I wholeheartedly dedicate this blog to my Personal, Sweet, Precious Savior, Jesus. Without You, I would have never known what *true* love and *true* joy are. Amen.
Throughout time, God has entered into three covenants with man. The main goal of each of these covenants was for God to have divine communion with man. A covenant can be defined as a "lasting, unbreakable vow."
The first covenant God entered into was with the first man He created, Adam. Adam's choice to sin created an irreparable gap between himself and God. God, however, still longingly sought fellowship with man. The second covenant was instituted when God established the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle served as His distant dwelling place among men. Under the second covenant, man could only approach God if an unblemised animal was sacrificed on their behalf. This sacrifice provided 'temporary' sin remission.
The third covenant, however, establish 'permanent' sin remission. This was accomplished through the inexplicable sacrifice of our precious Savior, Jesus. When Jesus died, His Blood was the divine glue that eternally mended the irreparable gap between God and man. Any man who accepts Jesus permanently enters into this reconciliation covenant with God; God and man can now cohabit together once again.
God opened my eyes to one of the most unrecognized, unacknowledged truths of the Bible; man was *exclusively* created by God to have intimate, personal fellowship with Him.
The Bible is very clear that man was created by God for intimate fellowship. In Isaiah 43:10, God states that we are created that we "may know Him, believe Him, and understand Him." We were personally created by God...for the divine privilege of knowing, believing, and understanding Him on a personal level. The Creator of the Universe knows us so well, so individually, before we were even conceived in our mother's womb (Psalms 139:13-15). What a humbling privilege we have when God calls us to enter into personal relationship with Him! What a joy and an honor to know God as our Personal Creator Who loves us with a love that has no boundaries!
From the first phrase of Genesis to the last sentence in Revelation, the theme of the Bible is "Reconciliation." Reconciliation, in the sense that, God seeks to mend the broken ties of relationship between He and man. When man chose to sin, an impassable chasm was placed between God and man. Man, in his sinful nature did not desire to be reconciled to God, rather, God desired to be reconciled to man. Jesus says in John 15:16, that "[we] did not choose Him but He chose us.
To contemplate the heart of God diligently pursuing each of us throughout time, is beyond our comprehension. God created in each of us a "need", a personal void, that can only be satisfied by Him. We feel this need when we continually search for life fulfillment in anything else besides God. So often, we look to everything and everyone besides God to fill this void in our lives; everything we look to only temporarily fills this void. When that situation or person moves on, we are left with an empty void that we seek continually to fill. God, however, can fill this void completely. When He fills the void, there is no need to turn to Anyone besides Him for this fulfillment. A personal relationship with God, based on faith, is the most fulfilling and satisfying experience we can ever achieve.
The Bible begins with the creation of the first man, Adam, in the Garden of Eden. God also created the first woman, Eve, for Adam's mate. They both were naked and knew no shame. They knew no shame because they knew no sin. They were total pure, holy, and undefiled before God. God allowed them complete rule of Eden; but He also gave them one rule that He insisted that they follow. God told them that they could eat any of the fruit in the Garden; *except* the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil which was at the center of Eden. God *explicitly commanded Adam and Eve to refrain from eating the from the forbidden Tree of Good and Evil.
It is important to note, that when God created man, He created him with the ability to make choices. God wanted to have a personal relationship with a man that *willingly chose* to love Him, not that was *forced* to. God did not force man to abstain from eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. Adam and Eve were given the divine right to choose obedience or disobedience toward God's commandments.
God and man shared perfect, close, intimate, and undivided fellowship. The Bible speaks of God walking in the cool of the day seeking Adam. It is my personal opinion, that God and Adam would meet one another in a familiar location and walk through Eden in the cool of the day. They would share what was on each of their hearts and enjoy each others' company.
