From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [John 1.16-17]
We have seen how much has changed between the Old and New Testaments. Instead of Law, we live in an age of grace. Instead of sacrifice, we have mercy. Instead of the wrath of God, we find forgiveness and restoration. We are the new Israel, the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Bride of the Lamb. All this seems so far away from anything known to Abraham, David, Moses or Israel. Indeed, this difference has caused some confusion in the minds of believers and unbelievers alike. "We can accept", they say generously, "the love and mercy of Jesus; but the wrathful God of the Old Testament seems a little extreme. He is not relevant to our experience of God".
This attitude indicates that we still have not fully grasped the mystery which has been revealed in Christ Jesus. The truth is that the only real difference between the Old and New Testament is in our experience of God, not in God himself. As the Scriptures testify over and over again, God does not change. He is the same always, without alteration, without changing his standards or nature. He is, always has been, and always will be the same: holy. In the Old Testament, when Isaiah saw the Lord, high and exalted, there were seraphs, winged beings of great beauty, calling out before the Lord [Isaiah 6.3]:
the whole earth is full of his glory.
who was, and is, and is to come.
His holiness is reflected in what happens to those who trespass against it.
But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the Lord's sight; so the Lord put him to death. [Genesis 38.7]
What [Onan] did was wicked in the Lord's sight; so he put him to death also. [Genesis 38.10]
To contravene God's holy ways meant death. When God ordered Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites, it was part of a long-standing dispute between God and these sinful people. Joshua had battled the Amalekites and the Lord had given the victory. God then promised that his hand would be against the Amalekites "from generation to generation" [Exodus 17.16]. Four hundred years later, Saul was to be the agent of God's judgment. He was ordered to destroy every man, woman, child, animal, "everything that belongs to them" [1 Samuel 15. 3]. What had the Amalekites done to warrant such a fierce punishment? Quite simply, they had sinned against the Lord. Now we may think it extreme, but God does not compromise with sin. He is holy, and sin is anything which contravenes that holiness. If his ways are broken, that is sin. If his word is contradicted, that is sin. And this affects everyone. The world is under judgment. The Letter to the Romans begins with a clear examination of this truth: that all have sinned and fallen short of God's holiness. Therefore, all are under sentence of death, just like the Amalekites.
When God came and dwelt with Israel, his presence was in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle. Moses was given very specific instructions regarding this place, as we have seen in discussing the curtain that separated it from the rest of the Tabernacle. Moses was told that only the High Priest would be allowed enter that Place, and that only once a year. Aside from this one exception, if anyone entered the Most Holy Place, they would die. Equally, no- one but the priests were allowed to carry the Ark of the Covenant on its travels. When David was bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, the animals drawing the wagon stumbled. Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark to steady it, and the Lord struck him dead [2 Samuel 6.6-7]. God does not need our help, however well- intentioned. We do only what he has called us to do.
For those who claim to know God's ways, the standard is, if anything, even higher. Uzzah knew not to touch the Ark. Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, are perfect examples for us. They were true priests of God, ordained and anointed by God for their priestly ministry before the people. But, on the very day of their ordination, they presumed to offer "unauthorized fire". They went to the altar to sacrifice when God had not told them to. They were exceeding their authority, and moving independently of God's will. Look what happened to these ordained and anointed priests as a result:
So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. [Leviticus 10.2]
Now read what the Lord said to Moses to explain the reason for these deaths:
Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honoured. [Leviticus 10.3]
Wisely, Aaron remained silent in the face of God's judgment.
We who approach God must remember that he is holy. The Letter to the Hebrews warns us not to treat holy things with contempt by taking them lightly. When God came down on Mount Sinai to talk with Moses, he gave strict orders that the rest of the people were to stay away from the mountain on pain of death. When Joshua destroyed Jericho, he warned the people that God had ordered that nothing was to be spared, everything was to be destroyed utterly. One man, Achan, ignored that command, bringing home to his tent a robe, as well as some gold and silver, which he hid under the floor. But God is not mocked, and Achan's sin was revealed. The penalty for his sin was that he and his entire household, even including the domestic animals, were put to death [Joshua 7]. The Book of Leviticus contains numerous laws and regulations regarding sacrifices and offerings which God gave to Israel. The purpose of these sacrifices was to give the people a way to atone for their sins, without having to face the natural result of sin: death.
