Friday, June 12, 2015

...someone's said it first! Hebrews 6-7

     For a month and a half I've been stuck in Hebrews 6-7 with nothing worth writing. This is not to say that these chapters are not filled with profound hope and truth...just that I've found no way to write about them. It occurred to me today that what should be said has been said by someone else and so I share these thoughts...not my own, except that I wholly agree!
"...original sin leads us to doubt the benevolent love of the Father and to close our hearts to the gift of his '...proposal' (offer of Himself). John Paul II wrote that 'faith, in its deepest essence, is the openness of the human heart to the gift..." This life is poured out for us in Christ's self-gift to His (people) on the cross. In essence, Christ's self-gift says to us: 'You don't believe in my Father's love? Let me make it real for you; let me incarnate it for you so that you can taste and see. You don't believe that God wants to give you life? I will bleed myself dry so that my life's blood can vivify you. You thought God was a tyrant, a slave driver? You thought he would whip your back if you gave Him the chance? I will take the form of a slave; I will let you whip my back and nail me to a tree; I will let you lord it over me to show you that the Father has no desire to lord it over you. I have not come to condemn you, but to save you. I have not come to enslave you, but to set you free. Turn from your disbelief. Believe and receive the gift... I offer you." Christopher West, prologue to: Theology of the Body Explained
     In this description of God's intense love for us and the communication of that love through Christ; we read of the powerful hope the life of Christ provides us. We read and are reminded to accept God's love, initiated and secured by Him through his Son.
He purposed to love us when He created us. He fulfilled His promise to love us in the gift of Jesus' life. THAT is the nature of our God. Unchangeable in His purpose; unmovable in His promise.
Heb. 6:19 "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil," ( veil...the depth of God's existence that we cannot see and remains a mystery to us apart from the intercession of Christ). "...where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us,"
And there, before God, Jesus continues to act on our behalf.

"Therefore He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us (exactly what we need) to have such a high priest (facilitator of forgiveness and restoration with God), holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners (un-compromised by sin) and exalted above the heavens;" Hebrews 7:25-26



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