Mark 9:2 – And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

Mark 9:3 – And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

Mark 9:4 – And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.

Mark 9:5 – And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

Mark 9:6 – For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.

Mark 9:7 – And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.

Hello readers, it’s time for a new blog today… how Moses made it. You see, back in Deuteronomy before Moses died, God took him to the top of Mount Nebo to see the promised land. Deuteronomy 34:4 – And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. This was where Moses and the people were meant to go all along, but Moses never entered the promised land just as God said. It seems saddening, this great prophet of God, who forsook the pleasures, fame, and fortune of Egypt, who could’ve been Pharaoh! But he chose the reproach of Christ instead, he chose the people of God… and after forty years in the desert as a shepherd, God used him to lead Israel out of Egypt to go to the promised land. But then they didn’t go in because of the unbelief of the people… and one day wandering out in the wilderness (as they did for many years), Moses got angry because of the people, he disobeyed God and struck the rock twice and he did not enter the promised land. The closest he got to it in his life was standing on the top of Mount Nebo looking at what his life’s heart had been. One can barely imagine the emotions that he experienced finally seeing the land. You may be on the edge of the wilderness today looking at a place where you will never go. Because there is a promised land you will never ever make in your flesh. A place you will never make under the law,m because the flesh fails the law test everytime, without fail. Without Jesus Christ you cannot and will not make it.

But today we will see how Moses made it. Because later on we see that he did indeed make it to the promised land. When Jesus was transfigured in the New Testament he appeared with Moses and Elias and they talked with Jesus. He saw the promised land from Mount Nebo, but thousands of years later he’d appear on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus Christ in the promised land. We know from the parallel account in Luke that they spoke with Jesus of the decease which Jesus would accomplish at Jerusalem, that is, his death on the cross. That’s what Moses “making it” all hinged upon, just like you and I today. That’s what it’s all about, it’s what Jesus becoming flesh was all pointing towards. He was born to die for our sins. To pay our sin debt and to give us new life, his life… without which we have no chance. All those sacrifices, all that blood, under the law… yet could not do what the one time sacrifice of Jesus Christ could and would do. The gospel is what our life hinges upon, from forgiveness to eternal life!

Moses made it in through Jesus Christ. And that’s the only way we will make it. We can only make it by Jesus Christ, and through his Spirit which he gives to all who repent and believe on his name. Salvation starts with the Holy Spirit, and the life thereafter is walking in the Spirit. Our flesh can never and will never be able and worthy. The Bible says that the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Through the law you will never make it. We are all flesh, and in the flesh you will make no promised land in life. The law bears down on our flesh, showing how sinful and unworthy and wicked it is. It can leave us looking in at a place we will not go. Because the law cannot take us where Jesus alone can take us. No amount of religion will get you there. It is only through the Holy Spirit that we can enter what God has for us in life. If you are not saved and born again you cannot and will not make it to heaven, nor to the promised land of a life that is meaningful, lasting and victorious. That’s the important thing to learn today. In the flesh Moses didn’t make it. But through the Spirit he did. Through the Holy Spirit he’d be in a place he’d never ever go to in his flesh. Your flesh won’t make it to that celestial city of Pilgrim’s Progress. It can’t. Our flesh is fallen, we are sinners by birth and by nature. We read in the Bible that Jesus Christ was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Our flesh must die so that we can be raised in newness of life with Christ. That happens at salvation, and also happens practically day by day in our walk with God while we still abide in this earthly tabernacle (our bodies). It is his Spirit which gives us life, it is through the Holy Spirit that we are saved and can live the Christian life, that we can enter the promised land. We must live in that reality to make it to the places we cannot go in our own strength and energy. My flesh doesn’t want to serve God, it hates God, doesn’t want to obey God, doesn’t even know God! I need the Holy Spirit as you do today, through the Holy Spirit it’s a completely different life.

The law of God wasn’t and isn’t bad, in fact it is good, but the problem is we can’t keep it to earn God’s blessing, favor and salvation… because we are fleshly sinful fallen creatures. Thus a covenant, a contract, with God based upon us keeping it is eternally doomed to failure. We could never keep our side of the deal. That’s the failure of the Old Covenant, the fact that blessing and heaven is tied in to keeping the law of God. But God never intended it that way, and God knew what he was doing. The law showed our guilt and pointed us to Jesus Christ. It revealed our true condition as sinners, but also showed the holiness of God, and a life that we are nowhere near because of the curse of sin. But  one finally came who kept the law and fulfilled God’s just and holy demands as the righteous Judge and Creator, and through keeping it, he made a new covenant with mankind based on believing what he has already done. That one is Jesus Christ. Moses’ failure to make it to the promised land shows us how in the flesh under the law we cannot make it to the promised land for our lives, much less heaven. We cannot make it ourselves. We cannot make it based on our merits, no matter how good we try to be, no matter who or what we are. No matter how much energy, or integrity, or good works, or noble intentions, no matter how dedicated, or great, or committed, or sincere. There is only one way we will make it. And that way is a person, that is why Jesus said I AM the way. Moses was a great man and he didn’t make it in, how much less you and I?

In the New Testament we see Moses appearing with Jesus during the transfiguration, and that was in fact in the promised land. Moses did make it, not through the keeping of the law, not in his flesh… but through the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the law that trumps the law of sin and death. It’s what trumps the condemnation we had under the law without Christ. The flesh is under the law of God, and condemned through it’s sinful actions and state. But when you get saved, you are no longer under the law, because you have your sins paid for and get the Spirit of Christ in you, who never sinned ever, who kept the law, and thus you are under grace. You are worthy on the basis of Christ before God, the only way you will ever be worthy, the only way you will ever make it.

