to not give us what we deserved. Instead, he promised that one day he would make it right. This is unbelievably important. Notice that in the first gospel preached (Genesis 3) God takes upon himself the responsibility of making things right again. He doesn’t say, “Here’s the steps to make this right. Good luck. Maybe I’ll help.” but instead says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise [Hebrew crush] your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”.
In the interim he institutes the first covenant through Moses, in which he defines everything that he had always expected of us. This was to make it clear and without question that we are sinners who deserve judgement. However, Christ hadn’t come yet. So he instituted the sacrificial system so people could serve him without dying. But they still weren’t able to serve him whole heartedly.
But then Christ came! He lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death we should have died, and rose to give us the righteousness that he obtained. Suddenly, we can be washed in his blood (and we are) and we become pure before the God of the universe.
But to what end? To have license to sin? Of course not! In fact God makes greater demands on us than ever before through Christ (Matthew 5-7). But things are different now. Now the sacrifice has been made. I can enter boldly into the presence of my holy God because through the blood of Christ I am seen as holy, no matter what I’ve done. But it’s through this that I’m struck to the core with a love for him who saved me. Because I know what I deserved (at least in part), I’m aware of how great a love God has for me, because he pardoned my great debt to him. It is this realization that makes me want to serve him so badly. He owed me nothing, and yet he’s given me mercy. Amen.
This is where my term, Graceful Failure comes in. When I fail now, I can with confidence press on, forgetting what lies behind me, because I know that God has as well. I don’t have to wait to serve him again. All I need to do is reapproach his throne without shame, knowing that I stand clean in the blood of Jesus. Thus I am able to work again for God. Where as before I was crippled with my guilt, now my conscience is free to attempt to obey God in everything knowing that he doesn’t count my sins against me.
So we see, there is no contradiction. Yes, we no longer are slaves to dead works that lead us to destruction, so we work with our whole hearts to serve the one who made that possible.
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Reflection on Hebrews 6:17-20
From February 11, 2009 @ 6:00 am
Mine:
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner after becoming a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Real:
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Unified Diff:
8,9c8,9 < forerunner after becoming a high priest after the order of < Melchizedek. --- > forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after > the order of Melchizedek.One thing I really dig about this passage is God’s mercy and kindness towards us. As an example of this I’d take you over to Judges 6-10 for the story of Gideon.
Gideon floors me every time. The issue is that God seems to be really harsh sometimes (such as Moses and the exodus account) and at other times he’s unbelievably merciful. For instance, Gideon clearly does not have much intrinsic worth for the purposes of throwing off the oppression of the Midianites: He is not fighting but instead participating in the cowardly activities of the people around him, he isn’t strong, he’s not of a good tribe, etc. However, God calls him (his ‘might’ is that he longs to see the things that God had done in the past; he realized the nation’s barrenness!) anyway. But, then he questions it! First he’s too fearful to even destroy the altar of Baal and the Asherah tree in the daylight, then he refuses to go out against the Midianites until God confirms it to his doubting heart, twice, and then after his army’s reduced to 300 men, he gets a 3rd supernatural confirmation! Unbelievable!
In the same way the author of Hebrews is telling us about a mercy that God extends to us, which is that he’s not unwilling to prove himself to us. God, who has no intrinsic reason whatsoever to give us anything and who was ultimately betrayed by me and all of us, actually looks at our weak and doubting hearts and says, “I’ll give you assurances so that you don’t have to doubt”!
I love the connection with Jesus and us here. It’s such an awesome picture of his union to us through his atoning work. Jesus died on the cross and as a man (which he will be forever), as our high priest (which he will be forever), he entered into the place where we would never have been able to go on our own strength and merit and made a way for us to come after him. And, he did this on our behalf! Sw33t. ^_^
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Reflection on Hebrews 4:11-5:2
From January 29, 2009 @ 10:00 pm
I’ve been trying to memorize a section of Scripture a week recently and I’m currently moving through Hebrews. I’ve worked on Hebrews 4:11-5:2 for the past 2 weeks or so and I transitioned to Hebrews 6:17-20 this past Sunday. What I want to start doing is putting a reflection on whatever Scripture I memorized up here just so that I document whatever thoughts I had on it while I was memorizing. I don’t want to memorize for the sake of memorization. Anyway, we’ll see how I do, eh? ;)
So, Hebrews 4:11-5:2…
My Version
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 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. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Since then 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 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect was tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and to find grace to help in time of need.
