(HT: Tyler Kenney)
Tag Archives: mercy
Jesus’ Prayers Overcome Our Fear of Disappointment
In the last post on Hebrews 10:19-25, we saw how Jesus answers our fear of judgment in verses 19-20. But there’s another way as well, seen in verse 21.
Because Jesus prays for us, we can have a rich God-accomplished relationship with God (v. 21)
Hebrews 10:21 forms the second part of the basis or ground to the commands in verse 22-24. See the “since” again in verse 21. “Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus and since we have a great priest over the house of God, for these two reasons, let us draw near…”
So this is important. On the same grounds as the death of Jesus, we see the prayers of Jesus, his intercession for us, is the reason that we can have a rich relationship with God.
Jesus Prays for Us
We talk a lot about the death of Jesus because it is the center of our faith. One aspect we probably haven’t talked as much about is the priestly role of Jesus. This priestly role of Jesus — his interceding role — is really a theme in the book of Hebrews. It’s mentioned several times. Hebrews 7:25 tells us, “Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus is always praying for us. He never stops.
There are these two elements: the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus and the never-stopping prayers of Jesus.
So what’s happening here? If the sacrifice is once for all, then why does Jesus have to keep praying? Well, the prayers of Jesus for us are not for our sin problem. Jesus died and took God’s wrath in our place. That’s finished. Nothing more needs to happen. This now all applies to us by faith — by our faith. Our faith, that’s what Jesus prays for. And the same one who accomplished the forgiveness of our sins is the same one who sustains the life of our faith, all flowing from the blood of his cross and victory of his resurrection.
Peter’s Story in Luke 22
I think the story of Peter in Luke 22 gives us a glimpse into what this looks like. Jesus had the last supper with the disciples and at some point they started arguing about who is the greatest of them. And I imagine Peter was in that conversation. Jesus had told the disciples that they’d all run away. And Peter speaks up and says “not me! I’m following Jesus all the way.”
Here’s when Jesus looks at Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:31).
Basically, Jesus says, “Peter, you don’t get it. Satan came to me. He wants to destroy you. But it’s not going to happen because I am praying for you. I am praying that your faith would persevere and never fail.”
And we’re there with Peter. Our sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus and we are thrown into this thing called life. Life is complicated. Life is hard. It’s not a bed of roses. There are temptations, there are sufferings, there are difficulties. And it’s in the thick of all this stuff that we are called to draw near to God.
Jesus Knows, and He Prays
We’re called to a relationship with God in the wildest and craziest and most hectic movements of our days. Draw near to God when work is frustrating again. Draw near to God when your heart is breaking over disobedient children. Draw near to God when you’re in that traffic jam and you’re already running late. Jesus doesn’t stop praying for you in those moments. He never stops praying.
In fact, Hebrews 4 tells us that he knows how we feel, he is a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. He gets it. And he prays for us. So when things we hard, and your faith gets the weakest, remember Jesus is praying for you. He is praying for you.
We have the blood of Jesus abolishing our fear of judgment, the sin problem is no more. And we have the prayers of Jesus abolishing our fear of disappointment. In the most difficult circumstances, we are not left alone. Jesus is praying for us that our faith may not fail.
So we can have a rich relationship with God because Jesus is always praying for us.
If you trust in Jesus, there is nothing that can keep you from a rich, sweet, deep, glorious relationship with God. He is your Father and you are his child. Jesus has died for you and Jesus prays for you. So let us draw near.
The Morning Can Be Devastating…
“Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” (Psalms 143:8)
The morning can be devastating. Reality sets in. We need good news. We need to hear of the LORD’s steadfast love. The guilt of our faithless hearts must give way to the faithfulness of Christ who still keeps us and upholds the universe by his word.
Jesus Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree. He has set us free from guilt, shame, and fear, and from the cracked up fabrications of our own righteousness. By his death and resurrection, he has unleashed the covenant love of the triune God upon us. He has united us to himself by faith. He has reconciled us to Father and sealed us with his Spirit.
The holy Three and One has called us his own– the Father through the Son by the Spirit. This is good news.
What I Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism: Limited Atonement
I believe in the limited atonement of Jesus Christ meaning that the wrath-bearing and sin-removing death of Jesus Christ on the cross was to accomplish the redemption of a particular people, namely, those who were elected in Christ before the foundations of the world and therefore respond to the gospel by faith.
Clarification: The death of Jesus Christ is not limited in its general benevolence towards all mankind, yet it is particularly effective and purposefully designed for the salvation of those who have been chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world (Exod. 17:1-7; 1 Cor 10:4).