One day, when God went to meet Adam at their normal designated place, Adam was not there. God called out to Adam and asked where He was at. Adam called out from his hiding place, admitting to God that he was hiding from Him because He had disobeyed Him. (Genesis 3:8-9). As history tells us, both man and woman willingly chose to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. The consequences of sinful choice was the creation of an irreparable gap between God and man; sin can not come into the Presence of a sinless, Holy God. Therefore, man and God were eternally separated. Adam, no doubt, realized that the consequences of his disobedient choice cost him the most precious and fulfilling relationship he had ever known.
I believe that Adam's choice to sin deeply grieved God. I believe the grief that God endured was the catalyst for God seeking ways to be as close to sinful man as He possibly could be. God knew that He could not come too close to man because man's sin; was so repulsive to God. God could not get too close to man because of His absolute intolerance to sin. Any man that came before God that had sin would immediately be destroyed; man could only approach God if he was purified and his sins were remissed.
After Adam and Eve admitted their sin, God had them cast away from the Garden of Eden. Personally, I am almost certain that not only was the punishment for their sinful choice but also for their own protection. God knew that if they remained in His Presence that His Holiness would smite them because of their sin. I truly believe that the day Adam and Eve left God was one of the loneliest days in His life as well as theirs. However, as we will see God continued to pursue man, in spite of his choice to disobey God.
The construction of the Tabernacle of Israel was the second notable time that God sought to dwell among men. The Tabernacle also represented the establishment of the second covenant between God and man. The Tabernacle was the second dwelling that allowed God to be as close as possible to sinful man without destroying them. God provided them a series of legalistic, specific commandments the Israelites had to follow in order to remain pure before God. These commandments became known as the Law that we read in the Old Testament. Man had to follow God's ordinances *exactly* if he wanted to interact with God on a personal level. Those who followed these ordinances were able to come before God with a sinless heart.
The Israelites carried the Tabernacle with them as they crossed the wilderness as they traveled to their Promised Land. The Promised Land was the land that God had promised to them after He rescued them from Egyptian slavery. Everywhere the people of Israel walked, they carried God's dwelling place with them.
The Tabernacle had to be constructed in such a way that it would separate God and man and yet still allow them to interact with one another. The Tabernacle had to be holy, undefiled, and totally separate from any contact with sin. God provided a "Divine Blueprint" to Moses so that the Tabernacle could be built by His exact specifications. The exact construction of the Tabernacle had special significance in the Eyes of God; every object was directly representative of the salvation of man through the Cross of Christ. These objects testified to the immutable truth that permanent sin remission could only be achieved by the blood of an unblemished sacrifice. The blood of the sacrifice 'covered' and hid man's sins from God so that he could safely enter into God's Presence.
Man could only enter into God's Holy Presence if something divided him and God. The Tabernacle had several barriers that a purified man had to pass through in order to come before God. The most notable of these barriers was the curtain of the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is the part of the Tabernacle where God's very Presence dwelt. Man, the High priest, could only pass through this curtain once a year to offer the sacrificial blood of the sacrifice to remiss Israel's sin. The High priest had to be totally purified and have his sins *totally* covered before entering behind this curtain.
Why did God choose the blood from an unblemished sacrifice to cover sin? Sin makes man 'dead' to God. Blood represents life and the life of unblemished blood was the only thing that would cover the deadness of sin. Every year the high priest would offer a perfect sacrifice to God that would cover the sins of the people. Each time man came before God, an innocent animal had to be sacrificed to cover man's sins. For hundreds of years, God chose the Tabernacle to be His main avenue of fellowship with mankind.
I have always had a hard time dealing with the fact that an innocent animal had to suffer for sin so that man could come before God. I used to think that this practice was barbaric and inhumane. However, I do not believe God enjoyed seeing these sacrifices being offered; it was a necessity if God was going to dwell among man. At the end of the second covenant and in the establishment of the third, we see that God offered the most special part of Himself as a permanent sacrifice for sin remission....the Blood of His Only Begotten and precious Son, Jesus.
