Continuing our series titled “Order…Order…Order”, based on the unique sequencing of Continuing our series titled “Order…Order…Order”, based on the unique sequencing of Ps. 22-24…
Before I go any further , I want to pose a question: What is your favorite Psalm? Do I hear…Psalms 23!!! I wouldn’t be surprised at all by such an answer, for Psalms 23, beginning with the touching words, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”, is a universally loved Psalm connecting to the deeper realms of one’s heart. It is not a coincidence (you would not find the words “accident” or “coincidence” in God’s lexicon) that it is preceded by Psalms 22 and succeeded by Psalms 24, but rather Providence, as you would discover during the course of this message. Before going any further, let’s look at the three basic doctrines of Christianity around which all teaching revolves:
1. Justification/Redemption: The stage where a sinner receives the Saviour into his/her life and is justified from the penalty of sin (Romans 8:1). At this stage, the saved sinner, having received the Holy Spirit at the point of regeneration, is still a baby in faith. He would learn to walk in the joy of the Holy Spirit step by step (Romans 8:1, Acts 9:31).
2. Sanctification: The process which depicts the growth of a regenerated soul into Christ-likeness (2 Cor 3:18), with he/she yielding all areas’ of his/her life with the Holy Spirit’s help into God’s hands, thus rendering them holy. With the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (I John 4:4) at the beginning stage of the Christian life, the reformed individual is not only able to say no to the lust of the World and the Flesh, but also in due course with increased anointing is able to serve the Lord as per the calling which would be revealed to him/her.
3. Glorification: This connotes that Blessed stage in a believer’s life, when he/she is either raptured to meet the Lord in mid-air, should the Final trumpet (I Thess 4:13-16) be blown when he/she is still alive, or he/she passes away from the Earthly tent (read body — II Cor 5:6) and is ushered into the permanent, joyous presence of the Lord.
Pardon
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The words of the very first verse of Psalm 22 are Prophetic in nature as they constitute the fourth utterance of utter exasperation and anguish on the cross (Matt 27:46). It was the moment in history for which the Lamb fore-ordained for atoning sacrifice was set apart. It was that defining moment when all the sins of mankind (past, present and future) came upon the Sinless Son, followed almost immediately by the Just Divine Wrath of the Holy Father who cannot even see or far less tolerate any impurity (Hab 1:13). That was the moment frozen in Cosmic history when the Eternal union between Father and Son which they had enjoyed from Eternity snapped in order for there to be provision for the re-establishment of the union between God and mankind, which had snapped in the Garden of Eden by the sin of our First parents. Effectively, the Final Adam (another name for Christ. See I Cor 15:45) was purchasing the pardon on behalf of entire Mankind for the sin the First Adam had committed.
Now it is for us to appropriate this pardon in our lives, which Jesus had purchased on the cross by His unimaginable suffering (can anyone fathom or quantify the depth of his physical and spiritual anguish on the cross especially when all the sins of mankind were laid upon Him and Divine Just wrath came visiting consequently?). That is why the Author of the Epistle to Hebrews writes:
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so GREAT a salvation” (Heb 2:3). Salvation procured by Christ is qualified by the word “great” because the Saviour underwent immeasurable suffering to procure it for us. The unbearable physical pain was compounded by the unimaginable spiritual agony. It is also great because it is “grace in action” being placed “within easy reach of us, free of cost“. Let the Scripture (TLB) take over at this stage:
“For Salvation that comes from trusting Christ-which is what we preach-is already within easy reach of each of us; in fact it is as near as our own hearts and mouths. For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:8-9)
Scriptures declare irrefutably that all of us are sinners, irrespective of our social standing. It is not our fault that we are born a sinner, but it would be our fault if we die one, as one hardening our heart to the invitation of Divine Grace. Want emotional, spiritual proof? So here goes…
Does anybody (parents or school teachers) teach us how to lie when we are young? How do we inherently know that there is something truthfully wrong about lying? Why make such a fuss about scams in media if truth is something so unimportant? Tell me, why do not even atheists go about walking naked in defiance of what Bible says about the origin of sin and the realization of shame? At this stage, let me speak with all the earnestness I can muster. Only if you have personally appropriated the Redemption work “finished” on the cross (incidentally Psalm 22 ends with the word “Finished”– vs 31 GWT — the sixth utterance on Mission accomplished by the Saviour), can you ever say: “The Lord is my Shepherd (Pilot of my Life) and I shall not want”.
Prayer: Father, only if we accept the redemption work completed by your Son on the Cross, can we appropriate the promises of Psalm 23 in our life. If any of us are still undecided in this matter, prompt our hearts to accept the TRUTH of Psalm 22. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Suresh Manoharan
(To access the entire “Order, Order, Order!” mini-series, please click here.)