For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on their behalf in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. And he is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward because he himself is beset with weakness.
Real Version
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 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. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to they eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Since then 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 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
Just for total fun, I thought I’d include a unified diff of the two versions for your viewing pleasure… ;)
1c1 < Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by --- > Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by 6,7c6,7 < his sight, but all are naked and exposed to they eyes of him to whom < we must give account. Since then we have a great high priest who has --- > his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we > must give account. Since then we have a great high priest who has 10c10 < sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been --- > sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect was 12,16c12,16 < near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace < to help in time of need. For every high priest chosen from among men < is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer < gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant < and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. No newline at end of file --- > near to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and to find grace to > help in time of need. For every high priest chosen from among men is > appointed to act on their behalf in relation to God, to offer gifts > and sacrifices for sins. And he is able to deal gently with the > ignorant and wayward because he himself is beset with weakness.Context: Hebrews is at the core an exaltation of Jesus as the high priest of the new covenant, an example to which we can look for encouragement and help. It opens with a discussion of the greatness of Jesus, who is greater than the angels and greater than Moses and is therefore able to offer a true and final rest for those who cling to him for refuge. He became like us so that in every way he could sympathize with our weakness and mercifully execute leadership under the new covenant that he himself inaugurates. However, the author wants to remind us that just hearing the promise is not enough, but one should react to the offer with an effort to be found faithful by joining the message with faith in honor of the work that he did at the first. Our section of scripture wraps that discussion up.
I love the juxtaposition in this passage. It starts out with an incredibly horrifying thought: This perfect God knows us and every creature perfectly. It almost seems mocking that he would say that we should strive to not fall by the same sort of disobedience, which is unbelief and testing of God. I certainly do not believe everything that God claims is true of himself. I want to, but I wouldn’t be foolish enough to state that I do. My life simply doesn’t reflect it.
And the author goes further. The word of God (here referring to Jesus) is living and active. He is not disinterested or bored or unaware. He is actively searching and looking at us. Every thought and intention of our hearts is exposed to his eyes. And even more fearfully, his eyes, which know everything, are the ones to whom we will give an account for our lives!
But, This one that knows everything to whom we must give our account, also has another quality. He is sympathetic! We see why he became like us in 2:17-18. What is so amazing about this is that though he was without sin, the fact that he was tempted, that experience, allows him to look at us with mercy fully knowing what we are feeling; the frailty of our flesh, the ineffectually of our efforts, the loving what we hate and hating what we love, all of it! This blows me away, mainly because I primarily sympathize with others weakness based not on my temptation but on my sin. I can forgive someone pretty easily for lust because I’ve struggled so deep and long with it as a Christian. I know how it feels to be addicted to something. But someone who beats their wife or gossips or murders, those people I can’t figure out how to forgive quite as easily, because those aren’t sins that I personally struggle with on a regular basis. Jesus never once sinned! And yet for all of us he can be sympathetic in his priesthood and leadership over us.
Mike Bickle once said that it’s important to remember that while God does in fact see every sin and ill intention in our hearts, there is a glorious reality that is equally true and for the same reason that he also sees every good intention and movement of our hearts. The fact is that if you are born again you have a nature inside of you that longs for God. You truly do desire to walk worthy of the calling with which he called us. And just as we imperfectly know our weakness and frailty, we also imperfectly know our longing to be holy and faithful to him. God, though, lacks no knowledge of our hearts. He pierces to the division of soul and of spirit and discerns our thoughts and intentions. That means the bad and the good!
Ultimately, Jesus deals gently with us. No matter how fallen we remain, our efforts to run after him are met with joy and our faults and failures, while being corrected, are still dealt with in the gentlest possible way. He does not sigh and lament every time we fail but instead, like a loving father, picks us up, perhaps disciplines us, and then shows us the way to walk again. His experience as a man gives him a source to draw from, and it gives a confidence to go to him time and again.
