48 - Christ - from before the beginning (1)

I need to focus on the principle a little more intensely as to what seems to be God's overall plan.

Scriptures have been given about Christ slain before the foundation of the world. The same concept includes other scriptures about US being chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Since the "in Him" idea has always been difficult - we could well say the problem has been around quite a while. Well - let's at least admit it to be around all of OUR lives. I didn't see the little phrase as a difficulty until my first Greek class in the '60's. I then noted that there was more to it than I had guessed, even though a surface meaning was still meaningful.

Until I read some stuff about "covenant grace" I had no clue that "in Christ" had a focus of Christ - not me! (By the way - WE do get a wonderful focus - just indirectly - so, make no mistake, when we get it right, we come out JUST FINE.) The directive seemed to be "make sure YOU are in Christ" - and I don't think that is a bad concept. Problem is - when we put the focus on US - we MISS OUT on the REAL concept, so our understanding is off and we begin down a road which isn't the REAL road. (Substitute the word "WAY" for road - and you get my drift.)

So - back to our theme - Jesus is the focus of History and the focus of the Bible and the focus of Covenant grace. And - amazingly enough, that started before time. So - what exactly started before time. We love to sing about it - "He tells me of the years that went before me - when heavenly plans were made for me to be" - IF the focus is ME. And - that IS one of the focus directions. But - the ULTIMATE focus is what God is doing to get me back and then what God is doing to keep me for all eternity. If we don't see that we cannot understand the Bible correctly. The focus is GOD'S doings. And - God got that started in His plan before time - well "the lamb was slain before the foundations of the world". So - our redemption is an old subject and it focused on what God did, plus, it started before time - so it was an ORIGINAL PLAN.

Covenant takes two parties - and that may represent all of mankind, but the parties involved choose a Representative. Covenant demands a swearing and the Bible says that "God could swear by none greater so He swore by Himself." He guarantees His part of the covenant is KEPT. We can rely on His guarantee - but do we know what He guaranteed? (WE do realize it is good to know the stipulations of a guarantee - do we not?)

First question - and a very important one - who is the OTHER party? I think we realize it is us humans. Problem - who will represent us before time? God anticipated this problem - after all, if we are created to make choices we'll make the bad choice and that needs to be taken into consideration. So - God chose for Christ to die (Lamb slain from the foundation of the world) so Christ is a substitution for US - so HE is our Representative) because we would NEVER be able to make the choice to die, since we would sin and disqualify ourselves. So - the covenant parties had to be God and our Representative. The concepts involved include - OUR sin is anticipated before time; an agreement was made before time; Jesus is our Representative before time and our redemption and future is guaranteed before time. (Verses which help these conclusions include: Ephesians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:19-20; Revelation 13:8.) However - the Scriptures which probably help us most is the Book of Deuteronomy - and that presents quite a quandary. Understand that Hebrews were very conversant in Deuteronomy - and understood that the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) as being the foundation for all of life and God's dealings with mankind.

Deuteronomy is quoted from about 80 times in the NT - so it is assumed we know that source as cogent to a full understanding. The Book is a Covenant Document, totally understood by the nations about Israel in their day - in fact the same covenant concepts are used by any number of them in their own experience. I think we understand that far generally - but what we sometimes miss is - God was using the concept before time - AND - God already had something in place with Himself. Very challenging, but that's why we used those Scriptures to teach us the concept more fully.

THE COVENANT was enacted toward Abram - and still is with us. We can talk of other covenants - Adamic, Noahic - but for OUR purposes the NT refers in reference to SALVATION/REDEMPTION to one focus - Abraham as the Father of FAITH. BUT - what we sometimes miss is this covenant was already agreed to before us humans were created - so the NT calls it "The Eternal Covenant" - Hebrews 13:20. AND - about that, more to come.