THE CROSS CHANGED EVERYTHING

[joaniemarie]

It is quite a shock to make this simple statement "THE CROSS CHANGED EVERYTHING" and have many Christians here on CC argue the point. Many argue because they think we are saying we are not reading or considering the old testament anymore. But that is totally not true. We are now able to read it with the revealed Jesus who was once hidden in the pages as the coming Lamb of God and Messiah. Now we read it with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit as He daily reveals Jesus to us and in us.

Many Christians believe that it was all the same before the cross when Jesus died and shed His blood. Many say those in the old testament just looked forward to Jesus and those in the new testament just look back to Jesus. I was taught this way too. It makes perfect sense until we are challenged with some of the obvious differences.

Can we stand to be challenged? We have to be. First off., look at the Holy Spirit after Jesus left the earth. He was not here with the saints of old like He is with the saints today. Back then the HS only came on certain ones God chose. And He came and left them depending on how they obeyed. David prayed "take not your Holy Spirit from me" Back then the believers were not sealed by the Holy Spirit once they were born again...why? because they were not born again.

(many Christians today are praying this prayer in error... they don't know the Holy Spirit is promised in the new covenant never to leave)

Today He comes in every believer at the time of our salvation and we have the promise He will never leave us. Today because of Jesus death on the cross., burial and resurrection we are born again in the Spirit. This did not happen before the cross. Everything changed after the cross. These are just a few things that have changed. And yet so many believers are not jumping up and down in JOY and amazement at what this means.
Instead many get offended when the term "obsolete" is used when describing the old covenant given through Mosses.

The Holy Spirit is not an "it" He is a person. Many Christians don't know this either. Each person in the God head does something different yet they are One God. Amazing and hard to grasp., but true and can be believed through the faith given.

I've only taken a short commentary and posted it below. I challenge those who don't know about this new covenant to consider what is being said here and consider why you have not stepped over into the new covenant.









The cross changed everything
In the moment Jesus died the temple veil was supernaturally torn. It was rent from top to bottom signifying that God was done with the old covenant. The law was a shadow, but Christ is the reality. Jesus is the old covenant fulfilled.

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:13, NIV)

Christ’s perfect sacrifice made the old covenant instantly obsolete. From God’s perspective it had served no further purpose. Yet after Christ died religious Jews continued bringing animals to the temple to be slain in ritual sacrifice.

Imagine how offensive those sacrifices must have been in the eyes of heaven. Each sacrifice declared, “Jesus died for nothing.” Every priest and penitent was essentially saying, “God, your Son’s death means nothing to me.” What an insult! What blasphemy!

Yet no lightning bolts fell from heaven. The ground did not open up and swallow these blasphemers.

Unauthorized sacrifices

Contrast that with what happened to Aaron’s sons when they brought an unauthorized offering into the tabernacle: Fire from God consumed them (Leviticus 10:1-2). Nadab and Abihu died as screaming, burning testimonies to the seriousness of sin. But that was under the old covenant which was no more.

Now in the new covenant, priests who brought unauthorized sacrifices went home unharmed. They didn’t know it but they were living testimonies of God’s grace. Had the old covenant still been in effect, there could have been fire and screaming. There would have been one animal sacrifice and no more. But the old covenant was finished, so unauthorized and blasphemous sacrifices continued for years.

But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:12)

Jesus sat but the Jews stood for there are no chairs in the temple. For forty years they carried on with their religious rituals as though nothing had changed, but everything had changed. This is why God never judged them, not in AD30, nor in AD70.

How could he when their sin had been borne by the Savior they rejected?

 

[loveme1]

GOD changes everything.. and the end will come and it will not be pleasant.. GOD is offering us Forgiveness and Reconciliation through His Son.. as an ultimate act of His Grace, Love and Mercy.. yes the Lord suffered on the cross but the power of is GOD.. in Birth, death and resurrection of His Perfect Son who overcame and through Him we have Victory.. to be Redeemed and receive everlasting life..

The New Covenant Which is an agreement that we enter in through Repenting and Believing.. and doing what the Lord Teaches...

It is to live by Faith..

Now you should consider this:

Acts 5

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, 2And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 5And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. 6And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.
7And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. 8And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. 9Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. 10Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. 11And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.


So without fear mongering we must realise that GOD is not giving a free pass to do as we will.. but His Grace is to be free at liberty to Keep the Royal Law when we have been born again of the Holy Spirit through Faith..

Let us not create a belief system that lacks Repenting.. if we trespass let us ask for forgiveness as we forgive those that trespass.. like the Lord taught through the Prayer we are given.

 

[OneFaith]

They continued to practice the old covenant which is now obsolete, but they were not saved, and God did punish them. He took away their right to be God’s people by physicality, and He had the Gentiles attack their city.

The Old Testament will always be part of the Bible until Jesus returns. We need it even though we are not under its covenant. Without it, how can we understand how the physical representations reveal the spiritual meanings in the New Testament? How would we know of our beginning? How would we understand that Jesus is the son of David if we don’t know who David is?

God may not leave us, but it is possible for us to leave Him and thus lose our salvation- such as a prodigal son who dies before returning to the Father, one who grieves the Holy Spirit by not wanting to be Holy, one who uses grace as a license to sin, and one who has tasted and known that God is good, yet leaves His truth to practice a false religion.

Yes, the gospel changed everything. It split time in half- BC and AD. It gave us a reason to correctly divide the Word- Old Testament / New Testament. Those of Old who had their sins postponed until the cross are established in justification. And we are no longer under Moses but under Christ. We no longer obey God’s laws physically but spiritually. For the old way has been nailed to the cross forevermore.

 

[joaniemarie]

What???