Month: October 2014

The Everlasting Covenant and The Eternal Sabbath

On By francesrogersIn GOD'S GLORY, GOD'S GRACE, GOD'S WORD, THE LORD'S DAY (SABBATH)Leave a comment

Eventually writers get beyond the point of explaining how they came to the knowledge of what they write and just write what they have learned. Perhaps this is the difference in a theologian and a simple disciple of Christ, (the sheep) like me.

The new wine after twenty-two years is still new and sometimes I have to write about how God has grown me with this new wine. This is the case of the two subjects here. Until a few years ago I had never heard that God relates to man only through covenant. Since His creating everything in covenant with His Son and the Holy Spirit, “creating man in our image,” He has established covenants with men; the covenant of works and the covenant of grace (the everlasting covenant established and fulfilled in Christ.)

The first man Adam, never entered into covenant with God, but refused to accept this relationship with Him.

His people could not enter into His sabbath rest because of unbelief in the covenant.  (Hebrews 3:18-19)

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What is a Covenant?
If this is God’s way of relating to us it behooves us to find its meaning. Still not understanding all that it entails, nor its ramifications, I continue to seek understanding through God’s word and prayer.

Basically (for the sheep’s point of view) a covenant is an agreement between two parties (persons). One of the two is the initiator of the covenant, whose work is to bring the second party (person) into the agreement. The first party must reveal and present the content and the intent of the covenant to the second party. A covenant can be understood as a set of rules established by the first party; with its purposes and promises.

God, Creator and Initiator
God as the initiator established His covenant through His Son, Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:9) The world was created through Him; all things consist in Him; and in Him all God’s fulness dwells (Colossians 1:15-19). (Is it any wonder that we must believe that there is no life apart from His Son?)
All things are sustained and fulfilled in the power of His Holy Spirit.  All three persons of the Godhead are parties of the first part of the covenant. They each have their place in the presentation, the preservation, and the perseverance of those in the covenant.

I like to think of the covenant as a house or building that is constituted for the protection and provisions of those who are brought in. His covenant is our home.
It is where He teaches us what He will do and work in us through His covenant. Hopefully this is enough for the basic understanding of His covenant, which He has established for His people.

“They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying,
Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant
that shall not be forgotten.”
Jeremiah 50:5

The Eternal Sabbath
The eternal Sabbath is similar in that He, in the three persons of the Godhead, provided the Sabbath by His own work and initiation. He, by His work of creation, established the first Sabbath, the seventh day, of His rest. Jesus, by His work of redemption, established the first day, of His rest. The Holy Spirit is still in the process of presenting the covenant and bringing God’s people through the covenant into His eternal rest.

For us, the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, is lived in observance of the covenant, with a resting and remembering all that He has done and is continuing to do. As we look forward to that eternal Sabbath promised in the everlasting covenant we worship and live the day, in light of the promises, as if we were there with Him. (Ephesians 1:3, 20: 3:10) He is the center of the day, even as He is the center of everyday and all of life.

 “And hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
Ephesians 2:6

Life in Christ is life in the covenant.  He was given to us as our covenant.
Life in Christ is our resting in His work, just as we rest in God’s creation of us.  We can do nothing toward either birth, but as His Holy Spirit births Christ in us, we, in agreement, turn in repentance and faith entering into Christ, the everlasting covenant and our eternal rest.

“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
Make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21

Dear Father, thank you for your covenant, established in Christ your Son, and for that eternal rest into which you have brought us, now and for eternity.  Let us live this day in honor and remembrance of Him as your covenant to us.  In the power of your Spirit, fill us with the fulness of your truth to worship and live in praise to you everyday.  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.

Related Article:
The Baptist Covenant of Grace ~ The New Covenant

Humility and Faith ~ Chapter 9

On By francesrogersIn GOD'S GLORY, GOD'S GRACE, GOD'S WORD, HUMILITYLeave a comment

Who of us, born of flesh and blood, could honestly say that we don’t care what other people think of us? There is a healthy attitude of how we ought to appear to others as far as our manner and conduct. Our desire should be to reflect the image of Christ. In this chapter of Andrew Murray’s Humility (PDF) he is speaking of the pride of man that seeks the honor and glory of men, instead of the glory of God. This concern is not for what God thinks or approves, but what makes us look good to other people, winning their honor and praise. He even goes so far as to say that a lot of our service in the church is good, but done for the wrong purpose.

Again, he gets to the point of pride, especially as it concerns our faith.

True faith cannot manifest itself where there is pride, but is birthed in humility; and so, does it live and grow. The higher Christian life that is spoken of here is out of reach to those who continue in their pride. He uses the illustration of this life as “compared to objects in a shop window — one can see them clearly and yet could not reach them. If told to stretch out his hand and take, a man would answer, “I cannot; there is a thick pane of plate glass between me and them.” Likewise, Christians may clearly see the blessed promises of perfect peace and rest, of overflowing love and joy, of abiding communion and fruitfulness, yet feel that there is something in-between hindering the true possession.”   Pride keeps us from reaching or grasping the blessings that God has provided for us in Christ.

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In Jesus’ words, “How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?”  He is showing the limitations of faith while we are seeking honor from other people instead of God.

Faith is described as what grace bestows in our dependency. “Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust. Even the most secret breathing of pride —in self-seeking, self-will, self-confidence, or self-exaltation—is just the strengthening of that self which cannot enter into the Kingdom or possess the things of the Kingdom, because it refuses to allow God to be what He is and must be—the all in all.”

Seeking to See
Can we, without humility,  even see what is in the window?  Nicodemus came to Jesus privately because he had heard Him speaking of the kingdom.  He was looking for something from Jesus.  Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born again to even see the kingdom. We all must be born of the Spirit, receiving the new heart, spirit, and life of Christ with new eyes to see Christ and the kingdom.

 “Faith is the organ or sense for the perception and apprehension of the heavenly world and its blessings. As long as we take glory from one another, as long as we jealously guard the glory of this life, we cannot receive the glory that comes from God. Salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ. Salvation is the fellowship with the crucified Christ in the Spirit of His cross. The cross, the death, and the grave, into which Jesus humbled Himself, were His path to the glory of God. And they are our path.

 As we learned in previous chapters the nature of humility in us is the same as in Jesus. He told His disciples that they would have to take up their own crosses daily if they would follow Him (Luke 9:23).   The reality of His humility in us brings us in faith and repentance to sacrifice all that we are and have for the name of Christ and His kingdom.
He is the pearl of great price; which when we find will sell everything else.  Humility is the only means of seeing Him; and it is the means whereby we not only see, but we receive and enjoy the treasures that are stored and displayed in Him now and for eternity.

 “Let us gladly accept whatever can humble us before God or men — this alone is the path to the glory of God.”

 “Brethren ! nothing can cure you of the desire to receive honor from men, or of the sensitivity and pain and anger which come when it is not given, except giving yourself to seek glory of the all-glorious God to be everything to you. You will be freed from the glory of men and of self, and be content and glad to be nothing. Out of this nothingness you will grow strong in faith, giving glory to God. You will find that the deeper you sink in humility before Him, the nearer He is to fulfill every desire of your faith.”

“That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”
1 Peter 1:7

Dear Father in heaven, only you know our need. Open our eyes to see Christ, give us a new vision of the treasures of heaven which you have prepared for those who love you. Enable us to seek your honor only ~ for your glory and our joy.
“Of your great goodness make known to me and take from my heart every kind and form and degree of pride; and awaken in me the deepest depth and truth of that humility which can make me capable of your light and your Holy Spirit.  In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.