Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – Our home with Christ is a clear conscience.

Tuesday May 15, 2018

 

Title: Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter - Our home with Christ is a clear conscience.

 

Paul from prison, after years of feeling the opposition of those who hated the way, wrote to the Colossians: Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.

 

COL 2:18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

 

COL 2:19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

 

“defraud” - to act as an umpire or to arbitrate, but when not the Head, leading our eyes away from home, the way of Christ.  

 

Vine's Expository Dictionary says of the word “defraud" to act as an umpire, arbitrate," said of false teachers who would frustrate the faithful adherence of the believers to the truth, causing them to lose their reward. The reward is living this life.

 

As Paul does here, so John and Peter warned their flocks not to be led astray. The bulk of these warnings in the NT, when taken together, serve to show us just how much opposition is out there and how dangerous it can be.

 

We noted John’s use of meno, the Greek word for “abide” in 1Jo 2, and we have begun to explore the ways in which he uses it 24 times in his first epistle.  

 

One of the ways “abiding” in Christ is used is in its role in given each believer a clean conscience.

 

1TI 1:18-19

fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

 

TIT 1:15-16

To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed.

 

The Greek word pure (katharos) means to be free from blemish or spotless.

 

A clean conscience is impossible for the best of mankind. The good news, the gospel, is that we are all made clean and pure in Christ. His blood has cleansed us fully, and it is a gift by faith and not of works. This is certainly good news. It should be spread all over the world.

 

Every believer is made pure, cleansed, and holy and so all of us can approach with a clear conscience. If our conscience is defiled then we have believed a lie, in fact, this is true of all men.

 

HEB 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

 

The following is the New Covenant stated to Israel by the prophet Jeremiah.

 

HEB 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them

After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart,

And upon their mind I will write them,"

 

He then says,

 

HEB 10:17 "And their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more."

 

After saying this to the prophet, the Spirit witnesses to us:

 

HEB 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

 

HEB 10:19 Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,

 

HEB 10:20 by a new and living way which [entrance] He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

 

The word order in the original has the “which” referring back to the entrance. “We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, which He inaugurated for us, a road, new and living.”

 

The road is described as new and living. It is the race that it set before us that we are to run with endurance, laying aside sin and every encumbrance. The entrance or door is described as being inaugurated for us by the death of Christ. The word inaugurated literally means “to make new,” and hence to dedicate of inaugurate.

 

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that He dedicated or made new the road or way of eternal life, since it is new to us all, but that way has always been. It is the life of Christ and He is eternal. So, the writer of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, teaches us that the door to that life has been dedicated or consecrated for us by Christ. Since we have the entrance in the Holy of holies through Him, we can walk in the way of His life. All who believe in Him have this life.

 

Christ inaugurated for us an entrance so that we could walk the road of life.

 

The imagery presented here is the gift of an entrance that leads to a road that has always eluded mankind. Christ has come to give us life and home. Eternal life is this road and the writer of Hebrews tells us that we should enter it confidently, without fear, without hesitation, and run that race that is set before us, setting our eyes on Him. Hold nothing back. Lay aside EVERY encumbrance, including pleasures that distract so that you may run with endurance, and not grow weary or lose heart. This road is such a gift to man. The bread of life came from heaven to earth to give His life, the running water, so that we may walk it.

Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,    12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.    12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.    12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;    12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;    12:6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives."    12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?    12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.    12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?    12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.    12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.    12:12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble

It will be a fight at times, but it will be the most worthwhile and significant fight you could ever engage in.

 

1TI 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life [the way of Christ] to which you were called