Sunday, May 27, 2012
RANSOMED: What Stephen Saw-make that my Vision
RANSOMED: What Stephen Saw-make that my Vision: The other day I was reading reading Hebrews 12.1-2, though is not the first time I have read or studied this verse, but the Holy Spirit...
What Stephen Saw-make that my Vision
The other day I was reading reading Hebrews 12.1-2, though is not the first time I have read or studied this verse, but the Holy Spirit seemed to bring to light a portion of this Scripture. Christ is the author, and He alone is the finisher of my faith, in whom I should fix my eyes upon (vs. 2 NKJ). The NIV reads, "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." I love how this version says perfecter.
Lately in my journey with the Lord, I have had significant struggles with guilt and condemnation specifically with present sins. This guilt and condemnation can procure from a pre-occupation with myself and whether I am "succeeding" or "failing" in pleasing the Lord. Many people have said, "Turn to Jesus and rest in Jesus." Honestly, it was so hard for me to understand how to rest in Jesus as my sanctifier. I understand and fully rest in Him as my justification and salvation before God, but in some was working to achieve my sanctification. I had a distorted view of sanctification. My standard was perfection, and as expected I have grown weak, weary, defeated, joyless, and exhausted. In desperation, and desiring freedom from thoughts of guilt and condemnation, I confessed my unbelief to God agreeing with God that I was sinning by not trusting His word and the work of Christ to make me holy. I believed that Christ was enough and is enough to fully save me, but I was not resting and trusting in him for my daily sanctification to make me more like Him.
I am now learning what it is to rest in Christ. There is a beautiful verse in the song, "Before the Throne," it says, "When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within upward I look and see Him there." For a long time, I thought- how does a thought of Jesus erase these awful feelings and this strong sense of defeat and guilt, when deep within me I ultimately want to be pleasing to God. Recently, I was reading further on Christ being the perfecter of my faith and read in Acts 7.54-60 the stoning of Stephen. As he was passing from this temporal earth into glory, the heavens opened, and "full of the Holy Spirit, [Stephen] looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." The Holy Spirit then brought to my thoughts Hebrews 10.11-14 and Hebrews 9.22. In all of OT history, there was always a sacrifice and an offering of blood for the forgiveness of sins because "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." But Christ shed is precious blood once and forever for all mankind and is now seated at the right hand of God. All the sacrifices made by the high priests and all of our present day sacrifices could and will not satisfy the wrath of God, but Christ blood sufficed. Never was a high priest able to sit at the right hand of God, but Jesus did. He sat as a completing the work of atonement. There is NO LONGER a need for sacrifice as an atonement of our sins. When we "look at Jesus and fix our eyes on Him," we first see him on the cross- hanging naked in complete anguish bearing the full weight of my sin, your sin, our sin. He did it so that we could be made right with God and set free from the horror of sin and death.
I am a very practical person- so let's make this practical. IMAGINE yourself standing at the cross and looking up at Jesus, looking into his eyes (create this picture in your mind). Hear him say, I am hear for you, I love you, I am bearing all of your sin, and "it is finished." Christ did not die in vain, and He did not die that we should continue atoning or our sins. Now SEEK to imagine what Stephen saw when he gazed into heaven. See Jesus standing from His seated throne to again receive His possession, His brothers and sisters who are the joy in which he had set before Him when He endured the cross- YOU/ME (Heb. 12.1). His blood demands our guilt, condemnation to flee. Jesus Christ's life, sacrifice, death, and resurrection should encourage my heart to love Him, embrace Him, flee from sin, and run towards Him when I do sin. I had a friend one day tell me, as I confessed these struggles to her, that my continuing in guilt, shame, and condemnation is like a slap in the face to God saying that Christ's work on the cross is not enough. So why, why was Jesus standing there to receive Stephen, because He is ALL Stephen had. "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73.26).
