Foreverkingdom's Blog

We have been looking at Romans, especially from 3:20 to 5:2, and have briefly touched upon the incredibly important teaching on the subject of a person’s salvation there. Allow me to enter some excerpts here from the portion we have already covered, 3:20-26:

“No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the Law; rather, through the Law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. All have sinned…, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood… so as to be… the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

It plainly states that you will never be declared good enough for the kingdom by God by trying to keep His Law. His Law only shows us that we are sinners. I broke all His Commandments! But now, I can receive God’s very own perfect righteousness, and be justified, or declared ‘not gulity’ and ‘good enough’ by God because He paid my redemption price for me when He sacrificed His own Son, Jesus Christ, on the Cross at Calvary to bleed and die for my sins. Messiah was the only Innocent One who could bleed and die for my sins, the redemption price that God required.

Paul concludes his point about this with verses 27-31 in Romans chapter 3. Please read it. There he states that no person can have any grounds for boasting about having saved themselves by perfectly keeping God’s Law. His point here is that it is not by doing good that one is saved, but that God applies the payment price of Christ’s sacrificial death and blood as our personal redemption price for our sins, and then declares an individual to be righteous, and good enough for his Kingdom. He credits His own perfect righteousness to their personal account with Him. He does this for us freely by His grace, as an unmertited favor, a totally undeserved gift!

Jesus Christ is my sacrifice of atonement, affecting for me my redemption for my sins against God. Now, I have been justified by God. He has declared me no longer guilty of having broken His Law, and has credited to my account His very own perfect righteousness, that I might enter into His Kingdom for all eternity!

What makes this real? How does this happen? I wrote, in the end of my fourth installment, these words: “[T]he purpose, the reason for it all, is so that you might BELIEVE.

Keep that word in mind, because, ultimately, as I will show, that will mean everything. Everything! You must come to the place where you truly believe. It is what you believe that will mean everything, and make all the difference in your present life here on earth, and where you will spend eternity! And it begins right here… learning how to read, understand and believe the real message of the God of the Bible.”

It comes down to this matter of believing, and if you paid any real attention at all to what we have looked at in Romans 3:20-26, you have already seen it 4 times in the words ‘faith’ and ‘believe’. Go back up and reread the quoted passage and look for those two words there. Read it out loud to yourself and emphasize them for your better understanding.

Verses 27 and 28 state this outright: “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the Law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the Law.”

He says it again in verse 30: “[T]here is only one God, who will justify the circumcised (Jews) by faith and the uncircumcised (gentiles, like me) through that same faith.”

Because we want to get all the way to Paul’s concluding statement about this matter, we’ll have another installment for the purpose of covering Romans chapter 4, where Paul defends his thesis, proving his point, from the Old Testament scriptures.

Salvation from the penalty for your sins is through the redemption price paid by God for you. He sacrificed His own Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to bleed and die on the Cross. This redemption price is credited to your account, and His own perfect righteousness is put on your ledger with God when He justifies you, declaring you no longer guilty, but righteous. All this takes place when you truly believe God’s Good News. This is called salvation by God’s grace, through your faith alone!

It’s what the Book is all about!

ForeverKingdom

Harold F. Crowell

What have we discovered so far? There’s a goal, God’s Everlasting Kingdom. There’s a plan, Messiah. There’s a program, a nation of peoples; Israel, through which God would bring forth Messiah. Entrance into the Kingdom requires perfect righteousness. What was the link between God’s Messiah and the necessary perfect righteousness we each must have that we don’t end up in the lake of fire commonly called hell? From my last post, that link between Messiah and righteousness is to be understood in the one word, Redemption. This was made perfectly clear to us in Romans 3:20-24. Please read that passage again.

What is redemption? The briefest and most simple definition of redemption is to purchase. Any kind of exchange that results in the acquisition of one thing, by the payment of something else, is a redemption. Here, we’ve been talking about the necessary acquisition of perfect righteousness.

A great many people instinctively know that, if they are to have any hope of heaven, they need to be good enough. They need to be righteous. And so how do most of these very same people hope to acquire sufficient righteousness to be received of God into His Kingdom? They hope to purchase it. They think, or have been taught, that they should, in and of themselves, be good enough, on their own merits, and by their own good deeds, to be deemed sufficiently righteous. If they do, they’ll be accepted and go to heaven. Am I right? Have I just described you?

Most of the people in this world hope to purchase their righteousness, and redeem themselves, at the cost of their own good deeds. There’s just one problem with that formula. It does not work. It’s not enough. It does not beget forgiveness for the person’s sins, and it does not result in sufficient righteousness in order to gain entrance into the kingdom. In short, no one can save themselves. Why?

The one glaring error in most people’s thinking is this: They do not know the price of their sin. They do not know what the cost of perfect righteousness is for them. They believe they can pay whatever that price is on their own, by themselves. They are gravely mistaken. And it will result in their everlasting doom.

How costly is your sin? What is the price of one sin? What must be paid in order to redeem someone from the debt they have incurred with God for having broken His Law? You’ll have to ask Him. He is the One against whom you have sinned. You have broken His Law. He is the One from whom you must redeem your life.

God’s one price, sufficient to pay for one sin, is the death and shed blood of one who is completely innocent of sin. The blood of an innocent one, who died to shed it, is sufficient to cover over one sin of yours, if you believe that God has actually said that was what He requires, and you obediently offer an innocent bull, lamb, sheep or goat… God will forgive the sin for which the offering was made, or, at least He used to in Old Testament times, before Messiah.

Sin required the death and shed blood of an innocent animal to show just how serious the breaking of God’s Law was. The soul that sins shall surely die! We generally don’t see our sin as being that big a deal. We tend to overlook our sins, and minimize their seriousness. That is a fatal error. You had better face this: God demands the sacrifice of an innocent one, and the shedding of their blood, in order to affect redemption for your sin… just how are you ever going to pay His high price which He demands for your sin? Are you going to persist in telling God that He must accept the price that you are willing to pay? Are you telling God that He must accept your good deeds in the place of that which He has said that He requires? Are you a fool? Do you think you’re going to “cut a deal” with God, and satisfy His requirement of the death and blood of an innocent with your good deeds?!?!? Wake up! Think! That is not ever going to happen! You doom yourself!

Here is the alternative, as we go back to Romans 3:20 through 5:2. We had stopped at verse 24 previously. We now need to read the words of verses 25+26.

“God presented Him (Jesus Christ, Messiah) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He (God) did this to demonstrate His justice…, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

There it is! There’s our redemption. There’s our Innocent One, sacrificed on our behalf, having been slain and His blood shed, by none other than God, Himself!!! God, through Messiah, Jesus Christ, paid the full redemption price, once for all persons’ every sin, and for all time; through the redemption price paid by the sacrifice of His own Son. He did that one time, now nearly 2,000 years ago. It is not repeated. It need not ever be done again. No one dispenses its benefit to others by any authority that they might claim that they possess.

Here it is, God’s good news… By means of this sacrifice of atonement (if your Bible reads here, ‘propitiation’, understand that this word means, ‘to turn away God’s wrath’), God has paid your redemption price for you, at a great cost to Himself; His own dear Son. That’s how much He loves you. It has been said, and rightly so, that “Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, because we had a debt we could not pay.” Think about that for a while.

Now, how does the benefit of God’s redemptive price, paid by Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, through His death and shed Blood, result in the perfect righteousness you need to be accepted by God into His Kingdom?

This is what the Book is all about!

ForeverKingdom

Harold F Crowell

I have already stated that a masterful understanding of Romans 1:16 through 5:2 will give you that needed understanding. From it, I have already shown that 1:16+17 tells us that we need the perfect righteousness that can only can from God. 1:18-32 told us that wicked pagan peoples who reject God will perish. Those religious folks, who think that by trying to keep their own religious code, as seen in 2:1-16, and establish their own righteousness are also going to be miserably disappointed. We even saw that religious, observant Jews, in 2:12 through 3:8 also fall short of all the Law of God. What will come of these people? We read of their end in 3:9-20. Without God’s perfect righteousness, they will all be lost.

That’s a lot of people. Jesus said that only a few would be saved. Will you be one of the few? You will be damned too, if you do not seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness!

Are you trying to be good? Are you hoping that you will be good enough? Have you examined The 10 Commandments of God and measured yourself against every one? Did you find that you had not perfectly kept all 10 at all times in your life? Did you admit that you had lied, or stolen, or blasphemed, or hated or committed some sexual sin in thought or deed? Are you willing to admit that you are either a wicked God-denier, or a religious person, or even an observant, religious Jew, that has broken God’s Law at times in your life, and that you are without perfect righteousness… and deserve God’s judgment and wrath? Is your end the lake of burning sulphur, hell?

If you said yes to those latter questions, and that bothers you… there is some good news, too. There’s hope for you!

Beginning with Romans 3:20, and proceeding on right through 5:2, the Apostle Paul explains exactly how you, me, and anyone else can receive the perfect righteousness of God, and enter into His Forever Kingdom.

