Tuesday, June 7, 2016

"The Cost of Access"


"The Cost of Access"
    

    It is not required that we consciously think about it every time we pray.  However, we do well to often remember that the cost of our access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ involved the Savior's loss of that access as He suffered and died on the cross of Calvary.

   "Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
   "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46).

   To the degree the Lord Jesus was abandoned by God on the cross, born again believers will never be without the Divine presence.  The promise of "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" assures us because the Father and the Holy Spirit turned away from Christ when He was "made to be sin for us" (Hebrews 13:5; II Corinthians 5:21).  Rather than the devoted fellowship He had always known with His Father - "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" - the Savior knew the furies of Divine wrath and forsakenness - "We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (John 17:24; Isaiah 53:4).  We cannot imagine the unspeakable agony of such torment, save to realize that the Lord Jesus knew loneliness to a measure that no other sentient being has ever or ever will experience.  Thus, in inverse proportion to His forsakenness, the trusting sons and daughters of God in Christ can "draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:22).

   We may not understand this sublime truth (indeed, if we think we do, we deceive ourselves).  Somehow, the fellowship of our hearts means so much to God that on Calvary, He stripped away His presence and communion from His Son.  Our salvation required such an extreme degree of mercy in order to grant to us the eternal delight of grace, indeed, the realization of God's delight in us.  Little wonder that the Apostle Paul concluded that "the love of Christ passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).  Most surely it does, and thankfully, the understanding of such blessed wonder is not required.  Faith rather receives the gift, namely, the awareness and reception of the Truth that proclaims your heart and mine as being precious to God, and our fellowship with Him as being worth the withdrawal of fellowship with His Son.  I know of only one response to such truth, and I'm sure you will join me on your knees in order to please our Father through the conscious communion of our hearts with His.


"Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."
(Ephesians 2:18)
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."
(Ephesians 2:4-7)

Weekly Memory Verse
     Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
(Hebrews 12:11)
   

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