WEEK 3 — DAY 6
Morning Nourishment
Heb. 2:17
"Hence He should have been made like His brothers in all things that He
might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things
pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."
4:15
"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the
feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects
like us, yet without sin."
In Revelation 8 Christ is
revealed as the Priest offering the incense at the golden altar: "And
another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer,and
much incense was given to Him to offer with the prayers of all the
saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne" (v. 3)....As
the ascended One in the heavens, He is now living, working, and
ministering as a Priest.
In the Old Testament the high
priest typifies Christ as our High Priest.According to the book of
Exodus, the high priest bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on
his shoulders and on his heart [Exo. 28:9-10,12,21,29]....The names
engraved on the onyx stones and on the stones of
the breastplate
signify that the high priest always bore the names of God's chosen
people before God. Today Christ is our High Priest, and we are on His
shoulders and on His breast. He is in the heavens as the High Priest
bearing us and holding us. (Life-study of Luke, pp. 669-670)
Today's Reading
As our High Priest, Christ is also taking care of us. He is a "merciful
and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God" (Heb. 2:17), a
High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15).
Although Christ as the High Priest is taking care of us, we all have our
own thought and feeling as to how He should care for us....The Lord
may not answer a prayer for healing....We do not know what is good for
us, but the Lord knows.He knows what is needed for our life on earth.
We all have our preferences concerning our living. We may desire to be
wealthy and have many material things. But the Lord may allow us to be
poor and deprive us of many things. Likewise, we may desire to have
children who love the Lord and serve Him....Perhaps you are thinking
that matters such as these have nothing to do with the ascension of
Christ. However, the ascension of Christ certainly is related to these
things. The Lord's ascension includes His priesthood. As the ascended
One, He is the High Priest bearing us, holding us, and taking care of
us. However, what is good for us is a matter not of our interpretation
but of His.
The ascended Christ cares not only for
us and our welfare; He cares for God's desires. This High Priest cares
more for God's need than for our need.God wants lampstands. Therefore,
the Lord establishes lampstands and trims the lamps for the expression
of God (Rev. 1:13; 2:1). This work includes His edifying of the saints
and His building up of the church. The Lord is now building up a living
testimony of Jesus.
As the High Priest in the
heavens, the Lord is the surety and Mediator of the better covenant and
the Executor of the New Testament....That Christ has become the surety
of a better covenant is based on the fact that He is the High Priest
[Heb. 7:22]. Hebrews 8:6 tells us, "He is also the Mediator of a better
covenant." ...Since there are accomplished facts promised in this
covenant, it is also a testament. This testament, this will, has been
confirmed and validated by Christ's death, and it is now being executed
by Christ in His ascension. Christ died to enact the will, and...He is
now in the heavens as the living Executor of the will He has bequeathed
to us!... He executes the new will by establishing the churches as the
lampstands and by trimming all the lamps.
Every
blessing in the New Testament is a bequest applied to us by the living,
resurrected, and ascended Christ....Christ's ministry as the High Priest
in the heavens has a destination—the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem
will be the consummation of Christ's work in His ascension. (Life-study
of Luke, pp. 670-673)
Further Reading: Life-study of Luke, msg. 79
沒有留言:
張貼留言