Defending Yourself and Protecting the Attacker: Are Both Possible?

Keith Giles is the author of several books, including the forthcoming Jesus Unbound: How the Bible Keeps Us From Hearing the Word of God, available July 4th, 2018. He is also the author of the best-seller, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics To Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb. He is the co-host of the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast on iTunes and Podbean. He and his wife live in California. This is his second time featured here at C201. Click the title below to read this at his Patheos blog and check out other articles.

The Aikido Spirit of God

If you’re not familiar with Aikido, it’s a style of martial arts that uses an opponent’s energy against them to redirect their kinetic force to turn it back upon them.

Or, as the Wikipedia entry explains:

Aikido’s techniques include irimi (entering), and tenkan (turning) movements that redirect the opponent’s attack momentum.

The man who invented this style of martial arts created for one purpose:

“to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury”.

This is exactly what God does.

Consider that God never wanted anyone to rule His people other than Himself. God wanted a people who would look to Him as their King. But, unfortunately, His people wanted “a King like all the other nations have” and even though He was grieved by their choice, He gave them what they asked for.

After giving them a King, God told them that He would send them a Messiah who would rule on David’s throne forever. But notice, it was never God’s desire for King David to have any throne at all. Yet, God used the disobedience and rejection of His people and redirected it to the Messiah to come.

God also never asked anyone to build Him a temple. When King David set out to build one for God, His response was: “Heaven is my throne and Earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me?” and then promises that, instead, God will build a house for David which, again, is a nod to the coming Messiah who would build a Temple not made with human hands but from human hearts that are surrendered to God [the Ekklesia where God lives by His Spirit – the Church].

So, once again, God takes our mistakes and turns them around to bless us anyway.

As Joseph told his brothers who had sold him into slavery out of jealousy: “What you intended for evil, God meant for good.”

This is the Aikido way of God.

Another example of this is animal sacrifice.

Moses knew of no other way to worship a god [any god] other than a blood sacrifice. There simply wasn’t any other form of worship known to mankind in that ancient world. So, Moses assumes that to worship Yahweh, something must be slain on an altar to please God.

But, according to Jeremiah, God never wanted animal sacrifices in the first place:

For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.  But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’  Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” [Jeremiah 7:22-24]

Again, God did not want animal sacrifices. Moses did.

But, God allowed this to be practiced in spite of this and, instead, used this misunderstanding to point to Christ who would come and fulfill this picture of the scapegoat and redeem the barbaric practice of sacrifice to liberate us from the bondage of guilt and sin.

This is why Jesus echoes the prophet Hosea and says:

“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” [Matt 9:13; 12:7]

God is always taking our disobedience, our misunderstandings, our limited vision, even our total rejection of Him, to redirect it back around to bless us and redeem us and draw us nearer to Himself.

God uses everything – all wisdom, all knowledge, all ignorance, all disobedience, all rejection, all striving – to declare His love to us and to set us free from everything that entangles us.

This is who God is. This is who God has always been. This is who God will always be.

His love endures forever.

 

Only One Sacrifice Could Effect a Momentous Achievement

Deborah (named after the prophetess) is a retired doctor now living in Swansea, Wales; a Christian for over 40 years, and an avid reader of the Bible. This is our first time featuring her writing here. To discover more, click the title below and then look around at some of the other articles.

Focus on Jesus: He is the ultimate sacrifice

“Fix your thoughts on Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1)

Hebrews 9:1-10:18

The worship of the old covenant took place in the Tabernacle (and, later, the Temple, which was constructed in a similar way) The sanctuary was divided into two rooms by a heavy curtain. In the outer room, the priests would perform certain duties (such as burning incense and tending the lamps); but they could not enter the inner room, where God was present. Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, was the high priest allowed to enter the Most Holy Place – provided he took with him the blood of sacrifice to sprinkle onto the lid of the Ark.

