Verified by Blood

A covenant reminder can be a refreshing exercise.  When we revel in the New Covenant we are not to be charged with inventing some new fad. The Lord himself introduces it distinct fashion. The partaking of bread and wine in memory of our Lord’s death resurrection should be held in strict reverence. The covenant in his blood is the only candidate for the progress of the people of God. Jeremiah’s new covenant prediction can only be realized (a) with the shedding of efficacious blood, and (b) the terms of the covenant cannot include anything from the testimony (Jeremiah. 31:31-34).

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jer 31:34
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. Jer 31:32;

The homogeneity between the Sinai Covenant and the covenant of grace may be something more than a childish delusion, a refusal to grow up. It comes from ground that wants to take credit for the rain and the farmer’s work. It comes from a mind that wants to sit on the fence. When our Lord cautioned about loving God or Mammon, the elephants in the room were Himself and the rest of the world. His disciple could not embrace both Moses and the God who had appeared in human flesh. The difference is stark. The difference is demands and death through unbelief versus grace and life through faith.
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On top of this, bread and wine, the very staples of Palestinian life, are the signs of the Lord’s mediation as priest-king.  Our life in Christ is sustained, dynamically, by High-priestly generosity, the milk and honey of our times in fellowship with the Father. These proverbial queens of baby food give way to the blood that pays our debt and is our life.

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) Gen 14:18;

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest,
one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, Heb 8:1;

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost
those who draw near to God through him,
since he always lives to make intercession for them. Heb 7:25;

Finally! No Death Sting

Here are a few of the summary statements by New Testament witnesses. There are at least another 5 or so with the same feature. No writer urges obedience to the law or reliance on prophets.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Philippians 3:1

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 1 Thessalonians 4:1

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 1 Peter 3:8

How could the guardians of God’s saving revelation not proclaim the whole duty of man?

Fact or Fiction

The songbook of the Hebrews remains popular for the history, geography, insights into God’s work in the world. Its authority rests on the interpretation especially of deeds narrated as distinct from established facts. “The Lord is my light” is a fact we rely on. Both God’s activities and outcomes are unmistakeably stamped with insight. Paul reminds us that even the visible creation reveals God’s invisible godhead. On the other hand, “The Lord will hear from heaven” is likely to happen, and “The Lord brought them out of Egypt” is not likely to happen. These actions are therefore not enduring truth.

The purpose of Scripture is not to retread the call of Abram, the bondage in a foreign land, the exodus, the journey to Canaan, the servitude to Canaanite powers, the monarchy, exile, and return. Christ brought the full significance of God’s interest in the human race. John says that the early witness saw the glory of the Father in the incarnate Word (John 1:14)

The message of Yeshua deserves a new kind of attention because only he can tell of heavenly things. The prophets were never there, neither were the wise and prudent of all the ages.

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Matt 11:25

He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. John 3:31

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? John 3:12 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. John 3:13

The difference between the messengers who came before Christ and Christ is not a trifle. The message cannot be the same as those messengers’. Christ alone has the words on which we can build secure lives. The importance of the very words of Christ is indicated by possessive pronouns, not mere [personal pronouns (my, your, their, his, her, our). Possessive pronouns (mostly hidden by poor translations) are more like adjectives that transform “the word of me” into “the my word”, ton logon mou into ton emon logon, signifying his peculiar words and not someone else’s. The stakes are inestimable.

It can be demonstrated that all the problems with practice and discussion arise from the distractions that draw attention away from the new covenant. Most Christians are speeding headlong along the same trajectory as the Greeks, who spent their intellectual capital hunting for new concepts. The Jews of New Testament times were dead set against anything new, as if they had been told that the customs of their patriarchs and the covenant of Sinai was going to last forever. It was as if they did not know that a new and different arrangement had touched down and official Judaism was not going to be its chief spokesman and that the new was not going to be a copy of the old.

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:38

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, John 8:31

Closing Game

The day of Christ’s return

will be announced shortly.

Exactly when, we do not know.

Imagine that announcement, coming from a pulpit in 2018. Not happening right? No interpreter of the Gospel will accept the proposition that the return of Christ will not be sudden, quick (not soon) and unannounced. There are people who hold that God will announce the day and hour because it is in an obscure book.

People who want to show how reliable they are, even after just soiling their pants, will invent more lies. They cannot stop. There is no gospel in their tool kit. It is all Moses and death. When they had a chance to revise and review their beliefs they went after Moses instead of Christ. Being face to Face with God is a Yeshua thing that is inconsistent with slinging arrows from a book. They did not love the Truth as they claim.

Law does not belong to God’s life plan.

The Sinai Covenant – The Law – is not lifesaving, is not a standard for saved people, and listening to that spin is more corrupting than we have imagined. Jews praying at the remains of the temple and Christians promising to be obedient to the Sinai Covenant are sure signs of the opposition to Yeshua and the influence of demons.

The conclusion of our business is life.

The Law of God (same as Law of Moses) does not belong to the faith to life highway.

Law is a holy, just, and good prison

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. Galatians 3:23

Camp-out here

How long God will allow the anti-cross lies to flourish is unknown. It may be that to protect his name the Lord will allow the shutting down of the lie-and-slogan factories that have come to dominate the churches. God’s closing game has already been announced, completely, and it does not need anyone giving out the day or the hour.

But the law is not of faith, rather- The one who does them shall 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 hanged on a tree— Galatians 3:12-13

Abuse Happens Here

Isaiah 56:6-8 records a prediction of Gentile participation in Israelite worship. The passage tells of foreigners joining the Lord and gives an explicit picture of that participation. I suppose that many will be saying “Not so fast” because we have seen the cessation of the tabernacle services during the Babylonian exile (586-516 BC) and again in AD 70 to the present time.

A crucial issue that we can address is that “the Lord” is not applicable to Messiah. He called the one and only house of prayer – the Jerusalem Temple where he had put his name – a den of thieves and robbers.

The temple was the only place acceptable for offering sacrifices and that fact was verified by the Chronicles episode where the temple was filled with the glory of the Lord at Solomon’s dedication of the house. Further to that, our Lord also called the temple in Jerusalem a desolate house. People joining YHWH since AD 70 have had no place to offer sacrifices.

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.

This prophecy lists the specific:

  1. burnt offerings
  2. sacrifices
  3. my altar
  4. my house
  5. a house for all people

Abuse accompanies every movement that tries to magnify minors, like law and prophets. The Lutherans, Arians, Baptists, and Anabaptists, and the whole army of Christ deserting `ists should be up in Jerusalem now burning animals and eating their flesh for fellowship with God.

For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John… Matthew 11:13

Hitting it off

This weekend is another opportunity for people to rub in the tribalism that has been around since Eden and it is equally an opportunity for people to name Christ and show how much we are in the game. Whatever our reason for having a specific to celebrating of our faith on the weekend, we can be sure it will not advance our growth and it most certainly will do nothing that God can approve if we have the minutest attitude of personal responsibility for hitting it off.
🔶Faithful at the exit. All the people who have God’s approval died in faith (Hebrews 11:13).
Noone can claim to have aced anything God demands. A successful journey is determined by safe arrival. Unlike the Egyptian Exodus Generation who perished in the desert, everyone who hits it off with Christ gets an entrance to God’s family plus immortality at the end of the age.

🔶It is God who ensures the safekeeping of what we commit to him. (2 Tim. 1:12)
Both our beginning and our end are not only mysterious, they are intensely personalized experiences and out of the public gaze (John 3:8). The idea that one’s harvest to God is left up to the wheat is as off the wall as the "get circumcised for acces to God the Father" proposition which is still a major obstacle to properly hitting it off with God.