Stepping in the Light

“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 9:11-12

The writer of Hebrews strongly makes the case that Jesus is better than all of the religious rituals and ceremonies of Judaism. He is trying to convince the Hebrews that it is better to be a Christian than to cling to the Jewish religion. Christ died for our sins on Calvary, and His sacrifice was made once for all. Forgiveness of sins and peace with God are available by grace through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. As Christians, we may read the book of Hebrews and revel in the emphasis placed upon our superior situation compared to the Jews in the Old Testament, but in the verses above we are pointed to an even better period of time in the future. Christ is called the high priest of good things to come. We are looking forward to the day when we see Jesus face to face. We will gather around the throne of God rather than in a church or tabernacle here on earth. There will be no sin, and we will experience eternal joy and peace. These are good things to come. We have not experienced them yet, but we look forward to them in the future. While it is better to place our faith in Christ than to bring continual yearly sacrifices, it will be beyond description to be in heaven with our risen Lord!

“Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.” Jeremiah 50:34

Jeremiah spent most of his life preaching a message of chastisement, defeat, and destruction concerning the people of God. His message was unpopular, and he was persecuted because of the things that the Lord had directed him to do and say. Unfortunately for the Jewish people, Jeremiah’s prophecies of doom had been fulfilled, and God’s judgement upon His people had come to pass. Now their situation was completely hopeless, and no one would have believed that anything could ever be salvaged from what had once been a mighty and prosperous nation. Now that they were totally devastated, God gave Jeremiah a message of comfort for His people. Now Jeremiah was preaching God’s promise of redemption. This new message seemed as impossible as his earlier message was unpopular. After repeated conquests of their lands, the complete destruction of their cities, and the deportation and scattering abroad of nearly all of their people; the outside observer would conclude that no power on earth would be sufficient to return these people to their land and afford themselves national sovereignty. It certainly seemed completely impossible, but God sent Jeremiah to His people with this message and expected them to believe that it was true. God wanted them to exercise faith during their time of sorrow, defeat, and loss. He wanted them to trust their Redeemer.

“And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.” Hebrews 7:23-27

Down through the centuries, many priests were chosen from the tribe of Levi. Of those men, one high priest was chosen and that high priest generally held his office for the remainder of his lifetime. Each year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would first ceremonially cleanse himself and then make the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people. The high priest did this every year throughout his life. He always needed to cleanse himself before he could make the sacrifice for the people. When that priest died, another priest would be chosen to make the yearly sacrifice. As the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ never needed cleansing for Himself, and He only needed to make one sacrifice. His death on the cross and His blood applied to the mercy seat in heaven was sufficient to cleanse the sins of every person who has ever lived and every person who ever will live. He will forever remain our High Priest!

“Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” Hebrews 6:17-20

In Genesis 12, God made a promise to Abraham. He promised to bless him, to make a great nation of him, to make him a great name, and that in his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. It is recorded in Genesis 22 that many years later God swore to Abraham that He would bless him, that He would multiply his seed, and that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. We understand that this blessing for all of the families and nations of the world was that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, would offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind on the cross of Calvary. The word immutable means unchangeable. God never changes, and He cannot lie. He gave a promise, and He gave an oath that all the world would be blessed through Abraham’s seed. This two-fold assurance from God the Father is a strong consolation for the believer. It is our hope. It is the anchor of our souls. It is sure and steadfast. Nothing can change it. Anchor your soul to the Rock of Christ and never allow your hope for eternity to rest in anything else!

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Hebrews 5:12-14

God expects us to grow spiritually. He wants us to continually be learning more about His Word and putting the things that we learn into practice in our lives. As we grow and mature, we are to begin to help others around us in their walk with the Lord. There should be opportunities to share Christ with others who do not yet know Him. There should also be opportunities to encourage and teach those who are new in the faith. The metaphor in the passage above is the contrast between the diets of babies and adults. Newborns require milk in order to receive the nutrients necessary for growth and health. Grownups are able to eat meat. They have the teeth required to chew the meat, and their bodies are developed to the point where they can process it and gain strength from the protein it contains. Spiritual truth presents us with similar spectrums of nourishment and difficulty. One marker of spiritual growth is our skill in understanding and applying the Word of God. How well do we know the Bible? Do we understand how to apply it in our lives? Are we mature enough to deal with “strong meat”?

