Jeremiah is to act
out the Word of the Lord. He is to buy a
new linen loincloth, an undergarment that fits next to the skin, something of
value and also meaning. After wearing it
for a time he is told to take it to a filthy river and put it between
rocks. Finally, after many days of leaving
it there, he is to retrieve it. Did
Jeremiah expect something supernatural would take place? What he found was simply natural, the garment
was ruined, the Lord had not preserved it in any way. That was a symbol of what had become of the
nation. The natural process of being
among filth had made the garment itself filthy and fit for nothing, it could
not be restored, only destroyed. It is a
simple principle.
Jesus has been with
the Father forever, He and the Father are one.
He has lived in that perfect fellowship of holiness and righteousness
and then "humbly He came to the world He created, all for love's sake
became poor." He identified with
us, came among the filth of this world, subjected Himself to His creation, for
the sake of those who rejected Him, and He did so with the sure and certain
knowledge they would reject Him, persecute Him, and put Him on a cross. What He found was that His people were, as
Paul would write, wrapped in filthy rags, believing them to be garments of
righteousness. His people were corrupted
by their contact with the world. They
had allowed themselves to be separated from Him to whom they should have
clung. He told them the secret of not
becoming filthy and worthless, abide in Me.
He showed them how to do so in seeking the glory of the Father alone,
not His own, and abiding in Him. That is
also a simple principle.
We know that the
wages of sin is death and yet too often we fail to consider that after we have
received Christ. We feel that we were
set free from the penalty of sin and that justification is all that
matters. Paul strongly disagrees with
such a view. Now that we have been set
free, delivered from slavery to sin, we are free to choose whether to be slaves
again. We will be slaves to something or
someone, we are never lords truly, no matter how much earthly power we
have. That being true, let us present
ourselves to Him as obedient slaves, slaves to righteousness. Is it truly slavery if we willingly present
ourselves to the one who set us free from slavery? Remember the story of the prodigal son who
presented himself to his father as a slave?
He was given freedom as a son. Let
us come out from among the pigs, put on a clean robe, take the ring of
children, and be free.
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