Sabbatarian asked: “If the Sabbath was kept in the Old Testament and it will be kept in the Millennial Kingdom, why do Christians say the Sabbath is not relevant in the New Covenant?”
The Sabbath that will be celebrated in the Millennial Kingdom is the Sabbath given Israel’s children beginning in Exodus 16 i.e., the OLD Covenant. The Millennial Kingdom will host elements of the Old Covenant’s sacrificial requirements as the Millennial Kingdom will glorify our resurrected Messiah as He will be given the Kingdom denied Him at His First Advent.
Neither the Old Covenant or its celebration and fulfillment in the Millennial Kingdom are relevant concerning the New Covenant of Grace. In the New Covenant, those redeemed by faith in Jesus, are not under law, days, diets, traditions, clothing mandates, but the “law” in the New Covenant is the spiritual law (Romans 2:14-15) that has been written upon the heart of human kind beginning on Day 6 of Creation as human kind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim and thereby received certain divine communicable attributes from Elohim that separated Adam from the beasts of the field.
This spiritual law, in the New Covenant, is enlivened by the indwelling Holy Spirit who walks the redeemed in Jesus in daily Christian sanctification and through His anointing, He produces divine fruit (Galatians 5:15-23) through the redeemed and this fruit fulfills all law; both, codified and spiritual, and this fruit pleases the Father and proves one to be a faithful disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
In the New Covenant, the redeemed are not under the laws, days, diets, traditions, of Sinai or Moses (Romans 6:14) and in the New Covenant, the redeemed honor the Sabbath’s intent through faith in Jesus who is the fulfillment of all the Sabbath Day foreshadowed.
Snake Oil sales pitch: “Faith that saves includes obedience.”
Incorrect. Faith saves through grace (unmerited favor), a gift that even obedience cannot earn. Once faith, belief, is established in Jesus and redemption is present via the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), the redeemed having been “born again” (John 3; 2 Corinthians 5:17) they naturally begin to produce divine (Galatians 5:16-23) fruit via the anointing and sanctification of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
This production of fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) is what pleases the Father and proves one to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8), but obedience is NOT an element of salvation, faith/grace are.
Obedience that pleases the Father is the production of divine fruit via the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit that FOLLOWS salvation by faith, alone. When your faith “includes” obedience for salvation, you’re a religious cult as you negate the sufficiency of Jesus’ blood to atone for your sin apart from works/obedience. Your selling snake oil, I’m not buying.
In closing, it’s very important to remember that your works, your obedience, as strategies to please the Father and earn your forgiveness, this is self-righteousness and the Father considers your works for self-righteousness as a “filthy garment” (or in the Hebrew – a bloody menstrual cloth) (Isaiah 64:6).
We don’t work, strive to keep laws, be obedient, to be saved, it’s a gift of grace (unmerited favor) from the Father earned for us by Jesus at Golgotha. A Christian works because the indwelling Holy Spirit arbitrates the spiritual law written upon their heart during daily Christian sanctification and thereby produces fruit through them, this is Christian obedience in the New Covenant and that divine fruit fulfills all law that governs obedience.
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Romans 3:23: Relevant for Jacob’s children only or all of Adam’s seed?
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Every human being from Adam forward has been “under law”…simply because Israel received a “codified” version in stone and etched on parchment from Moses does not negate that the Gentile has been under law subsequent Day-6 when human kind was created in the spiritual image of Elohim who infused certain divine communicable attributes into human kind thereby differentiating them from the beasts of the field. One of those communicable attributes was the spiritual law, written upon the heart as an arbiter of the human conscience thereby thwarting human extinction via unrestrained narcissism; the spiritual law also judged Satan of covetousness, and that same law judged the Adamic and Noahic generations of blasphemous demonic behavior culminating in The Flood as judgment.
One violation of the Law, codified or spiritual, makes one guilty of violating all law (James 2:10)…this is relevant for Jacob’s children as well as all of Adam’s seed.
Theological conundrum? No one but the Father knows the Day of the end of the Age of Grace? Why not the Son or the Spirit? Are they not all coequal in deific attributes?
The Father is the Administrator of the Trinity and the Creation narrative and its reason for being; therefore, the Son and the Spirit honor the Father’s authority concerning that Day, why?
That Day, the end of the age of grace, remains fluid as free will remains essential in this temporary Realm of Time as it has always been essential and integral in the Spiritual Realm.
The Father desires that “all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4) and the Father has a predetermined number of men and women who will come to faith in the Son, not a predestination of individuals or choice, but a free will inspired number of men and women who will come to faith in the Gospel and when that particular number is fulfilled, the end of this age of grace will have been fulfilled…the Father is patiently awaiting for that number of redeemed to enter into New Covenant relationship with Him via faith in the Son; this specific number can be theorized to equate to the number of angelic creatures who followed Satan in the great Rebellion; this, as we know our creation abhors a vacuum and there is a consistent striving for a vacuum/void to return to a state of stasis; therefore, when the number of fallen angelic beings has been replenished by the redeemed in Jesus, the end of this age of grace will reach a conclusion and a unique dispensation of works and grace will manifest in the Millennial Kingdom; an era of personal and corporate sacrifice and adoration given the resurrected Son who will receive the Kingdom denied Him at His first Advent; this, as the Evil One is placed in custody and denied access to Human Kind for 1000-years.
Finally, concerning the signs of the end of the age of grace prefacing the Millennial Kingdom?
Elohim has repeatedly told His faithful that if one desires to know where He is positoned concerning eschatology, always watch His people, the children of Jacob, in the Land that He has granted them through Abraham, the Land of Israel.
It is relevant for the faithful to understand that before that Day will manifest, there will be nuclear proliferation in the Middle East via the efforts of Islam and Islam’s allies; namely, Russian and China.
There will be an exponential increase in anti-Semitism, with an emphasis of Jewish/Israeli hatred in the West; ultimately, Israel will be perceived as the genesis and causation of the World’s woes and problems. The West will have been made impotent militarily, ethically and monetarily due compromise with Satan’s Marxist perversions.
Representatives of the Axis of Evil, Islam-Russia-China, will stage outside of the City of Jerusalem and a limited nuclear event will manifest; that nuclear event pictured in Jesus’ Revelation to John; this will trigger Messiah’s return to Mount Olivette. It is at that Time that the Nations who have warred against Israel will be destroyed. The entirety of Israel’s children will see their Messiah and believe. Our Messiah will enter through the currently walled-off Eastern Gate and initiate His Millennial Reign from the City of Jerusalem. MARANATHA!
Your spiritual misunderstanding is mind boggling considering that your rejection of Jesus as God, Deity, proclaims your status as unredeemed, remaining in your sin (John 8:24).
I don’t suggest that understanding the necessity for Messiah’s deity is an element of salvation but I will profess that once one is redeemed by faith in Jesus and has received the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor and the Seal of New Covenant promise (Ephesians 1:13-14), they will KNOW and they will openly confess that Jesus is God/Elohim who is Creator, Warrior, Messiah and Judge; this, because the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13-15) testifies of Jesus’ Deity and the necessity for same.
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am “He,” you will die in your sins.” John 8:24 (NASB)
In John 8:24, the word “he” is added by translators. While English Bibles (like the NIV or KJV) use “I am he,” the original Greek simply says “I am” (egō eimi). This directly mirrors the divine name used in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14), with Jesus claiming equality with God.
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” John 8:58 (NASB)
Again: the original Greek says “I am” (egō eimi). This directly mirrors the divine name used in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14), with Jesus claiming equality with God.
The Jewish audience and their religious leadership clearly understood Jesus’ proclamation of Deity and sought to murder Jesus by stoning; ultimately, charging Jesus with “blasphemy” and handing Him over to Pilate, Herod, for execution.
