In Bible days the act of nailing or binding a person to a cross or tree was considered the cruelest and most shameful method of capital punishment. Anyone hanging on a tree according to Deuteronomy 21:23 is cursed by God. Because of the stigma and curse on anyone ‘hanged on a tree’ the idea of a crucified savior was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews (I Corinthians 1:23). Yet Jesus willingly took the curse and humiliation of the law and as Galatians 3:13 tells us “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Thus He became the means of freeing people from the curse of Sin.
Jesus did not just ‘die’ in our place—He became a “Curse” of the worst kind, for you and for me. He received the total rejection by the Father so that we could be “accepted” in the beloved. He bore the utter darkness died alone as the Father had to turn His back on His beloved and only Begotten Son, so that we would not have to die alone.
“Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from the sin by the offering that he made of His own body once and for all. Every Jewish priest performs his services every day and offers the same sacrifices many times; but these sacrifices can never take away sins. Christ however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever, and then He sat down at the right side of God. There He now waits until God puts His enemies as a footstool under his feet. With one sacrifice, then, He has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin”. (Hebrews 10:10-14 –The Good News New Testament).
The work of the Cross was to atone for the sin of the world, our sin. Atonement itself is life changing. Yet redemption is free through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. All who accept His payment for their redemption become new creatures in Christ. This is the GLORY OF THE CROSS! Lives are altered and redirected by it!
But we cannot leave our Savior on the Cross. On the third day He rose, triumphant over sin, hell and death! Death has lost and Life has won! He lives, our Savior lives!
Have a Glorious Resurrection Day knowing we serve a Risen Savior! Praise God, He lives!!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
I is for Immanuel
In Matthew 1:23 it states “they shall call His name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us.” Why, you may ask, was Jesus not called Immanuel as His given name? My notes in my Scofield Bible say that ‘according to Hebrew usage, the name does not represent a title, but a characterization. It shows that He really was “God with us”. It also shows that the diety of Christ, our anointed one, was emphasized at the very beginning of the New Testament.
The word “Immanuel” consists of two Hebrew words: ‘El’, meaning God and ‘Immanu’, meaning “With us”. It is pronounced ‘ih-MAN-yoo-el’, and is used only three times in Scripture; the first appears in Isaiah 7:14, with prophetic words spoken by Isaiah about 700 years before Christ. It is used again in Isaiah 8:8, and then in our verse of Matthew 1:23, which is quoting from Isaiah. Matthew is applying it to the child to be born of Mary, the virgin betrothed to Joseph. In Jesus, God would become a man that He could save the world and bring man back to God. Through Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, would redeem and restore this relationship between man and God.
David tell us how God is with us as our ‘Immanuel’ in Psalm 139:7-10:
“If I go up to the heavens, you are there,
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
If I settle on the far side of the sea,
Even there Your hand will guide me,
Your right hand will hold me fast.”
How can we lose? What do we fear? Immanuel, God is with me.
A 4th century prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate, says:
“Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart;
Christ be within me, Christ be below me
Christ be above me, never to part.”
‘Immanuel’, God with us.
He is our God
He is truly with us!
The word “Immanuel” consists of two Hebrew words: ‘El’, meaning God and ‘Immanu’, meaning “With us”. It is pronounced ‘ih-MAN-yoo-el’, and is used only three times in Scripture; the first appears in Isaiah 7:14, with prophetic words spoken by Isaiah about 700 years before Christ. It is used again in Isaiah 8:8, and then in our verse of Matthew 1:23, which is quoting from Isaiah. Matthew is applying it to the child to be born of Mary, the virgin betrothed to Joseph. In Jesus, God would become a man that He could save the world and bring man back to God. Through Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, would redeem and restore this relationship between man and God.
David tell us how God is with us as our ‘Immanuel’ in Psalm 139:7-10:
“If I go up to the heavens, you are there,
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
If I settle on the far side of the sea,
Even there Your hand will guide me,
Your right hand will hold me fast.”
How can we lose? What do we fear? Immanuel, God is with me.
A 4th century prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate, says:
“Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart;
Christ be within me, Christ be below me
Christ be above me, never to part.”
‘Immanuel’, God with us.
He is our God
He is truly with us!
Monday, April 11, 2011
H is for High Priest
The role of the priest is to bring the people to God. In the Israelite Nation, the priesthood consisted of three groups: The High Priest, the ordinary priests and the Levites. The High Priest was the only one authorized to enter the most Holy Place, and that only 3 times a year.
In the New Testament, Jesus is identified as our High Priest. He paid the sacrifice once for all, and now He is the One who faithfully bears us into God’s presence.
As our great High Priest, it is Jesus perfect offering that has won for us complete forgiveness. In Hebrews 5 it tells us that in the office of the high priest of the Israelites, he not only offered sacrifices for the people, but also for himself because he is also a weak human. But Christ, the anointed one of God, became our High Priest as He had already given Himself as the ultimate sacrifice.
There are several ways in which Jesus meets all the requirements needed to be a High Priest. First of all, He has a human body. Hebrews 2:17 (NIV) states “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest…” He was human just as though he had never been God, but He was also totally God as though He had never been human.
The second reason is that being human He could also sympathize with we ignorant sinners. In Hebrews 4:15 (NIV) it states “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin.”
The third reason is that He was ordained of God. In Hebrews 5:4 it states “no one takes this honor upon himself, he must be ordained of God…” God the Father chose his eternal Son to be our eternal High Priest.
