OK...I've got to post this. Those who know me well know that I'm a big Crowder fan. The new album comes out later this month. Check it out here: www.268store.com
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Remedy Is Coming!
OK...I've got to post this. Those who know me well know that I'm a big Crowder fan. The new album comes out later this month. Check it out here: www.268store.com
Once For All
I remember the day I graduated from college. It was about 2 years ago (and some change) that I put on the get up of a judge with a cap and went down to the O’Connell Center for Commencement ceremonies. I was stoked. The day had come to flip the tassel and get on to another season of life. About 2 months later…I got a cardboard tube in the mail…yeah, like one you’d put a poster in. I eagerly opened it up, for I thought I knew what may be inside. Indeed…it was just that…a diploma…with my name on it! It was a sign of God’s sustaining grace to me during my days in school.
It’s also a sign to our culture and world of an accomplishment that should and would bear many good results for one’s future, right? Perhaps…but there’s nothing special about that piece of paper. In fact it’s stayed in that tube up until just recently when I put it up on my wall. What it represents is more than meets the eye, but it holds no secret power. If others know about it, I may get a nice job, lead to wealth…maybe even the American dream…and open endless doors (so it would seem) here in this world. But one thing it, or any accomplishment, could never do…is save me from the wrath of God...wrath that is eminent.
So much for accomplishments, right? Yes…if we don’t have a Savior! You see, I’d love to draw your attention to a great accomplishment…the greatest in fact! Actually, I’d like to point you to the person who points you to that…the writer to the Hebrews. You see in chapter 10 of Hebrews, the writer approaches how the sacrificial system was used for the people of Israel in the past. This yearly offering the priests conducted was meant to be “a reminder of sins”. But it could never make sinners holy before a truly Holy God…and in the providence of God, it was never intended to!
Here’s the amazing, mind-bending, “You got to be kidding me” of this chapter…Hebrews 10:8-10, the writer reviews what Jesus said in coming to Earth:
“You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
“Oh MY!!” – to quote the Gator play-by-play announcer, Mick Hubert – this is amazing…but wait, the writer is on fire…he goes on to say in verses 12-14:
“But when Christ [2] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
That is an amazing truth…what God we serve! What an accomplishment! Jesus Christ has sanctified us “once for all” and “for all time”! Such a work is cause for endless praise. Who could have seen this one coming? (Not counting the prophets…) What amazing grace. In light of this accomplishment, how could I ever try to do things on my own. I could never keep the Law of God perfectly…but the insanity of it all is that so often I try…I’ll never succeed…but I still try, and try, and try. By the mercy of God the Father and obedience of the Son, the accomplishment needed only to be achieved once.
Mark Dever writes: “…Jesus’ sacrifice effectively made people perfect and is effectively making them holy. Therefore, it only had to be offered once…His sacrifice proved perfect by its powerful effect in cleansing the hearts of people. You and I, if we are Christians, are testimonies to the power of Jesus’ sacrifice. As our lives change, we show the reality of what he did on the cross.”
The writer later goes on to describe what the effects of “what he did on the cross” are. We now can approach a previously un-approachable God with “assurance” and enter the holy places. We also can stand firm and stand by one another through the work of Christ.
May our hearts and lives be redirected from the “Look at me” attitude of the flesh to the “Look what He has done!” truth of God’s Word.
"Oh Praise the One who paid my Debt
And raised this life up from the dead!"
- Jesus Paid It All
It’s also a sign to our culture and world of an accomplishment that should and would bear many good results for one’s future, right? Perhaps…but there’s nothing special about that piece of paper. In fact it’s stayed in that tube up until just recently when I put it up on my wall. What it represents is more than meets the eye, but it holds no secret power. If others know about it, I may get a nice job, lead to wealth…maybe even the American dream…and open endless doors (so it would seem) here in this world. But one thing it, or any accomplishment, could never do…is save me from the wrath of God...wrath that is eminent.
So much for accomplishments, right? Yes…if we don’t have a Savior! You see, I’d love to draw your attention to a great accomplishment…the greatest in fact! Actually, I’d like to point you to the person who points you to that…the writer to the Hebrews. You see in chapter 10 of Hebrews, the writer approaches how the sacrificial system was used for the people of Israel in the past. This yearly offering the priests conducted was meant to be “a reminder of sins”. But it could never make sinners holy before a truly Holy God…and in the providence of God, it was never intended to!
Here’s the amazing, mind-bending, “You got to be kidding me” of this chapter…Hebrews 10:8-10, the writer reviews what Jesus said in coming to Earth:
“You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
“Oh MY!!” – to quote the Gator play-by-play announcer, Mick Hubert – this is amazing…but wait, the writer is on fire…he goes on to say in verses 12-14:
“But when Christ [2] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
That is an amazing truth…what God we serve! What an accomplishment! Jesus Christ has sanctified us “once for all” and “for all time”! Such a work is cause for endless praise. Who could have seen this one coming? (Not counting the prophets…) What amazing grace. In light of this accomplishment, how could I ever try to do things on my own. I could never keep the Law of God perfectly…but the insanity of it all is that so often I try…I’ll never succeed…but I still try, and try, and try. By the mercy of God the Father and obedience of the Son, the accomplishment needed only to be achieved once.
Mark Dever writes: “…Jesus’ sacrifice effectively made people perfect and is effectively making them holy. Therefore, it only had to be offered once…His sacrifice proved perfect by its powerful effect in cleansing the hearts of people. You and I, if we are Christians, are testimonies to the power of Jesus’ sacrifice. As our lives change, we show the reality of what he did on the cross.”
The writer later goes on to describe what the effects of “what he did on the cross” are. We now can approach a previously un-approachable God with “assurance” and enter the holy places. We also can stand firm and stand by one another through the work of Christ.
May our hearts and lives be redirected from the “Look at me” attitude of the flesh to the “Look what He has done!” truth of God’s Word.
"Oh Praise the One who paid my Debt
And raised this life up from the dead!"
- Jesus Paid It All
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