KEY VERSES: For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Rom 10:13)
Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
(All; Rom 3:23) Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood. (Rom 3:24-25a)
Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John
14:6)
And almost all things are by the
law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Heb
9:22)
A young friend of mine who was
studying to become a preacher said, “I thought everyone in the Old Testament (OT)
was going to Hell.” Because he had yet to understand Jesus, he damned Moses,
David, and Abraham to eternal death! That is significant, especially since the
prophets; just as the apostles, are the very foundation of the Church (Ephes
2:20). How could people in Hell be the foundation of the Church? They were
early apostles in that they too were ardent supporters of Jesus Christ, and
many of them were baptized in blood. Baptism in blood is dying the death
of a martyr. The prophets, like the apostles, were such ardent supporters of
Jesus the Messiah that they died rather than forsake him!
It shall soon be revealed how the
prophets and other patriarchs were saved by the blood of a man who had yet to
exist. First, consider the key verses. “Whosoever shall call upon the Name of
the Lord shall be saved.” Whosoever includes the patriarchs of the Old
Covenant. What must they have done to be saved? “Call upon the Name of the
Lord.” That began with Enos, the son of Seth: “Then began men to call upon the Name
of the Lord” (Gen 4:26). Seth’s line were righteous men (Sons of God), whereas
Cain’s were the unrighteous (Daughters of Men).
Enos (Enosh) means “weak socially.” Enos humbled himself to the
Lord by calling upon the Name.
Where the Old Testament reads “Name,”
for now take that to be pre-incarnate Jesus. First off, if anyone have seen
Jesus they have seen God:
Philip saith unto him, Lord,
show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen
me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? (John
14:8-9)
Jesus is the “Face of God” which
was concealed from Moses. He saw Jesus as a burning bush, but not God’s “Face” –
Jesus. However, the Burning Bush was Jesus for it spoke the Word of the Lord.
Philip, unlike Moses, saw the Face of God in Jesus. Reverse that now; he
that hath seen the Father hath seen me! Jesus was the very Face of God
whose Word all the patriarchs heard. It means as well, he that hath heard
the Word hath heard me. The “Word” accompanies the Face and Jesus’s tongue spoke
the Logos (Word). Finally, at the transfiguration of Jesus, Moses saw God face
to Face! He saw what he had only envisioned before.
“Saved” from the key verse is safe
from the Devil and Hell. It was the Word of the Lord, and belief in the Name of
the Lord that kept Israelites safe through the centuries. For the Jews that
endure to the end, they too shall be saved. (The 144,000 in Revelation). The
patriarchs were saved because they endured to their end: Abraham, Moses,
Joshua, David, Aaron, and all the others. Take Moses, for instance; he endured
until the Jews got to safety, then his purpose for God was complete:
Whereupon neither the first
testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept
to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of
goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book,
and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath
enjoined unto you. (Heb 9:18-20)
Suffice it to say, that the blood and
water in Moses’s sacrifices were symbolic of the blood and water which Jesus
was to sacrifice for him alike: “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his (Jesus’s)
side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34).
In like manner, Abraham was faithful;
willing to sacrifice his only remaining son; just as God would do with His, and
Abraham was rewarded with eternal prosperity.
It is to be concluded that Abraham,
Moses, et al had more faith than those who saw Jesus! In fact, the
epitome of faith was Abraham whose willingness to please God was through faith,
and not of the Law (Rom 4:13). Abraham was like those, “Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” from the key verses. In fact,
Moses shed blood as a propitiation for redemption, and Abraham was willing
to shed his own blood as a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do!
Would you shed your own blood?
Would you shed your child’s blood to demonstrate your faith? Moses shed the
blood of his firstfruits, and Abraham was willing to do the same with Isaac.
They both had greater faith than most Christians who won’t even tithe their
dollars!
Jesus said that he is the Way, and
the only Way by the way, to be saved; “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
God’s Bosom is Jesus. Moses’s safety was in Abraham’s Bosom. Believers are safe
in the Lord’s “Bosom” until Paradise is prepared for the habitation of the
saints who will be snatched-up from the grave. What is “Abraham’s Bosom?” Examine
Genesis: Abraham’s Bosom was his seed. His seed was Jesus Christ! Abraham is
safe in his own bosom since Jesus IS his “bosom” so to speak.
God took on flesh Himself to become
the sacrifice, not at each year as of old, nor on special occasions, but once
for all time and for all (Heb 10:10), according to the key verses: “Propitiation
through faith in his blood.” Redemption is by the act of God shedding His own
blood instead of the ones who should have died for causing God’s wrath. As my
book, Killing God, testifies to; all sinners killed God!
In the OT, the priests redeemed the
Hebrews by sacrificing the blood of their firstfuits – their unblemished
animals, especially their lambs. They did that with the anticipation that it
was a temporary sacrifice until the time of the Covenant of Grace. Paul
explained the difference when he wrote, “And almost all things are by the law
purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (from the last
of the key verses).
The yearly sacrifices in the OT were
for the remission of sins, and it took the shedding of blood. It was not the
blood of animals that were efficacious, but that bloodshed would appease the
wrath of God. Although the sacrifices were acceptable, it was the faith in the
coming Messiah that was efficacious, and the shedding of blood was for
redemption – which is the remission of sins. When the lambs were killed, the
patriarchs saw the Face of God dying; they saw Jesus on the Cross.
We look back at the past, and are
redeemed by the event. The patriarchs looked forward to the future and were redeemed
by the anticipation of the event. It took them more faith to see into the
future than it does for those under the New Covenant to believe what happened
in the past.
The apostle John understood Jesus.
He is the “Beloved” for a reason. He not only loved God’s Flesh, but understood
that he loved God’s Word. John saw God face to Face, but Moses only heard His
Word. How is that? “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son,
which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him’ (John 1:18). Just as
Jesus was in Abraham’s “bosom” through King David as the Son of David, he was
from God’s “bosom’ Yahweh was/IS his Father. John knew that God’s Face (Jesus)
was the declaration of His Existence. How did they know Jesus IS God? Because
God’s Existence in the Flesh declared it so! Jesus is the “declaration” of God,
or the proof that God Exists!
Why write this commentary? It is a
declaration that Jesus and God are one – that Jesus is the Person of God with a
Personality, and a face. No other gods
have declared themselves with other than wood, gold, or stone. They were gods that
people Created. John chapter one confirmed that Jesus was never created, but
always existed; therefore, as the Existence, Jesus IS God!
 |
| The image of Jesus the signet from Caesar's Ring |
No comments:
Post a Comment