The Birth of Grace

It's the Christmas season, and I love this season for so many reasons. One of them is the music--I LOVE Christmas songs and hymns (we honestly have at least 25 Christmas albums of some kind). I was on the road to court listening to one of my favorite albums, City on a Hill: It's Christmas Time and the song that Caedmon's Call sings on that album is "Babe in the Straw."

I had listened to the song several times, but when I was listening to it the other day, the words in the chorus struck me:

and if we lose sight of your sweet face
at the birth of grace, at the birth of grace
light of truth shine like Bethlehem's star
lead us to where you are, show us who you are

I've been reading a lot in the Old Testament for my nightly Bible reading (I just finished Ezekiel and if that doesn't put a fear of God into you, I don't know what will!). In Reformed doctrine, we often talk about the Old and New covenants and how God ordained the Savior to come as He did, and how Christ is the eternal priest before God and mediator on our behalf.

But there's something at work in the transition between the covenants as well--notice that before Christ the people of God had to continually make sacrifices to God that were of an appeasing nature but did not ultimately satisfy the holiness of God. God's attitude towards Israel--His own people--had to be one of mercy. Mercy is often defined as having leniency towards another when wrong has been done, in other words, on the receiving end, not getting what you really deserve when you wrong someone else. God, in His forbearance, showed mercy to the Israelites time and again, pulling them out of their slavery to other peoples and saving them on the battlefield.

But they would sin against the Lord and grieve Him, over and over. But He mercifully brought them back until ultimate salvation could be achieved--this was GRACE. That God sent His only Son to earth to be born of a virgin, live a perfect, sinless life, and die on the Cross for the sins of the elect, whom God had ordained to save. At the birth of Christ, grace prevailed--the Lord would no longer need to show His forbearance toward His people because Christ as Savior wore the mantle of God's Holy wrath against our sin on the Cross while at the same time being the perfect and eternal sacrifice that satisfied God's justice and holiness.

The Lord still shows mercy to whom He will show mercy, but not as much in the overarching way that He had to show forbearance to His people in the Old Testament. Grace now prevails in that it gives us what we cannot earn for ourselves--eternal salvation and righteous standing before the Father. And this was all guaranteed by the birth, death and resurrection of Christ.

So this Christmas season, celebrate the birth of Christ, for it was the birth of grace!

A Christ-less Heaven

Today in church our pastor was in Hebrews 9 again and we were dealing with Christ entering into heaven itself and Pastor David pointed out what was right there in verse 23:

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

That's right. Christ died to purify not only the earthly manifestations of the "holy place" in which we would offer sacrifices, but also died to purify heaven itself. I have to be honest that that question had NEVER jumped out at me before.

It says just this in verse 24:

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Christ purified heaven itself--now, at first blush that would seem to say that there was something in God that needed to be purified, but remember: God made the heavens too. He is above it! And it is His presence that made the earthly copy of heavenly things holy! He was before time and before the heavens. 1 Peter mentions the promise of the new heavens and new earth that we look forward to in the time coming when Christ shall return--and Isaiah prophesies this in Ch. 65 and 66.

The union of Christ with the Father purified the heavens because perhaps in a way there was a peace--even an appeasement?--that occurred with Christ's entrance into the heavens. Christ was the Lamb who was slain for all time--taking away the iniquity once for all for God's people, whom He had chosen before time began. No longer did God have act as He did in the Old Testament time and again for His name's sake (due perhaps to the inferior nature of the sacrifices made and the unfaithfulness of His people)--Christ, His Son, offered Himself as a sacrifice once. And in this sacrifice, His work corresponds to the promise that God made in Ezekiel 36, when He speaks of putting a His spirit within us, giving us a new heart--this could not be done without Christ's sacrifice, because His holiness CANNOT be compromised (in the same chapter, several verses show God's concern for His holy name). Without Christ's sacrifice and the eternal effect of his life, death and resurrection, we would still be making continuous sacrifices.

Christ, in purifying the heavens, offers himself as sacrifice and as our mediator between us and the Father, forever interceding for us. Praise His Holy Name.

The other point that David also made is that we often may look to heaven as the end rather than Christ--when we are suffering and in a hard place, how often do we not say, "Lord, take me now!" But this type of escapism is exactly the attitude Christ does not want us to have, but rather we would say with Paul that I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the future glory that is to be revealed to us. And this glory is Christ! Do you dream simply about the streets of gold and the absence of suffering rather than being with Christ, your Savior? Remember that heaven without Christ, to quote my pastor, is just another word for hell--separation from Christ is no heaven at all! The Trinity is 3 in 1! Christ's entrance into heaven made it the "promised land" for us, because without His sacrifice we have no audience or standing before the Father!

