No More Remembered (P2)

Part 2: obligation and possession

The Holy Bible is a record of God’s interaction with men; the Old Testament of foundation, hope and promise, which points to the Christ. The New is the fulfilment of that promise through God made flesh, and the reconciliation of sin through the Blood of Remission. It is a story of love and concern under the mantle of Mercy and Grace.

When people are asked why Jesus came the answers are often quite vague; when Jesus was asked, His answer was clear: my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work. (John 4:34)

And so: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1Timothy 3:16)

Now, the debate on sin is enduring; one part has its origin in the schedule of sin fixed by the Roman Church; another in the rolling discussion of faith over works. Both are distractions, which obscure the work of Christ, causing blindness to the root of sin and ignore its progenitor. Eve did not eat an apple; Pharaoh did not fail through weakness; they had one thing in common, they failed to believe. It is time in detail at the expense of what’s relevant, which distracts us from God’s pledge about the forgiveness of sin in its fullness. So let’s look at what was said of the Christ and His purpose.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

The auxiliary verb ‘shall ’appears three times in this sentence.  It is used to underline something that will occur or exist in the future; also to describe an order, promise, requirement or obligation. Mary gave birth to a son as promised, and their requirement to name him JESUS was fulfilled. The second part of Gabriel’s statement relates to the self-imposed obligation of the LORD for the removal of sin as declared in the Prophets, now upon His physical form of promise. Bear in mind, Isaiah said Jesus was God with us (Immanuel: Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23) and Paul wrote

God was manifest in the flesh.

The next day, John sees Jesus coming to him and said, ‘behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ (John 1:29)

The intransitive verb ‘take:’ To get into one’s hands; possession of; to have power over; to capture, seize, remove, secure, defeat; to receive into one’s body; to move against; to acquire by authority.

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His Grace: (Eph 1:7)

And lastly the intransitive ‘have:’ to possess as a trait; to hold; to own; a feature or constituent part: and the noun ‘forgiveness’ in the context of Paul’s statement: pardoned; released from; the state of being forgiven; absolved; free of or from: assurance that true believers enjoy mercy as an integral feature of their faith and being.

And so, in the announcement from the Angel Gabriel, and in the declaration from John the Baptist we find Jesus under obligation through proclamation and pledge to capture sin; to remove it, secure and defeat it. The reason is reconciliation: the cleaning of a divided house to delete Satan’s barrier between God and men. Thus, Jesus came to rectify our fallen state so we can be free of blame and debt, to take what we cannot remove. His is the Kingdom, the Power to defeat sin, and the Glory of righteousness where sin has no place. It has been cast down to the earth where it will remain among men, until repentance is sought.

End of part two…