HOW TO KNOW GOD WITHOUT BEING RELIGIOUS.
(According to the New Testament Book called
Hebrews). You'll find Chapter and verse
references and our comments in brackets.
1. THE FIRST THING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS THAT
JESUS CHRIST IS GOD.
Since He created the world, God has been
speaking to people in various ways. His
clearest way of speaking to you is by His
Son, Jesus Christ:
Who has inherited everything,through whom God
made the universe, who radiates God's glory,
who exactly reveals God, who runs the
universe by His Word, who,having provided the
way you can be purified from sin, now sits at
God's right hand in heaven.
Here are some things God said about Him in
the Bible: You are my Son, I have become
your Father (Psalm 2:7) , I will be His
Father and He will be my Son (2 Sam.7: 14),
In the beginning, O Lord, you have laid the
foundations of the earth, and the heavens are
the work of your hands, they will perish but
you remain (Psalm 8:6, Zech 12:1, Isa 34:4,
51:6), Your years will never end (Psalm 102:
25 - 27), Sit at my right hand until I make
your enemies your footstool (Psalm 110:1).
(Chapter 1)
2. THE SECOND THING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS WHAT
CHRIST DID.
(God runs the universe by a law of love and
justice. This requires us to genuinely love
Him and others. He leaves us free to live by
His law or go our own way. We all choose our
way, breaking His law. The penalty is
spiritual death. In the person of Jesus
Christ, God showed how much He loves you by
paying your penalty and dying in your place
at Calvary. It's as if you are a convicted
prisoner being offered an undeserved pardon
from a death sentence.
You have the choice of:
- Rejecting the pardon and paying this death
penalty yourself - for God's justice will
be done.
- OR
- Accepting the pardon by genuinely turning
to and trusting in Jesus Christ.
If you want to do that, then tell Him in ,
words like these; I'VE GONE MY OWN WAY
BUT NOW I WANT TO TURN AND GO YOUR WAY. I
BELIEVE YOU WILL FORGIVE MY PAST SINS AND
GIVE ME A NEW LIFE AS A MEMBER OF YOUR
FAMILY. I BELIEVE THE WAY TO DO THIS IS
THROUGH TRUST IN YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST.
THANKS FOR ACCEPTING ME."
(From here on, what we say assumes you have
turned to Jesus and become a member of His
family).
Jesus Christ Himself spelled this out. (Ch 2 v
3). God confirmed the message by the signs,
wonders and miracles Jesus did, by the testimony
of those who heard Jesus and by what He did
through the first believers by means of His
invisible person - the Holy Spirit. (Ch 2 v 4).
The Holy Spirit now enables you to "see" Jesus,
crowned with glory and honour because by God's
grace, He lived the perfect life by suffering
death as the substitute for your sins, so that
you can be at one with God. (Ch 2 vs 9, 10).
Jesus was a man of flesh and blood like us in
every way (except sin) so He calls believers
brothers, members of His family. (Ch 2 v 11, 14)
Jesus died so that He might destroy the devil
who holds the power of death and free those who
all their lives were slaves to the fear of
death.(Ch 2 v 14,15) Jesus suffered when He was
tempted so He understands how you feel and can
help. (Ch 2 v 18).
Before Christ came, God's system of forgiving
sins was through sacrifices offered by the high
priests. Called by God and subject to and
therefore understanding human failings, they
could deal with ignorant, weak and straying
people. Similarly, God appointed Jesus, but as
a priest forever. (Psalm 110 v 4). Unlike His
predecessors, appointed under rules and reg-
ulations, His appointment by God was on the
basis of the power of an indestructible life.
(Chapter 7:16). Here on earth He prayed with
loud cries and tears (Luke 22, vs 41-44) that He
be spared crucifixion.
It's vitally important to understand that no-one
forced Jesus to die as your substitute. Being
human, (as well as divine) , He desperately
implored God for a solution to your sin other
than His being tortured to death. There being
none, He voluntarily gave His life for you
because obeying His Father's will was more
important that avoiding the slow suffering of
death by crucifixion. Thus He "achieved perfect
manhood" and became the source of eternal
salvation to all who (by faith) obey Him (Ch 5).
