Grace Be With You All

And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen. (Hebrews 13:22-25, NKJV).

Grace and peace are the conjoined twins of the New Testament, especially as salutations from the Apostle Paul (as he aged, he amended his benedictions to include grace, mercy, and peace – and for those of us who are also aged, we understand completely).

It has rightly been said that you cannot know the peace of God until you understand and accept His grace (unmerited favor) through Jesus Christ. God's grace is that which pours out upon His children all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. It is God's grace that make us coheirs with Christ. It is God's grace that bestows us with eternal life in glorified physical bodies.

His grace is almost the opposite of His mercy, since mercy is not receiving the punishment we do deserve, while grace is receiving all His immeasurable gifts which we do NOT deserve.

Without Christ we can have neither grace nor peace. Without faith in Him we are enemy combatants in the long war against God waged daily by all those who have not accepted the gift of His righteousness through His Son. It is a war that He has allowed to persist from Satan's rebellion until He recreates all things at the time of restoration, so that all those born in sin can have opportunity to repent and be saved.

As His ambassadors and soldiers operating behind enemy lives, apart from His everlasting mercy, we need His grace more than anything to endure and do His will until our time here is done, or His Son returns for His church.

Paul understood and communicated the importance of this grace in each of his epistles. If John, the reformed Son of Thunder, is the apostle of love, then Paul, the transformed legalist, is the apostle of grace. He knew that it was God's grace that was his life's blood, and he exhorted and encouraged the early church to never forget that truth.

From hate-filled Pharisee to the foremost Christian missionary of the 1^st century church, Paul always credited his miraculous metamorphosis entirely to God. It was none of himself and all of Christ. And it was the grace of Jesus Christ that fueled him more than his necessary food.

This is what I know about grace in my own life:

My Savior does not hold against me my time in the enemy's camp, despite the fact that it encompassed most of my life thus far.

My Lord does not return to me evil for evil, but good. He has blessed me beyond anything I could ask or think or imagine.

By His grace I have been washed clean. It is not merely that He has taken my punishment upon Himself – though that is an unfathomable gift in and of itself – it is that He has purposed before the foundation of the world to view me and love me as He does His Son, Jesus. I have not “just” been absolved of guilt, I have been adopted as one of His own.

Christ calls me not His subject or servant, though I am privileged to be both, but His friend.

I am implored by His Spirit to come boldly to His Throne of Grace to find mercy and help in time of need.

By His grace nothing of value in my life is lost, ever. He will restore the years that the locust ate and guarantees that He will complete that good work in me that He began at the moment I came to repentance and faith – an act empowered by His grace.

When I die, it will be a Homecoming that I cannot comprehend or fully understand, but which I know He has prepared for me, uniquely, and which will fill me with everlasting joy.

By His grace, I never have to say “good-bye” to those whom I love in this life, but only “see you later.”

This marvelous Book of Hebrews has been a journey through the revelation of Christ's superiority to anything and everything that can possibly be conceived or worshiped.

His unparalleled beauty, majesty, nobility, power, intelligence, love, and grace has been given to us in this 1^st century letter as a divinely inspired gift beyond price.

Beloved, I urge you to make the truths of Hebrews part of the very fiber of your heart and soul, so that your love and faith in Christ is deepened with each incredible verse.

Grace be with you all. Amen.

The Word of Exhortation

And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen. (Hebrews 13:22-25, NKJV).

In Greek, the word here translated exhortation (paraklesis), is the same root word used to refer to the Holy Spirit as Helper in John 14. It's meaning encompasses supplication, entreaty, admonition, encouragement, consolation, and that which affords comfort or refreshment.

This is the essential nature of the entire Word of God.

It is the one source of all those things provided by the Holy Spirit Himself as He inspired holy men of God to record His thoughts, intents, and instructions for all posterity. It is that which shall never pass away. It is that which shall outlast the current material Universe. It is that which saves and transforms and makes alive.

And it is ours for the taking.

What a gift!

Thus it is fitting, as we near the end of this series of devotions on the marvelous Book of Hebrews, to include a brief examination of one of the most tangible gifts from God to men: His Word.

It is His Word that caused Existence to come into being. He spoke and all that ever was or will be leapt into time and space and the spiritual realm.

He spoke and His Word brought forth light and darkness, the heavens and the earth, animals and mankind.

His Word bespoke the curse upon sin and the Promise of redemption.

And it is His Word to which we look for joy beyond measure for in it we find eternal life (John 5).

