| Author | Message | ||
| Jackob Registered user Username: Jackob Post Number: 444 Registered: 7-2005 |
Perhaps many of you experienced old adventists tapes of condemnations for leaving adventism, renouncing Ellen White, the sabbath, etc. How are you dealing with them? Some days these old tapes play persistenlty in our ears. Today was such a day for me. As I was praying for the assurance of God's grace, I became aware that Jesus not only proclaimed the good news, the gospel, He was the Good News. Every moment of His earthly life is a showing of grace. This portrait of God seems to be in a sharp contrast with God of Israel, God of the Old Testament, entirely holy, ready to bring justice for every sin commited by His people. Of course, the forgiveness was available, but this forgiveness was not so tangible as the condemnation and the judgment for the sin of the nation. Israel experienced a lot of judgment fot his sins, but never came to experience the full measure of God's grace. The full access to God, the experience of unrestrained acces to God, the free atmosphere generated by grace, was not realized until Jesus came. With the coming of Jesus, a fresh air comes in place. Jesus is full of grace, He embodies God's grace. He embodies also God's justice, suffering for the sins of the people of GOd. Fully God, fully Man, He came as a Mediator between man and God, and to call all people to repentance toward God and faith in Him, assuring them that He will in no way cast out those who will come to Him. He makes Himself the point of attraction or rejection, making Israel to experience what they previously lacked: the day of atonement, when they were cleansed from all their sins. By the cross, their sins were expiated, atoned completely, and this fact is reflected in Jesus's life. As adventists, we have always problems in grasping the grace of God. We lived in the air of the Old Testament, fearing God, feeling condemned, not fully breathing the grace of God. The fact of an atonement completed on the cross, the fact that our sins were blotted out completely, expiated, payed for, eluded our understanding. But even today, our conscience is in some days plagued by old tapes which make us unsure about God's attitude toward us. We are still sinners, we know our sins, our fallings, and sometimes we are tempted to doubt the central truth of the gospel. Sometimes we doubt that we understood rightly what apostle Paul said about the gospel. But today, as I said, the Holy Spirit impressed me with a simple fact: Jesus ilustrated by all His life the fullness of grace. This is why the New Testament looks different than Old Testament. The Old Testament is full of condemnation for sin, and promises of grace. But the New Testament is full of grace, and warnings about condemnation for sin, staying away from Christ, and from the salvation already accomplished. The coming of Jesus brought the full grace of God. Grace was available previously, but never experienced as it became to be experienced with the coming of Jesus. In the Old Testament, God manifested primarily His presence in judgment on the sins of His people. But in the New Testament God incarnate, Lord Jesus Christ, manifested primarily His presence in grace toward His people. Look at Jesus's life and will see all the onfirmations you may need to fight succesfully the doubts of Satan's which tries to bring us back to bondage. I will consider my leaving of adventism as leaving the certainty of God's judgment (Old Covenant experience pertaining especially to Old Testament times), and the present as living in the certainty of God's favour, His acceptance. The cross made the difference, it took the certainty of the judgment, it executed it, and turned it in the certainty of our acceptance. Beside this, the entire earthly life of Jesus illustrated the FULLNESS of God's grace, the completness of atonement. If the old tapes are playing in our head, look at Jesus as being "FULL of grace", His life will prove this truth, the gospel, at every step. How are you dealing witht the old tapes? Jackob | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5528 Registered: 12-2003  |
Jackob, what wonderful insight. Your comparison between the clear picture of God's judgment in the OT and His full revelation of grace in the NT is so true. The OT reveals what we must know before we can accept God's grace: our total depravity and God's unremitting anger against evil. The NT reveals what is currently our condition in Christ. In a real sense, the OT and the NT show the difference between those who are not born again (dead in sin) and those who are alive in Christ. While the OT does promise and demonstrate God's mercy and infinite love, the picture of Him in the NT is a much "higher resolution" portrait. Great insight. Colleen | ||
| Jackob Registered user Username: Jackob Post Number: 445 Registered: 7-2005 |
Colleen, Thank you very much for making clear and explicit the difference between OT and NT, dead in sin - born again. I know that somehow I'm reinventing the wheel, but since the adventist mindset is primarily focused on the Old Testament, with old Covenant "blessings" (the blesings that the law gives to those who are not keeping it perfectly), we were educated to look to Christ through the lens of being still under the Law. We were educated to see Christ primarily as our Example, who shows us how the law must be kept, as a servant of Moses, not as someone who, by His being and by His doing far surpasses the revelation of the Old Testament, far surpases Moses. But the difference comes not only from the fact that the righteousness of Jesus fulfilled and was higher than the righteousness of the Law, but in the quality of grace present in Him. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1;17) Jackob | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5534 Registered: 12-2003 |
Yes, so true, Jackob. I love that text! Colleen | ||
| Agapetos Registered user Username: Agapetos Post Number: 725 Registered: 10-2002  |
"A servant of Moses"... wow, Jackob, that is so true! We did make Christ into a servant of Moses! My goodness. It reminds me of how Eugene Peterson rendered "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" in his paraphrase of the New Testament, "The Message" -- "The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath. He's in charge." | ||
| Stevendi Registered user Username: Stevendi Post Number: 103 Registered: 10-2006 |
It's the Blood, Jackob, pure and simple. We either embrace the fact or not. Steve | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 868 Registered: 8-2004  |
Jackob wrote: "Jesus IS the good news" (emphasis added) This is what thrills me! Jesus IS the fulfilling of the law; Jesus IS the promised Messiah; Jesus IS the Savior; Jesus IS our righteousness; Jesus IS our Redeemer; Jesus IS. Where there were prophecies (including the foreshadowings of the Jewish law) they were fulfilled, Where there was hope in the coming Messiah it was swallowed up in Reality. Where there be law it was filled to the full and broken open because no matter how good the law God is better, bigger, stronger, more beautiful. Jesus couldn't fit in His own shadow! And we are called, not to walk in shadows, even Jesus shadows. We are called to walk in His light! Awesome, awesome, awesome!! Mary | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5537 Registered: 12-2003 |
I love that, Maryó"Jesus couldn't fit in His own shadow!" Wowóthe paradigm shift of seeing the whole OT through the lens of Jesus is absolutely antithetical to the way I used to see things. Jesus is the point. Everything else is about Him, dependent upon Him, pointing toward Him...whether the point is God's covenants, prophecies, ceremonies, etc.ófor us humans, all of it hangs on Jesus. We cannot understand or experience God's faithfulness or love apart from Jesus. In Him all God's promises are "Yes". (2 Cor 1:18-20) Colleen | ||
| Stevendi Registered user Username: Stevendi Post Number: 104 Registered: 10-2006 |
Amen to all. When spiritual baggage from adventism tries to re-attach itself, I sit down and read the red letters in the gospel. That is how I first left adventism, that is how I stay out. The words and teachings of Jesus did not compliment Judaism nor do they compliment adventism, either. steve | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 596 Registered: 9-2006  |
Steve Old hayseed, you are making sense, all Adventism is, is spiritual baggage. Has the snow melted? River | ||
| Stevendi Registered user Username: Stevendi Post Number: 105 Registered: 10-2006 |
River, Snow is gone brother...around 70 today and golfers are out, but not me, alas. steve |
