January 24

The Old Testament paved the way for the New Testament; in essence it paved the way for Jesus. The entirety of the Word is rooted in who God is, in whom Jesus is. It is a cycle of God’s immutable law, man’s inability to keep God’s immutable law, Christ keeping God’s immutable law in our behalf, our receipt of Jesus’ gift of forgiveness when we accept His having kept the immutable law for us, the immutable law of God being satisfied in us through Jesus.

The Lord has done it all. The only part in which we have the opportunity to participate is in our acceptance of what Jesus has done for us. Our part is crucial—not to His eternal plan in its entirety but to His eternal plan as it regards us. We cannot be the recipients of all the glorious things He has for us if we do not take the initial step of receiving Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

In Acts 3:19 we are told we must, “…repent that your sins may be blotted out and that you may enjoy the times of refreshing that come from being in the presence of the Lord.” Until we have executed our part of the plan, repented of our sins and received the salvation supplied by the propitiatory death of Jesus, we cannot be delivered from being denizens of stale haunts of sin into the refreshing of free air that our Lord supplies to those who enter His presence.

We can only praise Him that the promise is for not only the most amazing GIFT of time or eternity—the GIFT of Jesus as our Savior and Deliverer who washes us clean of all the worthless, worldly pursuits that have besotted us and makes us worthy to enter into the presence of the Living God, but the promise includes another aspect! We are told that we shall be refreshed. We shall no longer be the weary, worn, sin-laden bearers of guilt and shame! We will be free!