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Drawing Near (Part 1) |
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By Ralph I. Tilley
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An ever-recurring refrain rising from the hearts of all God-thirsty men and women since the dawn of creation is this: "Draw me nearer to you, O God!" Such a cry has been implanted by the Father in the soul of every genuine convert from the moment of Spirit-birth. It may be articulated in a thousand different ways throughout one's pilgrimage here on earth, but whatever form the words take, they express one essential desire—"O God, I want to be near you! Draw me nearer, nearer!" It was this desire that led innocent and undefiled Adam to stroll with Elohim in the Garden's coolness day by day; he delighted to be near his Creator. In blessed uninterrupted communion, the first man enjoyed unbroken fellowship before the tragic Fall. His joy was divine; the Garden was Heaven on earth. Why? Because God was near Adam and Adam was near God. The two walked together without the slightest foreign intrusion. The Great Divide With the Fall came both death and distance. Where life had reigned before, physical and spiritual death were to become commonplace. A severe fissure had occurred in man's relation to God. Suddenly, where there had been sweet and constant communion, there was now alienation and isolation. Man was cut off from his Maker. Instead of facing God, he runs from God. Instead of walking in open transparency with his Creator, he seeks to hide from him. There is now rebellion against God, rationalization of his sin, malice toward his companion, and a dreadful fear of Elohim. "To complete all," says Adam Clarke (1760-1832), "the garden of pleasure is interdicted, and this man, who was made after the image of God, and who would be like him, [was] shamefully expelled from a place where pure spirits alone could dwell.”[1] Life on earth was radically altered for Adam and Eve, and for all their progeny. After the Fall, man began the futile journey of trying to reach God through his own ingenuity and will-power, and redeem himself through his self-effort. Fig leaves were the symbolic moral attempt to cover his own iniquity. But God would have none of it. Man was incapable of initiating and engineering his own salvation. He had dug himself into a deep, dark pit by choosing his own way—turning inward instead of gazing upward and outward. God must take the initiative if man is to be saved from himself. Man had reached for what he wanted and got it—so he originally thought. That is what sin is, according to Dr. Dennis Kinlaw: "Sin is simply turning your eyes away from God and reaching for what you want.”[2]
The Promised "Bridge" The chasm created by the Fall must now be bridged in order for man to live near to God again. The "bridge" necessary to span this great divide would be designed and constructed by God himself—a bridge "foreknown before the foundation of the world.”[3] Before man ever was driven from the Garden, the Lord God mercifully indicated such a bridge in pronouncing his curse on the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, Matthew Henry's (1662-1714) comments on this passage are representative of evangelical theology: "A gracious promise is here made of Christ, as the deliverer of fallen man from the power of Satan. Though what was said was addressed to the serpent, yet it was said in the hearing of our first parents, who, doubtless, took the hints of grace here given them, and saw a door of hope opened to them, else the following sentence upon themselves would have overwhelmed them. Here was the dawning of the gospel day. No sooner was the wound given than the remedy was provided and revealed.”[5] Satan would be used by the Sovereign Lord to "bruise" Messiah's "heel" at Calvary; the same Sovereign Lord would "bruise" Satan's "head" by providing the atoning sacrifice for man's redemption through the voluntary death of his Son. Satan would be irretrievably defeated; man's salvation would be secured. Christ is Victor! The Unfolding Prelude Following the Fall, we read the unfolding prelude of God's promised salvation for mankind. From Genesis 3 to Matthew 2, God's purpose and plan for man's redemption deliberately, slowly, methodically, and persistently take shape. God selected one man (Abraham) through whom a new people (Israel) would be formed. Another man (Moses) was chosen through whom the Law would be given to Israel. Countless priests, prophets, and kings all played significant parts in God's unfolding prelude—a prelude that would culminate with God's own orchestrated Crescendo—the revelation of Messiah—God's Anointed One, his very own unique Son. The "Interim" Answer There was a time when if man drew too near to God it meant death. Before the Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, he was directed by God to approach him with specific conditions: "For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. ' “[6] Because of man's pervasive sinfulness and Yahweh's inherent holiness, man was forbidden to even "touch" Mount Sinai. Following a subsequent encounter with Yahweh, it was said of Moses: "Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”[7] At this time of God's unfolding salvation-plan, only Moses was permitted to come so close to God; only Moses enjoyed such a special relationship. Moses required no intermediary, yet even Moses' relationship with Yahweh was incomplete. During the millennia leading up to the disclosure of God's ultimate and final remedy for man's salvation, God prescribed an "interim" answer for man's desire to draw near to his Creator-God. The answer was given to his specially selected people Israel through Moses on Sinai. The plan involved a local place of worship (tabernacle and later temple). At this Meeting Place, man would approach God by offering prescribed sacrifices to mediators, the priests. The priests in turn would present sinful man's sacrifices to a holy God. Man's sins were thereby expiated. God was pleased; man was forgiven. However, the system was faulty. Only a select few people were permitted to approach God directly—to draw near to God. Levitical priests were prescribed by God to approach him twice daily and on special occasions, but they were forbidden to come any closer than the Altar of Burt Offering and the Holy Place. No common priest would dare enter the second sacred compartment—The Holy of Holies. Only Aaron, the Great High Priest (and his appointed successors) was allowed to enter this sacred place, and