Thus the very nature of Tabernacle worship bore witness to its inadequacy. God was not really approachable; even while living symbolically in the midst of His people, He remained at a distance, and access to His presence was severely restricted. There was an impenetrable barrier between the first and second rooms that no amount of animal sacrifices could break down. This symbolized the real barrier between human beings and God – which was never a physical barrier in a building but an internal, spiritual barrier located in the conscience. And so it could not be removed by the physical rituals of the old covenant.

But the death of Jesus has changed everything!

“He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:11,12)

What made the difference was the nature of the sacrifice that He offered and the location where He offered it. For He alone was able to enter God’s actual presence in heaven – not once a year, but once for all. And the death that He presented as atonement was not that of an animal but His own. Thus He paid the full redemption price for all God’s people – a price for which nothing in this world would have been sufficient (I Peter 1:18,19).

The animal sacrifices had to be endlessly repeated because they never actually achieved anything. “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:4) But Jesus was a willing, rational and morally perfect Victim, and His sacrifice was accepted by God – which is why it will never need to be repeated (Hebrews 10:14). He had to die only once to save everyone!

Only one sacrifice could effect this momentous achievement – but now that it has been made, there is no need to repeat it or add to it. It is ‘the sacrifice to end all sacrifices’; the old system has been abolished at a stroke. The real, heavenly sanctuary has now been cleansed, signifying that God has forgotten our sins and that we shall be welcomed into His presence. We can neither be shamed by them now, nor condemned for them later! So while the repetition of the old covenant sacrifices was a reminder of sin’s continuing dominion (Hebrews 10:3), the repetition of the Lord’s Supper is for us a reminder of sin’s definitive removal.

All Bible quotations are from the NIV

The Lamb of God

This is a first-time visit to Vicki who writes at the blog Homeward Bound. The article below is part one of two, at the bottom is a link to the second part which provides the New Testament resolution to the sacrificial system. Click the title of each if you wish to read at source.

The Lamb of God: Old Testament

I used to watch a show called Lonely Planet, where the guide went to different countries and around the world, where the culture was different from North America. Quite often there were lambs killed, and one thing I noticed was that they never made a sound..they go to their death without struggle. Often it moved the guide to tears. And so I have been dwelling on the Lamb of God, who went to the cross without struggle, going to complete the work He came into this world to accomplish, to pay the penalty for sin and to shed His precious blood, and die on the cross.

There are many references to lambs in the bible, but these are a few specific ones that came to my mind in dwelling upon this subject. The first one is in Gen.3:21 “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Adam and his wife had tried to cover themselves with fig leaves after their disobedience to the command of God, but this covering was by their own works. God covered them with the skins of animals, requiring the shedding of blood. Nothing could cover the sins of Adam and Eve but that which God gave them, just as our sins are covered by the precious blood of Christ, Romans 4:6-8..2 Cor 5:19, 1 Peter 1:19 “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

The next instance that comes to my mind is that of Abel, “he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering” (Gen 4:4) Abel’s offering was acceptable being that which was not of the work of his own hands, but desired the sacrifice of one of the firstlings of his flock. And we know that because Abel’s offering was accepted by God, and Cain’s was not, Cain in a fit of rage murdered his brother. And still today, this old world tries to find its way to heaven by doing good works, and not by faith.

Next is Abraham and Isaac, that wonderful story of trust, obedience and grace. When God required Abraham to sacrifice his only begotten son (that which was promised by God- Isaac, and not his son by the will of the flesh which was Ishmael) Abraham did not hesitate, but took Isaac to Mount Moriah where he completely trusted that “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” (Gen 22:5). Even though Abraham knew that he was to sacrifice Isaac, he believed that somehow Isaac would return with him. And when Isaac inquired of his father “…where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Gen 22:7) Abraham said these words “…my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen 7:8), and of course, the animal was provided at exactly the right moment “…and Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns…”(Gen 22:13) and so the animal provided by God is slain in Isaac’s stead, Abraham’s trust and obedience were shown grace, and Isaac fulfilled his destiny.

