First Day of Forever

There are certain Bible verses that deserve banner status in our minds. These are the verses that present the truth simply, beautifully, and powerfully. Hebrews 7:25 is one of those verses. Speaking of Jesus, it reads, “Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.” Though this is a verse that speaks primarily about the ascension of Christ to heaven 40 days after His bodily resurrection from the dead, it helps us connect the dots between the past event of the first Easter morning and its present power in our lives today. Jesus ALWAYS LIVES.

In this way, we come to see that the resurrection of Jesus was the first day of forever. Unchangeable in its impact. There will never be a frequency change in heaven. There will never be a change of regime. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the tectonic shift between promise and fulfillment, continuing to send out shockwaves today in those two little words found in Hebrews 7:25 – able & always.

HE IS ABLE

Hebrews 7:16 speaks of Jesus as the great high priest we need, who becomes priest “based on the power of an indestructible life.”

Picture those disciples. It’s Sunday morning, and they’ve woken up to the third day of what can verifiably be confirmed as a nightmare. The world is cruel. Jesus is dead. “Why was I a fool to ever think the gospel could even be true.” “Some things are too good to be true.” “I had faith, and what did it get me? A murdered friend and a broken heart.”

That nightmare is the backdrop to the Easter Surprise. These heartbroken disciples get surprised by the power of an indestructible life. That same power (δύναμιν) is the why Jesus is able (same root word) to save completely those who draw near to God through him.

“God’s office is at the end of your rope.” Jesus went to the place of death, the place where the sign goes up and says “No Longer Open for Business” and He came out, showing us that He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him.

Jesus saves – not just a little bit, not 50/50, not 80/20 – COMPLETELY!

The older translations rendered this word “completely’ as “to the uttermost” (KJV).

John Newton, the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, wrote this: “That word ‘uttermost’ includes all that can be said. Take an estimate of all our sins, all our temptations, all our difficulties, all our fears, and all our backsliding of every kind, still the word ‘uttermost’ goes beyond them all.” The empty grave is a monument to the fact that Jesus went there. And if he went there for you, then there’s no territory of your soul He is unable to save. He’s a complete Savior.

HE ALWAYS LIVES TO INTERCEDE

The resurrection is the first day of forever. Jesus now ALWAYS LIVES. He wasn’t just a Savior then. He didn’t just rise, hang around for 40 days, and then say “Goodbye and Good luck.” Instead, we read “since He always lives to intercede for them.”

Here’s why we can know that He will save His people completely. He won’t stop talking about them. If you’ve put your confidence in Him to save you, that means He’s praying for you right now. There is redemptive forgetting of our sins and redemptive non-forgetting of us.

I’m sure many of us have been helped to endure through tough times when we know that there are people who are praying for us. Many of us know the encouragement that comes from having people supporting you and rooting you on. That’s a blessing to have. But Hebrews 7:25 beckons us to see Jesus that way. As He stands in the heavenly assembly (Heb. 2:11-13), the celestial cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1), Jesus prays with his hands raised and those nail-pierced hands are the proof that, as He prays for each of us, He’s got skin in the game. He died and rose again to save us and make us His own. And what amazing grace that He continues to be intimately conscious of and connected to His own.

That’s a picture of Jesus’ intercession in the heavenly realm. What difference does that make down here in this earthly realm – the place of daily fumbling, frustration, and failure?

In the passion narratives, a lot of ink gets spilled telling us about the failures of the Apostle Peter. It seems that Peter didn’t want any of his mistakes left out. Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:34). Notice that Jesus doesn’t pray that Peter won’t fail. He prays that Peter’s faith won’t fail.

Peter fails. He denies Jesus three times. After locking eyes with Jesus from a distance, he runs off and weeps bitterly (Luke 22:60-62). This three-peat denial seemed to be the icing on the cake that reads – Not Fit for the Kingdom.

But though Peter failed, his faith did not. He turns back to Jesus with a three-peat affirmation of love and a welcome from Jesus that strengthened Peter to serve Him the rest of His days. How did Peter’s faith not fail? Jesus prayed for Peter and kept putting Himself in Peter’s line of vision (Luke 22:61;  John 21:1-19). However large the aftershocks of your failures may be, the magnitude of Easter’s aftershocks are greater. If you trust in Jesus to never fail you, that truly means that your faith will not fail you either. Not because of something special in you, but because of something special in Him – the living Christ. He always lives to intercede. He prays for you. And like He did with Peter, Jesus keeps putting Himself in your line of vision. If He prays for you and puts Himself in your line of vision that can only mean that His arms are open wide.

That’s really what the Christian life is. It’s not about not failing, but it’s about keeping Jesus in your line of vision. Putting your faith in Him – as the one who “is able to save completely those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to intercede for them.” That’s the reality that keeps us going.  Robert Murray McCheyne, a Scottish minister, wrote “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” Most of our struggle in life is found in having a too little thoughts of Jesus. But if your faith is in the always living Jesus – then your faith cannot fail. The ever-living, ever-praying Jesus is conscious of and connected to His own.

The Jesus who died in our place for our sins on Good Friday; the Jesus who rose again with an indestructible life brimming with love toward His disciples; the Jesus who prayed for Peter and restored Him – that Jesus always lives. He is the same today as He was then. and He won’t stop. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

If you’ve not yet put your trust in Jesus to save you, will today be the first day of your forever? If you have, enjoy your forever.