Ready for the Good News from Romans 3:20 through 5:2? (note: I will be making my own emphasis and explanations throughout the following passages)

 Romans 3:20: “No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the Law; rather through the Law we become conscious of sin.” Salvation is yours at that very moment God declares you righteous. If you read this verse in a different translation, and you see the word “justified” used there [instead of "declared righteous"]. The definition of justified, or justification, is “declared righteous”–the declarative act of God, whereby He declares a repentant sinner to be righteous, though they really aren’t, but He has credited His own perfect righteousness to that sinner’s account, and they have now been made acceptable.

3:21, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.” See this? There it is again… a righteousness that comes from God. It was told of in the Old Testament. This concept of justification is first seen all the way back in Genesis 15:6. Read it.

3:22, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” So, by abandoning our own efforts to somehow create a sufficient self-righteousness, which we cannot do anyway, we can be justified, declared righteous by God, by receiving His perfect righteousness by believing on, and putting all our trust in Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. We haven’t made the connection yet, as to why this works, or how it happens, but here is the clear connection between God’s Messiah, Jesus, and the perfect righteousness of God that we need in order to be saved.

3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The conclusion of 1:18 through 3:20 was what? That all have sinned. The glory of God is what? It is His perfect righteousness. You and I have broken God’s Law. We have sinned. By having sinned, we have all fallen short of God’s perfect righteousness, His glory. Get it yet???

So get a load of this… 3:24, We are, “justified (declared righteous, or good enough for heaven, by God) freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” God will declare any person righteous, having credited His own perfect righteousness to their account with Him, freely, at NO COST to the repentant sinner, by His grace.

Grace? What’s that? With any religious training at all, you learned that God’s Grace is His unmerited favor, an undeserved gift. Though you are unrighteous, devoid of the perfect righteousness that God requires, He is willing to give you His perfect righteousness and declare you to be righteous, though you truly are not, and you will then be acceptable to God and admitted into His Kingdom. Wow!

This all comes about freely by His grace! His righteousness in the place of your sin… for nothing! How can God freely do that by His grace?

Verse 24 tells us, “through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” Ah, here’s the connection between Messiah and God’s perfect righteousness for us! It is found in the key word, “redemption”. What is that? Do you know?

We will explore this next, and more besides, in the next installment. It’s what the Book is all about!

May the Lord open your eyes and heart to His most precious of spiritual truths, whereby you might be saved and enter into His Kingdom.

ForeverKingdom

Harold F. Crowell

God’s plan or program throughout the Bible is Messiah, and there must be some kind of connection between God’s Messiah and this perfect righteousness that God requires; what is that?

It was Jesus who specifically stated that only a few would be saved. Why would He ever say such a thing? The answer is very simple really. He knew that most people would one day stand before Him in judgment and hope to be accepted of him on the basis of their own merits. These people will have hoped that they had somehow built up enough of their own righteousness; that their good deeds had somehow outweighed their bad. Had they ever sought to really know, they could have learned that no one can ever be good enough on their own, and that they cannot save themselves by any means. These will all be lost.

Are you like one of them? Are you counting on a self-righteousness, a righteousness of your own manufacture? Do you hope to be righteous? Have you attained unto perfection? If you have ever broken a Commandment, it is already too late… you are not righteous. Being good doesn’t cover up your previous unrighteousness any more than a killer, by not killing today, would cover over for the murder he committed yesterday!

To discover the answer to this all-important concern, you really need to read and come to a good understanding of the first four chapters of the letter to the Romans, written by the Apostle Paul, found in the New Testament. This portion was written for the express purpose of explaining this mystery with which we are dealing with. Grasp the content of Romans 1:16 through 5:2, and you will attain unto the knowledge of that which is most needful.

Pay close attention! The goal of God is the Kingdom. The way into the Kingdom is to come into the possession of this righteousness from God. Jesus commanded us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in Matthew 6:33. Why did He command that? Because the Kingdom is God’s end and should be ours too, and the righteousness of God is the only means into that Kingdom, and so we should seek that as our only means of entrance into His Kingdom. What could be clearer?

Romans 1:16+17 says that there is a Good News that will save anyone who will believe it. In this Good News, it is revealed that there is a righteousness from God that is given by Him to anyone who believes this Good News. This brief passage closes by saying that a person is saved, possessing this righteousness from God, by believing the Good News that will soon follow… but first, there’s the bad news!