Yet, sadly, even Christians often neglect the edification and nourishment that comes from feasting on this gift of wisdom and truth. We set aside divine revelation for earthly philosophy and so-called science. We look to human experts rather than to seek first the Kingdom of God in His Word.

It is not that Bible-believing disciples of Christ eschew human wisdom, it is that we measure all such information against the source of wisdom itself. When there is a conflict we align ourselves unapologetically with God's Word.

Otherwise (and this is vitally important), we find ourselves adrift in the turbulent sea of worldly opinion, and the shifting, treacherous sands of fallible and fallen human priorities.

Thus, for example, we spiral downward from the lofty position of the inviolable sanctity of human life, to the evil and barbarous profanity of institutionalized and legalized abortion on demand.

We move from the foundational family of husband and wife to the various and inevitably chaotic alternatives of virtually anything else.

This is not surprising. In fact, this end times apostasy is foretold throughout God's Word, but it is nonetheless tragic. Among other things, it places the gossamer and fragile “wisdom” of man above the revealed will of the Eternal Creator, Himself.

The unmitigated hubris evident in these “modern” trends is astonishing, but it is most decidedly not new.

The long war against God has been ongoing since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden, and is destined to continue until the return of the King, our Lord Christ.

Such statements as these are ridiculed and marginalized by the intellectual and cultural elites in this life. These are viewed as throwbacks to a more “primitive” age, but such arrogant dismissal is merely symptomatic of the long war itself, and should in no way undermine the believer's faith in God's Word and goodness.

On the contrary, this fulfillment of prophecy - this superior and vindictive attitude toward the things and purposes of God - is incontrovertible proof that His Word is true.

What then are we who base our lives and eternal destiny on the Bible to do?

The answer is in the focus verses above: we are to bear with the word of exhortation.

This means to submit to it by the renewing of the spirit of our minds by the washing of the water of the Word.

We are to esteem it more than our necessary food.

And most importantly, we are to live by it as the truth is in Jesus.

The requirements of a godly life are not complicated, but it does entail the one ingredient that makes all else possible: faith.

And we know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Through Jesus Christ

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, NKJV).

The essence of our salvation from Hell is distilled within our relationship to our Savior, and is captured in four English prepositions: with, in, by, and through.

Such small words that, in the context of Jesus, are more powerful than the forces currently holding the Universe together. In fact, when the Universe suffers its inevitable demise, those words, as they apply to our relationship with Christ, will keep us alive.

In the beginning of each saved person's path to redemption, the Person of the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ, is with him or her, gently (and sometimes not so gently) leading us to Jesus.

Now we can reject this persuasion by staying in the darkness of our own sin, fueled by pride, steeped in our natural enmity to God. Or, we can surrender to the grace, mercy, and forgiveness offered freely to us by the gospel.

If we come to the humiliating realization that we, in and of ourselves, are hopeless and helpless, and in need of a Savior, then the Spirit at our conversion indwells us – He is in us. Further, the apostle John teaches us that all three Persons of the Trinity will come and make our home with us.

This indwelling is not possession, as in the demonic sense. Far from it. Our will remains our own, sometimes much to our chagrin and shame. Instead, it is the intimate fellowship lost by our forefather Adam in the Garden, and restored to us through our faith in Christ and His substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross.

We are literally in Him as He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. Think on that truth for a moment and be overwhelmed with wonder. That Triune Being who was and is and is to come, that One who spoke all Causality into existence, condescends – no desires – to be in such close fellowship with us mere human beings that He becomes one with us.

In some sense, this is like us desiring to become one with an amoeba, or fungus. The difference being that in doing so, He conforms us into His image. He lifts us up in ways we are barely able to comprehend. We would have no such transforming influence on any lower creature, even of we were able to enter into such a relationship.

Once we are indwelt, it is by Him that we become righteous, and are granted irrevocable and eternal citizenship of the Kingdom of God. This is no small feat in that it took the death of God the Son, Himself, to propitiate the Father's wrath against our sin. This is grace beyond measure, for it is on the Cross of Christ that God's inexorable judgment and boundless mercy came together to effect our salvation.

Finally, it is through Him that we are sanctified and work His will in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Sanctification is that moment by moment process where we die to ourselves and live to Christ. It is that good work the He is faithful to complete. It is the gradual (or sometimes precipitous) shedding of our old, sinful nature, our dead man who was crucified with Christ, so that we may fully realize His eternal life within us.

More often than not, this sanctification comes through trials and tribulations. More often than not, we are figuratively dragged through the process kicking and screaming, stamping our feet and holding our breath in stubborn and fearful resistance. But He promises to complete us, and through Him we become increasingly like Him.

