How to become a Better Christian
There is no one who doesn’t want to become better. But in our attempt to reach for the stars sometimes we over shoot and miss the mark. In the book of Hebrews the author writes to the Hebrew Christians, converts from Judaism, who were trying to jog holding the hand of the law on the one side and that of Christ on the other. They wanted to be “safe” so as not to miss eternal life on any account and ended up as twisted personalities, having too much religion.
How many of us try to improve on what Christ did for us by contributing from our holey purses and get in the way of God’s simple plan of salvation? Our religion can never be Jesus and. Today it may not be Christ and law but it can easily be Christ and Mary or Christ and self-help or Christ and an umpteen number of things. The book of Hebrews is a travel guide to heaven. The author, who obviously has been on both sides of the fence, points us to eight truths to take us to the better side of the fence and make us better Christians.
1. Better Fruits (Heb 6:9)
“Beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation.”
The most important thing that accompanies salvation, the fruit of salvation, is a burning desire for an onward journey towards perfection. “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation” (6:1). That’s where the chapter starts.
A plateau life leads to backsliding hindering our onward march towards perfection. A boat without oars will go with the wind. If a bird in flight stops flying it will drop down. A gazelle that cannot run will fall prey to a pride of hungry lions. So also a Christian stuck in rudiments, without upward mobility in Christ will dribble off to nothing. We need the basic truths but there’s a lot more. If we keep on laying the foundation, the building will not go up.
After enjoying the rain of the blessings of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and future powers, if we bring forth cacti and weeds like wasteland, we are Christians living our life backwards, re-crucifying Christ. But if we bring forth plenty of fruits and vegetables like farm land we make the farmer jump with joy (6:7,8).
The first step towards perfection is to steer clear of backsliding. Even a tiny leak can sink a ship. The author of Hebrews is subtley gentle in his approach to the Hebrew Christians. He doesn’t charge them of backsliding but warns them of it and tells them that he is confident of better fruits in their after salvation life. He appreciates them for their service, admonishes them not to be sluggish but to diligently move on towards perfection through the grace of God and not by the Levitical priesthood or law. “If perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedec…For the law made nothing perfect” (7:11,19).
Let us take the cue. Job was a perfect man, blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. He dug in his heel and claimed innocence when his friends accused him. He was finally approved of God. Paul makes a similar tall claim (1 Cor 4:4). It is possible to lead a perfectly blameless life and know it too. Job lived before the law was given, Paul lived after the law was abolished.
So both came under grace, not the law. We may not be perfect like Job or Paul, but we can aim to be better through grace.
2. Better Hope (Heb 7:19)
he law made nothing perfect; on the other hand,there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God”
We were without hope, without God in this world but now brought near to God (Eph 2:12). The Jews had pinned their hope on Moses for their deliverance. Jesus chided the Jews saying, “Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set” (Jn 5:45). Moses was their great hero and they could not give anyone (even
Christ) the place of Moses in their lives. The author of Hebrews convinces them that Jesus is better than Moses (ch 3).
What is the better hope?
1. Christ the hope of nations (Mt 12:21; Col 1:27).
2. Hope in the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6; 24:15).
3. Hope of Salvation (1 Thess 5:8).
4. Hope of eternal life (Tit 1:2).
5. Blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Tit 2:13).
When the Jews had their eyes on Moses they could not accept Christ. Today our hope may be in our riches. Paul writes to Timothy to “command those who are rich in this present world... not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God.” As the saying goes, the silk worm dies of its own wealth. Riches have cunningly led us astray. Today the close competitor to God is mammon (money). Do we hope in God for everything or trust our riches? Listen to Job a very rich man testifying with audacity: “If I have made gold my hope or said to fine gold, ‘You are my confidence,’ this would be an iniquity deserving judgment, for I would have denied God who is above” (31:24,25,28). How many of us have denied God by trusting in our riches? It is a hopeless hope. If we have money we pay; if we don’t have money we pray. It will be a good discipline to distribute atleast part of our wealth to the poor and God’s work so that we will lean on God. Paul admonishes the rich, “Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim 6:17-19).
