My Morning Meal

A number of weeks ago, with my son-in-law and a friend, I went to a car museum in Tacoma. Now, I’m not really a car guy . . . but there was something, almost from the moment we walked into the building, that whispered, “Impressive!” There was something about these cars being displayed, row after row, floor after floor, that drew your attention . . . invited you to lean in and inspect the detail . . . and say to yourself, “Cool!” Car enthusiast or not . . . expert or not . . . you just knew this was a special collection of cars . . . though you had to get over the fact that some of these “vintage” cars you had once driven yourself . . . ouch! . . . guess I’m vintage too.

Walking into that car museum came to mind as I entered “Faith’s Hall of Fame” this morning . . . as I started in on Hebrews 11 as part of my reading plan. Having been primed by the teaching so far in Hebrews of Christ’s superior Person and His superior Work, I am now being reminded of the Christian’s superior Walk. It began back in chapter 10, but in chapter 11 it takes wings as the Holy Spirit ushers us down hallways of exhibits of faith. “We walk by faith, not by sight,” says Paul (2Cor. 5:7). And, as we enter this God inspired trip through His redemptive story, we are presented with example upon example of those who walked by faith . . . and “the big idea” that grabs me is that, unlike our world that would say that seeing is believing, in God’s economy, believing is seeing!

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. . . . And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.    (Hebrews 11:1, 6 ESV)

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for . . . it is the substance . . . it is the foundation . . . it is the firm underpinnings upon which we interact with the kingdom of God. It is the proof of that which is intangible . . . the evidence of things not seen . . . that divine sense through which the spiritual realm is discerned and, by which, the physical world is navigated. Check out the exhibits in this section of Faith’s Hall of Fame and you’ll find the following . . .

In the “universe exhibit” we understand that all things, terrestrial and celestial, were created by the word of God . . . that in awesome power and mind-bending creativity God commanded, “Let there be . . .” and “there was.”

We then move on to the Abel exhibit and are reminded that by faith we can offer acceptable sacrifice . . . offerings that can have a permanence beyond those who have offered them. Next, we come to the Enoch portrait and we see . . . well, nothing . . . and wonder afresh at what it was to be taken up by faith . . . and in our mind’s eye we see, by faith, the day when God will gather all His children to Himself.

Then we walk into a massive hall with a big boat in it . . . knowing that “by faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.” And we know, beyond doubt, that we too, by faith have entered an ark. That Christ Himself has become our rescue . . . God, by His grace, calling all who believe, to enter into Him . . . God Himself closing the door, securing us in the righteousness of His Son, for the saving of our souls.

As we move on to the Abraham and Sarah display, we’re reminded that by faith we obey ,. . . that by faith we live in the land of promise . . . and that by faith we receive power. Even though we may be going without knowing, we trust in Him who does know and calls us to follow. Even though we’re but nomads in a land of promise, we embrace our wanderings, sometimes in the desert, as, by faith, we see beyond this life and look longingly to our homeland . . . that “better country” . . . “that city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” Lastly, in this exhibit, we’re reminded that, even though we are impotent in and of ourselves, we consider Him faithful who has promised, and so dare to be confident that we too can bear much fruit . . . according to His purposes . . . and by His grace . . . and for His glory.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God . . .    (Hebrews 11:16 ESV)

Empirical evidence is vastly overrated. Truly, believing is seeing! Amen?

The tone has been urgent . . . the arguments, fast and furious . . . the logic solid. We have a better High Priest who has offered a better sacrifice and has made for a better way for all to enter the Most Holy Place. But unless these great truths are mixed with something, they ring empty . . . the wonder never materializes . . . their implications fall flat. Having access to the Holy of Holies . . . being offered a new and living way opened to us . . . being invited to enter with confidence . . . all ring hollow unless the assertions of something “better” are believed . . . unless the evidence of the superiority of Christ is accepted . . . unless the examples of a greater way are received . . . unless these great truths are mixed with faith.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . .
(Hebrews 10:19-22a ESV)

The latter portion of Hebrews 10 starts the transition from emphasizing the superiority of Christ’s person and work, to focusing on the superiority of the Christians walk . . . a walk of faith.

