If you are under the impression that it was easy for the followers of Jesus to make their transition from their former way of life to a new way of life, you are wrong. The Law was imbedded in their beings, the promises were part of their heritage, the Temple was an important part of their existence.
John Owen wrote a book entitled, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. What does that title convey? When Christ rose from the dead, He had put to death the power of death. Hebrews 2:14,15 says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death–that is the devil–and free those who all their lives were hold in slavery by their fear of death.” Continuing in Romans 6:5-10, the Apostle Paul writes, For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our OLD(emphasis mine) man was crucified with Him , that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who had died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him , knowing that Christ, has been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God, Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive (NEW, insert mine) to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NKJV)
In the Old Testament, we are able to read the history of God’s people, see His love for His people, and hear His heart break for them when they forsake Him and follow after the gods of this world, and want to live like the nations around them.
God had made a Covenant with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was their God. They were His people. He had made them special unto Himself to be a witness to the nations around them. He loved them with an everlasting love. They were a Kingdom of Priests unto the Most High God.
The Apostle Peter said it this way in I Peter 2:9-10 (NKJV) (comparing the followers of Christ to the nation of Israel). “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
As Peter says, in I Peter 2:8b, God’s people stumbled walking out this relationship to God under the OLD Covenant. Is it possible that the Lord’s Church, today, too, is stumbling, walking out their relationship to God?
The nation of Israel had the Ark, the Presence of God in the midst; in the Wilderness they were guided by the Cloud by Day, and Fire by Night; and eventually, they had the Tabernacle in the midst of their camp.
All of this foreshadows the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
John 1:14, the Apostle writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacle) among us and we behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The (OLD) Tabernacle in the midst of Israel became a (NEW) Tabernacle in the midst of Israel when Jesus was born in human flesh. But He came unto His own and they did not received Him.
The finished work of Christ, the second Adam, perfectly completed the OLD covenant, and His resurrection validated that a NEW covenant existed.
Jesus, on the night in which He way betrayed, instituted the NEW covenant.
Matthew 26:26-28, “And as they, were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take eat, this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.” For this is My blood of the NEW covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (NKJV, emphasis mine)
It isn’t said directly up front to the disciples, but the implication of what Jesus has just said and done is: Gentlemen, the OLD covenant is no longer relative, there is a NEW covenant in the making. It will be ratified in My death, burial, resurrection and ascension back to My Father. Jesus is making transition from out with OLD and into the NEW. (emphasis mine)
The Epistle to the Hebrews was expressly written to deal with this transition. The nation of Israel had a very difficult time relinquishing their OLD way of worshipping God and transitioning to a NEW relationship of worship. Remember Jesus’s dialogue with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-26). Just before Jesus revealed to her that He was the Christ, He said to her, (John 4:21-24, NKJV) “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the our is coming, and now is, when the TRUE (emphasis mine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him MUST WORSHIP (emphasis mine) in spirit and truth.”
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, directs our thoughts to the overwhelming superiority of Christ over all that the Jews had experienced under the Law. As the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches, Jesus is ‘better’ in every respect to the OLD covenant. The OLD covenant pictured the coming of the Messiah. Jesus is the complete fulfillment of that picture. Can you imagine, being on the Emmaus road, walking dejectedly with remorse, pondering the events you have witness the previous few days as a follower of Jesus? There you are discussing what had happened with your companion, and you are joined by an individual who apparently has no knowledge of the what has happened, what you have experienced, or what is going on? After a time of inquiry and back and forth conversation, the stranger tells them, “…beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:27 NKJV), Jesus gave to them a complete detail of the OLD testament picture.
Regarding this complete picture of Christ, the Jewish leaders are faced with two facts that are the consequences of Jesus’s resurrection. These two facts they believed were deceptions voiced by Christ, Himself. The first deception was that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God. The second deception, which they deemed to be a greater issue than the first, was that He asserted that He would rise from the dead in three days.
As I shared in Part I, “Now the religious leaders of the Jewish nation have to absorb what they feared.”
Three days. after His crucifixion< Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God was alive, He had risen from the dead.
Let us now consider the time after His resurrection, prior to His Ascension, and then the Feast of Pentecost.
Living Words of Encouragement 