The Covenant with Abraham and his descendants is contingent. “Paradise” would be theirs so long as they give up the flesh. Not all the flesh, but some of it:
6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 9 And God said unto Abraham, “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. 11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. 12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. 13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. (Gen 17:6-14)
Remember Adam and Eve? They sinned. As a token t God they made aprons of fig leaves and hid their foreskin. Eve had none to hide, so that was of no avail. She sinned, but it was not accounted to her because she was deceived. God had not given her the Law, but Adam alone. Eve may have perhaps thought that she was in obedience for she “multiplied” with Lucifer and produced Cain. [i]
Because she multiplied, that saved Eve. She would become the “mother of all living.” [ii] The noun “living” therein can be translated “sustenance.” She would pay for “trespassing” beneath the tree in two ways: (1) multiplication with great pain and her husband would rule over her, [iii] and (2) to sustain life; to ensure that living souls shall never die out.
The two were a pair with one purpose. Adam would plant “seed” and Eve would “sustain” it. Her womb would be the tomb until Jesus would come. She would sustain Adam’s seed until Mary’s time came to be the “mother” of the spiritual living.
Living is so much more than the flesh. The flesh was made to experience life in this world. Flesh is not required in the spiritual realm, so “alive” means to have a living, growing soul. “Alive” means the same as with Adam — to have the Breath of God breathing in Him. The nostrils of flesh are merely the “entrance” to the “temples” of God. [iv]
God gave the Law to Adam before Eve even existed. He did tell them both to
multiply. Eve heeded the Law that she had been told by God. What Adam told her perhaps
seemed to be his “suggestion.” Eve was not punished for sinning, but for diminishing
Adam, and by that diminishing God. For that reason, she would have to exist
under the dominion of Adam (Gen 3:16). Paul explained that:
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. (Ephes 2:12-15)
Adam outright sinned. He knew exactly what God had said. On the other hand, Eve was ignorant of what God said because she was not there when the Word spoke to Adam. Her version of the truth was that they were neither to eat nor touch. [v] If Eve had eaten, she would have sinned. She had no knowledge of evil before eating of the forbidden tree where she learned the knowledge of evil. She was ashamed and followed Adam. She also covered her flesh with an apron if fig leaves.
But that was of no avail for her! She had not sinned! She had ignorantly “trespassed.” Her eating was not a sin for her because she was deceived. However, as Paul explained by “touching” she trespassed. She did not know the boundaries of sin and entered unto temptation. With that said, temptation is not sin but it is trespassing.
Paul also wrote, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col 2:13). Eve would be the mother of all living. She was dead in her sins because she was unaware that she was sinning. Her female progeny would not need circumcision of the foreskin because God covered her genitalia, having forgiven her trespasses. Cutting off the foreskin of women is what pagans do. There is no need for the righteous to cut off the foreskin of the woman because it is the “door” to the womb that sustains life. Jesus would “circumcise” His “trespass” into Joseph’s tomb when He rolled the door back! It was not a trespass for Joseph honored God by granting Him small piece of God’s own estate for His short rest.
All that was to say that under the Law, women would not need to be circumcised. They would pay for their trespasses by pain childbirth. As Zipporah told Moses, “Indeed, you are a bloody husband at thou to me” [vi] She implied that Moses should cut off the hardening of his heart and not the foreskin of their son!
Why is that so important? “The flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant” (Gen 17:11). A token? Tokens resemble the real thing (Merriam-Webster) but what was the “real thing?” Jeremiah knew: “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings” (Jer 4:4).
Tokenism is therefore something that one does to oneself to symbolize another thing. Moses should have circumcised himself and so should have Abraham. Well, Abraham did… God said he would do that: “Ge shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin” [vii] That was a token for what God had done. He had just made Abram and new person and renamed him “Abraham.” Abraham was “baptized” in his own blood! He did it himself so it was not works but a “token” of what God did to his heart, or nature. Abraham became righteous, and is still given credit for what he submitted to God, and that was his heart for God to circumcise.
Water baptism is where one is diminished as a “god” and is raised or exalted as a new person. Paul wrote, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Gal 6:15). “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17). Baptism, like circumcision, does not make a new creature, but both are tokens of that transformation.
Water baptism is a token of real baptism — the baptism of the Holy Ghost. There is, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephes 4:5). Which is the “one baptism?” Do you say “water baptism” or “baptism of the Living Water that flows from the belly of Jesus?” If you chose wrongly, then your very soul may not eb sustained!
Just what is the difference between the Old and New Testaments? Everything in the Old Testament is a token of things to come: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Col 2:16-17). Those things were all tokens of things to come. Those things are what the patriarchs did as a shadow of things to come!
That means one thing: The Old Testament is a foreshadow of the New Testament, but they remain the same testament except the “economy.” Circumcision was a token, not of water baptism, but baptism of the Holy Ghost. Water baptism is still a token of that same thing!
Luke wrote about Paul, “(Me) testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Paul testified to repentance by words. The water baptism of John is for what? “Repentance for the remittance of sins!” (Mark 1:4). Water baptism is a testimony and the real water is a “token” of what would happen inside. Jesus alone received and retained the Holy Spirit when He was baptized in water. [viii] For everyone else, water baptism is still tokenism. It is how new creatures testify that their hearts have been circumcised.
The conclusion is that the Old Testament is the Gospel of Jesus. It is all about what Jesus would do when God came in the Flesh. The Old Testament and the New are the same gospel doctrines in another “economy” where God was not there in the Flesh, so tokens were used until that time!
Tokens availeth nothing! Why use tokens when Jesus did things for real? Why put faith in water when anyone can baptize, and mostly forget that only Jesus can baptize with His Holy Ghost?
With that said, baptism as soterial, diminishes God. How often do you hear restorationists profess baptism of the Holy Ghost by Living Water? Well, that would be too Pentecostal for dogmatists! Again, tokens such as circumcision and water availeth nothing. Out of ignorance, tokenism is trespassing against the Will of God. Heirs of God are for real His. Tokens of Him are counterfeit. Beware of the cunning of the Devil who would have you believe his deceptions!
(picture credit: Bigstock; Somnath Mahata)
No comments:
Post a Comment