Topic: DON’T DEPEND ON DEAD WORKS – Bishop Mike Okonkwo Devotional 2 July 2021 [The Redeemed Evangelical Mission]

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DON’T DEPEND ON DEAD WORKS

‘’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: 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?’’ Hebrews 9:13-14 KJV

All our efforts amount to nothing in the sight of God; they are dead works. You cannot make yourself respectable before God because He is the one who makes you respectable. “But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s tent- the true Holy Place- once and for all… using his own blood as the price to set us free, once and for all” (Hebrews 9:11-12 MSG).

Alleluia! We are free! If the animal sacrifice got some results, think of the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood cleans us inside out and frees us from all those dead efforts. Your efforts are dead-end. God doesn’t want you to live in dead-end efforts. Come to Him in weakness.

A publican and a Pharisee went into the temple to pray. Look at their prayers and the conclusion of Jesus: “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican… And the publican, standing afar off… smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:11-14 KJV). You see, the Pharisee depended on dead works but the Publican depended on God’s mercy, coming to Him in weakness. Beloved, if God does not show you mercy, you are finished! If He doesn’t make you good, you can’t call yourself good. That is why He chose to call us good.

Further Reading. Hebrews 9.1-16

Daily Bible Reading: Morning- Job 22-24; Evening- Acts 11