A very graphic example of the Lamb of God is given in Exodus 12, during that fateful night when the firstborn of Egypt would die..there is a wonderful progression here, Verse 3 “…in the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb…..a lamb for an house.” one of many, a lamb. Then in Verse 4 it becomes more selective “and if the household be too little for the lamb… Now it is narrowed down to the lamb. no longer one of many, it is the lamb. And finally, it is made personal – Verse 5 “your lamb shall be without blemish…” Now it is not just “a” lamb, nor “the” lamb, but “your ” lamb. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ is not “a” Saviour, one of many, He is “the” Saviour. But even though He is “the” Saviour, our salvation is not accomplished until He becomes “your” Saviour.. we must believe the gospel and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.

And so the little lamb is killed, and its blood was to be placed “on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the house” (Exodus 12:7) And “the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you….” (Exodus 12:13) The firstborn were saved by the blood of the lamb as long as they were in the house protected by it. Just as we are saved by the precious blood of the Lamb, The Lord Jesus, and when God sees us, He sees us righteous by the blood of the Lamb.

The last instance in the Old Testament in this little meditation is found in Isaiah 53: 6-7 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Even those many years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, when he came from heaven to cloth himself in human flesh, the prophet Isaiah spoke of him as the Lamb. But it was not as a little baby in a manger, no, it was the lamb to the slaughter, the death of the Lord Jesus on the Cross…

Worthy, worthy, is the Lamb
Worthy, worthy, is the Lamb
Worthy, worthy, is the Lamb
That was slain.

click the link below:

The Lamb of God: The Lord Jesus Christ

to read a short New Testament conclusion to this article.

A Shadow of Things to Come

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming–not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
 – Hebrews 10:1 NIV

^{NLT Hebrews 10:11} Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. ¹² But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

Today we are paying a return visit to Josh Ketchum, a pastor in Kentucky who also has a passion for marriage and family counseling.  Click the title below to look around his blog, Life in the Kingdom.

New Thoughts on Old Sacrifices

I am teaching a Wednesday night Bible class on the Old Law.  This week we are studying the sacrificial system.  We are all familiar with the foreshadowing of Christ in the sacrificial system.  But here are a few fresh thoughts I have from looking at this in an in-depth manner.  (I am not going to reference the statements, but most all of these thoughts come from Leviticus 1-7).

• Sacrifices were required so the people could come into the presence of God.  (Read that slowly)  Put in other words– you couldn’t come to God without a sacrifice!!
• The entire system was based upon God, through his grace, allowing a substitute life to atone for the offerer’s sin.
• There was an emotional and convicting element involved when the offerer had to place their hands on the animal and slaughter them (often the priest would kill while they were touching.)  It was impossible to miss that this animal is giving his life as a substitute for my sin so I can remain in a relationship with God.
• The sacrifices were gifts offered to God.  All of the sacrifices, except for the peace offering, the worshipper did not get to partake.  He offered his best to the Lord and received not a bite!  The individual offerings were voluntary and involved conviction.
• Forgiveness was not just because of the ritual, but was based on the grace of God and faith of the offerer.  With the trespass offering the sinner was responsible for demonstrating sincere repentance by offering restitution and monetary payment to the one they had defrauded.
• The peace offering involved a meal together between God, the priests, the offerers, and others gathered at the tabernacle.  It was a communal meal.  It foreshadowed the communal meal of the Lord’s Supper were Christians celebrate and remember the death of Jesus.
• Offerers were forgiven at the sacrifice, but they were to live dedicated, holy lives from that point forward.
• Finally, though I don’t want to suggest that the Old Law was better or we should in any way practice sacrifices today, I do wonder if we often neglect to emotional grasp what a physical sacrifice would teach us. Since owning animals, I can’t help but think of what it would be like to sacrifice them.
  • First, it would be hard to take your best.
  • Second, it would be a real sacrifice to give up your food for a spiritual cause.  It would take much faith and conviction of sin.
  • Third, it would bring home powerfully for you, when you slaughtered your own animal and saw its blood sprinkled on the altar and body parts consumed, the seriousness of sin and the holiness of God.

