God of Both Testaments

Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭16-17 - And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

There are many who question how God could be so judgmental in the Old Testament and in the New Testament loving.

I've heard many times in order to know evil you must see good. A precedent has to be made, a foundation laid. God did that. Life in the beginning was good, peaceful, the way it was meant to be, free from labor, hardship, tears, sorrow.  If Adam and Eve obeyed His command not to touch one particular tree, the life they first lived would be like that. One tree. But once we are told not to do, not to touch, not to taste, not to peek, aren't we tempted all the more to do it?!

God loved His creation but when sin entered into His plan He could have nothing to do with it because of His holiness. This is a concept we must understand...He IS holy....He is good. He always has our best interest in mind, but He also judges. We cannot enter into His presence, nor eternal life, without His help...through Jesus' gift of salvation. His desire is for us to seek His Son and receive that good life back, and as is proclaimed to all who receive His Son, in the end: ..."God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭4‬)  Sounds like what it was like "in the beginning."

There was only one command when God created all things...it was directed to Adam and Eve in the verses above. Wonder where we got our pride? From thinking we could be as smart as God and falling for the lies of an evil serpent, a.k.a., the devil. So God had to switch gears, in time laying down more laws (commandments). He ushered those two, His created beings, out of a perfect world and ushered in His right to judge.

We are shown that if we disobey we will die...unless another requirement from the New Testament is met: 

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

...that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (John‬ ‭1‬:‭29, John‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬, John‬ ‭3‬:‭15-16, 2Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17)

Old things will pass away. All things are new. New creatures, born again. God laid the good foundation in the Old Testament, it was transgressed. God showed His intolerance for disobedience. Later, after many years and examples of what God would do for those who were obedient and those who were not (blessings and curses), and in the New Testament He brought His Son, Himself, down from the throne and into the world to show Himself to the lost, to restore back to those who believed in Jesus, the good that was lost to evil sin.

Sin and disobedience has only escalated through time and has nearly gotten to the worst it can be, but not quite yet. It will get worse still. A sign that time is approaching quickly for the return of Christ. Each of us is guilty, no doubt daily. But if we confess our sins (to God, not man) He will forgive us. 

God of the Old Testament showed us His idea of a perfect life, the goodness He wishes upon people. He only has thoughts of good for us. When we, as a people, decided to disobey, we were given the judgment. The God of the New Testament made a way that we might be reconciled. Seek that Way. 

Romans 5:20-21 - ...the law (Old Testament) entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace (New Testament) abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

More Than Ever Before

Matthew 5:17 - Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

I love how Old Testament words often are so prophetic. I love how Jesus shows in the New Testament how He fulfilled those words.

I was reading in Hebrews 10 this morning. It described how the law demanded constant sacrifices by the people to atone for their sins...yet those sins were never taken away. What was the purpose of hundreds of years of sacrifices? Verse one says the law of that day was a shadow of the good things to come (Jesus). The purpose was to show through Old Testament events and accounts who Jesus would be when He arrived to be the New Testament. Old Testament, Jesus concealed; New Testament, Jesus revealed.

It is also clearly pointed out that none of the sacrifices was ever enough or they would have ceased. Hebrews 10:4 - For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

But God...made a way, the Way, in Jesus Christ. By His blood and righteousness.

I'm going to switch from Hebrews 10 to Psalm 40 where the words were first formed in the mouth of David through his prayer.

Psalm 40:6-8 was quoted in Hebrews 10 as words Jesus would have spoken. I became absorbed in this psalm. The words quoted were: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, "Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart."

Granted David spoke these words in the psalm, but little did he know he would have been speaking of the Messiah that was to come. Of course we read them and it's obvious who he was speaking of. In the scroll of the book it was written of Him! Do you see it? This is not all new to me, but I am excited to share this.

Earlier in Psalm 40 David says: He (the Lord) set my feet upon a rock, established my steps, put a new song in my heart...because He heard David's cry for mercy. Sounds like what Jesus does to those to believe. David goes on to say that those who trust in the Lord will be blessed. And He does not require sacrifices and offerings but that we do His will when we allow our ears to be opened to hear the truth of who He is and allow His law into our hearts.

These, people, are words--no, a song--of salvation! From the Old Testament...words that speak of Jesus and the perfect work of salvation He alone gives. They are words that are encouraging and freeing. We do not need to work for any of this. We just need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and with the very depth of our heart and soul receive Him as our Savior. But it doesn't stop there. We then become disciples and do His work...HIS work, the works that are now deemed good.

Oh, how David continues by saying he is proclaiming the "good news" of God's righteousness. His lips cannot be restrained. This is Old Testament David speaking about Savior God, who has yet in David's lifetime come to become the last perfect sacrifice for all mankind. He is last sacrifice given for us all that we no longer need to work out our salvation through good works that do nothing because how much is really enough??

Today many still believe going to church is a sign of goodness. Some believe their philanthropic giving to very worthy, for sure, organizations will satisfy God's idea of goodness. Yes, we do good things in our lives, but when we do them in the name of Jesus, they are better. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. I delight to do Your will, O my God. We cannot work out our salvation on our own. Jesus did it for us. We need only earnestly seek Him.

