Luke 5:24 (ESV) “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” ‘”

There are things in Scripture which rightly can be distinguished, but which we nevertheless must never completely separate. For example: Jesus is both God and man. If we look at Him only through one lens or the other, we do violence to who He is in toto. Nevertheless, getting a grasp of both concepts is also necessary for understanding the whole. And this very principle comes to bear in the verse we have before us here.

While they cannot be separated entirely, it is still wise to note that forgiveness of sins, and justification – while absolutely tied together – are not one and the very same thing. The difference lies in understanding the one as having more to do with our status in relationship to Christ’s Kingdom, and the other, to Him personally.

Scripture speaks often of the Christian’s duty to forgive when we’ve been sinned against. But it never speaks of us “justifying” the offender. Justification is legal, forensic. It has to do with being pronounced “righteous” in the courts of Heaven. It is only the justified who enter the Kingdom. But God does not merely justify us – though justification in some sense includes forgiveness. God, forgives us too. He personally, says to the one who appeals to Him for mercy on the basis of the blood of Christ’s shed blood – “I forgive you.” NOT – “you are forgiven” – but “I” forgive you.

In other words, what the sinner finds in Christ, is both reconciliation to the Kingdom of God, that we might be “just” (UN-guilty) citizens – but personal forgiveness from the Father – that we might be personally reconciled to Him!

Oh what a glorious salvation Jesus has brought to us at Calvary. Ours is not merely a forensic or legal matter settled in the wrath of God poured out upon our Substitute, but a deeply personal one. Ours is a salvation where the One we have offended and sinned against, is Himself perfectly at ease with us once more. The divide is gone. The barrier is removed. All the distance between the Believer and our God both spiritual and emotional is fully met in Christ.

This is why He came to earth.

This, is Christmas.

1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV) ⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

My wife has worked as a career counselor. And if there is one thing we’ve discussed about this, it is how few people ever truly find gainful employment doing something they really love. Those who do, count it a treasure indeed.

So it is I wonder how often we as Believers reflect on the glorious, holy “employment” we are blessed to have as Christ’s people? I think of this when I read these short verses above. It is easy for us to get caught up with the wonder of God’s electing love and grace, without reflecting on WHY we have been so gloriously blessed.

So we read that Believers are: “a chosen race”; “a royal priesthood”; “a holy nation”; “a people for his own possession” – but these are not ENDS in themselves – as stupendously wonderful as they are. We are indeed all these things if we are in Christ – but it is “THAT YOU”… – do not miss those absolutely crucial words – “THAT YOU”. Why are we all these things? So that we might have the high joy and privilege of proclaiming (making known in word and experience) the “excellencies” of this God who called us out of darkness, into His marvelous light. And He has 2 “excellencies” in mind in particular: 1. Grace. To make it known that God is a God of grace – of lavish, unmerited favor. 2. Mercy. That God is a God of deep, unfathomable mercy toward us and our sinfulness. This is what Peter unpacks in verse 10.

1. Grace. Once we were not a people – but now, we are GOD’S people – His own family. How more “graced” can we be? To have been His enemies, and now to be His children. Beloved – THIS, is grace.

2. Mercy. Once we had not received mercy – we were abiding under the just wrath of God. But now? We have RECEVIED mercy, we have been forgiven. Wondrously, marvelously, miraculously washed in the “soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb.” We are a mercied people.

Can you recall the days before you were graced and mercied in Christ? And can you take a few moments today to discharge your newly appointed occupation making it known that this God in Christ Jesus is abundant in grace for all who come to Him, and immeasurably merciful to all who flee for shelter under His cross?

This, is an occupation of love!

Exodus 25:16–22 (ESV) And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you. 17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. ¹⁸ And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. ¹⁹ Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. ²⁰ The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. ²¹ And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. ²² There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

Let us never forget this – there is but one place where God will meet with us, at the mercy seat, at the Cross.

Exodus 12:15 (ESV) “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.”

The cleaning out of leaven from the homes of the Israelites is one of the most intriguing concepts from the Old Testament. What is really going on here? And to be honest, theories abound. The most popular (perhaps) being that leaven (yeast) is a type or picture of sin. It seeps in, infects the whole and puffs up. However Jesus uses the picture of leaven more positively in Matthew 13:33 as one of the ways to understand the Kingdom. Its not all just one way.

