[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Tuesday, January 14, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day once again.  I hope that your day is going well.

The following article might be considered long for the majority of you, besides perhaps being a bit theologically complex.  Nevertheless I hope that some of you will find this piece interesting.  Because of its length I've divided it into two parts.  The author of it was Dr. O. Herbert Hirt and its title was "The New Covenant:  Its Implications For the Christian life," rendered as follows:

Introduction

Within recent years, evangelical Christians have been very zealous in this country in attempting to get their message of the gospel communicated by or through the media.  Last year (2008), evangelicals received substantial media coverage, although it was not under the circumstances they envisioned.  But there were opportunities, amid the tragedies that occurred, to explain to the public the essence of the gospel.  Amazingly, after 2,000 years of the Church's witness, not only was there a confusion among intelligent people outside of Christendom concerning the relationship between sin and forgiveness and righteous living, but it also seemed that many of the so-called "Christians" were not able to explain or demonstrate it.

Anyone acquainted with the New Testament would recognize that its central message is that forgiveness of sins is now offered through faith in Jesus Christ, based on His death and resurrection.  There are still questions in people's minds concerning the relationship of this "forgiveness" to their lives now, either in reference to their continual sin or what is called "good works." This article will explain, through a study of the present significance of the New Covenant to believers, the relationship of sin, forgiveness and righteous living to believers today.

REDEMPTION:  THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

In the last article (which I don't have), the fact was established that the two components of the New Covenant were the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit's indwelling of believers' hearts.  Paul, as a minister of the New Covenant, recounted for the Church in Ephesians chapter 1 the "spiritual blessings" they now have in Christ (Eph. 1:3).  As the central feature of God's blessing, Paul said:  "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, in which He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence" (Eph 1:7:8).

As stated above, one cannot read the New Testament without recognizing this message of forgiveness.  But it was this message of God's grace toward sinners that the religious Jews of Paul's day could not reconcile with their understanding of God's holiness, which they saw in the Old Testament.  Some Jewish believers apparently also had trouble reconciling God's holiness and wrath with His love and grace.  In the book of Romans, chapters 1-4, Paul sought, through very thorough argumentation, to explain how God could be holy and judge sin and yet forgive sinners.

Before explaining God's salvation, Paul demonstrated God's present wrath against sin (Rom. 1:18-32) and then argued that all men, Jews and Gentiles, are sinners and, hence, are worthy of God's wrath (Rom. 2:1-3:20).  He did this to emphasize that anyone can become righteous before God through faith in Christ.  But what exactly did God do through Christ's death? Paul said in Romans 3:25 that God publicaly displayed Jesus Christ as a propitiation "through faith in His blood." What does this mean? It is important to recognize that the Greek word translated "propitiation" is _hilasterian, which, in Hebrews 9:5 (and so in the Greek translation of the Old Testament), refers to the "mercy seat" or the lid on the ark of the covenant.  Since the glory of God did appear above the ark, this lid could be understood as the seat of God's throne, but the Hebrew word from which it is translated (kapporet) implies more of the idea of "atonement." This is because, on the Day of Atonement (yom kippor Lev. 16), this lid was the place where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled to cover the sins of the people.  The imagery is that God's holy presence, which was founded on His righteous Law (the tablets were in the ark), required justice, since the people had broken the Law.  Blood was sprinkled on the lid over the broken Law which satisfied God's holy judgment so that His presence could remain with His people another year.  The term "mercy seat," therefore, means "the place of atonement," and Paul used it in Romans 3:25 to refer to Christ as "a propitiatory sacrifice" or "a sacrifice of atonement."

Paul was saying that Christ's blood was the sacrifice that satisfied God's holy wrath against sin so that those who put their trust in Christ could have forgiveness of sins.  Therefore, God can maintain His holiness in that sin was punished in Christ, yet He can righteously forgive those who recognize their sin and come to Him for mercy.

In Romans 3:27-31, Paul went on to explain that this forgiveness is obtained by faith and not by one's ability to achieve righteousness.  In other words, only by admitting his absolute helpessness to achieve any righteousness on his own, even by keeping the Law, can a person trust totally in what God has done in Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  In Romans 4, Paul illustrated through the examples of Abraham and David that "justification by faith" is not a new idea in God's program of salvation but that anyone who has ever become right with God has done so on the basis of faith in God's Word and His promised forgiveness.

However, the person who believes God's promise of forgiveness in Christ and acts on it still may ask, If all my past sins are forgiven, what about the future? If I still sin, must I ask forgiveness for every sin? What will happen if I stand before God in the judgment and have forgotten to confess something?  In Romans 5:1-11, Paul explained the results of being justified by faith, both for our present lives and in the future when we stand before God at the judgment.

In Romans 5:1-2, he said:  "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

Paul's point was that, since God has satisfied His wrath in the blood of Christ, believers no longer have to fear God's wrath.  Rather, they have "peace with God." Even the believer's present sin does not affect this relationship because the believer now stands in grace.  This means that, when a person puts his trust in Jesus as the sole means of his being right with God, all his sin (past, present, and future) is forgiven.  Therefore' the believer doesn't have to fear God's wrath of eternal judgment.  Paul explained this in Romans 5:9-10:  "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."

Some people who heard Paul preach this gospel of forgiveness concluded that, if a person felt that all his sin would always be forgiven, there would be no restraints for sin.  A person could sin as much as he wanted and always be forgiven.  Therefore, they reasoned, Paul's gospel encouraged sin.  Paul responded in Romans 6:8 that, while it is true that the one who puts his trust in Christ can never be separated from Him, the truly regenerated believer will not live a life of sin for two reasons:  His heart has been changed, and the Holy Spirit now lives in his heart.  The second promise of the New Covenant is that God puts His Law, in the person of the Holy Spirit, permanently into the believer's heart.

And there you have Part One of this article.  Hopefully a few of you received some spiritual enrichment from its reading.

Before I close (and I do hope that some of you are still with me), the answer to the Bible book and chapter from Sunday is Isaiah 12.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow will bring the conclusion of this article.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul