Brother Bruce, I must apologize for my response to this thread yesterday. I should have waited another day because yesterday our 12 month old grandson was padding around here getting into stuff so grandpa kept calling me for this, that, and the other, also I could not remember where I put my notes on covenant so I tried 'winging it' - I won't do that again.
Now that I have reviewed I want to say that I was wrong about the cross; Jesus was not part of God's covenant through the cross. He is the smoking oven and flaming torch in Abraham's vision (Genesis 15:17,18); the Lord walked through the pieces on Abram's behalf while he slept. If you have studied covenant you know that it is a walk of death along with an exchange of strengths and weaknesses between the parties. Jesus is also the burning bush that appeared to Moses; the water that came from the rock at Horeb, and the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night that followed Israel through the wilderness for 40yrs. You asked about the conditions God gave to Abram; they are listed in Genesis 17: (V1 Walk before me and be blameless; (V9 You shall keep my covenant; (V10 Male circumcision; (V11 Uncircumcised men will be cut off. Where do you find the definition you give for covenants Bruce, that is that they are binding promises to assure that people can trust God and each other? You asked about the 'conditions Israel violated' which brought them into captivity. It was in God's initial plan for the patriarchs and their seed to live in Egypt for a time until the iniquity of the Amorites was fulfilled and they could inherit the land of Promise (Genesis 15:13-16) In Acts 7:9 we learn by the mouth of Stephen who was filled with the Holy Spirit that the patriarchs (being moved with envy/jealousy) sold their brother to the Ishmeelites; note that according to God's law (Deuteronomy 24:7) kidnapping and selling a brother was a sin worthy of death. (The curse may be a long way off at first allowing time to repent but if sin is not dealt with it will surely come and it was there by the time God sent Moses to deliver his people from captivity. You accuse me of misquoting my favorite passage of scripture to make it fit my doctrine Bruce... but I don't need a 'favorite passage' It is all through the New Testament - we are either following the law of sin and death, or the law of the spirit of life in Christ. I thought Romans 8:1,2 was the shortest way to communicate that point. After all we are slaves to whoever we obey and when we follow the lusts of our flesh we are serving sin and are free from righteousness Romans 6:20. Righteousness is not some religious mantra we constantly afirm once we have said our prayer to receive Jesus for it is the one who DOES righteousness who is righteous. (1 John 2:29, 3:7, 3:10) and the schoolmaster lives on. Sin is 'transgression of the law' (1 John 3:4) so how is it possible to transgress something that that has passed away and is now dead/irrelevant? If we claim to have no sin when we are in fact lawless (transgressing God's law) scripture tells us we are deceiving ourselves (1 John 1:8). Grace and Peace, Judy ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