We must first see 3 kinds of responses to God’s Ten Commandments. Romans 1:18-32 reveals to us the person who rejects God’s Law. 1:18 says that they suppress the truth. What do these people do? They make gods in their own image; idols really, and worship them instead, and engage in filthy deeds, usually sexual in nature. Read the whole passage, 1:18-32 and learn of their end. We are told that they will perish in verse 32. These are the wicked and the pagan peoples of the world.

The next response is found in Romans 2:1-16. These are those people who think they can establish their own righteousness by keeping some kind of religious code. Read about them. These are not the wicked and the pagans of 1:18-32. They know they need a righteousness, and they think they are keeping their religious code. They even think that they are so good that they can judge others who they observe are not keeping their code. But the truth is, they are not able to keep their own preferred religious code perfectly either. And so, they too, will be judged and found wanting, on the Day of Judgment. These are the people of all of the other religions of the world attempting to establish their own righteousness by keeping the religious tenets of their own faith.

The third response is found among religious Jews in 2:12-3:8. They think they know and perfectly follow all the Law of God, but the truth is, they are not capable of complete and perfect obedience either, and so, they too, will be judged and condemned by God.

So, what is the answer? Is there any hope? What is the conclusion to be observed about these wicked pagans, people of all other religious beliefs and practices, or even observant Jews? Romans 3:9-20 tells us that all such people, most of the world actually, will not be saved. They will be lost and perish in the lake of fire simply because they are not righteous. They do not possess a perfect righteousness; the only kind acceptable to God!

The conclusion of the matter is this, as it reads in 3:20: No one can be said to be good enough by their own attempts at keeping God’s Commandments. The only thing the Commandments are good for, is to cause us to each understand that we have broken them and that we are sinners, deserving of hell.

Stop right here! If you do not sense within yourself that you are conscious of your own sinfulness and are unacceptable to God as you are, you are in need of going back to the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, and measure yourself by it. See Exodus chapter 20 or Deuteronomy chapter 5. If you conclude that you have broken a number of God’s Commandments, and that you deserve to die for your sins against God, and that truly bothers you… only then are you a candidate for the Good News that is to come.

Please, consider where you really stand in relation to the One True God, the Creator of the universe, and the One to whom we all must give an account. If you judge yourself by His own Commandments and are not convicted of your own unrighteousness and the certainty of your condemnation by Him… you’re not ready for the Good News. You haven’t taken to heart the bad news yet, and until you do, the Good News will do you no good.

This is really what the Book is all about!

May God deeply impress upon you, by His Holy Spirit, all His precious truth that you might be genuinely saved. This can only come about by means of receiving a perfect righteousness in the place of your sinfulness.

ForeverKingdom

Harold F. Crowell

I speak frequently of this, asking the question of those who believe, and even of those who don’t believe. I get all kinds of answers, but rarely ever the Bible answer. I have had some to get quite close.

Most answer that they must be good; that their good deeds must outweigh their bad. Others I have asked about what it takes to be accepted of God and received into His kingdom have proffered pretty good answers like, believe, have faith, Jesus Christ, the Blood… all of which are pretty good answers, but they don’t answer the question directly.

What is that one thing you must have to be accepted of God and received into His kingdom?

Some of those answers just listed are a part of the means by which someone can receive that which they must come into the possession of in order to be saved. But none of those are the one actual requirement itself. Curious?

There is one essential thing! Have this, and you’re in… don’t have it, and your end will be in the lake that burns with fire. Is it important? If you’re at all intelligent, you must realize that this is all-important. In the final analysis, nothing else really matters at all!

Are you ready?

The one thing that you, or anybody else, absolutely, positively must acquire in this life, before they ever die, so as to be accepted of God and, in the end, be received into His kingdom is… righteousness. Righteousness! If you possess righteousness, you’re in. If you do not possess righteousness, you will be excluded. And not just any righteousness either, oh no. The righteousness required of God to be accepted of Him and received into His kingdom must be a perfect righteousness, without any blemish whatsoever. Really.

Discouraged? Perhaps you should be.

Here’s the bad news. Without perfect righteous, as defined by God, and not man, you and I are going to hell. Without that righteousness, neither you nor I have any chance whatsoever.

Have you ever told a lie, taken anything that wasn’t yours, cursed or blasphemed, had some kind of idol as your god, hated someone, committed some manner of sexual sin in deed, or even in thought? All these things are a breaking of one or more of God’s Ten Commandments. Scripture says that if you break one, it is just as bad as if you had broken them all… and perhaps you have! Examining my own past life closely, I believe I have broken all ten of God’s Commandments.

