Thursday, September 3, 2020
Once and for all phenomenon (part three)
5. The will of God is fulfilled
The fifth once and for all phenomenon is that the will of God is fulfilled once and for all. As clearly seen, the earthly tabernacle, the animal sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood were all shadows and copy of the reality, thy all served the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For he was told, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
But now, once and for all, Jesus Christ has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come --- In the volume of the book it is written of Me --- To do Your will, O God.' Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:5-10).
The first that was taken away is, the earthly tabernacle, animal sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood: And the second that has been established is the heavenly tabernacle, the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and the Melchizedek priesthood.
The will of God for man even before the foundation of the world was that man be holy. For it is written: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).
The apostle Paul’s final plea to the church in Thessalonica was, “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness: Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8).
The once and for all terminology which has so many sincere and devoted people bamboozled and discombobulated is simply the fact that:
- Once and for all Jesus Christ the Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea and spring of water died to reconcile man to God.
- Once and for all we have access to the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, but to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
- Once and for all there is now the perfect sacrifice, not the blood of goats and calves, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ who entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
- Once and for all we have Jesus Christ as our High Priest of the good things to come.
To be continued
With brotherly love
Lucius Joseph
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