Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
- Gal 3:13-14.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had the opportunity to commune personally with God. God would come and walk with them in the cool of the day.But then they sinned and lost their ability to have that kind of contact with God. They died spiritually so they were unable to respond to Him as they once had done. When God came calling for them instead of standing righteous and unashamed in His presence, they ran and hid because they were full of shame and condemnation.
Because of their sin, for 4000 years afterward, mankind was locked out of the presence of God. The Israelites – God’s special people were unable to fellowship freely with Him. When they needed divine help or healing, they had to go to the High Priest. And though the priest had the anointing of God on him, even he could not go boldly into God’s presence whenever he wanted. Only once a year the High Priest on the day of atonement, after purifying himself offered a lamb without blemish as a sacrifice unto God to atone for his own sin and for the sins of the people, only with the blood of the animal sacrificed could he go behind the thick veil of the temple in the Holy of the Holies where the presence of God dwelt.
But the sacrifice offered year after year could not make the people perfect, for their conscience of sin remained. The sacrifices offered could never take away sin (Heb 10:2,3)
But now that Jesus Christ had paid the price for our sin by shedding His precious blood on the cross for us – not just to atone for sin, but to remit it. The remembrance of sin was taken away forever. (Heb 10:12-14). Jesus broke the chain of sin and set us free (Col. 1:20)
Man’s fellowship with God was restored, when we choose Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
It had always been God’s will to forgive our sins, which is why Jesus was chosen as a Lamb before the foundation of the world.
God knew we would sin and He made a way to redeem us from our sin and put away our sin (Heb 10:7-23). The Israelites had a practice, when anyone owed a debt which they could not repay, they wrote it on a parchment and hung it on their doorpost, so that some kind rich man may see it and pay their debt.
Jesus had done this for us. He had paid our debt for us and set us free (Isa 43:25). This was what happened in the New Covenant when Jesus forgave our sins and disconnected us from the power, the presence and the penalty of sin.
(Luke 4:18) The Jubilee year (once every 50 years) was the acceptable year of the Lord. But from the time Jesus had suffered on the cross and was resurrected we are living in the year of Jubilee ever after. The captives of sin were set free. This is the Gospel – The good news.
The New Covenant or the Net Testament can be understood better when we understand the Blood Covenant and what it meant to the primitive people, the Jews and the Heathen. The New Covenant is also a Blood Covenant. It is a covenant made by blood. The Blood Covenant had been prevalent from the beginning and even now practised by some primitive folk in remote places. Some say it must have been initiated or started by God himself in the Garden of Eden. The primitive people consider the Blood Covenant as very sacred. It is something divine, eternal and unbreakable. When a covenant was made two people are involved. The Blood Covenant is made for 3 reasons.
1. For preservation or safety.
2. To ensure good business relationship – If anyone of the partners violates the Blood Covenant he is cursed.
3. When two people love each other. ex: Jonathan and David.
A priest is brought and they exchange gifts, giving the best gifts indicating everything one has belongs to the other.
During the time of Augustine the Blood Covenant was abolished because the Blood Covenant was twisted and turned into something very barbaric and grotesque (Gen 9:3,5) by the ancient tribes.
When a covenant was made a representative was chosen on 2 sides. God could not find anyone perfect in the world, so He came in the flesh and became a representative on the side of man. Jesus Christ the Son of God became a representative for us and God made the covenant with Him. God swore on Himself. Jesus dies to His will and God’s will prevailed. Jesus said “not my will, but thy will be done”. (Mark 14:36) (Heb 10:7).
Jesus said, “sacrifices and offering thou wouldest not, but a body has thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God”. (Heb 10:5-7).
One of the things we have been given by way of redemption in the New Covenant where God puts His law in our heart and write them in our inward parts (hearts).
God changes our heart and writes the law in our heart.
Everyone will know the Lord.
God forgives our iniquities and remembers our sin no more.
This is the first and foremost blessing on which all the other blessings depend. When we believe that God had forgiven our sin and His love is unconditional, our faith rises in what Jesus had done for us on the cross of Calvary.
Lord Jesus was made a curse so that the blessing of Abraham may come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ (Gal 3:13).
Jesus Christ was punished severely that we would be forgiven (Isa.53:4,5)
Jesus was wounded so that we might be healed (Isa 53:4,5) (I Peter 2:24)
Jesus bore our shame that we partake in His Glory (Heb 12:2)
Jesus became sin because of our sinfulness, that we would be made righteous with His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21)
Through the blood of Jesus we are justified and made righteous as if we had not sinned (Rom 5:19)
Jesus died our death that we receive eternal life (Heb 2:9)
Jesus for our sake became poor so that through His poverty we would be made rich (2 Cor.8:9)
Jesus endured rejection so that we might be accepted by the father (Eph 1:5,6)
We are bought with a price - The precious blood of God Himself. We are eternally His. By the blood of the Lamb of God we are redeemed. We are no more separated from God by our sin (Adam’s sin - disobedience, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). We are bought near to God through the atonement (Heb 9:15), when we choose Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. We are no more judged because Jesus was judged and punished on our behalf (Rom 5:11).
We are once more back in the Garden of Eden to fellowship with our Abba Father as Adam did before the fall.
Now as born-again believers we have the freedom and confidence to enter into the presence of God by the power and virtue in the blood of Jesus (Heb 10:19). God is accessible to us once again. He has made us a new creation and has put His Spirit inside us, so that we ourselves can be temples of the living God. He has given us His righteousness so that instead of hiding from the presence of God we can come boldly into the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:16). When we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. He gives us wisdom, strengthens, equips and helps us in every area of our life. As we put our faith in the Blessing of Abraham which Jesus had put in us and on us, like the true seed of Abraham in Christ Jesus we are blessed and became a blessing to all the families of the Earth (Gen 12:2,3). It is the same blessing God blessed Adam and Noah (Gen 1:28) (Gen 9:1).
As we feed from the tree of life which is Christ Jesus, meditating on His Word, believing and trusting in the finished work of Jesus we enter into God’s rest (Matt. 7:13,14). Let us enter in the strait gate, the narrow way – resting in what Jesus had accomplished for us on the cross and in God’s love as His mercy endures forever.
Let us not toil as many do trying to enter into God’s rest through the broad way which leads to destruction depending on their own works to please God. Let us walk in the Blessing of Abraham.
