SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/11/2018 11:51 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Redemptive Results”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 1:6b-9a
Message of the
verses: “the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon
us. In all wisdom and insight He made
known to us the mystery of His will,”
We ended our last SD with a quote from John MacArthur’s
commentary as he wrote about Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. This was a
beautiful and meaningful ceremony, but it did not actually remove the children
of Israel’s sins, and they knew this truth very well. As mentioned it was like a photograph, a
picture of what only God Himself in Christ could do. MacArthur writes “Aphiemi (from which ‘forgiveness’ comes) basically means to send
away. Used as a legal term it meant to
repay or cancel a debt or to grant a pardon.
Through the shedding of His own blood, Jesus Christ actually took the
sins of the world upon His own head, as it were, and carried them an infinite
distance away from where they could never return. That is the extent of the forgiveness of our
trespasses.”
The
tragedy is that there are many believers who still believe that God still holds
their sins against them which we have seen in our study of the portion of
Scripture in Ephesians 1:6b. One of my
favorite verses in the Psalms comes from Psalm 103:12 which says “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed
our transgressions from us.” I
have always said that I am glad that the Psalmist did not say as far as the
North is from the South, which of course is a measured amount of 12,500 miles
where once you begin to go East you continue to go East, or West you continue
to go West. Isaiah 44:22 says “"I
have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins like a
heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.’” Notice that all of these verse are from the
Old Testament, meaning that they were true even before the Messiah came to
earth in Israel. It was hundreds of
years before the Jewish Messiah came that the prophet Micah said “18 Who is a
God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the
remnant of His possession? He
does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging
love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities
under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea (Micah
7:18-19).”
As
we look at as far as the East is from the West along with “the depts. Of the
sea” we know as well as ancient Israel knew that these represented infinity, as
God’s ‘forgiveness’ is infinite; it takes away our trespasses to the farthest
reaches of eternal infinity. John
MacArthur quotes Shakespeare’s King
Richard III (5.3.194) the king laments,
“My
conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And
every tongue brings in a several tale,
And
every tale condemns me for a villain.”
This
is not true of Christians, which is something we should all be thankful
for. It happens when Jesus comes into
our lives as our Saviour and our Lord, for He says to us what He said to the
woman who was caught in the very act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go
your way” (John 8:11). Romans8:1-2 are
the verses we will close this SD with and they say “1 Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Daughter of Herodias”
(Matthew 14:8).
Today’s Bible question: “Ahab was the king of what country?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/12/2018 12:22 AM
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