September 16
“And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us,” Hebrews 11:39-40.
In the morning devotions during the past week, we directed our attention to a number of Old Testament children of God who confessed and demonstrated their faith in the promises of God. At the end of the “faith chapter,” chapter eleven, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews references many more who confessed and lived their faith in God and endured severe suffering, persecution, mockery, imprisonment, and even death at the hands of the ungodly.
Then the author concludes the chapter with the words in the text above. They “obtained a good testimony through faith.” God Himself testified that their faith in His promises was the saving faith. God kept them in the faith even during the most difficult days. They continued to believe in God’s promise to send the Savior into the world. However, they “did not receive the promise” – that is, they did not live to see the fulfillment of the promise of God. The fulfillment of the promise lay in the future until the time when Jesus came into the world. When Jesus was born, the angel announced to the shepherds the fulfillment of God’s promise: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” Luke 2:10.
Now, the Hebrews’ author writes that, “God . . . provided something better for us.” The Old Testament believers were living by faith in the promise of a Savior who would redeem all people. We, the New Testament Christians, are living in the days of fulfillment. The Savior has come. The Lord Jesus Christ lived the perfect life and fulfilled the Law of God in our place. He took upon Himself the sins of all people and sacrificed Himself on the altar of the cross to wash away our sins. Having completed the work for our redemption, He ascended into heaven and is at the right hand of God ruling all things in the interest of His Church, to which all believers belong.
In his Epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul wrote, “(Christ) was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification,” Romans 4:25. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s guarantee to us that He accepted the sacrifice of the Son of God as sufficient payment for our redemption. The resurrection of Jesus assures us that sin, death, and the devil have been conquered. We are declared justified and forgiven.
The author’s concluding words are, “They should not be made perfect apart from us.” Both the Old Testament believers and the New Testament believers are saved in the same way; we are saved by faith in the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ. They believed in the Savior who would come. We believe in the same Savior who came. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,” Acts 16:31.
“Blessed are the sons of God;
They are bo’t with Christ’s own blood,
They are ransomed from the grave,
Life eternal they shall have:
With them numbered may we be,
Here and in eternity!
They are justified by grace,
They enjoy the Savior’s peace,
All their sins are washed away,
They shall stand in God’s great Day:
With them numbered may we be,
Here and in eternity!” Amen.