Until we are fully baked and our work and His work through us is done. Then He brings us safely Home.

Working in You

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, NKJV).

There is deliberate tension in Scripture regarding man's responsibility, and God's ability, especially as it applies to the issue of salvation.

All religions except one, Christianity, make it the job of man to reach toward Heaven and earn God's favor. Yet the Bible makes it clear that such an endeavor is impossible, we are defeated before we even start. Therefore it was necessary that the unbridgeable gap (from mankind's perspective) be spanned by God Himself.

This was accomplished by the coming of Jesus, His perfect life, and voluntary sacrificial death. This Man satisfied God's holy and righteous wrath against sin, and enabled us, through faith in Christ, to appropriate His righteousness to ourselves – a transaction that could only have been initiated from Heaven.

We can choose to reject this bargain by refusing to believe, but we cannot negotiate any other terms; neither performance, charity, vows, rituals, other sacrifices, or anything conceivable can alter the Contract. Believe and be saved, or proceed to everlasting torment by your own hard-hearted rejection. There is no third option.

Now this is clear teaching that pervades the whole Bible, from Adam through Abraham through Moses, David, the Prophets and the entirety of the New Testament. Christ made salvation possible. He did it all, and yet...

Remember me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people. Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for its services! (Nehemiah 5:19; 13:14, NKJV).

And,

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; (Philippians 2:12, NKJV).

And,

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10, NKJV).

And,

Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man, well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. (1 Timothy 5:9, 10, NKJV).

And the focus verse above includes the phrase in every good work to do His will.

How do we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory emphases?

The answer pertains to the purposeful tension I mentioned above, and is best summarized by the next verse following the Philippians citation:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12, 13, NKJV).

Do you see the balance, the expression of the perfect spiritual equation illuminating the very mind of God Himself?

Our good works done in our own strength and in our own fallen natures are like filthy rags to the God of Heaven, but the works we do indwelt and empowered by His Holy Spirit are worthy of immeasurable reward, so much so that even a glass of water given in His name reaps boundless merit.

Good works, in this most important sense, can only come after belief, because only in belief can we acknowledge our utter helplessness and complete dependence on the God of our salvation. And He, rather than we ourselves, receives the glory.

Do not make the mistake that God is therefore “hungry for credit” or “starved for glory”. That is as far from the facts as Heaven from Hell.

He knows we are incapable of goodness without being made alive again, born again, through faith in His Son. And that transformation is, by definition, His doing.

As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so we must reflect the Source of our light, or our light is darkness. Without Him, from the spiritual realm, we are in fact, invisible.

This is what Jesus meant in the Sermon on the Mount, when He told His disciples:

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22, 23, NKJV).

Christ is all in all.

Everything that is not of Him will perish and burn.

Everything in Him is guaranteed never to be lost.

We do good in the eyes of God when we are truly saved, not because we have to, but because we desire to please Him out of love and gratitude rather than obligation or fear.

In providing comfort, we are emulating Him.

In providing support, we are emulating Him.

In being kind, merciful, truthful, loving, and above all, forgiving, we are emulating Him.

This is our purpose in this life. He empowers us to carry it out, something we could never do on our own.

When we are done He will take us home, not because of anything we have accomplished, but because He has accomplished everything in us.

Completion

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, NKJV).

“You complete me,” has been the refrain of soap opera love affairs and pop singles for generations. It has been the sophomoric declaration of “young love” for longer still, but from the human perspective it is sheer romantic fantasy, a paltry substitute for the true “completion” that can only come through a personal relationship with the living Lord of the Universe.

He created us for deep fellowship with Him, as evidenced by Adam walking with God in the Garden. When rebellion broke that fellowship, God initiated His predetermined plan of redemption, but the immediate impact on our Edenic parents was a realization that without God, each one was woefully incomplete; empty, shattered, alone in themselves as they were never meant to be.

Fortunately, faith in Jesus causes healing of that brokenness, filling that innermost void with the only thing that will truly satisfy: God Himself.

But it does not end there, for the healing must proceed beyond the adolescent yearning (which is only a pale, gossamer shadow of the real thing), to being fully conformed into the image of Christ. This is God's desire and plan. It is the thing that His covenant guarantees. He will not only give us Himself as our exceedingly great reward, but He will make us like Him in purity, beauty, grace and mercy.

He will make us complete.