that only once each year when blood was sprinkled over the Mercy Seat for the peoples' unintentional sins. The Holy of Holies was God's Dwelling Place. But there was never a time after which a worshiper had presented his sacrifice to a priest, or after a priest had offered prescribed sacrifices to Yahweh, or after the Great High Priest had annually brought the appointed blood into the Holy of Holies—there was never a time when that priest or worshiper left the Meeting Place feeling complete. The system was inadequate, deficient. Man could only come so near. God could only come so near to man. Man was accepted by God by following the prescribed ritual offered in faith, but his consciousness of God was unsatisfied and his conscience sorely imperfect. The Perfect Remedy God, however, was not found "asleep at the switch." The inadequacy of the old system was answered by the inauguration of a new system by a new Man. With the incarnation of his own unique Son, the loving Father revealed to Adam's lost posterity a name superior to those of angels, a hope surpassing all others, a covenant better than the former (which was based on better promises), an offering superseding any ever offered on Israel's altars, a high priest outranking every other.[8] God's answer to man's dilemma—man's alienation, death, sin, lostness, and distance—was God in Christ. Redemption came through Christ; reconciliation was made through Christ; man is both declared and made righteous through Christ; adoption and sealing, communion and fellowship, forgiveness and sanctification, eternal life and abundant life—all these, and so much more—are found in Christ and Christ alone. It is because of what God has accomplished and provided for us through his Son, and because of the Son's continuing, perpetual ministry, that all believers can now draw near to God. He is fully qualified to be the mediator between God and men. "He is," says the late evangelical scholar, F. F. Bruce (1900-1990), "the Prophet through whom God has spoken his final word to men; He is the Priest who has accomplished a perfect work for cleansing for His people's sins; He is the King who sits enthroned in the place of chief honor alongside the Majesty on high.”[9] The Book of Hebrews is the most comprehensive New Testament epistle addressing this subject of the believer's privilege of drawing near to God. This book provides its readers with the doctrinal basis for this privilege. I want to now note some select passages from this volume on this subject. The Believer is Made Complete by Drawing Near to God I intentionally chose the word "complete" in the above heading because our evangelical ears are so often shocked whenever we hear the word "perfect" with respect to anything having to do with God's work in us. And yet we dare not construe God's inspired words to mean anything less than what God intended—assuming the Spirit can help us to understand his words correctly (which I believe is a correct assumption for serious seekers of truth). Now for our first text: "For since the law was but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near" (Heb. 10:1) The Greek verb (teleiosai) in this passage is translated "make perfect" by four of today's major Bible versions (New American Standard Bible, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, and the English Standard Version). A good synonym for the word is "complete." While this is not the place to explore the meaning of all the occurrences of the word "perfect" in Scripture, a good working definition we can use for this particular context is, "lacking nothing essential for the whole,”[10] In Hebrews 10, the writer is contrasting the two covenants. He says the Old Covenant worshipers could never be perfected through their many sacrifices. And then he justifies his statement by asking a logical question: "Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?" (Heb. 10:2). The obvious answer to his question is, "Yes, if the Old Covenant worshipers had, indeed, experienced a perfect inner moral cleansing of sin, they consequently would not have been burdened with a continual consciousness of sin." The writer takes his reasoning further: "But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year" (Heb. 10:3). Two observations: First, because the worshiper's consciousness of sin was ongoing, his need to offer repeated sacrifices was necessary. Second, the writer has in view here the annual sacrifices offered on the Day of Atonement—Yom Kippur—("every year"). This was the great day in Israel when her high priest followed a prescribed set of rituals for the nation's cleansing. It involved the offering and sprinkling of the blood of a bull and goats in the Holy of Holies, as well as the Azazel ceremony. Why was this day so significant? God gives us the reason: "For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the LORD from all your sins" (Lev. 16:30). But being "clean before the LORD" is not the same as being morally pure within. While the worshiper under the Old Covenant was justified by faith before God, he retained a consciousness of sin. God resolved this disparity through the sacrificial gift of his Son. The God who enacted the sacrificial system under the Old Covenant, ushered in a new system through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, the Spirit moved the writer of Hebrews to write these words within forty years following Christ' s atoning death: "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Contemplating this profound reality centuries later, Isaac Watts (1674-1748) wrote: Not all the blood of beasts
But Christ, the heav’nly Lamb, The worshiper under the old system drew near—as far as he could. He sacrificed as instructed but he walked away from the Meeting Place incomplete, dissatisfied. He worshiped Yahweh, he loved Yahweh, he walked in fellowship with Yahweh. But guilt remained; the consciousness of sins persisted. It was only and finally through the once-for-all offering of the body of God's Son that perfection was made possible to the believer. What kind of perfection? In the context of Hebrews 10:1-7, it was the perfection of a cleansed consciousness of sin. Thrilled with this truth, Charles Wesley (1707-1788) wrote: "With confidence I now draw nigh,
It is now our privilege to draw near to God. Why do we hesitate? Jesus has opened the way for us. Let us draw near.
— Soli Deo Gloria — (To be continued.) 1. Adam Clarke. Clarke's Commentaries. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, n. d.), 1:57. |
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