A breaking of any of The Ten Commandments results in unrighteousness being credited to your account with God. Your shot at perfect righteousness has been blown. You cannot be accepted by God, and you will not be received into His kingdom. Admit it, you’re toast. I was, too! The scripture states outright, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:10

Do you possess perfect righteousness? Have you kept all the Commandments all of the time? Not unless you are Jesus Christ. He’s the only One that ever did.

So, let’s put two things together, and ask the obvious question. If God’s goal and purpose is His kingdom as it is found in Revelation 21 and 22, and the Bible is all about His plan or program for people to be able to enter into His kingdom, and His plan or program is Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ; then what is the connection between Messiah and our requirement to possess perfect righteousness in order to be accepted of God and received into His kingdom?

If you already know the true connection between God’s Messiah and your need for the acquisition of perfect righteousness, you are not far from the kingdom of God. But, if you don’t know the connection that I am speaking of, you are likely very far away from the kingdom indeed, and you should tremble.

I want to close on this note, as I have permitted a comment to be posted with my last installment from a dear friend of mine. We go back many years to 1973 and ’74, when we were both in the Army together. He is now a devout Catholic man, and if you will read his comment to my 10th writing, it may sound like he and I are saying the very same thing, or are very close to one another. However, if you will discern the difference between what I am saying about acquiring the necessary perfect righteousness, and what he is saying about being righteous, you will see that what we are speaking of is actually as different as night is from day, and it exposes the principal error of the Roman Catholic religion, and why it does not save its adherents.

 Think on the question: What is the connection between God’s Messiah and our need for perfect righteousness? And, especially, what does it say to our attempting to be righteous, so as to be accepted of God?

Know the answer to this question, and you can become acceptable to God, and be received of Him into His kingdom.

Is that worth knowing, or is it not? It’s what the Book is all about!

ForeverKingdom

Harold F Crowell

On the morning of December the 5th, 2009, I thought that I might know where I could find that confirmation, so I began to read in Hebrews chapter 11. There, I found this, beginning with verse 8, and ending with verse 16:

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

“By faith Abraham, even though he was past age–and Sarah herself was barren–was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (emphasis mine)

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; the promises of land and descendants, and, of course, even mention of the heavenly city. With this one passage, the writer to the Hebrews takes one end of the Bible, Genesis, and relates it to the other end of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, and ties it all up into one neat and tidy package.

And should this be of any special significance or importance to us? I said that we should be making much of this city, this heavenly Kingdom, and that we don’t. Why would I say that?

In February, reading further into Hebrews one day, I saw this, from 12:28: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” (emphasis again mine)

Do we talk about that city? Do we long for our heavenly country? Do we pine for and tell our family and friends about that kingdom we are going to receive? We don’t, do we? And why don’t we? You tell me. I think I know, but I’m reserving it for now.

Okay… 1.) if the goal and purpose is the heavenly city, the kingdom of God we read of in Revelation 21 and 22, and 2.) if the plan or program of God is Messiah, as alluded to in Genesis 3, and that plan is kicked-off and carried out throughout all the rest of the Old Testament, for the purpose of raising up a people called Israel, and situating them in a place called the promised land, now the land of Israel… and, 3.) if this plan was to bring forth, out of the people and land of Israel, Messiah, who is the subject of all that we call the New Testament. And, finally, 4.) if Messiah is all about, and for the purpose of, getting people into God’s kingdom, causing their names to be written “in the Lamb’s book of life,”… how does Messiah accomplish that?

Well, that’s what the New Testament portion of the Book is all about!

Let me whet your appetite for it, if I may. There is one thing, and one thing only, that any person absolutely, positively has to have in order to gain entrance into the heavenly city, new Jerusalem… the kingdom of Revelation 21 and 22. If you have this, you will be accepted of God, and be received into His kingdom. If you do not have this one, most important thing, you will find your place, “in the fiery lake of burning sulphur,” we commonly call hell.

Interested? May God give you all insight and illumination into the understanding of His precious Word.

ForeverKingdom

Harold F Crowell

They are these: 1.) If all the promises of God; those of land, descendants and Israel’s captivity and release, are fulfilled by the end of the sixth book of the Bible, that being Joshua… then, how come the Lord didn’t bring forth Messiah then? Why is there all the rest of the Old Testament, and well more than 1,000 years of history recorded in it before the coming of Messiah? Why are there another 33 books in our Old Testament portion of our Bibles???

And secondly, if Moses was to bring Israel into the Promised Land from out of Egypt, so that the Lord could bring forth Messiah from out of the nation of Israel, just as He had promised; why is most of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy about going to Mt. Sinai in Arabia, where they receive these Ten Commandments, the 613 Laws of Moses, and the detailed instructions for this Tabernacle, all its furnishings, and the involved manner of worship that we now call Judaism; and also a generation long Wilderness Wandering in the desert? (and why was that such a long, run-on sentence?)

