2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Yesterday’s devotional revealed the salt covenant as a covenant of loyalty; today I want to share an understanding of the Lord’s part in this covenant.
Yeshua (Jesus) said He is the “bread of life”. It was His body that was broken on our behalf as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Notice that He never once called us to be the “bread of life”! He is the ONLY “Bread of Life” – the true bread who came down from Heaven which anyone may eat and not die. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is His flesh, given for the life of the world.
We must realize that we can ADD NOTHING to His sacrifice. If we begin to believe that any good works can add to His sacrifice then we have nullified the perfection of the Messiah’s work which provides our justification by faith alone, not of works lest any man should boast. [Ephesians 2:8-9]
Understanding that you cannot save yourself by any good deeds, and falling wholeheartedly upon the sacrifice of Yeshua to save you, will remove spiritual pride, as you understand that He has provided you with the righteousness and goodness which you possess as a generous gift of His Spirit.
In gratitude you will walk in His freedom, serving the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength!
Just as Adam and Eve put on fig leaves to cover their nakedness, we can try to cover our deeply corrupted sinful nature with good deeds or religious activity. None of this is of any use or value if we have not truly eaten the “Bread of Life”, Yeshua the Messiah. His free gift of righteousness is the only way we can become good. Once He has provided that, we can begin to do works that are truly pleasing and of great value to our Lord.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Yet as believers, we often consider ambition to be a bad and worldly thing. But Yeshua (Jesus) said, “He who would be greatest among you must be the servant of all.” So think about it … did Yeshua say we shouldn’t desire greatness? No, to the contrary, He recognized desire and ambition for significance and accomplishment. He even affirmed them, and gave instruction how to direct these passions. But His perspective required an important reorientation.
Isn’t it interesting that of the multitudes thronging and pressing toward Yeshua (Jesus), only one really touched Him? What made Yeshua notice her among all the rest?
Here’s another interesting Hebrew word parallel. The Hebrew word for “love” or “affection”, “chiba”, is formed by the same root letters as the word, “chova”, “obligation”, “debt”, or “duty”. In Hebrew, the only difference between these two words is a few vowel points. But you say, “Isn’t love the very opposite of obligation !?” Well, yes and no. The Hebrew language has a wonderful way of relating concepts which seem incompatible.
In Hebrew, the word for hardness is “kosher”. Interestingly enough, the word “kosher” also means “fitness”, as from a workout in the gym. Yes — it’s a workout to serve the Lord in this world — but God has called us to it!
One of the great marvels of the Roman Empire was the invention of the aqueduct system to provide water over vast distances. It was an absolutely ingenious method which made use of gravity, with stone arches to support the water channels. An aqueduct was built in 109 AD which carried water to the city of Segovia for eighteen hundred years. For nearly sixty generations this aqueduct provided cool water from the mountains above. But fairly recently, it was beginning to collapse.
In the year 1920, young Oswald Smith stood before the examining board for the selection of missionaries. He had wanted to be a missionary for as long as he could remember, and for all that time had been crying out to God that He might open a door for him to do so. Finally, his time had come. There he stood awaiting his destiny. His long-awaited was about to come..."No."
Last week while we were in Texas, the United States experienced a polar vortex. Historians called it a 100-year storm! Millions of Texans were without electrical power as the power grid almost fully collapsed. The sudden and surprising freezing weather reminded me of a story.