Our boldness is founded on what we believe . . . access is opened to us because of what we have accepted . . . perseverance is possible because of who we have trusted in. And so, with full assurance of faith, we draw near.

. . . but My righteous one shall live by faith . . .   (Hebrews 10:38a ESV)

Hebrews 10:38 is the third time in the epistles that we are reminded that the just shall live by faith. In Romans 1:17 the emphasis is on THE JUST . . . those who are declared righteous through the gospel, the power of God for salvation for all who believe . . . thus, THE JUST shall live by faith. In Galatians, Paul is combating the false gospel of “Jesus plus” in order to be saved . . . that performance is necessary to attain the promise . . . and so his focus on BY FAITH . . . that it is not on the basis of human effort or discipline, but that the righteous will live BY FAITH. And here, in Hebrews, where the author is combating the temptation to “drift away” (2:1), or “shrink back” (10:39), he emphasizes that believers SHALL LIVE . . . shall walk the worthy walk, despite the circumstance, . . . by faith.

Faith is the fuel for the fire. We keep on keepin’ on because of what we keep on believing.

Thus, we draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . possessing a confidence that He who promised is faithful (10:23) . . . and fully convinced that what God has promised, He is able to do (Rom. 4:21).

. . . for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day what I have entrusted to Him.   (2Timothy 1:12 ESV margin)

Great truths . . . mixed with mustard seeds of faith . . . enriched with abundant grace . . . results in those who draw near . . . those who hold fast . . . those who persevere . . .

For His glory . . . amen?

If you think about it, ours is a transient existence. Nothing really lasts . . . not even us. Sure, in terms of a lifespan, we might consider certain things to have a measure of longevity . . . some things even spanning multiple lifespans . . . but how brief is a life? God, who created us, says that we are but “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Nothing lasts . . . mists . . . even if they are multiple mists, still just mists. That’s probably why the concept of something eternal stirs the heart. To think of something beyond transience . . . to entertain the idea that something could truly be permanent . . . to believe that beyond this passing scene, there is something that will truly last. That’s why, continuing to read in Hebrews this morning, my souls is stirred by the truth of an eternal redemption.

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.   (Hebrews 9:11-12 ESV)

Christ has secured an eternal redemption.

Eternal redemption . . . whisper those words . . . speak them over in your mind and through your lips . . . and tell me it doesn’t stir something in the inner man.

Christ . . . the Messiah . . . the Son of God . . . He who became flesh . . . He who offered Himself as a sacrifice for all sin . . . He who was buried and, on the third, rose from the dead . . . He who ascended . . . has entered, as High Priest, the holy of holy places . . . thus obtaining, for those who are His own, an eternal redemption.

I have been redeemed . . . ransomed . . . rescued. The Savior has purchased me out of the bondage of sin and death. The Shepherd has promised me that He would lead me by still waters and make me lie down in green pastures (Ps. 23:1-20. The Bridegroom will one day present me, along with all who comprise His glorious church, as a bride “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27).

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child, and forever I am.   ~ Fanny Crosby

An eternal redemption. The price, having been paid in full, is sufficient to keep forever those who have known rescue. I need not fret about whether or not “the meter will expire” . . . whether or not, I’ll be able to keep it going until the end . . . because it is His work, of which I am a benefactor by faith. My salvation is founded in His unending life, and am I now “in Christ,” enveloped in Him who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. My hope rests not in my ability to keep it going, but in the everlasting ministry of an eternal Savior on behalf of His purchased people.

Everything eventually passes away . . . but not my redemption. Everything eventually fades and decays . . . but not my reward. Everything loses its shine and glory . . . but not my Redeemer.

To Him be all praise . . . forever and ever . . . amen?

There are some things, which I have done over the course of my life, that I would just as soon forget ever happened . . . in fact, things I’d just as soon not even remember that I want to forget. Dumb moves . . . selfish acts . . . words better left unsaid . . . anger that should have been checked . . . wrongs for which “sorry” doesn’t seem enough. Even as I write this list, I cringe with memories I wish I never possessed. Those “things” are sins, iniquities, transgressions . . . the memories are embarrassment and shame. But it’s in that inventory, which I’d just as soon forget, that I’m reminded that, though I might remember them, the God of the new covenant does not.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, . . . I will put My laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. . . . they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.    (Hebrews 8:8-12 ESV)

Throughout the previous chapters of Hebrews, Jesus been portrayed as better in so many ways. Better than the angels . . . greater than Moses . . . possessing a better priesthood . . . engaged in a better ministry. And at the heart of it all are better promises . . . a new and better covenant.

