THE BASICS
In telling about God, his people Israel, and their Messiah Jesus, the Bible's constant
theme is that man needs to be saved and God provides salvation. The purpose of life and
the meaning of history is that God will deliver humanity from the misery of sin and
restore their relationship with Him.
According to the Old Testament, God created man in his image to be in intimate, loving
fellowship with him. But man rebelled, chose his own way instead of God's - and still
does.
1 KINGS 8:46, "When they sin against Thee (for there is no man who does not
sin)..."
ROM 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
The name of such rebellion is sin, and the penalty for sin is death - not only
cessation of life but everlasting separation from God.
ROM 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
However, since God is merciful as well as just, He wants to save man from what he has
earned and deserves. To this end God chose one person, Abraham, and through him brought
forth a people, the Jews, commissioning them to "be a blessing" and "a
light to the nations."
GEN 12:1-3, "Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And
from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I
will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you
shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I
will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
ISA 49:3, "And He said to Me, "You are My Servant, Israel, In Whom I will
show My glory."...6 He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My
Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I
will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the
earth."
Through Moses he gave them the Torah making known His standards for righteousness.
Through judges, kings, and prophets He encouraged them, disciplined them and promised that
final salvation would come to them and the other peoples through an "anointed
one" (Hebrew Mashiach, English "Messiah," which means the same as Greek
Christos, English "Christ").
Continuing this story, the New Testament proclaims that the Messiah of Israel
prophesied in the OT is Jesus, a real, historical person who, like others, was born, lived
and died. However, unlike others, he did not die simply because his life ended but in
order to redeem us from our sins. Also unlike others he was resurrected from the dead, is
alive now "at the right hand of God" and will come a second time to rule as King
of Israel and bring peace to the world.
PSA 110:1, "The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand, Until I make
Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet."
ACT 7:56, "and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of
Man standing at the right hand of God."
In explaining why he alone was qualified to be the final sacrifice for sins, the New
Testament calls him both Son of Man and Son of God. The first term, taken from the OT,
means that he is fully and ideally human, sinless, "a lamb without blemish."
EXO 12:5, "Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it
from the sheep or from the goats."
1 PET 1:19, "but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the
blood of Christ."
Since he did not owe his life for his own sins, he could be "God's lamb...taking
away the sin of the world."
JOHN 1:29, "The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" ... 36, "and he looked upon
Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"
The second term, hinted at in the OT, means that "in him, bodily, lives the
fullness of all that God is," so that he is uniquely able to express God's love to
humanity.
ISA 9:6-7, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the
government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His
government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and
to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the
LORD of hosts will accomplish this."
ZEC 12:10, "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they
have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will
weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born."
COL 2:9, "For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,"
JOH 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
The NT explains how this new Church is related to the Jewish people. The NT does not
say that the Church replaces the Jews as God's people. Nor does it say that the Church
stands alongside the Jews as a second eternal people of God with a separate destiny and
separate promises. Rather, the relationship is more complex: Gentiles are grafted as
"wild olive branches" into a Jewish "cultivated olive tree," some of
whose branches "fell off" but will one day be "grafted back into their own
olive tree," so that in the end, "all Israel will be saved." It is on this
basis that unity will be restored between the Church and the Jewish people.
ROM 11:1, "I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!
For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has
not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in
the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have
killed Thy prophets, they have torn down Thine altars, and I alone am left, and they are
seeking my life." 4 But what is the divine response to him? "I have kept for
Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 In the same way
then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious
choice. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is
no longer grace."
ROM 11:11, "I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it
never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them
jealous. 12 Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches
for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! 13 But I am speaking to you who
are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if
somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. 15 For if
their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life
from the dead? 16 And if the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also; and if the
root be holy, the branches are too. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and
you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the
rich root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are
arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. 19
You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." 20
Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not
be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He
spare you. 22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity,
but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be
cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in;
for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature
a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how
much more shall these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in
your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of
the Gentiles has come in; 26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,
"The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob." 27
"And this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." 28 From the
standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's
choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of
God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been
shown mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so these also now have been disobedient, in
order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. 32 For God
has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all."
The Bible speaks of both individual and corporate salvation, so that the OT and the NT
speak to the full range of human activity - government, family life, interpersonal
relationships, worship, prayer, physical health, emotional well-being, and the inner life
of the spirit. In all of these areas the Bible informs us that a right response to God's
initiative will bring salvation to every part of our lives - individually, socially,
nationally and universally.
The two Testaments deal with parallel material in complementary ways. History, having
started with the creation of heaven
and earth and the sinless paradise of Eden in the first two chapters of the OT, ends with
the sinless paradise of a new heaven and a new earth in the last two chapters of the NT.
REV 21:1, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the
first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea."
The NT, continues the salvation history set forth in the OT on the basis of covenants
made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David; presents the new covenant which God promised to
make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; and presents Jesus as consummating
the systems of kings, prophets, priests and sacrifices described in the OT, and as being
Himself the sum and substance of the Torah. Thus the NT apart from the Old is heretical,
and the OT apart from the New is incomplete - 2 testaments, 1 Bible.
JER 31:30-34, "But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the
sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. "Behold, days are coming," declares
the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke,
although I was a husband to them, "declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant
which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD,
"I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be
their God, and they shall be My people. "And they shall not teach again, each man his
neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will
forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
The term "testament" reflects a tension between the Hebrew language of the OT
and the Greek of the NT. The Hebrew word b'rit means "covenant, contract". The
Greek word for "covenant" is "diatheke". But" diatheke" can
also mean "testament" in the sense of "will". The Hebrew words
"b'rit chadashah" mean "new covenant". Due to the influence of the
Greek word diatheke, the name "New Testament" was used instead of "New
Covenant" for the new Scriptures - even though what Jeremiah foretold was a new
foundational contract between God and the Jewish people, not a will: a covenant, not a
testament.
Moreover, a "new" covenant implies an "old" one, in this case the
Mosaic Covenant made by God with the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. The New Testament makes
this plain in Heb 8:6-13, where in context, "old" does not imply "bad"
but merely "earlier". Since the OT, dates from between 1500 and 300 B.C., it is
called the Old Testament, distinguishing it from the first century A.D. writings which
constitute the New Testament.
HEB 8:6, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is
also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. 7 For
if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a
second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming, says the
Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah; 9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them
by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My
covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord. 10 "For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My
laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people. 11 "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow
citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' For all shall know Me, From
the least to the greatest of them. 12 "For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more." 13 When He said, "A new covenant,"
He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready
to disappear."
KEEP IT SIMPLE
The greatest summary of ethical instruction was given by our Lord in Matthew 22:37-39:
it was to love God and to love one's neighbor. There also was the Golden Rule of Matthew
7:12.
Mat 22:36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He
said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL
YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40 "On
these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
Mat 7:12 "Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for
this is the Law and the Prophets.
PAUL CAME IN SIMPLICITY
1 Cor 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech
or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
BASIS OF KEEPING IT SIMPLE IS TO STAY WITH JESUS
Col 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
COME BY GRACE NOT POSSESSIONS
Heb 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we
may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
WE WORK BECAUSE OF GRACE - NOT TO GET THINGS
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast. 10 For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them.
RICHES BRING WORRY
1 Tim 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to
fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all
things to enjoy.
A PURE HEART IS FOCUSED IN SIMPLICITY
Mat 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
KEEP TO THE BASICS
Phil 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which
surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if
anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.
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