The question I would like to consider here is; how is it being used in this particular text? And I think we see the shades of at least one answer in two following verses – 12:34 (ESV) “So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.” And 12:39 (ESV) “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.”

The simple thought I would like us to consider here is this: Leavening bread takes time – and they were to expect to be leaving right away. The Israelites were to be thinking about their readiness to respond when God led them out, and they were to have nothing which delayed them in their obedience.
Let me then extend this idea to us. Beloved, what area of obedience in your life are you still lagging behind in? What are you waiting for? There is to be no delay in our serving God. He has called, and we must go – now.

Oh, that our hearts and minds would be in a constant state of readiness to follow Him everywhere and at all times.
Father – forgive our tendency to cling to this present world, rather than to abandon it and its values at the sound of your sweet voice in the Gospel. It is the voice of deliverance.

Nehemiah 8:8 (ESV) They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

One more attempt at making one of my most beloved hymns a bit more accessible to a wider audience. From “Be Thou My Vision” –

vs. 1

Be so lovely to me, that you capture my heart

Let nothing else ever take up that part

First in my thoughts every day, every night

Christ above every joy and above every fright

vs. 2

Let me see all truth through the lens of your Cross

All of my wealth in the blood of your loss

Father of all making me your true child

Jesus by dying there, brought me home, reconciled

vs. 3

Father please protect me in the heat of the fight

You are the good in me, Be my delight

Teach me how to trust you and rest in your power

Lift me up to yourself in my faltering hour

vs. 4

Nothing is of value, compared to your grace

You are my treasure both now and always

Although my love is poor as its been from the start

Your love is infinite and redeems my poor heart

vs. 5

High King of Heaven, Lord Jesus the Son

Bring me to you when this life is all done

Let nothing ever tempt me to shrink from your call

Conquer the whole of me and be Ruler of all.

Psalm 23:1, 4 & 5 (ESV) “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

Temptation lies. Always. It is in believing its lies that we succumb. And 3 of Temptation’s most effective lies are undone in this most familiar of all the Psalms. In it, the Good Shepherd truly shepherds our souls.

Note first, that Temptation begins by asserting that whatever it is it is proposing – is something we NEED. “YOU NEED THIS.” The explanation as to why we “need” it, is never given. It is left for us to supply. It is implied that we’ll be missing something essential however if we do not give in to the desire. We’ll be less whole, less human, less of a man or woman – somehow less than we ought to be without it. And to this lie, Christ our Lord is proposed to us as our Shepherd – and because He cares for us, we “shall not want.” If He hasn’t supplied it, we do not “need” it. We won’t be bereft of something essential. He knows our true needs, and knows them better than we do – and especially more than Temptation does. NO! Christ is our Shepherd – He will not let us lack for anything truly essential.

The second lie Temptation uses to reason us into sin is: “Without it you’ll die.” The loss quotient is ramped up considerably. If I don’t have X, I’ll simply die! Life won’t be worth living! It will do true, irreparable harm to me as a human being. I’ll suffer a mortal wound. LIE! Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of “death” – we need not fear any evil. Christ is with us! His rod and staff guide and comfort and keep us from the real danger. Temptation has lied again. I won’t die, you won’t die if this particular desire isn’t met. We once again cast ourselves back on to trusting the Good Shepherd who has pledged His very life unto death – to keep us from harm.

The third lie seems ludicrous on the surface – and yet in the moment of temptation, it is most powerful. “You’ll miss out on what is best and be left lacking. And, everyone else will know it.” Temptation moves us with this argument with all of its subtleties. But once again – it is a lie. The truth is, Christ prepares a table – a feast – for us, right there in the presence of our enemies. If only we’ll open our eyes to see it. If only we’ll stop to satisfy our hunger on what He HAS provided, we’ll find no appetite for what He hasn’t. No, maybe our favorite “dessert” won’t be there – but what He has set out will be delicious, and healthful and satisfying. In fact, our cup is SO full, it runs over. But Temptation has convinced us the cup is empty – and will never be filled unless we pursue that which the Shepherd has warned us will kill us.

Trust the Shepherd beloved. He knows us and loves us best. In staying by His side, surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. And at last, we will dwell in His own house – forever.

