05.06. The Bible Carries The Testament Of GOD
The Bible Carries The Testament Of GOD The Bible is far more than a book of predictive prophecy. GOD’s primary Testimony in the Scriptures, explain the reality of GOD’s willingness to deal with man’s sin nature and reveal Himself to the human heart so that man will come to know Him and love Him.
GOD declares His willingness to deal with man’s deliberate and habitual sins against GOD – by unfolding the Testimony of Jesus Christ in the inward parts of man [2 Corinthians 3:3; Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:16; Jeremiah 31:31-34].
Through the pages of Scripture, GOD in His faith and love for us all, expressed through the words of Scripture, calls us each into being – from our inward parts - as a new man created in the image and the fullness of Jesus Christ [Romans 8:29; John 1:16-17; Ephesians 2:10]. This spiritual expression of GOD’s faith and love for us personally, is described in the Scripture as the Testimony of Jesus. The Testimony of Jesus is the communicative medium of GOD’s own faith and love for us.
GOD uses the Testimony of Jesus to transform us through a creative process of salvation in our inward parts [Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17]. Our outer man dies but our inner man is proclaimed to be transformed from glory to glory [2 Corinthians 4:16].
Words of Scripture that describe the Testimony of Jesus are declared to communicate the Spirit of Prophecy [Revelation 19:10]. The Spirit of Prophecy is the Spirit (the spiritual medium that carries the spiritual dynamic) that brings the Words of the Testimony of Jesus to fulfillment into us and also through us. The Spirit of Prophecy is the life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ that is the spiritual genetic blueprint for a new man [1 Corinthians 15:45; Php 1:19]. The Testimony of Jesus describes how GOD will save us, by bringing into us - all - that is of Jesus Christ [John 1:16-17; Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 2:10].
All that is of Jesus Christ involves the actual communication of the substance of His Character, His Nature, His Witness and Testimony in faith and love into us - by GOD. The Testimony of Jesus is the spiritual heartbeat of the Bible. In order to give credence to the spiritual realities of the Testimony of JESUS, the Scripture also records the historic details of Jesus Christ’s birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection in four Gospels of the New Testament. The Testament of Jesus – described in the four Gospels and expounded by His Apostles in the Epistles that make up the New Testament - is the basis of salvation. The Testament of Jesus is the basis for salvation, simply because He fulfilled the demands of the Law that GOD gave Moses (circa 1400 BC) [Matthew 5:17-18]. In the fulfillment of the Law, the Testament of Jesus becomes the spiritual blueprint for the fulfillment of the Prophets [Matthew 5:17]. The Prophets comprise GOD’s every promise and blessing, as well as GOD’s judgment and destruction of evil.
Salvation – communicated into us through the understanding and acceptance of the Testimony of Jesus - is the progressive spiritual process by which the spiritual yoke of sin and death is actually broken. The breaking of the spiritual yoke of sin and death is not only over us personally but, also in the heavenly places that stand over the spiritual atmosphere of the earth and all mankind.
Jesus Christ lived on earth for a mere 33 years. Astonishingly however, the biblical narrative unveils Jesus Christ as the central character to the Bible’s spiritual content – in terms of its understanding as well as its fulfillment in and as GOD’s plan for humanity. For example, in Matthew 5:17-18, JESUS CHRIST declares that He had come (from GOD as the Messiah, the Anointed One) to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. The Law and the Prophets represent the heart and soul of the Old Testament narrative completed some 400 years before CHRIST. The Law was a complex of more than 600 laws, centered on daily animal sacrifices and, a calendar of feasts that involved more animal sacrifices. The Law clearly declared through these blood sacrifices that the wages of sin is death [Romans 6:23]. The Law – given by GOD to Moses (circa 1400 BC) - pointed to the fact that only in blood sacrifice could the sin of man be atoned for. The blood of animals was used daily, in the morning and the evening, to commemorate the atonement of Israel’s sin – the sin of her priesthood, her leaders and her people.