These are both very important questions, and deserving of appropriate answers. First, I believe that all the rest of the Old Testament, some 33 other books, and the, I think it is, some 1,300 years or so until the coming of Messiah, serves at least two purposes. The first of those purposes have to do with the fact that the Lord prophesied in the first 5 books that Israel would enter the land, disobey the Lord by breaking His Law, and that He was going to cause their removal from the Promised Land, but that He would also bring them back into it once again. It would seem that He is taking much time, many generations, in order to prove that He is real, that He exists. He has a plan, and He foretells of it first, and then sovereignly carries it out, in order to prove His existence and His power, so as to generate genuine faith in His readers. He wants men and women to believe.

Secondly, before Messiah was to come, there was this necessity for a “fulness of time” to come about first, spoken of in Galatians 4:4. The time of Pax Romana and its road system, the time of one universal trade language among men, that of Koine Greek, and a time of heightened expectation, a time when Messiah was being sought, and many were looking for His coming, a time of great disenchantment with much of the pagan religion in the world… a longing for a deliverer. These comprise this “fulness of time”.

Then we asked as a second question: Why Sinai? Why The Ten Commandments? Why the 613 Laws of Moses? Why the Tabernacle? The priesthood? The sacrifices? The elaborate furnishings and sacrificial rituals of Judaism? Why the Wilderness Wandering?

If God was intent on arriving at His goal of His Kingdom in the end, and His promises were land, descendants, Messiah and Israel’s captivity and Exodus, why all this other stuff from about Exodus 19 through Deuteronomy? Why not get into the land, bring forth Messiah and be done with it?

The New Testament scriptures answer this question. It’s actually a two-part question. First, we are told that The 10 Commandments, and much of the Law, was for the purpose of causing us to know what God’s standard for righteousness was, and just as importantly, to cause us to know what sin was; and that we are not righteous, could not be good enough to be righteous, and therefore, to specifically show each one of us the absolute necessity for Messiah for our very own selves. You and I have broken God’s Law. We are sinners. We need a Savior. Messiah is that Savior!

The second part of the question and its answer is that the Tabernacle and all its furnishings, the priesthood and all of their religious responsibilities before God for Israel were to show us what exactly Messiah would be like. The Golden Lamp Stand showed us Jesus was the Light of the World. The Table of the Showbread was to show us that Jesus is the Bread of Life. The Altar of Incense, that article of furniture nearest to the Curtain and to the Ark of the Covenant with its Mercy Seat where the Shekinah Glory of God resided; that altar from which the smoke of burning incense was to rise, was the tangible picture of Jesus, the last Great High Priest making intercessory prayer for us before God… that curtain in-between being a representation of Jesus’ very body of flesh, that when that curtain was torn on the day of His crucifixion, at the very hour of His death, opened the way for all men to be able to individually and personally approach the living Lord God of Glory by means of the sacrifice of Himself, once for all men.

These are the reasons why so much time was to pass. These are the causes for the “extra” 33 books of the Old Testament. This was why there was a “detour” to Sinai and the creation of this elaborate religion called Judaism. It was all a means of heightening that which God desires most… faith, resulting in true repentance and worship, and a deeper understanding of who Messiah is, why He was to come, and what He was to accomplish; that you, me and all who are willing, could enter into His eternal Kingdom.

It’s what the Book is all about!

May God open your eyes of understanding by means of His own Spirit’s illuminating power, to His own praise and glory and honor!

ForeverKingdom

Harold F. Crowell

You want proof of the plan and program, and of the goal or purpose? Coming next!

We read on and 4.) watched God cause His Plan to unfold step-by-step, as we learned how that He miraculously brings forth the first generations after Abraham to build up the nation of Israel.

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, later named Israel, leads his clan of 70 down into Egypt in Genesis 46, so that the fourth promise might be fulfilled.

Exodus commences with the story of how the first of the four promises is fulfilled, in that Israel’s clan, gone to Egypt some hundreds of years before, has now become the many descendants of Abraham, in Ex.1:7.

The very next thing we read of is the captivity of Israel by Egypt, commencing with Ex.1:8. No sooner is that recorded, but that we 5.) begin to read that God raises up a deliverer in Moses, to lead Israel out of their captivity, all in fulfillment of the promise made by God in Genesis 15. This was all accomplished by the end of Exodus chapter 15, with the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea! God will fulfill all His Plan!

With two promises fulfilled, that of numerous descendants and their captivity and release, there are two more promises left, those of land and Messiah.

The rest of Exodus, and the books of Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua accurately record the details of how God sovereignly and supernaturally brought the people of Israel into the Promised Land of Canaan.

At this point, it would be good to read Joshua 23 and 24, as it is very important. It is a review of all that we have been talking about and speaks of God’s faithfulness in fulfilling the promises He made unto Abraham that we have noted.

With the fulfillment of 1.) descendants, 2.) captivity and 3.) the possession of the Promised Land, we are only left with one last promise to be fulfilled… Messiah!

But, we’ve just another couple of other matters to discuss and understand before we are ready to look into God’s sovereign bringing forth of the One who would be the blessing unto all the peoples of the earth, Messiah. And that shall be the subject of my next installment.

May the Lord God of Israel give you enlightenment. May He illumine all your mind to His precious truths whereby you may be saved!

And I haven’t forgotten to share my proof text for all that I have been saying up to this point… the one about God’s goal being our own, and that by means of these very promises, He was bringing about His Plan whereby we could enter into it!

ForeverKingdom

Harold F. Crowell

Knowing the nature of the plan, that it entails a line of descendants and the ultimate inhabitation of the land of Canaan, it is possible then to just trace out the progress of the plan by God’s sovereign power to accomplish His own ends. We did this, beginning with Genesis 12:1, and uncovered some 15 distinct steps in the outworking of God’s plan. The last one being the begetting of the fourth son of promise, the fifth generation through which the promise was being passed down, that being unto the son of Perez (himself, a son of Judah), Hezron, in Genesis 46:12.

These are all the steps in God’s plan, as we find them in the book of Genesis. In the very next book, Exodus, we begin to see the record of the actual fulfillment of at least 2 of the 4 total promises. Pay close attention, and let your faith be built up!

Turn now to Exodus, and begin reading right in the first chapter… but carefully note what 1:7 says, “the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous….” Fulfillment! God made 4 promises, land, descendants and Messiah, and a lesser promise of captivity in Genesis 15. Here we read of the divine fulfillment of the first of those promises. Exodus 1:7 is not an insignificant verse, Israel has now become a numerous people, just as God had promised, and this becomes the record of God’s faithfulness unto His promises to Abraham hundreds of years before!

It becomes all the more interesting because the very next passage, commencing with verse 8, thru 14, tells us that the last of the 4 promises, that of their captivity, also began to be fulfilled right at this point in Israel’s history. This becomes all the more important, as chapter 2 of Exodus then begins to relate the historical narrative of how God further carried out all the promise concerning their captivity, by raising up Moses to be their deliverer, who would lead them out of Egypt in Exodus chapter 12, fulfilling all that the Lord had told Abraham in Genesis 15:13+14. Of further, vitally important interest is that as of Exodus 2:11, we know that we are now also dealing with a first-hand, eye-witness account of all that we are reading of. This is of no small importance!

If Exodus 1:7 records the fulfillment of one of God’s promises, and Exodus 1:8 through chapter 15 or so, tells us of all the fulfillment of another of those promises, that being the one about Israel’s captivity and deliverance, then we only have two other promises to go. Those being the promise concerning the land of Canaan, and the other being the bringing forth of Messiah.

Do you see the purpose in all of the Bible stories now? Do you see how they are for the purpose of revealing God’s Hand in the outworking of all of human history, as it is recorded in the Bible, for the purpose of clearly expressing both God’s power and His faithfulness?

It’s what the Book is all about, my friends!

May God give you all insight and understanding into His miraculous Word, the Holy Bible, that you may know Him and might grow in grace and in your most precious faith!

ForeverKingdom

Harold F Crowell

We left off, in my previous installment, with the 9th Step in God’s plan whereby He would bring Messiah into the world to be the Savior of fallen mankind. That 9th Step was getting Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, the son of the promise, a bride. We read of the 9th, 10th and 11th steps of God’s program in Genesis 38, where Judah is married in verses 1 and 2, begets 3 sons, ostensibly through one of whom the promise will transfer, in verses 3, 4 and 5, and then, a wife is given to Judah’s son, Er, in verse 6. So far, so good.

It would seem that everything is progressing exactly as God had planned, but all the rest of Genesis 38 is about how that none of these three sons of Judah are to be the son of God’s promise, as the first two die before begetting any offspring, and the third son is not even given a wife! Is God’s Plan going to fail and die here?

