The Publican

Hello all, I would like take a quick moment to point you in the direction of a blog of a friend: The Publican. While most of you know I do not post very often and when I do my posts generally tend to be a little long-winded, my friend Adam posts nearly every day and they are general concise and to the point. So, go to him for a good daily dose of gospel and grace.

Why "the publican"? Well, Adam answers that in his own words:

In Luke 18:9-14 we find a parable written to those who trusted in their own goodness and righteousness.  Jesus proceeded to tell these prideful people that it was the Publican (the sinful tax collector) who was justified by faith rather than the Pharisee (the seemingly proper, collected, squeaky clean religious man).  Why?  Because while the Pharisee was publicly boasting of his own goodness the Publican shows us the definition of godly humility and repentance by not even being able to lift his head to heaven but rather beating on his chest screaming “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!”
So why name my blog The Publican?  Simple.  It is a straight forward statement of who I am, who I know myself to be, and why I love Jesus Christ, the God-Man so very much.  If it weren’t for the righteousness of Christ I have no hope nor plea.  The new look to the blog is simple to focus on content but don’t worry, all those precious little sidebar widgets are at the bottom of the page, so be sure to check them out.  Every time you come here and read something on my blog I want you to be reminded that you are reading the the thoughts of a mere Publican pilgrimaging on a path to paradise found in Christ.  I happily boast of being morally bankrupt.  May you join me in the Publican’s refrain and find that the end of yourself is the start of everything God has for us in Christ:

“Lord be merciful to me a sinner.”

Lord, like the publican I stand,

And lift my heart to Thee;

Thy pardoning grace, O God, command,

Be merciful to me.

I smite upon my anxious breast,

Overwhelmed with agony;

O’ save my soul by sin oppressed,

Be merciful to me.

My guilt, my shame, I all confess,

I have no hope nor plea

But Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

Be merciful to me.

Here at Thy cross I still would wait,

Nor from its shelter flee,

But Thou, O God, in mercy great,

Art merciful to me.

(Thomas Raffles, 1831)

Go check it out: The Publican. It would be a good thing to start reading for the new year.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 24

Merry Christmas! Today, we celebrate the birth of our King, God, Prophet, and Priest. This is what we have been preparing for in our meditations and devotions over the past twenty-three days. I know you are spending time with family today and that is a good thing, but take some time to dwell on this verse, which I believe sums up Christmas in a single sentence:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Co. 8:9)

I would like to end this Advent series with the words to my favorite Christmas hymn, "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" by Charles Wesley:

Hark! The herald angels sing,

"Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!"

Joyful, all ye nations rise,

Join the triumph of the skies;

With th’angelic host proclaim,

"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"

Refrain:

Hark! the herald angels sing,

"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;

Christ the everlasting Lord;

Late in time, behold Him come,

Offspring of a virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail th’incarnate Deity,

Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,

Jesus our Emmanuel.

Refrain

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Ris’n with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by,

Born that man no more may die.

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

Refrain

Come, Desire of nations, come,

Fix in us Thy humble home;

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,

Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display Thy saving power,

Ruined nature now restore;

Now in mystic union join

Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Refrain

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,

Stamp Thine image in its place:

Second Adam from above,

Reinstate us in Thy love.

Let us Thee, though lost, regain,

Thee, the Life, the inner man:

O, to all Thyself impart,

Formed in each believing heart.

Refrain

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 23

This is the final day of Advent this year. It is Christmas Eve, which means tomorrow we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Today's reading comes from the last book of the Bible, looking forward to the second Advent (second coming) of Jesus:

¹ Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. ² And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" ³ And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, ⁴ and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵ And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals."
⁶ And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷ And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. ⁸ And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹ And they sang a new song, saying,
"Worthy are you to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
    from every tribe and language and people and nation,
¹⁰ and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
    and they shall reign on the earth."
¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, ¹² saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!"
¹³ And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"
¹⁴ And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Re. 5:1-14)

Worthy is Jesus because He was slain and by His blood He ransomed God's people. He is the lion and the lamb at the same time. Christmas proclaims the event of Jesus' birth but we know that He was born so that about thirty years later He might die for His people. It is in this very death that He showed He is worthy of all praise, glory, and honor. Unfortunately, since we live in a fallen world, He still does not get the praise He deserves from humanity, even from the Church. But, one day He will return and set things right, and on that day "every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Php. 2:10-11)

Oh Lord, haste that day!

