Isaiah 63:7-9 ESV
“I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, ‘Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely.’
And he became their Savior.
In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”
To the House of Israel
In the Messianic era, those who have put their trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ to save them from their sins and to give them new lives in
him to be lived for his glory and praise, are the house of Israel. For the
promises of God which were spoken to Abraham and to his seed were spoken to
Abraham and to his seed, Jesus Christ. So all who believe in Jesus Christ by
God-given faith in him are true Israel. All those who do not are not true
Israel.
For not all who are physically descended from Israel belong
to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham just because they are his
physical offspring. For it is not the children of the flesh who are the
children of God, but the children of the promise. And if we belong to Christ,
then we are Abraham’s seed, and we are heirs according to the promise. For in
Jesus’ death he destroyed the barrier that stood between Jew and Gentile and he
made us one in Christ, via genuine faith in Christ.
So the physical nation of Israel is not true Israel, God’s
chosen people, his beloved. And the physical city of Jerusalem corresponds to
Hagar, the slave woman, for she is still in slavery with her children, and the
slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.
So physical Jerusalem is no longer the Holy City. The church, the body of
Christ, is our Lord’s Holy City. We are his holy people, his called out ones. For
the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. And whoever denies
that Jesus is the Christ is the antichrist, according to Scripture.
[Gal 3:16, 26-29; Rom 9:4-8; Gal 4:22-31; Eph 2:14-18; 1 Jn
2:22]
Jesus, Our Savior
Now the Lord God sent Jesus Christ, God the Son, to the
earth to become our Savior. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit to a human
mother and so he was born as a baby in a human body. And he lived on this earth
for about 33 years, I think, as both fully God and fully human. And he suffered
and he died on a cross, taking our sins upon him, in order that we might die
with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness (1 Peter 2:24).
[John 1:1-36; Philippians 2:5-11; 1
Corinthians 15:1-8; Isaiah 53:1-12]
So, when Jesus
suffered and died on that cross to free us from our slavery to sin, and to give
us new lives in him to be lived for his glory, he became sin for us, taking
upon himself the sins of the world. And he put our sins to death with him so that
we might no longer live for ourselves but for him and for his righteousness. For
he shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) so
we would now honor God with our lives.
[Romans 6:1-23; 2
Corinthians 5:15,21; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20]
Now, God knew before
he even created us who we would be and who we would become, and he knew the
things that we would do and say, for evil and for good, so he knew that we
would sin against him. Even when he chose the Jews to be his holy people, he
knew that many of them would turn against him, and that they would betray him, and
that they would put Jesus to death, and that many would reject Jesus as their
Messiah. But he chose them just the same. For his goal was to save them from
their sins.
And the same
applies to us. Jesus Christ was crucified on that cross for us that we might be
delivered from our slavery to sin and serve him with our lives. And he did this
even knowing that many would reject him, and that they would turn against him,
and that they would come against his servants and his messengers, and that they
would put many of them to death. And many of them who are against Jesus, sadly,
are those who profess him as Savior and Lord. For they give him lip service
only.
Isaiah 63:10 ESV
“But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
and himself fought against them.”
But They Rebelled
Things are not much different today than they were then.
Many professers of faith in Jesus Christ are living in open rebellion against
the Lord Jesus, doing what their sinful hearts desire, while refusing to bow
the knee to Jesus in humble surrender and in obedience to his will for their
lives. The lives they are living are barely distinguishable from the people who
make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ at all. So they, too, are giving
lip service only to God.
Even though Jesus died on that cross to deliver us out of
our slavery to sin so that we can now walk in his holiness and righteousness,
in the power and wisdom of God, many who are professing faith in Jesus have not
left their lives of sin behind them but they are continuing in habitual and
deliberate sin against God, many of them without conscience and without remorse.
And some of them are fully convinced that they have God’s approval, too.
But since God’s design and purpose for our lives, as his
followers, is that we submit to him as Lord, that we follow him in obedience to
his commands, and that we forsake our lives of living in sin to now live holy lives
pleasing to him, he is sending out his messages to the people who profess his
name, and he is letting them know that he is not pleased with them. He is
letting them know, too, that if they continue in sin, eternal life will not be
theirs.
And just like in the days of old, those who reject the truth
of God’s word and his gospel message are maligning those who are giving out the
Lord’s messages. And they are fighting against those who are bringing forth the
truth, because they are fighting against the Lord. And this is because they
refuse to submit to Christ as Lord and to do what he says. But the Lord has a
day when we will all have to give an account for what we have done.
Judged by God according to our works
Suffering for the Sake of Righteousness
[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt
24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; John
15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 1 Thess 3:1-5;
Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12]
By
Unknown
My
heart can sing when I pause to remember
A
heartache here is but a steppingstone
Along
a trail that's winding always upward,
This
troubled world is not my final home.
The
things of earth will dim and lose their value
If
we recall they're borrowed for a while;
And
things of earth that cause the heart to tremble,
Remembered
there will only bring a smile.
This
weary world with all its toil and struggle
May
take its toll of misery and strife;
The
soul of man is like a waiting falcon;
When
it's released, it's destined for the skies.
But
until then my heart will go on singing,
Until
then with joy I'll carry on,
Until
the day my eyes behold the city,
Until
the day God calls me home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4SaKgGZijM
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