Eternal High Priest

Why do we struggle even seemingly endlessly? It is not because of other people but because of us. Who are men? Are we not the descendants of Adam? So, what Adam was is what we are. Adam fell down deep enough not to come to the Father in his own. All are the victims of the father of lie, the deceiver and the murderer, the devil. That's who we are. We wrestle not against the flesh and blood namely other people but against this vicious evil lurking in the darkness and seizing the opportunities to devour us into pieces as much as he can. The evil has still access into our minds and thoughts to twist truths. But we have Christ who entered into the heavenly sanctuary once for all shedding His own blood, not the blood of animals and has become our eternal high priest who can cleanse us more than we ask and think. That's what we are now and forevermore. Amen.

No Value in Natural Man

Truth known is not faith. But truth obeyed is. James says, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17 NKJV) Christianity is not a religion with the distinguished rites and rituals. It is rather faith in action through Jesus Christ in God. Mechanical and perfunctory performance never counts for God at all. Any performance and achievement in number and any level which are highly esteemed among men never count. What counts is what Jesus has done through the instruments called even before time began.

“And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15 NKJV)

There is nothing in natural humans to be esteemed for the righteousness of God. God knows what is in man. God knows all men and has no need of testimony of man. Every man who is born of Adam is dead in transgressions and sins. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” (John 2:23-25 NKJV)

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Ephesians 2:1-3 NKJV)

What really matters to God is faith in action in Christ Jesus. God cannot be deceived. Only acceptable thing in God’s sight is what Jesus Christ has cleansed and washed through the blood and clothed with the righteousness of God.

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-26 NKJV)

Jesus will come again and divide all people into two groups, goat and sheep. The only condition Jesus uttered is whether you did by faith to one of the least of people. The greatest commandment of God is to love one another.

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46 NKJV)

Start with God

Starting humans in an attempt to analyze our problems and prescribe the solutions will lead inevitably to darkness even if such a try is out of religious experiences like sufferings. Should start with God who sees from the beginning to the end. Sometimes and many times we do not intentionally jump to conclusion by faith, leaving all to Him, because we do not know all.

"Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God. (I Corinthians 4:1-5 NKJV)

Pray or Faint

Prayer is not blackmail to God that He should answer man's agenda. Prayer is not to let God know so and so. Prayer is not to bring down God to do what we want. Prayer is not to ask only religious cause. Prayer is not asking only when in want. Prayer is not posture. Prayer is not only in the morning or certain day. 

Prayer is like breathing. Jesus says that men ought always to pray not to faint. "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;" (Luke 18:1 KJV) 

What does it mean that we always ought to pray? It doesn't mean that we always close our eyes in a room and keep on saying something to God. Not at all. It means we rely on Him always in season and out of season. 

Jesus is the example. Though there was a record that he went out to a solitary place to pray early in the morning, but He was interrupted by the disciples. How did Jesus pray always? He always gave thanks to the Father in heaven who opened the door and answered His prayer. Before letting the disciples dispense fish and bread, Jesus gave thanks to Father who would multiply and feed the multitude. 

Do you pray now or lose heart? Do I pray now or lose heart? Do you rely on Jesus Christ in everything? Do I? Do you give thanks to the Father in anything including challenges and pressures? Do I?

"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13 KJV)

The Good News

The gospel is not a myth or fable invented by some genially imaginable people for entertainment. Rather, it is the facts which had happened in history. 

Why do humans need the gospel? Because without it we are doomed to total confusion and darkness. What we are seeing and touching is all but the manifestation of what is not seen and touched. 

What is the gospel? Jesus is. The One the scriptures prophesied to come through the seed of David. He equals with God yet emptied Himself to become in the likeness of man and laid down His life ti obey the will of the Father who accepted His blood and death as the propitiation on our behalf. 

Why is Jesus Christ the gospel? More specifically, His death and burial and the resurrection from the dead. Because Christ died for our sins and buried and rose again for us. His death is sufficient enough to quench the wrath of God on man's sin. The temple's curtain was torn so that the pioneer of faith entered into the throne of grace.   

