Paul writes inn Hebrews 10:9-10 (Amplified), "Jesus then went on to say, Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will. Thus He does away with and annuls the first (former) order as a means of expiating sin, so that He might inaugurate and establish the second, latter order. And in accordance with this will of God, we have been made holy, consecrated and sanctified through the Offering made once and for all of the Body of Jesus Christ (the Anointed One)."
We read about God's will for the new creation family in Galatians 3:14-16, 28-29 (Amplified), "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might all receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit To speak in terms of human relations, brethren, If even a man makes a last will and testament (a merely human covenant), no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed (ratified confirmed). Now the Promises (covenant, agreements) were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (his Offspring, his heir)." God Promises weren't made to "Seeds, descendants or heirs," as if referring to many persons, but to "your Seed, your descendant, your Heir," which obviously refers to One Individual, Who is none other than Christ, the Messiah.
We read about God's Last Will and Testament through Jesus, in Verse 28-29 which say, "There is now no distinction, neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus And if you belong to Christ (are in Him Who is Abraham's Seed), then you are Abraham's offspring and spiritual heirs according to the Promise."
We've vacillated from whether we're under Law or Grace and are we in the old or new covenant for so long, that we've forgotten (or perhaps have never known the True Will and Testament of God. We wish to walk in the Blessing and Grace of God's covenant as His children, but we try receiving them by observing the Law, instead of the Promise. We still expect the Father to deal with,correct, and direct us according to the Law, instead of having the Holy Spirit do these by Grace.
God made His Promise to Abraham, before the Law was established. God delivered all of the Hebrew children out of Egypt, because He remembered His covenant and Promise to Abraham, according to Exodus 2:23-24 (Amplified) which says, "However, after a long time, nearly forty years, the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites were sighing and groaning (because of the bondage they kept crying, and their cry because of slavery ascended to God. And God heard their sighing and groaning and earnestly remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." God didn't deliver those people by the Law, because the Law didn't happen until a later time. God protected, delivered, fed and watered, covered them with a cloud by day, to shade them from the sun and fire by night, to keep them warm at night. There were no feeble or sickly among them and even their clothes didn't wear out. This was all done by God's Grace. Psalm 105:42 (Amplified) tells us that God did all these things because, "God earnestly remembered His Holy Word and Promise to Abraham His servant."
If God's Promise to Abraham was that strong then, is it any less strong for us who are in Christ Jesus, to Whom this Promise was made? The Israelites frustrated God's Grace in the Wilderness, because they wouldn't believe His Promise to Abraham. They continually complained, forgetting God's Mighty Hand of deliverance. Many Christians talk about our "Wilderness Experience," as though it's a trial that God's putting us through. The Wilderness Experience was a result of their own doing and the trial wasn't God testing them, but them testing God, according to Hebrews 3:7-12 (Amplified), where Paul writes, "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you will hear His Voice Do not harden your hearts, as happened in the rebellion of Israel, and their provocation and embitterment of Me in the day of testing in the Wilderness, Where your fathers tried My patience and tested My forbearance and found I stood their test, and they saw My works for forty years. And so I was provoked, displeased and sorely grieved with that generation, and said, They always err and are led astray in their hearts, and they have not perceived or recognized My ways and became progressively better and more experimentally and intimately acquainted with them. Accordingly, I swore in My wrath and indignation, They shall not enter into My rest." Verse 12 ends, "Therefore beware, brethren, take care lest there be anyone of you a wicked, unbelieving heart that refuses to cleave to (trust in, and rely on Him), leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the Living God."
It wasn't God's Promise that failed, but it was the people's unbelieving the Promise, that failed. The above scripture tells us that, "They tested God." It wasn't God testing them. God's Promise to Abraham was the Promise that brought them out from bondage and it was by Grace that His Promise worked , not by Law. All God requires of us, is all He required of them and that is that we simply believe His Promise to us, through Jesus. When we try going back under the old covenant and try performing good works, in order to receive the Blessing, is like those in the Wilderness who provoked Him. Paul speaks about God's rest, in Hebrews 4:9-11 (Amplified) saying, "So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the true people of God. For he who has once entered God's rest also has ceased from weariness and pain of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His Own. Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest of God, to know and experience it for ourselves, that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience into which those in the Wilderness fell."
The deliverance of those Israelites came by God's Grace and His Promise to Abraham and his Seed. The Promise was made to Jesus and God has fulfilled it, in Him. By faith, we've entered into this Promise and must maintain it by faith in the Finished Word of Jesus. The only thing that is left for us to do, is to believe. God says in Isaiah 55:10-11 (Amplified), "For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and spout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My Mouth; It will not return to Me void (without producing any effect, useless), but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
John 1:14 (Amplified) tells us, "And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human,incarnate), and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile among us) and we actually saw His Glory, His honor, His Majesty, such Glory as an Only Begotten Son receives from His Father (full of Grace, favor, Loving kindness and Truth)."
This Word didn't return unto the Father "void" and without producing and accomplishing the things which God pleased and purposed. This Word, Who is Jesus Christ, did prospered and continues prospering in the things for which He was sent to do. The Word is True and the Promise is sure, through the Seed and the Word.
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