Holiness for the many

Posted on 30/11/2012 | Leave a comment

Continuing looking at the Letter to the Hebrews, in chapter 10, verses 1 to 3, the writer drives home again that the Jewish law is a mere shadow with great limitations. Those same sacrifices were continuing—they did not stop because they were ineffectual, he said. They did not bring holiness.

In religious circles today, what offerings or worship do people make that needs continual repetition? Do these make them holy? Do these remove the feelings of guilt? We are often reminded that feelings are untrustworthy. Sure, only God is trustworthy! Yet, if we feel guilty, it may be because we have not entered into the true life in the Spirit, promised for us for us in the New Covenant to give us great hope for what is to come.

Much of today’s public expressions of Christianity carry continual reminders of sins to the hearer. In many places the order of service (not a New Testament idea) obliges people to confess sins in a vague, non-specific sense and they are expected to feel contrition. Then there are often sermons preached ‘six feet above reproach’ which are designed to induce guilt feelings but not real guilt. (Actually amongst the primitive believers in Jesus, there were no sermons, no preaching, no clergy, just encouragement and exhortation by one another.)

Real sense of guilt comes from God, from the Holy Spirit, a result of the reality that we have offended God and friendship with him has been severed as a result. It is a precondition for true holiness.

Hebrews 10 goes on to show that Jesus understood these famous words from Ps 40:6-8 to apply to him,

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;  with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll —I have come to do your will, my God.’”

Jesus accepted the central mission on which God had sent him—to offer himself in a human body, in his own human body, to do the will of God. Remember the scene in the garden, Gethsemane? And this perfect offering has replaced all other! This once for all obedience makes us holy, an emphatic statement much repeated. We do not understand this cosmic event, but we are amazed at its wonderful depth and sure of its benefits.

Jesus was no puppet, no mechanical man dictated to by God. No. Jesus had a will of his own. He chose to make his will conform to the Father’s will. It was the will of the LORD to bruise him, we read in that amazing servant song of Isaiah 53. At Heb 10:10,  our author maintains

by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all

Holiness is a gift from another to be received by turning to Him and believing—can’t be achieved any other way.

Do you get it?

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On death and judgment

Posted on 23/11/2012 | 8 comments

We are looking at the Letter to the Hebrews and in chapter 9 and verses 25-26, we are told that Jesus’ doing away with the sin of many was a once-only event. He cannot be offered again and again like the continual offerings in the earthly tent or even worse, in some ritualistic, religious ceremony using pagan-like church altars by sacerdotal ‘priests’ in a human inspired ‘service’.

But now, ritual has been done away with forever—now we have the real. Instead of an ineffectual sacrifice we have the Real Presence of our great high priest at our gatherings.

God and man at table are sat down!

Hebrews 9 continues …

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (9:27-28)

We will all face death once and once only. And after we die, we will face the Judgment, each one, and only once, no hint of a second chance here or anywhere else in the Scriptures. And why should there be, from God’s point of view? We have been warned. Prepare to meet your God.

But, in contrast, Jesus, in completing his earthly work for us, offered himself and was sacrificed once. He died. God’s Messiah died! And he died once only, as we will. But after his death, no judgment for him, he lives, the sinless one who died for the sinful many.  He appeared once as a helpless human being like us. He died once, like us. Judgment for all men is faced once.

But he will appear a second time— the only New Testament occurrence of the phrase “second coming”!  The time for sin-bearing is then over–it is then the Day of Salvation.

His salvation, not judgment, comes for those who are waiting for him. Paul in 1 Thes 1:9-10 describes Christian believers as those who

have turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead —Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

What a simple and yet profound definition of a Christian! and totally consistent with this amazing letter. Though judgment awaits all men and women, we who are his, gladly serve God and eagerly wait for Jesus’ return.

