30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 23 06-17 THE LORD WATCHES 04 Luke 23 10 Being the children of God
📖 Luke 23:6-17
Thu18Nov2021 – Being the children of God - Luke 23:06-17 - THE LORD WATCHES (04) - Bible reading: Hebrews 10:16-18
The church must be prepared for the end times when there will be persecution against the church. The Lord is watching. We must understand the reason why the world is vehemently against the church. We must present the claims of Jesus with clarity, wisdom, boldness and love.
The world may have reasons to persecute the church but our preparation is necessary for us to know where the church has a non-negotiable stand.
It is only in Christ that we can face the end times.
Luke 23:10 The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him.
The Jews were seriously and sincerely troubled by the teaching of Jesus, for this teaching was going against the traditions and customs that they had adopted for centuries.
The accusation of the Jews is relevant for our times as this is how the world sees the church. They see the church as intending to change the social and cultural fabric of society.
We, the church, must understand the accusation that the world has against us. We must see our position, clearly and know why we take a stand on those things which we say are non-negotiable.
Paul explains how the covenantal promise of being reconciled with God was given to Abraham because of his faith. The Law came 430 years after Abraham.
Paul is laying to rest the genuine apprehensions of the Jews.
Galatians 3:21-26 Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not!
This is what the Jews needed to know. Jesus was not against the Law.
For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. (22) But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (23) Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. (24) Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.
The Law was our disciplinarian. The Law gave us the knowledge of sin but could not give us victory over sin. The Law could not make us live a life that is pleasing to God. Righteousness could not come from the Law.
Righteousness has been given to us by faith in Jesus and not by the keeping of the Law.
(25) But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, (26) for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
The world is trying to meet the righteousness of God in various ways. No method, way of life, ideology, or philosophy can make a person righteous before God. This is possible only by faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross. This is the task for the church to explain to the world.
The promise that was given to Abraham was now completed in Christ by faith in Him.
Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (5) in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.
Paul’s teaching is intended to put to rest the apprehensions of the Jews. That righteousness by faith in Jesus is what the Jews have been trying to achieve through all of their traditions, rules, regulations and sacrifices.
The writer to the Hebrews is also quenching the doubts of those who had sincere questions regarding Jesus.
Hebrews 10:1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.
The Jews knew that though they offered sacrifices, repeatedly, they were not made righteous before God.
Hebrews 10:5-7 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; (6) in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. (7) Then I said, 'See, God, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."
Jesus came to present His body as the perfect sacrifice. There was no sin in Jesus. He met the righteous standard of God. His righteousness is imputed to us by faith in Him.
Hebrews 10:9-10 then he added, "See, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. (10) And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
This is the foundational statement on which the church stands.
Hebrews 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God,"
Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
Hebrews 10:16-18 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,” (17) he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." (18) Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Once we have come to Jesus by faith and received forgiveness of our sins, we continue to live by faith in Jesus. He empowers us to live victoriously over sin.
We too, with patience and love, must explain to those who are intent to persecute and destroy us that by coming to faith in Jesus, we are redeeming our cultures to be what God has intended every society to be.
Thought to ponder
The Lord has called the church to be the healing balm of the nations.