And this completion is not static or “once and done”. In this life it is an ongoing process of sanctification. In the next, it is best represented by the eternal and inexhaustible pursuit of the glory and manifold wisdom of God. There is no end to His riches in glory, and His desire from the beginning has been to make us heirs so that we can know all of Him that is knowable, and share in His likeness.

Now, it is impossible to earn our way into Heaven by good works. There is no amount of things that we could do to make up for even one of our many sins; to repay even the smallest debt incurred. For the only wage of sin is death. (And death is not a remedy, but a judgment. Nor is death annihilation, as so many atheists desire it to be. It is the eternal punishment due those who continue in willful rebellion against their Creator.)

But once saved, we become endowed with the ability for good works done in the character of God and in the power of the Spirit of God. Until then, that is impossible, and any good works done in our own strength are as filthy rags before a holy God, for they are corrupt from the start since, prior to salvation, we ourselves are incurably corrupt. Everything we do and say in our own strength is tainted and impure, no matter what the outward outcome.

But as His children by faith, He equips us for truly good works so that even a cup of water given to someone in His name is cause for great reward. I believe this is true because His desire has always been for us to manifest His nature in all things, so that whatever is done as a believer surrendered to His will, walking in the Spirit, is by definition good and pure and worthy of reward. It is not the act itself, but the reason and intent behind it.

This is what is meant by His promise to make us complete in every good work, working in us what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ.

By virtue of living moment by moment surrendered to the indwelling Spirit of God, walking in fellowship with Him as Adam was intended to do, everything that we do and say is a manifestation of God, and thereby a “good work which He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

But do not lose sight of the prerequisite conditions: indwelt by, and surrendered to, the Holy Spirit.

These are no small things. Instead they are supernatural miracles of God transforming us into the image of His Son. And while they are solely His doing, He has ordained that we may exercise the power to resist, for He created us as free moral agencies. He will not compel us to do good or to be like Him. He offers us the choice which we must freely accept by faith.

When we do, He begins that good work in us that renders us complete – in His time, and according to His perfect will.

Until death, or His return finishes that transformation, we will never manifest His character, love, and holiness perfectly, but each instance that we come close advances us toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Finally, there is at least one other similar reference to this process in the New Testament in Paul's letter to the Philippians:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12, 13, NKJV).

Thus, the ineffable partnership between human effort and godly purpose is seen once more. For the most part, our role is one of trusting surrender. The Lord Jesus supplies the power, wisdom, and ultimately causes the result.

The Everlasting Covenant

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, NKJV).

Signed in the blood of Christ, the everlasting covenant is the fulfillment of God's promise to Adam in the Garden of Eden after The Fall.

Even at that point in the ancient annals of mankind, the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head in order to restore man's broken relationship with his Creator was made known; a promise that would entail the serpent bruising the seed's heel (symbolic of the shedding of Christ's blood on the Cross and His dying temporarily).

And unlike the Mosaic Covenant, which was conditional based on man's performance, the everlasting covenant of the gospel is based solely on sincere faith in the Son of God's virgin birth, sinless life, and resurrection from the dead. A faith which cannot help but transform the believer into Christ's image.

Not only are we guaranteed eternal life in Christ, but we are assured that He will complete that good work in us that began at the moment of our conversion. We will become true sons and daughters of God, true reflections of His image, meaning, incredibly, that we will become like God.

What does this mean?

Certainly, it does not mean that we will be gods, or have all the divine attributes of God, for even if that were so these characteristics would be granted to us by God, and thus by virtue of that fact alone, the grantee would always be less than the grantor.

The Apostle John writes:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2, NKJV).

Part of being like Him, then, obviously involves seeing Him as He is, in all His glory, nobility and beauty. I believe that the very sight of Him will somehow advance our ultimate transformation. Seeing Him as He is will necessitate doing away with the last remnants of our sinful selves to be replaced by the fullness of God.

Being like Him must also entail loving like He does, selflessly, perfectly, completely – a love so powerful that its object is transformed into being worthy of it.

Being like Him as part of this everlasting covenant will also mean becoming entirely righteous, without sin in all of its nefarious and destructive forms. While easy enough to write, this concept is impossible to imagine beyond only the smallest glimpse. Since we are sinners, born in sin, and subject to sin even after salvation, we can only guess at what it means to experience perfect righteousness.

Again, it is certainly not what has been foisted upon us by stereotypical images and characterizations of the “uptight religious fanatic”. In fact, it must be the diametric opposite. More akin to the popular myth of “the innocent savage” than to anything else.

