Romans 15:8 Now I say that Christ Jesus has become a servant to the circumcision in behalf of the truth of GOD, to confirm the promises made to the fathers.
The carnal nation of Israel was to receive land but the carnal nation under the law were not Abrahams children of faith. Galatians 3:7 The carnal nation had no faith. Deuteronomy 32:20 The promises to the children of faith were for the church. Galatians 3:16 Romans 4:13 In order to confirm the new covenant, that covenant had to already exist.
confirmed
[kuhn-furmd]
adjective
made certain as to truth, accuracy, validity, availability, etc.: confirmed reservations on the three o'clock flight to Denver.
confirmed reports of new fighting at the front;
confirmed reservations on the three o'clock flight to Denver.
firmly established in a habit or condition; inveterate.
a confirmed bachelor.
given additional determination; made resolute.
having received the religious rite of confirmation.
The gospel Jesus preached was also preached to Abraham. Galatians 3:8 Jesus, by his life, death and resurrection confirmed this covenant of the gospel. Gospel means "good news" and it is the message about salvation through Jesus Christ.
The issue of circumcision was fulfilled by the baptism of Jesus that fulfilled all righteousness. Jesus was baptized for all those ancient saints that came before him. The issue that these ancient saints never knew the name of Jesus or ever heard Jesus speak or give commands is settled because GOD gave Abraham. and those of faith after Abraham, visions of the Christ and the prophets made many predictions about Jesus . One could make the same accusation for the saints today, we never saw Jesus or heard him speak. Modern Christians are taught by GOD through Christ, Abraham was taught by GOD through an angel. If its GOD teaching it will be the truth will it not ?
The olive tree in Romans 11 represents the church. The branches are part faithful Israelites and grafted in gentiles. The faithful Israelites were people like Moses, King David and all the prophets but included people before Moses gave the law like Abraham, Enoch, Noah and Melchizedek. All these people saw Christ afar off and were convinced by faith that GOD showed them the visions they had and reported to us in their writings. Today we look back at Christ and by the same faith and visions are convinced. The root of the olive tree are the people before Moses; Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and others.
The covenant GOD gave to Abraham was not the old covenant, Deuteronomy 5:3 , Moses was the mediator of the old covenant. The Abrahamic covenant was 400: years before Moses.
If Jesus confirmed the new covenant then it had to exist prior to the confirmation. All the ancient saints were under the new covenant even though Jesus had not yet confirmed it. The sign of circumcision that was to signify the messiahs future arrival as the promised seed of Abraham was a forward looking sign then after Jesus it was replaced by baptism a backwards looking sign.
These ancient saints knew the messiahs gospel and lived it by having faith, grace and imputed righteousness. 1 Corinthians 6:9 Both the church and Abraham had this imputed righteousness , The church and Abraham were both the elect of GOD, both were the church and Christians. They all were called and chosen by YAHWEH and had the Holy Spirit. The reason King David was not stoned to death for adultery and murder was that he was under the new covenant having access to mercy, repentance and forgiveness whereas the old covenant demanded his death.
1 Peter 1:8,9,10,11,12,19,20 The blood of Christ was spilled from the foundation of the world but the actual bodily manifestation of Christ was in the first century AD . YAHWEH chose all the saints in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4 Revelation 13:8 Romans 16:25,26 2 Timothy 1:9 Titus 1:2 Colossians 1:26 All these scriptures tell us that a person did not have to be alive from Pentecost forward to be a Christian under the new covenant because the sacrifice of Christ covers all of time. YAHWEH, THE ALMIGHTY GOD, planned this in eternity. HIS word, once spoken is done, and HE declares things and they were done, that for us, seem to not yet been done. This is how and why the sacrifice of Christ is for all ages; past, present and future. It is the will of YAHWEH that all the people of faith in Hebrews 11 had HIS Holy Spirit, were under the new covenant based on faith and grace, have their names in the book of life, will be in the first resurrection to rule and reign with Christ who they knew and who’s gospel they knew. To think the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was time dependent or that to be a Christian one must know the name of Jesus or think YAHWEH has not had faithful Christians before Jesus is to be unaware of the eternal existence of the purpose of Jesus Christ, the very reason why YAHWEH created HIS son.
No comments:
Post a Comment