He Perfects Our Faith.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Hebrews 12:2a

used from http://www.paperandglam.com/blog/hope-faith-love/

This scripture contains a concept that is often difficult to grasp.  In essence it’s telling us that Jesus, our defender, is responsible for starting whatever faith it is we have and is continually working on us to make it a complete and faultless faith.  For those of us that are human and full of faults, this seems not only an insurmountable task, but an impossible one.  Though it seems impossible, as Christians we ought to know that what seems impossible from a human perspective is inconsequential, because “with God all things are possible.”  Although true, that truth may still seem difficult to grasp.  For that reason it is important to understand the scripture surrounding that verse.  In verse 1 the writer tells us:

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

He’s telling us that there is a huge crowd of people that came before us that demonstrated faith.  In The Message, Eugene Peterson calls them pioneers who blazed the way of our faith.  He tells us that we need to run the race set before us (reference to Phil 3:12-14) and that we can’t do that without doing away with the weights and sins that hold us back.  Things like the legalistic stuff of religion, desires connected to our life before Jesus, and the sins we continue to struggle with.  Those, and many others, are weights that keep us from running full speed toward God.  But how?  How do we strip off those things?  It’s more than just behavior modification.  This is where verse 2 and 3 come into play:

² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. ³ Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.

Here’s the truth of those verses… Jesus enables us to strip off the weight of the world and have victory over the sin that “trips us up” when we look to Him.  Again, Eugene Peterson says that we look to Jesus “who both began and finished this race we’re in.” and we are to “Study how he did it.”  We get to see Jesus and study how He did it by reading His words (the Bible), by talking to Him in prayer, and by living in Gospel-centered community.  When we look to Him, we get to see all He endured and how great the reward He received.  This should create intimacy between us and Him and encourage us to press on.  When we know He endured what we are enduring, then we won’t give up.  It’s inside this intimacy that He gives us perfect faith.  This perfect faith allows us to boldly approach God to receive our prize, that is Jesus.

He perfects your faith, so you can #ApproachGod.

He Left the Curtain Torn

By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.

~ Hebrews 10:20 ~

In the Old Testament, God lays out the requirements for how the Tabernacle (and later the Temple) should be constructed.  Those instructions included the construction of an area called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place.  It was literally the dwelling place of God, among His people.  Here's a SITE with more info on the Most Holy Place.  In the Temple there was a veil separating the Holy of Holies from the other areas of the Temple.  Essentially, the veil was there to shield a Holy God from sinful man.  The only person allowed to ever enter the Holy of Holies was the High Priest, and it was only after a purification ceremony and only one time per year. The High Priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, seeking forgiveness of all the peoples sins. In the Old Testament, under the old covenant, this was the only way to receive atonement.

That all changed when Jesus died on the cross. Matthew 27:50-51 tells us, 

Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

Why is this event significant? By tearing the veil and leaving it torn, Jesus was removing the separation which had existed since the fall in the Garden of Eden. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, "we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus." Hebrews 10:19  The writer of Hebrews is telling us Jesus made a way for us to enter into the presence of the Living God.  Jesus' blood atoned for our sins once and for all.  He left the entrance to God's holy presence open for us to approach Him.  Jesus made the way for us to enter the Holy of Holies.

He left the curtain torn, so you can #ApproachGod.

He Stepped Down From His Throne

For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.

~ John 6:38 & 39 ~

Think about the implication of what Jesus says in this verse.  He said that He came down from heaven.  He departed the holy place where He had dwelt for eternity.  He stepped down from His throne into the mire of a fallen world.  The God of the universe, the Creator of all things humbled Himself and came down to us.  And He did it for what?  To prove how big He was?  To make Himself known to His subjects? To punish the wickedness of humanity?  No.  It was for you.  He simply came for you.  He abdicated His throne and His rightful authority and came to lift us up and restore us to our God.  And while here, He served and loved and healed and showed us a God that desires us. 

Jesus came not to relate to us, He already knew us (Jer 1:5).  He came so that we might learn to relate to Him.  He came so that we would know that our God does know us and that He understands our struggle.  He came so that we would know that we can approach Him.  He called all that are weary to come to Him (Matt 11:28-30).  Yet even though He called us to Himself, He bridged the entire expanse of the gap that separated us from Him.  He did it so that we could see what it looks like for a loving King to step down from His throne and rescue His people.  The truth that our God took the place of a servant among us, to show His love and reconcile us, bears too much weight to ignore.

He stepped down from His throne, so you could #ApproachGod.

He Has Made You Blameless

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

~ Colossians 1:22 ~

For so many of us when we accepted and confessed Christ as our Lord and Savior (or "got saved"), we act like we were entering into some "agreement" with God that allows us into heaven. We act like there is a contractual obligation on our part that requires us to rid our lives of all the dirtiness (bad stuff like smoking, drinking, swearing, enter whatever your vice is) that God wouldn't want in heaven. So we spend wasted time trying to figure out what we should do better or stop doing altogether, so that we can meet the standard that allows us to enter in to God's presence.

From our skewed lens that we view God through, we somehow believe that we "get it". That somehow the plan can't be as simple as He says it is. But it is. He, through no effort of yours, has already completed the work for you to be presented blameless in His presence. The atoning work of Christ crucified on the cross reconciles, or restores, you to Him. In that work of Christ, GOD brings you into HIS own presence without a single fault. It's already done. You have to do nothing but come to Him.

He has made you blameless, so #ApproachGod.

He Makes You Holy

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5-23 ~

Too often people believe that they are not worthy to approach God. They believe they are too sinful or too dirty. They believe that because of the “horrible” things they've done, God doesn't want them. Here’s the truth, we aren't worthy; we are too unclean; we are too full of fault to step into the presence of the Almighty, but the more important truth is that He does want us. He desires to bring us into His presence and to do that He aims to make us holy.

Hearing the word holy causes many of us to think of it as this unattainable level of perfection. But it’s not unattainable. Holy in this instance means a couple different things. First it is us being “set apart”. We are set apart from the world. We are made different. When we accept and believe the work of Christ on the cross, we are made blameless, standing before God as His own (pure and untarnished), thus not belonging to the world anymore. This is not a prideful setting apart and actually is centered on the humbling of our hearts. The second is that He continues that work in us. The work that God does in us, through Jesus, keeps us blameless so that He can bring us into His presence without fault (Jude 1:24). This is not to say that it is an easy process. God will remove things from your life, ask you to do other things you’ve not done before and essentially completely change everything about who you were in the past. It will take intentionality on your part, but He is faithful and will do His good work in you (1 Corinthians 1:8-9).

He makes you holy, so #ApproachGod.