Language problems . . .

I have been one who bemoans the Olde English of the KJV - but the attitude of those who use it (one of which I certainly am) sometimes is very regrettable, especially those who say the KJV is so "inspired" that it can be used to correct the Greek. PART of my regret is that we miss so much of the Hebrew concepts due to language that is in the genre of 16th Century England. On the other hand, we also dismiss quickly some of its language when we should not ! God set His conceptual construct up on a "Royalty" structure. Many countries do not know the original nature of even the word "Prince" and certainly stumble at the concept "born king" and "anointed" . . .

"Covenant" is one of those words which gives us continuing trouble because not only do we not study ancient civilizations, we also have many "Present traditions" to interfere with us ever getting there. Evangelical language (E-language) controls so much that in many cases we need a new word entirely with which to label original concepts. The "short" version is: the covenant structure of the Bible is totally different from God covenanting with us. It is harmonious with God covenanting to us. Some of the original language is helpful - if we have not already directed our mindset to ignore plain statements of Scripture. If we begin to see that Jesus is covenant, we can begin to see the meaning coming through. Isaiah 42:6; 49:8 indicate Jesus will be sent for a covenant. If we think His teachings ARE the New Covenant, we have to ignore Scripture. HE - HE is the Way, Truth, Life. HE is the way to Father. We must believe HIM when HE said, "Unless you believe I AM HE, you'll die in your sins" is a concept for all of History (although applied a little differently) and we do need to study how that is true. We are not the covenant keepers, we are covenant recipients.

E-language to some degree thinks of "covenant" as an agreement between mankind and God. Please realize - that can never happen with any focus on our keeping covenant. It does happen in the sense that Jesus was our representative and died for the punishment of covenant-breaking but do we know why ? Short answer - because IF we make a covenant like a LAW which we must keep to be saved (and many do) then obviously we have no hope ! Galatians 3 proves that hands down. Very basically it is like God said, "LAW - I need someone to keep it - well, no one can, so I'll have to go to earth as a human and do it for them - then I can offer My own performance as a gift to be received by faith." That is what happened in God's covenant grace. If we cannot see this concept, then much of the New Testament is explained away - and Olde English is used to escape plain language. NT use of the concept "the faith of Christ" is twisted to simply mean our faith in Christ. Baptism into Christ means what I DO to be saved, since God did His part. MANY errors, many misunderstandings. Major problem - we have a mankind focus in the Bible instead of allowing it to be God's story of redemption in virtue of our own helplessness.

A verse or two from my pilgrimage - the context of Ephesians 2:7 "that in the coming ages He might show off the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" - is the essence of Covenant gift . . .the context shows the focus to be on HIM and off of us. It goes overboard to plainly teach that we are recipients of His grace, and we have nothing to offer in reference to our salvation. Do we allow God to show off (in a positive conceptual focus) His grace - if we continually put the emphasis on US ? Paul ends up in verse 10 explaining even the Christian life gets a God-focus. "We are HIS workmanship" - simply means HE works on US . . .and we are His project (workmanship). The Greek word is the word we use for "poem" - defined as the production of a creative mind to express His dream. God's focus is us - the helpless, the unable, the hopeless, the disabled, the totally weak. He wants to show off His grace by making something out of what appears to be nothing. I hope we are allowing that today. The other side of that is - HE invested everything to make us into something because His logic thought us to be worth that to Him. Wow - what a wonder, that God LOVES me. As the Olde saying goes - "When a King picks up a trifle, it is a trifle no longer". Ah - but He decided man was not a trifle before He even made us. Jesus was invested at that point - the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world". More to come