No matter the storm, flee to Christ and fling yourself at His feet, hearing His Word for your life today.

Who Was Melchizedek, Part II

Last Sunday Pastor David explored verses 11-19 of Ch. 7, where the writer-preacher lays out the comparison between Jesus and Melchizedek, and which read as follows:

11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him,


“You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

Pastor David broke this section down into two parts, the first addressing the imperfections of the Levitical priesthood.

I. Imperfections of the Levitical Priesthood: vv. 11-14

1. The imperfect nature of the Levitical priesthood as established from Levi, the 3rd son of Jacob and Leah can be illustrated in two ways:
a. First, to give some background, Levi was one of the brothers who defended his sister's honor by going into the city to find the men that defiled her and killed all the males, not just some, but ALL. Does this sound like a priest?

It is important to note that the priesthood came from Levi because first, Moses, who was a to be a great deliverer of Israel (as Christ is the ultimate deliverer) was the son of a Levite. Thus, Aaron, as his brother and first of all priests was also a Levite. In addition, even though Jacob had essentially disinherited Jacob from any land when his other sons got land, God had a different plan. In Numbers 3, God sets the Levites apart as His, to be His servants and the Lord anointed them as priests. From that point on, the Levites were to be given 10 percent from the other tribes essentially in exchange (as a redemption price) for having ALL Levite sons being dedicated to the Lord, in place of dedicating all firstborn sons from all tribes in that fashion.

b. Second, the imperfections are quite evident and don't take long to show, as the most obvious would be when Aaron agrees to have a golden calf made from jewelry of the people while Moses is still on Mt. Sinai. Thus, the FIRST opportunity Aaron has to exert authority and minister to the people, he fails! But this should ever tell us that people are fallible, no matter their position, because they are sinners!

The most striking thing about the above example is what Moses says in response to Aaron and the Israelites when arriving and finding what they have done--he states that perhaps he can make atonement for their sins. He knows the God that He serves and His majesty, holiness and justice! He is a mere man and can only beg of God's mercy as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah--at that point there is no firm approaching of God as we have in Christ! So this is why the law needed to be changed--for while our disobedience can be radical, He pours out His grace even more to overcome it!

2. Changing the Mosaic Law (vv. 12-14)
As evidenced in the above example, the law could not save the Israelites--it only served to show God's standards, their sinfulness and their inability to keep that standard. Just as they could not do this, we cannot either--their faith in some ways was tied to their obedience because they had a law that could not be satisfied within themselves. Our faith is not predicated on a maybe or perhaps, but on a firm foundation.

II. Superiority of the New Priesthood
1. Jesus' priesthood is forever, and He is our Savior to the uttermost!
Christ lived the perfect life and became priest in this manner and not because
he descended from Levites.

2. Jesus is a better hope! Jesus, being perfect in every way, living the perfect
life, and being raised on the third day is a MUCH better hope than the
Israelites had in their priests (who made their own share of mistakes).

Pastor David concluded by looking to Isaiah 11 where it talks of Christ's coming and God speaks of what His priest will do and how peace will be illustrated by a lion laying down with a lamb. This is the work of Christ and the power of His salvation: that peace will reign in the hearts of men because He has saved them and has given them a new nature and new heart. This is the awesomeness and effectiveness of His priesthood. He is not a Levite priest who wails repentant prayers of atonement annually for the people hoping that a righteous and justly wrathful God will hopefully hear his prayers, but Jesus Christ, Word made flesh, who reigns on high with the Father in the Triune Godhead who was made sin for us that we might live and ever intercedes for us before the Father. Picture it, for this is your hope and salvation! Rest in the glorious grace of Christ.

Easter Morning

Winter came and has visited again over the last few days, making it a rather cold Easter weekend. But it certainly does not change the fact of what we are to celebrate today. Some may argue that this was originally a pagan holiday, but this is the culmination of both Christmas and Good Friday. It must be understood that without what we celebrate today, the resurrection of Christ, we are, as Paul says in his epistles, the most pitiable of men. For if there is no resurrection, there is no hope, and no hope because Christ would have died as anyone else had and would not have triumphed over the power of sin and death. If this were true, then Jesus would only be a great teacher at best or a madman at worst, since he would have claimed things (being God) that were not true.

However, as there was a resurrection, we as believers hold to a glorious hope (that of course is not an uncertain hope but a faith in that which is not seen) that we will be raised with Him in the final day if we have faith in Him. Celebrate with other believers in the house of the Lord today, and praise Him for His glory that was shown through the resurrection.