Monday, May 17, 2010
Psalm 22:25 (NKJV) My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
MY VOW--COMPLETED
In applying these words to our Lord Jesus we are taken back to the cross at the end of His suffering. "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, 'I thirst.' Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!' And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit" (John 19:28-30). "Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two" (Luke 23:45-46).
The vow of Jesus was that He would bring about the everlasting salvation of all through His life and death and rising again. The completion of that vow was made known by His declaring, "It is finished" and was visibly demonstrated in the temple when the curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. What once stood between God and men, sin, was removed forever because Jesus kept His vow.
With Jesus completing His work, the Father's promise given to Adam and Eve was fulfilled: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15). Also all the other promises the Father made were fulfilled.
Having accomplished all, with what words did the risen Jesus greet His disciples when He first appeared to them? "Peace be with you ... Peace to you!" Isaiah calls Him the "Prince of Peace!" The angels song to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born sang, "Peace on earth."
Jesus, on the night of the last Passover Feast He ate with the disciples said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you" (John 14:27). There on the cross before all the people Jesus became for them and for us: peace, our rest from the strife, havoc, of war, our rest from the war of sin. It is done. It is completed and we are at peace with God. Jesus has said to us forever: "My peace I give to you!"