When Saul disobeyed the Lord regarding the Amalekites, it was a serious sin. God had ordered that the entire people, along with all their goods and animals, be totally wiped out. This was his judgment on their sin. But Saul believed he knew better than the Lord. He kept back whatever was beautiful or precious from the Amalekites' property. He was going to offer them to the Lord, but he was in sin. He was offering unauthorized fire, doing what seemed right in his own eyes, which is always sinful. As a result, he not only lost the kingdom, he also lost his peace of mind, and, eventually, his life.
Do we have any real conception of what this level of holiness means? In our pride and arrogance, we dare to judge God. We say that his behaviour in the Old Testament is extreme, unfair, even wrong. This was the sin of Saul. How can we judge God this way? Don't we realize that death is the only reasonable response of a holy God to the sin of mankind? God does not, indeed cannot, compromise with sin. He is holy, and nothing that is not holy can stand before him. We have been given the Scriptures to show us, again and again, what sin is and what the fruit of sin is: death. So when we are called to be holy, God means exactly what he says. There is to be no compromise on our part with his holiness. Everything which is not holy in our lives is to go: completely destroyed by giving it over to the Lord. No sin is to be tolerated willingly. Of course, we do sin and fall short still; but this must be the exception. Sinning should be something that is extremely disturbing to us, difficult to accept and horrifying in its effects. We must understand what sin is for the believer.
As Christians, we know that Jesus died for our sins. He took our place and bore the punishment we deserved. As a result, we have been declared righteous through the blood of the Lamb. We are holy, because we are found without stain. We are without stain because Jesus took that stain on himself. As our great High Priest, he atoned for the sins of the people, entering the Most Holy Place on our behalf, bearing the blood of the sin offering. He was our scapegoat, the sacrifice that took away the sin of the world. In our lives, God has revealed the mystery hidden from the creation: Christ in us, the hope of glory. The mystery of holiness: we have been made holy by his sacrifice, and, as a result, we can enter God's presence and even into his family. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Man could not stand before a holy God. After the Fall, there as an unbridgeable gulf between God and the human race. Nothing we could do would make us acceptable to a holy God. So we were given the Law, by which we could attain a temporary righteousness: clean before God until the next time we sinned (which was almost immediately). However, such sacrifices could do nothing to change our hearts, which remained slaves to sin and open to all kinds of evil tendencies. But then Jesus took on the role of our Great High Priest and became the sacrifice for our sin. The Word says that he actually became sin on our behalf. His sacrifice did not have only a temporary effect: it was eternally effective for all mankind. Furthermore, by the cleansing power of his blood, our hearts can be remade, flesh instead of stone. In his body, he has made the Law obsolete.
He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. [Colossians 2.13-14]
There is a very real temptation for Christians to think that this amazing grace shown to us in Christ Jesus means that God has somehow compromised his holiness; that he has somehow eased up in his "extreme" response to sin. This is completely wrong. Before Jesus, the entire world was under the curse of sin. Whoever sinned, died: all sinned and all died. Although physical death might not have immediately followed sin, it nevertheless took effect as a result. Spiritual death was the reality. There was no salvation, no heaven, no inheritance, only hell. The men and women who were faithful to God in the Old Testament, those who put their faith in him, did not see the fruit of their faith. Hebrews tells us that they believed in the Messiah, but they never saw it for themselves. Their faith was in something to come.
Those who submitted to God's Law were granted mercy because of their obedience in faith. They believed that sacrifice showing a truly repentant heart, would be acceptable to God and bring forgiveness. That has not changed. The life and death of Jesus has brought about a fundamental change in our relationship to God, but not in his holiness or his response to sin. This is true of both Christians and non-Christians alike.
JUDGMENT AND MERCY:
Try to imagine your position today if Jesus had not come to die in your place; if there was no Calvary, no New Testament. Where would you be in relation to God? You are a sinner: that much we know. Have you ever been angry with someone through jealousy, vindictiveness, bitterness? Have you ever lusted after someone or something not your own? Have you ever been selfish, ever lied, ever swore? Then you have sinned and are liable to death. You cannot hope to stand before a holy God and escape punishment. So, how do you atone for your sin? God provided one way in the past: the Law with its sacrifices and offerings. But there is no longer a Temple, no priesthood, no altar. The Romans destroyed all that centuries ago. God has made no other provision for sin. You can say you're sorry (if you really are), but how often will you need to say sorry for who you are? After all, what you do is simply a reflection of who you are; how can you change? You have tried again and again, and you know it is impossible. Can you even be sure that God will hear you, much less forgive you? What do you know of God, other than that he is holy, and cannot abide sin? What hope is there for you? None.