You see, as great a man as Moses was, even he did not keep the law. When you and I are born, we are born in sin, and into sin… nobody has to teach us. We have a nature, called the flesh, which is against God, which does not know God, which hates God. That’s why the law cannot save, because it could not change our nature, it just imposed a set of rules, a standard, on something that could never be fundamentally changed. It’s like washing a pig, but in that pig is still the nature to go and wallow in the mire. That nature is never touched or changed no matter how much soap and water you apply to the exterior. It’s why Jesus said ye must be born again. Jesus died not just for us alive today and in the future… but he died for all those who had lived before he was born into this world. Moses died in faith, and Jesus died for all those who died in faith before he came, just like for you and me today, and people in the future as well… he died for the sins of the whole world… and it’s always been about faith in God. And on that mount Moses spoke with the one who made him able to enter, who made him worthy. You see up on the mountain, God said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Peter didn’t understand it, he wanted to make three tabernacles, but he had no clue. It’s all about Jesus Christ. And Moses knew that, Jesus was the prophet he spoke of, the fulfillment of all that law that had been given.

You cannot make it in life without Jesus Christ. You can’t make it in your own flesh, in your own energy, no matter how much you try disciplining yourself. You cannot control yourself,  though people can achieve great heights of discipline, training and self control… that’s for instance why the true fruit of the Spirit is temperance, which is the work of the Holy Spirit tempering our lives, as contrasted to the term “self control” which cannot be a fruit of the Spirit… it’s all SELF. You can’t go to heaven without Jesus Christ. You can’t enter the promised land for your life without him. Moses in his first birth was not able, but although he had bodily died, he appeared with Jesus Christ. Life is in Jesus Christ, if you believe in him, you live through him. Jesus said ye must be born again. Those three men talked about Jesus’ impending death… because that is what it all hinged upon. It was all focused on Jesus Christ. They saw him on the mount for who he was, full of glory, shining like the sun. It’s such a glorious truth that sets us free from self effort. In our flesh we can’t make it. That’s just fact. Just like Ishmael was rejected, your flesh cannot please God, your flesh won’t inherit the promise. Your flesh fails the law of God test of your worthiness. The law was given to show our flesh can’t do it… it just shines a bright light on how fallen our flesh is. God is Holy, and you cannot meet his standard, not nearly. And not just a standard, but a sin debt that must be paid because we owe a great unpayable debt that stems from accountability to our Creator. Abraham got Isaac by promise, it was a miracle. Salvation is a miracle. New birth, new life is a miracle. It takes the power of God, and “making it” takes the power of God… which is not our power… but God’s. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth!

We need the grace of God… under the law condemnation… but under grace life. The grace of God is not an excuse to sin. This message isn’t saying, oh well, you can’t be worthy no matter what you do so why bother. No. It’s saying get grace which is extended freely to you. Because through the grace of God you can enter the promised land. The grace of God won’t make you want to sin, it’ll give you a new life which is nothing like a life bound in the flesh. When you experience the grace of God, it will enable you not to sin. Having the Spirit of God gives you victory over sin where you could never have it in your own flesh. You see it takes God’s grace to “overcome” like those in Revelation. It take’s God’s grace to not sin. It takes God’s grace to as David did, see Saul in the trench asleep and be able to spear him through, and yet be able to obey God and not to. His flesh said take revenge, his flesh rationalized it as a good thing to do and righteous… but the Spirit said don’t touch God’s anointed, and have mercy and obey God rather than take vengeance. It take’s God’s grace NOT to sin. So there is a massive amount of false teaching which basically makes God’s grace a blank cheque TO sin, where God’s grace actually enables us NOT to sin… and that attitude and lifestyle of willful sinning actually shows you are destitute of the God’s grace that you claim. Without God’s grace you cannot even call upon the name of Jesus Christ. It takes God’s grace, divine power and favor from heaven to have the ability to repent and believe on Jesus Christ. That’s why if God’s grace is withdrawn from your life, if you FAIL of it, as Esau did, you cannot be saved. It’s why people never get saved though they plan to. Because you can only get saved when God draws you first, you don’t wake up one day and think I’m gonna get saved today. Through God’s grace Moses made it, whereas by the law he was stranded on the verge of the promised land.

How did Moses make it? He made it through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the way, just as he always said. The law was given to point us to him, it was never going to save us. It was never an instrument to legitimize flesh, but to show us how we can’t make it but for the one who made it for us and through him we can make it. Moses failed to make it in under the law, he failed in his flesh… but he appears with Jesus Christ in the promised land. Not under law, but under grace. The grace of God extended to him. In Genesis 6 we read… But Noah found grace in the eyes of God. We can’t make it ourselves, flesh and blood doesn’t inherit the kingdom of God. But in Christ Jesus you will make it, his Spirit in you, he that HATH the Son HATH life. Jesus did keep the law which noone else did or could ever do, and when he lives in us, he produces holiness in us… after all his Spirit which is given to everyone who believes on him is called the “Holy” Spirit. Thus we live in the love of God, and our lives fulfill the law not through our great self effort, but through the Holy Spirit in our life. If you have the Holy Spirit, God has given you grace to believe on him, and to live the life he has for you. There is a promised land for all believers, a promised land… but many stay in the wilderness because of unbelief. Moses was never saved by the law, it was the blood of Jesus Christ, of which he spoke about with him on the mount, that would pay the price for his sins, that cleanse him from his sin and cause him to make it. Hebrews 11:13 – These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And later in Hebrews 11:40 – God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.  The better thing is Jesus Christ. Moses saw the better thing that day on the mount. He saw what and who it had all been about.

Blog Bible Bible Study Christ Disciple Faith Gospel Grace Heaven Holy Spirit Jesus Law Moses Salvation Truth