Amazingly, the chapter ends with the shameful tale of how the promise of God passes on from Judah, to another son of his… by his own daughter-in-law, Tamar, who had been the wife of his own first two sons! I call it Step 12, but if you prefer, it’s okay to say that this is the real Step 10. The exact number of steps is not important. Tracing out the plan is.

This is a clear picture of God using the wickedness of man to accomplish His own Godly ends in an all-knowing and sovereign manner. Did the Lord cause these matters of sin to take place so as to bring about His ends? God forbid! He most certainly did not. But knowing all and, specifically, what the human natures of both Judah and Tamar were like; He used the poor decisions, choices and actions of these two people to further His own ends in any case. And it is here where we see a perfect example of the sovereignty of God playing out over and against the free-will or responsibility of man. God did not cause Judah to go in unto Tamar, or cause her to put herself forth as a prostitute, but He knew that they would, and so He sovereignly used the occasion of their sin to beget the next son in the line of His promise!

Think on that, and you will begin to be able to discern where God’s sovereignty leaves off, and man’s responsibility or free-will takes up. To go the route of Calvinism and to attribute every action on earth to the work of God in His sovereignty, as the Calvinist does, is to charge God as the father, author, and ultimate cause of all sin. That is a blasphemy and a reproach upon the perfect nature and character of the Lord.

Going forward with the story, we could say that the next step, number 13, would be to get Joseph down into Egypt, as Genesis 37, and then picking up again in Genesis 39, relates to us, so that he would become its ruler under pharaoh. We can certainly see God’s sovereign hand in all of this!

Another, perhaps step number 14, would be that story in Genesis 46, whereby Israel leads his clan down into Egypt. This is noteworthy as, back in my fourth installment, I noted that there is a fourth and lesser element to God’s plan; after land, descendants and Messiah, as found in Genesis 15:13-16, where God prophesies of Israel’s captivity and exodus. That captivity will arise from this decision of Jacob’s and result in Israel’s clan to become the great nation of descendants God had promised, and says so in 46:1-4. Check it out.

The next step is recorded in Genesis 46:12. It is here that we learn that the son of promise, that son of Judah through which God’s promise would pass down, the one named Perez, born back in Genesis 38:29, himself begat a son, and this one will be in the line of Messiah.

That son’s name was Hezron, and we know he was the son through whom God’s promise would pass, and by whom Messiah would come because… we have an incredible resource to help us stay on track throughout our quest for following the step-by-step trail to Messiah, Jesus Christ. Yes, we do… the two genealogical records, one in Matthew chapter 1, and the other in Luke chapter 3, exist for the express purpose of proving, and for our being able to trace out, all the plan of God, through the entire Old Testament, down to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are there, and exist, to demonstrate God’s faithfulness, His trustworthiness, to all His Word.

God promised land, descendants and Messiah to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He also promised that they would go into captivity to another nation, but there be made into a great nation themselves. We have been following the steps in that plan, and seeing that it is being played out precisely as the Lord had said He would sovereignly cause it to!

If you’ve ever wondered, why those lengthy genealogies at the beginning of Matthew and Luke’s gospel accounts… here is the reason. They are there to prove God’s faithfulness. God promised Abram that one of his descendants would be the Messiah who would bless all the peoples of the earth. The line from Abraham down to Jesus was recorded and preserved. They prove that through both Joseph, in Matthew 1, and Mary, in Luke 3, that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, was indeed sovereignly descended by God from father Abraham over a span of some 2,000 years.

In closing, there are three Messianic prophecies spoken by God in Genesis, they are found in 3:15, 12:3 and 46:10. It is because of the third of these Messianic prophecies that we know the promise was to come down through the line of Jacob’s fourth son, out of twelve, Judah, and not through any of the others. This prophecy is confirmed for us in both Matthew 1 and Luke 3, as Jesus is shown to be descended from Judah in both Mary and Joseph’s lines.

Do you see what we have here? Think on this… the Bible is self-confirming. By starting with a goal or purpose in the end, and showing that there is a plan or program that is spoken of, and then launched in the very beginning, and then by being able to trace out the plan or program throughout all the recorded historical narrative of the Old Testament, we have the proof right before us that the Holy Bible can only be the inerrant and infallible Word of Almighty God. How else could such a Book have ever come into existence, Hmmmmmm??? What one man, or any conspiracy of men, have ever, a.) come up with such a plan, and b.) ever have been able to carry it out over a span of thousands of years? It totally defies all imagination! It could only have been God!

May God grant you all insight and illumination into His most Holy Word to your spiritual growth, edification and eternal benefit, by means of His Spirit.

ForeverKingdom

Harold F Crowell