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

Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth! 

Topic: Elucidating The Testaments (F) by Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu

 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)

The New Testament is anchored on the love of God; it has nothing to do with our love for God. The Old Testament is proportionate to how much the people under it can demonstrate their love to God and as a matter of fact that order became a flop because they lack the wherewithal to do so. There is nothing anyone could have done to meet the righteous standard of God (Isa 64:6). The New Testament therefore, was not initiated because man has become righteous and as a result God should come down and die for him. But for the obvious reason that God loved man so much that He wouldn’t like him to continue to live miserably in sin. So while we are still sinning God came down to die, a demonstration of His love for us. Now it is interesting to know that this love is not particularized to some certain group of people, but it was offered and released to the whole world. So for God so love the world, not the Jews, not the Gentiles but as many that out there in the world, irrespective of their race and gender God loved them and “gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16, 2Cor 5:12 - 20). This is the Good News! That man has been delivered from the wages of sin which is death, any soul that sin will surely die, this is the legal standing of the situation and no one could change this standing and God decided to take the payment for man. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53: 3 – 6). Notice that from the quotations above, because of God’s love for mankind, he has to come and be wounded for our transgressions, be bruised for our iniquities, be chastised for our peace. One thing very clear from the quotation above is that He received all these for our and not for His, which implies that the New Testament will be established on the bases of the sacrificial pure blood of an innocent man (Matt 26:27 – 28, 2Cor 5:21). The Man to die in place of mankind is the Christ, He is the one to go through all these listed above and thereafter will enter into His glory (Luk 24:25 – 26). It is by His death God has offered mankind the gift of eternal life, so as many that believes in Him will certainly receive this eternal life, which is the God kind of life. A life that is not subjected to sin and death, this is the demonstration of God’s love to mankind. Obviously, the death of Christ is a very important necessity for man because that is what is needed for him to attain eternal life. Since the wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life (Rom 6:23), of course it is important to note that the separation power Satan has between man and God is death. Man however, does not have what it takes to undo it; it then behooves on Christ to die in order to undo it. Therefore, eternal life is attainable by man in the death of Christ, because Christ kept the appointment of death for every man and met the requirements for the judgment (Heb 9:27). So by meeting the whole requirements, He ripped off the power of death from Satan through his death (Heb 2:14), but this arrangement was beyond the scope of Satan’s knowledge and he didn’t realized that he was playing into the redemptive plan of God for man (1Cor 2:8). Like I said earlier, this was done by God not because man has turn into a new leaf, but while man is still walloping in sin yet God took the step. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:7–9). In this way God came to take our place so that we can take His place. He took our shame so that we can take His glory. He took our weakness so that we can take His strength. He took our hatred and gave us His Love so that we can be able to love Him and our fellowmen by His Love. Because man without the love of God is a selfish being; but with the love of God inside man he is able to love others and equally love God.

To be continued….

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

Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu