Yea and Amen
The types and “shadows” of the Hebrew Bible find their substance in the Son of God, Christ Jesus.
The
fulfillment of the promises in the Hebrew Bible is found in Jesus - “In
him” all the promises of God find their “yea” and “amen.” Likewise,
the things “hidden” in the past are now revealed in the life, words,
death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ. The covenant with Abraham is not
abandoned. Instead, it is brought to fruition in Jesus.
“For how many soever the promises of God be, in him, is the ‘Yea’; wherefore also, through him is
the ‘Amen’ unto God.” All
the promises of God are “yea,” that is, reliable and true, and in Jesus
is found their “amen” - their fulfillment.
In the messianic age, the nation of Israel is not
“replaced” by the New Covenant people of God, but the original promise to
Abraham to bless “all the nations” is fulfilled as Jews
and Gentiles are united in Jesus into one new people - (Romans 16:25, Galatians 2:28, 2
Corinthians 1:19-2:0).
In Matthew, Jesus is the promised Messiah who came
to fulfill “all
the Law and the Prophets,” and
fulfillment in him is a key theme threaded throughout Matthew - (Matthew
1:22, 2:15, 2:17, 2:23, 4:17, 5:17-20, 8:17, etc.).
TRUE TABERNACLE
In John’s gospel, Jesus is the true Tabernacle in which the unveiled glory of God now resides. In him,
“grace instead of grace” has arrived. The Law came through Moses,
but “grace and truth came to be in Jesus.” He is the true Temple,
the place where the presence of Yahweh is found - (John 1:14-18, 2:19-21).
Now is the time for the true worshippers of God to worship him “in the Spirit and
truth.” The old limitations of holy space and holy time no longer are applicable,
and debates over where to locate the Temple are pointless.
Likewise, the ancient feasts find their fulfillment and
significance in the Son of God. He is the true “living bread from heaven”
that imparts life; not the manna given by Moses in the Wilderness - (John
6:50-51, 7:37-39).
According to Acts, when Pentecost was “fully
filled up,” the Spirit
was poured out on all the saints who were gathered “with one accord” in Jerusalem.
Peter proclaimed it as the fulfillment of the Spirit promised by the prophets -
(Acts 2:16-21, Joel 2:28-30).
In Galatians, Paul explains how Jesus came to “redeem
us from the curse of the Law; having become a curse in our behalf.” This
was so “the blessing of Abraham should come to the Gentiles.” The
promise was to Abraham and to his “seed,” which is Jesus. The original covenant
always envisioned the inclusion
of the Gentiles, which has now
been achieved in the death and resurrection of the “promised seed.”
FULLNESS OF TIME
Thus, the Law was an interim stage between promise and fulfillment.
The Son came in “the fullness of time” to redeem those who were under the Law; consequently, no longer can there be “Jew or Greek, bond or free, male and female.”
The social and ethnic
distinctions inherent in the Mosaic
Law have no place in the
New Covenant. All who have “put on Christ” are one in him - “Abraham’s
children, and according to promise, heirs” - (Galatians 3:26-29, 4:4-7,
Colossians 3:11).
To return to the observation of “days, months, seasons
and years” required by the Torah amounts to the submission once more to
the
“weak and beggarly elemental spirits”
that previously tyrannized us. That is regression - exchanging the Spirit and
liberty for the death-dealing letter of the Law with its ever-present
curse - (2 Corinthians 3:6-7, Galatians 3:10, 4:8-10, 5:1-3).
God, “in many parts and many ways, long ago, spoke to
the fathers in the prophets; upon these last of days he spoke to us in a Son.”
Before his arrival, Yahweh spoke partially - Here a little, there a little. But
now, He speaks with great finality in His Son. His “word” spoken previously was true, but
promissory, preparatory, and partial – (Hebrews 1:1).
NEW COVENANT
The
priesthood of the Son surpasses and
supersedes the Aaronic priesthood. His death achieved what no animal sacrifice
could ever do. In Jesus, the vastly superior New Covenant arrived, rendering the old one obsolete,
including its priesthood and sacrifices - (Hebrews 8:4-10:18).
He is the “guarantee of a better covenant, one
legislated on better promises.” If the first covenant had been “faultless,”
there would be no need for another. The old system constituted “glimpses and
shadows of the heavenly realities,” mere patterns of the real and permanent
originals - (Hebrews 8:1-7, 9:9-10, 9:23-24):
- “Let no one; therefore, be disqualifying you in eating and in drinking; or in respect of feast or new moon or Sabbath; which are a shadow of the things to come; whereas the substance is of the Christ.” - (Colossians 2:9-17).
All of us were once “dead because of our trespasses
and sins… but God, being rich in mercy… gave us life together in Christ by
grace,” to both Jewish and Gentile believers. Previously, the Gentiles were--:
- “Separated from Christ; alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise; having no hope and godless in the world; yet now, in Christ Jesus, we who at one time were afar off have been made nigh by the blood of the Christ” - (Ephesians 2:1-13).
Jesus is the promised seed of Abraham. In him, both Jews and Gentiles receive their “introduction
in one Spirit to the Father,” and no longer are they “strangers and
sojourners, but fellow-citizens of the saints and members of the household of
God”:
- “He dismantled the middle wall of partition and in his flesh brought to nothing the law of commandments in decrees; that the two he might create in himself into one man of new mold…
- The Church is built on the “foundation of the apostles and prophets; there being for chief cornerstone Jesus Christ himself; in whom an entire building is being fitly joined together growing into a holy Temple in the Lord…a habitation of God” - (Ephesians 2:14-22).
The body of Christ is composed of believers in Jesus who
are now “resident aliens” and “sojourners” in this world, a people
without a national homeland that, nonetheless, possess the incorruptible
inheritance of salvation to be “revealed in the last ripe time.”
In the following passage, Peter strings together appellations
originally applied to Ancient Israel, but now have been inherited by the church
of Jesus Christ:
- “But now, in Christ Jesus, you are the living stones being built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood; to offer spiritual sacrifices well-pleasing to God, through Jesus Christ…
- This honor is to “those who believe,” regardless of ethnicity or gender. In Christ, we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a peculiar treasure,” a people that “at one time were a no-people but now are the people of God” - (1 Peter 2:4-10, Exodus 19:5-6).
Jesus established his church as “a kingdom of priests
for his God and Father.” Creation itself will declare the “slain Lamb worthy”
of all power and sovereignty, because, by pouring out his life, he “redeemed
unto God men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation; and made them
a kingdom and priests unto our God,” a company that, even now, is in the process
of becoming a “great innumerable multitude from every nation” that will
stand before the “Lamb” in the coming New Creation - (Revelation 1:6,
5:10, 20:6, 7:9-17).
Thus, the theme of fulfillment IN JESUS is found throughout the New Testament. In Christ, “all the promises of God are, 'Yea!'; and, in him, 'Amen!'” God defeated Sin, Satan, and Death on Calvary, not on the altar of the Temple in Old Jerusalem.
The “mystery of God” that was hidden in past ages
has been revealed in His Son, especially, in the proclamation of “Christ
crucified” - (Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 2:1-9, 2 Corinthians
1:19-20).
Therefore, since the substance of God’s promises, and the
disclosure of His eternal “mysteries,” are available NOW in
Jesus, and freely so, it is foolhardy in the extreme to return to
the types and shadows of the old and incomplete revelation.
