Christmas Celebration
December 21, 2024A Tale of Two Cities – Bethel and Babel
December 28, 2024
A favorite classic song around the Christmas season is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” We celebrate and give glory to the newborn, and now, reigning King of Kings forever!
But focus on the third verse of this song:
“Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings…”
As I was thinking about “Risen with healing in His wings,” I remembered part of Psalm 91 and dwelling in the secret place of the Most High:
Psalm 91:4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge;
Today, this is the place we abide every minute of our lives.
With that established, let’s compare with portions of Psalm 103:
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits;
3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases…
This whole chapter is sooo rich, but let’s skip down to verse 12:
12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
The distance from east to west cannot be measured. Yes, He removed our transgressions from us THAT far. But wait a minute… let’s compare Isaiah 53:5, a favorite passage regarding healing.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
When did He bear our transgressions? At the cross. He only went once. That’s all He had to do. Isaiah was looking forward in time to the finished work. Jesus said, “It is finished,” and then sat down in His rightful place at the right hand of the Father. When did he forgive all our iniquities and heal all our diseases? At the cross. A perfect, all-inclusive work. How could a perfect Shepherd provide anything less? Nothing, absolutely nothing, was left out.
Peter, looking backward in time to the cross, confirmed the completeness of Jesus’ work through His death, burial, and resurrection:
1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the thee, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness– by whose stripes you were healed.
2 Peter 1:3 …His divine power has (already….my emphasis) given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.
Child of God, the Author and Finisher of all that has been provided, now lives inside us. As we celebrate whose we are, let us also celebrate where we are and all that has been given to us.
Terri Branham is a wife and mother of two grown children. She lives in California’s Central Valley and enjoys e-bike riding. Terri attended Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, in 1977-78. She is a Prayer Leader on the Z-team.
