Jim's Footnotes

Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Covenants (1-21-07)

The Covenants
Bible Study Time 1-21-07

The past few weeks we have been looking at the fact that when we come to Jesus Christ in faith, believing that He died on the cross for our sins, we are positioned in Christ by the Holy Spirit, and we are given a new beginning. II Corinthians 5:17 says:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJ)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Romans 6 says:

Romans 6:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

As Paul wrote to the Church which is the Body of Christ in Ephesians, Chapter 4, he said:

Ephesians 4:21-24 (NKJ)
21 if indeed you have heard (Christ) and have been taught by (Christ) . . .
22 (then) put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 (being) renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and . . . put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

These are just a few of the many verses which teach that God has given everyone of us a chance for a new beginning in Jesus Christ.

When the angel came to Mary and told her that she would conceive and bring forth a son who would sit upon David’s throne as the Son of the Highest, Mary said, “Be it unto me according to thy word.”

Even so, we can be confident today, that when we open our hearts to God and say, “Be it unto me according to thy word,” God will start to create within us something new, something so glorious that it is beyond our human comprehension, something that will bring glory and honor to God. Then, we will also say with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

What a miraculous change God brings about in our hearts and in our lives when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. It makes me think of the old hymn which says:

What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought,
Since Jesus came into my heart.
I have light in my soul for which long I had sought,
Since Jesus came into my heart.
Floods of joy o’re my soul like the sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart.

Well, all of this is available to us today because of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus upon the cross of Calvary. Jesus Christ came into the world through Mary. He was born of a woman, and He came to seek and to save that which was lost.

When Adam sinned in the Garden, the sin nature and the curse of sin fell upon all men. The Law wasn’t given to Moses for another 2500 years, but death still claimed the life of every person who lived between the time of Adam and the time of Moses.

You see, when Adam sinned, all men sinned because we were actually there, in Adam, at the time Adam sinned. Do you remember how the writer of Hebrews said that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek? He said that Levi paid that tithe because he was in the loins of Abraham when Abraham paid his tithe to Melchizedek.

Well, in that same way, all of humanity from the beginning to the end was there in Adam when Adam sinned against God. And yes, that included Eve too because Eve had been created from Adam’s flesh and bone. God sees everything that proceeds from Adam as being in Adam. Therefore, when Adam fell, the whole human race fell.

One of the ways that angels stand in contrast to humans is that angels were each individually created. They stand before God as individuals, while humans stand before God in Adam.

Now, as we know, when Adam sinned, he was denied access to the tree of life. He and Eve were locked out of the Garden so that they could not eat of the tree of life. But when the Lord Jesus came into the world, He said:

John 10:10 (NKJ)
10 . . . I have come that (the sheep) may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

And then He said:

John 10:11 (NKJ)
11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He did so in order to bring abundant life to all who believe. He died so that we might have access to the tree of life.

All those who are in Adam will have no access to the tree of life for all of eternity, but those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are taken out of Adam and are given a position in Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15 says:

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (NKJ)
21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Those who remain in Adam face eternal death, but those who are in Christ are given eternal life.

So even before the Law was given, death reigned over mankind, but when God gave the Law, the Law revealed the righteousness of God and sin became exceedingly sinful. In other words, there was a greater level of accountability on man’s part after the Law was given. This is one of those principles that we see throughout the scriptures, with greater knowledge comes greater responsibility.

But as we move into the scriptures of the New Testament, the Law of Moses becomes the center of debate. Jesus made it perfectly clear that he had not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. However, He was often questioned by the religious leaders because He did not abide by all of their traditions. They asked Jesus why He and His disciples didn’t wash their hands according to the Jewish traditions. They asked Him why He and His disciples didn’t fast or pay the temple tax as the traditions required.

After the cross the twelve Apostles went to the nation of Israel, spreading the gospel that Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead by the power of God and had been taken up into heaven. However, they were careful to live by the Jewish traditions. As a result, the issue of the Law kind of died down for a while.