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THE BEST OF ALL

Posted on 18/11/2012 | Leave a comment

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote that the Holy Spirit shows (the Holy Spirit must be a real person! He shows, speaks, can be grieved, etc)showsthat the way into the true Most Holy Place of the Lord was hidden. In fact, only once a year could just one man enter the temporary copy standing on earth! (Hebrews 9:8)

But now a different tabernacle now stands! It is a person, a human like us, yet unlike any of us, the one-and-only Son of God.  He has tabernacled –pitched his tent— among us by coming in human flesh. Now he lives forever in God’s presence to carry on his work for us who abound in his work, participants in his movement. In him we find all our needs met, all our dreams fulfilled, all our weaknesses helped, all our sins forgotten.

We have seen how the conscience of the individual remained clouded and confused and rose up to condemn him under the Old. Only the outward was included, the inner person remained untouched. A better “tent” was needed to touch the inner person. It is here. And it’s no leaky tent.

So our author reminds us yet again He offered himself, which deals with our guilty conscience, but more than that: that we may serve the living God!

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and came to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

To be ransomed means a price was paid for our freedom. What an astronomically great price! And now our great privilege is to serve the living God.To serve is to worship—to acknowledge his tremendous worth. Worshipping God means working in his service. It does not mean sitting in a church pew being entertained –or bored to sleep.

To serve the living God—how good is that!

As John Wesley shouted : THE BEST OF ALL IS GOD IS WITH US.

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Instead of rules and regulations

Posted on 14/11/2012 | 4 comments

The first covenant had regulations—lots, as well as the amazing earthly sanctuary, says the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, (chapter 9, verses 1 to 5). The spectacular tent with its out-of-this world design, specially crafted furniture, consecrated unrefrigerated food, the Most Holy Place, incense, the gold covered covenant box, not to mention the hundreds of rules governing the ceremonial work of the priests.

So, what are the regulations of the New Covenant? The setting up of numerous different kind of earthly sanctuaries called “churches”? A worldwide institution “the Church”? Pulpits, pews and altars? Mystical foods? A new order of priesthood? Transcendent sacrifices?  Better smelling incense? A priestcraft elite? Excited audiences and religious entertainment?

None of the above. Definitely. Absolutely not. Full stop.

But as you know, tragically, all too soon, men set up such things which were not even a shadow of the real. These survive today after a long history of slowly evolving forms: Catholicism, Anglicanism, sacramentalism, mysticism, countless other isms, formality, liturgy, clergy driven—old, superseded models but without any of the glory of God, no cherubim, no stone tablets written with the finger of God, no budding rod, and no true sacrifice for our atonement, and without any mandate whatsoever from the Lord of Hosts for the shabby substitutes men instituted. Empty. God has left this kind of house.

Under the Old Covenant, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry.  But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance, as it says in Heb 9:6-7.

But today in so many earthly temples, earthly priests regularly enter their sanctuaries to carry on their ministry and without any Aaronic authority, imagining they re-crucify the Lord of glory on some pathetic copy of an altar. In a mockery of the real, the true, they imagine wine is magically changed to blood by their mumbo-jumbo mantra instead of directing needy souls to see that Jesus has finished his work once for all and ensure the people of receive their inheritance, now.

In the old Jewish order, sins committed in ignorance were atoned—wonderful grace assuring worshippers that it did not depend on them dotting every ‘i’.  But the so-called sacrifice of the mass keeps people in perpetual dependence on a mediatorial priesthood, for they must come continually to maintain the believed benefits of forgiveness.

But what can really cleanse from sin? And what about sin not done in ignorance–deliberate?  What can cleanse my conscience? –nothing in the old covenant arrangement, glorious though it is. A better deal awaited God’s people, now come in the Christ and his offering for us.

So again you may ask, what are the regulations of the New Covenant?

Well there are none. There are patterns to guide us and above all the example of the Lord Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The habits, practices and attitudes he demonstrated to his little band of followers are there for us to practice towards one another : love, forgiveness, joy, patience, service, cooperation, togetherness, thanksgiving. Here we are not remotely on the same planet as Law, rules and regulations.

Jesus has gone from us to a place where he is constantly at work for us.

And there is the glorious gift of his Spirit! In his place he sends the Holy Spirit! People in the NT era knew they had received the Spirit from Jesus. They knew because they could abound in the work of the Lord (1 Cor 15:26). They knew because they were members of a functioning body all joined together, each with manifestations of the Holy Spirit to encourage one another. They knew because the Word of God flowed from their hearts and through their lips. They were bold, courageous.

