“Jesus Came
To Purge our Sins”
Hebrews 1:1-5
1)
God, who at
sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets,
2)
Hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds;
3)
Who being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4)
Being made so
much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more
excellent name than they.
5)
For unto
which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a
Son?
Preface
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Bible is not written to those who hope
to be, want to be, or
who think that they are saved.
The teachings, principles and applications of the Bible can be applied only to
those who are saved. One of the
most important things in these last days is that we come to know the difference.
A
complaint with which Apostolics have lived since they
came to be recognized as Apostolics is that we feel that we are the only ones who are saved. As a servant
of God, that is not my revelation, however, I do know that all men must
have the opportunity to receive the truth. This means that Man must hear
and accept that in order for him to be pleasing to the Lord, he must be changed from what he is (a human being) to that which will
allow him to be able to serve God—a spiritual
being. This is why the Bible calls for a man to be born again, not in the same manner of
his physical birth, but in a
manner that supersedes his
physical birth.
Main Thought
By
now, we should know how deceptive words are. There are many concepts in
salvation about which we believe that we have an understanding, only to find
that our conventional understanding
of a word or concept leaves us "clueless" in salvation.
For
example, we can read from our title and know from the scripture (as well as
teaching) that Jesus came to "purge" us from sin. To us, this means
"to remove from." Though we know what needs to be done, we do not necessarily know how such a thing is to be
accomplished.
Part
of the difficulty with this concept comes from the fact that sin is present in
Man because it is part of his very nature!
Considering this, then, the question becomes one of how One will
be able to "purge" Man of his nature?
If the "sin" would be "excised," the sinner, too,
will have to be eliminated, for it is because of the nature of the being that the sin exists!
We
already know how insidious sin is, for though the children of
God,
in His wisdom, created all men.
Because all are His creation,
He, alone, knows each one completely, and
so, knows that the depth of depravity of the human spirit goes so deep that one
cannot put a "band
aid" on a problem of human
nature. This is why we are instructed that the human nature must be eliminated.
The only way to eliminate this in a person is to "eliminate"
the person—for this is, indeed,
the "house" of the nature.
The
ultimate plan of the Lord is that Man be brought to a state of being
"sin-free"—which is possible only if we are freed from who we are. "Who" we are is
the man of sin—and this man
must be put to death. Job 5:7
tells us ".. .man is born unto trouble, as the
sparks fly upward." Try as he might, no matter how man dresses himself up,
cleans himself up, "fixes" his addictions, works on his
"manners" or educates himself, he will be unable to change who he is. This is because who he is is
determined by his human nature and that nature cannot be changed—it must be put to death. This is why
Jesus came: to offer Man an opportunity to become more than what he was created.
True
salvation is not possible apart from one partaking of the death of Jesus.
Specifically, His death was "all about us" in that
He subjected Himself to the
death of the cross that through His death and subsequent rebirth, we, too could
be reborn—as long as we are willing to subject ourselves to Him.
Contrary
to "popular" thought, opinion and teaching, salvation is more than a praise or a shout. It is also more than simply what one
wears—or does not wear. If the Lord goes to the length of "purging"
Man, there must be a great need that he be unencumbered by anything that would
"contaminate" him. Could it possibly be that as opposed to looking
for "gratification" from Man, He is looking for service?
One
never needs to fear that he will "do," "be" or become "too much" for or in
the Lord. In all that He does, allows or bestows, He is perfect, granting Man
exactly what he needs in order to become exactly what he must be for Him!
Few
of those "tapped" by the Lord for service have even approached their potential in Him.
The devil makes sure to keep this number low by erecting "roadblocks"
at predictable intervals along our paths. You see, as the Lord allows our tests
to come (in order to show us our strengths
as well as our "weaknesses"), the enemy makes sure to play
upon our "human-ness" and pervert our perception of all that the Lord
has done. In this way, he keeps us discouraged and hopeless, believing that all
of our "efforts" have been in vain.
Truthfully,
even the enemy is not completely wrong
in this. "Our" efforts (as in ours as human beings) never have been enough. However, while the
Lord emphasizes that we have failed because of failing to live in Him, the devil focuses our
attention upon our "efforts"—and
the reward we "deserve" for them.
As
we can tell just by examining these few issues, the natural man is a
"mess." Not only is he prone to sin and therefore, in need of
purging, but along with this "nature" comes a host of other problems.
Despite this, we consistently resist the One sent to help us.
“To
purge or not to purge”—though we really have no choice in the matter if we
would be saved, one will not be purged (or saved) against his will. Becoming
free of who we are involves an act of will. Only we (as individuals) can decide
that we want life we were created to have.