OT and NT...
Submitted by Compassion on January 27 2000 at 10:36:55
In reply to For 'Forgiven'...on fear vs. love Submitted by Jules on January 26 2000 at 19:01:13
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are in harmony with one another. The OT gives light to the NT, and the NT is the revelation of the OT. Our God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. When God said to Moses I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob He was not just saying I am the God of your forefathers, but that He is a God who keeps his word. The I am who I am, He spoke to Moses was saying God is of the present. Not of yesterday although He is, and not of tomorrow although He is, but of the present. God is! He is always with us. So was He different in the OT compared to the NT, not at all. Salvation in the OT was the same as the NT, by grace through faith. Hebrews 11 attests to that. The economics of the OT was different from the NT. What do I mean? It is that God chose to call the outside nations to come to Isreal to know God. Why? Because all that was given to guide [the law, sacrifices, ordinances] were in Isreal, which were pointing to the coming Messiah. But once the Messiah came those things were done away with [the point of Hebrews]. The Patriarchs of the OT looked forward to their salvation, and we look back to our salvation, the finished work on the cross. The way God treated physical Isreal in the OT is the way He treats spiritual Isreal in the NT. Physical Isreal today shows to us [spiritual Isreal] that God is faithful to his people. God still upholds physical Isreal not because they are better than any other nation, but because God is faithful to His chosen. So today we spiritual Isreal upheld by God not because we are any better than the heathen, but because God is faithful to His chosen people. This is the whole point of Romans 9, where Paul says 'I could wish that all Isreal were Isreal'. That all of physical Isreal were the spiritual Isreal. This is the compassion we are to have for the lost. Paul uses the strongest word in the Greek language when he says he wishes he were cursed for his brethern in the flesh [physical Isreal] so they could have salvation [Romans 9:3]. Paul wanted not to have salvation so his brethern could. Was this possible? No! Because this is up to God, not us. What a blessed assurance that I am secure not because of me, but because of Him who died for me [John 1:13]. Agape love, Compassion....:=) |