A Completed Work

"The Son of God, become the Son of Man, would lay down His life in replacement for all of mankind."

GOD INSTITUTED SACRIFICE. When Adam and Eve sinned, He’d already set into order the need for a sacrifice for men’s sins. This sacrifice would not come for many generations, and would be the sacrifice of His own Son, but until then, He chose to offer the blood of animals and forgive men of their trespasses.

Before Cain killed Abel, He sacrificed an animal and clothed His image, Adam and Eve, with the animal’s skins. God shed the first blood on earth knowing that the enemy, the devil, would steal, kill, and destroy. He did not allow sin to be the cause of the shedding of blood. Though a creature gave its life, its blood was not shed haphazardly but it was made to cleanse both man and woman of their mistake.

That they regretted their action is not recorded, but it can be speculated upon because Abel, their son, offered an acceptable sacrifice, although Cain did not. As I have stated before, it did not take even one generation for the devil to cause one man to murder another, and come Noah’s day, the entire world was filled with great violence, chamas. No one, with the exception of Noah’s family, was in God’s image any longer. He alone preached righteousness, and after surviving the flood, he offered a sacrifice to the God of heaven and earth for His greatness to them.

The need for sacrifice continued with those that would worship Jehovah, being instituted in the form of laws and figures which pointed toward the death of the Lamb of God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. Abraham offered Isaac on the altar, believing in the Resurrection of his son from death if that was what God required. God chose to send the ram, caught in the thicket, to give its life in the place of Isaac, and here, we see an image of Christ, to come. Because the Son of God, become the Son of Man, would lay down His life in replacement for all of mankind with the intent to defeat death’s authority and deliver men from fear of death they held all their lives.

Today, we need not fear death because Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came and set us free from it. Though there is still physical death on the earth, which claims every man, one day, Jesus, the King of Kings, will return in clouds of glory and we, the church, God’s children who believe in His death and Resurrection, will arise to meet with Him, without death having any claim on us. And death will be, ultimately, erased entirely in the future, at the end of time.

He who began time will end it and all of death and the effects of death with it. Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished this, fulfilling the Laws that He set into motion for it. He intended to fulfill the Old Covenant when it was written and, though it took many generations for His birth to come, He did exactly as had been set in motion when the blood was shed by the Godhead at creation.

There is no more blood in the glorified body of Christ (Philippians 3:21). He shed it on the cross, and it fulfilled its purpose. The heart and the circulatory system with all its types and figures (the blood nourishes the body, cleanses it, and heals It) was designed for that reason and having performed its use will be replaced by the very glory of God when God the Father recreates us all.

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12)

There was no condition on Old Covenant atonement, but position was made for all in a man’s household, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, and there is no condition on God’s forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Whosoever believes will be saved because of His shed blood, and because of His Resurrection, all are given eternal life. It is a complete work of a completed law, and a new law has been written, that man is to love each other as God, Father, Son, and Spirit, loved them. Love fulfills everything.

“And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34)

Image by Chil Charlchil from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com