ESOCS Devotional 15 December 2022
TEXT: HEBREWS 7:11-28
MEMORY VERSE: “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25
0 And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 11 But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. 12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted lace ”
Jesus Christ the Lord. He is our sufficiency and our eternal hope. He lives forever with the Father doing the same business of intercession for us before the Father. He did not stop half-way on the cross, and never will. The gaping mouths of His wound prints cry for mercy for us always. His blood speaks pardon for us. The Scripture says we have come to “Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Heb. 12:24). That Blood will not stop until the work is fully done; that is, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;” (Eph. 4:13). This is the reason He came to the world: so that we who were completely dead and cast away may become the Redeemed of the Lord.
When the work is complete, we shall be filled with the glory of our God; and He shall call us by a new name (Is. 62:2). We shall be called “The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord … Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken” (v 12). We shall become “a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of [our] God” (v 3). At this time, our righteousness shall shine with the brightness of the sun at noonday. This is our heavenly Father’s desire for us; and we are “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in [us] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
Now, as the Scripture explains, only those who come to God through Jesus Christ shall be saved. He is the only route and the only door acceptable to God. He has made it very clear when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6); and “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). Unbelievers are not covered by this grace because they are not partakers of the new covenant in the Blood of the Lamb of God that takes away sins of the world.
However, those of us who are believers must be careful too. The evidence we have to show to God that we have accepted His Son as our Lord and Saviour is that we obey Him. This is the principal reason the scripture warns us when it says, “that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men” (Titus 3:8). In Philippians 2:12 we are told, “Work out your own salvation.”
In other words, we should continue to act and live by those principles of Christianity that separate us from the rest of the world. Let us continue to walk in the same rules and remain blameless until we become perfect before God. Let us not allow the evil one make fall out of the way of Christ; for that would mean that we have suffered spiritual miscarriage; and that we are ship-wrecked! Therefore, we should remain the living epistles of the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. This should be our ultimate goal!
CHALLENGES
- Do you doubt God’s willingness and ability to deliver you both now and in eternity? If so, why?
PRAYERS
- Pray God for the spirit to remain steadfast in the Christian race.
Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
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ESOCS Devotional 15 December 2022