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 22

Today is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. Last Sunday we started looking directly at the Christmas story itself, and we read from Mt. 1:18-25 and Lk. 2:1-7. Today we are going to continue to look at the Christmas story itself:

¹ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, ² saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
⁶ "'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.'"
⁷ Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him." ⁹ After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹ And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. (Mt. 2:1-12)

Before we move on to the second reading for today, I would like to talk about this one a little. R. C. Sproul once said, "In the tiny land of Palestine, two kings were alive at the same time and at the same place. One of the kings was about seventy years old; the other king was an infant. The big king was evil; the little king was pure. The big king was rich and powerful; the little king was stricken by poverty. The big king lived in an opulent palace; the little king lived in a stable. The little king's mother was a peasant girl; His adopted father was a carpenter." (Christ in Christmas Family) Of course, the "big king" to whom Sproul refers is Herod. He was the king of Judea at Christ's birth, yet he was only that because Rome made him so. He did not deserve to sit on that throne, the "little king" did. That is why Herod was troubled by the Magis' revelation that the prophesied King of the Jews had been born—he knew in his heart that he did not deserve the throne. As the story above goes on to say, when the Magi never returned to Herod, he went on a rampage killing all the infant boys in Bethlehem. We know, however, that the "big king" did not succeed in defeating the "little king." In fact, if it were not for the story of the "little king," the "big king" would have disappeared from history altogether. This story reminds us that even the most powerful cannot stop the plan of God. Herod had the power to slaughter many, yet he could not stop the plan of God. Nothing can.

⁸ And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
¹⁴ "Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"
¹⁵ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." ¹⁶ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷ And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Lk. 2:8-20)

How should we celebrate Advent and Christmas? Well, from the story of the shepherds we can learn a few things. First, the angels proclaimed the good news to the shepherds. This is remarkable considering the reputation of shepherds during this time. They were a despised cast of people in society and so mistrusted that their testimony was not admissible in legal proceedings. Yet, the angels went to them to declare the birth of the Messiah. They did not come to the rich of Bethlehem or even King Herod. They went to the shepherds. A modern equivalent might be the angels going to the homeless of Midtown Atlanta and using them as witnesses to the affluent. As we saw last Sunday, God breaks the molds of this world in many ways with the advent of Jesus. Second, the shepherds became bold witnesses for Jesus. They knew their reputation in society but they did not care. They knew the people needed to hear the good news and they were going to tell them, even if no one listened or believed them. I doubt you and I are as mistrusted in society as shepherds were at the time of Christ, so why are we not as bold in sharing the good news as they? Third and finally, the shepherds glorified and praised God for what they had seen. They not only shared the news with others, they praised God for it. We should praise God for sending Jesus every day, but Christmas should especially remind us that He is worthy of our praise for He sent Jesus to become poor so we, by His poverty, might become rich (2. Co. 8:9).

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 21

This week of Advent we have been looking that the covenants God made with man in the Old Testament (OT), and we have seen how they are related to one another since they are all under the one covenant of grace that Jesus fulfilled for us in His life, death, and resurrection. Remember, think of the covenant of grace as an umbrella that covers all of Scripture from the fall of Adam to the end of Revelation. The individual covenants of the OT build on each other as waves of ever-increasing revelation about the covenant of grace until they climax with Christ's fulfillment of the overarching covenant of grace. We have looked at the covenant God made with Adam and Eve after the fall, the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant (AC), the Mosaic covenant (MC), and the Davidic covenant (DC). We have seen how with each God's fellowship with man was increased and how each ultimately pointed to Jesus Himself.

Today we are going to look at the so-call "new covenant" (NC) from Jer. 31:31-34:

³¹ "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

Does it fit into the unity of the previous covenants? It does. In fact, it represents the fulfillment of the earlier covenants. First and foremost, the covenantal refrain is clearly stated in Jer. 31:33, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people," connecting it to all the previous covenants. Furthermore, in Jer. 31:31-34 God promises the NC will be better than the MC but still connects the two. This NC will still have the law, but it will be written on the hearts of God's people. Just a few verses later, in Jer. 32:39-41, Jeremiah prophesies that in the NC God will "plant them in this land," clearly alluding to the promises of offspring and land in the AC and connecting the AC to the NC. In a parallel prophecy found in Eze. 37:24-26, the NC is overtly connected with the AC, the MC, and the DC in one statement:

²⁴ My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd [DC connection]. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes [MC connection]. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived [AC connection]. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever [AC connection], and David my servant shall be their prince forever [DC connection]. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them [NC establishment]...