After about 12 years, however, the Lord called the Apostle Paul to start his ministry among the Gentiles, and in his teachings he revealed the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross had actually ushered in the New Covenant. In all of his early writings, he dedicated a great deal of time and energy comparing the glory of the New Covenant to the fading glory of the Law. In II Corinthians 3, Paul said:

2 Corinthians 3:4-8 (NKJ)
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Here, Paul says that the power of the New Covenant is found in the Holy Spirit while the Law has no spiritual power. He says:

2 Corinthians 3:3 (NKJ)
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

The word of God doesn’t do anybody any good while it’s on tables of stone. Its power is revealed when the Holy Spirit applies it to our hearts.

Now these tables of stone are, of course, the tables of stone upon which God wrote the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. God gave these stone tablets to Moses and told him to put them in the, what? The Arch of the Covenant. So the Law of Moses was a covenant of God.

We know that there were covenants made before the Law was given, but we call the Law of Moses the Old Covenant because it is the covenant which stands in contrast to the New Covenant. Paul never called the Law the Old Covenant per se, but it’s obvious that the covenant which stands in contrast to the New Covenant is the Law of Moses.

In II Corinthians 3, Paul goes on to say that:

2 Corinthians 3:7,8,11 (NKJ)
7 . . . if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

Now, what is it that’s passing away in this passage? It’s the covenant of death that was written on tablets of stone. Paul said that the Law was passing away, but he never said that the covenants of God which were made previous to the Law were passing away, not at all.

At the time of Adam’s sin, God promised to destroy the serpent with a mortal wound to the head, and that He was going to do so through the Seed of the woman. That promise is God’s Covenant of Redemption. Later, God made a covenant with Noah and promised that the earth would never again be destroyed by water. Then after that, God promised Abraham that Abraham would be given the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, and that one of Abraham’s descendants would bring blessing to every nation on the earth.

So we see several covenants of the Lord which were made before the Law was given, but none of those covenants was affected by the passing away of the Old Covenant Law. In fact, because the New Covenant has to do with the redemption of the earth as well as the redemption of man, these previous covenants are all very much associated with the New Covenant.

The full redemption of the earth will be accomplished after the earth is destroyed by fire, not by water. The full redemption of the earth will be accomplished only after the destruction of the devil, and the full redemption of the earth will not take place until after the land of Canaan is given to Israel and the New Jerusalem is established.

In Paul’s early epistles, he spoke often of this contrast between the Law and the New Covenant. However, as we read Paul’s later epistles which were written from a Roman prison, we see no mention of New Covenant, or of Abraham, or of the restoration of the earth.

At the same time, it is in these prison epistles that Paul reveals the details of the Church which is the Body of Christ. The calling of the Church stands in contrast to the calling of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old and New Covenants both anticipated a restored earth. On the other hand, as members of the Church, we today are citizens of heaven where we are seated with Christ and blessed with every spiritual blessing.

We are not bound by the physical elements of this earth, but rather we are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Furthermore, through faith in the working of God, we are baptized into the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ. As heavenly citizens, we have been promised that in the ages to come, God plans to show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Because we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, we can rest assured that we are partakers in every spiritual blessing of the Old Covenant and in every spiritual blessing of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was permanently set aside at the cross, but its spiritual blessings were brought to life through the power of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant. The New Covenant was temporarily set aside when Israel rejected Christ during the Acts period, but all of it’s glorious spiritual blessings have been passed on to us as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ.

As we read the Old Testament scriptures, we learn of God’s faithfulness. We learn of His miraculous power. We learn of His justice as well as His mercy and His grace. We learn about so many things that we can apply directly to our own circumstances in life. However, we must keep in mind that God has not promised us the land of Palestine, and we must keep in mind that the rituals that were required back then are no longer required today.

As we read the gospels, we see the miraculous power of God as it is seen in the birth and life of Jesus Christ. Everywhere He went, He did miracles, wonders and signs to prove that He really was the Son of God who came down from heaven. At the same time, we must realize that Christ is now in heaven and that anyone who claims to be the Christ is a liar and is of the devil.

We rejoice to see the miracles, wonders and signs which were done by the Apostles during the Acts period, but we are saddened to see the hardness of the hearts of the men of Israel. The miraculous works of Jesus and those of the Apostles were not enough to convince them that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Here too we must realize that the spiritual gifts of the Apostles are no longer being given to the saints. When someone says that they have the gift to heal others or the gift of prophesy, we know that they’re not telling the truth.

But then, when we come to the revelation concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ, we can not help but be humbled to think that God would love us enough to call us as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ. We were called before the foundation of the world, and by the grace of God, we have been accepted in Jesus Christ.

God no longer dispenses the miraculous sign gifts, but praise the Lord, He still does miracles in each of our lives. When we witness His power in our lives, we know that God is able and God is willing to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Sola Scriptura (1-14-07)

Sola Scriptura
Bible Study Time 1-14-07

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. When we accept by faith that God has accepted Christ’s shed blood as the one and only acceptable sacrifice for our sin, God baptizes us by the Holy Spirit into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. In this way, we are born again. By this means, we are washed in the blood of Christ, cleansed from our sins, and our lives are filled with the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit.

But how can we know that these things are true? By human reasoning, it sounds pretty bizarre to think that God would become a man by entering into the womb of a virgin, that He would be born and then grow up to be killed by the very people He had created. That He would do all of this for the purpose of rescuing those same people from the clutches of hell, so that He could give them eternal life. As strange as all this sounds, how can we be sure that it’s really true?

Well, it all boils down to the credibility of the word of God. We can be sure it’s true because God has given us His word.

Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The word of God is like a mirror that reveals who we really are. When we come to the word of God, we see ourselves. We read the words of Isaiah, who said:

Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all (of) our righteous acts are like filthy rags . . .

When we read this, we know that it’s talking about us personally, and we feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. However, as we continue in the word, we hear God saying:

Isaiah 1:18 (NKJ)
18 "Come now, and let us reason together . . . Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

The word of God rings true in our hearts, and we rejoice to hear the good news that God loves us in spite of our sins, and He has provided a way for us to be saved. Isaiah said:

Isaiah 55:6-11 (NKJ)
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD.
9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

God has many purposes for His word, but one of its purposes is to produce faith in the hearts of those who believe. Paul said:

Romans 10:17 (NKJ)
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The world sees the gospel of Jesus Christ as a message for fools, but we are willing to be considered fools for Christ’s sake. As Paul said to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 1:18-21 (NKJ)
18 . . . the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For since . . . the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

Yes, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and then, faith appropriates the grace of God.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace (we) are saved through faith; and that not of (ourselves): it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

That’s what the Bible says and that’s what we believe.

It’s been nearly 500 years since Dr. Martin Luther questioned the use of indulgences in his church. He had learned from the word of God that God’s forgiveness can not be bought with money for our forgiveness has already been bought by the blood of Christ.

On October 31st of 1517, Luther wrote a letter to his Archbishop inviting debate on this very issue of indulgences. He included a copy of his famous 95 Theses, and on the same day he posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg Chapel. With the printing press having been recently invented, it wasn’t long before the 95 Theses was being distributed throughout the continent of Europe.

To support his claims that the doctrines and practices of his church were in error, Luther turned to the scriptures and asserted that the scriptures have the final authority. He said that the church can err but the scriptures can not err.

Luther’s position against the indulgences gained favor among the people, and the movement for the reformation of the church began to grow. The primary doctrinal principle of this movement was expressed in the Latin phrase, Sola Fide, which means faith alone, and then next to that was the phrase Sola Scriptura which, of course means by scripture alone. The three other planks of the reformation were Sola Gratia, by grace alone, Sola Christus, by Christ alone, and Soli Deo Gloria, which means glory to God alone.

