December 30, 2007
Scripture:
Scripture:
Can we go back to Romans 6:23; we have a contrast here, between wages and gifts. You earn wages; a gift is free. Our sins earned us death. But look at the gift: it’s a double gift. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Darby says “in Jesus Christ our Lord.” We have everlasting life in Jesus. As we began, we thought of God’s gift of his only begotten Son—He was the gift. But in Him we have another precious gift: eternal life. When I received Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, I got eternal life in Him. How marvellous this is in light of the great contrast we have. Death is judgement and doom; it is not the end, it is an eternity. How precious that God gives us a wondrous alternative, a free gift: His Son, in whom is the gift of eternal life. Eternal life: it is not something with an end; is it eternal, it involves a destination: in the glory above with Him, where there is fullness of joy. It’s a double gift!
EG Hymn 369 – I claim for my own a king on a throne,
Prayer
It’s coming to that time of year when, if you read through your Bibles yearly, you will be starting over. Let’s look at the beginning: Genesis 1:1. God gave us the Bible, and in it He told us everything we need to know—not everything we want to know; it’s interesting to see what He left out. Read v. 1; only ten words! It’s interesting to note that Darby says, “Heavens and earth.” When did this take place? “In the beginning”; when was that? That’s all we know. Who was there? God; what did He do? He created the heaven and earth. How did He create it all? It doesn’t sound as if he used anything. Read Hebrews 11:3. If you plan to build a deck, you need to buy wood and other materials to use; you can see those materials. But here we find that God made the worlds out of things that do not appear; He made them by speaking. The whole Universe was created by the Word of God. Now read Colossians 1:16. We read that God created things that are visible and invisible. What is invisible? Air, angels, and Satan are a few; although God made angels visible at certain times for special reasons. These things are invisible, but they are very real. Let’s turn to a verse in Isaiah; people often wonder where we come from; we know that God created the world. But why did He do it? Read ch. 45:18. The Lord didn’t create the earth in vain; He had a purpose. One purpose, we read here, is so that it could be inhabited, so creatures could live on it. Another purpose we read about in Psalm 19:1 is to give glory to God—only He could have created what He did. He is omnipotent, all powerful; He has no limits. This is what we find in the first verse of the Bible; we have an ordered world, one that is made for life and to give glory to God. What lived on this earth? We don’t know, because in the next verse, we find that the earth is desolate. We’ll look at that, Lord willing, next time.
Note: For more on this subject (Creation, Desolation, New Creation), see “In the Beginning,” by William Kelly.
I Peter 3:17–22
We have been looking at how our manner of life is important and how we should have a good conscience led by the Word of God. But if we live a life that is based on God’s Word, it will not stop people from saying things against us. We can’t stop that, but we know that they will end up being ashamed because of their false report. Yet, it is better for them to falsely accuse us than to have a true accusation of evil. For these Jewish Christians to act as Christians it would mean not keeping feast days, not offering sacrifices, and so on—accusations involving not following those aspects of the law would be good. But if they were found guilty of breaking the moral part of the law—like the 10 commandments—they would not be right. As Peter talks about suffering wrongfully, it makes him think of the Lord Jesus, who also suffered for doing no wrong. In thinking of the Lord’s sufferings, there are three types: 1) suffering with man, as at the grave of Lazarus; 2) suffering by man, like at the cross; and 3) suffering for man, taking the punishment for sin. It is the third one we are talking about here.
In this v. 18, we have three aspects of salvation. The first is propitiation. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins.” This is more than just forgiveness. The Lord took our sins on Himself, so that God could have grounds on which to righteously offer grace, mercy, and forgiveness to sinners.
Second, we have substitution: “the just for the unjust.” We were unjust; He is just. He took our place. When God’s judgement came down on our sins, he took it.
Third, we see reconciliation: “that he might bring us to God.” When Adam and Eve had sinned, they hid from God in the garden. Because of sin, we are enemies of God and need to be reconciled to Him. He is not our enemy, or else He would not have sent His Son. Read Colossians 1:21; we were enemies in our minds, but are now reconciled by the work of the Lord. Also read II Corinthians 5:17 – 21.
The verse ends with: “being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” We are saved by the blood of Christ; but his suffering for our sins is also part of our salvation. Those three hours of darkness, described in Psalm 22, were important. But also, his resurrection was part of it. If He has not risen, would we be saved? But because He is at the right hand of God, we can be assured of our salvation. With so much in it, this is a mighty verse!
EG Hymn 338 – I love my Saviour, my precious Saviour,
Prayer