Word for Life in Love— Scripture Meditations By Stephen Brown
Anyone who repents of their sin and asks the Lord for forgiveness becomes a virgin to sin and unto the Lord. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive the seed of the word in our flesh and we are reborn into the body of Christ. It is a virgin birth that takes place within, yet our virgin status in Christ does not change, though there is a change in who we are.
The virgin birth is an integral part of being in Christ, of how we participate in His way.
The work of creation will not be complete until man is made in the image of God. It is the union of heaven and earth in Christ.
Mark 10:51-52 (ESV)
51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
It is faith that saves us, that makes us well. Jesus opened the blind man’s sight in two ways. He restored the man’s worldly sight and opened the eyes of his heart to witness and comprehend the light of the world. Being able to see in the world is a wonderful thing in life. Being able to see the light of the world beckons us to His salvation from the darkness of the world. Anyone who has seen the light and receives that light will follow after Him in the way. It is the narrow road that leads to His life, but there is plenty of room for all who would come.
Jeremiah 5:22-23 (ESV)
22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
The sand may be considered as the people of Israel, while the sea may be viewed as the waters of mankind that are without the light of God. Israel is to be the servant of the Lord who ministers between the people of the earth and the temple of the Lord. They dwell on the earth and bear the light in the world.
There is a perpetual barrier, a great expanse between heaven and earth which can only be crossed by the Holy Spirit. The light has come into the world, but has no part with its darkness. There is a separation between the two. The people of the earth can come to the foot of the mountain of the Lord, but not touch it, for it is holy. The darkness remains for those who do not come to the light, though they will see the light from afar.
Matthew 5:5 (ESV)
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the meek, for they have abandoned the arrogance of self which is overcoming the world. Theirs is the new creation.
Jeremiah 2:2-3 (ESV)
2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD,
“I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the LORD,
the firstfruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it incurred guilt;
disaster came upon them,
declares the LORD.”
Jesus says something like this to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:3-4. Their first love of the Lord has faded into a memory. The wilderness journey of Israel is like the wilderness journey of the Church today. We follow Jesus in the wilderness of the world, but often settle into a complacency of routine.
We have become the harvest of His word made flesh. As such, we can become the bride of Christ if we do not fall in the wilderness and persevere in the faith of obedience to the end.
Where there is no Law, man is not held accountable for sin. The light of the Law reveals sin that man might repent, thereby clearing the way for the light of the Lord to reveal life in Him.