Jesus' death is the substitution of our own death. Though it is a mystery, we died with Him. We buried with Christ and rose from the dead with Him. It means once for all our sins has been forgiven and clothed with the righteousness of God. So, we are allowed to enter into the throne of grace with confidence and boldness not with our own but with His righteousness. That's what has happened to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. 

"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. (Romans 6:8-10 NIV)

Why do we need then come to the Calvary's cross over and over again. It doesn't mean that Jesus Christ dies again and again but that we relate to Him and remind of the facts that we died with Him and rose from the dead with Him. Because Christ crucified is the only way to the Father in heaven. There is no other name in heaven and on earth given other than the name of Jesus. He is the truth and the life. 

Anyone who comes unto Him shall be filled for out of rivers of living water will flow from within him. The Holy Spirit has come in the heart of man who received the Lord Jesus. 

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37, 38 NIV)

Why is always the bloody cross of death? Because without death no life. The evil must be put to death first in order to have life. The evil deeply embedded in our humanity must be exposed as Lord Jesus became the public spectacle of shame and guilt and despair in our place. 

"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15 NIV)

The scriptures confirm unanimously that Christians rejoice in the sufferings. Here is why Paul expounds. 

"Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24 NIV)

Shun Evil Lusts

We are strangers and foreigners to this world, but not to the kingdom of heaven of which we are citizens. In the past, it was exactly opposite. But now we have been changed in Christ Jesus. Once We were strangers to the good news completely. 

By His grace, we have been made alive through the blood of Christ Jesus. God predestined us to be called saints holy and blameless in His sight. In due time, God called us to join to the family of God and the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. 

Since we are not any longer in Adam, Peter exhorts us to shun evil lusts like money seeking, sexual immorality, and food fads. Just as Jesus says we sojourners and pilgrims shall live a life worthy of calling as the light of the world and the salty salt in the earth.

"Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:11, 12 NIV)

New Man

Man is made alive. He has been made alive by God and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual man is. Man has the mind of God. What man loves are God and his neighbors. What man delights is the word of God day and night. What man lives is eternal life. What man hopes is heaven. What man eats is Jesus. What man drinks is Jesus out of rivers of living water. What man operates is by power, the resurrection power of Jesus. What man seeks are His righteousness and His kingdom. What man walks is according to His promise. What man fears is God only. What man resists is the devil, the mastermind of principalities of dark power. What man shuns is evil. What man knows is not to live bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God. What man knows is that the poor are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What man functions is by faith. What man understands is that he is under grace, not under law and there is no condemnation under any circumstance. What man reminds of is made by His image and His likeness. What man blesses is God. What man hates is sexual immorality. What man abhors is idolatry. What man does is repentance. What man breathes is prayer. What man realizes is the coming of the Lord like a thief. What man does not know is times and seasons.

What the new man is liberated, redeemed, transformed, and changed by the power of God. He has been purchased and possessed by God, so he belongs to the family of God, no longer to Adam. He has been born and adopted into the family of light. The godly man is sincere and faithful till the Master comes.

“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14 NKJV)
 

Old Man

Man is fallen very deeply. The natural man is. What comes out of man is malice, deceit, murder, hatred, slander, conceit, and all kinds of evil. What man thinks is futility. What man does is evil. What man ends in emptiness, sheer meaninglessness. What man boasts is earthliness. What man talks about is self-esteem. What man gropes is heaven. What man seeks is physical pleasures. What man leaves is empty dishes. What man pursues is out of trouble of all sorts, even worry free. What man eats up is time. What man misses is eternity. What man sticks to is fantasy and illusion, the exact opposite of reality. What man digs is sorrow. What man thirsts is living water. What man hungers is hidden manna. What man searches is God.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 NKJV)

MInd of God

What God says is truth. What God sees is reality. What God thinks is law. What God gives is love. What God knows is eternity. What God does is longsuffering. What God takes is prayer. What God reveals is glory. What God wants is harmony. What God heals is sickness. What God reconciles is trespass. What God draws is sinner. What God lifts up is burden. What God pours out is mercy. What God cares is the lowly. What God lacks is nothing. What God has is everything. What God pleases is faith. What God desires is redemption. What God counts is richness. What God hates is sexual immorality. What God delights is righteousness. What God abhors is hypocrisy. What God exalts is the humble. What God resists is the proud. What God shines is light. What God is majesty, immortality, mightiness, incomparableness, infallibility, omnipotence, and over all and through all and in all. 