Where is the Lamb?

In a devotional post from the blog Biblical Studies, the author notes that in addition to being a study on substitutionary atonement, the story of Abraham’s (almost) sacrifice of Isaac initiates the question Isaac asks — “Where is the lamb?” — that then reverberates throughout the rest of scripture.  This was originally published under the title Genesis 22.

In Genesis 22, God commands Abraham to offer his beloved son Isaac as a sacrifice. God is not endorsing child sacrifice among men, He is foretelling His Child sacrifice for men. Abraham is obedient to God, not willing to keep anything from God, even his beloved son. This was a test for Abraham and a testimony to the world. On the way to the altar, Isaac asks his dad, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” In response, Abraham prophesied, “”My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together” (Genesis 22:7-8).

When they arrive at the place of sacrifice, Abraham prepares to offer Isaac to the Lord, but before Abraham could sacrifice Isaac, God stops him. We read in Genesis 22:10-12, “And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”” Before they leave the mountain top where Abraham was to offer Isaac, Abraham again prophesies the coming of the Lamb of God in Genesis 22:14, “And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”” About 2,000 years later, upon that very same mountain just outside of Jerusalem, God offered His only Son, the Lamb of God, as a sin offering to reconcile fallen man to the Holy Living God Almighty.

Where was the lamb? That question had been asked by all the faithful, from Isaac to Moses to David to Isaiah, all the way to the time of John the Baptist when he declares in John 1:29, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” For hundreds of years, on a daily basis the priests of Israel continued to echo Isaac’s cry, “Where is the lamb?” Of all the lambs sacrificed in Israel’s worship of God, none was as important to Israel as was the Passover lamb. Through this special lamb, God’s people were saved from the death angel and delivered from Egyptian bondage.

In Exodus 12:3 we read, “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.” It was through the killing of this lamb, the eating of its flesh, and the faithful application of its blood that salvation and deliverance were provided to Israel.

In the Passover, God gave to His people a beautiful, symbolic portrait of the eternal truth of salvation through the blood of God’s supreme Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ! Thousands of years later, multitudes have yet to encounter Christ, and still echo the cry, “Where is the Lamb?”

Behold the Lamb! But wait! We can hear another voice crying in the wilderness, “John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ … The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’” (John 1:29,35,36).

“John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”” (John 1:29). “The next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”” (John 1:35-36).

John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight” (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3). He warned the world to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). The Apostles “went out and preached that people should repent” (Mark 6:12), and Jesus declared, “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). God Almighty has given this testimony to a fallen world, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Therefore, repent of your sins and accept the Lord your God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

 

Read more at the same blog: Here’s a study from later on in Genesis (chatper 41) on the life of Joseph.

The Righteousness We Don’t Earn

Chad Hendley is in student ministry and blogs at A Servant Named Chad. This article is packed with different insights and takeaways. For today’s post title I chose to look at the difference between the righteousness we work for versus the righteousness imputed to us through Christ’s atonement. Chad’s post title emphasized the atonement as fulfilling the righteousness that the teachers of the law in the First Testament knew to be God’s unchanging requirement; he called it Not A Dot Shall Pass Away. You’re encouraged to read C201 posts at their original source.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17 ESV)

The Jewish religious leaders of the day had made a strict set of rules and traditions beyond the Law of God given to them by Moses. They kind of put a fence around the Law saying you can do this, this, and this, but not this, this, and this. The problem with this was that it had taken all the heart work out of their religion. While all the Laws were strict and hard to follow, it made it easy to follow God in a sense because it boiled down the whole thing to a list of do’s and don’ts. It completely ignored the greatest commandment of “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” It just became, “Do all these things right, and you’re fine.” Isaiah prophesies of this saying:

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” (Isaiah 29:13-14 ESV)

Isaiah prophesied of time when the fear and awe and love of God were replaced by heartless obedience to commandments of men.

