SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 08-04-03
My
Worship Time Focus: Different Altar
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Hebrews 13:10
Message
of the verse: “10 We have an altar,
from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” (NASB)
“We have an altar from which the priests in the Temple on earth have no
right to eat.” (NLT)
The altar
for the NT believer is Jesus Christ, for He is the altar, the sacrifice, and
the priest. The verse says that the priest
in the Temple on earth has no right to eat, but we as NT believers do partake
in the Lord’s Supper, and this is symbolic of Jesus Christ and His broken body
and blood which is the blood of the new covenant. In verse nine the writer mentions foods in a
bad since for the believer, in a sense where they are not to use the in a wrong
way to worship, but here in verse ten the food he speaks of is Jesus
Christ. I will quote a portion of John
chapter six to show more about this subject of symbolically eating the Lord’s
flesh: “53 Jesus therefore said to them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 ‘He who eats My flesh
and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last
day. 55 ‘For My flesh is true food, and
My blood is true drink. 56 ‘He who eats
My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 ‘As the living Father sent Me, and I live
because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of
Me. 58 ‘This is the bread which came
down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate, and died, he who eats this bread
shall live forever.’” Just to clarify something
about these verses in John that I have learned from my recent study in John’s
gospel, and that is that these verses are not speaking of the Lord’s
Table. John MacArthur writes the following
in his commentary on the gospel of John:
“Jesus, of course, was not speaking of literally drinking the fluid in
His veins any more than He was of literally eating His flesh. Both metaphors refer to the necessity of
accepting Jesus’ sacrificial death. The
New Testament frequently uses the term blood as a graphic metonym speaking of
Christ’s death on the cross as the final sacrifice for sin.” 3/21/2017 8:42 AM
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am not
so sure that I have gotten all of the meaning from this verse, but I do believe
that this verse does in some way talk about the Lord’s Supper, [As stated above
I do not believe this is about the Lord’s Supper since my study in the Gospel
of John], for that is how I, as a
believer partake of the blood and body of Jesus Christ, and it is also a
reminder of the pain and suffering He went through to purge me from my
sins. It also causes me to think about
the promised return of the Lord from heaven to take all believers to be with
Him forever.
The Word of God was challenging to my heart as I read it
this morning.
My
Steps of Faith Today: I
trust the Lord to use me for the cause of Christ today. I would pray that He would be pleased to use
me and to speak through me as I go about my day.
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