Yes. There is also the eternal Word of God by which we continually hear His voice. What marvellous resources!

Surely we have such abundance in this great design plan that Jesus has inaugurated! What need then do we have of formalised institutions and commercialised religion? Of priestcraft and liturgical magic?

To hang on to such substitutions instead of God’s creative, revealed ways is to dishonour Him. To hear and put into practice His ways is to honour Him, to hallow His name.

Hear!

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A new deal has come

Posted on 06/11/2012 | 1 comment

Our writer to the Hebrews said the first agreement was defective (8:7-8) and a better one was always needed. Our author has already shown how much more serious this new deal is and it cannot be ignored.  God’s design for his people’s service unfolded in the New must be followed and not lost or replaced by worldly or pagan ideas and practices.

The choice for us to worship (=serve) God is a choice between two systems, two ways.

There is the system of law following the type of Aaron: Christ is redeemer and because of his wondrous act, his death on the cross, we compel ourselves to love and obedience, though it may not be our delight.  So we have a striving and not the promised rest from trying to be righteous. Others around us looking on get the message we are self-righteous though we may deny it. And they have every right to form that opinion.

By pursuing the way of law at the expense of the Holy Spirit and his revealed Word, we invariably add in our own ideas, mixing right with wrong, light with darkness and dropping the true and real by hanging on to vain traditions and practices of religion. Like sheep we go astray.

But a much better deal has been made for us! We are called into the experience of the Lord Jesus in the power of his endless, imperishable life in which he works in us who draw near. He promises to energise within us, in our own life, breathing his life in us, so that it becomes our new nature to love him, delight to do his will—his own life in us. That is, to worship him in Spirit and in Truth, each of us and together.

Surprise: Meeting together as Christ’s people today (“going to church”) is frequently inferior to that experienced even by Jews in Jesus’ day. For example in the synagogue, there was no pastor or priest ruling over them, running the show, so anyone was able to speak and to question what was said.  No one person jealously guarded who was allowed to share the word of God and for how long.

Nor did they think they were meeting in the ‘house of the Lord’. And each synagogue (means gathering) was independent and they did not have to toe the line of any outside superintendent, C.E.O., denomination board, statement of faith, or any head office.

Hebrews 8:7-8. God found fault with the first covenant in the hands of his ancient people and said (in the words of Jeremiah 31:31-34) ….

I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach or say to one another, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’

We are supposed to have embraced the new arrangement. But appallingly, today, we see a denial of much of the glorious features of the New. Instead of God’s laws poured by the Holy Spirit into their minds and written on their hearts, many are content to get their spiritual input not from the Lord Himself, but from middlemen with agendas—spiritual directors, priests, pastors. Instead of being the people of God, many see their identity as Baptist or Catholic or Evangelical and so on. Tradition, blind, mindless tradition.

So instead of all God’s people being in unbroken fellowship with the living God—knowing Him in their personal experience—they are dependent on professional Christians as mediators.

In the fantastic deal we have received in Jesus, we have become part of a household, a family. We are each born into a Body—the Body of Christ. Individualism is contrary to the New Deal and to our organic, community life in the Body of Christ. We are many members and one body. God has made covenant in Jesus with a people, not with individuals.

Hebrews 8:13. When the Lord talks about a new agreement, he means that the first one is out of date. And anything that is old and useless will soon disappear. (CEV)

All kinds of spirituality are inadequate and have now been made obsolete by God’s flawless design. What is not planted by the Father will be rooted up, said Jesus. And what is built, if not with God’s specified materials, will be destroyed, even if on a good foundation, said St Paul.

It seems to me, God is calling on us to abandon obsolete, sinking, old-hat stuff that we should have jettisoned ages ago and join Jesus’ movement of love, joy, freedom and power as he promised. What do you think?

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You doing God’s stuff?

Posted on 30/10/2012 | Leave a comment

As we read in Hebrews 8:1-2, we do have a high priest, who sits in the place of absolute majesty in the Universe, and who serves in the real sanctuary, the most holy place, the true tent set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being. Under the Covenant with Israel long ago, God commanded an earthly, temporary, mobile sanctuary, a tent! a copy of the real sanctuary to be established by Moses with priests appointed under the law of Moses to offer up gifts and sacrifices.