Because Jesus did not hold to the strict traditions of these religious leaders, and because he just upset a lot of leaders due to their jealousy, he was accused of throwing out or causing people to disobey the Law. Jesus makes a point here to expressly say, “I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.”

It is helpful to recognize that Christ fulfilled the Law in 2 different ways.

Christ perfectly upheld the Law. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24 ESV) He perfectly completed the Law living without sin. The only person in history to do so. By no means did he come to do away with it, for he himself is the only one to perfectly complete it.

Christ himself was the very fulfillment of all the Law pointed to. Much more than that, he himself was the fulfillment of the Law, that is all that Law pointed to. Remember? The sacrificial system that was set up, where, when you sinned, sacrifice must be made to atone for your sin reminding you that God is just and that sin must be punished? Christ fulfilled the Law in that he himself completed once and for all what the Law was pointing to.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:11-18 ESV)

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18 ESV)

To emphasize how permanent the Law and word of God is, he explicitly indicates that they will remain until the end of time as we know it. An iota referred the smallest letter of Hebrew alphabet that resembled an apostrophe. The dot refers to small marks in the written Hebrew language that helped distinguish some letters from others. Jesus is saying that not even a single letter, nor even a single stroke of a letter shall pass away from the Word of God, much less the its propositions and content.

Jesus, later equating the duration of his own words with the duration of the Law says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35 ESV)

So if there is one thing you may be certain of, it is that the word of the Lord endures forever. What does this mean for us?

It means that the word of God is trustworthy and true. In the New Testament, time and time again, Jesus and the authors point out instances where something happened in order “that the scriptures might be fulfilled.” They are indicating here that the scriptures are totally true and therefore must be fulfilled. That is exactly what Jesus is saying here. “The Law and Prophets will not pass away until all is accomplished.” The assumption here is that scripture is without error; therefore, we may be certain that all it says will be and must be accomplished. The fulfillment of all that is written then verifies the completeness of truth of the scriptures.

This, in turn, means that scripture MUST be the ultimate authority in our lives. Everyone has an ultimate authority. What’s yours? For many people it’s self. “I am my own ultimate authority. I am the only one I am responsible for, and I decide what’s best.” For other people it’s the culture. “Society defines what is right and wrong, so I’ll do whatever society and the culture says is ok.” For some people it’s science and reason. “I only believe what I can learn scientifically.” But there are a few problems with these: 1. You are a single individual with limited knowledge and understanding, and with a tiny view of the world limited by your experience which gives you little authority to determine for yourself what’s right and wrong. 2. Society is ever changing thus is no solid base on which to form a worldview. Does what’s right and wrong change? It shouldn’t. 3. Science is not a broad enough in scope to rests one’s life on. Science tells us nothing of right and wrong or love or purpose or emotion. It is a tool, but not a foundation.

And if scripture is the one true ultimate authority, we must submit our lives to it. Many people choose not to give Christianity serious consideration, because deep down they are scared of what they shall find. They know that if they dig and find that it is true, there is no option but to surrender one’s whole self to Christ. The worse sin that we often find, is those who claim to believe, but have not totally surrendered, still playing with the world. You have not dug deep enough either. YOU CANNOT  TRULY BELIEVE THIS AND LIVE AN UNCHANGED LIFE. When you come near the person of Christ you will find that there is no middle ground. It’s all either all in or nothing. We are to have child-like faith, but this is not a faith for children.

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19 ESV)

Jesus makes another practical conclusion as well from the fact that God’s word shall never pass away. This is the responsibility not just to obey but also teach others to obey his word. This is not a hard principle right? If God’s word is true and the ultimate authority for our lives and shall never pass away, if they are the measure by which our reward shall be doled out, if they are the works which reveal the fruit of God’s work in our lives, and the means by which we can honor him, then we must definitely be careful to be obedient to it and to be careful in teaching others to do the same. It only makes sense right? If God takes it so seriously as to say it shall never pass away, we should take his commands just as seriously right? For his name sake and for his glory.

