THE CENTRALITY OF THE WORD OF GOD The new covenant is the most extensive provision for man's involvement with the living God that has ever been revealed to men. It transcends all that was before it. It is the ultimate demonstration thus far of God's love for fallen man, and has been executed in the grandest display of Divine wisdom ever witnessed by intelligent creatures (Eph. 1:8). Under the provisions of the new covenant, men are purged from their sins, their hearts are purified, and they come into experiential involvement with the very God they have offended. They are reconciled to Him, have peace with Him, and access to Him. Tomorrow:
"I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for THOU HAST MAGNIFIED THY WORD ABOVE ALL THY NAME." (Psa 138:2) ". . . for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!" (Amplified Bible)
Devotion 10 of 30
All of this has been accomplished without the Lord compromising His own character. In fact, rather than modifying His inherent nature, He has found a way to display it more fully. Through providing for the extrication of men from the dilemma of sin, God has remained both "just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). For this reason, He is able to reveal more of Himself, and His purpose.
But what does all of this have to do with the word of God? A great deal, indeed! It is by means of His word that God has revealed Himself, or made Himself known. His purpose is delineated in His word. His commitments are revealed there, as well as the things He loves and the things He hates.
THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS
Everything about this "great salvation" (Heb. 2:3) is beyond the pale of physical sense; outside the sphere of flesh and blood. The Lord Jesus, who has accomplished the reconciling death, is not apparent to the flesh. The blood of Christ, which cleanses and reconciles, is not perceived with the senses. The "blessed God" (I Tim. 1:11), satisfied with the vicarious sacrifice of His dear Son (Isa. 53:11) is "invisible," "no man" having "seen Him at any time" (Heb. 11:27; John 1:18). Yet, all of this is even more real than things accessed with the senses – more real, because they are eternal.
The great and abiding realities to which we have come in Christ are all unseen. That is the postulate of their untouchability occurring in Hebrews 12:18: "For ye are NOT come unto the mount that might be touched." Instead of that mount of sensible discernment, "ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel" (Heb. 12:22-24). None of those things can been seen or touched – not a single one of them!
LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN
How can we fail to comprehend the elevated nature of the kingdom of God as perceived from within the new covenant? Righteousness, peace, joy – they are intangible, but they constitute "the kingdom of God" (Rom. 14:17). God, Christ, the Spirit, the "holy angels" – access to none of them may be had by the senses. They are all unseen, unperceived by the natural eye, undetected by our fallen natures. This is the reason for Paul's classic statement of the case: "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18).
There is an unseen world. It is called "the world to come," and it expressly has to do with men (Heb. 2:5-8). Real substance is found there, and men are urged to lay up for themselves treasures there, where moth and rust fail to corrode and corrupt (Matt. 6:19-20). God calls upon us, in the new covenant, to abandon earthly priorities, and seek "first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matt. 6:33); both of which are unseen. Even our Lord Jesus has gone beyond our sight and touch; He is "passed into the heavens" (Heb. 4:14). Everything of genuine and lasting worth and substance is unseen, unsensed, and beyond carnal apprehension!
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for liberating me from confinement to the realm of sense and time.