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In part one of this discourse I began to cursorily investigate and proclaim the nature of God's righteousness insofar as it is revealed to me, and to examine the Good News, commonly called the Gospel. It is easy to rove about when the subjects at hand manifest so many splendid facets to the searcher, but by God's grace I shall continue to do His will.
God disclosed the name YAHWEH (YHWH) when the time to proclaim and execute the LAW was at hand. It was the time HE chose, because HE, the only righteous judge, had planned from the beginning to judge evil wherever it existed, and at whatever cost to Creator and Created. (He knew what the cost would be, too.) Holiness and the process of entering the Godly realm by means of the law revealed the particular name and nature of YAHWEH. It was a quite direct and unambiguous promulgation of cold, hard facts: either one kept the law or one was condemned to die. No appeal to a higher court was possible, because there is no higher.
The Holy Spirit says in Romans 7:1-2, "Do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law, that legal claims have power over a person only for so long as he is alive? For [instance] a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband" (Amplified Bible). I think that's a great "type" and illustration.
God took Israel to Mount Sinai and there she made her vows to be joined to Yahweh -- and He became her husband -- "until death do us part". Israel went astray and became an unfaithful wife, seeking out foreign lovers (strange gods), and even though the marriage was badly broken on the rocks of disobedience she remained bound to Yahweh until DEATH.
God knew when to end that "failed marriage", and He sent HIS SON, A SON IN WHOM HE LIVED, ("It was God, personally present, in Christ..." 2 Corinthians 5.19). HE went to the cross, and DIED. That ended the marriage relationship in the only "lawful" way it could be ended; the "dispensation of Law" ended on the cross, and I believe the use of the name Yahweh ended there, too. When a man dies, the woman is loosed from her husband and she is free to be married to another, AND TAKE A NEW NAME.
Now, read Romans 7.4 in the Amplified Bible, "Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to another, to Him Who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God".
Let us always keep in mind that parables and illustrations are given to make a point, NOT to become definitive theology. Until recently in our society, if Mr. Jones married Mrs. Smith, (widow of Mr. Smith) Mrs. Smith became Mrs. Jones. She was freed from the law of the deceased husband and being joined to Jones she took his name.
Jesus Christ died, was entombed and rose from death, thus ending one order and beginning a new. HE "took away the first, that He may establish the second". The era of the first covenant was FINISHED IN HIM, and He ratified the New Covenant in His blood.
We are free to be joined to Christ, to Him who is raised from the dead, in order that we might bring forth fruit to God -- the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT, through grace, and through faith -- not by the works of the flesh required under the law. Jesus Christ, the true expression of Yahweh (Jehovah) took in to Himself all of the old covenant, brought its power to an end in His DEATH; then out of the grave He rose and brought NEW LIFE IN A NEW MAN, A NEW EXPRESSION OF GOD, and when we are joined to Him, we are participants in common with His Spirit life.
If we carry the former name we witness that we are still being judged by the Old Covenant, and that old covenant is an administration of condemnation and death.
We see Christ ending the Adam-nature to bring in the God-nature just as we see in Christ the ending of the dispensation of the law. So seeing, we enter into the New Covenant, by His Spirit, with the declaration of a new name: "Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it . I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God; and I will also write on him my new name" (Revelation 3.12, NIV). "He says 'I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation (ekklesias = "outcalled"), I will sing your praises'" (Hebrews 2.12, quoting Psalms 22.22).
A special thought concerning the name "Yahweh": In the King James version of the Bible when "Yahweh" appears, the word "LORD" is translated in capital letters. I've already cited the verse where God told Moses, "But by my name YHWH was I not known (to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)". But we find that this name was, in a sense, known throughout all the time of the patriarchs, clear back to Eve, when she said, "I have gotten a man from the LORD" (Genesis 4.1). Why, then, is it said that He wasn't "known" by this name YHWH?
