Tag Archives: covenant

GOD’S SECRET

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God has a secret. He wrote a whole book about His secret, revealing it bit by bit until He had told the whole story.

‭Psalms‬ ‭25:14‬ ‭NIV‬
[14] “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”

In the Old Covenant, God told His secret, or part of it, to His friends, those who were serious about their relationship with Him.

Only a few under the Old Covenant faintly understood God’s secret.

People like Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and the other prophets, realised the importance of God’s covenant with His people. His secret was bound up in His covenant. They also discovered that God’s mercy was not because they offered animal blood to remove their sin. There had to be something more, but God would only reveal the full story in His time.

Peter‬ ‭1:10‭-‬11‬ ‭NLT‬
[10] “This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. [11] They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.”

Abraham learned to live by faith in God because he believed God’s promises of a nation, a land, and blessing for the whole world through him.

‭Genesis‬ ‭12:1‭-‬3‬ ‭NLT‬
[1] The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. [2] I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. [3] I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:8‭-‬9‬ ‭NLT‬
[8] It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. [9] And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.”

‭Genesis‬ ‭15:6‬ ‭NLT‬
[6]”And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

‭Romans‬ ‭4:1‭-‬8‬ ‭NLT‬
[1] “Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? [2] If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. [3] For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” [4] When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. [5] But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. [6] David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: [7] “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. [8] Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”
[13] Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.”

God’s secret was slowly coming clearer to the few who believed Him and obeyed His Word. They learned that it was not their obedience to God’s instructions (because they could never obey Him perfectly) or the animal sacrifices God prescribed for failure to obey His law (because animal blood could never atone for their sin), but faith in God’s mercy because He promised to forgive their sin through a new way yet to be revealed.

To Isaiah came the clearest revelation of the foundation of God’s forgiveness, some of the other writing prophets adding details to the story.

‭Isaiah‬ ‭53:3‭-‬6‬ ‭NLT‬
[3] “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. [4] Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! [5] But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. [6] All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”

Faith, not in animal blood but in the blood of an innocent person was the only way God could forgive sin. God promised that He would send His Servant to be that perfect sacrifice.

David also envisioned some of that person’s suffering as he described suffering of his own. Somehow, out of his own agony, he described the agony of the one who died in his own place.

‭Psalms‬ ‭22:1‬ ‭NLT‬
[1] “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?..
[6] But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all! [7] Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, [8] “Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him! If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him!”…
[12] My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls; fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed me in! [13] Like lions they open their jaws against me, roaring and tearing into their prey. [14] My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me. [15] My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead. [16] My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet. [17] I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat. [18] They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.”

So, slowly, the secret is being unfolded, a secret which God clothed in a legally-binding covenant, based on His grace, which He would make known in all its glory in due time.

To be continued…

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THE GOSPEL OF MARK – MY BODY…MY BLOOD

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MY BODY…MY BLOOD

22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Mark 14:22-26

How powerfully Jesus’ simple words must have impacted the men who penned the gospels and some of the letters that are included in Holy Scriptures. The memory of their last Passover meal with Him must have replayed over and over in their minds, especially during those three terrible days when their Master lay cold and lifeless in the tomb. What did this all mean? It happened so fast, leaving them bewildered and reeling with the pain of their grief and loss. How often did His words echo in their minds, “This is my body, this is my blood,” leaving them with a million unanswered questions.

Jesus tried to warn them, to prepare them for the coming events but they refused to listen. They stuck stubbornly to their conviction that He would set them free from Rome and give them back the glory of David’s kingdom. Perhaps Judas’ action was an attempt to force His hand. But Jesus knew His destiny. He had seen every detail unfolding before the foundation of the world. He was now playing out in time what had already taken place in eternity.

The disciples were speechless. Not even Peter had anything to say at that moment. They simply gazed at Him and tried to take it all in. What an amazing experience for them when they finally began to understand! For John, He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; for Peter a lamb without spot or blemish; for Matthew the Son of God whose death released natural upheavals in response to their Creator. It’s as though all heaven held its breath and waited to see whether they would finally understand. On these eleven men hung the success or failure of Jesus’ mission – plus the Holy Spirit!

At this point, the disciples must have felt like passengers on a bullet train – they could neither stop nor disembark! They were caught up in something over which they had no control. Perhaps they just wanted to stop the world, get off and run away but they couldn’t. They were in it, like it or not. Did they ever imagine, on that never-to-be-forgotten day when He called them to follow Him, what it would mean for the rest of their lives?

It’s All About Him

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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.