But when Jesus came, he could not even approach the Tent of meeting—he was a layman! He was not even an acclaimed rabbi, let alone a priest (8:4).

Did you get that? He was a layman, not a priest! Yet in that humble form, with no religious or institutional status, he showed perfectly the character, the face, the loving-kindness and compassion of God! And by his life and death in that lowly status, he entered the TRUE sanctuary and forever abolished the whole system of exclusive priestcraft. He smashed for all time the clergy–laity hierarchy divide. So why does it still persist even in evangelical Protestant churches?

Look at Hebrews 8:5: that earthly tent made by Moses was just a copy, a shadow of the real, of what is actually in Heaven. Yet it had to be done kosher, right? So Moses was strictly warned by God:

 ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’(Exodus 25:40

God gave Moses the pattern, the design plans, for the tent of meeting and the worship to be made by Israel, which was to be visible, not just virtual. These plans could not be compromised in any detail. Understand the seriousness of following the exact plans given by the Lord Architect, even under a temporary covenant. Moses was allowed to see the transcendent, glorious form and then was instructed to materialise what he saw. No additions. No subtractions.

Following God’s instructions, Moses fabricated, erected and furnished the Tent, not a permanent structure like the worldly religions everywhere else. God was on the move with his people! The living God cannot be compromised, cannot be reduced to images or reproduced in buildings.

Now, if it was so important for Moses and Israel, under an inferior and temporary covenant arrangement, to implement exactly the Lord’s design, how much more critical it was that the apostles correctly implement the Lord’s plans for the Body of Christ to be visible on the Earth and be on the move!

And the followers of Jesus, without any Jewish authority, did so, as our letter under review and the rest of the New Testament shows. They obeyed Jesus’ words and in the power of the Holy Spirit their obedience turned the world upside down. The evidence is there in all the New Testament scriptures. We have the Lord of glory on the move in his gathered people. We see Almighty God reproduced in the face of Jesus and visibly in his gathered people: God’s pattern!

Many Christian leaders tell us they cannot see the Lord’s design for gathering of God’s people which he handed down to the apostles, and which was then implemented under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What! The pattern’s on every page of the New Testament. But we are so used to having a D.I.Y. religion based on human thinking, founded on worldly ideas, we just assume that what we have always done is right.

If the Lord is to be honoured and given the ‘worth-ship’ He deserves, a serious, radical and unbiased approach to the New Testament is needed to see  God’s pattern for his Body. But we must remove our churchy, religious glasses to see it, and to throw out both the baby and the bathwater.

Even more so, since Jesus’ own ministry is carried out, not in a mere replica of the heavenly, but in the dwelling place of God. His work is astronomically superior to the old Mosaic order. The new arrangement Jesus has made with his people is much superior to the old one as it is established on better promises. And itcalls for even closer attention from you and me, to what God wants and the careful putting into visible form, God’s perfect design for his people.

Notice Jesus’ terrifying answer  to the troubled question his politically correct and concerned disciples put to him after he had rebuked the Pharisees over what defiles a person (Mt 15:12-14): Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up!

God is jealous for his plans and designs for his work to be followed by his servants, including us. Look carefully and thoughtfully at what Jude wrote (Jude 3):

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Are you prepared to see how proud arrogance, abysmal ignorance, sheer blindness, rank disobedience and shoulder-shrugging complacency has subjugated God’s perfect design in the totally controlled, commercialised, industrialised, entertainment-based, consumer oriented  Churchianity of today?  Stay tuned.

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HIS WORK FOR YOU NEVER STOPS

Posted on 23/10/2012 | 3 comments

Last time, in our journey through the letter to the Hebrews, we spoke of Jesus’ perfect, once for all sacrifice and how it is unrepeatable and irreversible. In the prophetic words of Isaiah 53 –penned 700 years before it happened, this Servant “makes himself an offering for sin“(Isa 53:10). This offering was complete, finished, but it was not the finish of Jesus’ work –he continually intercedes for us, is there for us in all our struggles. He knows what it is like to be human with all our limitations as we have noted here previously.

