“…how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14
The pivotal moment of the history of the world, and the eternal destiny of every man, woman, and child, was when the Lord Jesus, on the cross, after the long hours of suffering in every conceivable manner, especially with regard to the judgment of God upon all the sins of man which this Lamb of God bore, came when Jesus said: “It is finished.” In the brief moment which followed when he bowed His head and died, an eternal HOPE was born. It was a hope that extended beyond the grave, beyond the sinfulness of this world, and the terrible reality that the Holy God our Creator, must deal with all the sins of men, a hope piercing through the darkness of helplessness, hopelessness, and despair of lost, sinful men, rising to the very throne of God, a throne where mercy and justice eternally meet. This hope was more than a perfect provision for God’s dealing with all the sins of men. It was a declaration of something more, and eternal. No one can fathom what Christ knew on the cross of suffering and death, and no one can grasp the eternal ramifications of such a perfect work of redemption by the Son of God. But what we can grasp by the mercy and grace of God is the message that He is ardently, consistently seeking to communicate to all men, in every tongue, tribe, and nation. It is this message of the Gospel, these accumulated and assembled eternal truths of something that was in the mind and heart of God before the foundation of the world. The message was simple, and it began with God Himself, as the Author of it, its Beginning and the End, and all things in between. Paul would summarize this by saying, “Christ is all, and in all.”
Beyond the revelation of Who God is, was, and evermore shall be, came the unveiling of sinful man, what he too is, was, and evermore shall be. The contrast is so great that the distance between heaven and earth cannot represent the magnitude of it adequately. Then there are the pictures of soiled, filthy garments, which are as a stench to God, because of the foulness of sins. Beyond this, there is the revelation of the works, results, and certain end of all sin. Throughout Scripture the wretchedness of sin is revealed by its manifest works, or fruits. In every case, the end or result of sin is death, godlessness, lifelessness, lostness apart from God. There is but one “bridge” that God has provided, one path, one highway, which He alone could ever conceive, produce, and accomplish in the heart and by the life of His Son. It was that which He created on that cross in the final moment of Christ’s crucifixion. That perfect, finished work was sealed for time and eternity at exactly the moment Christ “gave up His spirit.” (Jn. 19:30)
That which has always BEEN is Christ, the eternal Son of God, was the perfect knowledge of the eternal glory of His Father in fullest measure. For humanity, created in the image of God, but which had forsaken such a calling when sin entered into the world, that which WAS of consequence in the past, was the sins of men which separated them from a holy God, with nothing and no path, and certainly no power to be saved. It would only be by the gift of the Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that a hope would be born in Bethlehem, that a Savior would be hidden from the world for approximately thirty years but then revealed among men who would see His grace and glory. This Son of the Father would proclaim the good news of God’s provision by which lost men could be saved from sin, transformed by the Spirit, conformed to the image of God.
Dear Father, Fill us with Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.