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Part One
5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the
earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and
covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on
the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye
lived in them. 8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath,
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 9 Lie not one to
another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on
the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him: 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and
in all. (Col 3:5-11)
A friend of mine has a small sign on the wall of his study that reads, He
who has many things, and has Christ, has no more than he who has Christ alone.
How true. What would the believer take in exchange for the benefits of Christ
in his life and for his salvation? I think no true believer would exchange
Christ for all the wealth and kingdoms of this world, though the world does
tempt the marginal believers to make that exchange.
To Abraham, God made the Promise of a Seed that would redeem the elect. Those
Spiritual descendants of Abraham (those only who believed the Promise
regardless of blood line) were accounted saved by the Grace of the Lord through
faith in Him. Many did not believe the Promise but insisted on salvation by
works – a doctrine that condemns and never saves. But Abraham, by faith, looked
forward with eagerness to the fulfillment of that promise. 8 By faith Abraham, when he
was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an
inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he
sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in
tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 Through faith
also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a
child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore
sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the
sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. 13 These all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Heb
11:8-13)
God tested the faith of Abraham by demanding that his only beloved son (one and
only legitimate son of Sarah) be offered as a sacrifice (for sin) on Mt. Moriah
(the same upon which our Lord was sacrificed almost 2,000 years later). At the
foot of the mountain, Isaac asked of his father a heart-breaking question: Behold
the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? (Gen 22:7) This question must have pained his father beyond
measure; however, Abraham’s answer echoes throughout all time and eternity: My
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. (Gen 22:8) Disregard the deliberate dissimulation of modern Bible
versions such as the NIV, ESV, and NASB in rewording and redirecting this
phrase away from the Christ to whom it directly points. God will NOT provide a
Lamb for the burnt offering – God will provide HIMSELF to be the Lamb for a
burnt offering. Abraham uttered the remark in UNKNOWING faith, because he knew
that God is always righteous and would somehow fulfill his promise to multiply
the seed of Abraham through Isaac. This was an explicit confirmation of the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer.
But the promise of a Savior was made even before that Promise made to Abraham.
In fact, it was made to our primitive parents, Adam and Eve, way back in the
Garden at Eden. It was not only a spoken Promise, but a demonstrated one as
well. 15 And I will put enmity between thee (the Serpent,
Satan) and the woman, and between thy seed (those who belong to Satan) and
her seed (those who belong to Christ); it (the Lord Jesus Christ) shall
bruise (crush the power of Satan) thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel (as occurred when the heel of Christ was nailed to the Cross at
Calvary). (Gen 3:15) That is a veiled
reference to the victorious Christ. It could not have been made more
comprehensible to the primitive understanding of the two in the Garden. This
was the spoken word of Promise to Adam and Eve. But what of the physical
demonstration of that Promise?
You will recall that until the sin of Adam and Eve, there was no death in
Paradise; and afterward, the Tree of Life and Paradise were themselves removed
to Heaven. (see Revelations 2:7 and 22:2). So there was but
one occasion of death in God’s Paradise; but what was it? 21 Unto Adam also
and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. (Gen
3:21) Please observe the only death in Eden was of an innocent animal
which God sorrowfully killed to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. God loved
everything that He had made, and it undoubtedly pained the Lord to take the
life of an innocent animal. Uppermost in the Mind of God was what the death of
that innocent animal represented in the omniscient Mind of God! It represented
His dearly beloved and only Begotten Son which had been decreed to be
sacrificed as a Lamb without blemish in the Eternity that was before Creation.
As the Baptist proclaimed from Jordan Waters, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. (John
1:29) 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a
lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do
believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your
faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21)
Like our primitive parents in
Eden, we need a covering for our sins (nakedness before God). That covering is
the blood-bought Robe of Righteousness that Christ offers to all whom He calls
and chooses as the Elect of God.
Man is a land-borne creature. His mind is weak and his resolutions are never
sure. He cannot see with his physical eyes the glorious prospects of Heaven.
His imagination of the Divine is clouded with the mundane desires and offerings
of a physical Universe. But Christ came to offer sight to the blind and light
to those who have sat in darkness so that their spiritual eyes can grasp a
glimpse of that beauty and magnificent grandeur that lies just beyond the
frontiers of man’s imagination. 2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a
great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath
the light shined. (Isaiah 9:1-2)
Down through the shadows and whispers of time, God has provided an increasingly
vivid understanding of that one and only Personage who would suffer the
humiliation and pains of a tortuous death in our stead. When one considers all
of these revelations God provided the ancient prophets, it is all the more
astounding that the greater part of Israel failed to see that promise fulfilled
in Christ. But, when the few who received and accepted that Promise from
Abraham down to the first Christmas, it seems more a matter of intentional
obstinence than of fair reason and spiritual insight that others could not see.
The miracles of preservation to Israel in Goshen of old Egypt boggles the mind;
however, memory is apparently short. The miracle of the First Passover should
have instilled an unfailing faith from that moment until now – but the people
forgot God only days, or weeks, later. God even provided great the Pillar of
Cloud by Day, and Fire by Night - which was Christ the Lord – to guide
and protect His people both in the Wilderness and in the Red Sea Crossing. When
they complained, He gave them a miraculous provision of Manna daily.
We see that God placed beautiful pictures throughout the Old Testament of His
Beloved Son. The Song of Solomon is an exquisite representation of Christ and
His Church. The Book of Ruth – the eighth Book of the Bible (eight signifies
new beginnings such as the eight souls saved from the Deluge) – is
strategically positioned between the day when the Law of God reigned supreme in
Israel (the time of the Judges), and the advent of human rule through Israel’s
Kings (1 Samuel). This book, too, is a glorious
painting of the love Christ has for His people and Church – even those who have
not a drop of Hebrew blood (Ruth – the Moabitess). In fact, the recorded
lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ came down from Boaz and Ruth (Matt 1:5), and through Rahab (the Canaanite), the prostitute of
Jericho (ibid). Ruth is a Garden of Grace
betwixt the severity of the Law and the excesses of the Kings of Israel.
The Wilderness Tabernacle, in its furniture and fixtures, represented the
attributes of our Lord. It possessed a resplendent interior décor, but a
very plain and unattractive appearance without having goat hair as a covering.
The beauty of Christ was never in His physical appearance as the Son of Man,
but the magnificent beauty concealed within a heart that was larger than the
Universe itself.
Well, Reader, to even touch on the glorious Person of Christ Alone would be a
daunting task for any book; however, impossible in a mere devotion! But I will
give a further brief glimpse into this subject in Part Two of this Devotion
tomorrow.