I would like to say that my struggle with perfectionism, self-introspection, guilt, defeat, condemnation has fled over night, but walking with Christ is a journey. However, now when I am prone to despair, "upward I look and see him there who put an end to all my sin." I imagine, I think, I meditate simply on Jesus seated at the throne of God interceding for me. It will be a journey, but to GOD who is FAITHFUL !!!!!!!!! May the vision of Stephen be my vision.
Lately in my journey with the Lord, I have had significant struggles with guilt and condemnation specifically with present sins. This guilt and condemnation can procure from a pre-occupation with myself and whether I am "succeeding" or "failing" in pleasing the Lord. Many people have said, "Turn to Jesus and rest in Jesus." Honestly, it was so hard for me to understand how to rest in Jesus as my sanctifier. I understand and fully rest in Him as my justification and salvation before God, but in some was working to achieve my sanctification. I had a distorted view of sanctification. My standard was perfection, and as expected I have grown weak, weary, defeated, joyless, and exhausted. In desperation, and desiring freedom from thoughts of guilt and condemnation, I confessed my unbelief to God agreeing with God that I was sinning by not trusting His word and the work of Christ to make me holy. I believed that Christ was enough and is enough to fully save me, but I was not resting and trusting in him for my daily sanctification to make me more like Him.
I am now learning what it is to rest in Christ. There is a beautiful verse in the song, "Before the Throne," it says, "When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within upward I look and see Him there." For a long time, I thought- how does a thought of Jesus erase these awful feelings and this strong sense of defeat and guilt, when deep within me I ultimately want to be pleasing to God. Recently, I was reading further on Christ being the perfecter of my faith and read in Acts 7.54-60 the stoning of Stephen. As he was passing from this temporal earth into glory, the heavens opened, and "full of the Holy Spirit, [Stephen] looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." The Holy Spirit then brought to my thoughts Hebrews 10.11-14 and Hebrews 9.22. In all of OT history, there was always a sacrifice and an offering of blood for the forgiveness of sins because "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." But Christ shed is precious blood once and forever for all mankind and is now seated at the right hand of God. All the sacrifices made by the high priests and all of our present day sacrifices could and will not satisfy the wrath of God, but Christ blood sufficed. Never was a high priest able to sit at the right hand of God, but Jesus did. He sat as a completing the work of atonement. There is NO LONGER a need for sacrifice as an atonement of our sins. When we "look at Jesus and fix our eyes on Him," we first see him on the cross- hanging naked in complete anguish bearing the full weight of my sin, your sin, our sin. He did it so that we could be made right with God and set free from the horror of sin and death.
I am a very practical person- so let's make this practical. IMAGINE yourself standing at the cross and looking up at Jesus, looking into his eyes (create this picture in your mind). Hear him say, I am hear for you, I love you, I am bearing all of your sin, and "it is finished." Christ did not die in vain, and He did not die that we should continue atoning or our sins. Now SEEK to imagine what Stephen saw when he gazed into heaven. See Jesus standing from His seated throne to again receive His possession, His brothers and sisters who are the joy in which he had set before Him when He endured the cross- YOU/ME (Heb. 12.1). His blood demands our guilt, condemnation to flee. Jesus Christ's life, sacrifice, death, and resurrection should encourage my heart to love Him, embrace Him, flee from sin, and run towards Him when I do sin. I had a friend one day tell me, as I confessed these struggles to her, that my continuing in guilt, shame, and condemnation is like a slap in the face to God saying that Christ's work on the cross is not enough. So why, why was Jesus standing there to receive Stephen, because He is ALL Stephen had. "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73.26).
I would like to say that my struggle with perfectionism, self-introspection, guilt, defeat, condemnation has fled over night, but walking with Christ is a journey. However, now when I am prone to despair, "upward I look and see him there who put an end to all my sin." I imagine, I think, I meditate simply on Jesus seated at the throne of God interceding for me. It will be a journey, but to GOD who is FAITHFUL !!!!!!!!! May the vision of Stephen be my vision.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)