“…of the Son He says, ‘…You have
loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has
anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions’” (Hebrews
1:8,9).
I am thankful for the Son’s passion for absolute truth and its
application in judgment and righteousness – and that as a result of this the
Father has enthroned His Son with a Spirit-filled gladness.
As the Father continues speaking of His Son in the letter to the
Hebrews, the Holy Spirit gives us the words of Psalm 45:7.
While in Hebrews 1:8//Psalm 45:6 the Father calls the Son “God,” in Hebrews 1:9//Psalm 45:7 the
Father self-identifies as the God of the Son. Father and Son are both God. They
are not two gods, for the Bible is abundantly clear that there is only one God.
The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father. They are distinct
Persons Who are both the one God.
A lot of people, including people who do not believe in Him or the
Scripture which bears witness to Him, try to make statements about what Jesus
is. They tell us that Jesus only helped people, affirmed people, never issued
statements about sin or judgment, and was the very model of tolerance for
today’s anything-goes society. However, the Bible – the only source for
authoritative truth about Jesus – does not tell us of a Jesus Who looks exactly
like the government-enforced tolerance of today. It tells us of a Jesus Who was
zealous for the Law of His Father.
In the first sermon we have recorded from Jesus in “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter. Many
will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and
in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then
I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; [as it says in Psalm 6:8] depart
from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23). The Son, Who hates lawlessness (Hebrews 1:9),
does not have a relationship with the lawless, and will not permit them in His
royal presence in “the kingdom of heaven.”
They won’t be there if they spurn the Law of God. Those who truly call Jesus “Lord”
have a different relationship with the Law of God than the lost world: “…just as you presented your members as
slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness,
so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in
sanctification” (Romans 6:19).[1]
Further, they have a different relationship with the world of the lawless: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers;
for what partnership have
righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or
what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer
in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple
of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as
God said, ‘“I will dwell in them [Leviticus 26:12] and walk among them; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be
separate [Isaiah 52:11],” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome
you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”
says the Lord Almighty’” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
A day will come when the King Who hates lawlessness will separate
pretenders out of His Kingdom: “The Son
of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all
stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into
the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then [as it says in Daniel 12:3] the
righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who
has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:40-43).
Is this discussion only about Law – are we moving our Christianity into
that hated camp of “Legalism” with all this talk of lawlessness and Jesus’
hatred of it? No.
In our congregation, we observe the Lord’s Supper every week. When we
hold up the cup together, we hear Jesus’ words with that cup: “This cup is the new covenant in My
blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (Luke
22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25). We make a claim to the new covenant (and its
promises) at the Table, a claim sealed by the blood of Jesus alone. One of
those promises graciously frees us from our lawlessness: “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying [in
Jeremiah 31:33], ‘“This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put My
laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,”’ He then says [in
Jeremiah 31:34], ‘“And their sins and
their lawless deeds I will remember no more”’ (Hebrews 10:15-17).[2]
We do not preach legalism as the remedy from lawlessness. We lift up the cup,
make a claim to the new covenant by faith, and rejoice in God’s promise to
write His Law on our hearts by His Spirit and embrace the forgiveness from
lawlessness which is ours by faith in Jesus Christ. Rejoice. “…to the one who does not work [deeds of the
Law to earn salvation], but believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his
faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks [in Psalm
32:1,2] of the blessing on the man to
whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose
lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is
the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account’” (Romans 4:5-8).
This “blessing” is a covenant blessing. It is ours not because we obey the Law.
It is ours because of the saving work of Jesus Christ. The other covenant
blessing is that the Law is written on our hearts. Law-keeping is not an
obligation that keeps us in covenant – only the Holy Spirit seals us in the
covenant which is inaugurated by the blood of Jesus. Law-keeping is not a
condition. It is a benefit, a blessing. In this new covenant, our lawlessness
is forgotten and the Law is written on our hearts. That which the King hates is
removed from those united to the King in a covenant that has all its conditions
met by the King Himself. Praise Him with great praise!
This King Who hates lawlessness has, as a result of His faithfulness to
the Father’s Law, has been anointed with the Spirit of gladness. This is part
of the text from another of Jesus’ early sermons: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach
the Gospel…” (Luke 4:18//Isaiah 61:1; see also Acts 10:38). This Spirit
produces a Gospel-purpose, a Christ-centeredness – and a God-given gladness.
We see this God-given gladness at least twice in the New Testament:
- “At that very time [the Son] rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth’” (Luke 10:21).
- Peter quotes Psalm 16 in Acts 2:25-31. He tells us that David “was a prophet” and was speaking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He gives us this testimony of the Son concerning the resurrection: “…my heart was glad and my tongue exulted” (Acts 2:26//Psalm 16:9).
The Son-King’s hatred of lawlessness results in the Father’s eternal
giving of His Spirit of gladness to the Son – and through the Son to those
united with the Son by faith. With Jesus, let us love God’s Law by the Spirit
He has given those who believe in Him. There is gladness here. Praise Him with
great praise!
 |
| Looking toward Signal Peak from Tadpole Ridge, Gila National Forest, New Mexico, U.S.A. |
[1] “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all
men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to
live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the
blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself for
us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for
Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds”
(Titus 2:11-14).
[2] Notice that the Holy
Spirit is speaking (present tense),
though the writer of Hebrews is quoting Scripture over six centuries old. The
Holy Spirit’s speaking through the text He authored is always now.
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