DELIVER FROM WHAT?

DELIVER FROM WHAT?

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Psalm 40:16-17 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You, and the ones loving your salvation always say, Let Jehovah be magnified. But I am poor and needy; Jehovah will care for me; You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not wait.

Romans 11:26 … "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer …

  Messiah means “deliverer”.

  Appropriately, it is one of Jesus’ names, for He is the ultimate deliver.

  Though Deliverer is very much His character and work, the actual title of Messiah is mentioned only 2 times in God’s Word: in Daniel’s prophecy in 9:25-26.

  Exactly what does Jesus deliver us individually from? Not at all what some, including Peter, numerous Jews and gentiles (non-Jews) thought and many yet now believe.

  Did He live, suffer, die, and rise again to physically deliver us from life’s troubles and problems?

  No.

·         Trusting Him we are delivered from prior existent condition of eternal condemnation. “… whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.” (Jn.3:15-19)

·         Trusting Jesus we are delivered peace from destructive fearful anxiety. “[Jesus explained] Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” … “I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” (Jn.14:27; 16:33. Also note 1Pet.5:7; 2Pet.2:20; 1Jn.4:4) Ah, but do we accept the deliverance?

  Will He deliver us from individual physical event or circumstance? He can. He may. But it is serious mistake to think of Jesus primarily as such a deliverer; a mindset that defeats maturation of and in inner peace that He provides in place of our natural anxious expectations; centering on unrealistic expectations instead of focusing on serving Him and others within undesirable circumstances is frustrating and distracting.

  Things will waste away. Dreams will die. Loved ones will leave us by movement, consternation, or death. Ordeal is commonly part and parcel of life this side of heaven.

  Realism is distinctly different for those living “in Christ”. (Jn.3:3; 2Cor.5:17; Rom.12:1-3)

  Our reality is to live unrestricted by false expectation. We are to live and walk as resurrected people in newness of life. (Jn.8:31-36; Rom.6:4) This includes understanding and applying His deliverance for what it is and what it is not.

EBB4

PS. I encourage an edifying inspirational concordance study of “in Christ”, 78 verses in KJV New Testament.