NIV
靈修
新聞
貼圖
為教會
What a promise! One would expect to see all Gods children clinging to it, claiming its fulfilment. Alas, unbelief does not know what to think of it, and but few count it their treasure and joy.Just listen. God, the God of peace—the peace He made by the blood of the cross, the peace that passeth all understanding, keeping our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus—none other but Himself can and will do it. This God of peace Himself promises to sanctify us, to sanctify us wholly, in Christ our sanctification, in the sanctification of the Spirit. It is God who is doing the work. It is in close, personal fellowship with God Himself that we become holy.
Ought not each of us to rejoice with exceeding joy at the prospect? But it is as if the promise is too great, and so it is repeated and amplified. May your spirit—the inmost part of our being, created for fellowship with God—and your soul, the seat of the life and all its powers—and body, through which sin entered, in which sin proved its power even unto death, but which has been redeemed in Christ: spirit, soul, and body be preserved entire, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To prevent the possibility of any misconception, as if it is too great to be literally true, the words are added: "Faithful is He that calleth you. Who will also do it." Yes, He hath said: "I the Lord have spoken it; and I, in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, will do it." All that He asks is that we shall come and abide in close fellowship with Himself every day. As the heat of the sun shines on the body and warms it, the fire of His holi¬ness will burn in us, and make us holy. Child of God, beware of unbelief. It dishonours God, it robs your soul of its heritage. Take refuge in the word: "Faithful is He that calleth you, Who will also do it." Let every thought of your high and holy calling wake the response: "Faithful is He that calleth you, Who will also do it." Yes, He will do it; and He will give me grace so to abide in His nearness that I can ever be under the cover of His perfect peace, and of the holiness which He alone can give. O my soul, He will do it.
"All things are possible to him that believeth." I believe, Lord; help my unbelief.
An Israelitish master was to give his bondservant liberty in due time, and when he left his service he was to start him in life with a liberal portion. This was to be done heartily and cheerfully, and then the LORD promised to bless the generous act. The spirit of this precept, and, indeed, the whole law of Christ, binds us to treat people well. We ought to remember how the LORD has dealt with us, and that this renders it absolutely needful that we should deal graciously with others. It becomes those to be generous who are the children of a gracious God. How can we expect our great Master to bless us in our business if we oppress those who serve us?
It seems then, that Christians may forget Christ! There could be no need for this loving exhortation, if there were not a fearful supposition that our memories might prove treacherous. Nor is this a bare supposition: it is, alas! too well confirmed in our experience, not as a possibility, but as a lamentable fact. It appears almost impossible that those who have been redeemed by the blood of the dying Lamb, and loved with an everlasting love by the eternal Son of God, should forget that gracious Saviour; but, if startling to the ear, it is, alas! too apparent to the eye to allow us to deny the crime. Forget him who never forgot us! Forget him who poured his blood forth for our sins! Forget him who loved us even to the death! Can it be possible? Yes, it is not only possible, but conscience confesses that it is too sadly a fault with all of us, that we suffer him to be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night. He whom we should make the abiding tenant of our memories is but a visitor therein. The cross where one would think that memory would linger, and unmindfulness would be an unknown intruder, is desecrated by the feet of forgetfulness. Does not your conscience say that this is true? Do you not find yourselves forgetful of Jesus? Some creature steals away your heart, and you are unmindful of him upon whom your affection ought to be set. Some earthly business engrosses your attention when you should fix your eye steadily upon the cross. It is the incessant turmoil of the world, the constant attraction of earthly things which takes away the soul from Christ. While memory too well preserves a poisonous weed, it suffereth the rose of Sharon to wither. Let us charge ourselves to bind a heavenly forget-me-not about our hearts for Jesus our Beloved, and, whatever else we let slip, let us hold fast to him.
“We die daily,” said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world—that is little; its blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is lest we grow rich and become proud, lest we give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or if wealth be not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death by the bear, the devil little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to Christ, and our confidence in him. I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display his omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the rougher, “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Shining is always costly. Light comes only at the cost of that which produces it. An unlit candle does no shining. Burning must come before shining. We cannot be of great use to others without cost to ourselves. Burning suggests suffering. We shrink from pain.
You and I, as believers, have received zoe life from Jesus Christ. We didn’t receive our individual identity when we were born again, but we did receive new life. We received identity when we were conceived in our mother’s womb and became a living soul. This is psuche life. There’s a distinction between Jesus Christ and us, as living souls and identities. As a person, Christ is firstly Yahweh the Son. And then, He is the Zoe Son of the Father. He proceeded as Yahweh Son to become a Psuche Son, a living soul, when conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. As the firstborn over all creation, He created everything. He brought forth psuche, living soul life, multiplying names and identities from the beginning until now. He then came to give us zoe life.
