Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
In His infinite wisdom, the dear Lord chose to have the apostle Paul define clearly for us all what it means to live under the new covenant (the Letters that he wrote were decades before the apostle John wrote his Gospel). God inspired Paul’s writing of Galatians, Thessalonians, Romans; these went everywhere in the young church. Paul defined the idea as God’s justification of the world. It’s the new covenant principle of God calling those things which do not exist as though they exist already. It’s like His telling Abraham that He has already “made him a father of many nations” while he is still helplessly childless (see Rom. 4:17).
So, Paul says, while the lot of us in this world are sinful, selfish enemies of God, He has “justified” us! Sounds crazy to people who still love the old covenant. It’s saying something about us that isn’t yet practically true as though it were already true. It’s objective Good News spoken by God long before it becomes subjectively true in our personal lives.
But ever since Mt. Sinai God’s people have had trouble believing this new covenant principle. John wraps it all up as “unbelief.” “He who believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, ... and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light ...” (3:18, 19). In other words, they love the old covenant more than they love the new. Joyously living the new covenant is always preceded by personally believing the objective truth of what God has declared even though it seems impossible.
But this same unbelief today hinders that wonderful work of lighting the earth with the final Good News message of glory (cf. Rev. 18:1-4).
Let’s review how Paul says it: “As through one man’s offense [Adam’s] judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation [a judicial “verdict of condemnation,” NEB], even so through one Man’s righteous act [since the world began, there has been only one “righteous act”!] the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Rom. 5:18).
As Paul has explained in verses 15, 16, “justification of life” is a “judicial” “verdict of acquittal” (NEB) pronounced upon the world while the world is still at enmity with God. It’s what makes it possible for God to “make ... His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and [to] send rain on the just and the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). Christ has taken the sin of the world upon Himself in His own soul, in His body, “made to be sin for us”(2 Cor. 5:21). For the one who believes, who appreciates this new covenant truth, his faith enables him to “become the righteousness of God in Him.”
If the Lord gives us a tomorrow, maybe we can dig a bit deeper.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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