[010817] Celebrate The New (Part 2) by Andrew Farley


[010817] Celebrate The New (Part 2) by Andrew Farley

Reminder: The New Covenant is nothing like the Old Covenant. Therefore whatever the Old Covenant was, the New Covenant wasn't. Additionally, the Old Covenant is only a shadow of the New Covenant. 

While the Old Covenant had us going back again and again for atonement and forgiveness, the New Covenant was Christ's work guaranteeing our forgiveness once and for all. This is forgiveness in all aspects and in all perspectives! We shouldn't weed out how we aren't forgiven from one point of view or another - are we saying Christ's finished work isn't enough? Are we saying that our reality that claims Hebrews 10 is true is different from our reality of everything else? No, the Word is the Word, and the Word says that our total forgiveness is guaranteed in Christ! 

Christ's finished work not only cleanses us completely of sin, but we also have a new self, we are new creations through Christ's finished work. We are cleansed in so many aspects, and once for all! 

The Old Covenant sacrifices actually reminded people of their sins. We remember our absolute forgiveness in Christ in the sacrifice of the New Covenant. Temporal sacrifices resulted in temporary, limited forgiveness. Only a timeless Sacrifice can guarantee timeless forgiveness. It's true that Christ, indeed is He who was, and is, and is to come. Truly, He is our Beginning and End, Alpha and Omega, First AND Last at the same time. 

There is no anger, there is no frustration anymore! The only thing that angers God is sin, and our sins have been completely taken away forever through Christ! With that said, we can live free from fear of angering God, because our sins have indeed been taken away from us as the east is totally separated from the west! Halleluyah!

All our sins have been all forgiven, for all time, because of Christ's finished work. This is the reason why the New Covenant ought to have so much more celebrations than we would give for New Year's! 

An unblemished body is a absolute sign of clean, healthy blood. Blood unites. When blood is shed there is an exchange. According to Scripture, without the shedding of blood there would be no forgiveness of sins. I also now believe that without the shedding of blood, there would be no declaration of our righteousness!

Blood. Aside from rest, it's the word 'blood' that stands out for me today. Without the shedding of blood, there would be no forgiveness of sins. Take note that there is STILL no work on our part when blood is shed! It is not the consumption, the integration, nor the transfusion of blood that would lead to forgiveness of sins, but the mere shedding of blood! Is it us that sheds the blood? No, it is the blood of the sacrifice that is spilled onto the ground, and this is what binds the offender to the offering. 

Therefore, it is the shedding of blood which causes Paul to say, it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives within me. If we believe that it is in the blood that there is life, then from this we can say that it is no longer our blood that gives us life but Christ's blood is the life within us - and, therefore, the song which states that His blood runs through our veins is true! The shedding of the blood of Christ was what united us with Him, and therefore guaranteed that we were buried as He as buried, resurrected as He was resurrected, reunited with the Father, as He ascended and seated at the right hand of our great God, who by Christ we can now call FATHER! 

Blood, blood! Blood is what it took! Because of Christ's blood, we can rest, indeed!

(Wow! Moving on)

If I believe that my forgiveness is conditional, then how do you suppose I would forgive and treat others? I would only forgive on conditions as well! This is not the Gospel! This is not forgiveness motivated by the Gospel! Christ's shedding of blood ensured our forgiveness without us asking, and all we ought to do is to believe... and when we believe, we do not require ANYTHING from anyone else for us to forgive them! 

'In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace' - Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14!

Wow! This further bolsters how it is through the shedding of the blood of Christ that we have so much - redemption on top of the forgiveness of our trespasses! It's a package deal! 

Andrew Farley presented a very good question: How many sins have you committed? Of course, we could deceive ourselves to say there is no sin - but there is certainly death, and the Bible connects sin to death with the line that the wages of sin is death. The Butterfly Effect states that the flapping of a butterfly's wings can result in a catastrophy in another side of the globe. With that said, we cannot literally count each and every thing in our own life that would result in immediate, or eventual death - we cannot count our sins! Our sins are uncountable, infinite - would it even be possible that each and every moment and second of our existence would have contributed to our death, making us living, breathing, sin incarnate? If our sins were considered infinite, then it could have been so... 

...Which, therefore, brings us once again to our need of a timeless sacrifice to address our infinite sin! Not that Christ always dies, but an infinite Christ died for all, once and for all, that we who were temporal would be made infinite through Christ! We find rest in this Truth, and this Truth does set us free, indeed! We are free of fear that we are not forgiven! We are free of condemnation! We are free of accusation, free to forgiveness and redemption! Halleluyah! 


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May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26