Day 56: Resting in Jesus!

25 Feb, 2016

CityLight Church’s One Year Bible Reading Plan
Thursday, February 25th, 2016
Leviticus 16:29-18:30
Mark 7:24-8:10
Psalm 41:1-13
Proverbs 10:15-16
For full text click here: http://bit.ly/MWE3j9

Commentary from Pastor Michael White:

This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all…For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. – Lev 16:29-30

Salvation is through faith alone; never works!

Under Levitical Law, God appointed a Day of Atonement for the people of Israel. Today the Jewish people know that day as Yom Kippur. On one day every year, the priest would make atonement for all the people. God’s representative would do all the work; and do you know what all the people who needed forgiveness were supposed to do? Nothing! They were to “do no work at all” (v 29), for it was “a sabbath of solemn rest” (v 31).

God called the people of Israel to rest on the Day of Atonement to prove a point. Only God can save us! We can never save ourselves, no matter how hard we try. If rest was necessary for forgiveness even under the Old Covenant, how much more essential is it under the New?

Our mandate as God’s New Covenant people is to rest in the finished work of the Cross. Jesus has already purchased atonement – the perfect forgiveness required for perfect reconciliation – on the Cross! We could never earn God’s forgiveness, even if we tried. Yet God has given it to us as a gift!

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. – Eph 2:8-9

Prayer:

Father, help me to rest! Fill me with the confidence required to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that You love me: no matter what. Help me to rest in the finished work of the Cross, and to enjoy all the benefits!

View today’s post on our website: http://intelligentcharismatic.com/day-56-resting-in-jesus/

Archives

See commentary from this day in 2014: http://intelligentcharismatic.com/day-56-life-in-the-blood/

See commentary from this day in 2015: http://intelligentcharismatic.com/day-56-he-sighed/

© Michael D. White, 2016. All rights reserved.