Even infants were dedicated to GOD through blood sacrifice signifying the need to atone for the nature of sin they were born with, because of the sin of their generations, originating from the fall of Adam, the first man [Genesis 1:1-31; Genesis 2:1-25; Genesis 3:1-24]. The Law pointed to the fact that we all have sinned and come short of the glory of GOD. Since our life is in our blood, the Law is proclaiming that it would take the witness of blood – in a life without the blemish of sin - to atone for our sin. The Law addressed through blood sacrifice, the sin we carry by nature, as well as the deliberate (called transgression) and habitual forms of our sin (called iniquity). The reality of blood sacrifice – through an animal without defect- required by Law [Leviticus 1:3; Leviticus 3:1; Leviticus 4:3; Leviticus 5:15], foreshadowed the fact that ultimately, for the yoke of sin to be broken over man, there would need to be an actual Testament without blemish or defect for the overcoming of death. Only such a Testament could fulfill the Law. The Law of GOD given to Moses (circa 1400 BC) – by blood sacrifice [Exodus 24:3-8] - clearly proclaimed two things:
(i) that the wages of sin is death; and, (ii) that only through the shedding of blood can sin be atoned for or be covered.
Atonement simply means that GOD covers our sinfulness while working His solutions of change and transformation into us – through the processes of salvation. And, this is what the Testimony of Jesus fulfills. On the cross Jesus Christ satisfied the righteous requirement of GOD’s Law through the shedding of His blood. And, this shedding of His blood is the penalty He paid for the sin of the whole world.
It is the triumph of Jesus Christ over death – after fulfilling the requirements of the Law through the shedding of His blood – that would be the legal basis for salvation.
It is in the progressive communication of the Testimony of Jesus, including all that is of His nature and character tested through the cross, into us, that salvation finds its progressive fulfillment in us. The Prophets explained the Law’s requirements being met, by declaring that only the death of the Messiah would atone (or, cover) for the sin of mankind [Isaiah 53:1-12 – circa 700 BC]. The Prophets also proclaimed the resurrection of the Messiah from death [Psalms 16:10; Psalms 68:18; Psalms 110:1 – circa 1000BC] that would prove the fact of the yoke of sin being actually broken! In Isaiah 53:11, which is part of the Prophets, GOD tells us how the Testimony of Jesus would fulfill the requirements of the Law: “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many.” The Prophets also predicted that because of the Messiah’s accomplishments: “All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve Him.” [Psalms 22:29-30] Jesus Christ Himself would proclaim:
“I AM the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the FATHER, but through Me.” ” [John 14:6]
“I AM the Bread of Life.” [John 6:48]
“I AM the Resurrection and the Life.” [John 11:25]
To understand the significance of Jesus Christ one has to understand biblical prophecy concerning Him.
Biblical prophecy carefully and meticulously predicts the identity of GOD’s Messiah – proclaiming both His divinity and His humanity – so that the legal basis of GOD’s Law will be brought to fulfillment in and through the Testimony of Jesus. The Testimony of Jesus in fulfilling the Law would become the spiritual basis for the creation of a new man - in and from our inward parts of spirit, soul and heart [Isaiah 53:11; Matthew 5:17-18; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17]. The Testimony of Jesus in fulfilling the Law becomes the basis for the fulfillment of the Prophets in terms of both the promises and the judgments of GOD.
2 Corinthians 1:20 declares: “For as many as may be the promises of GOD, in Him (Jesus the Messiah) they are yes …” The final judgment of earth is witnessed by the Apostle John in heaven when he witnesses the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ breaking the seals that commence the events of judgment that bring closure to this age of human history [Revelation chapters 5:1 to 8:5]. The culmination of this present age involves GOD’s judgment of evil on earth in the great tribulation, and the consequent reality of the unfolding of the government of the Kingdom of GOD on earth through the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth with His angels and saints.
Ultimately the fulfillment of the Prophets results in a new earth and a new heaven [Revelation 21:1-27] as GOD’s love is creatively showered into a new beginning. This new beginning proclaims the cosmic implications of the Testimony of Jesus. Amen [Revelation 3:14; 2 Corinthians 1:20]!