That is the position of all non-Christians today. Without Jesus, God has provided no way of dealing with sin. Without Jesus, we do not know that God loves us and is merciful. Without Jesus, he cannot be merciful to sinners. You see, God did not cover over our sins when we became Christians: he transferred them over to Jesus. Our sins are not ignored: they are dealt with. But if we do not know Jesus, how can we be forgiven and restored to fellowship with God? Does this mean that all non-Christians, however hard they try to be good, are heading for hell? That is the message of the Gospels. Do you see why it is vital for Christians to tell the good news to the lost?
Of course, there are those who have never heard of Jesus, but have come to understand that they are not capable of living as they somehow know they should. They believe in a God, they don't know who he is, but they have thrown themselves on his mercy, despairing of ever living up to his standard. They have ceased trying to justify themselves, and depend entirely on the mercy and forgiveness of God. Are they "saved"? All I can say is what Paul said about those kind of people:
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. [1 Corinthians 5.12]
I cannot read a man's heart, to tell where he is in relation to God. I can only leave it to God to show mercy where he will, and focus instead on trusting him myself, and doing what I am told.
Because, you see, the mystery of holiness has tremendous implications for the believer. I have said that we can be tempted to think that God has somehow compromised with sin in New Testament people. "Of course", we say, "we do still sin. But God forgives us, he covers it over with the blood of Jesus." And we seem to think that makes it all right. But we desperately need to remember one thing: no sin, in our past, present, or our future, goes unpunished. Even after we are saved and begin to grow in the knowledge of God, even after we have been made holy and acceptable in the sight of God, every act of rebellion, every act of disobedience, anger, envy, lust, bitterness, selfishness, pride or whatever, is punished to the full.
You may disagree, and claim that we are forgiven and washed in the blood of the Lamb, and you are right. We are not punished for our sins anymore. But someone else is. God does not compromise with sin. No matter how long you have been a Christian, every unholy act is visited upon Jesus. At Calvary, he paid for your sin - all of it, past, present and future. But just because it has been paid for, does not mean that we should be blasé about sin in our lives. Remember what the Scriptures say:
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. [Hebrews 6.4- 6]
This is a warning that, should we harden our hearts to continuing acts of obedience; or should we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in us which he intends to do, we may find ourselves unable to respond to future opportunities. We will not be able to repent, even when we might want to, because we will no longer be able to overcome our own pride and hardness enough to seek restoration. What we are doing in our rebellion is sinning, and this is something which Jesus had to die to forgive. It is bad enough that our lives as sinners sent the Lord to the cross: it is quite disgraceful that in our lives as Christians we would treat our need of Calvary's cleansing so flippantly.
We have learned that, when we live for ourselves, not allowing the Holy Spirit free reign in our lives, we build with wood, hay and stubble. We know that such works will be tested at that Day and there will be judgment. It seems sometimes that Christians dismiss this judgment, saying that, since they will enter heaven anyway, what does it really matter if they live for themselves? But this Scripture tells us what the issue really is: building with wood, hay and stubble is what sent Jesus to the cross for us. How can we say that rebellion or resistance to God is unimportant? Have we become so complacent about the suffering and death of our Lord that we can view it without horror?
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? [Hebrews 12.25]
As the writer says: "Our God is a consuming fire".
The Lord has brought us into a wonderful inheritance, one which cost Jesus dearly. Considering the holiness of God, and the strict punishment for sin described in the Old Testament, should we not be deeply grateful for the grace and mercy which has been shown to us? Should the high calling to which we have been called not become the main joy of our lives, considering the high cost of bringing us into the Most Holy Place? The holy God Almighty has offered to live his life through you, conforming you to the image of Jesus, "that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" [Ephesians 3.19]. Can you ignore such a great salvation, and go your own way, living your life as though nothing in it is of any interest to the God who redeemed you? "You are not your own, you were bought at a price".