The next notable point in history in which God noticeably moved reconcile the lost fellowship with man is when He allowed Jesus to come and give Himself on our behalf. This was the third and final covenant God would establish with man. The second covenant only provided temporary sin remission; the goal of this third covenant was to provide permanent sin remission. Jesus willingly came to sacrifice Himself so that man might be saved. The permanet reconciliation power of the Blood of Jesus did away with the need to offer animal sacrifices for sin remission.
The Bible says, in John 3:16, that "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever would believe in Him would be saved." God allowed His Precious Son to come and suffer a brutal, inexplicable death so that man and God could be reconciled. Jesus was not forced by God to come and die for us; He freely offered Himself. In John 10:15, 17-18, Jesus clearly states that no one was forcing Him to die for us, He willingly gave His life on our behalf. Jesus was the Perfect Sacrifice because He was perfect in all ways. He had no sin. He knew no sin.
He came into our world in human form yet was still God; Jesus was both man and God. Why did He come in human form while still maintaining His Divine Sonship? In order for God and man to be permanently reconciled, a part of God and a part of man had to sacrifically die. In order for God to be reconciled with man, part of Him had to be given on man's behalf. In order for man to be reconciled with God, part of him had to be given on God's behalf. Our precious Savior Jesus fulfilled this criteria perfectly; he was part man and part God.
Jesus was the perfect Substitute because He not only fulfilled criteria of half man and half God, but He was also pure and sinless. How did he stay free from sin since He was 'born' here on Earth? All infants that are conceived between a man and a woman are born with the original thorn of sin in their soul. God Himself performed the impossible miracle of allowing a virgin to conceive and give Birth to Him. If a man had been part of this process He would have had original sin in His heart. But even though He grew inside of Mary, He was separate from her because of the divine conception.
Jesus grew up like we all did. He was the son of God, yes, but He was also a human being but without the curse of sin in His heart. Jesus became a man, He spent the last few years of His life preaching God's True word and opening the hearts and minds of mankind at the time. He said over and over again that He was the only way to reconcile the lost relationship that mankind had with God.
When He finally did give His life for humanity, it had to be in the most brutal way possible. Why? Because God abhors sin so much that it had to die the most violent, painful death possible so that man and God could be reconciled. Not only did sin have to die a painful death, but part of God and part of man had be sacrificed so that the consequences of sin could be permanently, forever paid in full.
Jesus understood this and willingly gave Himself for us. The Bible refers to Him as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Anyone who goes to the Internet and "Googles" articles that explain the actual whipping and crucifixion He endured will understand firsthand how truly heinous, excruciating, and painful His last few hours on Earth where.
Why would God allow His Son to suffer something so awful for us that He knew would happen in the first place? Why did He even bother creating us if He knew that this was what would eventually be the outcome? It all goes back to choice. God made a choice to make mankind with the option to choose. God and Jesus both knew full well going into this that would be the final outcome. The reason that They did allowed everything that has happened between man and God is because They both wanted man to choose to worship Him. Only if man makes the choice to come to God and seek this perfect relationship with Him will the original desire of God's heart be fulfilled.
Truly when the Bible says that God loved mankind so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us, it means it. Personally, I still cannot get my mind around this concept. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He created the heavens and the earth. He created the stars, the heavens, the oceans, all the beautiful things of this Earth. Anyone who looks at nature can see His artistic touch everywhere. Yet the God that is capable of so much care about mankind on a personal level.
Imagine how small we are when compared to the vastness of God. In Psalm 8:4, David asks God, "What is man that You are mindful of him or that You care for him?" We are smaller than a speck of sand on the never-ending seashore of eternity. Our lives are like a vapor, we are here one moment and gone the next. Yet God created us to love us and was willing to allow the most Precious part of Himself, His Son, to die for us. Do you realize that if you were the only person on the face of the Earth, at any time during Earth's history, that would have accepted Jesus.......that Jesus would have willingly given Himself sacrificially on your behalf?? The God Who created each one of us, Who knows our weaknesses and failings, places such value and worth on your life that He allowed Jesus to die in your place so that you could be reconciled to Him.