Are we preoccupied with the hopes of salvation, resurrection, eternal life and the glorious return of the King of saints or is our mind scavenging on business, inheritance, position, beauty, fame, education, status or anyone on whom we are pinning our hope?
This hope is the sure and steadfast anchor of our souls that prevents us from being tossed in the sea of life but takes us to the rejuvenating presence of Jesus who has taken a permanent post as High Priest for us (6:18-20). If we grab this hope with both hands and never let go, we are sure to become better Christians.
3. Better Covenant (Heb 7:22; 8:6)
“Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant… He is also Mediator of a better covenant.”
A covenant is a binding agreement made by two or more parties. The first and weak (because it didn’t work out) covenant was made in Sinai by the giving of the ten commandments (Heb 7:18). When the people said, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do” they literally signed their death sentence (Ex 24:3). It was impossible for them to keep the law.
They lived under constant terror of violating any one of the laws incurring the wrath of God. Living under the old covenant will turn your life into a living hell.
The old covenant is called the ministry of death and condemnation but the new covenant the ministry of the Spirit and righteousness. The old was of the letter but the new of the Spirit. The letter kills but the Spirit gives life. The old was a fading glory like the morning glory but the new, exquisitely glorious and permanent (2 Cor 3:6-11). The old was written on stone but the new on flesh. The old was like a husband telling his wife, ‘Do this or I’ll kill you.’ The new is like the husband saying, ‘You trust me and obey and I’ll help you. If you fail I’ll forgive you because I love you.’
Under the old, though the covenanter (God) was faithful, the covenantee (Israel) didn’t keep his part of the bargain. Now God has written this new covenant not on paper or stone but etched it in our hearts. We’ll all get to know Him first hand. God’s response to our unrighteousness shall be mercy, not death penalty and the slate of our sins wiped clean forever (Heb 8:6-13). Halleluiah!
Once while climbing a steep path I sat down in a step to catch my breath. I watched a baby sparrow fluttering on the road with the mother nearby.
Suddenly the road vibrated at the approach of a truck and I worried about the baby that had not yet learnt to fly. Promptly the mother hopped close and the baby climbed on to her back and they were safe across the road. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Can our parent God be any less?
With the old covenant sloughed out, He is no more a terror striking God but a gentle God of mercy. We don’t have to labour and struggle to keep the commandments but just take His easy yoke, carry a light load and find rest to our souls (Mt 11:28-30). Then life will not look so forbidding. Shout praises to God for the new covenant that makes us better persons.
4. Better Promises (Heb 8:6)
“He is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.”
The Bible is full of promises from Genesis to Revelation. However there is a change in the wind at the birth of Christ. In the OT the promises were more physical and material. God promised the Jews prosperity, victory, wealth, health, children, cattle and the promised land. In Deuteronomy 28 we read a series of promises. But in the NT, Paul, the brightest star in the galaxy of apostles boasts of his stripes, prisons, deaths, beatings, stonings, shipwreck, robbers, dangers from his own country men and Gentiles and false brothers, dangers in the city, wilderness and sea, hungers, thirst, cold, nakedness etc., Where were God’s promises? Today if any of these things happen to us we question God. Why? Because our mind is still OT. We must understand that today our promises are more spiritual. What is earthly blessings? It is a soup made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that has starved to death.
On the other hand, we have the promises of rest and eternal life (4:1; 9:15). James talks about the crown of life and the Kingdom promised to those who love God (1:12;2:5). Peter explains in no uncertain terms about the exceedingly great and precious promises through which we may be partakers of His divine nature and the promise of His coming (2 Pet 1:4;3:4,9). If we do some exercise in counting the NT promises our nature will be transformed to that of Christ and our mind will be set on heavenly things. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3). When you kneel down, open your Bible to the prayers of Paul and pray them. You’ll be surprised how different his prayers were. Chocolates get stale and flowers wither, but spiritual blessings are ethereal. We are like the little boy who went to the zoo to see the elephant.
He exclaimed, “This is not the elephant. In my book it is so small.” That’s how we see spiritual promises in the Bible. In reality they are bigger than the universe. Abraham had pinned his hope on Isaac through whom the promise of God was to be fulfilled. But at God’s command he was ready to sacrifice even that and inherited the resplendent promise of becoming the father of all believers. By giving up we don’t lose, we only gain. If we let our hold upon worldly promises grow weaker we can float away to spiritual blessings. Only that will make us better Christians.