Without shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness. That's why Christ bled on the cross
for you and through the eternal spirit, offered
Himself as an umblemished sacrifice to God and
then entered heaven where He appears before God
for you. It's as if you were held hostage by
your sins, with no possible way of escape and
Christ, by His death, paid the ransom price
leaving you only to believe in Him in order to
be set free. By true faith in Him your place in
heaven is eternally secure, your conscience is
cleansed from acts that lead to death and you
are enabled to serve the living God. If you are
still alive when Christ returns to earth you'll
enter into the full experience of what it means
to believe in Him. If you die first you'll be
judged, found guilty of sin, but acquitted
because you've believed Christ has already paid
for your sin. (Ch 9 vs 11 - 28).
Since Jesus lives forever, His is a permanent
priesthood. He is able to save completely all
who come to God through Him because He always
lives as a go between for them. Being holy,
blameless, pure, set apart from sinners and
exalted above the heavens, He offered Himself as
a sacrifice for your sins once for all and thus
meets all your needs. (Ch 7 vs 24 - 28).
Having finished His work, He sat at God's right
hand in heaven and serves there in the sanctuary
set up by God. He thus replaced the old law and
sacrificial system which the Jews failed to live
by, with a new system. (Ch 8 vs 1 - 6). The old
system had regulations and a place for worship
comprising two areas. The second area, behind a
curtain, was called the most holy place. The
high priest only entered there once a year with
sacrificial blood for his and the people's sins.
(Chapter 9:1-10)
This system could never, because of the
need for repeated sacrifices, put the
worshippers permanently right with God. It
was impossible for animals' blood to take sins
away. When Christ came to the world He set
aside the old system and did God's will by
establishing the new one. He did this by giving
His body and shedding His own blood as a once
for all sacrifice for sin and then sitting down
at the right hand of God.
Through faith in Him you are set apart for God's
use and "made perfect" forever. Your sins being
forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for
sin (Chapter 10:1-18). Under the new system God
puts His laws in your mind and writes them on
you heart. He is your God and you are His child.
You gave no need to teach other believers
because all believers know Him, their wickedness
being forgiven and their sins forgotten.
(Chapter 8:10-13)
3. NOW YOU KNOW WHO JESUS IS AND WHAT HE DID,
THE THIRD THING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS HOW TO
LIVE YOUR NEW LIFE.
Pay careful attention to all this, or, for
sure, you will be drifting away from God. (Ch 2
v 1). You have been called to show others how to
meet Jesus, so fix your thoughts on Him. Be
faithful to Him just as He was faithful to the
One who appointed Him. Jesus is faithful as a
Son over God's house and you are a member of
that household if you hold on to your courage
and hope in Him. (Chapter 3:1-6)
Encourage other members of God's family daily to
avoid being hardened by sin's deceitfulness and
developing unbelieving hearts that turn away
from the living God. Sharing in Christ, involves
holding your first confidence in Him firm until
the end (Ch 3 vs 12 , 13 & 14).
As God the Holy Spirit speaks to you day by day,
make sure you listen to and obey Him. Otherwise,
(like the ancient Hebrews Moses led out of Egypt
who failed to enter into God's rest), you'll
miss out on the quiet inner peace God wants you
to have (Ch 3 v 7-11).Beware of failing to enter
into God's rest. Hebrew history reminds us that
they missed out on it (in the promised land)
because of disobedience and unbelief (Ch 3 v 17
to 4 v 11).
Like us, they heard the Good News, but it did
them no good because they failed to combine it
with faith. What we mean by God's rest is that
when God finished creating the universe He
rested on the seventh day (Ch 4 1-4).Being God's
child through faith in Jesus Christ, is, from
start to finish,a matter of entering and resting
in what Jesus Christ has done for you(Ch 4 v 9).
It is not a matter of working desperately to
earn His acceptance by the quality of your life
(Ch 4 v 10).By faith, rest constantly in Christ,
abide in His peace, stop your work and let His
life flow peacefully and effectively through
you.If you don't do it this way you'll be
disobeying Him and miss out on His rest and
peace (Ch 4 v 11). You'll get nowhere trying to
be God's child on your own terms, using your own
ideas. Jesus Christ can't be "conned." One of
His names is God's Word and, as such, He is
living and active, sharp as a razor, penetrating
to your innermost being, judging the thoughts
and attitudes of your heart. Nothing in all
creation is hidden from His sight. Everything
about you is uncovered and laid bare before His
eyes and you are accountable to Him.
(Chapter 4:12-13)
Hold tight by faith to Jesus, the Son of God. He
was human and tempted in every way just like you
are (but He didn't sin) so he sympathises with
your weaknesses and really understands how you
feel at all times. Come to Him constantly
and confidently and you'll always get the love,
mercy, grace and strength you need for every
situation (Ch 4 vs 14 - 16).