A fourth way Jesus earned the right to become the High Priest was through His suffering. Isaiah 50: 5-7 prophetically portrays Christ: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting…” In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord experienced intense agony to the point of sweating blood. He was not agonizing over his coming physical death, (many people experienced physical death by crucifixion), but it was the fact that he was about to die for the sin of the world. He, who knew no sin, would become the worst sinner as he bore the sin of the whole world. He was about to suffer what is called ‘the second death’ and to be forsaken by His Father. He knew about suffering!
We needed to have a perfect High Priest, and Jesus was perfect, as He perfectly obeyed the Father. He then became the perfect mediator as well as a perfect victim on our behalf. He alone is qualified to be our Perfect High Priest. Christ became the source of our eternal salvation. Jesus only is the ‘well of salvation’ to which all must come and drink. Jesus is the Eternal High Priest, because His sacrifice, given once for all, obtained eternal redemption.
The Eternal Son
Gives us Eternal salvation,
In which we can be eternally secure.
He is our Perfect and Eternal High Priest!
In the New Testament, Jesus is identified as our High Priest. He paid the sacrifice once for all, and now He is the One who faithfully bears us into God’s presence.
As our great High Priest, it is Jesus perfect offering that has won for us complete forgiveness. In Hebrews 5 it tells us that in the office of the high priest of the Israelites, he not only offered sacrifices for the people, but also for himself because he is also a weak human. But Christ, the anointed one of God, became our High Priest as He had already given Himself as the ultimate sacrifice.
There are several ways in which Jesus meets all the requirements needed to be a High Priest. First of all, He has a human body. Hebrews 2:17 (NIV) states “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest…” He was human just as though he had never been God, but He was also totally God as though He had never been human.
The second reason is that being human He could also sympathize with we ignorant sinners. In Hebrews 4:15 (NIV) it states “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin.”
The third reason is that He was ordained of God. In Hebrews 5:4 it states “no one takes this honor upon himself, he must be ordained of God…” God the Father chose his eternal Son to be our eternal High Priest.
A fourth way Jesus earned the right to become the High Priest was through His suffering. Isaiah 50: 5-7 prophetically portrays Christ: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting…” In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord experienced intense agony to the point of sweating blood. He was not agonizing over his coming physical death, (many people experienced physical death by crucifixion), but it was the fact that he was about to die for the sin of the world. He, who knew no sin, would become the worst sinner as he bore the sin of the whole world. He was about to suffer what is called ‘the second death’ and to be forsaken by His Father. He knew about suffering!
We needed to have a perfect High Priest, and Jesus was perfect, as He perfectly obeyed the Father. He then became the perfect mediator as well as a perfect victim on our behalf. He alone is qualified to be our Perfect High Priest. Christ became the source of our eternal salvation. Jesus only is the ‘well of salvation’ to which all must come and drink. Jesus is the Eternal High Priest, because His sacrifice, given once for all, obtained eternal redemption.
The Eternal Son
Gives us Eternal salvation,
In which we can be eternally secure.
He is our Perfect and Eternal High Priest!
Monday, April 4, 2011
G is for Gate
We take the word Gate from Jesus claim in John 10:7: "I am the Door for the sheep." Several translations use the term ‘Gate’ for ‘Door’, and since we already did a name for D, we shall use the name ‘Gate’.
You may be asking "How can Jesus be called a 'Gate’?" A good way to explain how this term can be applied to our Lord is by taking a look back to the Shepherds of the Bible times. It was, and perhaps still is, a common thing for the shepherd to place his sheep into a sheepfold for the night for safety. Then instead of closing a gate, the shepherd himself would lie down in the doorway making himself as a human door. Should anything try to get to the sheep, it would first have to go through the shepherd.
Do you see the significance here? The first time I read about this I felt excited, awed, and thankful all at once! What a beautiful picture of my Lord’s protection. No matter what comes my way, be it sickness, poverty, injury, death, it must go through my Shepherd first. Jesus is the Gate; nothing gets by Him that is not allowed.
Anyone who tried to get in any other way than through the ‘Gate’ will be called a thief (see John 10:1) In verse 9 of John 10, it tells us that Jesus is the ‘Gate’ and that anyone who does go through this ‘Gate’ will be safe.
Here are some excepts from John 10 from "The Message" translation: "If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the Gate, you know he is up to no good…I am the Gate for the sheep…All those others are up to no good…I am the Gate. (Repeated twice for emphasis). Anyone who goes through me will be cared for…"
There is no other way or name under heaven, given among men, whereby we can come to the Father, other that through the Gate, Jesus.
You may be asking "How can Jesus be called a 'Gate’?" A good way to explain how this term can be applied to our Lord is by taking a look back to the Shepherds of the Bible times. It was, and perhaps still is, a common thing for the shepherd to place his sheep into a sheepfold for the night for safety. Then instead of closing a gate, the shepherd himself would lie down in the doorway making himself as a human door. Should anything try to get to the sheep, it would first have to go through the shepherd.
Do you see the significance here? The first time I read about this I felt excited, awed, and thankful all at once! What a beautiful picture of my Lord’s protection. No matter what comes my way, be it sickness, poverty, injury, death, it must go through my Shepherd first. Jesus is the Gate; nothing gets by Him that is not allowed.
Anyone who tried to get in any other way than through the ‘Gate’ will be called a thief (see John 10:1) In verse 9 of John 10, it tells us that Jesus is the ‘Gate’ and that anyone who does go through this ‘Gate’ will be safe.
Here are some excepts from John 10 from "The Message" translation: "If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the Gate, you know he is up to no good…I am the Gate for the sheep…All those others are up to no good…I am the Gate. (Repeated twice for emphasis). Anyone who goes through me will be cared for…"
There is no other way or name under heaven, given among men, whereby we can come to the Father, other that through the Gate, Jesus.
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