Here Ezekiel shows that in the NC all the promises of the God in the previous covenants find their fulfillment. So, the NC does not appear on the scene as something previously unknown to the people of God, but represents for them "the collation of all the old covenant promises in terms of a future expectation." (O. Palmer Robertson, Christ of the Covenants, p. 42) That future expectation was Jesus. Jesus Himself claimed this fulfillment when He instituted the Lord's Supper:

¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." ²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." (Lk. 22:19-20, emphasis added)

It is through the NC that believers have an even greater fellowship with God. With the incarnation of Christ (what we celebrate at Christmas), God became flesh and dwelt, "tabernacled" (the literal translation) among man (Jn. 1:14). With Christ the very presence of God walked, dwelt, "tabernacled" among men. Yet, the greater fellowship of the NC does not stop there. Christ purchased salvation for the elect and through their union with Him, believers have received the Spirit of adoption as sons so that they might be able to cry out to God, "Abba! Father!" Such an intimacy and fellowship with God (calling Him the Hebrew equivalent of "daddy") would never have been imagined in the OT. Yet, the covenantal trajectory of ever-increasing fellowship and presence has another level still to come. The final stage of intimacy in the NC is yet to come. Soon Jesus will return again (in His second advent) to consummate the presence and fellowship He inaugurated in His first advent. Re. 21:1-3 describes God's presence at that time:

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God." (emphasis added)

God's covenant refrain finds is zenith in the NC. In the present age believers are adopted as sons (and daughters) of God through their union with Christ and can call God "Abba." In the new heavens and the new earth, the increasing trajectory of fellowship seen in all the previous covenants will climax when God renews all of creation and grants uninhibited, unmediated fellowship with "God Himself." He will walk and talk with His people just like He did with Adam before the fall.

This is what we celebrate at Christmas, and it is also that to which we look forward and pray for we know that the best is yet to come. When one considers God's work of redemption throughout the ages in His covenants and considers what He has done in Christ (the first advent) and will soon do in Christ (the second advent), the only proper response is praise. We should say like Paul in Ro. 11:33-36:

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
³⁴ "For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?"
³⁵ "Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?"
³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Amen!

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 20

The next covenant we need to look at this week is the covenant God made with King David, the so-called "Davidic covenant" (DC) or, as some call it, the "covenant of kingdom." We can read about this covenant in 2 Sa. 7:12-17, 1 Chr. 17:7-14, and Ps. 89. Since the Samuel and Chronicles passages are parallel passages and Ps. 89 is a little long for a blog post, we will use Chronicles as our meditation for this day of Advent:

³ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan,
...
⁷ "Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, ⁸ and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹ And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, ¹⁰ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. ¹¹ When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴ but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.'" (1 Chr. 17:3, 7-14)

In this covenant, God promises to establish David's throne forever, which would ultimately be fulfilled in Christ (Lk. 1:32). This covenant, like the others, does not annul God's previous covenants and it reveals more about the covenant of grace. Each of the kings that followed David would be judged according to the Mosaic Covenant (MC), and when the kings and the people broke the MC, judgment came culminating in the exile (cf. 2 Kgs. 17:13ff). Nor does the DC merely rest on the MC, but the DC is still based upon the covenantal refrain. Ezekiel discusses God's covenant with David in terms of the covenantal refrain, "And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them." (Eze. 34:24) Here, as a covenantal representative, David substitutes for the people of God. He belongs to the Lord; so all the people belong to the Lord. They will be His people and He will be their God. Furthermore, God's promised fellowship with His people finds even greater fulfillment in the glorious, permanent dwelling of the Temple (1 Kgs. 6; 2 Chr. 7). So, like the previous covenants, the DC does not replace the others but supplements and builds upon the previous covenants. It also reveals a little more about the Messiah: He would be an eternal King who sits on the throne of David, which the angel Gabriel told Mary Jesus fulfills:

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Lk. 1:26-33)

It is Jesus' kingship that makes our salvation possible, Paul tells us in Colossians, "¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1:13-14) Jesus is King—King of this universe and King of believer's lives—which means He sit on an eternal throne in an eternal kingdom, of which believers are now citizens and will be forever (Eph. 2:19).

On this day of Advent, remember that you might be a citizen of America or another earthly country, but if you belong to Jesus, you are first and foremost a citizen of His Kingdom, in which there is salvation and of which there will be no end!

