Before I was truly saved, I was crushed under the weight of the temporary nature of life. Things did not last. Enjoyment did not last. Happiness did not last. I saw little point in doing anything because everything would fade away. I enjoyed going to amusement parks and the beach, yet I hated going at the same time. I knew the fun would fade shortly, being only a brief moment of happiness. Then the drudgery would continue. I wanted my happiness to last, but it simply wouldn’t. It was like breath on a cold day. It can be seen but for a moment, then it vanishes never to return again. My life was breath-like.

The popularized statement of the Teacher (Qoheleth) in Ecclesiastes 1:2 says “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” But what does this mean? Sure, vanity in this sense means futile, but what is the Teacher really saying. Why is everything futile?

The Hebrew word rendered by many English translations as vanity is hebel. The meaning of this word is breath-like. It doesn’t simply mean futile, it means futile due to its lack of permanence. Life is hebel says the Teacher. In fact, the hebel is the same word as Abel’s name. Abel’s life was the personification of hebel! He did what was right and what did he get? He was killed by his unrighteous brother who got to live on. His life was not lasting, it lacked permanence. Abel was the first victim of the curse of the fall. His life was hebel, breath-like.

The Teacher in Ecclesiastes says that all life is ruled by hebel. Nothing lasts, not even the righteous for they meet the same fate as the wicked in death. Life is not worth living under the curse of hebel. I understood this as well as the Teacher of Ecclesiastes did when I was in high school. I knew that nothing lasted. Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay froze me with despair. I wanted something lasting, but knew of nothing that did. I desired to die. I knew my life would fade as all else does, I just hated waiting for it to do so. I’d rather it end than to live with the knowledge that it would not last and eventually end. Breath-like, everything is breath-like.

So why is Christianity a religion of joy? Why is it a religion of hope and peace? Why does not the entire church shriek under the growing weight of hebel? Surely the Christian is still subject to hebel. His garden fades, his pets die. He loses loved ones to time and disease. The Christian himself dies just as the pagan.

But to the Christian, hebel was nailed to the cross. Hebel itself is fading. Christ took upon himself our sin as well as our life under hebel. His life on earth was breath-like. But, He returned. He destroyed hebel and lives in permanence. So too will the Christian. Hebel is fading. Though this life may be subject to futility and suffer from transience. The age to come will no longer be subject to it. True, lasting joy and happiness will be as permanent as Christ, as will we.

21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ”Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, ”Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24He answered,  ”I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26And he answered, ”It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28Then Jesus answered her, ”O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Matthew 15:21-28

The latter block of verses begins with Jesus withdrawing. He basically needed a vacation. He went with his disciples to Tyre and Sidon. Maybe they went to spend some time at the beach. They stayed at a certain house that they didn’t want anybody to know about. But of course, word got out that Jesus was in town. People came to Jesus in need of healing.

We see a Canaanite woman coming to Jesus for this reason. Canaanites were not in the covenant community that the Jews belonged to. Her daughter was demon-possessed. She cried out to Jesus to have mercy; she was desperate for her daughter to be healed.

Jesus didn’t even answer her. The disciples asked her to leave because Jesus wasn’t responding to her. When she didn’t respond to that, the disciples asked Jesus to send her away. He told them that he did not come for her. She was not a part of the covenant. Somehow, she got through the crowd and knelt before Jesus. 

But the woman persisted. She got through the crowd and disciples somehow. Jesus asked her, “Why should the children’s bread be given to the dogs?” In this context, the bread is healing and the dogs are those who are outside of the covenant (non-Jews). Jesus insisted that this provision was reserved for God’s people. The Canaanite woman acknowledged her status as a dog, but she showed that she still came in faith asking for the crumbs from the masters table. Jesus finally granted her request because of her faith. 

There are two fundamental covenantal principals regarding healing in this true story. They are God’s justice and God’s mercy. Justice is doing what is right. Justice is giving people what they deserve. Mercy, stated negatively, is to NOT give people what they deserve. Stated positively, mercy is giving people what they don’t deserve. It is this latter definition of mercy that is commonly referred to as grace. 

Justice and mercy are the ways that God administers His covenant. In Deuteronomy 32:39 we see that God is sovereign over life and death. In Exodus 15, why does God say that He will not put disease on His people? Justice. If the people obeyed, they would not be subject to disease. If they rebelled, they would be judged. God’s sovereignty over death and life should bring us peace and comfort.

Why do people die?

We die because of sin. Ultimately, we die because of Adams sin. In Genesis 2:17 God says that if Adam breaks the law he will die. All sickness and disease originates with the sin that took place in the garden.

And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.”
Exodus 15:26

God said, “I am your healer.” Why?

1. Because His people get sick.
2. Because He heals as a God of mercy. 

Healing is a provision of His covenant. Deuteronomy 7:15 says that He will remove all sickness from you.

These principles of covenant show why Jesus responded to the Canaanite woman the way He did. In the same way that healing is a part of the covenant promise, the promise that the blood of Christ covers the sins of applies to those in the covenant. Those outside the covenant receive righteous justice. Examples: Noah and the flood, Passover

So then, how do we receive the covenant promises of God? FAITH. 

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The preceding article comes from my sermon notes taken during a sermon delivered by Bill Hyer.

The subject of this series addresses the central work of God in all of history. The central work of God in all of history is the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.  All of history pivots upon this work of Christ. It is the very heart and core of what God has done for us in history.

The word atonement means all that is involved in Christ dying to save us from our sins. In its original use, the word “atonement” specifically referred to Christ bringing God and man back into a right relationship where there is peace and joy in the unity of a loving relationship. It literally spoke of “at-one-ment.” This meant bringing God and man back together as one through the reconciliation accomplished by Christ’s death. Through the years, however, the connotation and meaning of the word “atonement” developed and expanded to encompass the overall conception of all that was involved in the work of Christ and His death to save us from our sins with reconciliation being one aspect of that completed work.

Throughout the Scriptures, from the third chapter of the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation, the Bible tells the story of what God would do and did do for us through the death of His Son. In all of Scripture, perhaps one of the greatest places that reveals the eternal significance of the work of atonement of Christ is Revelation chapter five. The fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Revelation give the description of the worship of God in heaven. In chapter four, we see the worship of God the Father because of Who He is and because of His creation of all things (Revelation 4:11). Chapter five describes the worship in heaven of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is depicted as the Lamb. Just as all of heaven worships God the Father, so all of heaven worships God the Son. But whereas the worship of the Father focuses on Him as Creator, the worship of the Son focuses on Him as the Redeemer. Revelation 5:9 tells us that all of heaven worships Him saying, “Worthy are You…for You purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe, and tongue and people and nation.” Revelation chapter five shows us that above all other things, it is the atoning death of Christ and what His atoning death accomplished that is the focus of the worship of heaven. As we see what heaven focuses on in its worship, we can see the eternal significance of the work of atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we study the Scriptures, and especially the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see that it was of absolute and essential importance for Christ to make atonement. Mark 8:31 states, “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” The Scriptures summarized the teaching of the Lord Jesus here as saying that He “must suffer…and be killed.” The word “must” stresses His teaching that it was absolutely necessary for Him to suffer and die. Jesus said the reason that it was necessary for Him to suffer and die was so that He would make atonement. In Mark 10:45, He said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” His words, “a ransom for many,” speak of the atonement.  

In my next post on this series, I will begin by discussing why the atonement of Christ was necessary.