Author: Jay Lehman

Your Separation Has Ended

One of the most common things I hear from believers who haven’t yet been captured by the grace message is that they have a feeling of God as being far off.  They see God as being “out there”.  Their experience is feeling and seeing God as a distant God.  As a lady recently shared with me, “God has a lot of people to pay attention to.  I am probably off in a dusty corner of His world.”  Why would someone feel that way?

There is a myriad of reasons a person may feel that way.  I can think of at least two.  First, we have been taught, very erroneously in my view, that even after our conversion there is a separation between God and us.  We are separated from God by our limits and His limitlessness.  We are separated from God by being “down here” while He is “up there”.  We are separated from God by our sin.  But the message of the New Testament is that nothing – not our sin, not our doubts, not our fears, not even His Godness – can separate us from the love and presence of God.  (Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 10:19-22.)

Second, when we bring an Old Testament mindset into our new covenant lives, we create a distorted view of God’s changing presence or distance.  The idea of separation is at the heart of the old covenant relationship between God and His people.  The keeping of the Law was a tenuous avenue to connect and close the distance.  God was at various times far off or came close in the history of Israel.  God showed up to be worshipped.  God showed up to warn them.  God showed up to get His people out of trouble.  And God sometimes showed up to punish them.  God’s character never changes, but His interaction with His people under the old covenant was often a shifting shadow.

Bill Vanderbush, in his book Unveiled Horizon, summarizes it well, “The old covenant was filled with the perspective of distance and separation from God and revealed in an endless list of activities that man could do to try to get close to Him.  The new covenant is filled with a perspective of reconciled union and reveals the unfathomable lengths God has gone to, to make His righteous redemption the very core of our identity as sons and daughters.”

Yes, the new covenant is the answer to “your separation has ended.”  All of the distance between you and God was erased at the cross.  God has now joined with you in your spirit.  “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him … Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit WHO IS IN YOU, whom you have from God?” (I Corinthians 6:17,19).

Our friend, Max Lucado, once said in an interview, “Two hundred and sixteen times in his epistles, Paul talks about Jesus or God living inside us.”  I haven’t done the math myself, but this is a number we should not just fly past.  It is a beautiful picture of our united identity.  He is in you!!!  Your separation has ended!!!

How Jesus Found Us

Have you ever thought about how Jesus sees us, you and me, in the gospels?  When we were without hope, Jesus identified us as:

Captives who needed to be set free, “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” (Luke 4:18).

Lost ones who needed to be found, “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ … And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ … For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:6,9,24).

Sick folks who needed to be healed, “The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’  And Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick’ ” (Luke 5:31).

Weary souls who need rest, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Jesus’ description of us is full of hope.  There is always hope that the captive can be set free, the lost can be found, the sick can be healed, and the weary can find rest.  All of which happened to us when we believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

And in a beautiful contrast, He DID NOT identify us as sinners who need to be punished!

Welcome to the New !!!

Are you looking for a Bible study for your small group this summer?  Welcome to the New !!! is a 13-week journey into the promise and provision of the new covenant; a path of discovery regarding your new identity and freedom in Christ.  Each week unpacks from the Scriptures one aspect of all that became new in us when we believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Within each lesson are discussion questions designed to identify where these truths intersect your personal experience.

One fellow recently told me that just meditating on the promises on the front cover changed his view of the Christian life.  My prayer for you is that you experience a greater rest, assurance, and peace that comes from truly knowing who we are in Christ.  I invite you to join this journey of discovery.

Jay

Click here if you would like to check it out on Amazon.

Running the Race

In a few of his letters, the apostle Paul compared the Christian life to running a race.  It is a metaphor we often hear in sermons and devotionals.  The writer of the book of Hebrews probably made the clearest connection in Hebrews chapter 12.  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

Yes, the Christian life can be compared to running a race.  But here is a revelation you may not have thought about.  YOU STARTED THIS RACE WITH THE FINISH LINE BEHIND YOU!

Yes, the finish line is behind you.  The finish line was crossed by Jesus in your place at the cross.  Look at what He has already accomplished in you when you believed the gospel.

You are holy, “So as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3:12).

You are blameless, “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:22).

You are righteous, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).

You are forgiven, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us ALL our transgressions” (Colossians 2:13).

You are perfected, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

You are pure, “And God made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9).

Simply put, the work is finished.  The cross worked to accomplish all that God promised in the arrangement of the new covenant.

So what race are we running now?  You are running a race of rest.  You are called to run from a place of rest.  The same Hebrews author also wrote, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.  Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:9-11).

It may seem counterintuitive to have “diligent” and “rest” in the same sentence of instruction for us.  But that is our race.  To run to His rest.  To be diligent to enter His rest.  To run from a place of rest.  Our rest is resting in the finished work of the cross; the finished work of Jesus.

Jesus proclaimed His accomplishment from the cross.  “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’  And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30).  We are the recipients of that work.

Yes, stay the course.  Say with the apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (II Timothy 4:7).

But remember in whose power you are running.  It is the wind of the Holy Spirit, the wind of Christ in you, that carries you along in the race.  And it empowers you to run the race from a place of trust, assurance, and rest.

Guarded by God’s Name and Power

11“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You.  Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.  12While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me.  I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  13But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:11-13).

As we continue in Jesus’ John 17 prayer, we find Jesus preparing to leave this world.  While Jesus was in the world, He “guarded” the disciples so that none were lost (with the exception of Judas, who chose his own path of destruction).  In this prayer, Jesus now transfers His guardianship to the Father.  He asks the Father to “keep them in Your name.”  That is, to keep them with God’s power.

Throughout the Old Testament, the name of God is equated with the power of God.  “May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!” (Psalm 20:1).  “Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us” (Psalm 44:5).  “Save me, O God, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your power” (Psalm 54:1).  “Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, that He might make His power known” (Psalm 106:8).  “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8).  And one of my favorites, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).

Jesus also prays that “they may be one”.  We will see this specific request of Jesus a few times in this prayer.  Our unity as believers is of great importance to the Savior.  I believe that is why the apostles emphasize over and over the unity of the body in their letters to the churches.  “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

This call for unity is very serious.  Division is deadly to the body of Christ.  Too often, we separate over points of theology or over what should be emphasized in a church’s mission or which personalities to line up behind.  But we all need, with our various gifts and personalities, to come under the authority of Christ’s prayer; His prayer that we would be one.  There is no greater aspiration in the church.  Our unity is a direct demonstration of our “loving one another”.

Earlier in the evening, Jesus said to His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11).  Here in verse 13, Jesus prays to the Father requesting that their experience of His joy would indeed come to pass.  Christ’s joy IN YOU is Christ’s promise TO YOU and Christ’s prayer FOR YOU.  May you dwell in the answer to this prayer, and feel the overwhelming warmth of Christ’s joy in you.

-Excerpt from Abiding in the Father’s Love by Jay.  Click here to order a copy.  This book is a verse by verse look at Jesus’ last supper message where Jesus gives us a beautiful promise and preview of what life under the new covenant will look like.