The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“No Greater Sin”
Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can commit no greater sin than to live as if alone. Our Savior died forsaken in utter abandonment that God’s eternally abiding presence might dwell with and within us at all times. Facing life as if by ourselves fails to acknowledge our Lord’s sacrifice and the sorrow He knew in order that we might live with Him, by Him, and through Him.
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).
“I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
To face life as if the Lord Jesus did not purchase this grace of His abiding presence ignores and neglects “so great salvation,” purchased by so high a price (Hebrews 2:3). Little wonder the writer of Hebrews tells us we shall not escape God’s chastening and scourging if we fail to avail ourselves of His “I am with you.” We remember and affirm the truth by faith, overcoming temptations to perceive ourselves as alone by choosing to believe the truth His abiding presence...
“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).
How it must grieve our Heavenly Father when we disbelieve so wondrous an assurance. To see a Christ-indwelt saint live as an empty sinner doubtless moves the heart of God, and will move His chastening and scourging hand if we proceed in the dark insanity (Hebrews 12:6). No excuse exists for facing the issues of life as if God were far away, disinterested, and uninvolved. Consider any matter of challenge of life at the present moment. Have we believed the truth that God is not only with and within us, but provides Himself as “a very present help in trouble?” (Psalm 46:1; emphasis added). How might the Christ once forsaken be known as the Christ vitally present and active in our challenge? As we believe, we will know, first in heart, and then as God acts according to His wisdom and purpose. Unbelief, however, will result in the sad indictment of long ago in the Lord’s home country: “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).
We are now the Lord’s “home country.” Even more, He dwells within us as the very Life of our lives. Believers will face no moment in which this truth does not abide as absolute and eternally enduring reality. To the degree we believe will be the degree to which we experience His involved activity. Let us make this pertinent and practical. Do we perceive any matter of our lives as devoid of God’s presence and working? Do we perceive ourselves in terms of such darkness? If so, let us not fail to recognize the seriousness of our unbelief. No greater sin indeed, when we realize the solemn truth that the Lord Jesus died in complete forsakenness by God and man, that we might live forevermore in the complete assurance of His promised presence and working.
So much given, so great the cost,
so terrible the sorrow, so vast the loss.
When on that day at Calvary,
the Father smote His Son,
when for us He forsook Him
to bleed and die alone…
So much given, so great the cost.
So great the mercy shining in His face
when on that day we first believed,
and in this day as we receive
the grace to live in faithfulness,
the beauty of His holiness…
So much given, so great the cost.
So much given, of new and holy life,
grace that cost Him all, His holy, precious life.
For on that day when we believed,
His Spirit entered in.
And in this day, He lives in us,
we live through Him.
So much given, so great the cost.
“I will dwell in them and walk in them.”
(II Corinthians 6:6)
“He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
(II Corinthians 5:21)
Weekly Memory Verse
“He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works”
(Hebrews 4:10).
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