Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth! Topic: Elucidating The Testaments (I)

Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth!

Topic:  Elucidating The Testaments (I)

 Helping You To Increase Your Revelation Knowledge Of Christ!

Continued from the last episode…

Text Of Interest:  

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”

Jn 16:12-13

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 

1Cor 2:13

Case Study Text:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 

2Tim 3:16-17 (KJV)

Now let’s continue to talk some more about sin. And so, what is sin? I define sin as the act of disobeying an instruction no matter how simple the instruction is. Sin is going astray from a stipulated or a given instruction or rules whether written or not. The act of sin is revealed in the knowledge of the instruction, which means that if the instruction is not there, there is no sin. Sin as a matter of fact is encapsulated in the instruction or law, the law becomes the bases by which sin can manifest or be revealed (Rom 5:13, 7:7, 9). In the beginning (Genesis era) though there are some kind of rules initiated by God to the people, but for the fact that there is no conditional relationship between the people and God, the disobedience to the rules by the people does not affect their relationship with God. In it we saw God trusting in the ability of man to carry out His will not minding man’s weakness (Gen 18:17 – 19). So the relationship was God centered not man centered and as a result God ensures the success of it.

Regardless of their disobedience to the instruction(s) their relationship with God continued and God didn’t reject them or turned His back on them. God continued to work with them and in divers manner revealing Himself to them for better understanding of who He is. They believed God in the simplicity of their hearts and it was accounted to them for righteousness. The instructions given at this particular time, was not to establish an act for worshipping God but for the good of the people. So there is no if condition attached to the instructions given to them, because the instructions were given to make them understand the purpose of God for them at that particular time.

The peculiar thing about them is that they believed God and in everything allowing God to have His way and to dictates the pace of the relationship. They didn’t bring anything on the table in order to demand some rights in the relationship; they allowed God to be the pioneer and also to pilot the relationship. They never rely on their effort to achieve anything but continue to believe God’s promises over their life and certainly such promises became realities (Rom 4:19 – 22). So in the beginning, sin exists but its existence didn’t affect the relationship between man and God but affected or delayed some of the benefits man could have received from the relationship. Some benefits were not denied but delayed as a result of man’s response which depicts impatience and lack of proper understanding of the instruction(s).

Does that mean that God condones sin? No He does not! The truth of the matter is that the solution to erase sin is in the hand of God (Gen 3:21, 4:15), that is what the Old Testament people could not align with. And since in the law, sin is revealed does that make the law sinful? No, the law is spiritual (Roms 7:14) but it came to men who are carnal and as a result couldn’t handle spiritual things with their carnal minds. Their act of handling spiritual things with their carnal minds manifested into sins and they couldn’t help themselves as sin became the order of the day in their life. They should have relied on God who has the solution of sin instead of opting to handle sin themselves that would have exonerated them from the consequences of sin (Rom 7:24 – 25).

It is interesting to know that many of the sacrifices made to God by the people in the beginning, are not sacrifices for sin but sacrifices offered as an act of worship to God (Gen 4:3 – 4, 22:9). And in some cases where sin comes in, God Himself carries out the sacrifice for the sin on behalf of the people or put a mark of pardon and their relationship continues (Gen 3:21, 4:15). So sin was present in the beginning, but was not a determining force in dictating the how in the relationship between man and God should be, so the major factor here is the act of believe.  The question is this, is one ready to believe that there is God, and that He does exist? Once this is done God is ready to work or relate with that individual. In the process of the relationship God will be unfolding His nature to that particular individual one at a time, the more the intimacy or relationship continues the more the individual is learning more about God and His ways, mistakes in between notwithstanding (Gen 18:17 – 19, Isa 41:8).

Their consistency in believing God gives room for greater insight and knowledge about God and such pave way for them to work with God virtually unconditionally. They didn’t see God as someone who is pestering and coercing them to do things with Him. They never at any point in time told God that they are tired of hearing from Him and indicating their rejection of Him. And as a matter of fact, they never had a rough edge or face off in their relationship with God, God’s mercy and grace always played to their favour and at the end their relationship with God yielded the needed result, the difficulties in between notwithstanding. God continued to boldly mention their names and declaring that He is their God, irrespective of the mistakes they made in the relationship because they were consistent in their believing never at any time rejected God (Exo 3:6, Ezek 14:14). And no wonder the children of Israel never ceased to refer Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they never allowed Him to be their God. 

 To be continued….

Till I come your way again, keep on basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!

Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu