Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”
The gospel is "everlasting" (Rev. 14:6), therefore had to be preached in Old Testament times as in the New (Gal. 3:8). For example, Noah was a "preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5). But the people's unbelief had become as perverse as that of many today, for they turned their beautiful world into a hell of wickedness and violence (Gen. 6:11), bringing upon themselves the Flood.
The Lord Jesus tells us how that history pictures the world of today (Matt. 24:38-42). There must be another "Noah," a church that is "a preacher of righteousness"--by faith, the only kind there can be.
From Eden, Christ conquered Satan, not merely wounded him. He "bruised [the] head" whereas the serpent "bruised [His] heel" (Gen. 3:15). In "the likeness of sinful flesh" which we all inherit from our fallen Adam, Christ "condemned sin," trampled upon it as you would the head of a poisonous snake (Rom. 8:3). To all who believed on Christ in Old Testament times, He granted to "overcome" as He grants us today to "overcome even as [He] overcame" (Rev. 3:21).
In Abraham's "seed" (Christ), "all families of the earth" are in fact "blessed," not merely provisionally, or possibly, or perhaps, but in reality (Gen. 12:2, 3).
Again the blessing is for "all the families of the earth" in the dream the Lord gave to sinful, "supplanter-Jacob" at Bethel (Gen. 28:12-14). The gift of salvation is assured to unworthy sinners; but they must receive it. But if they don't receive it, the gift nonetheless was truly given!
The universal nature of this "gift" is taught in the daily burnt offering in the Levitical service (Ex. 29:38-42). It "covered" the sinner who had not yet learned to repent; it included "the stranger" within the gates. Its ultimate significance included "all men" who need a judicial acquittal in order not to die (cf. Rom. 5:15-18, The Revised English Bible). But again, the "cover" must not be presumed; but for Christ there remains the legal condemnation "in Adam." "Behold the goodness and severity of God" (Rom. 11:22).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 27, 2006.
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