The atonement of Jesus Christ is the center of the second act of the Christian doctrine of salvation. Salvation is the work of the triune God to bring sinful humans into His eternal fellowship. Limited atonement describes the activity of the Son to reconcile sinful humans as it is the Father who elects, the Son who reconciles, and the Spirit who perfects (Eph 1:7-10).
The death of Jesus Christ was a historical event that accomplished the salvation of those of whom the Father had chosen in Him and the Spirit would regenerate from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Jn. 10:11-13, 15, 17; 11:51-52; Eph 5:25-27; Acts 20:28; Matt. 1:21; 20:28; Isa 53:10; Ps 22; Titus 2:14; Rev. 5:9). The specificity and definitive language of Christ’s death maximizes its significance as an accomplished purchase of sinners rather than an option offered to the corrupted will of man. This view of the atonement best corresponds to the nature of Christ’s death as penal-substitutionary and propitiatory. Jesus Christ took the place of a particular people and bore the wrath deserved by a particular people so that that particular people are no longer condemned. The atonement of Jesus Christ for his church is actualized by individuals when they respond by faith to the hearing of the Word (Rom 10:17).
Because the death of Jesus Christ was effective to save a particular people, the proclamation of the gospel should go out towards all men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nations on the grounds that the hearers who have been appointed to eternal life will believe (Matt 22:9; Rom 10:17; Acts 13:48; 18:10; Rev 5:9).
What I Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism: Unconditional Election
I believe in God’s unconditional election meaning that before the foundations of the world God chose in Christ individuals to compose a people for Himself, chosen on the basis of God’s utter freedom and not the individual’s action.
Clarification: This decision of God is not based on the foreseen faith of the individual or on any prerequisite cause but is solely based upon God’s utter freedom despite the individuals wickedness. This people is not chosen because they are holy and blameless but that they would become holy and blameless (Eph 1:4). The gift of faith that is received in time stems from this eternal decision of God.
Election is the first act in the Christian doctrine of salvation. Salvation is the work of the triune God to bring sinful humans into saving fellowship. Election highlights the Father’s activity in salvation as it is the Father who elects, the Son who reconciles, and the Spirit who perfects (Eph 1:3-6).
Election is a highlight of God’s grace and faithfulness in salvation in that it pertains to His eternal choice of a particular people to everlasting life. This choice is unconditional in that it is not based upon any merit of the elected one but is solely a result of the absolute freedom of God in Christ (Rom 9:11; 11:5-6). The effectiveness of God’s election is manifested in that the elected one will be called, justified, and glorified to the praise of God’s glory (Acts 13:48; Rom 8:30; 1 Pet 1:15; 2 Pet 1:10; Eph 1:6, 12, 14; 2 Tim 2:10; Titus 1:1).
That God chose a particular people in Christ implies that not every creature is chosen. Those of whom God, out of his just and irreproachable freedom, did not choose in Christ are not given the gift of faith and are left in the common misery into which they are responsible for plunging themselves. Those whom are not chosen by God in Christ before the foundations of the world are finally eternally punished in God’s wrath for their unbelief in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy (Rom 9:22-23).
Something is Better Than Eating With Pigs: This is My Plea for You to Come Home
It is not that eating with pigs is undesirable. The text is clear, “And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate…” (Luke 15:16). The kid really wanted some food. He wanted it so bad that he longed to share with the pigs. And it is precisely at this point that he “comes to himself” (v. 17). His eyes were opened.
But how did that happen? How did he move from kneeling shoulder to shoulder with pigs, grappling for their slop, to suddenly getting up and making his way back to his father? It was not his pathetic situation that led him there. He did not bemoan his condition until he considered another one.
It was not the sight of the pigs, the taste of the food, or the smell of air around him that made him come to himself. It was the reality that there is something out there that is better. The thought occurred: My father has hired servants who have more than enough bread. My father has a table that is loaded with good food, in the company of those who love me. And I am here? Here with the pigs.
It became obvious. He desired what is better. Something other than what he experienced was better and therefore he left the pig food and went back home. The impetus behind that journey back home was not the pigs, it was the superiority of the life that awaited him. It was just better. Just plain better.
Here is my plea to you. You will never look around you and see the pigs or notice the stench, unless your eyes are opened to realize that there is something better out there. Please come home. God has showed his love for you in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. He has made all the moves here and is eager to run and embrace and kiss (15:20). There is a table spread for you. There is a feast of celebration that is planned for you. Come home. Embrace Jesus Christ as your God and Savior. Enter the feast and belong to the one in whose presence there is fullness of joy, at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore.
