Wednesday: The Gospel in the Old Testament
“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’ ” (Gal. 3:8, ESV). Paul writes that not only was the gospel preached to Abraham, but it was God who preached it; so, it must have been the true gospel.
Image © Classic Bible Art Collection Goodsalt.com
But when did God preach the gospel to Abraham? Paul’s quotation of Genesis 12:3 indicates he has in mind the covenant that God made with Abraham when He called him in Genesis 12:1-3.
Read Genesis 12:1-3. What does this tell us about the nature of the covenant that God made with Abraham?
The basis of God’s covenant with Abraham centered on God’s promises to him. God says to Abraham four times, “I will.” God’s promises to Abraham are amazing because they are completely one-sided. God does all the promising; Abraham promises nothing. This is the opposite of how most people try to relate to God. We usually promise we will serve Him, if only He will do something for us in return. But that is legalism. God did not ask Abraham to promise anything but to accept His promises by faith. Of course, that was no easy task, because Abraham had to learn to trust completely in God and not in himself see ( Genesis Chapter 22). The call of Abraham illustrates, therefore, the essence of the gospel, which is salvation by faith.
Some mistakenly conclude that the Bible teaches two ways of salvation. They claim that in Old Testament times salvation was based on keeping the commandments; then, because that did not work very well, God abolished the law and made salvation possible by faith. This could not be farther from the truth. As Paul wrote in Galatians 1:7, there is only one gospel.
What other examples can you find in the Old Testament of salvation by faith alone? See, for instance, Lev. 17:11, Ps. 32:1-5, 2 Sam. 12:1-13, Zech. 3:1-4.
| We often hear the phrase “cheap grace.” Yet, it’s a misnomer. Grace isn’t cheap — it’s free (at least for us). But we ruin it when we think that we can add to it by our works or when we think we can use it as an excuse to sin. In your own experience, which one of these two ways are you more inclined to lean toward, and how can you stop? |
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Another thing that God used to teach the gospel in the old testament times is the services of the sanctuary. The sacrificial victim was the type of Jesus Christ. If they confessed their sins, they believed it was transferred to the victim and penalty for those sins was been paid by its death. In the same way Jesus died in our place as a victim for our sins. So the people of old testament times were preached to just as we are.
Yes! And just like the sanctuary services of the past was a daily morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb, and a yearly Passover and day of atonement celebration, we also need to daily morning and evening and yearly commitment (by faith,) via his Holy Spirit and by prayer to Jesus and God's word and promises for us and our salvation and with his heavenly sanctuary services for us in heaven daily and yearly too.
What God did to Abraham, He can do for us. The problems come from us, because instead of investing in faith which comes from Jesus Christ who died for us we invest in miracles which are based on false prophets. In the book of John 3:16 says God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This word tell us to believe in Jesus by faith and not otherwise.
We have one task to believe the promises that God made to us and all will be fulfilled, we don't need to promise God anything for him to fulfill what he has promised, our faith in him and his promises will surely fulfill all period.
If you compare Isaiah 14:12-14 and Genesis 12:1-3-When Lucifer says "I will" he has selfish ambitions/motives because he is merely seeking to serve his own interests. But on the contrary when God says "I will" he is NOT doing it for himself but he
doing it for fallen humanity!
Going by this paragraph taken from Wednesday's lesson: "God’s promises to Abraham are amazing because they are completely one-sided. God does all the promising; Abraham promises nothing. This is the opposite of how most people try to relate to God. We usually promise we will serve Him, if only He will do something for us in return. But that is legalism. God did not ask Abraham to promise anything but to accept His promises by faith. Of course, that was no easy task, because Abraham had to learn to trust completely in God and not in himself see ( Genesis Chapter 22). The call of Abraham illustrates, therefore, the essence of the gospel, which is salvation by faith." . . .
Now, doesn't our church shove legalism down our throats because of what it sees? Does our church completely trust God to work on the person or it trusts itself to change someone by first kicking the person out of the church & leave him out in the cold until he crawls back into the church through re-baptism? (as if we would kick our own son/ daughter out & lock the door. I guess we would get on his/ her team, not against them, & lovingly sit down with them).
Under the veil of 'discipline,' 'church governance,' 'church integrity,' etc, etc; how many people have our deaconries kicked out - these are Jesus Christ believers/ these are faith-drenched church folks - who broke one law or another?
Thinking of divorcees who have been ostracised by the church (thus disfellowshipping them impliedly, isn't it?), those who impregnated/ got impregnated, etc, etc. Does our church use legalistic means to make someone obedient, or it trusts that faith will justify someone & Holy Spirit will easily make someone obedient?