5. Better Sacrifice (9:23)
“Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”
Sacrifice in the OT was made by the high priest who entered the Holy of Holies once a year offering blood for his own sins and the people’s. People could not go into the presence of God. This ritual was repeated every year. Still it could not assuage the conscience of the people nor make them perfect nor take away their sins. It did not even make so much as a dent in the sin problem. But Christ as High Priest with His own blood entered the Most Holy place once and for all into the presence of God for us, to clean up our whole life inside and out, to cleanse our conscience and remove our guilt. By one offering He has perfected us forever. The flesh of bulls did not whet the appetite of God. But He prepared a body for Christ to be butchered for us.
So how is the immolation of Christ better? Under the Old Covenant people sat in the outer court, staring at the veil separating them from the presence of God. But now that the body of Christ, the veil is torn we can simply bypass the outer court and rush into the embrace of God fearlessly, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ.
In a Home for special children a teacher taught the kids demonstrating with the middle three fingers,
“Three in One,
One in three;
the One in the middle
He died for me.”
She wondered if the retarded children could grasp the truth. Later a fire broke out in the Home and many died. When the bodies were recovered one boy was found clutching the middle finger! A simple truth to digest.
Today we have substituted so many things for the sacrifice of Christ. When I was a house surgeon, we had a case posted for surgery. We were pressing the illiterate relatives to give blood. After a mini conference among themselves they came and blurted out, “We have a goat…” Think of it. Cheap and convenient substitutes! Our offerings to God like the slaughtering of bulls and all those dead-end efforts cannot buy us our eternal salvation. If we understand the preciousness of the holocaust as the final solution to our sin problem we cannot but become better Christians. But if we consider the blood ordinary, we trample the Son of God under foot and insult the Spirit of grace (Ch 9,10). “It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people” (10:13 The Message).
6. Better Possession (10:34)
“You have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.”
A Christian whose mind is set on earthly possessions cannot and will not become better in his Christian walk. Abraham spent his life in the land of promise like a pilgrim in a foreign country, residing in make-shift tents with his son and grandson. Why? Why didn’t he build a palace for all the wealth he had? Because he waited for the city built by God (11:9-10). Heaven was their homeland (11:13,14). They desired a “better heavenly country (11:16). Moses’ mind was set on “greater riches” rather than the wealth of the Egyptian royal palace.
He counted suffering for Christ far more valuable than the comforts of the king’s house because he was looking ahead for the pay-off. So he turned his heel on Egypt (11:26).
How we worry when our house is robbed. Last month (September 2006) one of our missionary’s house was plundered by miscreants because of his service. Yes, we worried. But look at the reaction of early Christians—“You joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven” (10:34). He has certainly provided “something better” something inexpressibly lovely for us (11:40). If we count our eternal possession we will choke with gratitude. Stop wasting your life accumulating things that will turn to dust and ashes.
I think our faith is inversely proportional to our riches when I read James 2:5 which goes like this, “Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith?” Who is a better Christian? The one who lives luxuriously here to inherit eternal poverty or the one who leads a spartan lifestyle to inherit eternal riches? When this truth dawns in your head you will start enjoying your days on earth rather than enduring them.
7. Better Resurrection (11:35)
“Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.”
Time is closing in on us. Life goes on like a merrygo-round giving us hardly any time to think about the return of Christ. Soon we may be facing hard decisions, whether to accept suffering and trials for a better resurrection or cave in to the pressure to deny Christ.
So many are the opportunities to deny Christ in our work spot, school, college, business, sports, where we live among non-Christians, in crosscultural situations. A word, a letter, a gesture may deliver us from the humiliation and ill-treatment we’ll be subjected to as Christians. Are we denying Christ by our dress, non-Christian style and practices to run with the crowd, by our camouflage to hide our Christian identity? Take your stand for Christ. Your deliverance is not far off.
“And there shall be time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the Book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan 12:1-2).
