The Holy Spirit: Power Presence and Purpose Part 65

The Advent Part 57

In the Law of Moses it is said that he who is hung upon a tree is cursed of God. Knowing this, some Jews bring up the argument that because Jesus was hung on a cross He could not possibly be the Messiah that had been prophesied would come. They cannot conceive of such suffering being visited upon the Messiah. It is true, crucifixion was the most shameful and the difficult of deaths, but if the Son of God was subjected to such a death it only goes to show how truly horrifying and ugly sin is before the sight of God. Jesus took our sins, and the wages of our sins upon Himself, that we might be healed and forgiven and redeemed by His suffering and death.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23, “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”

Sin is no small matter in the sight of God, it is not something to be trifled with or flirted with, sin is what caused Jesus to hang on a cross, and sin is what caused Him to suffer the pains of death. When we fail to understand the gravity of sin, when we fail to understand the destructive power of sin, and when we fail to understand the price that was paid that our sins might be forgiven, that we might be washed and made new in Christ, we consider sin in a casual and careless manner, and don’t see it as the death sentence that it is.

Jesus didn’t suffer and die just because He felt like it, He did it because there was no other way for you and I to be reconciled unto God, there was no other way for us to enter the Kingdom than by His sacrifice. Knowing this, knowing all that Jesus did, knowing the price that He paid, may we walk in righteousness and holiness, may we be what God desires us to be, sanctified and set apart, thoroughly equipped, and walking in His authority.

Throughout our journey on this earth, we either glorify Christ or crucify Him anew by our actions, by our conduct, by our speech, and by our daily walk. We are either witnesses, disciples, and living epistles of what Jesus does, of how He transforms, of how He renews, or we are duplicitous Pharisaical hypocrites who serve Jesus only when it’s convenient, who speak His name only when it profits us, and who serve Him only when we get something in return by way of the material.

Those who serve Christ out of convenience, those who serve Him only in the hopes of receiving abundant blessing from Him, will run away and hide and deny Him at the first sign of opposition, at the first sign of persecution, and at the first sign of suffering.

Those who realize however, that it is not we who are doing something for God it is God doing something through us, that it is Him guiding us and not Him following us, that we are vessels, and He is the one who pours into the vessel, and likewise the one who places the vessel where He desires it to be, those who understand the full extent of what it is that Jesus did on the cross, will remain steadfast and faithful, loyal and true come what may.

The reality that we are dependent on God must be ever present in our hearts, and at the forefronts of our minds. Throughout His journey on earth, Jesus did nothing in and of Himself nor was anything that He did accidental. Everything that Jesus did had been determined by the counsel and foreknowledge of God, so that His plan for the salvation of man might be complete and come to pass.

If Jesus walked in full obedience of the Father, then ought we not as His Body, ought we not as His bride walk in complete obedience of Him?

It is rebellion and disobedience of Christ, it is thinking ourselves wiser than we are, and believing that we are the captains of our own ships and the masters of our own destiny that hinders the plan of God for our lives, and that keeps us from knowing the fullness of what God has prepared for us. Our duty is not to question, it is not to second guess, it is not to doubt, but rather it is to obey the voice and the urging of God in all that He directs and commands us to do.

Some of the most difficult moments in our Christian walk are when we are confronted with adversity, with difficulty, with trials and afflictions. Especially in such times however, we must remember that God has a plan and that all things in this universe have their being and perform their tasks according to the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God. Even when with our earthly understanding, when with our earthly reason, we don’t see the plan of God in certain things we must see it through the prism of our spiritual understanding.

Follow God wherever He leads you, even if for a season it’s in the desert places, because He who brought you to the desert place is the one who is able to supernaturally sustain you there. Obey God in whatever He commands you, even if it is contrary to human nature, because it is obedience that God prizes above sacrifice, and it is the obedient servant that God imbues with authority, and fills with power from on high.

We serve a good God, we serve a merciful God, and we serve a faithful God. He will not lead us astray, He will not abandon us, nor will He allow something to come over us that in the end will not have worked out for our good. The only time I have seen trials or adversities not work out for the good of those who loved God is when they in their rebellion abandoned the path, and did not see it through to its finality. Remain faithful, for he who endures to the end shall be saved.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.