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 19

Today we continue our journey through the covenants of the Old Testament to see how they center around the covenantal refrain—"I will be your God and you will be my people"—and how they point us to Jesus. We have looked at God's covenant with Adam and Eve (after the fall), God's covenant with Noah, and God's covenant with Abraham. That brings us to God's covenant with Moses and the Israelite people. The specific passage about this covenant, since it lays out the covenant law for God's people, are numerous. It covers Ex. 19-24 and the entire book of Deuteronomy. It is far to much to read in a single blog post, so we will focus on God's words to Moses when He first promised to redeem Israel from Egypt and then talk a little about the Mosaic Covenant:

² God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. ⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. ⁶ Say therefore to the people of Israel, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷ I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. ⁸ I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.'" (Ex. 6:2-8, emphasis added)

This is not only the story of Israel's redemption from Egypt but also our story of our redemption from sin. Like God covenanted with the Israelites to give them the land of Canaan, so He covenanted with us to give us heaven and eventually the new heavens and the new earth, in Jesus. Like God heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians held as slaves, so He heard the groaning of His elect whom sin held as slaves. As God said, "I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment," so He brought us out of the burden of slavery to sin and redeemed us from the power of death, through Jesus. And, as God promised to bring them into the land He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and give it to them as a possession, so He will soon send Jesus back to bring us into the land we have been promised—the new heavens and the new earth—and give it to us as a possession. All of this was done for the Israelites and for His Church so He could fulfill His covenantal refrain, the thread weaving through all the covenants (italicized above): "I will be your God and you will be my people." God's physical redemption of Israel is a type, a foreshadowing of what He would soon do for all His elect in Jesus. This is why we have something celebrate at Advent. God brought us out of slavery into freedom in Christ, and "He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Col. 1:13).

Now, let's talk specifically about God's covenant with the Israelites that He gave to Moses. God covenants with His people at Mt. Sinai, and this covenant is often called the "Mosaic Covenant" or sometimes the "covenant of law." Why add this covenant under the umbrella of the covenant of grace after the Abrahamic Covenant (AC)? In Ga. 3:19 Paul says, "Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made…." The Mosaic Covenant (MC) was added to the umbrella of the covenant of grace "because of transgressions." It provided the covenant law and sacrificial system by which God's people could fellowship with Him—He as their God and they as His people—until "the offspring should come," i.e. until Jesus Christ came to fulfill the covenant of grace. The MC mediated the covenant of grace for God's people until Christ, and it ultimately pointed to Christ who was foreshadowed in its ordinances, laws, and sacrifices and who would one day fulfill and mediate a better, ultimate covenant (He. 7:22). It did not replace the AC but built upon it (again, giving more information about the covenant of grace and greater fellowship with God). This is clear from the beginning when God rescued Israel from Egypt: "And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." (Ex. 2:24, emphasis added) So, God redeemed them from Egypt to give them the land which He "swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Ex. 6:8, emphasis added) and so He could "take [them] to be [His] people, and [He] will be [their] God" (Ex. 6:7), again repeating His covenantal refrain. The covenantal dealings with God before He made the MC with the Israelites at Sinai were founded upon His covenant with Abraham, and this did not change with the introduction of the MC. Even after the covenant was made at Sinai, God often repeated His covenantal refrain that He made to Abraham (Lv. 11:45; Dt. 4:20; 29:13). Also, in the MC God's mercy and grace were traced to His covenant with Abraham (Ex. 32:12-14; 33:1; Lv. 26:42; Dt. 1:8; 4:31; 7:8; 9:27; 29:12-13). And, the fellowship promised in the covenantal refrain found even greater fulfillment with His presence in the Tabernacle among the people (Ex. 40:34ff; Lv. 26:11-12). It was only upon the foundation of God’s covenant with Abraham that the MC could be built, and it was in the MC that God’s covenant with Abraham found a basic fulfillment. More was to come in His later covenants and ultimate Jesus Himself, who would bring final fulfillment. Thus, far from abrogating God's covenant with Abraham, the MC built upon it, further revealed God's covenant of grace, increased His fellowship with His people, and pointed to Jesus.

So, even though the MC may seem like a lot of rules and regulations, remember that it is founded upon the promises of redemption and grace given in the AC, and remember that all these laws, ordinances, and sacrifices were not an end in themselves but pointed to Jesus who would fulfill them all forever. Christ's advent did not replace the covenant with Moses; it fulfilled the promises, shadows, and types in it that pointed to Him all along. 

By His Grace,

Taylor

Advent: Day 18

This week we started looking at God's covenants and how they point us to Jesus during this Advent season. We first talked about covenants in general and looked at the covenant of commencement God made in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Then we looked at how Noah's covenant fits into the mix of the covenant of grace. Today, we are going to look at the Abrahamic Covenant or, as it is sometimes called, the "covenant of promise." This covenant is given in portions from Ge. 12:1-9; 15:8-22; 17:1-14:

¹ Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹ And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. (Ge. 12:1-9)
⁸ But he said, "O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" ⁹ He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." ¹⁰ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites." (Ge. 15:8-21)
¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, ² that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly." ³ Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴ "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
⁹ And God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹² He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, ¹³ both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." (Ge. 17:1-14)

