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Even the Demons…

Believe and shudder. Check out the Gospels. The demons weren’t trying to figure out Jesus’ identity. They knew who He was, and they called Him by name; “You are the Son of God” (Luke 4:41). As for head knowledge, they were right on. But head knowledge is not faith. That is the point James is making in his letter, and a point that needs to be made clear in our culture in which over 80% of Americans claim to believe in God. (One poll conducted by Fox News had the number at 92 %.)

Faith in Jesus is a matter of the heart. Faith becomes real when the facts of the Gospel take root in our hearts and souls and lead us to trust, rely and depend on Christ in our human experience. Wasn’t that the case for Abraham? God promised him a son, a legitimate heir, and even said that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham believed God, and as Scripture records, “it was counted to him as righteousness.”

We know the story. Sarah at the age of 90 gave birth to Isaac, the son of promise. Some years later, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac at Mt. Moriah. He was about to. The knife was raised; Abraham was ready to take the life of his son. And then the voice of an angel stopped him. Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket. He offered the ram as a sacrifice to the Lord, and he named the location, “the Lord will provide.”

When the knife was raised, what was going through Abraham’s mind? What did he think would happen once the life drained out of Isaac? The account in Genesis doesn’t open that window for us, but the New Testament writers do. This is what the writer of Hebrews had to say: “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.” Did you get that? Abraham believed that God had the power to raise Isaac from the dead, and that He would raise Isaac from the dead.
How else would we know what was in his heart without his willingness to sacrifice Isaac? But at that moment in Abraham’s life, there was a trust and reliance of God to do what only God could do, bring life to the dead. That is the work of faith. Without a heart that trusts, we have nothing more than head knowledge, and like the demons, all we could do is shudder in God’s presence.

Forgiveness is Mine

God remembers your sins no more. I don’t know about you, but when the lights came on concerning this truth, my life changed.

For the longest time, it seemed everywhere I went, or whatever I tried to do, guilt was right there with me, haunting me and toying with my mind. My sins weren’t the stuff of legend, but they were sins just the same and they (I) deserved to be punished. But when, how? I didn’t have the answer, only the sobering thought that somehow, some way, God was going to punish me.

Even though I knew of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, forgiveness was not a reality. I wasn’t even convinced that it was a possibility. I wondered if God was willing to forgive me at all. I pleaded with Him, asked Him into my life countless times, but still guilt kept hanging around, until…

Hebrews 10. There, I found out exactly what Jesus’ sacrifice did for me. His work on the cross cleansed me, took away my sins, made me holy and perfect in God’s sight, and fulfilled the old covenant on my behalf. And this just blows my mind: Jesus’ death erased my sins from God’s memory.

Oh, the relief I felt knowing that my sins had been forgiven once and for all, and then to be unshackled from the guilt and shame. They kept telling me I could never go into the throne of grace, even though the door was wide open. But no more, forgiveness is mine. I’ve entered in. How about you?

The Destination
Hebrews 2:1-6:20

Our ultimate destination as children of God is heaven, and we look forward to that day when we will be in God’s presence forever. However, God has a destination for us here and now. It is called the Sabbath rest.

The writer of Hebrews compares this spiritual destination to the Promised Land. God did not lead the Israelites out of Egypt to wander in the desert. He had a specific destination in mind, a land flowing with milk and honey, complete with wells for drinking water and lush trees with every kind of fruit imaginable.

When the Israelites arrived, each of the twelve tribes would be apportioned a piece of the land. Everything was already in place. God had done all that was necessary to prepare the land. All the Israelites had to do was enter in. Instead, they roamed the desert for forty years, and only two of the generation of adults that crossed through the Red Sea ever made it into the Promised Land.

As it was for the Israelites, God’s destination for our spiritual journey is set. All that Christ has accomplished has prepared the way for us to experience total forgiveness, to stand before God accepted and righteous in His sight, and to enjoy a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. It is there for the taking if we choose to enter in by faith.