In the passage I’m reading this morning, the writer to the Hebrews quotes from Jeremiah 31 . . . the prophetic promise of a new dynamic by which God and the people He desires as His own are brought into lasting fellowship. A covenant not dependent on the performance of men and women but based solely on the determined will and abundant grace of God. A covenant where “He will” because, in our own power, we can’t. And at the foundation of this new dynamic is the determination of the Holy God of Heaven to remember sins no more.

Not that they are ignored . . . or glossed over. But that He has determined in His great love to atone for them . . . to pay the price Himself for them . . . through the offering of His Son . . . through the Son’s offering of Himself . . . the Lamb of God, come to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). God no longer remembers my sin because His Son has born the judgment for it on Calvary’s cruel cross. The All-Knowing God can determine to no longer know my darkness because He knows that, by faith, I have been brought into marvelous light . . . that, by faith, I have availed myself of His abundant grace. And in that, He purposes that “I will remember their sins no more.”

I read in Isaiah this morning that the love which provides deliverance has “cast all my sins behind Your back” (Isa. 38:17). Though I might reflect on my past through the filter of my transgressions, my God has removed that filter from His gaze . . . putting it behind Himself . . . and looking upon me, instead, through the filter of the righteousness of Christ . . . or as the old song puts it, “. . . when He looks at me, He sees not what I used to be, but He sees Jesus!”

Though I might remember, He has determined to remember no more. Thought I might feel shame, I need not feel guilt, for “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).

O’ praise God . . . for the new covenant . . . for the better promises. Blessed be the Son of God . . . who, through His shed blood, has washed away every sin — past, present, and future — and lives forever to make intercession for us that we might be “saved to the uttermost.” And thanks be to the Spirit of God . . . who illuminates His word . . . inscribing it upon our hearts . . . transforming us through the renewing of our minds.

Yeah, there are some things I’d just as soon forget ever happened. But then there are things, such as the promises and grace of God, that I will desire to ponder anew, with awe and amazement, for eternity.

To Him be all glory!

For seven chapters the argument has been consistent. For seven chapters the evidence has been presented. For seven chapters the implications have been explained. And then, in Hebrews 8, the writer clearly, and succinctly, states the point. And, frankly, something’s wrong if the point doesn’t lead to some praise.

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a High Priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a Minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.    (Hebrews 8:1 ESV)

First, Jesus is “such a High Priest.” What kind of high priest? It’s right there in the preceding verses. A priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He is the King Priest of the Most High God. He is the Priest of Judah, superior to the priests of Levi. The Son of God is the Priest who continues forever, thus possessing a permanent priesthood. A holy, innocent, unstained, sinless Priest who had no need to offer up sacrifice for Himself, but, instead, offered up Himself as the sacrifice for those He came to ransom and rescue. He is the perfect and eternal High Priest. (7:15-28)

And this forever Priest is seated. Unlike the priests of old who were constantly on their feet slicing and dicing animals and offering them as temporary atonement for sin, the sacrificial work of Christ is finished. The offering of the Lamb of God was once for all . . . the blood shed at Calvary sufficient to cleanse all people through all time of all sin. He who knew no sin was made sin for us . . . forsaken of the Father . . . the wrath of God we deserved being poured out on Him . . . that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2Cor. 5:21). It is finished! As such, such a High Priest is seated.

Though seated, He is not idle. But He is “a Minister in the holy places.” His ministry? The continuing service of the Son of God on behalf of those He came to redeem? “He always lives to make intercession for them” . . . that they might be saved “to the uttermost” (7:24). The Shepherd knows His sheep . . . the Bridegroom’s passionate desire is to make ready His bride . . . the Bread of Life desires to fill His people to the full . . . that Light of the world determines to lead those who would trust Him out of darkness . . . and so, He ministers on our behalf. We experience His eternal mediation through His blessed Spirit . . . the Father “experiences” the mediation via His ever-present Son . . . the High Priest ministering on our behalf.

