Bible Ballistics: Counselor? December 1, 2013 Vol. 3 No. 3
Greetings on this fine Sunday, I hope that you’ve had a good time of Thanksgiving with friends and family this weekend. We have been on the road all day heading home from a lovely time with some of our children and grandchildren, as well as friends and family on the Gulf Coast.
I hope you survived the “Black Friday” sales and are ready for the “Cyber Monday” sales coming up. May we remember to keep our “attitude of gratitude”? I would like our focus during this month to enhance our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Of course Christmas isn’t the ‘actual’ birthday of Jesus but it is the time that we, as Christians, have set aside to rejoice in His incarnation. I hope that during this Christmas season you will remember that the lovely babe in the manger was born to die for our sin—mine and yours.
We’ll spend this month looking at some of the names given to this one called Messiah.
Isaiah 9:6 says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God,
The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.”
Here God reveals to Isaiah the character of the coming Messiah. We’ll take this month to consider the four main descriptions of Jesus in this passage: Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
I believe that each of these descriptions/names can help us keep our celebration centered on the focus of “Christ”mas.
We’ll begin with Wonderful Counselor. The word ‘counselor’ means, “a person trained to give guidance on personal, social or psychological problems”. While earthly counselors must be trained in this skill of counseling, Jesus, in contrast, is the Creator (see Jn. 1:3 & Col. 1:16) and therefore able to counsel His creation in all things by His very nature. And ‘wonderful’ is extremely good.
Hebrews 4:15-16, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
And Hebrews 9:11-14 adds to this insight on Jesus,
“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
This group of verses in Hebrews reminds us of what Jesus did for us in His coming, living and dying for our salvation.
He was tempted as we are –yet without sin—
He knows and understands our weaknesses—
He welcomes us to come boldly unto His throne—
He offers us mercy and grace to help in our need.
And who doesn’t have a need, more than one!!!! Hebrews 9 also reveals to us His sacrifice and and deliverance for sinners.—
He is a High Priest of better things, heavenly things—
He made atonement with His own blood—
He obtained eternal redemption through that blood—
He cleanses us through that blood to sanctification.
Sanctification—being clean and set apart.
We don’t have to be controlled by sin.
1John 1:5-7 says, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Jesus empowers us to walk in the light,
to be conformed to His image (see Romans 8:29b),
to have fellowship with one another and
to be continually cleansed
by His blood,
His Spirit and
His Word,
as we confess and turn from our sin continually.
Romans 8:1-2 reminds us how, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
We are made FREE to do right rather than sin through this very blood that Jesus gave for us.
Jesus will be our Wonderful Counselor because
He has walked in our shoes,
He endured temptation,
He lived in this broken world yet without sin.
He welcomes us into His presence to receive forgiveness and the grace and mercy He gives to cleanse and restore us to useful service in His kingdom when we stumble. He gives counsel that the world cannot match.
There are countless instances in scripture of the folly of relying on “earthly” counsel. But I’ll close with only one,
Joshua 9:14, “And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.”
This wrong decision cost the lives of some three dozen men in a battle. How many battles do we loose when we heed the wrong counsel. Look to our Wonderful Counselor—HE WILL NEVER FAIL YOU!!!!!!!
Bible Ballistics 