Your initial error is failing to understand the context upon which Hebrews 1, John 1, Colossians 1, are based; that is, Jesus in His hypostatic union as fully man and fully Elohim. Jesus has enjoyed coequal glory and omnipotence and omnipresence with the Father and the Spirit from Eternity past; this, before the World was created (John 17:5). When the Father speaks of the Son as the “firstborn” and “begotten” and having been “appointed” and “sit at my right hand”…the Father is speaking of the unique position of the eternal God-Man, Jesus our Messiah, unique to all of Eternity and Jesus will continue in this unique positioning as the “firstfruits” of those resurrected from the dead with a glorified body…the same type of body the saints in Jesus will receive at the resurrection of the righteous.
The Father is speaking in terms of a resurrected Messiah who had previously set aside many of His deific attributes in order to take on flesh, subject Himself to the constraints of Time and physics and rely solely upon the Holy Spirit for power and miracles and conquering Satan at Golgotha (Luke 4:1; 1 John 3:8). It is this same Jesus that the Father is glorifying for OUR benefit demonstrating the power of obedience and honor and dignity displayed by the Son who will reign King forevermore. King in the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom, the New Jerusalem.
You assume that the Father’s delineation of authority somehow suggests Jesus is a lesser being than the Father but this is not true or accurate. Jesus has never been a lesser Deity than the Father as Jesus is the same yesterday, today, forever (Hebrews 13:8). I’m not sure what cult or sect you’ve involved yourself in, perhaps the cult of the Jehovah’s Witness, but you are far from the Kingdom. You might have a nice little religion but you and yours don’t know Jesus.
What is “Substitutionary Atonement” provided by Jesus our Messiah?
Substitutionary Atonement is first pictured for human kind in Genesis 3:21 subsequent Adam’s compromise with evil, disobedience, at the behest of his wife, Eve.
Elohim, Himself, shed innocent blood and clothed Adam and his wife, Eve, the representatives of human kind, in an imputed, gifted, robe of righteousness in order to cover their sin and shame while Elohim simultaneously rejected Adam’s vain attempt at self-righteousness, works, to cover his own shame via the application of fig leaves. This is the first picture of the Gospel of Grace in Scripture.
Genesis 3:15 prophesies that One would come from the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man which carries and passes the Adamic sin-nature (Romans 5:12), and this anointed One would enter into conflict with Satan and defeat Satan. Genesis 3:21, as noted above, was to be the “battle strategy” by which the Anointed One, born of the seed of the woman, would defeat the works of Satan; that is, shedding innocent blood and thereby providing blood atonement for the covering of sin for all who would believe that Messiah had accomplished this divine imperative.
The Mosaic Law of blood sacrifices (Leviticus 17:11) modeled this prophecy where a spotless lamb would be slain for the sins of Israel’s children in recognition of the “Passover” where the blood of a lamb was painted on the door posts and lintel signaling to the “death angel” to “pass over” that home and spare the first born child which essentially freed the Hebrew slaves in Egypt.
These prophecies all came to fruition 4000-years subsequent Genesis 3:21 outside the Gates of Jerusalem in a place called “Golgotha” or “the place of the skull.” It was here that Jesus, “the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World” (John 1:29) offered Himself as a substitutionary “blood atonement” for the sin of mankind (Matthew 26:27-28).
The focus of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that anyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah who died, who shed His innocent blood, for the atonement of their sin, the forgiveness of their sin, the one so believing receives eternal life (John 3:16)
We know that “nothing impure is permitted to enter the Kingdom of God” (Revelation 21:27) and we are commanded to be perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). We also know that no one can be perfected by vain attempts to keep the Laws or traditions or days or diets of the Old Covenant because one violation of the Law makes the transgressor guilty of violating all Law (James 2:10); therefore, how does one born of Adam’s sin-nature (Romans 5:12) find “perfection” and acceptance by God/Elohim the Father?
