concluding words from an apostle: our conscience is clear, our strength comes from God’s grace

Hebrews 13

New Living Translation (NLT)

Concluding Words

13 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.² Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! ³ Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.
⁴ Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.
⁵ Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,

“I will never fail you.     I will never abandon you.”

⁶ So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper,     so I will have no fear.     What can mere people do to me?”

⁷ Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹ So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.
¹⁰ We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. ¹¹ Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. ¹² So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. ¹³ So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. ¹⁴ For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.
¹⁵ Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. ¹⁶ And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.
¹⁷ Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.
¹⁸ Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do. ¹⁹ And especially pray that I will be able to come back to you soon.

²⁰ Now may the God of peace—     who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep,     and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood— ²¹ may he equip you with all you need     for doing his will. May he produce in you,     through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him.     All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.

²² I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to pay attention to what I have written in this brief exhortation.
²³ I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released from jail. If he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you.
²⁴ Greet all your leaders and all the believers there. The believers from Italy send you their greetings.
²⁵ May God’s grace be with you all.

____________Verse of the Day
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!        2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
 

Journey to see God: see the divine Father and Son relationship

The relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son of God, has been repeatedly declared by Jesus while on earth, as the Son Of Man. Jesus was Spirit-filled and walked in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Let us read His words on His divine relationship with God and learn from Him the right way of knowing God. What did Jesus say about God? How we may relate to God? John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”

Jesus declared His status (and relationship with God) clearly in the temple, 7:28-29 “You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of myself, but He who sent Me is true, Whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

John the baptist testified for Jesus, “And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” 1:34 He testified Jesus’ relationship with God. “ He who comes from above is above all…and what He has seen and heard, that He testifies…For He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life;” 3:31, 32, 34-36

Jesus spoke of God as His Father, and He declared the true purpose of the temple of God. “Take these things away! Do not make My Father‘s house a house of merchandise!” 2:16

He told off His earthly parents, “Why do you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father‘s business?” Luke 2:49

At Jerusalem, Jesus went into the temple and drove out those who bought and sold in the temple…and would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. hen He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves’?” Mark 11:15-17

He testified that His mission on earth was the mission of God for mankind. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only 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 that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16-17

Jesus spoke of Himself as the gift of God and that He gives living water; a ‘fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (the Holy Spirit who gives the rebirth). 3:10, 14

He spoke of how a believer relates to Godby his action. “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.’ 3:21

Jesus declared that God is Spirit and looks for those who worship in spirit and in truth. 4:23-24

Jesus declared how God works pertaining to human. “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” 5:17 God works. God is always working.

What work God works and Jesus also does? Jesus explained further on this subject in 5:19-21 “…the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son , and shows Him all things that He himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” 37 “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me.” 43 “I have come in My Father‘s name,”

God works through Jesus. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He sent.” 6:29

6:27 God the Father has set his seal on Him. Therefore Jesus can give us the food which endures to everlasting life.

6:32 “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” 37 “All that My Father give Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

Jesus clearly declared what the will of Godregarding salvation through Jesusis. 6:39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” 40 “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

God draws us to Jesus. God teaches us to go to Jesus. “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” 6:45

There is a connection of life between Jesus and the Father. It is in the Holy Spirit(the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ) and the words of God. 6:57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so He who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.”

“unless one is born of water and the Spirit, He cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” 3:5-6 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 7:

Concerning the words Jesus spoke: 7:16-17 “My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.” 8:26 “but I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” 8:28-29 “that I do nothing of myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father does not leave Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”

31-32 “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

38 “I speak what I have seen with My Father,” 47 “He who is of God hears God’s words;” 51 “If anyone keeps My word He shall never see death.” 55 “I do know Him and keep His word.”

Jesus spoke of the love relationship between Him and the Father in chapter 10:

10:15 “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”

17-18 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again…and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” 25 “The works that I do in My Father’s name.”

29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My father’s hand.’

30 “I and My Father are one.” 32 “Many good works I have shown you from My Father.” 36 “I am the Son of God.” 31 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me.” 38 “that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

(This study is based mainly on the gospel according to John, chapters 1-10, unless otherwise specified. Some of the verses are quoted in excerpts. Readers are urged to refer to the Bible yourself so that you would not miss out the original full texts.)

love of God in Christ Jesus