This teaching of Christ’s advocacy for us echoes that of Paul’s, for example in Romans 8:33-34, Paul writes,

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died —more than that, who was raised to life —is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

In Jesus, we boldly appear before the Lord Himself! And this is a continual experience. We are invited to live an impossible life, a life above sense and reason, a supernatural life in the power of His Son, says Andrew Murray. These are not just nice words but reality for us in our daily life. This is our native environment—what we have been created for, having his love broadcast into our hearts continually.

Jesus spoke about this life to the woman of Samaria in John 4, stunning her, saying …

“…. whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  ……. a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

His work for us is permanent. It never ceases. Like a surging spring of invigorating, life-giving water, our Lord works in our hearts his peace, his love, his joy and his hope. Now this is “worship” and here are the new worshippers in the Spirit. Now, Jesus continually, without a moment’s pause, lives and works in the heavenlies to keep us abiding in this joyous place. And we are summoned to be worshippers in truth –to do his will, to serve, to obey, to love, to care for one another. So simple really, and so profound.

We must see what God promises and then allow Him, wait on Him, to work His Son’s life in us as promised. We need to ask God to rid us of all defective, obsolete and unworthy views of what Jesus, our great high priest means for us. We need to abandon the weak and futile religious stuff that men have added down the centuries and contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to us (Jude 3).

Just look at what Paul reminds the Ephesian believers:

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ (Eph 1:7-9)

Paul then wrote about God’s incomparably great power for us who believe:

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Can we see how significant this is! Can we remain unmoved by such extravagance, such a solid plunge into reality, ultimate reality? God promises so much and wants to embrace us with His great love through Jesus. Here is our “Sabbath Rest”. Let’s leave behind the complicated subverted Christianity and choose the simple life together we see encouraged by the author of this unique letter.

You are weary of trying to stay the course? Listen to Jesus’ words to the disciple Peter “I have prayed for you that your faith does not fail …” (Luke 22:32) and also to the 12, as he prayed for them in John 17. What he did for his followers then he will continue to do so for us who are his servants, who long for his appearing.

What! You are not good enough? Who is? Look, you are immensely valuable, otherwise he would not have made the sacrifice, he would not be there as your constant advocate. All that fancy religious stuff that has subverted the simplicity of the first believers will soon disappear. Instead, Jesus is the “throned priest-king, asking what he will from a Father who always hears and grants his requests. Our Lord’s life in heaven is his prayer” says H. B. Swete (1912).   David Wilkerson wrote …

In this sad, weary, worn-out state, the Holy Spirit brings the man this word: “There is a way out for you. There is a place of victory, peace, joy, newness of life. Accept Christ’s call to run to Him and find rest.”

He has gone, out of sight in the heavenlies but is still with us enabling us in the Spirit, still there for us in our needs and suffering, “an advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). Time to be still, to know God, to be at rest, to be living now in his ‘household’. His work for you and for me never stops.

Run to him –it will be a vote of confidence in God’s great purpose for you, for us.

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Everything has changed!

Posted on 11/10/2012 | Leave a comment

Everything has changed says the author of the Letter to the Hebrews

Why did the people of God need another kind of priest to arise—what was the problem with the Levitical  priesthood set out in the Torah (the law of Moses)?

Hebrews 7:11:  Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?

If people are satisfied with an outward arrangement, a formal relationship with a long way off God and no or little intimacy with him, then so be it. Aaron will do. Levi and his descendants will suffice. The status quo will do. And today’s church going people will even try to trust a human “priest” or pastor to fill the office.

 

But those who seriously attempt to draw near, close to God, meet all sorts of barriers: not good enough! Guilty conscience! Shut gates! Ignorance of God’s great promises! Unwillingness to come God’s way! Maybe stubbornly forging our own means of grace—a D I Y approach.

A better agreement is needed, one that will guarantee ‘perfection’ to the persons who draw near, one that ensures they can live in the Presence of the Holy Lord God! And one that actually changes the whole picture, one that transforms the worshipper! And that experience continues unbroken forever!

Enter Jesus. From completely left field.