Scholars conversant with the language of the Hebrew Bible tell me that the word "known" is "yada", meaning: "to be perceived, understood, fully grasped by the mentality". So, actually, the name "YHWH" wasn't known so as to be received fully into the consciousness, and experienced. (Many use the name of Jesus Christ and know nothing of its true meaning.) Abraham didn't experience the administration of the law, so he couldn't intimately comprehend the meaning of the name. Yet, revelation by the Spirit allowed him to leap over that time period, and as Jesus witnessed, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8.56). Do you think the Pharisees and Sadducees believed His witness?
When, then, did Abraham see this day of grace and salvation by faith? I don't know for sure, but the revelation could very well have come to him on the mountain where he had prepared his son, Isaac, for sacrificial death, -- according to God's command. Remember? Isaac said to Abraham, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF a lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22.7-8).
Too much has been written and said about the English word "Himself" in the cited verse, and whether it is reflexive, reciprocal, predictive, or appositive, "too many scholars spoil the chowder". The fact remains that God DID provide a "whole burnt offering" -- the ram caught in the thicket. And then, most wonderfully, in another age He provided Jesus Christ and was Himself in Christ. "To wit, GOD WAS IN CHRIST...".
Jesus Christ, very God, became the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Abraham saw and rejoiced!! To him was declared the good news of our salvation long before the advent in Bethlehem, before Golgotha, before the resurrection that has set us free from the law of sin and death. To Abraham was revealed that through his SEED all nations of the earth would be blessed BY FAITH!
If, "By My name YHWH was I not known...", how was such knowledge gained? How did men know God was acting? Psalms 9.16 gives a good answer: "The LORD (YHWH) is known by the judgment which He executeth". When judgments were prophesied against person or nation almost always the prediction was connected with the statement: "They shall know that I am THE LORD (YHWH)". This was because His judgments were designed to plainly demonstrate His Supremacy over other "gods" and so that people would know that Israel's God alone was God, and there was no other God except Him.
Pharaoh, whom God raised up as a vessel of wrath, said, "Who is the LORD (YHWH), that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD..." (Exodus 5.2). He didn't know Him but he certainly got acquainted with His authority, His power, and His judgments when the LORD visited him in the execution of His will!
From the pulpit, from the radio, and from that many-splendored garbage dump of the television kingdom, we hear strident voices of doom and despair crying out for a heavy hand of judgment -- death and eternal torment -- on all who oppose righteousness. It seems that the sacerdotal shamans of this age cannot change men any more than God's prophets could in their age, and since men can't be changed by the ranting and roaring threats of eternal damnation, these poor witlings are quick to say, "Okay, God, remove them, wipe them out; to Hell with 'em"!
Even Jeremiah let God's mercy and omniscience slip his mind:
Righteous art thou, O Lord, that I would plead my case with Thee. Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with Thee: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease? (Jeremiah 12.1).
Or, "Since they won't change, isn't it time for you to exercise your judgments and destroy them completely?"
Perhaps we know the feeling too well, but WE'RE NOT still under the law, and should be wary of demanding the penalty of the law upon mankind.
Pharisees were quick to condemn, and Jesus told them more than once, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice' (Hosea 6.6) for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners" (Matthew 9.13, parenthesis mine). We've not learned this if we are ready to "sacrifice" anything or anyone that doesn't measure up to our standards -- if we sit in law-judgment and condemn them for whom Jesus died.
Truly, Jesus Christ demonstrates the tremendous expression of God, for He HAS NOT condemned but He has come TO and FOR the sinner, because He knows they have no life but His and they are in desperate need of that life.
Bible scholars have served up thousands of sermons and lessons concerning the names of God, and many poor wrights with itching ears have absorbed them and contrived various "doctrines", "processes of becoming", and theological theories silly enough to seriously challenge the ridiculous heathenish and pagan practices of the universe. As an instance: I listened to a lesson (some thirty or more years ago) delivered by a terribly learned lady. The gist of the discourse went something like this: "'Jesus' is a Greek name for 'Zeus', and 'Zeus' in Greek means 'pig' -- so we must cease to call our Saviour "Pig" (Jesus) and call on Him by His Aramaic name: YEHSHUA".