The last thing I want to write down is that all of this should be a source of confidence for us! I have a term I like to use to describe God’s model of leadership: Grace-full failure. The magnificence of our God is that no matter how many times we fail and fall due to our frailty, he is there with love in his heart for us and mercy in his behavior towards us and grace in his helping us. There is no point after which the game is up for us! This is massive! It’s not the case with our relationships with others. If I screw you over enough times you will eventually cut off your relationship from me and just be done with it. It’s natural. Not so with God. His mercy is everlasting; It’s new every morning! And beyond that, we cannot empower ourselves to obey! But God has grace to give, and he gives it freely from his thrown of grace, knowing how it feels to want to do what you don’t ever do. This single reason is why I can so confidently draw near to him every time. Because I know that he deals gently with me and gives me grace to help in time of need.
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A Brief Outline of Leviticus
From January 16, 2009 @ 6:00 am
The Scene
Exodus and Leviticus could easily be one book.
Israel has just spent a little over 80 days plus however long it took to build the temple in presence of a flaming, shaking, thundering, smoking mountain. The temple has just been built and either Mount Sinai is still flaming, shaking, thundering, and smoking and God’s glory has descended on the temple or God’s glory has departed from Mount Sinai and is resting solely on the temple.
Either way… Redonk!
God calls to Moses from the Tent of Meeting (1:1) and gives him an initial set of laws (1-7)
In all likelihood, this was a very short period of time.
The LORD spoke to Moses.
Likely serves a dual purpose.
- Reminder of whom these laws are from. Moses is not creating a government here. God is issuing the points of his covenant with the people of Israel and Moses is receiving them.
- Perhaps Moses was fainting or simply overloading from the glory that he was enduring in the presence of God. These points could speak to God pausing to let Moses recover for a little before continuing with his statements.
We do not typically think of the law as being glorious, but do not forget the context! This is as glorious a moment as anything else I am aware of in scripture, particularly because of the astonishingly corporate nature of this encounter. It makes the falling away of Israel to a piddly Golden Calf all the more shocking in light of what they were experiencing.
God instructs Moses as to the consecration of the first Priests of the Aaronic line and the cleansing is executed. (8-9)
Less than two weeks.
Nabab and Abihu are killed for improper worship. (10)
1 day
This episode does evoke questions as to the mercy and judgement of God. However, I believe the main point here was to express how completely holy the God is. Nabab and Abihu may have been ‘playing’ at religion or pridefully gloating in their new found status as Priests. These would be two possible cynical interpretations. On the other hand, they may have been sincerely worshiping a God whom they feared and loved. In either case, God makes it clear that he is not safe or like us and that he is thus to be feared and respected.
God gives the next set of Laws and Customs, this time to both Moses and the newly consecrated Aaron. (11-25)
About a day.
The terms of the covenant. (26)
Addendum Laws (27)
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0_0
From January 15, 2009 @ 12:30 pm
For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
- Exodus 40:38
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Martin Lloyd Jones on The Modern Man
From January 15, 2009 @ 6:00 am
The Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, is not only the Savior, he has also been made the judge. That’s what John is saying, and if we do not repent and believe on him we shall be judged by him. I have emphasized again this evening that God has got a plan, that God has got a time, that God has got a purpose and everything he’s promised has come to pass. Christmas is proof of that. The fullness of the times have come and God sent forth his son, and when the world crucified him God allowed him to be buried in a grave but only for the time that he’d indicated and on the morning of the third day he raised him up again and he’s allowing these years to pass but remember, the plan of God is still there and the end of that plan is the coming again of the son of God into this world to judge the world. He is going to divide up between the wheat and the chaff; He’s got a winnowing fan in his hand and he’ll separate chaff and wheat! He’ll gather the wheat into his fold and the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. And what makes the difference you see is whether we have repented and believed or not. If you repent and believe you become the wheat that he will gather into his fold but if you don’t, you are the chaff that will be burned with unquenchable fire.
Ah my dear friends, the thought is alarming and terrifying. But let us simply remember this: The god who made all those promises in the old testament that were literally fulfilled spoke to John the baptist in the wilderness, and not only told him that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Messiah, but that he is also appointed as the judge who will judge the world in righteousness at the last assize. If, therefore, you believe that God sent his only son into this world on that first Christmas morning, if you want to be logical and consistent, you must also believe that he will come again, not as the babe of Bethlehem, but as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, riding on the clouds of heaven surrounded by the holy angels, and that he will judge the world finally and forever in righteousness. The word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness and that is what it was. Have you heard it? Have you believed it? Have you acted on it? Oh, be separated to Christ tonight and thereby escape the wrath which is certainly to come, Amen.
- Martin Lloyd Jones – Unbelief and the Modern Man Part 2
