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ZADOK PUBLICATIONS MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
August 1, 2010
His Portion is Mine
Part 1
Am I like people of the world who say yes when they really mean no? As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, never wavers between yes and no. He is the one whom Timothy, Silas, and I preached to you, and he is the divine Yes - God's affirmation. For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in him. That is why we say "Amen" when we give glory to God through Christ. It is God who gives us, along with you, the ability to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment of everything he will give us.
(NLT) 2 Corinthians 1:17-22
This text grips my very soul and spirit!
It is God's divine message for every saint today. When the Bible says, "For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Him," that is the most concise, poignant, powerful Scripture needed to be headlined in churches, assemblies, gatherings and meetings. When that verse uses the word ALL, then ALL is what it means. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of Abraham's promises and all the Davidic promises and all other promises given to individuals by God. Abrahamic and Davidic promises transcend the Law. Moses' covenant still bows to them. Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise in the Word of God, ALL of them. No one can claim any promise given by God without receiving that promise from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lately, men have been searching the Scriptures in the manner of Pharisees and their pursuits lead them to all manner of conclusions as to "How to live in the blessing of Abraham" or "Claiming the promises of God." Many have separated the covenants into groups, the blessings into areas and the promises into formulas. To them, the conclusion of Jesus must then be applied:
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
John 5:39-40
No messianic meeting should begin without an affirmation of 2 Corinthians 1:17ff.
No convention should assemble without this scripture being the banner flying above it.
Jesus is the possessor of the Abrahamic promises and through Him alone will their fulfillment be.
The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise:
Paul knew the dangers in seeking to claim the promises of Abraham without coming to Christ Jesus. He wrote:
Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Galatians 3:16-18
Pop theology, which greatly emphasizes the promises of Abraham being issued to every paying recipient, must realize that Christ possesses those promises and without emphasis being on Christ, no blessing is available.
One of the reasons Paul meticulously wrote this passage in Galatians stemmed from his association with fellow Jews. He heard them deny the resurrection of Jesus and reject Him as Messiah. They used the coined phrase from an old playbook, "We be Abraham's seed." Jesus slammed into that idiom repeatedly during His ministry and much of His Temple exposure was used in refuting it.
In modern times, refutation must again be made. Some Christians are leaving their fellows and are joining synagogues and neo-Judaic groups. In doing so, many are required to reject the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Enamored with rabbinic oversight, they are promised greater understanding about the Bible, Jewish Law, feasts, observances and insights through Talmudic studies. Thousands have joined pro-Israel organizations, which are propping up modern Israel's mass atheism by supplying monies and unquestioned support. The land rightfully belongs to Jesus Christ. He is the SEED, the only inheritor of ALL the promises. His descendants are joint heirs of the promise. Instead of burying the cross and the resurrection, Christians must rise up to affirm what the apostles and prophets declared.
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel.
Genesis 12:7-8
'Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are - northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give
to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.'
Genesis 13:14-17
'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'
And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:5-6
(As a saint, I have every right to tell the Arab-Islamic world, "Get off my land." It is not the Jew's right. It is not the Israeli government's right. It is my right. It is my right to pray safety over it, to lay blessings on it and to enable the gospel to be preached in it. No other entity has that right. We are His and IT is ours!)
John the Baptist had it right.
Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Luke 3:8-9
Outcroppings from the Abrahamic blessing are found throughout Scripture and how the saints do need them applied to their lives during these dangerous times. Instead of holding to some Jewish rite, our desperate need is the protection afforded by the keeper of the keys.
When they went from one nation to another,
And from one kingdom to another people,
He permitted no man to do them wrong;
Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes,
Saying, 'Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.'
1 Chronicles 16:20-22
Yes, the saint is to lay claim to the promises given to Abraham, for we have them as ours in Jesus, the Son of God. They require no messianic group membership. They are open
to those who exalt Christ Jesus. Christ's kingdom is filled with those who are the direct descendants of Abraham through faith and MUST lay claim to the promises given him.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:26-29
Those blessings are higher than Mosaic Law. They take precedence over Mosaic Law. They are greater than Sabbaths and reach back into eternity for their origin.
He swore by Himself, saying, 'Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.'
Hebrews 6:13-14
The eternal aspects of the Abrahamic promises are also proffered in Galatians. It says the Gospel itself was preached to Abraham by faith. When he gave tithes to Melchizedek, he bowed before the Son of God and understood the long reaching proportions of the gospel in Jesus. His descendants were to prepare the way for His coming. They were to protect the Holy words they possessed. They were to keep themselves separate and move as one force upon an unbelieving world. That was their eternal purpose and it still is. (We, who are the real descendants through Christ, have those obligations.)
'Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? - just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Galatians 3:5-9
Indeed, the nations of the world have been and are being blessed by the followers of Jesus. Where their testimony is heard and believed, prosperity resides and every fruitful harvest. Alas, where their testimony is rejected, there is suffering, poverty and chaos.
Genesis is filled with repeated expressions of the gospel covenant with Abraham; none more lucid than this:
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed
Genesis 12:2-3
(Behold, I claim these promises. They are mine in Christ Jesus. Every line, every potent precept-I claim. I bless them, Amen! When the newsletter goes out, "all the families of the earth shall be blessed," is my claim. I reside in Christ Jesus and the promise is mine through Him.)
Yet, Abram's name had not been changed at this juncture of Scripture. Not until Genesis 17, following the cutting of the covenant in blood signifying Christ, did his name change.
When the burning light (see: Consumed by His Fire) passed through the halves in Genesis 15, every promise given Abraham was finalized in His Presence. The new covenant in Christ Jesus was finalized in His own Blood. Every promise in the Old and New Testament belongs to the saints in Christ Jesus.
Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21
Recently, I was challenged by an audience member after a presentation. The issue was about not observing Saturday as the Sabbath. For over an hour, we discussed first one issue then another. Our season of repartee ended with a challenge from me, "I will look at your arguments, if you will (with an open mind) read the book of Hebrews." No further communication has transpired. One cannot read Hebrews and continue to hold to the traditions of Moses.
The blood covenant, cut at Calvary, reached all the way back to eternity ("lamb slain before the foundation of the world"), embraced all the covenants made between God and His people, surrounded them, and drew them inside and were carried by our Great High Priest (after the order of Melchizedek) into the Holiest of Holies once for ever!
And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:4-6
Next month, our discussion will continue with a treatise on the Davidic promises. Jesus is the possessor of ALL the promises of God---they are fulfilled in Him-they only come through Him.
Until Next month,
Dr. Cosby R. Oliver, PhD.
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