Psalm 22:1 (ESV) “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”

Matthew 27:46 has Jesus taking these words as His own upon the cross. Once more His substitutionary work – His acting in OUR place takes center stage. For, these are the words mankind ought to have been crying out to God all along. But we did not perceive how our sin had separated us from Him. In our darkness and hardness, we thought there was but a minor rift – if at all. Our own sense of the uncrossable chasm placed between God and ourselves due to our sin had little impact upon us. We have been so fallen for so long, that we have come to see the pain and sorrow of this present age is just the natural order of things. We do not take in the fact that every ache and pain, every sorrow and grief, every disaster, natural and man made – every tragedy and crime, every atrocity of man screams out to us that something is horribly, horribly wrong. But it did not escape our great Substitute. He fully grasped our dire estate. He groaned out what we were too dull to comprehend. He appeals to the God of Heaven on our behalf. Bids Him to take notice of our dread condition. And He was heard. He uttered these words on the Cross – even as His own blood was atoning for the sin that put Him there. What a marvelous Savior He is.

1 Corinthians 14:18–19 (ESV) “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”

Once we’ve been a Christian for a while, we settle pretty easily into the Church culture in which we find ourselves. With that comes a familiarity with certain language – what some dub “Christianese.” Some of that lingo is ours because it is the language of the Bible – and some of it not. And, because many Evangelical Christians also identify strongly with our historical roots in the Reformation and the Puritans, a certain amount of exposure to dated (albeit poetic) phraseology is also included in our hymnody.

Not surprisingly then, some new Christians have a difficult time imbibing all of this and adjusting to it. While someone like myself loves the musicality and cadence of “King James” English, and the sheer beauty of the poetry of many of our hymns – at times, such usage may be inaccessible to our newer bothers and sisters. It may even be needlessly off-putting. After all, our goal is to bring men, women and children to be followers of Christ – not 19th century hymnophiles.

Let me be clear here. I am NOT suggesting we “dumb” anything down. Where Biblical truth is at stake, we must bring people up to it. In that respect, we must educate faithfully. At the same time, we also need to “translate”. We must – without one iota of compromise in terms of content – nevertheless make the eternal and unchangeable truths we preach and teach accessible and understandable to the widest possible spectrum of people who have come to Christ in faith.

Maybe we are not “Judaizers” doctrinally, but are some of us guilty of being “Victorianizers” culturally?

This came home to me very powerfully in a recent exchange. After a worship service, a wonderful new Believer queried – “what does “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing mean?” ‘ “

It never dawned on me that such phraseology might not be instantly understood – let alone appreciated.

Paul’s caution regarding the exercise of “tongues” in the Corinthian assembly can without damage (I think) be applied to the issue at hand. Do we sometimes “speak in tongues” that do not benefit our brothers and sisters who are either new to the faith, or have no Reformation-Puritan-Victorian reference point? It is worth considering.

In my own consideration of it – I launched out in an attempt to take the august and blessed hymn mentioned above, and translate it for one who may not have been initiated into my own personal preferences. I have no doubt the poetry suffers greatly. But if the germ of the messages meant is conveyed more clearly to some – is it not a sacrifice we may need to make in some cases?

I only ask us to think about it some.

Jesus, source of every blessing, help my heart to know your grace

May your never ending mercy overflow in joyful praise

Teach me how to sing your praises, just like the angels do above

Make your name most precious to me, high above all earthly loves

Up till now your love has blessed me, and you’ve brought me to this place

So I know you’ll bring me safely all the way by your good grace

I didn’t want you when you found me stumbling, lost, outside your love

But your grace broke through and won me, and you bought me with your blood

How I owe you all I am Lord, such a debt I cannot pay

Endless love and boundless mercy make me love you more each day

Still in my sin I fail to feel it, Spirit of God renew my eyes

Capture soul, and mind and body, be alone my highest prize

To your table we have come Lord, to your body and your blood

Symbols of your death at Calv’ry, where you took our place in love

Nailed to the Cross for all our sinfulness, carrying all our guilt and shame

Satisfying all God’s anger, that we might be free from blame

Nailed to the Cross for all my sinfulness, Burying me in your own grave

Rising up to justify me, doing all my soul to save.