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Monday, November 14, 2022

The life which draws us near to the Father

 

           Jesus is the life

Jesus is the life, the living way to the Father through His shed blood on the cross which is represented by the cup of the New Covenant which came into effect on the night He was led to be crucified when He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to His disciples and said, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28).

The cup of blessings represents the life of Jesus Christ as we have been duly admonished saying; “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.' And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).

In our New Testament dispensation, the blood of Jesus Christ is represented by the cup of the new covenant and this is what purifies and cleanses the worshiper and presents him/her holy, blameless and irreproachable before the Father as we have been duly admonished saying; If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1John 1:6-7).

We should all note carefully that the cleansing which is done by the blood of Jesus Christ when we have fellowship with the Father and with one another is not something of the past but it is an ongoing process that takes place during the fellowship service. Furthermore, we have been duly admonished saying; “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness: If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1John 1:8-10).

This therefore signifies that Jesus Christ has given us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink in the form of the bread and wine as the medium to present us holy, blameless and irreproachable before the Father, with Himself being the High Priest and Mediator pleading and making intercessions on our behalf, and so we have the consolation saying; “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10: 19-22).

And so the formula by which one becomes holy remains the same as in the past with the exception of the change of substance, from the symbolic, shadow, or copy of the reality to having the real substance. The substance by which our atonement is made in our new dispensation is through the body and blood of Jesus Christ which is represented by the bread and wine: Which we have been duly instructed saying; “Command the children of Israel, and say to them, 'My offering, My food for My offerings made by fire as a sweet aroma to Me, you shall be careful to offer to Me at their appointed time” (Numbers 28:2).

This has been God’s ordained plan for man even before the foundation of the world as alluded to by the apostle Paul who wrote; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence” (Ephesians 1:3-8).

The sad reality is that, the majority of us who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ are too self-righteous, we believe that we can approach the presence of the Father without bringing Him His offering when His word stated quite distinctly to bring an offering and come before His courts and the main objective for having a holy convocation is to offer the Lord the food for His offerings: Truly, these times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

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To be continued, stay tuned

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph


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