So the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century was based on the idea that if we take the word of God as our only doctrinal authority, we find that salvation is given only by the grace of God, and it’s given to those who put their faith in nothing but the work of Christ alone upon the cross, and that the sole purpose of salvation is to bring glory to God.

Luther had a couple of opportunities to debate those who opposed his point of view, and in those debates it was pointed out to Luther that his view was in opposition to the teachings of the church. Luther was reminded that the doctrines of the church had been established by the councils of the church and that all of the members of the church were obligated to adhere to the established doctrines of the church.

When Luther refused to accept the doctrines of the church, the church leaders were appalled at what they considered to be Luther’s arrogance. In their minds, they were asking, who does this guy think he is? He really thinks that his opinion is more important than the established doctrines of the church.

Finally, they asked Luther, point blank, if he opposed the teachings of the church. They were shocked when Luther said that in his opinion church councils can be wrong. In fact, he said that a simple layman armed with the Scriptures has more authority than church councils without the Scriptures. Ultimately, Luther was threatened with excommunication, and a price was placed upon his head.

Two years later, Luther was called to Worms, Germany, supposedly to debate his differences with church doctrine, but when he arrived he discovered that the sole purpose of the meeting was to force him to recant. Without hesitation, Luther replied:

Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds of reasoning, I will not recant. My conscience is held captive by the word of God, and it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me!

After that, Luther was forced into hiding for a couple of years under the threat of death, but Luther had established the principle of Sola Scriptura. He had made it clear that the only writings which have the authority to bind the conscience of man are the writings of the Bible. In this we see that the Bible is the word of God, and as Isaiah 55 says, it came down from heaven like the snow, and it has been given the power from God to accomplish its mission.

During the first three hundred years after Christ. There were several disputations about which of the writings that were in circulation at the time were actually the inspired word of God. The Bible as we know it was not confirmed by church councils until the year 397 A.D.

However, these early disputations only serve to illustrate the fact that from the earliest writings of the Apostles, it was understood that there were some writings which were in fact the word of God, and that these writings were to be accepted as having the same authority as the writings of the Old Testament.

When the Old Testament prophets spoke, they didn’t say, this is the word of Isaiah, or this is the word of Ezekiel. They said, thus says the Lord, and in the same way, when the Apostles wrote the books of the New Testament, they knew it was the word of the Lord. Peter said:

2 Peter 1:16-21
16 . . . we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but (we) were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory (saying): "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

So Peter emphasizes the fact that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and then when he refers to the writings of the Apostle Paul, he calls them Scripture. He says:

2 Peter 3:15-16 (NKJ)
15 . . . account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation-- as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
16 as also in all his epistles . . . in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

Paul’s message was to the Gentiles and then to the Church which is the Body of Christ. Therefore, since Peter held firmly to the Jewish hope of the kingdom, it was hard for him to identify with some of Paul’s teachings. But Peter still knew that Paul’s writings were part of the Holy Scriptures, and he said so while he, himself, was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

No serious challenge has ever been mounted against any of the books of the New Testament or the Old Testament. There are only two or three of the books of the New Testament which have ever been challenged at all. All of the rest of the books of the Bible have been accepted as the word of God from the time they were written.

We accept by faith that the word of God true, and we can see that the writings of the Bible were brought together under the influence of the providential hand of God. God has given us His word. He loves us, and He gave His son to die for us. This is the gospel, and it is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe.

Well, I see that our time is gone for this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Friday, January 05, 2007

New Beginnings (1-7-07)

New Beginnings
Bible Study Time 1-7-07

Last week we saw that, in the scriptures, the number eight stands for new beginnings. According to Peter, there were eight souls who survived the flood of Noah’s day, and those eight souls had the opportunity to participate in a new beginning on the earth.

It’s no coincidence that God required the circumcision of all Jewish boys on the eighth day after their birth. This was a sign of God’s covenant with the nation of Israel. This covenant was a covenant which promised a new beginning for the earth. It was a covenant which promised a worldwide kingdom of peace and righteousness.