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:10-16 NKJV)

Teaching, Preaching, and Healing

“And he went around through all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:23 NKJV)

The Lord’s ministry is three fold – teaching, proclaiming, and healing (including driving out demons). Teaching is for mind (more precisely mental faculty), proclaiming for spirit, and healing for body. Humans are three folds – mind, spirit, and body. Knowledge comes first of all by hearing into our minds to understand who God is and what truth is. First and foremost of all, we learn that God is love unconditionally through which joy and peace blossoms in our hearts.

That’s not all. Until human spirit is filled there is no fulfillment or satisfaction in life. The human spirit cannot be filled by anything other than the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus Christ the Lord. Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom. Jesus is the good news of the kingdom. The kingdom is the inner world, not a far away and remote space in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is where God rules and reigns. It is where we feel of stress and pressure and struggle, laugh and glad, sorrow and hurt. That’s the kingdom of heaven. The good news of the kingdom can quench thirst and hunger in spirit because Christ Jesus is stronger than the prince of the dark world, the devil.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV)

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39 NKJV)

Then, physical healing comes consequently. Remember that Jesus first proclaimed to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” and commanded him, “Arise and take up your bed and walk.” (Mark 2:1-12) Remember physical healing never comes first but last. It is the evidence of health in mind and spirit, but not always. All is not an exception from the deterioration of body.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NKJV)

He is our Peace

Person Jesus is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). Until knowing Him no peace avails no matter what. Ceasing quarrels temporarily is not peace nor stopping exchange of harsh words. Likewise, knowing the God of Jesus Christ is eternal life (John 17:3). Have peace with God? Yes, then you know Him.

"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:12 NKJV)

He was Reviled, but did not Revile

The scriptures say to love enemies. Lord Jesus set the example. Peter remembered the Master's words and deeds and said so pertinently. So shall we.

"For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed. (I Peter 2:21-24 NKJV)

Repent

“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, toward the sea, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the ones who sit in the land and shadow of death, a light has dawned on them.” From that time on, Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:15-17 NKJV)

How can God reach out the people on earth who sit in complete darkness? God is invisible, yet had to be made known to humans. If the people know that they are in darkness, it would be a different story. But the hardest thing humans can accept is that they are in want, let alone in darkness. Everywhere humans live exalts and commends themselves in their small and light achievements with a greater scale and magnitude. If someone says that humans are in darkness, then they would be immediately intolerable and persecuting.

This is human dilemma. Although they are in want even badly, they almost instinctively refuse to accept the fact that they sit in the land and shadow of death. In fact, they do not have life and so are dead in spirit.

What’s happened to humanity? The devil, the master and father of lie, deceived the woman who consequently gave the fruit to Adam and he deliberately ate it. The monstrous and diabolic power of the devil infiltrated into humanity. That’s what has been gone wrong terribly from the beginning. Situation is hopeless, absolutely depressing. So, no matter how much they polish and sparkle themselves, it’s still fallen race shut up from life completely.

Therefore, Immortal God became a human according to the scriptures and shone a great light out of darkness and shadow of death. The coming of the Son Jesus Christ was a world-shattering and revolutionary moment in time and eternity.

In this way, people who sit in darkness and shadow of death begin to respond to the genuine call of love from heaven. It happened in the first century in the land of Palestine and all throughout the land on earth centuries over centuries. Thousands and tens of thousands come to see this marvelous light and have life in the fullest degree beyond what they ever imagine.

So, Jesus Christ says, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” God demonstrated His unconditional love through His Son who died in public on the cross for the sin of the world. God loved us first. This is the year of Lord’s favor.

God in longsuffering beseeches the people to change their minds and come back to the Father of Jesus Christ. We come unto Jesus Christ over and over again and by faith take His life in full in order to live worthy of calling.