That's not really sad when you consider some of the other foolishness foisted upon God's creatures -- but it is sad when you realize that probably twenty or thirty of the seventy or so listeners to that lesson accepted the claptrap and "amened" and "hallelujahed" the speaker into a state of near ecstasy.
And enough books have been written to fill a leviathan-size library about the subject of God's names. If you study them you'll probably find that, as Omar did, you'll "leave by the same door you came in" -- filled with knowledge about God, but empty of His Spirit.
Why? Because there is a revelation of ALL THE NAMES OF GOD in Jesus Christ; not just one facet -- but all of them -- thus to greater victory -- TOTAL REDEMPTION IN HIM!!
Briefly: "ELOHIM" from the Hebrew "EL" -- which means "strong" or "almighty", and "Alah", meaning "to swear". The combination, a uni-plural word indicating more than one bound together in unity of strength and faithfulness, describes God in covenant relationship with man ratified by an oath. God gives His Word, and He has the strength to carry the oath to completion. Hebrews 7.25 says that He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Jesus Christ.
God made covenant with Abraham and it's still in effect. (See Psalm 105.7-10). That covenant both PRECEDED the giving of the law, and it NOW FOLLOWS the era of the law. Paul wrote that the law was interjected for a time, "added" for a certain period for a definite part of God's processing (Galatians 3.19). The promise to Abraham was that ALL NATIONS (that includes every creature) would be blessed BY FAITH -- by the outworking of the covenant through Jesus Christ. This "covenant", this "promise", the "WORD", was so great that BY AN OATH God spoke it again to Isaac, and when we come to Jacob -- who is a figure of all the seed according to the flesh, our carnality, then God confirms the promise again. But THIS time He confirmed it by the LAW to the community of Israel. The law with all of its ceremony and ritual was a shadow, a type of the GREATER CONFIRMATION TO COME.
For a time the covenant was thoroughly spelled out as LAW, which was "imposed on them until the time of reformation" (Hebrews 9.10). As a shadow or figure of what was to come, God used Jacob, the Supplanter, as representative of Israel and of our flesh, to illustrate the fallen nature. He RENAMED him "Israel" -- taking away his ungodliness -- again in type and shadow. God did this as an indication that the Law would eventually cease, but not the everlasting covenant. As long as one deals with externals, by works, the Law prevails, but as soon as one is lifted to the higher, spiritual plane in Christ Jesus, the PROMISE is renewed and one lives in the EVERLASTING COVENANT.
Jesus Christ declared the covenant relationship of our Father, and our Father's love never changes. Therefore, "the blood of the everlasting covenant" witnesses that ALL MEN are loved with His unchanging love. And Jesus also revealed a NEW depth of the YHWH nature to judge wrong, for "not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son" (John 5.22 NASB). And in another place Jesus plainly states, in John 9.39, "...For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind". HE WAS JUDGEMENT. Wherever He went people were brought face to face with the truth, and their inner state of blindness was exposed and could be corrected. HE IS STILL DOING THAT!!
You recall when the disciples were eager to command fire to come down from heaven to consume some Samaritans, He rebuked them. Some witnesses add "for the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them" (Luke 9.52-56). Whether the latter statement was actually written in the manuscripts isn't important if we keep in mind that Jesus DID come to save men's lives, -- AND HE IS DOING IT!!
Yes -- HE WILL CORRECT -- at great cost to us and to Himself -- but NOT UNTO DEATH -- RATHER UNTO LIFE, for all His judgments are remedial, showing His great mercy in preparing mankind to receive the fullness of HIS life!
So many forget His teaching! In one place Jesus, speaking to unregenerate people still under the Law, said, "But love your enemies, and do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6.35-36).