Doesn't the gospel of salvation gets eclipsed by the veil of 'discipline/ governance, integrity?' Can the two be co-established or Jesus Christ has to first be established for one to become a banner of faith in Christ through their works?
Sometimes we emulate the Pharisees more than we imitate Christ forgetting that His grace refines us, His grace helps us become our better selves.
If we all really understood this 'Justification by faith,' would it have been necessary to be thrown out by another body or the Holy Spirit would have convicted us & stopped us in our tracks (where we transgressed/ are transgressing) & guided us on how to re-acquaint with Jesus? Do we have an elephant in the room? Just wondering!!! Who am I to say this or that . . .
The world has got everything but lacks one thing: LOVE. I found the 'Love Comes First' article posted on this site on July 20, 2017 by William Earnhardt very powerful & am gonna close my bewilderment with a quote of his whole closing statement:
Kamoza, you make some good points, and I'm glad you appreciate William's post. But I see several points of confusion:
1. You write about "our church" implying that it is some authoritative body, and you appear to forget that *we* are "our church."
2. You write about things that boil down to social behavior in a particular congregation or perhaps a number of congregations. If you are a member of such a congregation, the most constructive thing you can do is to do your part in changing the atmosphere in that congregation. A change in behavior cannot be forced, as you also appear to recogniz.
Some specifics:
It is entirely likely that local congregations have made mistakes. But it is equally likely that you and I do not have enough information to judge that they have wrongly disciplined "faith-drenched church folks." Faith is a heart matter which usually expresses itself in obedience, but only God knows the heart. You appear to be quite articulate, and you could possibly use your influence to start a change of attitude in a local congregation.
I gather from this that the folks you refer to were not disfellowshipped, but "ostracised." That's a judgment made on social relations not on "the church." For one thing, this may not be intentional. Divorces create problems in a congregation. When members don't want to take sides, they often default to just avoiding the divorcees. It's sad, but to brand this as "legalistic means to make someone obedient" is probably unjustified.
That's a good question. Keep in mind that both Christ and Paul give instructions applicable to church discipline. And the example of both biblical history and Christian church history demonstrates that discipline is necessary to have a viable body as the church of Christ. How to discipline in love should be of utmost concern when discipline appears to be necessary.
Your point regarding the world needing love is well said. That's what God wants to reveal to the world through you and me.
Very well said!
If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all. unrighteousness. 1John 1:9. Trust me from memory Marcos and Wilton. Now I like the amplified verson also, so happens I grew up with the KJV. Amplified version----If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].
1 JOHN 1:9 AMP
I do believe David a man after Gods own heart, understood righteousness by faith as Abraham did. Read Davids words in: Psalms 37:4-7.
He CHOOSE to delight himself in the Lord, comitt to His ways, trust in Him, wait on Him and entrust himself to Him. Is it not the righteousness by faith as we believe? I do believe so. So we as Seventh-day-Adventist are old covenent and new covenent believers. Right?
John, isn't that what the "foolish" Galatians were getting into?
Actually, yes. The law of Moses was holy, just and good because it came from God but it ended when the promised seed came. Paul spoke of those who want to be under the law. I'm afraid that fits most of the members of our church. Look how reluctant we are to leave Sinai by throwing out the slave woman and her son.
Your right Kenny, I was thinking more of the what God set up the old covenant to be, not what it was construed to be (righteousness by works). God had no intention for men and women to turn the old covenant into works, it was actually a sign to Abraham of his faith and to David of his faith. Now we don't need a physical sign, we by faith have a mental sign, the Cross of Christ. No we are not of the old covenant of works, rather of faith. That is why we needed a new covenant. Thanks Inge, Harry, and Kenny.
No, John, we cannot be old-covenant and new-covenant believers. It has to be one or the other. Either we take advantage of the "everlasting covenant," also known as the "new covenant," or we default to the "old covenant" which requires perfect keeping of the law, putting us all "under a curse," as Paul put it.
Please recognize that God gave the "new covenant" from eternity. It was humanity that created the "old covenant." This is well covered in William Earnhardt's just-published post, "What Was Wrong With Sinai?"
Depending on the promises of God, not ourselves. Joshua 24:22.
I call 1 john 1:8,9,and 10 a word of God sandwich. Verse 8 is the first slice of bread of that sandwich with the challenge to recognize that we have a sinful nature and have sin in our natures to deal with daily. The second slice of bread to that sandwich is verse 10 challenging us to never claim to have ever sinned at all at any time (past, present, or even future). Then the best part is the filling to that Word of God sandwich, verse 9, challenging us to always be in an attitude of confessing sin in our lives to God every time the Holy Spirit shows it to us. And his wonderful promise of that Word of God sandwich filling is that he is faithful and just to "Forgive us and cleanse us". Praise his Holy Name!