We are raised to live forever! The dead body is no beautiful sight, but when it is raised it is glorious. It is buried lifeless and weak but raised up powerful, supernatural, spiritually immortal (1 Cor 15:42-44). Paul counted all his plus points as nothing, to know Him and the power of His resurrection so that he may attain the better resurrection (Phil 3:7-11). Jesus gave a super idea, hard to practice but not impossible, to make our resurrection an award winning ceremony. “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbours, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk 14:12-14). I hate to keep repeating about riches but I am unable to shut the mouth of the Scriptures which keep howling about it all the way through.
The bell is about to toll for us and soon we’ll face the smile of death. So set your mind on the
resurrection. Decide never to deny Christ in any situation, even if you are harassed, tortured, killed to go down with your flags flying, and no doubt you’ll have a spectacular beginning in Christian life.
8. Better Blood (12:24)
“You have come to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”
You can guess what the blood of Abel spoke, calling from the ground to the Lord. In response to it God said that Cain was cursed from the earth and sevenfold vengeance on anyone who killed Cain. But the blood of Christ speaks forgiveness, not just sevenfold but 7x70 fold! Think of it. Where do we stand without the blood of Christ? You have come into the embrace of that blood.
Dear Christian, are you still living under the unforgiving lashes of your conscience, dark
ruminations filling your mind? Does guilt sit on your soul and weigh you down? If God be for us who can be against us? Don’t allow the accuser of brothers to brazenly accuse you too. The blood of Christ speaks for you any number of times a day if you genuinely repent. Even if you have no victory, if you are struggling to overcome a sin, be sure of the cleansing blood. “How much more shall the blood of Christ... cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:14). It is not that one day you will come to that blood, you have already come. If you allow the blood to speak audibly, you can hear the words, “When I have not condemned you, why do you condemn yourself. There is no sin that I cannot wipe off except unbelief. Believe and become clean.” If you understand this truth, it will turn your life around and help you overcome your vast sense of failure.
If these eight truths remain in the heart of your Christian life they will not allow you to wallow in the gloom of stagnation but help you emerge into a buoyant Christian life and fall in love with the life you are living. Then you will be a better Christian.
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
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How to become a Better Christian
There is no one who doesn’t want to become better. But in our attempt to reach for the stars sometimes we over shoot and miss the mark. In the book of Hebrews the author writes to the Hebrew Christians, converts from Judaism, who were trying to jog holding the hand of the law on the one side and that of Christ on the other. They wanted to be “safe” so as not to miss eternal life on any account and ended up as twisted personalities, having too much religion.
How many of us try to improve on what Christ did for us by contributing from our holey purses and get in the way of God’s simple plan of salvation? Our religion can never be Jesus and. Today it may not be Christ and law but it can easily be Christ and Mary or Christ and self-help or Christ and an umpteen number of things. The book of Hebrews is a travel guide to heaven. The author, who obviously has been on both sides of the fence, points us to eight truths to take us to the better side of the fence and make us better Christians.
1. Better Fruits (Heb 6:9)
“Beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation.”
The most important thing that accompanies salvation, the fruit of salvation, is a burning desire for an onward journey towards perfection. “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation” (6:1). That’s where the chapter starts.
A plateau life leads to backsliding hindering our onward march towards perfection. A boat without oars will go with the wind. If a bird in flight stops flying it will drop down. A gazelle that cannot run will fall prey to a pride of hungry lions. So also a Christian stuck in rudiments, without upward mobility in Christ will dribble off to nothing. We need the basic truths but there’s a lot more. If we keep on laying the foundation, the building will not go up.
After enjoying the rain of the blessings of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and future powers, if we bring forth cacti and weeds like wasteland, we are Christians living our life backwards, re-crucifying Christ. But if we bring forth plenty of fruits and vegetables like farm land we make the farmer jump with joy (6:7,8).
The first step towards perfection is to steer clear of backsliding. Even a tiny leak can sink a ship. The author of Hebrews is subtley gentle in his approach to the Hebrew Christians. He doesn’t charge them of backsliding but warns them of it and tells them that he is confident of better fruits in their after salvation life. He appreciates them for their service, admonishes them not to be sluggish but to diligently move on towards perfection through the grace of God and not by the Levitical priesthood or law. “If perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedec…For the law made nothing perfect” (7:11,19).