God, Himself, gave Abraham the sign of circumcision even before the Law of Moses was given. This bloody sign of circumcision was meaningful for a couple of reasons. First, it was the sign of the blood covenant between God and Israel which promised this glorious new beginning for the earth. Just like the eight souls who survived the flood, the nation of Israel was called out from among the nations to be the ruling nation in the glorious kingdom of God.

How the nation of Israel looked forward to the day when they would lead the world in a kingdom which would have none of the evils of our present world. It would have no poverty, no injustice, and no war. Circumcision was the sign that the Jews were God’s chosen people.

God gave the Jews the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, but the promise involved much more than just the land of Canaan. God’s plan was to rule the whole world through the Jews from the land of Palestine. When Isaac blessed Jacob, he said:

Genesis 27:28-29
28 Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.
29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you!"

Later, God, Himself, appeared to Jacob and said:

Genesis 35:11-12 (NKJ)
11 . . . "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.
12 "The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land."

This passage says that a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from Jacob, but the Jamieson, Faussett and Brown Commentary, says that a better translation might be that a nation and a gathering of nations, or even a gatherer of nations, will proceed from Jacob. This would be speaking of the time when the nations gather around Jesus Christ, or it could be speaking of Jesus Christ, Himself, as the gatherer of nations.

When Jacob was on his deathbed, he turned to Judah and said:

Genesis 49:10 (NKJ)
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

Again, the Jamieson, Faussett and Brown Commentary points out that the Hebrew text spells the word Shiloh with a “y” in the middle. It is spelled “S-h-i-y-l-o-h,” and they say that this would actually be referring to the One who has the authority or the One who has the right.

With this in mind then, it’s likely that Jacob actually said:

Genesis 49:10
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the One who has the right shall come, and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

Jesus has already come to the earth once as the baby in a manger who grew up to be the teacher/miracle worker, but the next time that He comes to the earth, He will come with majesty and power. He will come with the right or the authority to rule over all of the nations of the earth.

This is in keeping with the words of Ezekiel when he spoke of the destruction of Babylon and said:

Ezekiel 21:27 (NKJ)
27 Overthrown, overthrown, I will make it overthrown! It shall be no longer, until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.'

It is also in keeping with the words of the Apostle Paul who said to the Galatians:

Galatians 3:19 (NKJ)
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made . . .

In other words, the purpose of the Law ended when the promised Seed came into the world.

With the arrival of the promised Seed, it was time for the earth’s “new beginning.” The letter of the Law was ending and the Spirit of Law had come.

Paul wrote the book of Romans even after he wrote the book of Galatians, and in Romans it’s clear that Paul was still anticipating this new beginning for the earth. In Romans 8, Paul said:

Romans 8:18-20 (NKJ)
18 . . . I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;

In other words, the earth itself fell under the curse even as did Adam and Eve and all of us who are the descendants of Adam and Eve. Then Paul said:

Romans 8:21 (NKJ)
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

So the children of God will be redeemed and set free from the curse, but the earth will also be redeemed from the curse. Then in verse 22, Paul says:

Romans 8:22-23 (NKJ)
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Paul said that the earth is waiting to be set free from the curse just like believers are waiting to be set free from our mortal bodies.

Now it’s interesting that when we get over into Paul’s prison epistles of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, we no longer find this link between the bodily redemption of believers and the redemption of the earth.

In fact, we find Paul discouraging that kind of thinking when he proclaims that, today, we are citizens of heaven and that as such we are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Furthermore, he teaches that as citizens of heaven, we should set our affections on things above and not on the things of the earth.

He says that when Christ appears, we will appear with Him in glory and that He will change our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body, but He never associates this event with the redemption of the earth.

