We had a wonderful worship service at Grace Point this morning. The music was spot-on and one of our Elders, Jeremy Smith, preached a great message from Hebrews 10. He titled the message. "Jesus is Greater! Let's Eat Salad!" That's a great title, and it was a wonderful message. If you'd like to listen to it, CLICK HERE for the audio, or you can watch the full service on our church's Facebook page here
Jeremy noted that the title was based on the overall theme of Hebrews (Jesus is Greater!) and the use of the words, "Let us ..." ("lettuce", get it 😃) used three times in vs 22-24. I had never paid attention to that repetition before, so I've spent some time pondering those verses today and the three "let us" verses seem to walk through the progression of the Christian life.
1. Salvation (v.22)
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.
Jeremy covered this verse very well in the sermon this morning. The writer of Hebrews draws on the imagery of the Jewish High Priest going into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of a lamb on the Ark of the Covenant to make atonement for the sins of the people. Jesus, our High Priest, has "sprinkled: his own blood on our hearts, making atonement for our sins and securing our salvation. We draw near to God through our faith in Him. Our salvation is the work of Christ, through His sacrifice on the cross, and through our faith in Him.
2. Sanctification (v.23)
Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.
Salvation is not the end goal, but rather the beginning of the Christian life. Once we are saved, God begins to do a work in our lives to transform us into the image of His Son Jesus (Rom 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Col 3:10). Author Jerry Bridges says, “Christlikeness is God’s goal for all who trust in Christ, and that should be our goal also.” (The Discipline of Grace) We cooperate in this process when we "hold on to the confession" of our faith in Jesus Christ. The writer also reminds us that God is faithful, He will complete the process of sanctification that began when we were saved.
3. Service (v.24-25)
And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
The last ingredient of the Christian salad is service/ministry to others. We move from being saved to serving others. The writer tells us that we are to "consider one another;" we should think about others and how we can positively impact their lives. One of the important ways we serve others is through exhortation or encouragement. The writer of Hebrews uses the term "to provoke" which literally means "to stir up" or "to stimulate." We are to stimulate others to grow in love and do good works. And, as Jeremy pointed out in the sermon, we do that more effectively when we are gathering together as the body of Christ. The writer encourages us not to forsake joining in with the gathering of the saints, because we need each other.
To me, those verses represent the progression of the Christian life: everything begins with our salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But the faith alone that saves, does not remain alone, we progress in the Christian life through cooperating with God's transformation progress. Which in turn leads us being like Jesus and serving others.
Where are you on this ingredient list? Are you at the first "let us", needing to draw near to God for salvation? Have you been saved, but need to progress in the sanctification process? Or maybe you are reaching the point of looking for opportunities to serve others. I'm happy to help at any stage ... feel free to reach out! Remember, Jesus is Greater! Let's eat some salad!
