Musings:11/30/09,This Is Coming, by John

This is Coming!

Jeremiah 31:33-34 says: "'This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the Lord. 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the Lord."

For years and years, I've tried to memorize Scripture verses, and I did memorize a large number of verses I felt were core statements of my faith in God, but I also remember sitting and listening to a young minister recite entire books of the New Testament as I followed in the Bible. He wanted to be sure he knew it perfectly. I admired his goal, but I also wondered if what he was remembering would be put into practice in his life. I hope so. I've wondered the same thing about myself, and too frequently I've discovered I know more than I put into life-practice. (I am trying to divide something here that is not easily expressed). In my ordinary run of the mill day, I do pretty well, but when I get into an argument, I may get out of my Christian character behind and revert to the way of the world. I may lose my good will toward my fellow man, an individual in this case. Afterward, I follow the recipe Jesus gave us. I apologize to the person for my behavior, and I ask God to forgive me for taking my eyes off of Jesus. I do the latter because I can't hurt someone else and follow Jesus at the same time. Good things come from God. All bad things come from somewhere else!

Picture the future Jeremiah prophesied. God's Law written in our hearts is different to having some of it, or even all of it, written in our heads. A friend of mine some years ago stated emphatically that he never broke the speed limit! I said, "Oh, come on! I've ridden with you, and I know better!" He replied, "Well, I never go over 60!" The speed limit on the highways was 55 at that time, so he explained, "They (meaning law enforcement) always allow you 5 miles over without a ticket." We fool ourselves in the same way about so much that we do and say, don't we? But God is not fooled. We may inadvertently break some of man's laws, but when we break one of God's laws, it's no accident. Hebrews 10:26 used to bother me. It says, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." The word "deliberately" was the one word that really bothered me. I knew when I sinned it was no accident. Being a new Christian at that time, I doubted my faith in Jesus was enough to save me. I think the Holy Spirit gave me the insight to examine the rest of that verse.

First, "if" makes this statement written to Hebrews, perhaps beginning believers hypothetical. The writer wasn't saying it could happen, but that leaving Jesus left nowhere to turn! The Jew's faith had been in the Old Testament Law, and if they failed to go all the way with Jesus, it might be natural to turn back to the Law and its sacrifices. "Knowledge of the truth" does not mean one has accepted Jesus as His Lord and Savior. It does mean that the person has heard what it takes to be saved eternally. We call that "The Gospel of Jesus."

Jews who heard the Gospel and refused it would find no help in the Law. It was never intended to "save" people. It was, and still is, a guide for living. Jewish Christians today frequently call themselves "completed Jews" because they realize everything that happened to Israel, and everything written in the Old Testament led to the coming of the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled God's promise to them.

One of the themes in Romans concerns the children of Abraham. Paul pointed out that Abraham had children of the flesh, but that Isaac was a child of faith, and the child of his promise. Then he called attention to the fact that no one was saved by the Law, but that the children of the flesh trusted the Law to save them while the children of faith trusted in God's grace and their faith to save them. He continued by indicating that Jew and Gentile alike became children of Abraham by faith when they trusted Jesus. Hence Jesus is Messiah for both Jew and Gentile completing their salvation.

Back to Jeremiah, how wonderful it will be when it becomes natural for all of us to do God's will, to love Him and serve Him without really thinking about what we are doing! As I was growing up, when someone asked me who my daddy was, I never had to think about it. I just answered from the reservoir of knowledge that was part of my very being. I hope I'm getting closer to that with my Lord every day. Like Paul, I don't count myself as having already reached the goal, but I strive toward it hoping to be more like Jesus all the time.

The poet said, "The world is too much with us late and soon...." It is, and we are fallible, but the Lord has sealed us with God's Holy Spirit until we are ushered into the very presence of God. This Thanksgiving, I am everlastingly thankful that our God looks at us in all of our frailty through the shed blood of His One and Only Born Son, Jesus! I cannot keep from crying out, "Thank you, Father!" And I look for the day when Jeremiah's prophecy is completed in each of us!