The Old Testament was the beginning of a journey for restoration. We can look at it even as a issue for Justice. Being that we were created for union with God the act of separation was unjust. This was not only for us but for God Himself who suffered the injustice of separation.
Justice is the restoration of our original place and purpose which was to walk in intimacy with our Creator.
The Old Testament is commonly seen as the law. When Moses had an encounter with God it was a token of what God was inviting the entire children of Israel into. The Israelites were full of fear, fear of death, fear of the unknown..(PS when you bow to fear of death over fear of the Lord you'll always put God in a box) being in that mode of self-preservation they decided that they didn't mind the token (Moses) being the poster child for their people. They wanted laws and rules, a list to be able to check off instead of intimacy. Control of the relationship was their highest priority because if they could control how they related to God then in essence they could predict the behavior of God Himself. Law over relationship will always lead to your god looking just like you.
Imagine the struggle in the heart of the Lord, "How can my people not want to encounter me?
Why are they so afraid of intimacy with me?"
But in true God fashion the story continues. He met the children of Israel by their rules because the desire to connect with His people outweighed the need to meet them on His terms..Do you think that God wanted to meet His children through rules?
So the pursuit continues..God meeting man on his own terms. Man saying you're too big and too scary so give me rules so that we can control the relationship. God thinking, "I'll take this over having no relationship."
All the while knowing that He has a perfect bridge. The one who would bring Justice through a perfect sacrifice.
Here comes along the New Testament, commonly thought of as the new convenient. Grace over law...Law being truth but Grace being a truer truth. Grace being law perfectly fulfilled that now made way for intimacy.
Wait! How does law just disappear in the face of this sacrifice? What value is higher than law? Well covenant of course! Covenant relationship will always trump law relationship!
God knew the heart of man before man knew the heart of man. Because God wanted to be vulnerable He allowed humans to dictate the terms on which we would have relationship. There was always the Jesus plan.
After the human race became so law bound God released the covenant plan. Kind of like a secret agent with an undercover mission, He released His son.
It was this perfect, beautiful sacrifice that would bridge the dark caesium that separate God and man, Jesus the bridge. It introduced a whole new concept, not only for man but all the demonic forces that stood in anxiety, knowing that God was up to something but not sure what. The demonic realm knows that their days are numbered but Jesus wasn't in their plan..so when the son of God showed up they were miffed to say the least..that's why the demons would say "You're the Son of God!" Jesus would basically tell them to shut up..they weren't expecting Him.
They were nervous because they were expecting big booming clouds, lighting's, armies of heaven but instead they got a baby. Now their look on life shifted, why was the son of God here without His entourages?
Here God knew the perfect way to receive justice for mans' separation. It was to give back to us our original authority and to give us a new covenant. Notice that God didn't force us into compliance..He didn't make us come into a relationship after Jesus paid for the law. The first thing that the Lord did was give us choice, He gave us back our glory, authority, and place as co-heirs with Christ. Crazy!! The Lord trusts that this time we will choose love.
Here are the rules of this New Covenant that God gave us...1- Love God, 2- Love People. That's it! Those two rules where in the original 10 but because of the nature of these two rules the rest were wrapped up in the revelation and the walking out of them.
One, love the Lord your God with all your mind, body, soul and emotions...Two, love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the rest are common sense that if you followed those two you would not kill, steal, covet etc. So the issue of justice without relationship is ludicrous. From the beginning of time God had a plan in place. He obtained Justice by making a way for all of man kind to have the same intimacy with the Creator as Adam and Eve did. God still becomes vulnerable to the choice of man. He gave us the keys of authority over the earth but it's our decision to use it or not.
Covenant, being vulnerable to the heart that you have committed to. God believes in us so much that He's willing to let us release Justice ourselves on behalf of Him. The choice to have intimacy with God in and if itself is Justice because the original unjust act was deception in choosing separation from being face to face with God Himself.
Covenant trumps law..we get the choice to trump the enemy by releasing Justice on behalf of God. It's only because of the finished work of the cross which released authority back to us that we get this opportunity. Now is the time, we have the chance..we have the choice! God is releasing revelation in how we walk in this authority. What does it mean to again walk in covenant relationship with God and others. We get to begin to start a new chapter of our lives. Yet, there's no pressure just a decision... what are you going to choose?
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