They are waiting on Messiah, the Lord's righteousness but
not passively, but doing justice and keeping righteousness. The two things particularly mentioned for
eunuchs and foreigners are keeping the Sabbath and holding fast to the
covenant. Holding fast to the covenant
would be faith, believing that the God who made the covenant is faithful and
will be faithful to the covenant promises He has made. It isn't only a matter of keeping the Law
although those would certainly be covenant obligations, the maintenance of
covenant is primarily God's obligation as it was His life that guaranteed the
covenant. What does it mean for us to
keep Sabbath. That too, at least
partially, is a covenant matter. It is
one of the Ten Commandments and it is a measure of faith to set aside one day
for nothing other than worship and contemplation of the covenant keeping
God. Are we willing to give Him one full
day in which we will do nothing that produces earthly wealth or enjoyment?
The three disciples closest to Jesus are privy to the most
amazing revelation prior to the resurrection.
They are given an insight into the person of Jesus and where He fits
into salvation history that no one imagined.
Their initial reaction is to equate Moses, Elijah and Jesus, quite a duo
with whom to be yoked, but then they learn that Jesus stands alone, above these
giants of the faith. He is the one to
whom they are to listen, not Jesus and anything or anyone else. Jesus alone is the beloved Son in whom the
Father was well pleased. The other two
didn't fall from grace but they did fail to be perfect, Moses with the striking
of the rock and Elijah when he ran from Jezebel and gave up. We all fail, even men whom God used
powerfully, but Jesus never did and never does.
Our faith must always and only be in Him. What do we have to give in return for all He
has done for us?
I wish I could say that I have crucified the flesh and its
passions and desires. When I read this
passage it always plunges me into despair that I will ever become the man even
I want to be. If it weren't for my faith
in Jesus to see me safely to eternity I would absolutely give up as this whole
thing is a hopeless affair if it depends on me.
I wish Paul would say, here is how you walk by the Spirit, and give me a
foolproof way to do so. It seems to me
that his words to pray without ceasing are the keys to this walk. As we come up to Lent what would it look like
to commit to such a life? If we did all
that we have to do with prayer would it change everything in our lives? Brother Lawrence penned a little book,
Practicing the Presence of God that would perhaps be a good meditation for
us. It isn't work that saves us but we
also are to work out our salvation, we are to be applying ourselves to becoming
more Christ-like, not as if our salvation depends on it but because we
acknowledge He is the gold standard to which we aspire.
No comments:
Post a Comment