THE Gospel of Christ, the Grace of God, the Good News of Jesus Christ or the Glad Tidings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ dispense life not death, faith not fear.
Devotion Column: Erasmus Makarimayi
Apostle Paul instructs in 2 Corinthians 3:6, “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
We, therefore, don’t live in fear and condemnation. There are many Bible verses that have been used to cage believers through incomplete interpretation.
Many have been told that heaven is for a very few. Romans 3:23 is mischievously used to buttress their threats.
It reads: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Just a verse later, Grace explains in Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” Please read the following foundation before I explain further.
Jesus came under the law or during the subsistence of the Old Testament to meet its demands and fulfil its requirements.
The Old Testament is a covenant of demands. This covenant only became the old because a new and better one had come.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The old one is the one by which God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Hebrews 8:9 explains, “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”
In this dispensation of grace, don’t be tied to a covenant done away with.
The Old Testament consisted of demands carrying blessings for obedience. Trespass brought punishment.
At its inception, the Israelites had promised obedience which they failed to do.
Exodus 24:3 & 7 record: “[3] And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. [7] And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.”
With one voice, the people promised obedience, but dramatically transgressed; as they say, even before the ink on the agreement had dried up.
God would later remark of the disobedience of the people in Jeremiah 7:23-24, “[23] But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. [24] But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.”
It became necessary for Jesus to come to meet the demands and fulfill the requirements.
Hebrews 10:7 & 9 make it so clear, “[7] Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. [9] Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
The only one capable of fulfilling the law was Jesus. So He came and did exactly that and in so doing He took away the first (Old Testament) to usher in the New Testament.
It’s, therefore, the obedience of Jesus that qualified us. He boldly declared in John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Sin came through one man, Adam. One Man, Jesus Christ, brought us to obedience.
Romans 5:19 puts it, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
These are the finished works of Jesus Christ, the Grace of God. The Old Testament is doing, the New Testament is what is already done.
The Old Testament is knowing and doing, the New Testament is knowing and believing.
We don’t reinvent the wheel and we don’t suffer double jeopardy.
We partake of the grace of God freely and unapologetically. We’re saved by one man’s obedience, the man Christ Jesus. He took us and continues to take any comers from death to life. Ephesians 2:1 (NKJV), clarifies, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.
lAll Bible quotations are from the King James Version unless otherwise stated.
lFeedback: [email protected] Fellowship with Pastor Makarimayi on Facebook and on www.twitter.com/PEMAKARIMAYI. Telephone +263 712 332 632
