Weekly Devotional 7-3-17 Our Present Blessing
A brother in the Lord from Myanmar recently posted; “Mankind is sinful. We only have to look at the world around us to know this is true. You and I have not lived up to the standard of God’s holy and perfect law. As a result of our sin, we are separated from God. In this state of separation, we cannot know God or experience the peace and hope of the life He has planned for us ‘For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard’ Romans 3:23. ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ Romans 6:23. ‘If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth’ I John 1:8. But, because of God’s deep love for each one of us, He provided the way of salvation the only way that we are able to enter a relationship with Him. This plan is called ‘the Gospel.’ The word Gospel means ‘Good News.’ The Good News is that God Himself has already made all the arrangements for your salvation. No matter what you have done, Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is able to pay the penalty for your sin. God loves you and wants you to be His own child.”
Reading some of his previous posts, we believe that when he writes that “we cannot know God or experience the peace and hope of the life He has planned for us” that he means in one’s previously separated state. That is, before a person has been born again or regenerated spiritually. If that is his meaning, he is correct. The wonderful news however is, we are no longer separated from God, and the enmity that separated us from Him has ended. Because that enmity has ended we presently can ex-perience His peace. It is a matter of trusting Jesus, of believing Him. We read, for instance, that when confronted by certain Jews in Jerusalem who contested His deity Jesus said, “25I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30I and My Father are one.” (John 10:25-30 NKJV).
From this passage Jesus emphatically stated that he had given and gives eternal life to all those that His Father has given Him. In that eternal means eternal, and that it was and is a present experience, His sheep (All Christians) no longer need to hope for it. It is a present experience. Eternal life, therefore, is a present surety even though its full experience will not be realized until we pass out of time into eternity. As to peace, it too can be a present experience, but peace is not automatic. It’s a matter of trusting the Lord, not only for future salvation and peace, but also for present salvation and peace. It is a matter of trusting Him.
The writer of Hebrews addressed this when writing to a mixed readership. He wrote; “7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, 8Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.’ 10Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,And they have not known My ways.’ 11So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ 12Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ 16For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:7-19 NKJV).
Salvation for them was a matter of trust, of commitment, and a present experience. The realization of eternal life is also a present experience for us today. Those Hebrews who had trusted in God had rest and peace, but those who had not trusted in Him did not have rest or peace. This is equally true for us today.
Trusting Christ for one’s salvation leads to obeying Him and obeying Him results in surrender and commitment. Surrender and commitment leads to rest and peace. Therefore, to exper-ience the peace of God presently, one must be surrendered and committed to Jesus Christ.
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