Now, there is so much in this covenant that one could spend dozens of blog posts talking about it. I do not intend to go that far, but I do want to point some things out about the continuity of this covenant with the previous covenants and how it points us to Jesus. In His work of redemption in history, God covenants with Abraham to set aside a people for Himself through which the Messiah (Jesus) would come. In this covenant, like His covenant with Adam and Eve, God gives His covenantal refrain and promises Abraham "to be God to [him] and to [his] offspring after [him]." This shows the settled character of God’s Abrahamic Covenant and promises an intimate relationship with Abraham and his offspring (greater fellowship). This must be in the context of the covenant of grace, for such an intimate relationship with a holy God presupposes the removal of sin and imputation of righteousness, which Abraham received through faith (Ge. 15:6; cf. Ro. 4:3) and had sealed in his circumcision (Ro. 4:11). God also promises that Abraham and his seed (alluding to Ge. 3:15) would be a channel of universal blessing (Ge. 12:2-3; 22:18). It is through this promise that Paul says the Scriptures "preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham," (Ga. 3:8) and it is this very promise that Peter says Jesus fulfilled (Ac. 3:25-26, cf. Ga. 3:16). Remember how we said that all the covenants are under the umbrella of the covenant of grace? Here, God’s plan of salvation in the covenant of grace is further explained: the seed promised in Ge. 3:15 would come through Abraham’s offspring (Jesus, the Messiah), would be a blessing to all nations, and would make fellowship with God possible ("I will be your God..."). This promise would be realized through God’s other promises to Abraham: land (Ge. 17:8) and numerous offspring (Ge. 15:5). The people and the land would provide the necessary environment (under the security of the covenant of preservation) from which the Messiah could come (what we celebrate during Advent). They would also point to fulfillment in a spiritual ancestry (Ro. 4:16-17; Ga. 3:7, 16) and a heavenly land (He. 11:10), which Jesus would accomplish in His work of redemption. Thus, God’s promise to Abraham gives more information about the covenant of grace and does not replace the previous covenants but builds upon them.

God's covenant with Abraham, like the promise of the seed in Ge. 3:15, is not some other way of salvation that has come and gone. It pointed us to Jesus and was preparing God's people for the advent of their Messiah. Now we, God's people, celebrate that advent and look forward to the future advent of Christ (His second coming) when He will take His spiritual people into the new heavens and new earth--the ultimate fulfillment of the land God promised Abraham (He. 11:10). This Advent season, remember that God's plan of salvation has not changed but has always and ever been through Jesus alone, and pray that Jesus will return soon.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 17

Yesterday we started looking at the covenants of the OT to see how they increasing waves of revelation about God's covenant of grace and ultimately point to Jesus (the one who fulfilled the covenant of grace). The next covenant and today's reading comes from Ge. 9:8-17:

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." 12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." 17 God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

This covenant is sometimes called the "covenant of preservation," for in this covenant God provides the preservative structure necessary to "all future generations" for His work of redemption in history to continue to Jesus. God's sign of this "everlasting covenant between [Him] and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth" is the rainbow, which one can still see today when the sun breaks through the clouds after a rain. It is generally a sign that God is maintaining this world for all people, but it is particularly a sign of the framework He provided in which the His covenant of grace would be accomplished. For, in order for the Messiah (Jesus) to come, there had to be a stable universal order in which He could be born, live a perfect life, die for His people, and be raised from the dead. God commits Himself to maintain this order in this covenant of preservation.

You might wonder, "Where is the covenantal refrain?" Well, this covenant breaks the pattern of all the others but for a very good reason. The other covenants of the OT are all redemptive covenants--they mark an increase of God's fellowship with man, reveal more about His covenant of grace, and they are made with man (God's creatures that are liable for sin and in need of redemption). This covenant is not redemptive but preservative, and it is made with "every living creature," i.e. the world itself. God does not increase His fellowship here or reveal anything else about the covenant of grace, but He does put in place the preservative framework necessary for the covenant of grace to be wrought in history. So, this covenant is still incredibly important for the advent of Christ. Without it, there may not have been a world to which He could come and redeem God's people.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 16

This week we are going to take a turn away from prophecy and look at the covenants of the Old Testament (OT). Looking at the covenants individually can be confusing sometimes because we are told they point to Jesus but sometimes we are really not sure how. Plus, there are so many of them, so the natural questions is, "How do they relate? If they even relate at all..." Well, all the OT covenants do relate because they are all part of the one covenant of grace that Jesus fulfilled for us in His life, death, and resurrection. (Think of the covenant of grace as an umbrella that covers all of Scripture from the fall of Adam to the end of Revelation.) The individual covenants of the OT build on each other as waves of ever-increasing revelation about the covenant of grace until they climax with Christ's fulfillment of the overarching covenant of grace. The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) has a wonderful statement about the unity of the covenant of grace:

The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works [i.e. God's promise of life to Adam if he obeyed the prohibition of the Garden]… Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ… This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law [i.e. the OT], and in the time of the Gospel [i.e. the NT]: under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all foresignifying [i.e. foreshadowing] Christ to come… Under the Gospel, when Christ, the substance, was exhibited [i.e. His advent, life, death, and resurrection], the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper… to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles… There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations. (WCF VII, emphasis added)

As the WCF points out, after Adam's fall, all the OT covenants point to Jesus who is "the substance" and fulfillment of them all. That is what we are going to look at this next week.

First, we need to see a thread, a motif that runs through all the OT covenants. They all center around a singular refrain that God repeats over and over again in some fashion: "I will be your God, and you will be my people" (Ge. 17:7; Ex. 6:7; Eze. 34:24; 36:28; Jer. 7:23; 30:22; 31:33). This is the heart of God's work of redemption. This refrain weaves its way through the OT in an ever-increasing presence of God among His people and fellowship of God with His people. This trajectory of increasing fellowship with God is made possible by Christ and finds its ultimate consummation in the new heavens and the new earth where "the dwelling place of God [will be] with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God." (Re. 21:1-4) Do you see the refrain in there? "He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God." This refrain is the thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation, and the substance of the thread is Jesus Himself. He has made it all possible by His incarnation (advent) and work of redemption.

Where is the first covenant? Well, we have already looked at that passage but we are going to do it again today. It is in Ge. 3:15:

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.

It all begins immediately after the fall of Adam. This promise sets into operation God's mission to fulfill the covenant of grace in Jesus and create a people for Himself. This covenant is often called the "covenant of commencement" because in it God commits Himself to redeem a people to Himself, i.e. He will be their God and they will be His people. It is significant that Paul alludes to this commitment to guarantee the triumph of the redeemed over satan: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Ro. 16:20). This shows that God's curse on the serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve pointed to Jesus Himself. Where is the covenantal refrain? Well, in this covenant its presence is general (God committing Himself to redeem a people for Himself) and it is stated negatively: the enemy of satan is the friend of God.

Jesus became incarnate to fulfill the covenant of grace that begins here in Ge. 3:15. From the very beginning God commits Himself to be a God to His redeemed and they to be His people.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 15

Today is the third Sunday of Advent, and it is time to start look at the Christmas story itself. We have looked at some of it in past posts in order to see how Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. This Sunday and next we will look at the story itself:

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
²³ "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Mt. 1:18-25)
¹ In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ And all went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. ⁶ And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Lk. 2:1-7)

There are two things I would like to point out from these stories. First, I think it is amazing that Joseph was unwilling to put Mary to shame even before he knew the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The passage says this is because he was "a just man," but in Jewish culture at this time, justice would have meant stoning Mary, not protecting her. Right from the beginning, we see that the story of Jesus is going to break the molds of this world and that God is the God of grace. Joseph was declared "a just man" not because he was a stickler for (earthly) justice but because he showed grace and compassion to Mary. Second, I think it is incredible to see how God used the most powerful man in the world, Caesar Augustus, as a tool to fulfill a 400-year-old prophecy. In Mi. 5:2, the prophet Micah predicts that Bethlehem will be the birthplace of the "ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days." Then Caesar decides to take a census and Joseph and Mary must go to Bethlehem right when she is about to give birth. Caesar may have thought he was ruling his empire but really he was just doing God's bidding (cf. Pro. 21:1).

Take some time today (especially since it is the Lord's Day, a day of rest) to meditate on God's grace and compassion to you, as well as His sovereignty over your life. And, do not forget to rest on your Sabbath.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 14

Isaiah was not the only prophet to prophesy about the coming Messiah. Prophecies of the coming Christ are all over the Old Testament. There are more than I have time to blog about. But, we have time to look at some, and today we are going to look at how both Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied that the Messiah would be a branch from the stump of Jesse, the house of David:

¹ There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
² And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and might,
    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
³ And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
⁴ but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
    and faithfulness the belt of his loins. (Is. 11:1-5)
⁵ "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness.'" (Je. 23:5-6)

Both Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied that the Messiah would come from the line of Jesse (David's father). Both likened him to a shoot or a branch. Both declared that He will save God's people. And, both declared that He will be a man of righteousness. And, of course, centuries later we see that Jesus was exactly that. He is the one through whom we have righteousness (Ro. 5:12-21). Indeed, as Paul declared, Jesus is our righteousness (1 Co. 1:30). As the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) states it:

Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifies; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God. (WCF 11.1, emphasis added)

Thank God for that branch, that shoot from the stump of Jesse, for we have no righteousness of our own that would ever be acceptable to God (cf. Mt. 5:20). By the way, did you notice the Messiah arose from the stump of Jesse? It was not from the thriving tree or even from the sickly tree. It was from the stump, i.e. dead humanity (Eph. 2:1). He arose from the same dead humanity that He came to save. This Christmas season, remember where God found you, where God found all humanity when He sent His Son to be our sacrifice so He could be our righteousness.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 13

Today we continue reading through some of Isaiah's prophecies of the Messiah by looking at chapter 61. As we mentioned a few days ago, chapter 61 is part of the "comfort section" of Isaiah in which Isaiah prophesies to the Jews in exile the deliverance that God will bring from Babylon and ultimately in the Messiah. In Isaiah 61:1-3 we read about the redemption the Messiah, Jesus, would bring:

¹ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

With this particular prophecy, Jesus Himself says in Lk. 4:16-21 that He fulfills it:

¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

This prophecy reminds us of the grace that God has given us in Christ Jesus. In Christ we have comfort instead of mourning, a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, gladness instead of sorrow, a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, and we have become oaks of righteousness. Whose righteousness? Certainly not our own for Jesus earned it and we received it by faith (Ro. 1:17; 4:11; Php. 3:9).

This is what Christmas declares to us. It declares the grace of God, the year of the Lord's favor for the poor, the brokenhearted, and the captives of sin. What is grace? Grace is not just God not giving us what we deserve—punishment for our sins—but God giving us the glorious opposite of what we deserve—peace with Him for our rebellion, Jesus' righteousness for our sinfulness, adoption into His family for our alienation by our sin, and eternal life with Him for our fate of eternal punishment in hell. Grace is not just unmerited favor, as if we were simply neutral people, but demerited favor. We get the glorious opposite of what we deserve. And, in this prophecy we see that in Christmas we celebrate God sending His Son and anointing Him for the task of freeing the captives to sin so that we could have this grace and be called "oaks of righteousness" in Jesus.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 12

The God who became man, the suffering servant, for us is also the God who heals the weak and the hurting. Again, today we are in Isaiah:

¹ Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
² He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
³ a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴ He will not grow faint or be discouraged
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law. (Is. 42:1-4)

Matthew tells us in Mt. 12:15-21 that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy too. Jesus came to earth and suffered, so that He could heal our suffering. This doesn't mean all our diseases will be heal, this doesn't mean we will not experience heartache in this world. It does mean that when we are bruised, He will care for us and not let us break. When we are barely burning, He will care for us and not let us be snuffed out. This is why Jesus says to us, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mt. 11:28) And, soon He will return to take us into the new heavens and new earth where there will be no pain, no crying, no sin, and no death (Re. 21:1-4). That is what the suffering servant secured for His people by becoming man. This is why we can and should celebrate Christmas.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 11

Yesterday we looked at the Great Commission given by the Father to the Son. In it, the Father commits the Son to die for His people and the Son takes that commission. That means that many of the prophecies about Jesus are not going to be happy prophecies. One of the saddest tells us that the Servant—the Messiah—will be a suffering servant:

¹ Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹ And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.
¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
¹¹ Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Is. 53:1-12)

He was despised, rejected, pierced, bruised, and God laid on Him our iniquities. That was the plan for the incarnation of Jesus. It was the plan when God the Father commission God the Son (Is. 49), and Jesus willingly took on the responsibility.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism calls this the "humiliation" of Christ. It asks in question #27, "Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?" and it answers, "Christ's humiliation consisted in His being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time." Even becoming man was part of this suffering that Jesus was commissioned by God to take. The incarnation, the glorious event that we celebrate at Christmas, was a humiliation for Jesus. Paul tells us that Jesus "emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." (Php. 2:5-11) He gave up the glorious riches of heaven and became one of us, and not just one of us but a servant for us. He voluntarily subjected Himself to the miseries of this life, leaving the perfection of heaven. Paul also calls this the grace of Jesus: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich." (2 Co. 8:9) This is the true meaning of Christmas—that Jesus became poor so we, by His poverty, might become rich.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 10