This stands in contrast to Paul’s earlier writings. In fact, the contrast between Paul’s prison epistles and his previous epistles is so sharp that some dismiss his prison epistles as being written by an impostor. But if we look closely at the internal evidence of the prison epistles, we find the perfect explanation for the differences. In Ephesians 2, Paul said:

Ephesians 2:14-16
14 For (Christ) Himself is our peace, who has made both (Jews and the Gentiles) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross . . .

During the Acts-period, Paul said that there was no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles in regard to their sin or in regard to their need for salvation through faith in Christ, but he never said that the middle wall of separation had been broken down between the Jew and the Gentile. It is clear that during the Act-period the Jews continued to practice the Law, and Paul went out of His way not to discourage them from practicing the Law.

However, in Ephesians 2, Paul is revealing a new beginning for the believers of our present age. We are not anticipating or waiting for the redemption of the earth. The doctrines that relate to the coming kingdom are glorious and we rejoice in them, but the kingdom is not that for which our hearts are yearning.

Rather, our hearts yearn for the time when Christ shall appear and then we shall appear with Him in glory. We do not long for the restoration of the earth. Hopefully, we can say with Paul:

2 Timothy 4:8 (KJV)
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The one new man of which Paul spoke, which is composed of Jews and Gentiles alike, is the Church which is the Body of Christ. In his pre-prison epistles, Paul never specifically referred to the Church which is the Body of Christ, but in the prison epistles, this Church is the major theme.

In Ephesians 1, we read that God has put all things under the feet of Christ, and that God has given Christ to be Head over all things to the Church which is His Body.

In Ephesians 3, Paul says:

Ephesians 5:23 (NKJ)
23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.

In Colossians 1, Paul says:

Colossians 1:17-18
17 And (Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Later in Colossians 1, Paul says:

Colossians 1:24-25 (NKJ)
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,
25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,

Then he goes on to say that this stewardship concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ is:

Colossians 1:26 (NKJ)
26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

The Church which is the Body of Christ was a new-beginning for believers, and nobody knew that it was going to come about. God kept this great truth in His mind as a well guarded secret. Even so, in Ephesians 1 we are told that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. God knew it was going to take place. He just never told anyone about it.

Israel’s program anticipates a new-beginning for this earth, but we are participants in the new-beginning which relates to the Church which is the Body of Christ.

Interestingly enough, there is another new-beginning which is a prerequisite for the participants of both programs, and this new-beginning relates to the death of the flesh. This is actually the spiritual significance of circumcision. Jesus said:

Matthew 16:25 (NKJ)
25 " . . . whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

This is one of those universal principles that applies to believers of all ages. The believers in Rome were anticipating Israel’s earthly kingdom, and Paul said to them:

Romans 6:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

But then in Colossians, the Apostle Paul speaks to us as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, and he says:

Colossians 2:11-13 (NKJ)
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

The Jews in the Old Testament who had eternal life were saved through their personal faith in the word of God, and when Christ died on the cross and was raised from the dead, they were right there with Him, identified with Him in a spiritual sense, and then they ascended with Him into the glory of heaven when He ascended.

Believers during the Acts period were given eternal life as a result of their faith in the word of God. They believed what the Apostles taught, that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah who was crucified on the cross and then raised from the dead.

When Paul revealed the mystery concerning the blood of Christ, that the blood of Christ was the blood of atonement which paid for the sins of the world, one had to believe that in order to be saved. I Corinthians 15 says that this is the gospel by which we are saved, and the prison epistles confirm that we too have to believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins in order to be saved.

At the end of the Acts period, it was clear that Israel was not going to accept Christ as her Messiah, and so, it was at that point, that God called the Apostle Paul to reveal the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ.

It’s interesting that Paul never says that one has to believe this doctrine in order to be saved. Many Christians know nothing about the Church which is the Body of Christ, but they are still saved.

However, it was Paul’s prayer that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened so that we might know what is the hope of our calling in Christ. We need to know the code of conduct for us today if we are going to be successful in our walk with the Lord.

Well, I see that our time is gone for this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

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