Nothing in this world can ever measure up to what God has done for you, and will do through you, if you offer yourself to him. No financial gain, no material comfort, no reputation, career or wealth could come close to the gift of God to you. Surely, it is worth everything to take the Land which he has promised you, to press on to the high calling and take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you. A lax attitude to sin in our lives robs us of the victory, grieves the Holy Spirit, opens us to attacks and trials we otherwise would not have to face.
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? [Hebrews 2.1-3]
Jesus is coming back. We will be judged according to what we have done. Do you want your life to matter in the Kingdom of God, or are you willing to waste your days living like the non-believers and pagans? Listen, finally, to the words of your Lord and Saviour, and be prepared to answer him when he calls:
Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. [Revelations 22.12-14].
THE DAY OF SALVATION:
This is not, however, God's final word on the subject. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are saved by the blood of the Lamb, and it is able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, once we confess our sins. So, what do we do when we fall, when we fail the testing and are overcome by the trials? How do we respond when we are sifted like wheat and very little remains unshaken? The answer is this: we stand on God's Word:
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. [Heb. 3.12-14]
"As long as it is called Today". This passage should be a tremendous joy to all believers, because it promises that, with God, it is always Today when it comes to his children. The passage is addressed to Christians, "brothers", and it tells us that there is always time for a new beginning.
When the Gospel is preached to the lost, it is often emphasized that: "I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation" [2 Cor. 6.2]. We tell them of the promise of God: that they can enter into salvation right now, today. The Door is always open, the Way is always clear, with nothing to stand in the way of those who will trust the Lord. This is the glorious access we have been given through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
But once we become the children of God, we seem sometimes to forget his great mercy and kindness to us. So when times of dryness come, when we have neglected such a great salvation, or when we have wandered too long in the wilderness the world offers us, we suddenly look around and realize how far we have drifted away from the ways of the Lord. Then the Enemy whispers in our ears that we are ungrateful failures, that we should be ashamed to call ourselves by his name. We start to condemn ourselves for our lack of growth, our dryness, our inability to live up to what God has done in us. It often becomes easier for us not to think too much about the Lord at all, to stay away from fellowship with him, and hide, like our Parents, behind the trees of the garden when we hear him call our names.
But it is precisely at such times, when we feel defeated and empty, unworthy servants, that we should remember this scripture. Because it is not only for the lost that today is the day of salvation. We may know in our heads that the Word says: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" [Rom. 8.1]. But, obviously, we don't really believe it, if we can condemn ourselves so easily. We lay such a heavy burden on ourselves when we condemn ourselves for our many failures and sins. But, again, the Word says clearly:
If God is for us, who can be against us?...Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?; It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. [Rom. 8.31,33-34]
This is the first thing to remember, whenever our hearts condemn us: we are forgiven. When Jesus died and paid the atonement required for our sin, it was for all our sins, not just the ones before we were saved, but all of them throughout our entire lives. It is vital that we understand that God, who alone has the right and authority to condemn us for our failures and sins, has already forgiven us in Jesus. Nothing we do can overcome his love for us. Look again at Romans, chapter 8, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the depth of love shown us in those verses.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Rom. 8.38-39]
Look at what this passage is saying: Paul is convinced of this truth, there is no doubt in his mind, because to believe otherwise would be to deny the truth about Jesus. To think that God would turn away from us because of anything we could do, is to call him a liar, and to say that Jesus did not die to forgive all our sins. Did you notice, also, that Paul speaks of the present and the future, but not of the past? You see, the past has been dealt with and is gone. When God forgives, he forgets, and so there is no possibility that the past can separate you from his love, because it is, quite simply, past. Now things may have happened in the past that have not yet been dealt with. In that case, the problem is not in the past, it is in the present unwillingness to settle things with the Lord. If sins of the past have not been dealt with, they become a problem of the present. But, with the Lord, it is always Today, and so Today all outstanding business may be dealt with and the file closed forever. This is a truth which we must learn to accept, because God has said it. It is clear, then, that if there is anything separating you from knowing the love of God, it is you. The Lord has set aside Today to put things right between you, so it is only your unwillingness to turn to him that prevents reconciliation and peace.