Imagine an existence utterly unclouded by self-serving motives, deceit, hypocrisy, covetousness, avarice, gluttony, unbridled lust and violence. Perhaps the best way to think of it is to consider God's synopsis of what we are in ourselves without Him, and contemplate each attributes diametric opposite.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32, NKJV).

Consequently, the everlasting covenant ensures that we will retain full knowledge of God, with renewed and restored minds desiring even more and deeper knowledge of Him.

Instead of the horrifying adjectives applied in Romans 1, we will bring forth the profoundly beautiful fruit of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22, 23, NKJV).

Imagine!

Life, eternal life, amidst and within an environment filled with only those things that each redeemed soul longs for with a longing given by God – a longing which He promises to satisfy.

Like I said, beyond imagining.

Nor will this covenant life be in any way less than immeasurably joyous and fulfilling.

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9, NKJV).

The Great Shepherd

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, NKJV).

It is fitting that the King of the World is likened to a Shepherd. In the most ideal sense, a shepherd is a selfless caretaker of those who are the least able to care for themselves.

It is also fitting that the King's subjects are called sheep throughout the Bible, since, of all the domesticated herd animals, sheep are classically the most clueless.

Sheep are some of the most shortsighted of creatures, looking no further - in terms of their actions, decisions, and priorities - than the nose on their muzzles or the desires of their bellies. They are amoral (stealing food even from their young without any hesitation), easily manipulated, and, if panicked, will follow their equally irrational counterparts into a raging river current, helplessly drowning because of their wool coats.

I have read of sheep getting stuck in barbed wire straining mightily to nip at a morsel of grass while acres of it are adjacent and far more easily attainable. Sheep, unattended, smell badly and have no means of staying clean.

In the realm of similes and metaphors, sheep are apt and accurate representations of fallen humanity, clueless, amoral, easily manipulated and panicked, and largely without the common sense of a doorknob.

And in addition to all this, sheep are dangerously unaware of their own critical shortcomings and weaknesses, lowering their chances of survival in a savage world that much more.

Like the shepherd, our Lord has taken it upon Himself to enable us to overcome these fatal characteristics. He has put Himself between us and our own idiocies, and between us and the deadly enemies that surround us.

He has chosen this course not because of anything valuable in and of ourselves, but because He has invested in us value beyond measure.

Perhaps the most vibrant description of His voluntary relationship with us can be found in John 10.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. “But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. “The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. (John 10:11-15, NKJV).

It is no accident that Israel's greatest King was David, a shepherd, someone who, through long experience in the fields and hills of the wilderness, knew what it meant to care for the likes his people, Israel – sheep easily led astray by their own unthinking lusts.

While David was subject to the same flaws and inadequacies of his flock, our Shepherd is not. He is the perfect Caretaker, who unfailingly knows what is best for His people, and who has demonstrated His love for us by doing the unthinkable, dying in our place.

But that death was only temporary, and He now lives forever more as our Guide and Protector.

To get a sense of the beauty of our Shepherd's heart for us, is to see yet another aspect of His immeasurable superiority in all things. We, His sheep, are anything but lovable left to our own devices and in our own debased natures, but only when He cleans us up and cares for us do we become what He has always envisioned for us – lambs whose wool is white as snow, without spot or blemish, fit members of His marvelous pasture.

To be considered equivalent to the least fierce, least capable, least intelligent of livestock does not appeal to our unfounded sense of pride, but that is just another symptom of our incurable condition.

Incurable, that is, until placed under the care of the One who loves us.

In Him, we go from helpless sheep to more than conquerors.

In Him, we go from minions of certain death to recipients of eternal life.

To be a sheep of the Lord's pasture is the greatest destiny any of us can attain, but to get there you must swallow all pride, acknowledge your own helplessness, and follow His lead.

And while mules and donkeys have a popular reputation for stubbornness, it pales in comparison to the actual intransigence of a clueless, self-deluded sheep.

From the Dead

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, NKJV).

Nearly 2000 years ago, on this very day according to the Lunar Calendar, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It is fitting that our journey through Hebrews lands us here and now.

He rose, not as a zombie, and not via resuscitation, but through Resurrection, never to die again – unique in all Cosmic history. He is rightly called in Scripture, the first born from the dead, and all those who believe in Him will follow in His footsteps.

A careful study of the Bible indicates that all three Persons of the Trinity were involved in this momentous event, with the Father, our God of peace, detailed here, while in the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of the laying down of His life in this manner:

“No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” (John 10:18, NKJV).

And the Apostle Peter informs us of the Holy Spirit's part:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, (1 Peter 3:18, NKJV).