By coming to the Father through Him, we are ‘born of God’ and able to begin overcoming by the power of His zoe life. We overcome by making offering by faith and ‘growing up into the Him who is the Head, Christ’. In this way, we can increase and multiply ‘one hundred-fold’ and be ‘fully pleasing the Lord’. Then we ‘inherit all things’. ‘All’ means all. As Jesus Christ inherited all things, we as joint heirs with Him, will inherit all things. We will obtain an abundant entry into an eternal kingdom; the new heavens and new earth. As the Father has said of those who overcome, ‘I will be His God and he shall be My son’. As a son of man, He’s our God. And as a son of God, He’s our Father. As Jesus said, ‘Do not cling to Me; I am ascending to My Father and your Father’.
Let us consider again that we are a royal priesthood and a holy nation.
Of course, Paul defined himself in exactly this way. He was a priest. He made vows and fulfilled them. And accordingly, he commended the same
priesthood to all the churches. The high point of this work was his offering
of the Gentiles as an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord.
The substance of Paul’s offering was two-fold. Firstly, he considered the people themselves to be his offering to the Lord; the fruit of his priesthood. Secondly, he considered the priesthood of all the Gentile churches to be
effective in the fulfilling of their vows and offerings. They had been pleased to set aside on the first day of the week for one year and make an offering for
the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Paul rejoiced that all the churches had joined the fellowship of giving and receiving but particularly for Jerusalem from whom the word had sounded forth in the beginning. Their participation in material provision was the evidence of the fellowship of offering. But more than this, it was the recognition of their indebtedness to those who had gone before them.
To the apostle Paul, the fruit of their priesthood went far beyond the provision of the temporal needs of a church in crisis. Paul was eager to set
his seal upon their fruit, and he considered it to have everlasting benefit.
Indeed, it was the seal of his apostleship and his priesthood on the fruit of
their sonship. If we are presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, then we will evidently be making vows and bringing spiritual sacrifices that are
acceptable to God. This is our reasonable and priestly service of worship and our participation in the fellowship of giving and receiving.
The wise man said that hope deferred makes the heart sick. We have all known this experience at some time. Perhaps we have followed the wrong path. Perhaps we have done something that did not proceed from faith. The realisation that our name and predestination is not being fulfilled causes our heart to be sick. If you are being depleted, then you should consider again that the Lord is proclaiming your name. We must be certain that we are not saying back to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ If we don’t know how the Lord is fashioning us, then we will have false expectations. Consequently, our hope will be deferred. If we turn our heart to wisdom, then our name will be recovered. We can begin to apprehend the things written about us in the Lamb’s book of life. It is the word of His grace which is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among those who are sanctified. This word of grace is building our name. It is confirming and establishing everything that has been written concerning us. Let us remind ourselves of the words of Peter, ‘After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you’. If you have found yourself in a depleted state, and you have not been bringing forth fruit and offering in righteousness, then the word of His grace is toward you. If you have found yourself in a more serious condition, where poisonous fruit has begun to come forth, then you must repent and recover your first love. In so doing, you can return to the works of righteousness and bring forth its fruit.
An understanding of these precepts will equip us for merciful evangelism from our worthy houses. Firstly, John chapter one gives us our model. There is a message to declare that will enable fellowship. As ones are drawn into this fellowship, it will become our burden and work to see sin forgiven and cleansed; hence, the need to understand the work of His blood. His blood won’t be active simply because ones are drawn into association with the gospel. His blood is active in the fellowship of His sufferings. We will need to explain that all sufferings, whether for our own sin or for the sin of others, are to be accepted as Christ’s sufferings. These are His wounds, and the blood that flows from these wounds is His blood. Through faith, His blood is now at work to cleanse both sinner and victim. So then, as we heed this admonition, we will humble ourselves to serve and minister in weakness. We can stop striving to qualify. We should accept that He justifies us in our infirmity, without justifying our infirmity. With Romans chapter three in mind, we are not merely justifying our shortfalls, as if by doing evil, good will come. We are not under this slanderous accusation, just as Paul highlighted in his own case. We are not claiming that good will come from our evil. However, we are declaring that He will meet and justify us at the point of our infirmity. This is the basis for personal and public evangelism. It is with this understanding that we can maintain, and also offer, a genuine fellowship, one in which Christ is set forth as a Mercy Seat through faith in His blood. In this season, let us walk in the way of salvation, and draw others into it as well.