This is why the passage from Hebrews says that it takes "a sinful, unbelieving heart" to turn away from the living God. Turning away in shame from God is to sin, refusing to trust his love and forgiveness, refusing to believe in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin. We excuse this behaviour by thinking that we are condemning ourselves out of humility and brokenness. This is untrue. We are acting in pride and blindness, thinking that our sin has somehow taken God by surprise, that we have managed to do something that even God will lose patience with. What arrogance! What a lie of the Devil it is that we believe so easily! Nothing about our sinfulness and failure surprises the Lord. He knows us through and through, and he paid for each failure, each sin, each refusal to trust him, on Calvary. The great irony is that, each time we believe Satan when he tells us that the Lord would turn away from us in disgust at our failures, we are doing something which Jesus died to forgive.
We sin by believing that God will not forgive our sins, that he is impatient with us. We sin by condemning ourselves for what we do, or fail to do. We sin by condemning ourselves for sinning. What a mixed-up bunch of losers we are! This is what the passage from Hebrews refers to when it talks of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We are deceived into thinking that what is called for when we sin and fail is condemnation, guilt, turning away from the holiness of God in shame and self-loathing. What is actually required is that we, instead of turning away from God, "hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first". What joy you had when you were first saved! You rejoiced in knowing that your sins were known and forgiven by God. It gave you such confidence to know that he knew you through and through, and yet loved you anyway. Beloved, that has not changed. No matter how many years you have been walking with the Lord, he still knows you through and through, and he still forgives and loves you as much now as he did then. Why? Because you still need his love and forgiveness as much today as you did then. As Paul says" who can free me from this body of sin?". The answer, of course, as always, is Jesus.
You see, we do have a problem to overcome here. We know that we are not condemned by God. But we still feel guilty. We still have to deal with the fact that we are not growing in obedience; that we are not trusting him enough; that we have not overcome in this or that area of our walk. How do we find peace and freedom from this guilt and condemnation? How do we deal with the discouragement that comes when we see how far we are from where we know we should be in Christ? After all, we are not to lie, are we, or to deny the facts? There are so many times we can point at ourselves and see precisely the things which God has been speaking to us about, maybe for years, that we still have not allowed him to change. It can be simply overwhelming to realize how little we have obeyed the Lord, how little we have allowed him to change us, or build his life in us. Do we ignore these unpleasant facts? If not, how are we to deal with the justified guilt and discouragement, without falling into sin and disbelief?
The first thing to be said is that there is room for true sorrow and brokenness before God. We do sin, and we do fail, and we are responsible for what we do. In the face of God's love and grace, our refusal to obey, to yield to him, should leave us sorrowful and broken. Paul says that: "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" [2 Cor. 7.10]. This is the difference between conviction and condemnation. When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, we recognize the truth of what he shows us in our lives and we repent, turning to God for forgiveness and restoration. But when Satan, or our own hearts, condemns us, it turns us away from God in shame and discouragement. We should not be surprised when we fail or fall, it serves to remind us that we are only sinners saved by grace, and saves us from pride and arrogance. Rather than being discouraged, we should return to the Lord in humility, rejoicing that we are forgiven and believing that all things work together for good and there is no condemnation.
But if we find ourselves turning away from the Lord, isolating ourselves from him and from fellowship with his children, then we must beware. This is where we need to be careful and follow the Lord's provision for such times.
First of all, remember that Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait to improve, to change your ways, or to try harder. Turn to him Today, immediately, and he will be there waiting to receive you. The Prodigal Son came to his senses and returned home to find his Father watching for him, running to meet him, unwilling to allow his son to finish his apologies before ordering up a feast of thanksgiving and welcome. That is the heart of our Father. There need be no wasted time, no wasted words of explanation or rationalization: simply turn back to him and allow him to embrace his dear child again. That is the will of God for you, and refusal to accept it stems from pride. Our pride tells us we need to pay for our own sin, establish our right to forgiveness by changing our ways first. That is not God's way, and only keeps us away from home even longer than necessary. Sooner or later, we must accept God's forgiveness on his terms, and not our own. Moping around, gloomy and full of self-pity over our weakness and lack of perfection is in itself sin.