I think I am more likely to fall into the legalism ditch. I admire God's law greatly and am likely to try to do things myself. I must learn to WATCH AND PRAY ALWAYS lest I fall into a pile of filthy rag righteousness. I believe that if we do not uphold God's law that we are not involved in the "remnant" of Revelation. Therefore we must keep the law. It is easy to forget that the law kept with selfishness as the motivation is fruitless. It leaves out the "testimony of Jesus" which is the Spirit of Prophecy. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the only motivator of true law keeping.
"For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them,[a] not being mixed with faith in those who heard it." Heb 4:2
This verse and the one in Galatians counters the modern doctrine in many churches that the Jews had a different salvation approach of law keeping to be saved.
Yes, the Jews did have a different approach to law keeping but it was not something that God gave to them. It was something that they set up as rule after rule especially about Sabbath-keeping even to where when Jesus came they condemned Jesus for breaking those rules when he healed people on the Sabbath.
Old Testament looks forward to the coming Messiah. The faith that says "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" [Job 19:25]. The faith that was characterized and strengthened by fervent prayer and fasting, and humiliation of heart. The heart that was emptied of self, and filled with the Spirit and power of God. Faith that leads to entire dependence upon God.
Salvation comes from having faith in God. Faith qualifies one to be Abraham's child. "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham" [Gal 3:7]. The faith that says no matter what happens, God is in control. The faith that declares us as "seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?" [2 Chron 20:7]
Test of faith is the fear of God: "for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me". [Genesis 22:12]. He believes God will provide salvation. What a beautiful picture of faith that depends exclusively on God as the provider. "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be" [Romans 4:18].
New Testament looks back to the Messiah that has already come and has done. Paul says there is "One Lord, one faith, one baptism" [Ephesians 4:5]. Baptism by the Holy Spirit. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. . . and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" [1 Cor 12:13].
New Testament faith leaders looked upon the Old Testament Faith leaders as pioneers of their faith. The faith that says "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth".[Job 19:25]
Then if all the New Testament believers looked at the old testament believers as the pioneers of faith then who are we to neglect them?The Bible says the Church is built on the foundation of prophets and apostles Eph 2:20
Harry are you mixing the up the to laws here.The Ten Commandments do not fall under the law of Moses. God wrote them with His own finger and gave them to Moses. They were kept inside the Ark of the Covenant.
Then the second one Mosaic laws were written by Moses and given to the priests and kept on the side of the Ark of the Covenant.
That which was immutable is the Moral Law.It is God's stamp of character and authority. It will never change.
Paul mainly referred to the Mosaic Laws.SDA are not stuck on Mosaic laws.
I am not sure why people refer to Mosaic laws as Sinai. The book of Deuteronomy explains the difference clearly.
Anele
The Ten Commandments are the words of the covenant at Sinai. Exod 34:28. Deut 4:13. We should also note that in Exod 20 1-17 we see that God spoke His words. Then in Exod 20:18-21 the people express fear and asked Moses not to have God speak to them anymore, but have God speak to Moses, then Moses to them. From Exod 20:22 onwards God continues to speak for many, many chapters thereafter, even into Leviticus. All of these were God's words, none from Moses. Therefore the "Law of Moses" is really the "Law of God."
There is no greater significance to what God wrote from what He spoke. They are all the words of God and have equal import. The first commandment to Adam and Eve was spoken not written. Yet the violation of that spoken command has resulted in monumental consequences. Therefore, there is no superiority of seriousness or hierarchy between what God spoke and what God wrote.
When an author writes a large significant work, he/she usually writes an executive summary at the beginning so that someone can read the summary and get the substance of the rest of the writing. The summary has no major point that is not included in the larger work, and the larger work bears no difference in substance from the executive summary. However they are one and the same in importance and substance. The "Ten Commandments" is the Executive Summary of the entire law.
What God wrote with His finger, cannot be separated from what Moses wrote, which all came from God. To relegate "Moses" writings to a lower tier is not correct. When Jesus, the disciples, the apostles, David, the patriarchs and prophets spoke of the law, they meant the whole body of material. Yes, the tables were in the ark while the book was outside the ark. As you can imagine, the book was voluminous and of considerable size and could not fit within the confines of the ark. But obedience and adherence to both the tablets and the book were required and violation of either had the same consequences - cut off from the covenant people, etc.
