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The meat of the word, part 5

Under the Old Covenant, no man could be saved, because it was based on man’s vow to God, which no man has been able to keep perfectly, with the single exception of Jesus Christ. Even if, somehow, a man were able to keep his vow, his prior sins also doomed him to be judged, because he could never do enough good works to pay for past sins.

Fortunately, God knew this in advance and made provision for a New Covenant, one which was based solely on the promise of God to be “the Savior of all men, especially of believers” (1 Timothy 4:10). That promise, of course, depends upon His ability to do what He promised. So Abraham was “fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform” (Romans 4:21). Abraham had faith in God’s ability. The sin of man, no matter how egregious, could not overwhelm God and force him to lose most of creation to the fires of hell.

Death is not a Deadline for Salvation

Yet God has not been willing to give immortality to anyone who is yet corrupt. He intends to save them all by faith in Christ, and this means that everyone will have Abrahamic faith—if not in this life, then certainly in the afterlife. Death is not an impediment to the fulfillment of God’s promise. Unfortunately, many have been taught incorrectly the meaning of Hebrews 9:27, 28,

²⁷ And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, ²⁸ so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him.

Just as men die once prior to the judgment, so also Christ died once and “will appear a second time for salvation.” The parallel is that men too, having died once, will be raised up in a second life (i.e., the afterlife) “for salvation.” Hence, death is not a deadline for salvation any more than Christ’s death was a deadline to save mankind. To say otherwise is an absurdity.

Men die once prior to being raised to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Yet this says nothing of their ability to be justified by faith at their time of their judgment. In fact, when they are confronted by the great Judge, how will they not see the truth and repent of the sins in their past life? That is the point when “every knee will bow… and that every tongue will confess [exomologeo, “profess, thank, acknowledge openly and joyfully, agree fully”] that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10, 11).

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1843/nasb95/mgnt/0-1/

Paul words it a little differently in Romans 14:11,

¹¹ For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise [exomologeo] to God.”

Will there be no benefit to them when they profess Christ? Will such a profession be forced from unwilling lips just so that God can say, “See, I won; now all of you go to hell”? No, Paul described a scene of praise, where sinners were openly and joyfully agreeing with God and thanking Him for fulfilling His vow (“As I live”) and not casting them away.

Paul tells us that they will freely profess Christ, declaring Him to be Lord. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” So if these sinners profess that Jesus is Lord, it is done “by the Holy Spirit.” I believe this means that those sinners will not only be justified by faith but will also be filled with the Spirit.

Therefore, when they are sentenced to “the lake of fire,” which is the judgment of God’s “fiery law” (Deuteronomy 33:2 KJV), the law will sentence them to serve under the authority of an overcomer who Christ assigns to be their redeemer. This is how the overcomers “reign with Christ” (Revelation 20:6). They reign over the former sinners who have professed Christ but are in need of spiritual training and purification by the baptism of fire (Matthew 3:11).

Keep in mind that most of those sinners lived in places where the name of Jesus was totally unknown. They never had an opportunity to know Him and the sacrifice that He made for them on the cross. Will God cast them away just because the missionaries failed to reach them until the 1800’s? God forbid!

The Old Covenant is Obsolete

Fortunately for all of us, the Old Covenant was replaced by a better covenant. Hebrews 8:13 says,

¹³ When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Unfortunately, many still cling to the Old Covenant, thinking that they can be perfected by self-discipline. Many try, only to discover that they fail. Some try even harder to the point of fanaticism, but they are unable to change their own heart. The Old Covenant demands perfection and perfect obedience without giving men the ability to do so. God allows them to continue trying in order that they may see the inadequacy of the flesh. In their despair, their hearts are prepared to receive the gospel, the good news of the New Covenant, by which God works from within the hearts of men by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is not a repudiation of the law itself. The law remains the standard of righteousness, because it is a reflection of the nature of God. As the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, our nature begins to change, and the sins that bound us begin to fall away naturally. We then act lawfully, which is to be conformed to His image, not because we tried harder but because we no longer have a desire to sin. But this does not happen all at once.

Those who impose laws upon us from the outside make demands based on the Old Covenant. This is legalism, a religious system that makes demands without giving them a change of heart. The truth is that the Old Covenant has become obsolete, and mankind must find a new way. This new way is the meat of the word.

A New Way

Hebrews 9:1-7 then describes the old way of approaching God through the tabernacle with its vessels and its daily sacrifices for sin. It concludes in Hebrews 9:8,

⁸ The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing.

Now this was written while the temple in Jerusalem was “still standing,” for it was not destroyed until August of 70 A.D. The true path to God—“the way into the holy place”—is revealed to men after the temple was destroyed. For believers prior to this, they must reject the temple and its Old Covenant forms in order to see the new and greater path to God under the New Covenant.

Today many Christians believe that a third temple will be constructed on the site of Solomon’s temple, so that Christ may inhabit it (after expelling the Antichrist!) and renew all of the Old Covenant sacrifices through a Levitical priesthood. If they were to do this, it would simply reinforce their Old Covenant dependence and hide the way into the holy place.

The meat of the word is hard for many to handle, because the Old Covenant yet rules their hearts. Hebrews 9:11 says,

¹¹ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation.

New Covenant believers have shifted their focus from beautiful buildings made of wood and stone to “the greater and more perfect tabernacle,” which is the temple in heaven (Revelation 15:5). This is the temple of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city that Abraham sought—and which we too must seek if we desire to be New Covenant believers.

I do not know if the Israelis will succeed in building the third temple, but I believe that if they do so, it will trigger a nuclear war that will demolish it again and render the city and the whole land uninhabitable. Those who believe that God will reinstate a physical temple along with its sacrificial system will be shocked when their aspirations explode in their faces. They need to go back to the milk of the word and then come to understand the meat set forth in the book of Hebrews.