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16

A priest is someone who is given the responsibility of mediating between God and man. The Old Testament priests were expected to know the law of God and teach it to the people so that they could live holy lives and be sanctified to God. The problem with those priests is that they were sinful men just like the rest of the people. Even if they did an excellent job of learning God’s law and teaching it to others, they were still sinners. They needed to have their sins forgiven as well. Because of God’s holiness, we still needed someone who could be the go-between and bring us back to Him. Jesus came to this earth and lived as a man for about 33 years. He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, and even temptation. Jesus knew what it was like to be a human being. He knew what it was like to be tempted, but He never sinned. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect mediator between God the Father and mankind because He completely understands both sides of the equation. He is our Great High Priest because He is now in heaven interceding on our behalf with God the Father. Because of Christ, we may come boldly to God in prayer at any time.

“Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house: But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.” Jeremiah 38:17-20

When God was punishing His people by giving them into the hands of the Chaldeans, He sent the prophet Jeremiah to Zedekiah, the king in Jerusalem, with the message that he should surrender. Zedekiah told Jeremiah that he was afraid. It was not that Zedekiah was afraid of King Nebuchadnezzar or the specter of living in captivity in Babylon. Zedekiah was afraid that he would be mocked by the Jews who had defected and were fighting for the Chaldean army. Jeremiah assured Zedekiah that wasn’t going to happen, but Zedekiah simply could not overcome this fear. He was afraid to do what God said because he thought that people would make fun of him. “The fear of man bringeth a snare,” (Proverbs 29:25).

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” Hebrews 2:1-4

After salvation, every Christian needs to begin a steady diet of scripture. As we read God’s Word, we learn more about the character and nature of God. We learn about His holiness and our own sinful nature. We learn about the thoughts, motives, and actions that are pleasing to Him and those that displease Him. As we learn more about what God wants in our lives, we are presented with the choice to obey and follow God or to continue to follow our old nature in the ways of the world. With any new activity, we experience a burst of energy at the beginning. After a while, the “new” wears off and we tend to lay the activity aside. The same is true in the spiritual world. At first, the excitement we feel gives us an added boost, and we gladly follow the biblical principles that we are learning. Once the initial excitement subsides, we have a tendency to let our new good habits slip. That is when it takes an earnest effort to continue to follow the Lord and obey His Word.

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jeremiah 33:3

This may be the best known and most often quoted prayer promise in all of scripture. God says that if we will call upon Him, He will answer us. It is comforting to know that God will answer our prayers, but sometimes this promise is misunderstood. Many Christians read this verse and think that God is saying that He will give us exactly what we expect Him to give us no matter what it is. It is easy to look at prayer solely from our perspective. We make a list of things that we think we need and things that we would like to see happen and we ask God for them. We think that in order for God to keep His promise, He must give us what we have imagined and also something that is above and beyond what we imagined. This is how we would define “great and mighty things, which thou knowest not,” and that is where our understanding fails. We are asking God for things that we know, but He wants to give us things that we don’t know. We are asking God for things that we think are great, but He wants to give us “mighty” things that He knows are great. Sometimes we are so focused on the things that we want that we do not realize that He is answering with things that are better for us than we could have ever imagined. Sometimes we fail to call upon Him. It may be because we are busy, distracted, lazy, or even sinful. He is waiting for us to call, and He wants to answer. He wants to give us the great and mighty things that we don’t know about, but we are not ready to receive them until we are willing to call upon Him in prayer.

“If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.” Philemon 1:17

Evidently, Paul had led Philemon to Christ when he was preaching in Colosse (Colossians 4:9). Years later, as a prisoner in Rome, Paul met Onesimus, one of Philemon’s servants. Onesimus had escaped from his master and fled to Rome. It is clear from this letter that Paul had led Onesimus to Christ as well, though the circumstances of their meeting are not spelled out for us. It is possible that Onesimus sought Paul out to seek his help in dealing with the guilt he felt, or perhaps Onesimus had been imprisoned with Paul because of something he had done once he got to Rome. In either case, Onesimus had accepted Christ, and Paul was sending him back to his master, Philemon, with this letter. Paul asked Philemon to receive Onesimus as if he were the Apostle Paul himself. Paul wanted Philemon to forgive Onesimus for running away and for any other wrongs that he had committed. He asked Philemon to accept him as a brother in Christ rather than as a servant. Paul even promised to pay Philemon back for anything that Onesimus may have taken from him. Paul’s letter to Philemon shows us the importance of forgiveness. It shows us that personal relationships are more important than possessions. Paul shows us that the condition of the heart is more important than the reclaiming of lost possessions or exacting revenge. Christ has forgiven us and received us into the family of God. How can we not forgive others?