2011-02-11
Good Morning Loved Ones,
Having discussed how God obligates Himself to sinners, we can now go on to the first comments on what God means by covenant relationship. This still comes under the issue of trust in God, because there wouldn’t be a covenant relationship without both parties in it willing to trust each other to live up to any promises made. Of course, there can’t be any real comparison between the complete and perfect trust God shows verses the incomplete and sometimes weak trust we put in Him due to our sinful nature. But, it is this writer’s belief that God wouldn’t enter into such a relationship with us unless He believed that we couldn’t possibly be perfected and purified by it. The very first hint that something amazing is going to happen over mankind’s history comes, in GN 3: 15, as God is interacting with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. At this point, the original sin has been committed [GN 3: 1-6], so God already has had His first real disappointment at the hands of the serpent [Satan]. God has pronounced judgment on mankind and the devil in a most revealing verse, GN 3: 15, “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel.” Think about it, mankind and Satan’s evil will crash headlong into a tremendous battle that will take the entire 66 books of the Scriptures to come to an end, and we’re even told who will win! Exactly how this will lay out isn’t told at this point, and it will be some kind of journey before we get to the end times and the story of Revelation to happen in our future. It’s a journey that not one of us should miss. But let’s get to GN 3: 21, so we can see what God does as He reveals His heart toward his human creation. “And the Lord God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.”
What does this mean? We must look at what is built in to this decision on God’s part. He is getting ready to expel Adam and Eve from the Garden. We must first look at why they are both naked and embarrassed by this bareness. Prior to eating the fruit from the tree of life, they were naked an unashamed. They were unaware that they were naked or that they were totally dependant on God. Remember PS 24: 1? The world and all that is in it belong to the Lord; the earth and all who live on it are His.” Put this together with God’s plan of what responsibilities mankind were meant to have. GN 1: 26, “Then God said, ‘And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small.’” [Don’t skim over the word “us” used here, because it is pleural and clearly refers to the Trinitarian nature of God; the word is “Eloheim” in Hebrew]. Once the fruit of the tree of life is eaten, the first humans’ focus is transferred from care for other species to self-centered shame of their nakedness, something that displeases God to the extent that He is ready to cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden. Yet, He does this without leaving them naked! But wait, there’s more, just like the ad for Ginsu knives claims J! We must ask: what had to happen before God had animal skins available for Him to use in clothing Adam and Eve? The answer to this question reveals a lot about God’s heart for His human creation. Animals had to be sacrificed, meaning blood would have to flow. We can better understand the significance of this blood sacrifice by looking at LV 17: 11 and HE 9: 22. “The life of every living thing is in the blood, and that is why the Lord has commanded that all blood be poured out on the altar to take away the people’s sins. Blood, which is the life takes away sins…Indeed according to the Law, almost everything is purified by blood, and sins are forgiven if blood is poured out.”
What God was doing in GN 3: 21 was punishing Adam and Eve for their disobedience to Him, but doing it in a way that, if understood in its full covenant meaning, is to grant future generations a chance for forgiveness. Of course God knew that all mankind would result from the union of Adam and Eve, and that all people would be born inheriting the stain of the original sin-said another way, would be born with a sinful nature. But as mankind’s history unfolds, we will see God’s interaction, most significantly in the greatest sacrifice ever made-the giving of His only begotten Son’s life on the cross, so that believing mankind could once and for all be free of sin, i.e. be saved from spiritual death [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; HE 10: 10]. The Scriptures record a multiplicity of promises by God to help mankind and to reveal Himself to us. The Judeo-Christian faith systems all have belief in one God [monotheism], although traditional Judaism doesn’t recognize the Trinity-three personalities in One God [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit]. What Jews call “the Shema,” DT 6: 4-5, states this concisely. “Here, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” God first entered into the Covenant of the Law with Israel, in an effort to reach down to His human creation. No other faith system has a Deity that does this. Christ puts it aptly, in JN 15: 16, “You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in My name.” Yes, He chose us first! It wasn’t the other way around. God calls us to a unique relationship with promises made by both parties, only His promises are always kept, and we are called upon to keep up our end of this covenant. There is so much more to say, but that will be saved for next week and those to come.
PRAYER: Dearest Abba, we are Your children, and we want more than anything for You to know the love and faithfulness that You show us is not lost on us. We haven’t achieved perfection, not even enough purification to be ready to answer Your call home to heaven. We open ourselves to Your lessons, by study of Your word and prayer. We know that strong faith in Your Son and that cooperating with You in the process of sanctification are the only ways we can eventually be able to eternal life with You. We have felt Your marvelous grace from the time we were baptized in both the water and the Spirit. We understand that Your first doing this for Your Son makes it possible for us to experience the joy of Your grace [MT 3: 13-17; MK 1: 9-11: JN 3: 21-22]. You have opened the way for us, albeit not easy for people with their sinful natures, for us to be given the gift of faith in Him and willingness to repent of our own sins. RO 5: 14b-15, 18 speaks of the two Adams, “Adam was a figure of the One Who was to come. But the two are not the same, because God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin. It is true that many people died because of the sin of that one man. But God’s grace is much greater, and so is His free gift to so many people through the grace of the One man, Jesus Christ…So then, as the one man’s sin condemned all mankind, in the same way the Other’s righteous act sets all mankind free and give them life.” What a great and glorious God You are! What a loving heart You have! And to think that we are blessed enough to have You as our Covenant Partner! We thank and praise You, in the holy and mighty name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am led to continue discussing our first comments on the issue of covenant by looking at the Noahtic Covenant and introducing a few terms that apply to covenant theology, that are helpful to our understanding. God is giving me a chance to take additional opportunities to go over things I learned as child, growing up in a traditionally Jewish culture. As I get to do this, I am learning new things right along with each of my readers. Now, that’s just a tiny peek at the caring and loving heart our Lord has. And to think, if He is willing to do this for one with my sinful background of long years ignorant of His existence, think of how generous and forgiving our God really is! God’s loving act toward Adam and Eve begins to reveal His forgiving heart in a way nothing else can do. PS 32: 1, “Oh, what joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!” If anyone who is a believer still questions His forgiveness, he can believe 1 JN 1: 9, “But if we confess our sins to God, He will keep His promise and do what is right; He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all of our wrongdoing.” God repeats this blessed promise earlier in HE 8: 12, “I will forgive their sins and will no longer remember their wrongs.” It’s this statement that bowls me over, because I’ve never met a human who forgave another and absolutely FORGOT the wrongdoing ever happened. Have you? What an awesome God we have! He deserves our faithfulness, obedience, openness with Him, our thanks and praise. If we are wise, we will take Him at His word that if we honestly confess our sins, repent of them, and have faith in His Son, He will grant us salvation, justification, eternal forgiveness, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and His blessings galore throughout our lives. We will still have troubles allowed by Him to strengthen our faith and recognition of our need to be dependent on Him, but He will be a constant Covenant Partner in our lives, One Who has nothing but our best eternal interests at heart. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15