One thing that I notice immediately is the mysterious relationship between blood and life. God had instructed Israel about this link. "The life of a creature is in the blood," God said, "and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life" (Leviticus 17:11).
This instruction concerning blood and the atonement was at the very heart of Israel's religion and her relationship with God.
The blood was considered mysterious and sacred. Israelites were never to ingest blood.
The second thing I note is the relationship between sin and death. As human beings, we do not know all there is to know about death. There are religious groups who claim to believe in the annihilation of the human soul and the end of all existence. (Annihilation means to withdraw something from existence.) In the scriptural account of creation God made something out of nothing. But there is no instance in Scripture where God reverses the process of creation and calls an existing thing back into nothingness.
Nor is there the concept of annihilation in nature. It is hard, then, to understand why some people want to introduce annihilation into the kingdom of God. Matter can be—and regularly is—changed. But matter cannot be annihilated.
If I strike a wooden match and let it burn to ashes, I can pinch the remaining ash into a smudge on my fingers, but I have not annihilated the elements that were in that match. They merely changed form.
Part of the match went up in smoke.
Part of it turned to ash.
The part that became gaseous continues to possess invisible form in the atmosphere.
verse
Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'
— John 11:25–26
thought
Death brings change, not annihilation. The resulting change is an eternal one—forever in the presence of God or forever separated from Him, forever living or forever in the state of dying.
prayer
O Christ, I believe You are the Son of God, the resurrection and the life.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Did you know that God has written a completely new will? And remembered you in it?
This will has been in effect ever since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It promises an eternal inheritance through God's unbounded love and faithfulness. Although it was a transaction that took place two millenniums ago, many people remain unaware that God has included them in His will.
The letter to the Hebrews supplies us with the full details. Jesus Christ is Mediator of this new will. His death enabled sinful mankind to be pardoned and to receive an eternal inheritance. Here is what the writer to the Hebrew Christians has to say about it:
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.
In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, . . . In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. . . . Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.
Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 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. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him (Hebrews 9:15–16, 22, 24–28).
This Scripture encompasses so much instruction and so much meaning that we should stand back and view it from a better perspective. It is necessary sometimes to do that with great paintings. We can stand so close to the canvas that we note only the many little details, seeing them out of proportion and perhaps missing entirely the true beauty and meaning of the painting. I suggest we stand back from these verses and gaze in wondering faith as we contemplate God's grand design.
verse
You've come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel's—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace (The Message)
— Hebrews 12:23b–24
thought
Out of His unfailing love and faithfulness, God has provided for us a radically new covenant of which Jesus is the mediator. By faith in Him, we are recipients of an eternal inheritance.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for the new covenant built on Christ's death for me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Jesus was trying to make plain the searching, seeking, loving ministries of the Trinity—the Godhead.
That lost boy was the lost world. That lost sheep was the lost world. That lost piece of silver was the lost world.
The picture that we must see, then, is the Father looking for the lost son. It is also the Son, the good shepherd, looking for His lost sheep. And it is the Holy Spirit, depicted by the woman with the light, searching for the lost piece of silver. Add them up and you have God"s picture of the Godhead working to redeem the human race.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always seeking the lost treasure. "That is why I eat with sinners," Jesus was saying. "I am the Son, the Shepherd, looking for my lost sheep. My Father is looking for His lost boy. The Holy Spirit is looking for His missing piece of silver."
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are united in their search for the lost.
That is our answer for the would-be critics.
The Son of God gave the divine offering of Himself, the Holy Spirit conveyed it, and the heavenly Father received it!
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—the divine Trinity—were jointly engaged in the great and eternal business of seeking and saving lost men and women.
verse
I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
— Ezekiel 34:15–16
thought
God searches for the lost as a good shepherd. Involved is the Triune God. Are we responding to that loving search?
Prayer
Lord, You seek for the lost and bring back the strays. Thank You for Your loving and persistent search for me!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Then Jesus told them of the man who had two sons.
The one we would call, in our day, a delinquent. I have never understood why the father gave him his share of the estate when he asked for it. But the father did, and the son set out and soon had squandered all the money. Forsaken by his false friends, he had to feed pigs in their stinking pen to earn something to eat. Finally he said to himself, "What a fool I am! I will return home and be a servant to my father. At least I will have food."
We all know the rest of the story. "I am unworthy!" the boy confessed to his father. But his father forgave him and dressed him in new garments. He threw a great feast and, amid much rejoicing, restored the boy to his place in the family.
I read and studied those three stores for a long while without being sure I knew what Jesus meant to convey by them.
I checked out the commentaries and the reference books; still I was not sure of the meaning.
So I sought God alone in earnest prayer to find out what He was trying to say to us as a lost and alienated race. I share with you what the Spirit of God taught me. Jesus was trying to make plain the searching, seeking, loving ministries of the Trinity—the Godhead.
