John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth came through Jesus Christ."
We've missed much of what Jesus gave to us by His Sacrifice, because of our misunderstanding what Grace is. Our idea of Grace, was that God felt sorry for us and pitied us. This isn't what Grace is all about. Abraham is called, "The Father of our faith," so we must understand what kind of covenant he had with God. The Law was given 430 years after Abraham, according to Galatians 3:16-17 (Amplified) which says, "Now the Promises (agreements, covenants) were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (his Offspring, His Heirs)." God doesn't say that the Promise was made to "his Seeds," as if referring to "many people." God's Promise was given to Abraham and "his Seed," obviously referring to One Individual, Who is none other than Christ Jesus, the Messiah. Verse 17 continues, "This is my argument, the Law, which began 430 years after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah, does not and can not annual the covenant previously established (ratified) by God, so as to abolish the Promise and make it void."
Abraham's covenant with God wasn't for Abraham alone (or maybe at all), but was for Jesus, when He was to come. Abraham was Blessed to walk in this covenant, by his faith in God, until Jesus (the Seed) was to come, because the covenant was actually for Jesus. The entire covenant with Abraham was a covenant of Grace and there was no Law at that time.
Abraham simply believed God and was Blessed in all he did, because God supplied his every need, by Grace. Abraham was Blessed with cattle, family, and health. God restored both his and Sarah's bodies, so that the Promised Seed could come through them, by Abraham's faith. Everything Abraham did was Blessed, by Grace and faith. God supplied all his needs and made Abraham great by Grace, because of his faith in Him.
We've somehow missed the full meaning of this covenant. We've remained under the Law, which operated by works, in order to be eligible for Blessing. Abraham didn't perform any works, but he only believed God. Abraham has become our example of faith and provision.
Jesus was the True Recipient of this covenant and all that God Promised to Abraham and his Seed, is now ours to receive, just like Abraham did through faith in God's Grace. This isn't new to mankind, but is what god intended for all His children, when He created Adam in the Garden of Eden. God fully intended to provide for all His children, by His Grace. He never intended for His children to rely on the world to provide for them. Like any Loving father, God intended to take care of His Own.
The only commandment God gave to Adam was, "Do not eat of this tree." Adam was intended to live in God's Grace and provision, walking with his Heavenly Father in perfect fellowship for eternity. God's children were to grow up and live like Abraham did before the Father, in fellowship and Grace. God's great Love was to teach and train them up, like He now desires to teach and train us as His children. This has always been God's will for His family.
We've believed that the Law, was God's will for His people and have forgotten that we are different than those at that time. Those people weren't born-again people and weren't born of God's Spirit. They were just people. God's Love for them and the Promise of the Messiah was still many years in the future. God could only work with them as flesh and blood people and not as spiritual people. The Law was only a school master, to hold the people until the Promise was fulfilled.
We're not just forgiven sinners, like some would have you believe. We're a new creation people, born of God and thus, recipients of the Promise, through Jesus. This is no longer a Promise, but is our Truth! Once a promise is fulfilled, it's no longer a promise, but a truth and a fact. The Promise is now fulfilled in the Risen Christ and it's ours to enjoy. The Father now deals with us in a completely different way, than He did those who were under the Law.
Everything God has Promised, is now fulfilled in Jesus, even to the truth of our live after death. Even though we will cease to live in our mortal body, we already have Eternal Life through Jesus and we've already entered into the realm of God's Glory, through Jesus' Resurrection. Romans 8:9-10 (Amplified) tells us, "But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the Life of the Spirit, if the Holy Spirit of God really dwells within you (directs and controls you); But if anyone does not possess the Holy Spirit of Christ, he is none of His (does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God). But if Christ lives in you, then although your natural bod is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of the righteousness that He imputes to you."
We're to trust and have faith in God's Grace and His Holy Spirit. We're to use the Life of God that is in our spirit, to control and give life to our natural body, while we're on earth. We don't use or need Law to walk with Him, but we need Grace to keep us walking by His Spirit. 2Timothy 3:16-17 (Amplified) says, "Every Scripture is God breathed, given by His Inspiration, and is profitable for instruction, for reproof, and conviction of sin, for correction of error, and discipline in obedience, and for training in righteousness, in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action. So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well-fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work."
We're supposed to be led, corrected trained up and complete in Him, by the Word and through the spirit which is born-again by His Spirit. No one needs to tell you when you're in sin or in error, because the Holy Spirit and God's Word will reveal and convict you (not condemn you, but convict you). Before ascending to the Father, Jesus told His followers in John 16:13-15 (Amplified), "But when He (the Spirit of Truth, the Truth Giving Spirit)comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole full Truth). For He will not speak His Own Message (on His Own Authority), but He will tell whatever He hears from the Father; He will give the Message that has been given to Him; and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come (that will happen in the future), He will honor and Glorify Me, because He will take of, receive, draw upon, what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine that is what I meant when I said that He, the Spirit, will take the things that are Mine, and will reveal, declare, disclose, transmit it to you." Remember, the Promise was made to "the Seed" and not "seeds," as if referring to many. The Seed is Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:16 & 29(Amplified) tell us, "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 Promise."
Now we can understand what Jesus meant when He spoke about the Holy Spirit in John 16:14-15 (Amplified). Jesus said, "He (the Holy Spirit) will take what is Mine and reveal it unto you. Everything that the Father has, is Mine." Romans 8:17 (Amplified) tells us, "If we are His children, then we are His heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him only we must share in His suffering if we are to share His Glory."
This suffering, isn't what Jesus suffered on the cross. This was done in order to redeem and to qualify us for salvation and Promise. Jesus' suffering was His being rejected, misunderstood and His seeing others without the Father of Life of God in them. Jesus was moved by compassion over the needs of others and their lack of understanding about His mission cause Jesus to suffer. We too, because we have the same Holy Spirit living inside us, should have this same kind of suffering or desire to see a world without despair. All people were created by God and when we see them in bondage through unbelief and the world's traditions, then that should cause us to suffer like Jesus did. Then, we can go out to them as God's hands and feet, reaching to them with God's Grace and His salvation. Jesus' Love never left people in the same way He found them and we shouldn't either.
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