Jesus said this to men who didn't know Him as Saviour, didn't know of His resurrection and our justification, nor had they experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in their being. But, since God the Father is merciful, Jesus expects all creatures to be so -- in fact, the command is imperative: "BE YE -- merciful".
How much more agreeable is the mandate when the Merciful God dwells in us and changes our weak and wandering nature into His merciful nature, converting our "old man" into the new, so that we can actually do His work!?
I don't believe Abraham understood the YHWH nature of God -- His absolute Holiness, the Law and the Judgment which accompanied the Law, with its death penalty for disobedience, because he didn't live (on this earth) long enough to experience the burden of ritual, of "dos" and "don'ts or else". But Abraham BELIEVED the Most High, and even paid tithes to Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God. Most of all he looked forward in time to the day of Christ, who is "a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5.6 and Psalm 110.4).
Those folk under the old covenant of Law died without mercy. Jesus, our LORD and Saviour, who IS judgment, came declaring mercy. Note well -- He didn't proclaim judgment OR mercy -- because in Jesus Christ we have BOTH, as He brings judgment unto victory and covers ALL with His mercy. The goal of the New Covenant is MORE ABUNDANT LIFE in ONE MAN -- not an incomplete revelation of God or a fragmentary knowledge of His Being. But in Him, ALL FULLNESS IS PLEASED TO DWELL, and He reveals the YHWH nature of GOD: LOVE, with abounding mercy for ALL His creation, not just a few.
He is reconciling all creation to Himself, focused in ONE NEW MAN -- a new creation species that is truly an expression of FATHER-GOD, in the fullness of His nature of Love and Holiness.
So -- some will surely say, "That sounds great -- but how do we, imperfect as we are, enter into this wonderful finished work of God"? The key is to YIELD, place yourself at the Father's disposal, stand ready and open for Him to finish what He has begun -- because He WILL finish it.
He SAID He would.
Surely the gospel is completed in the new man. The Body of Christ, this finished product of God's intention, is subject to all the trials and testing’s that the first Adam experienced and being made perfect, this Body of Christ provides salvation for all.
There are those who like to seal their words or describe a truthful condition with such phrases as "gospel truth"; "that's the gospel"; or "you can take that as gospel", et cetera. The word "gospel" is translated from the Greek "euaggelion" and literally means "well-message". Translated into Anglo-Saxon in the eighth or ninth century it became "godspell" or "goodstory", whence we get our New Testament word "gospel". So, in our Bible any good story or good message is usually translated as gospel, good tidings, glad tidings or good news.
For instance, Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom, (Matthew 9.23, 9.35, 24.13 ff;) all through Matthew's and Mark's witnesses there are records of the gospel of God, heaven, and Jesus Christ being proclaimed. In addition to those proclaimed in the witnesses of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Paul proclaimed "my gospel", (my good story), and preached the good news of peace and the mystery (secret) of the good news.
There are at least eight separate gospels or good news stories proclaimed in the New Testament other than and including some of those cited; -- and they may not even have the word "euaggellion" written:
There's even "another gospel" which is NOT another: (Galatians 1.6-9).
In this exploration I've said a lot about the Promise, the Law and the Gospel -- which are just words until God enlivens them. So, what is the gospel -- the good news?
Let us, first of all, realize that the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't entail any new assessment of men by God, as though justification were previously by the law and now by the gospel. The justification of man is grounded in the divine plan of salvation, and though, perhaps, there might once have been a question of "promise or law" -- NOW salvation has been proclaimed IN Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God dwells in us and is NOW working in all creation, bringing every offspring of the first Adam into the image of the last Adam -- the very image of God. That's the GOOD NEWS!!
That which is corruptible is putting on incorruption, mortal is putting on immortality -- and we are privileged to live in this great day of the revelation of our Father's perfect plan of the ages: JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IS THE GOOD NEWS -- HE FOR WHOM AND IN WHOM AND BY WHOM ALL THINGS WERE CREATED.
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