And He is the ever “present” Son. He is “at the right and of the throne of Majesty” . . . He is in heaven . . . in the real holy of holies . . . the true tabernacle, not constructed and set up by men, but fashioned by God Himself . . . the Lord’s presence defining that place which is most holy ground. That’s what the empty tomb screams . . . “He is not here, He is risen!” That is what the filling of the Spirit assures us of . . . that we have the Comforter, because He has ascended and gone to the Father. That is why, when we, by faith, strain to behold Him who is altogether lovely . . . when we desire to worship Him who is alone worthy . . . that is why we turn our faces heavenward. That is where our High Priest is ministering on our behalf.

And that’s the final facet of “the point”. He is our High Priest. For those who, by faith, have believed the good news of God’s love for mankind . . . who, by faith, have received the shed blood of Christ as the atoning sacrifice for their sin . . . who, by faith, have believed the promise and received Him as Savior and Lord . . . for us, He is our High Priest. Seated because His work for us is complete . . . interceding continuously for us because “this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39). The “Lamb in the midst of the throne,” our Shepherd who will guide us to springs of living water . . . who will lead us to that day when “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:17).

We have such a High Priest! That’s the point! Are we feeling the praise yet?

O’ what a Savior! . . . amen?

There’s any number of things which someone might start only to have someone else finish. It’s the exception, rather than the rule, that a baseball pitcher will go all nine innings. Often, whether ahead or behind in the game, the starter will, at some point, end up in the dug out watching as another closes out the game. If the medical training I’ve received from watching too many re-runs of M*A*S*H is trustworthy, often surgeons, after having performed a delicate operation, will have someone else close up for them. But, praise God, such is not the case with our salvation. He who redeemed us . . . and “began a good work” in us (Php. 1:6) . . . is also the One who has determined to be our Closer.

Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.    (Hebrews 7:25 ESV)

He who introduced a better hope (7:19) . . . He who is the guarantor of a better covenant (7:22) . . . He who is of the order of a better priesthood (6:20) . . . is He who is able to save to the uttermost . . . to save completely . . . to save entirely . . . to save eternally.

Saved to the uttermost . . . let that flow from your lips a couple of times and see if the worship wheel doesn’t start turning!

And the “uttermost-ness” of our salvation isn’t because we “can take it from here.” It’s not like He paid the price . . . and provided us the power . . . now it’s up to us to bring it home. Uh, uh! Nor has He left it to someone else, a parent . . . a pastor . . . or any other person, to “close out” the work He begun. Instead, He lives forever to intercede before the Father on our behalf. He’s our Closer.

He is my Closer because of the permanence of His priesthood. As He who has defeated death, “He holds His priesthood permanently, because He continues forever” (7:23-24). It is resurrection power that fuels the eternal sufficiency of His sacrificial work. The empty tomb is my assurance that He who died for me, now lives to intercede for me . . . that He who betrothed me to Himself, is now alive making ready His wedding feast . . . that He who has adopted me into the Family, is even now preparing a place for me that I might be where He is . . . that, in the meantime, He who knows my every weakness, is, even now, praying for me.

He is my Closer because of the purity of His priesthood. The One who prays for me does so at the right hand of the throne of God . . . having entered beyond the holy of holies as One who is Himself “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners” (7:26b). Because He is without sin, not only was He able to be offered as the Lamb of God as the once for all sacrifice for my sin, but He is also uniquely qualified to act as the Mediator between man and God. Having known the reality of our mess but being Himself undefiled, He dwells amidst the heavenly and holy throne of God bringing His people before their God.

Finally, He is my Closer because of the preeminence of His priesthood. The writer to the Hebrews says that my High Priest is “exalted above the heavens” (7:26c). He has been given the highest place of honor (NLT) . . . occupying a chair that is higher and loftier than the heavens themselves. There is no higher name of authority than that of my beloved High Priest . . . He who lives to make intercession for me.

There’s a lot of things that someone can start only to have someone else finish. Our salvation, however, is not one of those things. He who began the good work has promised to complete it . . . He who has brought us “safe thus far” has promised to “lead us home” . . . He who saved us, will Himself save us to the uttermost.

He is our Closer . . . to Him be glory alone!