Monday, January 5, 2015

When did the Old Testament stop? When did the New Testament begin?

These questions about the two covenants are often misunderstood, overlooked, dodged, or even disputed in our modern religious world. Why are they so questionable? What does the Bible really teach about the answers to these questions. Why is this subject about the difference between the Old and New Testaments so important? What difference does it make?

“It makes a lot of difference”. Under Grace we become members of Christ’s body. Under Law they didn’t because the body of Christ the Church had not come. Saints under Grace are united with God through personal forgiveness and redemption from the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. Forgiveness and redemption came through Israel’s final sacrifice.This final sin offering was the man, Christ. The Lamb of God that redeems people from their personal sins. Jesus was Israel’s final sin offering. Israel’s Temple was destroyed in 70AD. The Church was purchased and birthed through shed blood of Christ. The Comforter came as Christ promised the Spirit would come.

Under the New Testament…saints of God have a greater blessing called Grace. Saints of God under the Law of Moses and before were under Old Covenant relationships. Today under the covenant of Grace (in the Church)…Jesus sent us another Comforter from the Throneroom. This Comforter was something Old Testament saints never had and never experienced under the blessing of the Law of Moses and prior.

So, when did the Old Testament stop? When did the New Testament begin? At Calvary when Jesus (the lamb of God) became Israel’s final sacrificial offering to God.

Hebews 10:5-10…Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and [sacrifices] for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and [offering] for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure [therein]; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all].

Learn the Bible from the perspective of knowing when the Old Testament stopped and the New Testament began. Make the distinction between the Old and the New Testament. Don’t mix everything up. Live with the power of God’s Divine Grace that flows from Calvary. See it in the Bible. Rightly divide the truth of God’s Word. Christ not only forgives…He also gives us a better life. That better life is the blessed life of living with the power of God’s Grace every minute, every hour, and every day. A New Testament saint has a greater blessing because it comes from the person of Christ within. Grace flows from Calvary. Grace keeps the Comforter present in our lives. Grace is where the Church and all spirtual gifts come from.

These gifts never ceased at the Early church. These gifts are blessings of the New Testament we now live under. Jesus said greater blessings than these would come because He went back to the Father. Glory! We now have greater blessings! Because the Old Testament stopped and the New Testament began.

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