Jesus’ priesthood comes from an entirely different source and after a different order. A better priesthood was absolutely necessary and has arisen! This changes everything. So there is a radical change in God’s covenant, that would actually bring people close to God, in tune with him, make the people of God ‘perfect’, that is right with him. Holy.

That’s the original message that turned the world upside down before the great subversion.

Unlike Aaron, the priesthood of Jesus is based not on legal requirements, on law, but on life, on the power of an indestructible, resurrection life (7:15-16)! Like the Ancient of Days, the same man, Jesus, who was born of a woman, who taught, healed and forgave sinners here, lives forever, ever fresh, ever strong and robust, ever ready and ever able to listen to us, ever able to meet our needs. The law in its weakness brought death but Jesus has brought life, complete salvation, cleansed consciences. All is finished, all is done by this one great high priest. It is time this world changing news is told everywhere.

Look, once you get it, you are on the road of transformation. God has changed everything!

The priesthood of Jesus comes with God’s oath (7:20-21) as if God’s promise was not enough! …

 “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’”

 Guaranteed!  Jesus can save to the uttermost, we who draw near (7:25).

To draw near—this expression is familiar to readers of the Torah. Up until this moment, there was no way God’s people could enter into the earthly sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, which stood for His immediate presence among His people, Israel. No, that was the sole role of the high priest and only once annually.

So what could be more appropriate, more suitable for our needs than this Jesus as high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens (7:26). Our high priest! How pathetic it is that people trust in human priests instead of this one. This one person perfectly combines manhood with Godhead.

His sacrifice was perfect and he did this once for all and not like the Jewish high priest, who needs to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people (7:27-28). This offering up of himself was foretold in the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 who “makes himself an offering for sin“(Isa 53:10).

Jesus’ sacrifice happened ONCE and is unrepeatable and those today who are called ‘priests’ and who think they continually offer up Jesus daily or weekly on their ‘altars’ are so far away from the truth of this letter and the rest of the New Testament. How dishonouring that is to Christ. And how much is being kept away from people’s understanding and their trust in Him by such gross error. Why do they pollute this utterly perfect good news? Do they want control over God’s people? This is anti-worship.

In Jesus, we can boldly appear before the Lord and this can become a continual experience. These are not just nice words but reality for us in our daily life. This is our native environment—what we have been created for, having his love broadcast into our hearts continually. We are invited to live an impossible life, a life above sense and reason, a supernatural life in the power of His Son, says Andrew Murray.

His work for us is permanent, never ceases. We can draw near today and stay forever.

Tell everyone.

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Melchizedek: Who’s this?

Posted on 04/10/2012 | Leave a comment

Now, get a hold of some more solid food in Hebrews 7:1-7. Have you had a look at it? No junk food here but food that will not only nourish and inspire but also surprise and intrigue: Melchizedek again!

Why this unexpected entry of that strange, mysterious, immortal figure, Melchizedek?

Well, they are Jews after all, and Jews are used to having a high priest. Our author is giving them every reason for them to prefer Jesus’ high-priesthood to the system of the Old Covenant of Moses, still practiced in their day.

This Melchizedek is without any doubt highly exalted. And Melchizedek was not a Jew! Not an Israelite! Not even of known earthly parentage!

Now we may not be Jews. Nevertheless, we will learn from our Hebrew author much about Jesus in his comparing him with this Melchizedek who appears twice in the Tanakh, the Old Testament scriptures – our Lord’s scriptures and our scriptures too.

The first appearance is in Genesis 14:17-20 as part of the story of Abraham. Melchizedek is described as ‘priest of God Most High’. For a Jew, who could be greater than their illustrious father, Abraham? Yet this Melchizedek is clearly greater than Abraham. Abraham pays tithes to him. Abraham receives Melchizedek’s blessing.

That passage in Genesis 14:17-20 seems quite irrelevant in the story of Abraham—a strange intrusion in the narrative. Yet this superlative, towering figure, Melchizedek, and the description there, are now at the end of the day, seen to be of great significance.