Let us take the cue. Job was a perfect man, blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. He dug in his heel and claimed innocence when his friends accused him. He was finally approved of God. Paul makes a similar tall claim (1 Cor 4:4). It is possible to lead a perfectly blameless life and know it too. Job lived before the law was given, Paul lived after the law was abolished.
So both came under grace, not the law. We may not be perfect like Job or Paul, but we can aim to be better through grace.
2. Better Hope (Heb 7:19)
he law made nothing perfect; on the other hand,there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God”
We were without hope, without God in this world but now brought near to God (Eph 2:12). The Jews had pinned their hope on Moses for their deliverance. Jesus chided the Jews saying, “Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set” (Jn 5:45). Moses was their great hero and they could not give anyone (even
Christ) the place of Moses in their lives. The author of Hebrews convinces them that Jesus is better than Moses (ch 3).
What is the better hope?
1. Christ the hope of nations (Mt 12:21; Col 1:27).
2. Hope in the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6; 24:15).
3. Hope of Salvation (1 Thess 5:8).
4. Hope of eternal life (Tit 1:2).
5. Blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Tit 2:13).
When the Jews had their eyes on Moses they could not accept Christ. Today our hope may be in our riches. Paul writes to Timothy to “command those who are rich in this present world... not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God.” As the saying goes, the silk worm dies of its own wealth. Riches have cunningly led us astray. Today the close competitor to God is mammon (money). Do we hope in God for everything or trust our riches? Listen to Job a very rich man testifying with audacity: “If I have made gold my hope or said to fine gold, ‘You are my confidence,’ this would be an iniquity deserving judgment, for I would have denied God who is above” (31:24,25,28). How many of us have denied God by trusting in our riches? It is a hopeless hope. If we have money we pay; if we don’t have money we pray. It will be a good discipline to distribute atleast part of our wealth to the poor and God’s work so that we will lean on God. Paul admonishes the rich, “Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim 6:17-19).
Are we preoccupied with the hopes of salvation, resurrection, eternal life and the glorious return of the King of saints or is our mind scavenging on business, inheritance, position, beauty, fame, education, status or anyone on whom we are pinning our hope?
This hope is the sure and steadfast anchor of our souls that prevents us from being tossed in the sea of life but takes us to the rejuvenating presence of Jesus who has taken a permanent post as High Priest for us (6:18-20). If we grab this hope with both hands and never let go, we are sure to become better Christians.
3. Better Covenant (Heb 7:22; 8:6)
“Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant… He is also Mediator of a better covenant.”
A covenant is a binding agreement made by two or more parties. The first and weak (because it didn’t work out) covenant was made in Sinai by the giving of the ten commandments (Heb 7:18). When the people said, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do” they literally signed their death sentence (Ex 24:3). It was impossible for them to keep the law.
They lived under constant terror of violating any one of the laws incurring the wrath of God. Living under the old covenant will turn your life into a living hell.
The old covenant is called the ministry of death and condemnation but the new covenant the ministry of the Spirit and righteousness. The old was of the letter but the new of the Spirit. The letter kills but the Spirit gives life. The old was a fading glory like the morning glory but the new, exquisitely glorious and permanent (2 Cor 3:6-11). The old was written on stone but the new on flesh. The old was like a husband telling his wife, ‘Do this or I’ll kill you.’ The new is like the husband saying, ‘You trust me and obey and I’ll help you. If you fail I’ll forgive you because I love you.’
Under the old, though the covenanter (God) was faithful, the covenantee (Israel) didn’t keep his part of the bargain. Now God has written this new covenant not on paper or stone but etched it in our hearts. We’ll all get to know Him first hand. God’s response to our unrighteousness shall be mercy, not death penalty and the slate of our sins wiped clean forever (Heb 8:6-13). Halleluiah!
Once while climbing a steep path I sat down in a step to catch my breath. I watched a baby sparrow fluttering on the road with the mother nearby.
Suddenly the road vibrated at the approach of a truck and I worried about the baby that had not yet learnt to fly. Promptly the mother hopped close and the baby climbed on to her back and they were safe across the road. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Can our parent God be any less?
