The Promises of God
The promises of God find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. “IN HIM,” they all become “yea” and “amen.” The things that were once “hidden” are revealed in the life, words, death, resurrection, and exaltation of the Son of God, the one in whom all the shadows and types prefigured in the Hebrew Bible become real. All God’s “mysteries” are laid bare before all men in the Nazarene.
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In this new era, the nation of Israel was not “replaced” by the New Covenant people of God. Instead, the original promise to Abraham to bless “all the nations” came to fruition as Jews AND Gentiles were united in Jesus to form one new people, “one new man”- (Galatians 2:28).
- “For how many soever the promises of God be, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God” – (2 Corinthians 1:19-20).
- “Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times everlasting but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, is made known unto all the nations for the obedience of faith” – (Romans 16:25).
In
the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is presented as the promised Messiah who
came to fulfill “all the Law and the Prophets,” and fulfillment in him is a key theme
threaded throughout Matthew’s account. What was “written” beforehand is
actualized in him - (Matthew 1:22, 2:15, 2:17, 2:23, 4:17, 5:17-20, 8:17, etc.).
In
the Gospel of John, Jesus is the true Tabernacle in whom the
unveiled glory of God resides. “Grace instead of grace” arrived
in the “word made flesh.” Though the Law came through Moses, “grace
and truth came to be in Jesus.” He is the true Temple, the place where the
presence of Yahweh is found rather than any building “made with hands” in
Jerusalem or anywhere else - (John 1:14-18, 2:19-21).
The
time has arrived for the true worshippers to worship God “in the Spirit
and truth.” The old limitations of holy space and holy time no longer
apply. With his arrival, all debates about where to locate the Temple are now pointless
- (John 4:23-24).
Likewise,
the ancient feasts of Israel find their significance in the Son of God. He is
the true “living bread from heaven” that imparts life, not the manna
given by Moses in the wilderness - (John 6:50-51, 7:37-39).
According
to the Book of Acts, when the Day of Pentecost was “fully filled up,” the Spirit was
poured out on the saints who were gathered “with one accord” in
Jerusalem. Peter proclaimed this was the promised Gift of the Spirit predicted by
the prophet Joel for “the last days.” The “promise of the Father”
was given to Jesus upon his exaltation, therefore, he now bestows the Gift of
the Spirit on his true disciples - (Acts 2:16-21, Joel 2:28-30).
PROMISE TO ABRAHAM
In
his Letter to the Galatians, Paul explains that Jesus came to “redeem
us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse on our behalf.” This
was so “the blessing of Abraham should come to the Gentiles.”
The
covenant promises were to Abraham and his “seed,” and that “seed”
is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. The original covenant always envisioned
the inclusion of the Gentiles, and this has been achieved in the death and resurrection
of the Son of God - (Galatians 3:13).
The
Law of Moses served as a “custodian” UNTIL the time of
fulfillment when the “seed” came. But now, the time of “custodianship”
has ceased. Jesus, the true “seed” of Abraham, is the “end of the Law
for righteousness to all who believe” - (Galatians 3:19-25, Romans 10:4).
Thus,
the Law was an interim stage between promise
and fulfillment. The Son came in the “fullness of time” to
redeem those who were under the Law. Consequently, for those who are “in
Christ,” no longer can there be “Jew or Greek, bond or free, male and
female.”
The
social and ethnic distinctions inherent in the Mosaic Law have no place in the
New Covenant community. All who have “put on Christ” are one in him, and
all are now “Abraham’s children, and according to promise, heirs” - (Galatians
3:26-29, 4:4-7, Colossians 3:11).
To
again observe “days, months, seasons and years” as required in the Torah
amounts to submission to the “weak and beggarly elemental spirits”
that previously tyrannized us. If we do so, effectively, we exchange the Spirit
of God and the liberty he bestows for the death-dealing letter of the Law
with its ever-present curse on all men who do not do all that it
requires - (2 Corinthians 3:6-7, Galatians 3:10, 4:8-10, 5:1-3).
God
has spoken with great finality “upon these last of days in His Son.” Previously,
He spoke partially - Here a little, there a little. The earlier word was true but
promissory, preparatory and partial. But now, He has spoken fully and
definitively in Jesus, the only one who “achieved the purification of sins”
– (Hebrews 1:1).
His
priesthood surpasses the Aaronic priesthood. His death achieved what no animal
sacrifice could ever do. Jesus is the “guarantee of a better covenant, one
legislated on better promises” and his endless resurrection life.
If
the first covenant had been “faultless,” there would have been no need
for another. And this vastly superior New Covenant has rendered the old one obsolete,
including its sacrifices and rituals - (Hebrews 8:4-10:18).
SHADOWS AND SUBSTANCE
The
old system constituted “glimpses and shadows of the heavenly realities,”
mere patterns of the real and now permanent originals. “Let no one,
therefore, be disqualifying you in eating and in drinking, or in respect of a feast,
new moon and Sabbaths, which were SHADOWS OF THE COMING THINGS, but the
substance is of the Christ” - (Colossians 2:9-17, Hebrews 8:1-7, 9:9-10,
9:23-24).
In
Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles receive their “introduction in one Spirit to
the Father,” therefore, no longer are they “strangers and sojourners,
but fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God.”
In
Christ, God has dismantled the earlier “wall of partition” that
separated Jews and Gentiles so that “the two he might create in himself into
one new man” - (Ephesians 2:14-22).
The
body of Christ is composed of believers in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles, who
are now “resident aliens” and “sojourners” in this world, a
people without a national homeland that possess the incorruptible inheritance
of salvation and the promise of resurrection in the coming age.
The
Apostle Peter strung together several appellations that originally applied to Israel
but now are inherited by the church of Jesus Christ:
- “But now, in Christ Jesus, you are the living stones being built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices well-pleasing to God, through Jesus Christ… You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a peculiar treasure,” a people that “at one time were a no-people but now are the people of God” - (1 Peter 2:4-10, Exodus 19:5-6).
Thus,
the theme of fulfillment IN JESUS is found throughout the New Testament.
In HIM, “all the promises of God are Yea and Amen!”
God
defeated Sin, Satan, and Death on the Cross, not on the altar of the Temple in old
Jerusalem. The “mystery of God” that was hidden in past ages has been
revealed in His Son, and especially so in the proclamation of “Christ
crucified” - (Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 2:1-9, 2 Corinthians 1:19-20).
And
since the substance of God’s promises and the disclosure of His everlasting “mysteries”
are available in His Son to every man or woman who believes, and freely so, it
would be foolhardy in the extreme to return to the types and shadows of
the old and incomplete revelation for knowledge and illumination about the
Creator of All Things.