David calls out to God that His lovingkindness and truth preserve him. Lovingkindness...in that He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins because He knew we could never attain the perfect sacrifice on our own. But God...could, through His Son Jesus. The willingness of one Man to do this for the sins of all mankind. And nothing we could do of our own would be enough. Nothing.

Oh, I'm sure I'm repeating myself....

David goes on to admit that his sins were innumerable...greater than the number of hairs on his head. Might I add, greater than the sand on earth. How many times have we committed the same sin, no matter how great or small, repeatedly in our lifetime? Imagine the immeasurable number of sins, past, present and those yet to come. You can't, can you? But Jesus knows them all. And He will forgive us.

Psalm 40:13 - Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me! David's enemies were after him. We have an enemy too and he relies on our sins to botch up our lives. Let Jesus deliver from those sins. Let those who seek God rejoice and be glad for all He is wanting and able to do in the lives of those who truly do look for Him and learn His truths. He offers the hope of salvation. David unknowingly prophesied about that. David trusted in God, but knew not Jesus.

More than ever before this world needs to know that Jesus does save. Many will agree that this world is changing. Things we have little control of are happening in our own individual lives, too. Many in our country see that. I believe, well, I pray, in the next year or so even more will see the destruction that is coming...and how much closer, biblically, we are to Jesus' return. He does not require ongoing sacrifices to become a child of God; He only requires we seek Him and then are obedient to Him.

He desires that none should perish, although many will. For those of us waiting for His return, we pray that He come quickly...but it will be in His timing alone. More good news, there's still time to receive Christ. But I wouldn't wait too long.

Psalm 40:17 - But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.

Reading the Constitution

Psalm 119:16-18 - I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word. Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law. 


My, oh, my. The thought occurred to me, as it so often does, that what we do in life imitates, both greatly and sadly, the lives that are depicted in the Bible. You will hear this a lot from me: history repeats itself. Will we ever learn? Probably not all of us.


I received an email  recently from Focus on the Family, a Christian ministry formed to promote and strengthen the family. In this email they discussed the rereading of the Constitution. Here is a quote: It is critical that the new Congress consider every piece of legislation's impact on families. The family is the bedrock of our society, our local communities, our economy, and our very way of life. The strength of the family is one of the principal reasons for America's moral and economic greatness.


Well, the Focus foundation or bedrock also is the Word of God. This is what we should all adhere to. Where is our foundation? In the world, the worldview, government, people? Our foundation should be the Foundation of Christ. The Word, which is Jesus and the Bible, should be the bedrock of our society, our local communities, our economy, and our very way of life, just like the Constitution in this nation is it's foundation.


Psalm 119 talks endlessly about God's statutes, His laws, and how we are to delight in them. We are not to lose our focus, but have these laws in our hearts as the ancient Jews did. These laws are there to help us, not to hinder us. These laws were made for all mankind. God's laws are right, true and just. When we understand the concept of God's laws being good for us, we will see them as Psalm 119 says, as wondrous.


What happened when Israel stopped heeding His laws? Their lives fell apart. They ended up in captivity as slaves. At the end of the Old Testament God was so fed up with His people He became silent for 400 years to cause His people to yearn for Him. Then Christ was brought into the picture for His plan of salvation. His laws remove boundaries. God only has good things for us if we would just let go of the things of this world. If we would no longer as a people choose to manipulate, control, steal or destroy, as our government would like to do, our lives and the things that keep our lives intact. 


Like a family that looks out for one another shouldn't we as a nation do the same? We the people... We are in the hands of the enemy...our adversary the Devil...and as Pogo once said: We have seen the enemy, and he is us. Don't we also often hear we are our own worse enemy? What does that say about a people and a nation whose foundation is not God? We cannot survive successfully without His guidance. Wasn't this the tenet of our founding fathers?


The reading of the Constitution, unfortunately, left out words that could be construed in today's world as offensive. I had hoped that reading the Constitution would remind people what this country has stood for for so many years. Maybe it still jogged their memories and brought reminders of what we used to be and how we lived and how we overcame obstacles, how we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It should be a reminder of the rights and wrongs and how we can avoid these in the future. But to deny that we said some things is covering up the truth.


The same goes for the Bible. There are some things in it that are considered offensive to some. But there's a very good reason...it's the truth. We cannot take the Bible and pick and choose what we want to believe about it. We can't do the same for the Constitution.


Our Constitution and the Bible are there for "we the people," not for the government's benefit..or God's. Let me clarify what I mean by God's! He wrote the Book for us; He doesn't need it...He doesn't need improvement! These laws here that we might benefit. It may seem as though the Bible is nothing more than a bunch of commands to stifle people, but they are not. Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.


Who knows us better than the God who gave us life...from the beginning of the earth and until the end of the age? He has created us. He knows what's good for us. If only we would trust Him in this and see for ourselves. There will always be those who take a different route. Our founding fathers understood this and wanted this country to follow in His blessings.


Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life. His way is narrow and few follow it. He is the Lamp that guides. He is the Light that shines in the darkness. God's Word, Jesus, and our Constitution. A common theme. We can learn from both...they are both there to help us overcome. When did we stop doing what the Constitution suggests? When did we start being deceived? When did we stop focusing as well on God? When did we decide His Word wasn't applicable anymore? When did we start falling away as a country and as individuals from trusting Him? More than these, why did we allow it?


James 1:21-22 - Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.