Blessed Redeemer 9/25-27

25-27 September 2016 - Blessed Redeemer – Manna by Dorothy Callies

            John 5:39 Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these and they which testify of Me.”

            In the King James Version this verse reads like a command, “Search the Scriptures”; in the New King James Version and other versions it reads like a statement of fact, “You search the Scriptures.”  Both translations are valid (founded on truth or fact).

            We are to search the Old Testament books; for in them Christ is revealed unto us in the type and prophecy.  He is the theme of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi.

            It is a fact that the Jews, scribes, and Pharisees searched the Scriptures; they pored (to read with great attention; study) over them, they diligently (show great effort) investigated them.  However, they were spiritually blind to the Messiah; they saw only the Law, they missed the purpose of the Scriptures.

            They were so legalistic (think only the Law) that they searched the old Scriptures for one purpose: to interpret the Law.  But they were so blinded by the Law that they did not recognize the Lawgiver, who came to fulfill the Law.

            To understand about the Law, you need to know about the ceremonial laws that God command the priest to sacrifice the animals at the altar such as God gave law that they sacrifice the lamb at the altar morning and night.  This was the type of Jesus’ future sacrifice on the cross as the Lamb.

            So when Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt.5:17).  One example: Jesus fulfilled the Law of the lamb sacrificed at the altar and Jesus was sacrificed at the cross. When Jesus said, “It is finished.”  He meant that the natural lamb being sacrificed was finished.  The animals that were being sacrificed was finished.  No more repeated bloody sacrificed. Jesus ended it all. Jesus died once for all.  He completed the law of sacrifices.

            In this verse Matt. 5:17, Jesus speaks of the Law and the Prophets; the reference is not just to specific laws, but rather to the whole of the Old Testament books.  He fulfilled all the ceremonial laws related to the atoning sacrifices, as well as the moral laws, both positive and negative. 

            He fulfilled all the types (biblical objects, persons, and events that illustrate what is to come) and all the prophecies that pertained (related) to His first coming. When He returns, He will fulfill all those related to His second coming.

            If the Jewish rulers had truly understood the types and prophecies of the Old Testament books, they would have recognized the Christ early in His ministry, and accepted Him as their Messiah.

Dorothy: These came from the studies. What impressed me?  Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill or to complete the laws.  He came to complete the prophecies about Him while He was on earth.  There were many things that Jesus did in the New Testament were fulfilled from the Old Testament.  This led me to sing the Chorus: Blessed Redeemer written by Avis Burgeson Christiansen, Sing His Praise. God bless you as you sing this to Jesus.

Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer!

Seems now I see Him on Calvary’s tree;

Wounded and bleeding, for sinners’ pleading,

Blind and unheeding, dying for me!