“She Loved Much” (Luke 7:36-50)
What a scene. The Teacher had come to his house, he was reclining at his table. Simon the Pharisee enjoyed the greatest company any man could ever have. I wonder what he thought when he saw the woman bow herself at Jesus’ feet. We don’t know what conversation was interrupted–maybe they were talking about the Torah, maybe the weather. Whatever it was, it gave way to a stranger weeping at the Teacher’s feet. She wet his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair. She kissed his feet with her lips. She poured out more than ointment. She poured out her life, her affection, all that she had.
Confused. That’s what Simon was. He was confused that this intriguing man didn’t get that she was a sinner. “If this man were a prophet, he’d know that it were a sinner that is touching him!” And, apparently, Simon wouldn’t have been so foolish if he would have known that Jesus was already reclining at a sinner’s table. Then Jesus tells the story.
A moneylender had two debtors. One owed him $5,000, the other owed him five bucks. He forgave both of their debts. Which one of the debtors will love the moneylender more? Simon, leaning back on his arms, perhaps shrugging his shoulders, “I suppose the one with the larger debt.” Simon, you suppose (hupolambano)? (cf. Acts 2:15).
“Right,” the Teacher replied.
Jesus asked, “Do you see this woman?” Not, “do you see her here?” Do you see her? Do you see her? Look at her! Look at this woman. Behold her tears, behold her hair, behold her kisses. Do you see her? Do you see her, yet? “Simon, you haven’t done this for me. Now look at her.”
We can talk about faith if you want to. But, this is about more than faith. Her affection displayed her faith and it is integral for her forgiveness (v. 47, “therefore” and “for”). But it is that last sentence in verse 47 that shakes us. May it grip us… “Be he who is forgiven little, loves little.” The question for us, the throbbing question for us, is whether we know how much we have been forgiven? Do we know what God has forgiven us? Do we? Do you know, brothers and sisters? Do you know how much God has forgiven you?
Everything kind of stops spinning for a moment. All the other stuff that matters kind of fades. This is it. God has forgiven me. Do I get that? All of my sin. All of my shame. All of my guilt. Everything. Everything. Everything. God has forgiven me, in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. I am forgiven. Forgiven. Forgiven, Forgiven! Do not tell yourself to love, remind yourself that you are forgiven. By the grace of God in the wrath-bearing, sin-removing death of Jesus Christ, united in faith by the Holy Spirit, we are forgiven.
Don’t Loiter in that Ditch
It is true, religion in the souls of men is the immediate work of God, and all our natural endeavors can neither produce it alone, nor merit those supernatural aids by which it must be wrought: the Holy Ghost must come upon us, and the power of the Highest must overshadow us, before that holy thing can be begotten, and Christ be formed in us: but yet we must not expect that this whole work should be done without any concurring endeavours of our own: we must not lie loitering in the ditch, and wait till Omnipotence pull us from thence; no, no! we must bestir ourselves to our utmost capacities, and then we may hope that, ‘our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord ‘ (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, 97ff.
And then looking back on the “bestirring of ourselves” we will say that it was all of grace.
Marriage: Three Years Later Today
I, Jonathan, take you Melissa to be my wife, before God who brought us together; to love and cherish you even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, to lead you and share all of life’s experiences with you by following God, that through His grace, Melissa, we might grow together into the likeness of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Melissa,
I said these words to you three years ago today.
I mean them all over again right now.
Happy Anniversary!
I love you,
Jonathan
Sunshine and Glory: What Spring in Minnesota Helps Me Get
March is here. Yes. The Lord’s kindness is easy to see amidst the slush of muddy snow and lake-like puddles stretching from one end of the street to the other. The sun is shining. Winter is on its way out.
S.A.D. may tarry for five long months, but springtime comes at some point in March.
Without making too big a deal about the weather, it is good that we soak in as much parable as possible. That is the attempt here. There is something reviving about sunshine. Our senses that have been numbed by snow and gray skies are awakened to feel again. The sunlight smells good. We want it. And it is interesting that our desire for the sunshine is not some selfish craving that hogs it all. We don’t want to hoard the sunshine in some box to tuck away for our own pleasure.
In fact, our desire is not so much for the sunshine as it is to just be in the sunshine. We want to be dissolved in its splendor. We don’t want to possess it, but to be possessed by it. We don’t want to just observe it, but to move in it and feel its warmth.
