Imagine with me a capable housewife and cook preparing her dining room for guests. She has set the cloth-covered table with her best china and silverware, positioning everything precisely. She adds a centerpiece of cut flowers—a delicate floral complement to the food we suppose will soon be coming.
But instead of the platter of savory beef and the dishes of steaming mashed potatoes and other vegetables that we had anticipated, she brings a single loaf of bread into the dining room. This she upends on the buffet, placing a strong light behind it so that the loaf of bread casts its own distinct shadow over the table service beyond it. We would have further reason to question the woman's sanity if at that point she called family and guests to the table, announcing cheerily, "The shadow of the bread is ready. You may come!"
Before I attempt a spiritual application of that unlikely scenario, consider how the writer to the Hebrews portrays the vast difference between the Old Testament "shadow" in the law and the reality of God's glory in the person of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord: 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. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? . . . Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will."
He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. . . . But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:1–2, 9–10, 12).
The inspired writer is plainly repetitious in his effort to fully contrast the Old Testament rituals, or shadows, with the perfections of grace, mercy and love found in the radiant, eternal person of Jesus, the Christ.
This is a serious, sobering passage of Scripture, for it deals with the hope and the glory of the human race.
verse
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
— Hebrews 7:18–19
thought
The real replaces the shadow. The new takes the place of the old. Christ is no shadow! He has made the once for all sacrifice and now is risen at the right hand of the Father.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for the better hope, the ultimate hope, the perfect hope. The shadow is done away. The real is here.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
What no mortal has done, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, has achieved.
He has accomplished this kind of enduring administration and divine beneficence.
Jesus died to activate the terms of the will to all its beneficiaries; Jesus rose in victory from the grave to administer the will. Is that not beautiful?
Jesus did not turn God's will over to someone else to administer. He Himself became the Administrator. Many times He declared, "I will be back. I will rise again on the third day!" He came back from the dead. He rose on the third day. He lives to carry out for His people all the terms of His will.
We must continue to trust this Living One who is now our great High Priest in the heavens.
There is not a single argument in liberal theology strong enough to pry us from our faith. We have a living hope in this world, and that living hope is equally valid for the world to come. Oh, yes. I should tell you exactly who are named in God?s new will.
The answer is Christ's answer and invitation. Whosoever! "Whoever wishes, let him take the free gift." Amen.
verse
The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
— Revelation 22:17
thought
Whosoever will come to Christ and trust Him fully becomes a beneficiary of the new will. We can't earn the inheritance. We can only receive it as a free gift by receiving Christ as our Savior and Lord.
prayer
Open my heart-eyes, Lord, that I may comprehend more and more all that I have and all that I am in You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Bible lets us know how far sinful mankind is from a holy God. Sin has dug a vast separating gulf.
Christ has become the Mediator. By the giving of Himself in death, He stands between God and sinners.
He shows us that by His death He has made effective God's testament, God's will. That contract into which God has entered guarantees reconciliation. We are reconciled to God! God's gracious new will—His contract—guarantees pardon. We may be restored into the household of God by faith.
Let me share with you another observation simple in concept but profound in this context of our divine inheritance.
As long as the Lord Jesus lived, God's new covenant and will for us could not become effective. It became immediately effective the instant Christ died. The death of the Testator brought immediate pardon, forgiveness, cleansing, fellowship and the promise of eternal life. Such is the bountiful and enduring legacy that has come by faith to the believing children of God as a result of Jesus' Calvary death.
I want to conclude by pointing out something that will sound strange to any mortal human being.
No man ever died to make his will valid and then came back to earth as the executor of his will. No one.
Some other person always acts as executor and administrator of the estate that has been left. But what no mortal has done, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, has achieved.
He has accomplished this kind of enduring administration and divine beneficence.
Jesus died to activate the terms of the will to all its beneficiaries; Jesus rose in victory from the grave to administer the will.
verse
For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
— Romans 5:10
thought
It is God who lovingly invites us to be reconciled to Him. He has taken the initiative and provided the means through Christ's death and resurrection We may come home through Christ and, in doing so, become a beneficiary of the new will.
prayer
How good to be reconciled to You, O God. You have opened the way and received me. Thank You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
If you are a believing, trusting, joyful Christian, never let anyone rob you of this assurance and consolation.
Allow no one to edit or change this basic truth—trying to make it more acceptable to philosophy or literature or art or religion.
Let this wonderful truth stand tall in its beauty and effectiveness.
Christ died, and in the giving of His life, He died vicariously!
In Christ's atoning death the holiness and justice of God have been satisfied. God no longer holds anything against us, for we have come to Him in faith. We have pleaded as our merit only the vicarious, efficacious death of our Savior and Lord. And as we have believed, we have found the power of death broken.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews assures us that Jesus has become the mediator—the executor—of the new covenant, the new testament in God's grace and mercy.
The word mediator comes from the verb "to mediate." A mediator is one who stands between two parties or two factions needing to be reconciled.
verse
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
— Hebrews 9:15
thought
Christ has paid the ransom for our sins—sins committed under the former covenant and the new. He is the mediator of the new covenant. Through Him we are reconciled to God.
prayer
My sin-debt paid and full pardon granted, all because of You, Lord. I have life because of You. Thank You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
In the Old Testament, the sacrifices and offerings and the poured-out blood of animals were efficacious in ceremonial symbolism
. But the death of Jesus Christ was efficacious actually and eternally. (Efficacious is a word theologians like to use; it simply means that it works. It is effective. You can count on it.)
When Jesus poured out His blood on Calvary, He guaranteed eternal redemption to all who would put their trust in Him. The blood and the life are one. When the blood was poured out, when Jesus Christ the eternal Son died, His death became vicarious. (Vicarious is another word that needs a brief explanation.