In Gen 12:1-3 what we have is God's promises to Abraham. This was not the covenant. A covenant involves two or more parties. What we have here was God's unilateral promises to Abraham.
In Gen 15:9-18 we note the way covenants were created in early times. Animals were killed and were laid out in two touching circles in the form of the figure "8". Then the two parties expressed their promises and then walked between the two circles. We will note that Abram was exhausted trying to keep the vultures from eating the dead animals - his own works, probably wondering why God was taking so long and get on with the ceremony.
At the end of the day, when he was exhausted and asleep, a smoking oven and burning torch passed between the circles, thereby forming the covenant.
The oven representing God the Father, and the burning torch represent God the Son. They were the only ones performing the covenant - Abram was asleep.
This signifies that Christ represented man (Abram) in the covenant. Man had no "works" involved in the covenant. This is an expression of the everlasting covenant between God and man - with Christ our substitute performing the "works" and promises on our behalf.
In the Sinai covenant - the Israelites substituted their works, their promises, thereby rejecting Christ's role in the covenant. (All that the Lord says, WE will do.)
I long for a time when the people of God will understand, think and speak of the Gospel in more natural ways.
God didn't create doctrines, denominations, misunderstandings and controversies in Eden. What Scripture records of human beginning is God's creation of two persons who could relate to Him APPROPRIATELY, and Him to them (Gen 1:27)--that's it! It is important to note that He CREATED them THAT WAY, that is, He placed within them the ability to relate to Him and everything else He had created in an APPROPRIATE manner (Gen 1:31; 2:19; Prov 23:15-16; 1 Cor 10:31). One could think of them as being created justified.
The entrance of sin seriously disrupted God's created order (Gen 3:22-23). The severity of that fall, or loss of justification, is consistently likened to death throughout Scripture (Gen 2:17; Rm 7:21, 23; Eph 2:1; Lk 15:24). Worse yet, our progenitors, by one choice, involved every single human born since then in an inescapable situation of "death" (1 Cor 15:22; Gen 6:12,5; Rm 8:6). Made still worse by human deception (2 Cor 4:4; Prov 14:12). Scripture depicts the human condition as dire (Isaiah 53:6; Rm 3:9-11).
There is, fortunately, a rare condition from which some individuals suffer called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (if you see genesis and imperfect in the name, honestly, I didn't make it up!:) This disorder is passed on from parent to offspring and manifests as brittleness of the long bones. There is no known cure. Bones will break with minimal exertion. The parent of such an offspring must exercise vigilance and enforce rules--no sports, no jump rope, no slides, no running down steps, in fact, no running--period! What a life for an active child! God might have created our skeletons to support us upright, even to do an occasional back-flip, but not so with "brittle bone" disease and when you can't reverse INHERENT WEAKNESS, safety requires some kind of intervention--often in the form of rules. Like this bone disorder, the birth state of all individuals is abnormal. Our lost justification prevents us from standing upright before a holy Creator (Rm 7: 14).
The Old Testament is riddled with depictions of what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will accomplish in saving humanity. Through the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12, 15, 17) God's salvation plan for the world (Gen 12:3; Gal 3:8) is declared. Scripture is clear that the minds of both Jews and Gentiles are alike compromised (Rm 3:9,11,19; 2:9,11; 1:18,21; Eph 4:17-19). God is depicted as appearing and establishing a covenant with Abram (Gen 17:1-2) but his faith-child, Isaac, becomes the beneficiary. Even though Paul, depicts Isaac as representing Christ (Gal 3:16), it's actually in the sense that Christ identifies himself closely with His people (Act 9:4-5; Gal 3:29). God charged Abraham (Christ) with the responsibility of his own circumcision as well as that of his eight-day-old offspring/heir (Gen 17:11-12). That the heir is made a covenant beneficiary while still a helpless, ignorant newborn usually escapes our attention but is really central to the message of the Gospel (Rm 5:11-12). Both God and satan interacts with the human brain/mind (Heb 8:10; 2 Cor 11:3). Flawed minds produce flawed living (1 Pt 1:18) and misunderstandings of God's words (Jn 8:43; 2 Cor 3:14). This condition is only reversed when God breaks the power of satan (Col 1:12-13) and transfer sinners into the care of His Son (Lk 4: 18; 24:45).
May the Messenger of the Covenant perform in us the only circumcision Heaven values (Mt 22:36-40; Deut 30:6; Philippians 3:3; Col 2:11), as He alone is the God of all persons (Act 15:8-9; Rm 3:28-30).