With the old covenant sloughed out, He is no more a terror striking God but a gentle God of mercy. We don’t have to labour and struggle to keep the commandments but just take His easy yoke, carry a light load and find rest to our souls (Mt 11:28-30). Then life will not look so forbidding. Shout praises to God for the new covenant that makes us better persons.
4. Better Promises (Heb 8:6)
“He is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.”
The Bible is full of promises from Genesis to Revelation. However there is a change in the wind at the birth of Christ. In the OT the promises were more physical and material. God promised the Jews prosperity, victory, wealth, health, children, cattle and the promised land. In Deuteronomy 28 we read a series of promises. But in the NT, Paul, the brightest star in the galaxy of apostles boasts of his stripes, prisons, deaths, beatings, stonings, shipwreck, robbers, dangers from his own country men and Gentiles and false brothers, dangers in the city, wilderness and sea, hungers, thirst, cold, nakedness etc., Where were God’s promises? Today if any of these things happen to us we question God. Why? Because our mind is still OT. We must understand that today our promises are more spiritual. What is earthly blessings? It is a soup made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that has starved to death.
On the other hand, we have the promises of rest and eternal life (4:1; 9:15). James talks about the crown of life and the Kingdom promised to those who love God (1:12;2:5). Peter explains in no uncertain terms about the exceedingly great and precious promises through which we may be partakers of His divine nature and the promise of His coming (2 Pet 1:4;3:4,9). If we do some exercise in counting the NT promises our nature will be transformed to that of Christ and our mind will be set on heavenly things. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3). When you kneel down, open your Bible to the prayers of Paul and pray them. You’ll be surprised how different his prayers were. Chocolates get stale and flowers wither, but spiritual blessings are ethereal. We are like the little boy who went to the zoo to see the elephant.
He exclaimed, “This is not the elephant. In my book it is so small.” That’s how we see spiritual promises in the Bible. In reality they are bigger than the universe. Abraham had pinned his hope on Isaac through whom the promise of God was to be fulfilled. But at God’s command he was ready to sacrifice even that and inherited the resplendent promise of becoming the father of all believers. By giving up we don’t lose, we only gain. If we let our hold upon worldly promises grow weaker we can float away to spiritual blessings. Only that will make us better Christians.
5. Better Sacrifice (9:23)
“Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”
Sacrifice in the OT was made by the high priest who entered the Holy of Holies once a year offering blood for his own sins and the people’s. People could not go into the presence of God. This ritual was repeated every year. Still it could not assuage the conscience of the people nor make them perfect nor take away their sins. It did not even make so much as a dent in the sin problem. But Christ as High Priest with His own blood entered the Most Holy place once and for all into the presence of God for us, to clean up our whole life inside and out, to cleanse our conscience and remove our guilt. By one offering He has perfected us forever. The flesh of bulls did not whet the appetite of God. But He prepared a body for Christ to be butchered for us.
So how is the immolation of Christ better? Under the Old Covenant people sat in the outer court, staring at the veil separating them from the presence of God. But now that the body of Christ, the veil is torn we can simply bypass the outer court and rush into the embrace of God fearlessly, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ.
In a Home for special children a teacher taught the kids demonstrating with the middle three fingers,
“Three in One,
One in three;
the One in the middle
He died for me.”
She wondered if the retarded children could grasp the truth. Later a fire broke out in the Home and many died. When the bodies were recovered one boy was found clutching the middle finger! A simple truth to digest.
Today we have substituted so many things for the sacrifice of Christ. When I was a house surgeon, we had a case posted for surgery. We were pressing the illiterate relatives to give blood. After a mini conference among themselves they came and blurted out, “We have a goat…” Think of it. Cheap and convenient substitutes! Our offerings to God like the slaughtering of bulls and all those dead-end efforts cannot buy us our eternal salvation. If we understand the preciousness of the holocaust as the final solution to our sin problem we cannot but become better Christians. But if we consider the blood ordinary, we trample the Son of God under foot and insult the Spirit of grace (Ch 9,10). “It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people” (10:13 The Message).
6. Better Possession (10:34)
“You have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.”