Read the Bible, it's God's word; use it
constantly to train yourself to distinguish good
from evil and become a mature believer (Ch 5 v
14).
Remember that you may know about Jesus, the Holy
Spirit and God's word, but if you don't truly
believe in Him and so fall away, you are
crucifying Him again and subjecting Him to
public disgrace. In this case your chances of
becoming a true believer are remote, if not
impossible. Like land that produces only weeds,
there is the danger of God's curse and burning
judgment. However, if you truly believe, it will
show by your work and the love you show God by
the way you continue to help His people. You
won't be lazy, but by faith, hope and patience
will persevere to the end and inherit Christ's
promises. (Ch 6 vs 1 - 12).
Through Christ, God made His unchanging plan for
you perfectly clear. He did this to encourage
you with the knowledge that your soul, is, as it
were, firmly and securely anchored to Christ who
has gone before you to heaven (Ch 6 vs 17 -20).
In view of this you should:-
- Draw near to God with a sincere heart and
full assurance of faith, with your heart
free of a guilty conscience
- Hold unswervingly to your hope and trust in
Christ.
- Work out how to encourage and spur yourself
and other believers on to love and good
deeds.
- Meet regularly with other believers.
(Ch 10 vs 19-25).
- Persevere in doing God's will, living by
faith and finally receiving what He has
promised (Ch 10 v 36).
Anyone who receives the knowledge of the truth,
and rejects Christ's sacrifice by deliberately
continuing to sin, should fearfully expect
judgment and the raging fire that will consume
God's enemies. A man deserves severe punishment
when he tramples the Son of God underfoot,
treats Christ's shed blood scornfully and
insults God's spirit of undeserved love and
forgiveness. Such people will find it's a
"dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the
Living God" (Ch 10 vs 26 - 31 & Ch 6 vs 4 - 8).
You become a follower of Christ and you mature
as one, by expressing faith in Him. Faith is the
only way to please God. By faith, you come to
Him believing that He exists and will reward you
for seeking Him (Ch 11 v 6).
But what is faith?
It is being sure of what you hope for and
certain of what you can't see.
By faith you understand that, starting with
nothing, the universe was formed at God's
command.
Here are some ways that people pleased God by
exercising faith:
- God told Noah to build an ark. There had
never been a flood before but, by faith and
obedience he saved himself and his family.
- God told Abraham to leave his home and take
his family to an unknown destination in a
foreign land, that he would have a son
through whom all the earth would be blessed
(even though he and his wife were too old)
and when the son was a teenager,to kill him
as a sacrifice. At each step Abraham
exercised faith, obeyed and received God's
approval, being spared the sacrifice of his
son.
- Moses exercising faith and obedience, spent
40 years in the desert in preference to the
luxury life as a prince in the Pharaoh's
court. By faith he saw his people escape
through the Dead Sea and provided for in
the desert.
- The Bible is full of examples of people who
by exercising faith in God, conquered
kingdoms, administered justice, gained what
was promised, shut lions' mouths, survived
burning, escaped the sword, had weakness
turned to strength, became powerful in
battle, saw the dead raised, faced torture,
jeers and flogging, endured being chained
in prison, were stoned, sawn in two and
killed by the sword, went about in sheep-
skins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted
and mistreated, wandering in deserts and
mountains and in caves and holes in the
ground. (Chapter 11)
Act as if your life for God is a race run in an
Olympic stadium & in the stands watching are all
those people of faith now with God in heaven.
Run the race by:-
- Throwing off everything in your life that
hinders your steadfast progress.
- Getting rid of the sin that so easily
entangles you, remembering that in your
struggle against it, you (unlike Jesus) have
not had to resist it to the point of
shedding your blood.
- Running with perseverance.
- Fixing your eyes on Jesus, who at the end of
the course beckons and cheers you on, so
that you don't grow weary and lose heart.
Remembering that He:-
- Is the author and perfector of your faith.
- For the joy set before Him, endured the
cross, scorning its shame and now sits at
the right hand of the throne of God.
- Endured such opposition from sinful men.
- Remembering that it's normal for God to dis-
cipline those He loves and punish (for their
good) everyone He accepts as a son. His dis-
cipline is unpleasant but it will train you
to share in His holiness, live His way and
have peace of heart.
- Strengthening your feeble arms and weak
knees.
- Running a straight and level race, that will
be an example and help to the spiritual wel-
fare of others.
- Living at peace with others.
- Living a Christ controlled (or holy) life,
for without holiness no-one sees God.
