The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"A Better Hope"
"In direct proportion to the Lord Jesus' abandonment on the cross of Calvary by His Father and the Holy Spirit, we will never be without the abiding presence of God."
Do we draw closer to God by walking faithfully with Him? We do not. Do we wander away from Him in times of unbelief and disobedience? We do not.
"The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw nigh unto God" (Hebrews 7:19).
The Lord Jesus Christ forever serves as the "better hope" whereby God graces the believer with nearness to Himself. We speak in terms of relationship and spiritual proximity, of course. Once the Spirit of God comes to indwell us, He remains always, fulfilling the promise of the Lord Jesus, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). In this sense, our response to God does not affect closeness to Him. Instead, our Savior's response to God during His earthly lifetime, and His ongoing response as our abiding intercessor at the right hand of God, secures our relationship and the reality of "Emmanuel… God with us" (Matthew 1:23; I John 2:1).
Find the most faithful believer on the planet in this moment. His trust and obedience does not supply the basis of God's nearness. Conversely, find the most failing believer on the planet in this moment. His unbelief and disobedience does not drive away the abiding reality of God's nearness. Of course, the experience and expression of the Lord's presence greatly flows in the former Christian, and sadly ebbs in the latter. This matters much to God, and to the believers referenced. It matters much to the sphere of influence in which they live. However, only the "better hope" of the Person and work of Christ supplies the basis and security of "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16). Yes, the promise of the Lord Jesus that "I will come to you" graces us with the corresponding assurance, "I am with you always" (John 14:18; Matthew 28:20).
A broken heart makes possible this "better hope by which we draw nigh unto God." "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). In direct proportion to the Lord Jesus' abandonment on the cross of Calvary by His Father and the Holy Spirit, we will never be without the abiding presence of God. Tell this to the faithful believer. He will bow his head in grateful wonder for the gift he knows he does not deserve and that supplies the power of His response to God. Tell this to the failing believer. He will bow his head in realization of his need for repentance, and how much he does not deserve his Lord to remain amid his lack of response to Him. The "better hope" shines its holy light on the faithful and the failing, humbling and helping by directing all attention to the Lord Jesus and the price He paid for the gift He gave, the grace of God's abiding and indwelling presence in the sanctum of the Christian heart. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" declared the Apostle Paul to even the Corinthian believers he indicted as carnal in their failing walk with the Lord (I Corinthians 3:3; 16).
If this consideration does not seem completely counterintuitive to our human sensibilities, I have not written it well, or you have not read it as carefully as you might. God's presence was a gift for which we did not pay to receive. It is a gift for which no price we can pay causes it to remain. Someone else remitted the cost for us, and Someone else retains its ongoing grace for us. A better hope for drawing nigh to God? Oh yes, and the most wondrous of reasons that we avail ourselves of the abiding presence of God to live for His glory, and in this present moment, to join the throngs around the throne of Heaven as they proclaim…
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing!"
(Revelation 5:12)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Cleanse Thou me from secret faults."
(Psalm 19:12)
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