Much of the last section of Isaiah (chapters 40-66) contains prophecies about the coming of the Messiah. We looked at one of those yesterday. That is why chapters 40-66 of Isaiah are often called the "comfort section." This final section contains God's purpose of peace (ch. 40-48), His Prince of peace (ch. 49-55), and His program of peace (ch. 56-66). Did you know that is also contains the Great Commission? "Hang on a minute," you might be thinking, "the Great Commission is in Mt. 28:16-20." That may be what your ESV or NIV heading tells you, but they are wrong. The Great Commission is in Is. 49:

¹ Listen to me, O coastlands,
    and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called me from the womb,
    from the body of my mother he named my name.
² He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
    in his quiver he hid me away.
³ And he said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
⁴ But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the Lord,
    and my recompense with my God.”
⁵ And now the Lord says,
    he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
⁶ he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
    that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
    the servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and arise;
    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” (Is. 49:1-7)

Do you see God the Father's commission to His servant, the Son, there? The heart of it is in v. 6: "I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Is it really the Son who is being addressed here? It can be confusing because sometimes the one addressed is called "Israel" and sometimes "servant" and they seem to be one person, but in v. 5 the servant and Israel are distinguished. Why this confusing association and dissociation between the servant and Israel? Because God's Messiah is not the nation of Israel, yet He can be identified with the nation because He is their covenant head (v. 8), their representative (cf. Ro. 5:12-21). You know, Paul and Barnabas saw this as the Great Commission too. They did; they quote from v. 6 in Ac. 13:47 when they are forced to defend their missionary efforts to the Jewish leaders: "For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles,that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" They said God gave the command to them. The commission certainly was not given to them, right? Not directly, but the Disciple's Commission was in Mt. 28:16-20. Jesus, who was given the Great Commission by God in Is. 49, passed the missionary torch to His disciples in Mt. 28, so Paul and Barnabas can say the command in Is. 49:6 was given to them. It was given to Jesus and He, in turn, passed it on to them.

In Is. 49, God is committing Himself to give His Son, the second person of the Trinity, to die for His people, which are not only Israel but the "the nations... to the end of the earth." When did this commission occur? Well, we do not know for certain. Isaiah recorded the words in the 8^th century BC as a prophecy of the coming Messiah, but God the Father most likely commissioned the Son long before that. In fact, the commission was probably given before time began: Christ speaks of a task given to Him by God the Father (Jn. 5:30, 43; 6:38-40; 17:4-12) and the plan of redemption was part of God's eternal decree (Eph. 1:4ff; 3:11; 2 Th. 2:13; 2 Ti. 1:9; Js. 2:5; 1 Pt. 1:2), so Jesus' task must also have been part of God's eternal decree before He even created.

The baby born in a manger in Bethlehem is this Messiah. He is Jesus—the Son, the second person of the Trinity—and He was commissioned by the Father to save His people even before we fell in Adam. The missionary activity of the Church was started by God before there was a Church or even a heaven and earth. The Advent of Christ as the incarnate Son is the inauguration of that activity in the world. Jesus passed it onto His disciples, and it has been pass down again and again for 2,000 years. Soon, however, Jesus will return to finish what He started and take us all to the new heavens and new earth, in His second advent. For now, however, we celebrate the first advent and continue to fulfill the Great Commission given to the Son by the Father (Is. 49) and passed onto us by the Son (Mt. 28).

By His Grace,
Taylor

Advent: Day 9

Yesterday we looked at Christ as the King. He is the King from the line of David that God promised to establish forever, but His kingship is far beyond any ideas we might have kingship. He is the King of the universe and the King of believer's lives, but let us not imprint on Him what the world has done with kingship.  He is the Sovereign Lord but He is also the Great Shepherd:

⁹ Go on up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
    lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Behold your God!”
¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young. (Is. 40:9-11)

Isaiah goes on in this passage to describe God as the Sovereign Creator and Sovereign Ruler, but those are both within the context of Christ as our shepherd. Being the Sovereign Creator and Ruler of this universe means that of course Jesus can take care of the mess that we call our lives, but that is little comfort if we do not know for certain that He cares enough to do it. Isaiah's words above remind us that of course He cares. He is the Good Shepherd.

¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd…. ¹³ He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. (Jn. 10:11-16)

The Sovereign Lord whom God the Father appointed to be born of a virgin, which we celebrate at Christmas, is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. Isaiah tells us that the same God who is the Sovereign Creator and Ruler of this universe is also the Sovereign Shepherd who gathers His beloved lambs and holds them close to His chest. The same mighty arm that rules this universe and brings princes, kings, and presidents to nothing, that same arm gently lifts the hurting lamb and lovingly leads the bewildered sheep.

The baby born in Bethlehem is King, Prophet, God with us, the Righteous Judge, and He is also our Shepherd.

By His Grace,
Taylor