Whoever loves him less and thus obeys him less shall be lesser in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever loves him more and thus obeys him more shall be greater in the kingdom of heaven. Note here Jesus is talking about believers, for both attain to the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus says some shall be called greater than others. It is a matter of reward, not a matter of salvation.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15 ESV)

God or no God, heaven or hell, is determined by the saving work of the Holy Spirit and genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but there will be varying levels of reward in heaven. The Apostle John, also the author the Revelation text we just read, said “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.” (2 John 1:8 ESV) But be careful of your heart here. Our obedience must not be fueled by this desire to be great in heaven, for that is pride, but for those who humble themselves and seek to honor him, Jesus says, “And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:42)

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20 ESV)

Jesus stresses the importance of the Law and the word of God, the importance of keeping and teaching the word of God to others, then he drops the doozy! Unless your goodness is better than the most religious, rule-keeping person you know, then you won’t get into the kingdom of heaven. At one point, Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” One of the commands is to tithe. To give a tenth of all that you receive from the Lord. So you know what these guys did? They tithed, they gave a tenth of the herbs they received to cook with. They did everything right! How in the world can my righteous be better than that of the most strict religious person I know???

Because, through faith in Christ, God gives us a righteousness that is not our own. Our righteousness must not just be a little better than the scribes and the Pharisees, our righteousness must be that of Jesus Christ! The Pharisees tried it, and it didn’t work. They worked and worked and worked trying to be perfect on the outside when Jesus told them they were dead on the inside. YOU CAN’T DO IT! You cannot work your way to heaven. If you could do that you wouldn’t need Jesus! Remember…King David? Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

~Chad Hendley

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Reading Leviticus With Jesus

Joe Amaral is one of Canada’s leading experts on understanding the New Testament in the context of the Old Testament. Originally self-published, his book Understanding Jesus was published by FaithWords, who have just released What Would Jesus Read, a daily devotional.  To learn more about Joe’s books and videos, visit First Century Foundations.

Our post here is actually two consecutive devotionals from the book.

^{Leviticus 9:22} Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them. And having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offering, he stepped down.

This passage is about the beginning of the priests’ ministry and their responsibilities.  You have to remember that at this point in time, the people themselves were not able to approach God.  They couldn’t even come into the tent.  The priest did everything for the people when it came to their spiritual lives.

The priests sacrificed the animals on the people’s behalf and would make atonement for their souls.  There were many daily rituals and rites that could only be performed by the priests.  But they were also responsible for blessing the people.  They would speak God’s Word and blessing over them.  It’s a pattern that needs to be carried out today by believers.

We are all priests.  We all have the responsibility to be a blessing and to bless those around us, both in word and in deed.  As people of faith we need to be a light in a dark world.  People are verbally beaten down on a daily basis.  Be like Aaron: speak a blessing over and into people.  Live like a priest today.

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^{Leviticus 9:23} Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.

Everybody loves to read about the glory of the Lord appearing to people.  Not just in ancient times, but still to this day.  How do we get to see His glory?  Is it when we whip ourselves into a spiritual frenzy during worship?  Is it when we pray for hours at a time?

It’s not that God can’t or won’t move during these times.  However, we seldom think of the context in which God moved in this particular passage.  It’s no secret, yet very few catch it.  Here it is… are you ready for it?  The priests had just finished performing the sacrifices as God required; then they emerged and blessed the people.  After that, that’s when the text says the glory of the Lord appeared to the people.  Did you catch it?  The priests obeyed God’s commands… and He appeared to them.

That’s the not-so-secret to seeing God’s glory.  He has called us to live a life of obedience.  When we walk in His ways, it brings glory to His name.  And in turn, He shows us His glory.  Obey Him today and release His power and glory in your life.

Joe Amaral