From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] daily devotional
Evening ...
John 6:37
Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.
No limit is set to the duration of this promise. It does not merely say, "I
will not cast out a sinner at his first coming," but, "I will in no wise cast
out." The original reads, "I will not, not cast out," or "I will never, never
cast out." The text means, that Christ will not at first reject a believer; and
that as He will not do it at first, so He will not to the last. But suppose the
believer sins after coming? "If any man sin we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." But suppose that believers backslide? "I
will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned
away from him." But believers may fall under temptation! "God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." But the
believer may fall into sin as David did! Yes, but He will "Purge them with
hyssop, and they shall be clean! ; He will wash them and they shall be whiter
than snow"; "From all their iniquities will I cleanse them."
"Once in Christ, in Christ for ever, Nothing from His love can sever."
"I give unto My sheep," saith He, "eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." What sayest thou to this, O
trembling feeble mind? Is not this a precious mercy, that coming to Christ,
thou dost not come to One who will treat thee well for a little while, and then
send thee about thy business, but He will receive thee and make thee His bride,
and thou shalt be His for ever? Receive no longer the spirit of bondage again
to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby thou shalt cry, Abba, Father! Oh!
the grace of these words: "I will in no wise cast out."
Leviticus 2:2-3
(2) And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he
shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof,
with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it
upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the LORD:
(3) And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is
a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
Like the burnt offering, the meal offering was completely
consumed. The priest placed a portion atop the burnt offering and kept the
remainder for his consumption. Nothing remained for the offerer. The meal
offering depicts that man has a claim on man. We are obligated to love our
neighbor as ourselves; we are our brother's keeper. We owe these to fellow man,
and therefore fellow man has a claim on our love, even as we have a cla! im on
his love.
Paul writes in Philippians 2:17, "Yes, and if I am being poured
out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad
and rejoice with you all." The drink offering was an adjunct to the meal
offering. Clearly, Paul considered his life as an offering to the Philippians
for the benefit of their faith in God and His purpose. Because of this, he was
not able to live life as he might otherwise have chosen. He was always at their
service; he sacrificed his life on their behalf.
Others are named for their service to the brethren. Phoebe
refreshed the brethren. Philemon was hospitable, and Luke and Silas made
arduous journeys with Paul in service to those in far-flung areas. They, like
we, serve people who are carnal or leavened, as the Bible says, and thus their
reactions are not always what we would like them to be.
A clear example of this occurred when Mary offered her perfume to
anoint Jesus' feet. Judas reacted carnally, asking why this could not have been
sold and given to the poor. This illustration shows that sacrifices made for
another can be misunderstood, and people can become offended. When we serve,
expectations are usually high, but realization sometimes falls short, causing
pain even in attempting to do good. We must always remember that it is a
sacrifice to be a meal offering. The possibility of pain is always present.
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Offerings of Leviticus (Part Nine): Conclusion (Part
Two)
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
daily devotional
Evening ...
Romans 8:33
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Most blessed challenge! How unanswerable it is! Every sin of the elect was
laid upon the great Champion of our salvation, and by the atonement carried
away. There is no sin in God's book against His people: He seeth no sin in
Jacob, neither iniquity in Israel; they are justified in Christ for ever. When
the guilt of sin was taken away, the punishment of sin was removed. For the
Christian there is no stroke from God's angry hand-nay, not so much as a single
frown of punitive justice. The believer may be chastised by his Father, but God
the Judge has nothing to say to the Christian, except "I have absolved thee:
thou art acquitted." For the Christian there is no penal death in this world,
much less any second death. He is completely freed from all the punishment as
well as the guilt of sin, and the power of sin is removed too. It may stand in
our way, and agitate us with perpetual warfare; but sin is a conquered foe to
every soul in union with Jesus. There is no sin which a Christian cannot
overcome if he will only rely upon his God to do it. They who wear the white
robe in heaven overcame through the blood of the Lamb, and we may do the same.
No lust is too mighty, no besetting sin too strongly entrenched; we can
overcome through the power of Christ. Do believe it, Christian, that thy sin is
a condemned thing. It may kick and struggle, but it is doomed to die. God has
written condemnation across its brow. Christ has crucified it, "nailing it to
His cross." Go now and mortify it, and the Lord help you to live to His praise,
for sin with all its guilt, shame, and fear, is gone.
"Here's pardon for transgressions past,
It matters not how black their cast;
And, O my soul, with wonder view,
For sins to come here's pardon too."
Galatians 3:12
(12) And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall
live in them.
If we were able to "do" the entire law-in the letter and the
spirit-we could then "live" by that means. Paul shows that it does not require
faith to keep the law in the letter-anybody can compare an action against a
list of dos and don'ts and see if the action is allowed. It requires much more
to keep the law in the spirit perfectly. It requires a full measure of God's
Spirit working within the person. But simply to abide by a law does not require
any faith in a Savior, so if this life were just about strictly adhering to a
list of requirements in their letter, Christ would have died in vain.
Romans 8:7 says that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of
God-that is, it will not submit itself to God's law. But there is ample
evidence that unconverted man can live according to regulations in a Pharisaic
manner. Romans 7:14 adds more to the equation by showing that God's law is a
spiritual law-there is an intent behind it, as well as the most direct
application. This was what Christ was endeavoring to show in Matthew 5:20-48.
So for us to be justified before God, we would have to completely fulfill the
law-live according to the letter and the spirit. But that is a logical
impossibility without means of the Holy Spirit.
This is why justification by faith is a necessity: We need God's
Spirit to fulfill this spiritual law, but God will not give His Spirit to
someone who does not willingly submit to Him and obey Him. This is why God
would not allow Adam and Eve access to the Tree of Life after they had sinned,
because He knew that their natures had become corrupt, and He was not willing
that a corrupt being be given His Spirit-His power. A paradox results, and the
only way out of the deadlock is for God to bring a person into alignment with
Him by substituting the perfect life of His Son for ours in a legal action.
Once that justification has taken place, then a measure of His Spirit can be
given, and the person can begin to keep His law in both the letter and the
intent.
David C. Grabbe
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