That lost boy was the lost world.
That lost sheep was the lost world.
That lost piece of silver was the lost world.
verse
So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
— Luke 15:20
thought
God seeks the lost. Do we?
Our tendency is to write them off as those who have chosen their destiny direction.
But isn't it the person who is lost and admits it the one who is sought, rather than the one who is lost but considers him or herself never to have wandered?
prayer
O God, how You welcome the lost who come home to You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
— Luke 5:32
In the Gospels, we read that Jesus ate and talked with sinners. . . . His critics and enemies saw Him there and asked, "What kind of a religious person are you? How can you eat and talk with sinners?" Our Lord had an answer. He told them three stories, which are really all one story. Jesus told them of the 99 sheep in the fold and of the search by the shepherd for the one that was lost. The shepherd would not rest until he had found the lost sheep. Jesus told them of the woman who treasured a piece of jewelry made up of 10 silver coins. But one of the coins somehow turned up missing, so she got a candle and a broom, and she searched the house everywhere. Suddenly her efforts were rewarded. "I have found it!" she exclaimed with jubilance.
thought
God reaches out to those who know themselves to be sinners, who realize they are lost. They are objects of God's pursuit. Then, there are those who consider themselves "righteous" and as never having been lost. They are heart-deaf to the Shepherd's call.
prayer
O Great Shepherd, give me a shepherd's heart and wisdom that I may go and seek lost sheep for You.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
— Hebrews 11:6
There has to be a personal application of these truths. Redemption has flowed down to mankind from the heart of God through His Son by the Spirit. But salvation, to be effective, must be appropriated and confessed. Redemption is an objective thing. It is something outside of us. Redemption is something that took place on a cross, but salvation is something that takes place and becomes known inside of us! Salvation is redemption appropriated by faith. The three persons of the Godhead continue to call the lost to salvation. In the Gospels, we read that Jesus ate and talked with sinners. He knew why He was there. He was not approving their wickedness. He was there because it was His nature to offer help and forgiveness and salvation. . .
.thought
Redemption provided by Christ's sacrificial death for sinners is available to all. Faith appropriation makes it personally effective, resulting in the experience of salvation. God has opened His arms to us. It remains for us to come to Him.
prayer
Lord, thank You for redeeming me. Thank You for giving life to me. I come to You and I keep coming. Transform me, Lord!
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
— Hebrews 9:14
We must ask our Lord to help us comprehend what it meant to the Trinity for the Son to die alone on the cross. When the holy Father had to turn His back on the dying Son by the necessity of divine justice, I believe the pain for the Father was as great as the suffering of the Savior as He bore our sins in His body. When the soldier drove that Roman spear into the side of Jesus, I believe it was felt in heaven. There is another misconception that has been taught through the years.
We have been taught that only one person of the Trinity took part in the plan of redemption. But Hebrews 9:14 tells us that Father, Son and Holy Spirit all had a part. The Father received the offering of the Son through the Holy Spirit. And what was the offering? It was the blameless and sinless Son, offered as the Lamb of God, without spot and without bthought
God so loved fallen humankind that He gave God to die for humankind. God the Father gave the Son but God the Son willingly gave Himself and God the Holy Spirit was involved in it all. It was a God thing!
prayer
What costly love You have demonstrated, O Triune God. Thank You Father, Son and Holy Spirit!lemish. The redemptive price was paid by the Son to the Father through the Spirit.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
— First John 4:10
I suspect that many preachers and evangelists have left the false impression in our churches that Christ won God over to our side by dying for us. We have been encouraged to think of the Father as the angry God standing with the club of vengeance, about to destroy sinning mankind. But suddenly Jesus rushes in and takes the blow, allowing us to escape. That may be good drama, but it is poor theology! Here is the truth of the matter. The Father in heaven so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It was the love of the Father that sent the Son into our world to die for mankind.
The Father and Son and Spirit were in perfect agreement that the eternal Son should die for the sins of the world. We are not wrong to believe—and proclaim—that while Mary's Son, Jesus, died alone, terribly alone, on that cross, the loving heart of God the Father was as deeply pained with suffering as was the heart of the holy, dying Son.
thought
We cannot begin to imagine what it was like for the Father to give the Son or for the Son to lay aside the exercise of His divine prerogatives to identify with us and to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is God Love!
prayer
Your love, O God, is so deep and wide!
But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
— Psalm 86:15
thought
The Triune God is compassionate, gracious, abounding in love and faithfulness. He is slow to anger but He does become angry with sin and He is a God of judgment. Let's flee to Him rather than from Him!
prayer
O God, how patient and gracious You have been with me. I want to hide in You.