The answer to such self-centredness is to change our focus. We must get our eyes off ourselves and what we have done, and consider what the Lord is and has done in us. John, in his first letter, tells us how to deal with the condemnation we can find in our own hearts.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. [1 Jn. 3.16-20]
There is great consolation and joy in this passage. John accepts that there are times that our hearts condemn us and we feel uneasy in God's presence. But he says there is a way to find peace in his presence when our hearts condemn us. That is by examining our lives and seeing there the work of God. We were lost, and now are found. We were children of darkness, and now are children of light. We have known, in our own lives, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. This has expressed itself in a fellowship with other believers that we know would not have been possible by our own efforts. It is a real love, and not just a social act. We have stopped putting on that horrible holy smile and false warmth in our voice that passed for fellowship before. Now it is real and leaves little room for pretence. Our focus has already moved, albeit slowly, from ourselves to God and his people. We know that we are no longer our own, but have been bought with a price. Even the newly-born again Christian recognizes that something has happened inside them, nothing is the same as it was before. Furthermore, we know that this change was brought about through God's grace and mercy, and not by anything we did.
Knowing that it is God working in us gives us real confidence. God cares about us. He is changing us into the image of his Son, and what he has begun in us, he has promised to bring to completion. As John says: "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God" [1 Jn. 3.21]. This is the same confidence talked about in Hebrews, when it says that, if we do not turn away from the living God, we "hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first" [Heb. 3.14]. This confidence, which allows us to rest in God's presence, which enables us to enter boldly into the Most Holy Place, which tells us that we are approved of God, is based on what God has done, and not on ourselves. Nothing we have done, nothing that we are, is grounds for confidence.
There is a place of rest for God's people, and it is available to them Today. So, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Allow him to point out the failures in your life. Allow him to restore you and forgive you. Enter into the rest he has provided for you in his presence, and do not let Satan or your own heart turn you away from entering in. The rest is for everyone, and it is available Today for everyone:
- For those who have never known the love of the Lord, who have never entered into the salvation that he has provided for him: Today is the day of salvation. Trust what God says: that you are accepted in the Beloved if you will believe his death dealt with your sin.
- For those who have wandered away from the ways of the Lord, and wandered a long time among the things of the world, ignoring such a great salvation and choosing the pleasures of sin: Today is the day of salvation. Turn back to the Lord and start again to walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit.
- For those whose hearts condemn them as they ponder the many ways they have ignored the leading of the Holy Spirit, going their own way and sowing to please the sinful nature while pretending to be faithful servants of the Lord: Today is the day of salvation. Admit honestly who and what you are, and begin again to walk in the truth.
- For those who thought they were serving God and doing his will, while all the time the glory went to them and the praise became the reason for all they did: Today is the day of salvation. Repent and submit to the Lordship of Jesus once more, giving to him control over your entire life, to be used solely for his glory.
- For those who are no longer sure if they are being tried in the fire of discipleship, or suffering the natural result of straying away from God's ways: Today is the day of salvation. End the confusion by placing your life in his hands anew, and have faith that he will lead and make his guidance clear to a willing and honest heart.
- For those who know the joy and peace that comes from resting in the presence of the Lord, who are knowing the blessings of God fresh every morning: Today is the day of salvation. Rejoice!
Whoever you are, and wherever you are in your journey, be glad that you can turn to the Lord Today and start all over again to serve and love him. Whatever you may have been, whatever you have done, or failed to do, Today is when you can clean the slate and begin afresh in the joy and the grace of God. The Word says that we should encourage each other daily as long as it is called Today. Because there is coming another Day, the Day of the Lord, on which everyone "will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive from what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad" [2 Cor. 5.10]. On that Day, will you be able to say: "Lord, I was faithful: I failed sometimes, and I made some dreadful mistakes. There were times I fooled myself into thinking I was pleasing you, when I was really pleasing myself. But Lord, I trusted you to take care of me, and to forgive me when I fell. There were ways in which I wanted to obey you, but I never did. But when I realized what I was doing, I turned back to you and trusted you to restore me. Even though I didn't always see much change in me, I was not discouraged because I believed your Word that said you were going to complete the work you began in me. I did not despair because of my weakness, because I knew that it was not my strength that would bring me through, but your grace and mercy."
Jesus answered him: 'I tell you the truth, Today you will be with me in paradise'.