Friday 26th
Hebrews 9:11-14
NIV (v14) – ‘How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!’
ESV (v14) – ‘How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.’
I want to take from this verse today the short phrase ‘so that we may serve the living God.’ In other words, we are ‘saved to serve’. This is something I recall being spoken a lot about when I was a young Christian in my teenage years.
It is important to realise that yes, we have been saved from our sin and received eternal life, but we must not come to the conclusion that this is all that salvation is all about, being saved from eternal damnation to eternal life. There are so many facets to salvation, just like a diamond, and one of them is that we have been saved to serve, that is we now have a new purpose in life, it is no longer all about self and personal gain and satisfaction, it is about living life for the glory of God.
I personally think that this was one of the positive advantages of the older hymnals in that they had hymns grouped into various sections, and the one was The Christian Life – Service, linked with the hymns of Consecration and I know how much I benefitted from this growing up for in singing the hymns a challenge always came in regard to the importance of finding out or discovering the will of God for your life, I recall the hymns such as the one with the chorus, ‘Thy blessed will divine, with joy I make it mine, my heart shall be thy throne, and thine alone. Choose thou the path I tread and wither I am led, help me to follow on, O mighty Saviour.’ And one I mentioned before which was a real earnest prayer from my heart, O thou who camest from above . . . ready for all they perfect will, my acts of faith and love repeat, till death thy endless mercies seal, and make the sacrifice complete.’
The kind of service we will be involved in will be different for us all, for God as an overall plan in the realm of salvation, and at the same time a unique plan for us as individuals who have been saved. What God has planned for me is different to what he has planned for you. But the wonder is that as we all discover and step into what God has uniquely called us into we will discover that as a body we will function together for the good of the whole as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12-14.
The important thing is that we seek out God’s will for our lives, as we are exhorted in Romans 12:1-2 ‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’
I love the verses in 1 Corinthians 12:27–31 ‘Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts.’ I love it in particular because of that one word ‘helping’ in the KJV it is ‘helps’, I thank God for those in the Churches where I have served as a pastor who have served as ‘helpers’ or ‘helps’, I can think of one young guy in particular who has a faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ which is expressed in his willingness to be a helper, and over the years he was a real blessing and an encouragement to me. The ‘helpers’ or ‘helps’ are as significant and of equal value to those who may function in what we call a higher calling of leadership, and the ministry that God has for us may not necessarily be a ministry within the Church, it could be in the home, in the neighbourhood or even in the work place, it is all about being who God wants us to be and where God wants us to be living for his glory.