Our author again quotes the words of David’s Psalm 110:1-4, in which God is said to invite David’s ‘lord’ to ‘sit at my right hand’ and then swears to this David’s lord that he is ‘a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek’. This second appearance of Melchizedek also must have seemed puzzling for its readers at that time. Another puzzle was who is David’s ‘lord’?

You may remember Jesus threw that puzzling question about David’ psalm and David’s lord to his opposing religious antagonists, which remained unanswered:

“How is it that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? (Mat 22:43)

Then another 1000 years after David this Melchizedek bloke emerges in our author’s work. Jesus is indeed the Son of God and is THE great high priest, the only mediator. Eternal. The old order is now obsolete! Jesus, the Jew, meets our needs now by divine appointment and in the power of an endless life.

Here is remarkable evidence of the inspiration and unity of the scriptures, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Firstly, we have a prophetic view given to Abraham about future times, far beyond anything yet to come in the Law of Moses. Then, right out of the blue, out of thin air, God reveals his eternal mind to the Psalm writer –God made that promise to the Son speaking 1000 years into the future. Then thirdly, by the same Holy Spirit, our author in his letter, goes where hardly anyone had gone before to draw attention to the awesome work that Messiah Jesus carries on in the heavenly place. For us!

That’s another reason why I trust God that these ancient writings preserved for us so carefully by the Jewish people are sufficient and trustworthy to speak to my heart and mind the things God wants to say.

He speaks today! Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5).

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Solid food—the Certainty of God’s Promises

Posted on 28/09/2012 | 1 comment

We saw how the author of the Letter to the Hebrews wanted his readers to grow up on solid food, and there is plenty in this letter. Here’s some more. It’s breathtaking.  The certainty of God’s promise is spelled out here in Hebrews 6, verses 13 to 20 for these Hebrew believers.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 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.

It has become fashionable in some religious circles to denounce such certainty, to sanctify doubt. So people argue that to be certain of God is to have abandoned faith. The only thing that is certain is death and taxes, it is said often.

Well, the writer of this old letter would deny the certainty of both death and taxes! He strongly advocates the certainty of God’s promise for his children. Certainty for the first followers of Jesus was firmly anchored in the character, works, passion and resurrection from death of Jesus of Nazareth.

Look, this is a serious matter, what these people had done. They had turned all their attention to this Jewish teacher, Yeshua (Jesus) and in doing so they faced fierce opposition from former family members and friends in their community who were angry, scandalised, that true blue Jews should put their trust in Jesus instead of Moses, Moses! Offended at the idea of Jesus’ ascent as Lord of all at the ultimate place at God’s right hand. Offended that these preferred Jesus to angelic messengers, preferred him to the goings-on in the daily rituals of the temple in Jerusalem and the obligations imposed on them by Judaism in their local community. These ‘heretics’ saw Jesus as their only mediator—the great high priest who officiates in the holiest place of all, in the very presence of the Lord of creation, the Living God.

In the face of such a great calling, such serious demands, the constant threat of loss of property, safety and their lives, their Lord knows His people need to be certain of his great promise of help and grace. So we are reminded of Abraham’s experience—how could he possibly maintain faith in such marvellous promises, given his circumstances—both he and Sarah well past parenthood? Yet, he made the choice to be Mr Stickability, to wait patiently trusting for the most part, though sometimes faltering, in the loving, unchanging character of the One who promised, who guaranteed.

So, as He did with Abraham, the Lord does so with these people. To the promise, He adds an oath—a rock-solid guarantee. People expect earthly promises to be confirmed by a guarantor, someone superior. Now marvel that the King of all Creation was prepared to address human frailty in this way! So, God swore by Himself, there being no higher authority.Two things here: two unchangeable things—firstly, a promise and secondly, an oath (a warranty, a guarantee) to assure them—and us also—that it is impossible for God to lie.

This gives us, who are serious about following Messiah Jesus, strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. It anchors our soul in our flight into the refuge of the Rock of Ages. We can hold fast to that hope which takes us into the holiest place of all! It’s all worth it! Jesus is there now, waiting for us –behind the curtain  This certainty must be not just a feeling but a firm decision in the character, the words of the God who cannot lie. There is simply no real alternative.

Well, what are we waiting for? Certainty?

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