There are other similar tripartite citations, as well, and this is also true of all the key elements of our redemption in that all three Persons of the godhead were involved in our creation, in forgiving our sins, in indwelling us, and in providing us eternal life.

While a profound mystery, it is clear that we mere humans are of immeasurable value to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is equally clear that these and other revelatory aspects of our Christian faith are from God Himself, rather than inventions of man, for no man could conceive of such things, nor would he envision such “complications” if he were attempting to “fabricate the faith”.

As C.S. Lewis has written, the very improbability of Christian doctrine lends it credence.

The word resurrection, from the Greek, anastasis (an-as'-tas-is), appears 40 times in the New Testament. It's meaning is simply the opposite ('ana') of being still or unchanging in death ('stasis'). The dead, by definition, are without life. Those who are resurrected as Christ was, are forevermore without death, in His company.

This is our destiny as followers of Jesus by faith, an astounding inheritance.

While it is true that all who are in the graves will come forth at His summons on That Day, only those who have believed will be brought into the resurrection of life, with the rest relegated to the resurrection of condemnation, an unthinkable alternative of eternal pain and suffering.

What does this mean to us today, this entirely unique past event?

Among many other things, it means that death has been conquered on our behalf. We were bound by the wages of sin, which is death, until Christ, the Sinless One, died in our place. Because of His righteousness, death could not hold Him, and because of His willing sacrifice, that righteousness is imputed to us by the only means available, faith. With that righteousness comes eternal life – the life bestowed upon us by Christ, who is the resurrection and the life.

It means that our sin is taken away and we are justified, just-as-if we were innocent of the rebellion and evil, which is inherent in our fallen natures.

It means that we need fear nothing in this life, or the next, because we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

It means that the last enemy, death itself, simultaneously the greatest offense and the greatest mercy in all existence, is powerless over us. It is the greatest offense because it is the antithesis of God's purposes in Creation, although the divinely anticipated result of sin. It is the greatest mercy because, through Christ's death, that un-payable debt of sin has been paid.

We know deep in our hearts that we are intended to live forever. From the age when we are first able to think, our own mortality is both always in front of us, and yet, on a fundamental level, unimaginable. The sight and experience of human death for the living is of monumental significance precisely because it is so alien to our innermost being.

No other religion requires the death of God to redeem His creatures. No other religion resolves the helplessness of man in the face of sin in such a way. No other religion demonstrates the boundless love and mercy of God in that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But it is not only His death that is meaningful, but even more so His being raised to life again. For that is the proof of the efficacy of His sacrifice.

He partook of flesh, because we are flesh. He died because we are subject to death. But He rose again because He refused to lose us to the rebellion of sin. He loves us too much to see us lost forever.

Take advantage of that love today. Be shamelessly opportunistic and ask His forgiveness in sincere belief. It is your only hope.

Otherwise, the resounding cry of HE IS RISEN, is for you of no effect, and you will die in your sin.

A Good Conscience

Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably. But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. (Hebrews 13:18-19, NKJV).

Read the focus verse again, and considerate it at face value and be amazed!

Speaking in the editorial “we”, the writer of Hebrews, officially anonymous, is confident of his good conscience. While at first this may seem an utterly arrogant statement, given the pervasive sin in the human heart - a heart so universally and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9) that even we ourselves cannot plumb the depths of its darkness - in reality it is a declaration of praise and a tribute to the ultimate superiority of Christ over all else.

The writer's conscience is good, not because of himself, but because the writer has been remade in his Savior's image, adopted into the family of God rather than imprisoned in the family of Adam, and is in all things desiring to live honorably.

These three things are only conceivable in Christ, and should be a tremendous source of joy to all who believe.

We are all made new in Christ. The old things have passed away and we are new creations. We are moment-by-moment being transformed into the image of Christ, and the completed work is guaranteed by God Himself.

We have been rescued from the slavery of sin and made permanently a part of God's family, legally, positionally, and in the end, experientially. All this by faith in His Son.

Now, we desire to do good and eschew evil. This is a supernatural occurrence, something that can only be true in a regenerated spirit. That is not to say that we succeed in that desire, but it is to say that the desire itself is a work of God, an aspect of the sanctifying He does within us after coming to faith.

This last point is irrefutable given Scripture's indictment of the unregenerate man. Note God's view of the unsaved:

As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18, NKJV).

But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6, NKJV).

In contrast, do you see the reason for joy in the writer's statement above? He is not saying anything about himself directly, but is only stating the facts of his redemption through Christ. It is none of his doing and all the Lord's, and because that is so, it is certain “to take”. He is on the road to guaranteed eternal righteousness and therefore destined irrevocably for eternal life, rather than inevitable eternal punishment.

