Tag: identify
Jesus our Merciful High Priest
Scripture reading for October 15: Hebrews 2
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” Hebrews 2:14-18
The writer of Hebrews sought to help Jewish believers understand Jesus Christ as the perfect High Priest. In the Old Testament, the high priest of Israel was appointed by God to come from the tribe of Levi. He was a man who was also a sinner. He had to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as the sins of the people. He approached the Holy of Holies once a year with a blood sacrifice for himself and the people on the Day of Atonement. Even he lived in a holy fear of God’s judgment while appealing to God for mercy. This high priest was a shadow of God’s ultimate High Priest, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, as God’s Son, became a human being with flesh and blood like all His brothers. Jesus Christ was from the tribe of Judah through his earthly mother. Jesus Christ suffered temptations during His life on earth just like His brothers but Jesus Christ never gave in to those temptations. He overcame through dependence on God and the Holy Spirit in humble obedience and with the goal of serving all His brothers through bearing their sins and paying their penalty in His death. Through His perfect obedience through suffering temptation, He was appointed by God as High Priest to represent the people. Through His suffering, He is able to identify with all sinners and help deliver those who turn to Him in repentance and faith from slavery to the fear of death and eternal punishment
Have you ever been tormented by a fear of dying or death? Have you considered Jesus Christ as someone Who can identify with you in your temptations, sin and tormenting fears? What does it mean that Jesus suffered temptation in every way like us and yet He made propitiation (covering) for our sins?
Prayer: Father God, thank You for sending Jesus Christ to earth as a human man to experience temptations like us. Thank You for Your mercy and His great mercy towards me through the cross and shedding of Jesus’ blood. Through Jesus I will come boldly to Your throne for grace in my needs. Amen.
Crucified with Christ
Scripture reading for May 17th: Galatians 2
Key Scriptures: Galatians 2:15-16, 19-20 “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”. . . .”For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Justification means being made “just” before a holy God. Our sins are forgiven on the basis of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death for sin and sinners on Calvary’s cross by means of crucifixion. Paul explained that we appropriate this justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by our own efforts to keep God’s law. In fact, by the works of the law, no flesh can or will be justified. Paul further described how he viewed his own justification. His old man and sinful flesh were by identification, through faith, crucified with Christ. Paul, the sinner, died on that cross and was also buried with Christ. But as Jesus Christ rose from the dead through justification by God through the Spirit of Holiness, Paul identified with that resurrection and claimed the life of the resurrected Jesus in his own body!
Galatians 2:21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
Faith confession and prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for inviting me to believe and identify with You in Your death on the cross, burial, and resurrection to a new life. Help me to clearly communicate the full Gospel and simple faith in Christ Jesus.
1st Corinthians 15:3-4 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received (the Gospel): that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. . . .”