Answer: Substitutionary Atonement
The Holy Spirit explains how one attains perfection in the Father’s eyes in Paul’s letter to the Church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 5:21). When one believes that Jesus is Messiah who died for them, the Father imputes, gifts, the righteousness and perfection of Jesus over their life, eternally, and the Father agrees by New Covenant promise (Hebrews 8:12) to remember their sins no more; in other words, the Father promises to not see the sins of those who have trusted in Jesus as Messiah, the Spotless Lamb without sin, but the Father only sees the Son’s perfection over them and the Father declares them “not guilty” and welcomes them into the Family of Elohim while Sealing and Guaranteeing this divine promise through the gifting of the indwelling Holy Spirit, forever (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Christians, believers in Jesus as Messiah, are gifted the righteousness of Jesus over their life by Covenant promise thereby making the believer positionally “perfect” in the Father’s eyes, not by works, or efforts, strivings, of the Christian but as a Gift of Grace through Faith in the divine, spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ our Messiah (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Innocent substitute. Replaced fig leave of human righteousness.
If you have denied the love of Jesus and turned your back on His death for your redemption, you do NOT belong to the Father (1 John 2:23), you are NOT family and the ONLY prayer of a belligerent sinner that enter the Father’s presence for consideration is a prayer of repentance and faith in Jesus as your Messiah; otherwise, until divine relationship is established with the Father by faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit takes up residence within you as the Seal and Guarantor of New Covenant promise (Ephesians 1:13-14), your prayers are impotent as you belong to Satan and you serve Satan with your heart, mind, soul, you are an obstinate enemy of the Gospel and the will of Elohim concerning His war with the demonic (John 8:44). It is the one who does God’s will that He hears and responds too (John 6:29).
James 5:16 The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Proverbs 1:28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD,
When was salvation founded, Old Testament or New Testament? Who founded it?
Salvation via the Gospel of Peace was founded “before Time began” but is first prophesied in Genesis 3:21 as Elohim, Himself, would shed innocent blood to clothe human kind in a gifted, imputed, robe of righteousness while simultaneously rejecting the works of man’s hands (fig leaves) to cover sin and shame.
Legalism is hypocrisy; that is, insisting that another strictly abide by laws, rules, regulations, when they them self fail to obey those same rules. In theology, legalism is the enemy of the Gospel as legalism insists one must obey laws and edicts and rules and traditions in order to establish a relationship with Elohim when Elohim has clearly told human kind that relationship with Him is established by faith, not works; that is, faith in Jesus as one’s Messiah (John 14:6)…we trust in the “work” of Jesus for us at the Cross and not in our own efforts or “goodness” to earn favor with Elohim.
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Are you a Christian? What are two “signs” of a true Christian and disciple of Jesus?
If you’re truly “born again” (John 3:3), the Holy Spirit that indwells you and is your Guarantor of New Covenant relationship with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14) will daily guide you in sanctification (a setting apart) from the World system of demonic rebellion (Galatians 5:16). This is but one sign that you are truly “born again” and belong to Jesus…YOU WILL produce divine fruit that glorifies the Father and confirms your eternal status as Jesus’ disciple; therefore, if you hold yourself out to be a Christian but this divine fruit is not present (Galatians 5:16-23), you have every right and obligation to reconsider the veracity of your relationship with the Father…no fruit, no desire for fruit? You’re not in divine relationship.
Remember, we don’t “work” or produce divine fruit to be saved or earn our salvation BUT we produce divine fruit because we are saved by grace through faith and the Spirit produces fruit through us via daily sanctification (Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9).
The second sign of true New Covenant relationship is your response to this question: Is Jesus God/Elohim/Eternally who became flesh to provide you blood atonement for your sin? If your answer is yes, the Holy Spirit indwells you; if your answer is NO, you belong to the Devil and you are Satan’s servant, NOT the servant of Jesus and you’re absent the Holy Spirit (John 8:24).
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 