A Christian whose mind is set on earthly possessions cannot and will not become better in his Christian walk. Abraham spent his life in the land of promise like a pilgrim in a foreign country, residing in make-shift tents with his son and grandson. Why? Why didn’t he build a palace for all the wealth he had? Because he waited for the city built by God (11:9-10). Heaven was their homeland (11:13,14). They desired a “better heavenly country (11:16). Moses’ mind was set on “greater riches” rather than the wealth of the Egyptian royal palace.
He counted suffering for Christ far more valuable than the comforts of the king’s house because he was looking ahead for the pay-off. So he turned his heel on Egypt (11:26).
How we worry when our house is robbed. Last month (September 2006) one of our missionary’s house was plundered by miscreants because of his service. Yes, we worried. But look at the reaction of early Christians—“You joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven” (10:34). He has certainly provided “something better” something inexpressibly lovely for us (11:40). If we count our eternal possession we will choke with gratitude. Stop wasting your life accumulating things that will turn to dust and ashes.
I think our faith is inversely proportional to our riches when I read James 2:5 which goes like this, “Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith?” Who is a better Christian? The one who lives luxuriously here to inherit eternal poverty or the one who leads a spartan lifestyle to inherit eternal riches? When this truth dawns in your head you will start enjoying your days on earth rather than enduring them.
7. Better Resurrection (11:35)
“Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.”
Time is closing in on us. Life goes on like a merrygo-round giving us hardly any time to think about the return of Christ. Soon we may be facing hard decisions, whether to accept suffering and trials for a better resurrection or cave in to the pressure to deny Christ.
So many are the opportunities to deny Christ in our work spot, school, college, business, sports, where we live among non-Christians, in crosscultural situations. A word, a letter, a gesture may deliver us from the humiliation and ill-treatment we’ll be subjected to as Christians. Are we denying Christ by our dress, non-Christian style and practices to run with the crowd, by our camouflage to hide our Christian identity? Take your stand for Christ. Your deliverance is not far off.
“And there shall be time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the Book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan 12:1-2).
We are raised to live forever! The dead body is no beautiful sight, but when it is raised it is glorious. It is buried lifeless and weak but raised up powerful, supernatural, spiritually immortal (1 Cor 15:42-44). Paul counted all his plus points as nothing, to know Him and the power of His resurrection so that he may attain the better resurrection (Phil 3:7-11). Jesus gave a super idea, hard to practice but not impossible, to make our resurrection an award winning ceremony. “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbours, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk 14:12-14). I hate to keep repeating about riches but I am unable to shut the mouth of the Scriptures which keep howling about it all the way through.
The bell is about to toll for us and soon we’ll face the smile of death. So set your mind on the
resurrection. Decide never to deny Christ in any situation, even if you are harassed, tortured, killed to go down with your flags flying, and no doubt you’ll have a spectacular beginning in Christian life.
8. Better Blood (12:24)
“You have come to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”
You can guess what the blood of Abel spoke, calling from the ground to the Lord. In response to it God said that Cain was cursed from the earth and sevenfold vengeance on anyone who killed Cain. But the blood of Christ speaks forgiveness, not just sevenfold but 7x70 fold! Think of it. Where do we stand without the blood of Christ? You have come into the embrace of that blood.
Dear Christian, are you still living under the unforgiving lashes of your conscience, dark
ruminations filling your mind? Does guilt sit on your soul and weigh you down? If God be for us who can be against us? Don’t allow the accuser of brothers to brazenly accuse you too. The blood of Christ speaks for you any number of times a day if you genuinely repent. Even if you have no victory, if you are struggling to overcome a sin, be sure of the cleansing blood. “How much more shall the blood of Christ... cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:14). It is not that one day you will come to that blood, you have already come. If you allow the blood to speak audibly, you can hear the words, “When I have not condemned you, why do you condemn yourself. There is no sin that I cannot wipe off except unbelief. Believe and become clean.” If you understand this truth, it will turn your life around and help you overcome your vast sense of failure.
If these eight truths remain in the heart of your Christian life they will not allow you to wallow in the gloom of stagnation but help you emerge into a buoyant Christian life and fall in love with the life you are living. Then you will be a better Christian.
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
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