Thursday, August 20, 2009

Consider Jesus - Hebrews 3

"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession."
(vs 1)

I don't know about you, but I tend to think alot - too much at times! My thoughts flow in fast and furious ways and within the course of a minute they cover more things than my mouth could ever hope to express. I'm a thinker and sometimes it gets me in trouble.

This morning I am convicted that the place where and the thing upon which my thoughts need to camp out the most is on Christ. "Consider Jesus!" He should be very much in our thoughts. Honestly, He should be always in our thoughts. Recognizing that we are living because of Him and are to be living for Him, should not we be thinking of Him in everything we do?

Matthew Henry says: "We have need to stir up one another to think more of Christ than we do. The best of His people think too seldom and too slightly of Him." Sad but true!

The writer of Hebrews is about the business of stirring us up to consider Christ! We saw it in chapter 2 when we were told that "we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." We will be told elsewhere in this wonderful book to "take care," to "encourage one another," to "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace," to "stimulate one another to love and good deeds," and "to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering." We need to be about the business of considering Christ and we need to be about the business of encouraging one another to do so.

In considering Jesus, the author of this epistle points out two truths about Him. First, He is the Apostle of our confession. He is our Great High Prophet. It is Christ who is the Logos, the living Word. It is Christ who "is the great revealer of the faith which we possess and hold dear." In considering Jesus, pause to consider that even your ability to do so is a gift from Him!

Second, He is the High Priest of our confession. It is Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away our sins. It is upon His "satisfaction and intercession" that we "depend upon for pardon of sin." Consider your great Priest who offered Himself in your place as "a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God" and who is "making continual intercession for us." (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 25)

The Lord Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. It is He who began the good work in us. It is He who accomplished the good work in us. It is He who will bring the good work to it's climactic eternal destination. "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession."

Considering,
Lori

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