When I see what the Son of God endured for us (me). I am just floored. He had His back smitten and left in bloody shreds for our healings, He had his beard pulled out by the handfuls, He had a crown of thorns placed on His perfect head and pushed down as far on His head as it would go, He had huge spikes driven through His hands and His feet for our (my) sin remission so that we could be reunited for God.
Remember how the permanent remission of sins could only be obtained by an eternal sacrifice whose blood was still alive? Not only that but a part of man and a part of God both had to shed this blood so that those whose sins were remissed would live? Jesus' Death fulfilled both of these criteria. When His human body had endured such suffering, abuse, horrible and brutal treatment, it died and was buried. If we can note how tragic His physical death was, then we must not neglect to understand how even more tragic His spiritual death.
Not only did Jesus physically die but His "God-ness" died as well that day. In Mark 15:34, we see that He cried out to God saying, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" My personal opinion is that heart-wrenching moment occurred when all of the sins of humanity were piled onto Jesus. God turned His Face away from Jesus at that moment because He could not bear to look upon our sins. Jesus, at that point in time, knew exactly what hell would be like. God only turned away from Jesus for the last moments of His life, but to Jesus it was like an eternity without God. Jesus felt utterly forsaken in every way by God and by mankind.
Do not think for an instant that God just "casually" turned away from Jesus when He had all of our sins placed on Him. I believe His Father endured just as much suffering in that moment that He turned away from Jesus as Jesus did the entire day of His death. I think that God turning away from Jesus like that, just so that His sacrifice would be complete, was the hardest and most unspeakably painful moment in all eternity. Everytime a person chooses not to serve Him or a person dies without Him, He feels this all over again. The way Jesus died shines a whole new light on the verse in John 3:16 that says, "God so loved the world." God loves us so much that He gave us His Only Son, Who meant more to Him than any other, so that we could be reconciled to Him.
Not only did Jesus' death provide permanent sin remission and salvation, it also provided an earthly Tabernacle for God to dwell among man....without any of the barriers of the second covenant. When Jesus died, He cried, "It is finished"; immediatly the separation curtain in the Holy of Holies....the one that separated God and man in the Old Testament Tabernacle....was torn in two from top to bottom (Mark 15:38). Jesus was torn from top to bottom, thereby destroying any spiritual barriers between God and man.
After all spiritual barriers were removed, God permanently inhabited a Tabernacle to dwell in among men. This Tabernacle is the actual human body of a Christian.When we accept Jesus, our bodies become a holy, undefiled dwelling place; His Tabernacle. When we accept the gift of Salvation, Christ then inhabits us; He takes up residency in us. Consider the following verses:
II Corinthians 3 that, "we are inhabiting an ever-increasing Glory b/c the Spirit of Christ is inside of us."
I Corinthians 3:16, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's Temple and that God's Spirit lives in you." I Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Don't you know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit…that you are not your own…you have been bought with a price."
Just like the Iraelites carried the Old Testament Tabernacle, we as believers of Jesus Christ carry the New Testament Tabernacle through the worldly wilderness as we head toward our Promised Land. Where we go, what we do and what we decide reflects back on God. All that we do, think, say, or feel should be exclusively for the Holy Spirit. It is mentioned above that we are brought with a price. The privilege that man now has to be temples of God was brought with the price of Jesus' blood.
One day when we see Jesus Face to face we will have reached our eternal Promised Land. We will no longer have to carry our Tabernacle with us as we travel; we will be in the heavenly Tabernacle that Jesus has prepared for us. John 14:3 says "[Jesus] will go and prepare a place for us so that where He is we might be also." When we reach our heavenly Promised Land we will have the divine privilege of walking with God in the "cool of the day" and enjoying the mutual sharing of our hearts and minds. God and man will *finally* have the eternal, personal relationship that God has always envisioned with each one of us. Selah.
Thank you for reading this blog. May God richly bless you!
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