Freedom is Good News Part 166

Sometimes we think that the New Testament is made up of “new” thoughts and words, when in truth much, if not all, consists of quotes and thoughts brought forth from the Old Testament.  For example; we have been considering the scripture from Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I am coming soon!  My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to his works”, but this is a quote from the book of Isaiah 62:11, “Behold, your Savior comes!  See, His reward is with Him and His recompense accompanies Him.” 

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, speaks the words that John the Revelator records so that we may see this connection.  It is important to understand that without the Old Testament, the New Testament loses some of its meaning.

And so it is with our understanding of our father, Abraham.  Jesus says, in John 8:39, “If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the works that Abraham did.”  Paul tells us that if we are in Christ, “we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”  Oh!  Then maybe we should look to Abraham our father for instruction.  Follow along with me here: We will go back once again to Isaiah to read his instruction concerning Abraham, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.  Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.”  Isaiah 51:1-2

Are you one who pursues righteousness and seeks the LORD?

In the previous article I mentioned that father Abraham has much to teach us.  First of all he was faithful in all his ways.  Secondly, he was obedient in his service to God.  When God appeared to Abraham’s son, Isaac, He told him this; “Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.” (Gen. 26:5)  Now this is interesting!  This statement made to Isaac comes some 400 years before God gives the Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai.  And here we find Abraham keeping God’s law!  Maybe we should also!!

Another thing that God commended Abraham for doing is found in Genesis 18:18-19, “Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.  For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice.”

Are you a person of faith?  “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” (Gal 3:7)  And Abraham did many wonderful things.  Stay tuned, there is much more coming your way. 

Yes, There is Good News! Part 3

We have been talking (alright so I’ve been writing and you’ve been reading) about the topic of “righteousness”.  It is a term that means “acting in an upright manner” and being “faithful to another’s expectations so as to form a good relationship”.

On the one hand, God is perfect in righteousness and is always faithful to fulfill whatever promises He has given to us (in other words, He is faithful to fulfill our expectations).  The problem here is, as I see it, can we be righteous so as to fulfill what God expects of us?

Perhaps we should look at a couple of scriptures?  In Matthew 5:20 Jesus says, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the scribes, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  But hey, we all know that the Pharisees and scribes were self-righteous and Jesus was always berating them for their hypocrisy (“woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites…. See Matthew 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27 and 29).  So then, let us examine ourselves and repent of our own hypocrisy.  Perhaps in that respect we are better than the Pharisees.

But in the same chapter of Matthew in 5:48, Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.  UH OH!!  Really?  Are we to be perfect as God is perfect?  I think I can speak for all of us in saying that this is way too tall an order.  What’s a believer to do? 

Well, herein lies our first true view of what we’ve been striving to see, this is our introduction to the “good news”!  Because there is no way for us to attain to this perfection as God is perfect.  There is no way for us to try and put any of our righteousness up against God’s righteousness.  We lose every time and we lose in a huge way.  In Isaiah 64:6 it says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”  Indeed, we have no way, in and of ourselves to stand in the presence of God.  We need a redeemer. 

What does it mean to redeem?  We may take our pop cans, for which we paid a nickel, back to the grocery store to have them redeemed.  The store will buy them back.  They redeem them.  So, redeemed means to buy back.  Our lives, wrapped up in sin are like the empty pop cans.  They are not worth anything until they are redeemed!  And where do we find redemption? 

Ephesians 1:7, “In Him (Jesus Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”  Can I get an Amen!!