"Of whom salvation the prophets have enquired and search diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you ... and the glory that should follow." (I Peter 1:10-11)
To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what Law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law.
Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the Law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." (Romans 3:21-31)
The Lord hath established a new law in this current dispensation of grace. That still, we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and from His abundant love for His beloved -- you and I -- we flow through His love to one another. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29-31)
This is critical to understand because the scripture, "foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith" preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all the nations be blessed." You see, the Gentiles receive their salvation through adoption on the New Testament side, as a consequence of the Lord Himself levelling the playing field between Jews and Gentiles. To this end, the scripture states, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24)
The good news? That by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10)
This is why we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they are. (Acts 15:11) In this case, the "they" mentioned here are the Israelites, God's chosen people in the old testament side. All this changed with "the Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." (Hebrews 9:8) It is in this context that this becomes important, for our hearts are now -- both Jew and Gentile -- equal before the Lord God Almighty. And for the purpose of salvation was God manifest in the flesh, preparing for Himself a body for sacrifice so that each and every one of us could experience His plan of salvation, and life everlasting. (I Timothy 3:16)
"He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own and His own received Him not." (John 1:10-11) But I am digressing. In Hebrews, we begin to understand the extent of God's love story for you and I, and how much, from the very beginning of time, He loved us in this dispensation of grace. And also, how far God was willing to show His mercy and love and grace unto the world, wherein, "hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." (Hebrews 9:26)
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot tot God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause, He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." (Hebrews 9:14-18)
Because God willingly and often, suffered since the foundation of the world, we can now be thankful that this same He -- "now, once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself ..." (Hebrews 9:26-28)
Therefore, the Law was only a shadow of good things to come. The Law serving as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, who was once offered to bear the sins of many, but now, to those who look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)
The greatest love story ever shared with mankind, wherein Christ is no longer entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true,; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Jesus through the Holy Ghost advocating and intervening as the mediator on behalf of those who believe, so that we might receive salvation. This is why we can have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, "by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. (Hebrews 10:19-20)
"Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in all." (Colossians 3:11; Galatians 3:27-28; Ephesians 1:23)
We understand this also from Acts 15 when Paul, Barnabas and James were discussing circumcision as a requirement of the Old Testament Law. After there had been much disputing on this topic, Peter rises up and said, "Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago, God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the Word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knows the hearts, bare them witness giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." (Acts 15:6-9)
In the old, we see that the killing of the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood WITHIN THE VAIL, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat; and he shall make an atonement for the holy [place], because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins; and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. (Leviticus 16:15-16)
But in the new, we see JESUS, who tore the vail from top to bottom, heaven to earth, when He Himself became our Saviour.
Admittedly, before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:23-29)
Herein, is our hope eternal, that we are no longer under bondage, under the elements of the world, because when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts -- Abba, Father. (Galatians 3:3-29; Galatians 4:1-6)
"And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him, [I say] whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled, in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight ... if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the gospel which y have heard ..." (Colossians 1:20-23)
This point is further clarified in Galatians 2:16 -- "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified, by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law, for by the works of the Law shall non flesh be justified."
And just for purposes of clarity, let me cite Galatians 3:20 -- "Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." (Galatians 3:20) God clothed Himself in sin-prone flesh (and yet He was without sin) so that we might have life abundantly in Him. He is our refuge and strength, and the giver of the joy of gladness, because in all things, He is victorious.
Stand in the offering plate.
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