Not some, not a few, not some for others and a few for us. All, ALLLL the promises of God find their yes only in Jesus Christ.
"19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed
among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is
always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why
it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God
who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also
put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee"
(2 Corinthians 1:19-22).
"For
all the promises of God find their Yes in him."
No one, Jew
or Gentile, can inherit the promises of God apart from faith in Jesus. Frankly
why would you want a promise of God apart from Jesus in whom the fullness of
the ages has come? And I find it strange that some think you can and there is
benefit to fulfilment outside of Christ. It boggles my mind.
If you want
to one day inherit the promised land, your only hope is to trust in Jesus.
Outside of him all else is nothing but loss, count it Skubala...and we all know
what that means. Paul is so clear about this,
"2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers,
look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who
worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in
the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If
anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a
persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But
whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I
count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish (skubala), in order that I may gain Christ..." (Phil.
3:2-8).
What profit
have any of us, Jew or Gentile, outside of Christ? In him is rest, outside of
him is war, toil and striving for gain that will be lost anyway.
"11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation
with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one's work will
become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by
fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the
work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a
reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he
himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:11-15).
It is
foolish to look for hope in the land of Israel, or really any other block of
land on this world. It is foolish to look for hope anywhere but in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Prioritize that which the Apostles of Jesus focused on. Let,
the sons of this world fight over places like the land of Canaan, the kingdom of
God is our business.
Matt, You continue to be such a breath of fresh air. Here in America, all we have are preachers who are part of the Kingdoms of Men and serve the ruler of those kingdoms, albeit some unknowingly. There are only two voices of whom I am aware that have not been captive to Satan's lies, yet even they do not speak for God's Kingdom as they should.
ReplyDeleteIn my own home church, there are some who "stand for Israel" instead of praying for peace as we are commanded. Your last paragraph sums up the truth of what a Christian should think and do perfectly, and what Christians are doing instead.
No truer words can be spoken of this conflict than what you said "the Kingdom of God is our business".
Please keep publishing as you are doing. These posts are a great encouragement to me as Christians all around me do not understand that our kingdom is not of this world.