Rev. Don Campbell

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, JULY 18, 2017: WHO’S YOUR COSIGNER?

“Be surety for Your servant for good; Do not let the arrogant oppress me,” pleads the psalmist” (Psa 119:122, NJKV). To be surety for someone means to cosign for them, promising to pay their debt when they cannot. Does it seem outlandish for the psalmist to ask God to cosign for him? God did not think so, for he made Jesus the surety of a better covenant (Heb 7:22).

Israel confidently “signed” the covenant God made with them at Sinai: “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient’” (Ex 24:7).

The Old Covenant was based on their performance. The New Covenant is based on Jesus’ performance as the surety of the New Covenant: “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,’ then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Heb 10:11-18, ESV).

Jesus is the surety of our salvation, as we are reminded in the Elvina M. Hall hymn: “Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

Harmony Quartet Sings “Jesus Paid It All”

If Jesus has not picked up your note, you owe a debt you which will be collected when you stand before the throne of judgment and the books are opened.