This is the joy of our salvation.

Note too his humble request for prayer, coupled with his longing to be reunited with the recipients of this wondrous epistle, to be restored to them the sooner.

What kind of prayer is he requesting? I suspect ones like these:

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:17-20, NKJV).

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19, NKJV).

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11, NKJV).

There is no amount of penance that can cleanse a human conscience; no human act of contrition, no self-sacrifice, no self-inflicted punishment that can undo the guilt of sin, nor take away its stain.

But there is cleansing freely offered in Christ through his substitutionary death on the Cross. Through faith in His sacrifice, our sin is appropriated by Him, while, in return, we receive His righteousness. It is a transaction that could only have been performed by God Himself. Dare we hold onto any guilt in view of His miraculous grace and atonement?

It is sheer blasphemy and human pride to not let go of the guilt of our past. We have been forgiven by the most exorbitant act imaginable: Christ's sacrifice. To believe, feel or think otherwise is to declare that His work is insufficient.

Hence, like the writer of Hebrews, we are confident that we have a good conscience, for:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, NKJV).

Beloved, do not hold onto the past, nor the guilt of the past, but follow the example of our brother Paul:

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13, 14, NKJV).

Submission

Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:17, NKJV).

There are repeated calls in the New Testament to be submissive; to Christ, to each other, to governing authorities, to parents, to husbands, and here, to those in spiritual authority.

But submission in the Bible cannot be forced. It is not submission based on the the superior strength of the party being submitted to, but on the voluntary obedience to divinely ordained roles and responsibilities. It is submission out of love. Any other kind is coercion, and true Christian doctrine sees coercion as an abomination.

That this teaching has been misused throughout the history of the church is undeniable. Human beings crave power over other human beings. It is a fundamental drive ignited into flaming sin at the Fall of Man, but that neither makes such behavior right, nor God insisting on its proper implementation, wrong.

Submission to one another as designed by God is founded on mutual humility

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. (Philippians 2:3, NKJV).

Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. (Romans 12:16, NKJV).

This humility is not the false, pathetic kind used to manipulate others, but the honest acknowledgement of our strengths, weaknesses, spiritual gifts and differing roles in the church and home.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:4-8, NKJV).

The brilliance of God's design for is people is unmistakable. If we in the church put into practice this plan with sincerity and diligence, harmony, effectiveness, stability and quiet joy are the results. We are aligning ourselves with what we are intended to become, and in so doing we advance individually and corporately toward that very goal. We become what we think and do.

That is why submission to those in spiritual authority is so important. The one prerequisite is that those pastors and elders must be first and foremost in submission to Christ. Then we, their congregation, are obligated to be in submission to them.

Leaders in the church are not to lord their authority. The rules of Christ's Kingdom on earth are quite explicit in this regard.

But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. “And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave-- “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28, NKJV).

This then is the foundation of authority in the church – servant leadership. The example was established by Christ Himself.

All the titles of ecclesiastical authority in the New Testament reflect this pattern. Pastor, bishop, elder, and deacon are all derived from the concept of minister (Gr. diakoneo dee-ak-on-eh'-o), meaning “servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon; to attend to anything, that may serve another's interests”.

Do you see the counterintuitive beauty of that definition. It speaks to the way Christ rules over us.

In the world, authority is often heavy-handed and imposed from the outside with force or threat of punishment.

In the church, authority is based on love, godliness, and putting the other first. Disobedience has consequences, but these are the natural result of going against God's perfect design, like stepping off a cliff results in a calamitous fall, or putting your hand in the fire results in seared flesh.

The consequences are not imposed by force, but by the fundamentals of cause and effect of life in a fallen world.

For this to work as intended, the leaders in the church must ensure that their people are well-versed in God's Word. This, in turn, can only be accomplished by faithful exposition of the Bible verse-by-verse. It is the primary building block of godly living. It is what makes the body of Christ healthy and strong and able to withstand the inevitable assaults from the world, Satan, and our own “old natures”.

The saved have a purpose in this life, and when that purpose is done, we are taken home to be with Christ. The most effective means of accomplishing that purpose is to live life day by day according to God's revealed will. We are to be holding fast to what is good and abhorring evil. We are to be kindly affectionate to one another. We are to esteem others better than ourselves.

And we are to be submissive to those authorities God has placed over us.

If we practice this in humility and in an attitude of loving obedience, putting aside personal pride, and refusing to be conformed to this world, we cannot help but to fulfill God's purposes in our lives.