Run the race by:-
- Seeing that you show gratitude to God for
His undeserved love for you.
- Seeing that you avoid pride, animosity or
rivalry that produces trouble and turns
people away from God by your bad example.
- Avoiding sexual immorality.
- Avoiding religious institutionalism.(When
you turn to and trust in Christ, you
become a member of His family. Being His
person is not an individualistic thing.
You need to meet with other believers
(and this is what the word church means)
to give and receive encouragement in
knowing and obeying Christ (Ch 10 v 25).
There are two ways of doing this.
The first is by joining a Christian
institution or denomination and the
second is by simply meeting with a few
other believers at home. Our book called
"How to Meet With God At Home" gives all
the details.
The book of Hebrews was written to make
believers aware of problems with the
first choice. It was written to Jews who,
having turned to Christ, wanted to
substitute trust in Him for a return to
their old, more tangible institutional
structures of priests, sacrifices and
temple. It warns them to avoid this,
teaching them to fix their eyes on Christ
alone because He is the only priest and
sacrifice necessary, thus eliminating any
one place as being needed for worship and
showing that the worship God wants is
Christ's life flowing through His
believers by God's indwelling Holy
Spirit.
(Mother Theresa (in our opinion) is a
classic example of living worship).
Christians in the first couple of centuries seem
to have heeded the message of the book of
Hebrews, avoiding religious institutionalism and
making the greatest impact for good in the
world's history.
It's not unfair to say that since those first
couple of centuries, Christian religious
institutionalism has hindered,rather than helped
God in achieving His plan to change the world as
His love flows through His followers back to Him
and outwards to people in need.
By being aware of this, you can resist the
temptation to substitute trust in Christ for
trust in a denomination, minister or church
structure. There are of course, denominational
churches who see themselves correctly as mere
means to the end of equipping you to know and
obey Christ, and if you can find such a group
you will be at home with Christ and His family.)
Run the race by:-
- Seeing that you don't refuse this word from
God to you. He has shown you that Christ
replaces the old religious structures which
must not be re-established - with a new and
living way - Christ Himself (Ch 10 v 20). Not
bound by human structures you belong to the
heavenly city of the living God of which you
are a citizen with all other believers, "the
Spirits of righteous men made perfect."
- Remembering that all human institutions and
the universe itself will be shaken by Christ's
second coming and judgment. Therefore since
you are part of God's unshakeable kingdom, be
thankful and worship God with reverence and
awe,remembering that He is a consuming fire.
(Chapter 12)
Run the race by:-
- Loving other believers as brothers.
- Entertaining strangers - they may be God's
messengers.
- Praying for and acting as God enables, to
relieve the suffering of those who are in
prison and those who are being mistreated.
- Ensuring that marriage is honoured and the
marriage bed kept pure. Remembering that God
will judge the adulterer and sexually
immoral.
- Keeping your life free from the love of
money and being content with what you have.
You can have absolute confidence in God who
says,
"I will never leave you or forsake you"
(Deuteronomy 31 v 6,8).
- Allowing Christ to control your life and
you'll be able to say confidently "The Lord
is my helper; I will not be afraid,man can't
hurt me."
- Remembering that Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today and forever. How great it
is for your life, in union with Him, to be
unfolding within God's great master plan for
the universe.
- Avoiding all "spiritual" teaching not
supported by God's word in the Bible. This
applies particularly to man made additions
and traditions. Examples are legalistic
rules about how, when and where to worship,
what foods should be eaten and when etc.
As mentioned before, you'll find that
Christian denominations or groups will try
to make you conform to their idea of what
God wants. Avoid this. Christ sets you free
to love Him and others. To do this He went
outside the religious institution which
crucified Him for so doing and tried to
publicly disgrace Him. You'll need to "stand
outside" such structures with Him too and
possibly suffer as a result.
Keep such things in perspective by
remembering that earthly religious
structures are irrelevant. There is no
enduring "heavenly city" here - true
believers look forward to the "city that is
to come."
Having said this however, God may put you
within a Christian meeting (church) with
chosen leaders to foster growth in Christ
controlled living among the members. If such
is the case, obey God's Word through them
and make their work for you a joy.
- Through Jesus, continually offer sacrifices
that please God, i.e. Praise - the fruit of
lips that confess His name, good works and
sharing what you have with others.
Finally may the God of peace who brought back
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything
good for doing His will and may He work in you
what is pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ to
whom be glory forever.
AMEN! (Chapter 13)
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