A vicarious act is one performed on behalf of someone else. When Jesus died at Calvary, it was a vicarious death. Jesus died on behalf of us all, the innocent One for the guilty many.) The atoning, vicarious death of Jesus Christ for sinful humanity is at the very foundation of the Christian faith.
For those who think they can find a better way than God's way, it is not a popular teaching. But there is no other way. Jesus is the only way.
verse
Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
— Hebrews 9:26
thought
Christ's death was for us and is effective for us. Amazing love, how can it be! But it is! We have only to come to Him by faith, trusting Him.
prayer
O my Lord, I will never understand why You died for me. But, praise Your name, You did!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
God's Word makes it clear that the life touched and tainted with sin is a forfeited life. The soul that sins shall die.
The wonder that we will never fully understand is that God wanted to save our forfeited lives. So He allowed the blood of the divine Savior to be offered on our behalf.
Notice that there must be a blood atonement because blood and life have a vital, mysterious relationship.
The blood of Jesus Christ is of infinite value.
The pouring out of blood indicates the termination of life. Because the blood of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, the Lamb of God, was poured out, our acts of sin may be pardoned. We need to give this spiritual truth all the reverence and contemplation it deserves. Do we talk too loosely about the price of our redemption?
I confess that I cringe just a little when I hear someone speak about Christ paying our debt—buying us back.
Sometimes we make it sound like nothing more than a business deal.
But I do not like to think of God redeeming us in the way we might redeem a cow or a horse at some livestock show. In God's plan for redeeming us there is something higher and holier, more sweet and beautiful.
verse
In him [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.
— Ephesians 1:7–8
thought
Far beyond our comprehension is the price Christ paid to ransom us. He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). He bore the sin of all humankind of all ages. He did it willingly, lovingly. Awesome!
prayer
"But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself to Thee. 'Tis all that I can do" (Isaac Watts).
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Men and women try to ignore the fact of spiritual death.
The Scriptures do not.
Paul has a classic one-sentence commentary on the subject. He says the woman "who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives" (1 Timothy 5:6). She was not dead physically, but spiritually she was cut off from God.
Her form of existence was such that she was not related to, but separated from, God.
The apostle also warns us that death is one of sin's fearful consequences.
Sin came into the world and brought death with it. The soul that sins will die. So the Bible declares.
Another thing we see in the Hebrews Scripture earlier quoted is that God has a very simple way of dealing with sin.
God terminates sin in death
! I lived in Chicago when the notorious killer gangster, John Dillinger, was being hunted. The police printed pictures of Dillinger with warnings about his violence with guns. Always he was shown with a cynical, sarcastic smile on his face. But the final picture indicated that he had stopped sinning. He was lying on his back, toes up. He was covered with a sheet. Dillinger was dead.
Sin ends at death. When a person dies, he or she will sin no more.
That is God's way of ending sin.
He lets death terminate it.
verse
But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.
— First Tlimothy 5:6
thought
Physical death terminates sin but the effects of unforgiven sin do not end. They produce spiritual death which has already begun but deepens and intensifies, following physical death.
prayer
Father, by Your Spirit give me a holy intolerance of sin in my life, whether "nice" sin or "bad" sin.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
I am amazed by the number of people who do not seem to know that the Bible speaks of two forms of death.
We believe the Bible when it says physical death is the reality facing every person born into the world.
But there is also a very evident condition among us described as spiritual death.
We trace it back to the Garden of Eden and the warning of God to our first parents: "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:16–17).
Adam and Eve did not heed the warning; they ate of the forbidden fruit. And on the day that they transgressed the law of God in disobedience and self-will, they died spiritually.
Death is not annihilation. Death is not cessation of existence.
Death is a changed relationship in a different form of existence.
When Satan, a creation of God, rebelled in pride and disobedience, he was saying, "I will arise and put my throne above the throne of God!" And right there Satan died. But he did not cease to be.
God expelled him from heaven and from fellowship with Himself.
He cast him down to earth. And after all these centuries, Satan is still around.
He was not annihilated, and his eternal judgment is still to come.
verse
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit will reap eternal life.
— Galatians 6:8
thought
Physical death graciously ushers the believer into the unveiled presence of God—life to the maximum! For the unbeliever, physical death leads into everlasting separation from God—dying to the maximum.
prayer
Holy Spirit, I want to sow the seeds of my life here to please You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The living soul within each of us can never be subject to annihilation.
There is only a change of residence at the time of death.
The soul will change its location, but it will never cease to be.
That is the crux of the Bible teaching on the worth and infinite nature of the God-breathed human soul. Consider this human situation—one many of us have witnessed at one time or another. A mother lovingly holds a tiny baby in her arms, a baby who is alive, cooing, alert, healthy. Then tragedy! Raging disease strikes down that same baby. The mother holds the infant form in her arms, but she is sobbing in grief. Death has robbed her of the object of her affection.
A brief service of loving memory will follow. In the tiny casket, the lifeless baby looks like a still, white angel.
What has happened?
Annihilation?
No!
But there has been a change of form and existence—for the parents, a shocking change.
The soul within that baby, the active mind, the intelligence, the cooing and laughter—all appear to have passed away. The lifeless body will be laid tenderly in the earth, where it finally will return to dust.
But that living, individual soul will not be annihilated. Never! The soul has changed its place of existence, but it has not ceased to be.
verse
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
— John 14:3
thought
Physical death brings a change of residence not an end to existence. Residence is dramatically changed. Just how dramatic we will all experience.
prayer
O Lord, You will take me to be with You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/