The Finished Word

Redemption includes our resurrection from the dead and the deliverance of the creation from bondage to sin and corruption . God created all things by His Spirit, including humanity. “ God formed the man of the dust of the earth and breathed upon his face the breath of life .” However, Adam disobeyed God, bringing death not only upon himself but on the entire created order. “ Cursed is the earth because of you! ” – (Genesis 1:2, 2:7, 3:17, Psalm 33:6).

The gift of the Spirit is one of the blessings of Abraham that God promised to bestow on His people through His Messiah . Paul refers to the “ promise of the Spirit ” in his letter to the Galatians. He equates this gift with the blessing of Abraham. Jesus came under the curse of the Law to redeem us, so that now, “ the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith ” – (Galatians 3:13-14).

Through his Death and Resurrection, Jesus founded one new covenant community, One New Man, to whom we are united by faith – Ephesians 2:11-22. The Apostle Paul is uncompromising. Considering what Jesus accomplished on the Cross, no longer can there be divisions between Jews and Gentiles in the community of faith. “ You all are one in Christ Jesus .” By his sacrificial death, Christ “ dismantled the wall of partition ” that kept Jews and Gentiles apart, so “ he might reconcile them both in one body for God through the Cross .”

The faith of uncircumcised Abraham provides an example for Jewish and Gentile believers who live from the faith of Jesus – Romans 4:11-17. God began to implement His plan to redeem humanity by establishing His Covenant with Abraham, starting with the call for the Patriarch to leave his homeland for “ the land I will show you .” Yahweh would produce a “ great nation ” from the Patriarch, and the covenant would bring blessings to all “ the nations of the Earth ,” and the promise of territory was central to it.

Jesus revealed that the presence and worship of God are no longer limited to geographic locations or man-made structures – John 4:20-24. Jesus revealed the proper form and location of the worship of the Father to a Samaritan woman. With the arrival of Israel’s Messiah, concepts and traditions about holy space and holy time are irrelevant. The presence of the Son of God renders the historical debate over the location of the Temple pointless. From now on, worship must be performed in  Spirit and Truth – (John 4:20-24).

The Gift of the Spirit is the First Fruits of the bodily resurrection and the Guarantee of our participation in the coming New Creation . The Apostle Paul presents Abraham as the great model of faith. God counted his faith as “ righteousness ” when he was uncircumcised, which means that God justified the Patriarch apart from the “ works of the Law .” Thus, he became the father of all men who are also “ from faith .” Circumcision was added after the promise as the confirmation of Abraham’s justifying faith.

The man with the mind of the Spirit understands that Christ Crucified, the Word of the Cross, is the Power and Wisdom of God . Overused by the Church and society, the English term ‘spiritual’ has become meaningless. To some, it is synonymous with  religion . To be  religious  is to be  spiritual . To others, it refers to supernatural things not of this physical universe, creatures that are otherworldly, noncorporeal, invisible, and live beyond the realm of time.

Jesus is the herald who announces the Good News and inaugurates the Kingdom, the process that will culminate in the final harvest . Jesus proclaimed the imminence of God’s Kingdom and called men and women to repent and turn away from unrighteousness in response to this new reality. He is the Messiah who inaugurates the redemptive act of God, and this will conclude with the great harvest of souls when Christ returns “ on the clouds of heaven .”

The gift of the Spirit is part of the covenant promises made to Abraham, including blessing the nations of the Earth . The Gospel of Matthew declares that Jesus is the son of Abraham. Thus, this gospel account connects the Nazarene to the Abrahamic Covenant, for the Messiah of Israel came to complete the covenant and all its promises.

With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced . The gift of the Holy Spirit is described as “the promise of the Father” in the New Testament, which connects this gift to the Abrahamic covenant. The promises to Abraham and his seed are fulfilled in the New Covenant inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Spirit is the guarantee that we will inherit all that God has promised.

Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to his people, empowering them to proclaim the Good News of his Kingdom to the Nations of the Earth . The Messiah is identified in the Second Psalm as the Son and King destined to reign over the nations. In the New Testament, he is anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism, equipping him to proclaim the “ Kingdom of God ” to Israel. He gave his disciples the Gift of the Spirit to enable them to announce his message and sovereignty to all the nations and peoples of the Earth.

The Spirit equips and emboldens the Church to bear witness to Jesus, especially concerning his sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead . At the start of the Book of Acts , Jesus told disciples they would be “ baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence ,” and they would “ receive power ” enabling them to become “ My Witnesses to the uttermost parts of the Earth .” Receiving the Spirit equipped his saints to proclaim his message and empowered them to bear witness “ with boldness ” despite opposition.

The jurisdiction of the Mosaic regulations over the covenant community reached its limit with the arrival of Jesus, the Seed of Abraham . Responding to claims that Gentiles must be circumcised, Paul appealed to the common experience of the Spirit received by the Galatians. Did they receive the Gift through a “ hearing of faith ” or “ from the works of the Law ”? Having begun in the Spirit, why did they seek the “ completion ” of their faith based on “ flesh ” rather than the Spirit by submitting to circumcision? In Jesus, believers have reached the end of the Law  “ for righteousness ”  - (Romans 10:4).

The Book of Acts lays stress on the theme of fulfillment . Things foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures were actualized when all members of the young Assembly were “ filled with the Spirit and spoke in other tongues ” on the Day of Pentecost. This was the seminal event that marked the inauguration of the Church, the Age of the Spirit, and the commencement of the Final Harvest.

Peter summoned his audience in Jerusalem to repent and be baptized “ in the name of Jesus Christ .” He concluded his sermon on a note of  fulfillment  and with a  foretaste of things to come . Peter began with a citation from the  Book of Joel , and he finished his message with a clause from the same passage, thus neatly bracketing his sermon.

After healing a lame man, Peter and John were confronted by the priestly authorities. They were disturbed because the Apostles were “ proclaiming the resurrection ,” and the Sadducees among the priests rejected the resurrection of the dead. The Apostles claimed that the final resurrection began “ in Jesus ,” a teaching that made its doctrine distinct and placed the resurrection in the center of the Gospel.

The gift of the Spirit is essential to the identity, mission, and life of the Church. It is foundational to the New Covenant . Jesus commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received “ the promise of the Father .” The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost inaugurated the Church and the last days and equipped the followers of Christ to take his Good News to the nations – (Luk 24:46-49, Acts 1:7-8, 2:1-21).

Jesus is the Word made flesh through whom the glory of God is revealed, the same Word by which God created all things . The  Gospel of John  identifies Jesus as the ‘ Logos ’, the “ Word ” through which God made the Universe. This theme is prominent in John , and it builds on ideas from the Hebrew Bible about how God created the world, and especially life, through His spoken Word. Jesus of Nazareth is the complete living expression of that creative word.

Redemption includes our resurrection and the new creation, and the Spirit is the guarantee of the future inheritance . Paul presents Abraham as the model of faith. God justified him apart from the works of the Mosaic Law because of his faith in the promises of God. Likewise, we are acquitted by God “ through the faith of Jesus Christ ,” his faithful obedience unto death, and through him, we become heirs of the covenant promises– (Romans 3:21-24, 4:10-13, Galatians 2:15-21, 3:5-9).

In his Letter to the Galatians , Paul addressed a growing danger. Certain “ men from Jerusalem ” were claiming that Gentiles must keep the deeds of the Mosaic Law to “ complete ” their faith, or at least, some of them. They were “ compelling Gentiles to Judaize ” by adopting circumcision, calendrical observances, and perhaps the Levitical dietary restrictions. Paul would have none of it.