We cannot help to influence others for their good. We cannot help but be effective in our witness of Christ – by our words as well as our actions.

In short, if we obey the Manufacturer's specifications, we, as his creatures, will carry out what He intends intends, uniquely, for each one of us.

The joy and privilege of that is beyond measure.

The Sacrifice of Praise

For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:14-16, NKJV).

Such is the inconceivable superiority of Christ that the ocean of animal blood shed over the centuries to appease a holy God for our unrighteous evil has been completely supplanted by the once-for-all spilling of His blood on the Cross. The centuries of Jewish sacrifice performed in the Tabernacle and Temple were temporary coverings of sin until His one sacrifice not only covered, but took away, the sin of the entire world... forever.

Now instead of a plethora of innocent animal sacrifices performed multiple times each day there remains only one category of acceptable sacrifice to God – the sacrifice of praise. This is an astounding transformation from mandatory death to willful, and verbal, acknowledgement of God's immeasurable goodness and mercy toward us.

Now, instead of the complex rituals of ancient Jewish religious practices, where every action by priest and penitent was spelled out in excruciating detail to be performed in proscribed places and at proscribed times, this superior praise is comprised of three simple components: heartfelt thankfulness, doing good, and sharing. Amazing!

Each of these aspects is worthy of deeper exploration for each reveals profound truths about our relationship with our Creator God through faith in His magnificent Son.

Human enthusiasm and sincerity is typically measured by the effusiveness and vociferousness of expression. The more delight and joy we experience the louder we become. A child's “cry of delight” when acknowledging a parent's gift is music to the parent's ears. When something is heartfelt it is almost impossible to keep silent. Sometimes even when intelligible words escape us, the lips must speak something to convey the irrepressible joy and gratitude we feel.

Think of a mother reunited with a lost child, or a young boy finding a lost and beloved dog, or a spouse greeting a soldier long away at war but now returned safe and whole. The cries and tears of joy are sacrifices of praise, the fruit of our lips.

It is not formulaic or ritualistic, but eruptive and spontaneous, representative of an overflowing heart.

That is to be the natural reaction to our glorious relationship with our God. Scripture is filled with such praise. The Book of Psalms is only one such compendium.

Doing good in our own strength for our own reasons and purposes under the impetus of reaping some kind of return benefit to ourselves in this life is NOT the doing good that pleases God. That kind of philanthropy is an abomination to God.

No, the doing good in view in this focus verse is the kind that springs from the heart, mind and soul without any thought of self. It is the kind that rushes to assist someone because of a supernatural empathy that is impossible to deny. I say “supernatural” because such selflessness is bestowed upon our recreated hearts as a spiritual gift from God, and is not part of “natural” emotional equipment.

This type of doing good entails surrender to His will in order to walk in those good works which He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. While it may involve herculean effort it is not expended in our own strength, but through the power of His Spirit within us. And regardless of the intensity of effort, we experience an underlying and indescribable joyfulness that emanates from the Throne of Heaven itself – a joyfulness in giving and grace that epitomizes the very nature and character of God. We do whatever He has set before us with joy because that is who He is – a joyful and merciful Being who delights in giving us the desires of our hearts.

Yet, this kind of doing good is not measured by effort or result, for, in truth, it is sometimes effortless and we may never know the end result this side of Heaven. For even something as easy as giving a drink of water to someone in Christ's name will reap tremendous reward from Him.

The final component of this sacrifice of praise is to share, and this opens up a wealth of possibilities. It is the selfless sharing of anything and everything merely for the sake of blessing someone in need. Nor is this limited to the sharing of material goods or services, but can (and does) involve sharing encouragement or support or simple kindness.

In doing so we are sharing the very love of God Himself, who gives us the privilege of being “His hands, feet, heart and mind” in a dark and fallen world.

In all these things He empowers us to fulfill His purposes, provides us with the very works of praise themselves, and promises to reward us as if it was all us when, in reality, it is all Him.

This is the God whom we serve!

Paul describes this perfectly in Romans 12:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1, NKJV).

The God of Heaven, our Creator, our Redeemer, the living, eternal, all-powerful Sovereign of Existence could require anything at all from us and be justified in His demands, but what He wants, what He most delights in, is our joyous thankfulness in all the indescribably good gifts that He bestows. A thankfulness expressed from deep within the wellsprings of our being, without thought of self, but with regard only to Him and others.

This type of joy and gratitude is ONLY possible through faith in His Son. No other kind will do.