Only Our Compassionate Intercessor Who Has Felt The Power Of Satans Wiles Can Free Us From The Shackles Of Our Carnal Nature The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jer. 31:3) Shout To The Lord - youtube/watch?v=HNwnTV6r5CU Throughout this week we were reminded of the importance of the sacrifice of Jesus to our eternal salvation. Without the blood of Jesus Christ and His work as intercessor in the Heavenly Sanctuary we would have no hope of eternal life. We owe everything to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus is the one who allowed His divinity to be clothed with humanity so that He could walk this earth and be tempted in all points like as we are. He provides a way of escape so that we can gain the victory over the shackles of our carnal nature. He is the only way for us to receiving the gift of eternal life. If He did not die a substitutionary death for us, we would never have the opportunity to receive a crown of righteousness when He returns the second time. We must surrender every area of our lives to the total control of the Holy Spirit before we can gain the power to be victorious over the enemy. The victory that we receive over our carnal nature is not coming from us nor does it belong to us. Jesus demonstrated through His life on this earth that those who surrender themselves totally to the control of the Holy Spirit will overcome the sinfulness of their carnal nature. Enoch walked with God and after 320 years of doing so He was translated, never to experience the sleep of death. Elijah also walked with God until the image of God was perfected in him. He was also translated to heaven, never to experience the sleep of death. Moses on the other hand was not translated because he made a fundamental mistake for which he receive the punishment of not entering the promise land. However, even though Moses experienced the sleep of death, because he allowed God to perfect His character in him, Moses experienced the sleep of death as a man with all His sins forgiven. Because of God’s love for Moses, he was resurrected and taken to live with God in heaven. These three men are now enjoying the results of their dependence on God. God has given us these stories to demonstrate to us that it is possible to gain eternal life if we continue to depend totally on the Holy Spirit. I pray that we will continue to allow the Holy Spirit to do His work of transformation in our lives while Jesus is doing His work of intercession for us in the Heavenly Sanctuary. The death of Christ upon the cross made sure the destruction of him who has the power of death, who was the originator of sin. When Satan is destroyed, there will be none to tempt to evil; the atonement will never need to be repeated; and there will be no danger of another rebellion in the universe of God. That which alone can effectually restrain from sin in this world of darkness, will prevent sin in heaven. The significance of the death of Christ will be seen by saints and angels. Fallen men could not have a home in the paradise of God without the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Shall we not then exalt the cross of Christ?-- These are our themes--Christ crucified for our sins, Christ risen from the dead, Christ our intercessor before God; and closely connected with these is the office work of the Holy Spirit. The great Sacrifice had been offered and had been accepted, and the Holy Spirit which descended on the day of Pentecost carried the minds of the disciples from the earthly sanctuary to the heavenly, where Jesus had entered by His own blood, to shed upon His disciples the benefits of His atonement. Our Saviour is in the sanctuary pleading in our behalf. He is our interceding High Priest, making an atoning sacrifice for us, pleading in our behalf the efficacy of His blood. Every one who will break from the slavery and service of Satan, and will stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel, will be kept by Christs intercessions. Christ, as our Mediator, at the right hand of the Father, ever keeps us in view, for it is as necessary that He should keep us by His intercessions as that He should redeem us with His blood. If He lets go His hold of us for one moment, Satan stands ready to destroy. Those purchased by His blood, He now keeps by His intercession. Thank God that He who spilled His blood for us, lives to plead it, lives to make intercession for every soul who receives Him. . . . We need to keep ever before us the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. That life-cleansing, life-sustaining blood, appropriated by living faith, is our hope. We need to grow in appreciation of its inestimable value, for it speaks for us only as we by faith claim its virtue, keeping the conscience clean and at peace with God. This is represented as the pardoning blood, inseparably connected with the resurrection and life of our Redeemer, illustrated by the ever-flowing stream that proceeds from the throne of God, the water of the river of life. Christ died to make an atoning sacrifice for our sins. At the fathers right hand He is interceding for us as our High Priest. By the sacrifice of His life He purchased redemption for us. His atonement is effectual for every one who will humble himself, and receive Christ as his example in all things. If the Saviour had not given His life as a propitiation for our sins, the whole human family would have perished. They would have had no right to heaven. It is through His intercession that we, through faith, repentance, and conversion, are enabled to become partakers of the divine nature, and thus escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. This prayer [of John 17] is a lesson regarding the intercession that the Saviour would carry on within the veil, when His great sacrifice in behalf of men, the offering of Himself, should have been completed. Our Mediator gave His disciples this illustration of His ministration in the heavenly sanctuary in behalf of all who will come to Him in meekness and humility, emptied of all selfishness, and believing in His power to save. (SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7a, pg. 476, 477 – Ellen G. White)
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 10:52:50 +0000
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