"How Near?"

 

     The New Testament calls us not only to faith in God, but also to confidence in our relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

    "Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (I Corinthians 6:11).

 

    Recall that the the Apostle Paul wrote these words to the most wayward community of believers mentioned in the New Testament epistles, the Corinthians.  Their carnality was so severe that some had been chastened with death by God (I Corinthians 11:30).  Paul nevertheless affirms the Corinthians' relationship with God, even as he strongly chastens them for their failures to rightly know and respond to the fact of the Spirit of Christ dwelling with and within them.

 

    Believers are so "washed" by God in the sense of our relationship with Him that He will not impute our sins to us" (Romans 4:8).  We are so "sanctified," (set apart to God), that nothing will cause Him to leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).  And we are so justified through Christ that our Heavenly Father deems the Lord Jesus to literally be our righteousness (I Corinthians 1:30).  God has freely provided for us an inviolable relationship with Himself through Christ, and He calls us to doctrinally and personally know how near and dear He we are to Him, and how near and dear He is to us.

 

     The more we grow in our understanding and apprehension of such grace, the more we will think, act, speak, and relate accordingly.  It is not enough to merely trust that God is who He is.  Such faith, while elemental and vital, nevertheless leaves God in His Heaven and ourselves upon the earth, never to meet in any sense that has dynamic impact in our lives.  We must also know and strongly affirm who He is in relationship to us.  Accordingly, the pages of the New Testament continually recount the truth of Christ's powerful atoning work on our behalf in providing a bond with God so near that the Apostle declared, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Corinthians 6:17).  Growth in our awareness and understanding of such abounding grace inevitably results in greater application thereof. 

 

    If we have been born again, this moment - this moment - finds us so united to Christ that He is our very life (Colossians 3:4).  Regarding the secure reality of such relationship, it matters not what we have done or not done, nor how faithful or unfaithful we have been.  Our family bond with God is a Christ-assured and energized reality.  Knowing and affirming such grace and truth goes far in the enabling of our spiritual capacity to live accordingly.  Confidence in God demands that we have confidence also in His Word that assures a relationship with Him through Christ far more present and dynamic than we realize.  "Ye are washed... sanctified... and justified" wrote Paul to the Corinthians whom he sought to deliver from their carnality.  He would say the same to us in this moment, wherever we may be along the path of righteousness.

 

"I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus."

(Philemon 1:4-6)

 

"The Center and the Circumference"

 

     The first chapter of Hebrews affirms eighteen truths about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

He is...

1. The last days messenger of God.
2. The heir of all things.
3. The Creator of all things.
4. The brightness of God's glory.
5. The express image of God's person.
6. The upholder of all things.
7. The cleanser of our sins.
8. Seated at the right hand of God.
9. Made better than the angels.
10. A more excellent name than the angels.
11. The Father declares Christ as His Son.
12. The angels of God are to worship Him.
13. The Father declares Him as God.
14. He is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows.
15. He laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning.
16. The Heavens are the works of His hands.
17. His years shall not fail.
18. His enemies will be made His footstool.

     Each of these truths about our Lord are amplified throughout the New Testament.  Hebrews 1 therefore provides an excellent outline and framework for detailed consideration of who our Lord is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He promises to do for us forevermore.  One can focus on each particular truth,  searching the New Testament (and the Old, of course) to obtain a growing understanding of the Lord Jesus in specific detail, and also in the perfect relationship and coordination with the Hebrews 1 affirmations.

     It is hard to image a more effectual or important study of Scripture.  We were made by the Lord Jesus, by Him we consist, He redeemed us, He is our life, He is our ultimate judge, and the purpose of God is to "gather together in one all things in Christ" (Ephesians 1:10).  The Apostle Paul declared that our Savior is to "have the preeminence in all things," and Paul also wrote to the Philippians that "to live is Christ" (Colossians 1:17; Philippians 1:21).  In essence, the Lord Jesus is the center and the circumference of our existence, and to the degree we know, love, trust, obey and communicate Him in the many facets of our lives is the degree to which we are genuinely living.

Hebrews 1 - "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
      For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son?  And again, when He bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him.
     And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.
     And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.
     But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand, until I make thine enemies Thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

 

 

(For that brother, that sister...)

 

"The Opportunity of a Lifetime"

 

    Every born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who genuinely and sincerely walks with God will at some point have his (or her) life come crashing down to an apparently hopeless end.  As with Job, the Lord will allow the world, the devil, and the flesh to wreak havoc in a particularly vulnerable arena of life, and the cry will come forth from deep places in the soul that were heretofore unknown to even exist...

 

    "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

 

     The Lord Jesus Christ uttered these words during that time on the cross when the light of Heaven became dark, and the love of the Father became wrath.  The believer who walks closely with this Christ, once smitten and forsaken, will necessarily come to His place of bewilderment and agony.  All will seem lost, and no answers will seem forthcoming, or even possible.  "The sufferings of Christ abound in us" (II Corinthians 1:5).

 

    Somehow and from somewhere in the extremity of the darkness, a light will finally begin to glimmer.  It will shine in the face of the Lord Jesus who is risen from the dead, and who came forth from the blackest night ever suffered to be declared King of kings and Lord of lords.  The light will reveal that a shattered life is not an end, but a beginning.  It will declare to the broken heart that no resurrection is possible without death.  And it will proclaim in unmistakable terms that in the midst of smittenness and forsakenness, the opportunity of a lifetime is at hand.  It promises the possibility of venturing deep into the heart of God, and to never again be the same person we were before our shattering.

 

    There will be no coercion in that holy hour, no inevitability.  We will either trust our Heavenly Father and submit unto the cross unto which He has led us.  Or we will turn away in unbelief and bitterness of soul.  The course of the rest of our lives will flow from the choice we make.  If we initially choose to distrust our Lord, He will allow our decision, while ever seeking to return us to that altar where opportunity was mistaken as being disaster and tragedy.  If we trust God, we become lamps upon which the light of the risen Christ shines forth to our world "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (II Corinthians 4:10).  Much is at stake in our hearts, and much is at stake in our particular worlds that so desperately need to see the Savior alive and walking in us.  May we not miss this, the opportunity of a lifetime that will resonate for eternity, and for the glory of our God.

 

"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.  And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

(II Corinthians 12:7-9)