Daily Archives: October 20, 2014

It’s All About Him

Bible Study, , ,

IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM

“Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise, but God in His grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” Galatians 3:15-18.

Without going into detail, the Bible clearly teaches that Abraham had four different kinds of “seed”.

1. It stand to reason that all Abraham’s natural-born children were his “seed”, That would include the all descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, even those who were not part of God’s selective history, that is, those who were set aside and not a part of the Jewish nation.

2. God chose Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, to be the father of Abraham’s special, natural seed – the children of Israel. These were the covenant people of God.

3. In Galatians 3:16, Paul narrowed Abraham’s seed down to one person, Jesus Christ, as Abraham’s unique seed because it was only through Him that all the promises God made to Abraham, would be fulfilled.

4. In Galatians 3:29, Paul identified believers as the spiritual seed of Abraham. Since God’s promises are received by faith, and the children of Israel failed to believe God and receive His gifts by grace, He opened the door to the Gentiles to be included in the family of Abraham if they received Jesus by faith. That made them the spiritual children of Abraham.

(www.audiowebman.org/bbc/books/NC/abrahams_seed/chpt_02.htm)

Do you understand, then, why Paul identified Jesus as the unique “seed” of Abraham? The covenant God established at Mount Sinai with the special natural seed of Abraham did not nullify, add to or subtract from His covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15). It was an interim covenant given to His people to show them how to live as His special people, and to teach them how impossible it was to obey Him without the Holy Spirit.

It was God’s intention to give the Holy Spirit back to those who trust in Him because, without the Spirit, people are still dead and unable to hear or communicate with God. The Holy Spirit would be only given when the barrier of sin between God and man had been removed. Only Jesus could remove that barrier by paying sin’s debt on behalf of sinners. Ultimately then, God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled through one man, Jesus, the “seed” of Abraham. In Him, all those who believe in Him are His seed by faith. Jesus Himself spoke of being a seed.

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But, if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24.

But Jesus was not just any old seed. He was the seed of Abraham, the offspring of God’s covenant people, the one whom God promised would come to crush the head of Satan.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring (seed), and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” Genesis 3:15.

Jesus was both the seed of the woman (human) and the seed of Abraham (Jewish); he was born of a woman and born into the Jewish nation. He came at a specific time and into a specific culture which had been prepared through God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai to understand the ramifications of sin so that they could understand and appreciate the enormity of God’s grace.

That they failed by rejecting their Messiah was no fault of God’s, but it did open the door for God’s grace in Christ to be given to the whole world. God intended for His people to be the revelation of Himself to the world. It did not happen through His chosen people as a whole, but through a small group, called the Apostles, who went in obedience to His command, and took the message to the world.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Either Or, Not Both And…

Bible Study, , , ,

EITHER OR, NOT BOTH AND…

“For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ The law is not based on faith; on the contrary it says, ‘The person who does these things will live by them.’

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Galatians 3:10-14.

The Judaizers were trying to convince Gentile believers that salvation was a “both and…” situation. In order to have Christ, they had to obey the law as well. “No way!” said Paul. It is not “both and” but “either or” because they are mutually exclusive. You cannot have law and grace because they are opposing principles. The one automatically cancels out the other.

Let’s see why. Those who rely on their own attempts to obey God’s law perfectly (and anything that is less than perfection is automatically disqualified), and fail, are under a curse and have to pay the penalty for disobeying God’s law. Since death is the penalty for sin, and everyone is born into the world with a dead spirit – unable to connect with God’s Spirit because of his sin nature, everyone comes into the world already under a curse.

No amount of trying to satisfy God’s righteous standards will make them alive because they all begin with a spoiled record before they ever choose to sin. Sinning is automatic. Take the two-year-old who throws a tantrum because he can’t get his own way. What is that? It is the self-demanding to be in charge. He doesn’t even need to choose. He just does it because it is in his nature to rebel. No amount of trying will cancel the sin already present from birth.

There is only one way to get rid of the penalty of sin – if someone else pays the debt who has no debt of his own. That’s where Jesus comes in. He is the only alternative because He was placed under a curse by being executed on a pole (a euphemism for being put to death as a criminal), as a substitute for every sinner who deserves to die because he is already spiritually dead.

Now the alternative is – not trying to keep God’s commandments because it doesn’t work, but trusting in Jesus because God is satisfied with what our Substitute did. What is the outcome of Jesus’ sacrifice? God restored the Holy Spirit to everyone who believes in Jesus. Why do we have to have the Holy Spirit resident in us? Because, without Him we have not link with the Father.

God breathed His breath into Adam in the beginning and gave him life, that is, a connection with Himself that made him fully human and therefore fully alive, able to have fellowship with God because he was one with Him. When Adam rebelled, the Spirit of God withdrew and Adam died to any connection with God. He was on his own, just as he had chosen to be, and he had to make up his own rules. We know the result.

Only when rebellion was dealt with and we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son, can God give the Holy Spirit back to us. We are reinstated as His sons and daughters with a new nature of loving submission to the Father.

Who wants to keep on trying to please God by fruitless keeping of rules when He offers a free pardon for our sin, a new nature and all the benefits of being His children simply by accepting His gift? How foolish to think that we can do both!

It’s no wonder Paul became angry with the Judaizers for their poisonous teaching. It was like telling the Gentiles to go back to jail after being given a free pardon just to make sure that justice has been served.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.