The Truth shall set you free

My hearts to desire is always to present people with the truth, because Jesus said, "If you continue in my word,.... you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."  (John 8:31-32)

It was also said in Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."  Other translations say "My people are destroyed because they don't know me."  

If we don't know the truth of who God is, and how He operates, then we can't be set free.  

Religion often teaches that God is mysterious and we can never know what He is going to do.  Isaiah 55:8-9 is often quoted to make this point, because those verses tell us that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways.  However, if you read those verses in context, I believe what is being said is that God's mercy and grace are far higher than we can ever comprehend.  I don't believe it is telling us that we can't know who God is or how He operates.

Anyway, I believe God's Word was given to show us who God is, and if we study His Word carefully, we will learn the truth, and the truth of who God is, and what He has already done for us will set us free.  

One truth is that God always operates according to covenants.  A covenant is kind of like a contract, but it is far more binding than a contract because the only way out of a covenant is through death. Marriage for example is supposed to be covenant that is binding "until death do us part."  Marriage is a great example of a covenant, and it something we can relate to.  We understand that in that covenant we have resposiblities as well as benefits.  For example, we are expected to be faithful to our spouse, and not date other people.  That would be a responsibility.  As for benefits, we now have access to everything our spouse had, because we are joined as one.   

Anway, God made covenants with various people in the Bible, and it worked the same way, there were benefits, as well as responsiblities, but the terms were laid out ahead of time. 

The most well known covenant is the one God made with the twelve tribes of Isreal on Mt. Sinai which most people know as the Law or Moses.  The Ten Commandments were a part of that covenant, but it contained a total of 613 laws.  The Ten Commandments were the moral laws, but there were also ceremonial laws, dietary laws, and social laws (that dealt with propery, inheritance, marriage, divorce, etc.)

So God was not mysterious with His people at all. He gave them laws for everything, and told them that if they obeyed ALL of His laws, then they would be blessed in every way.  But if they failed to obey any of the laws, then they would be cursed.  You can read about both the blessings and the curses in Deuteronomy 28.  It was pretty detailed what would happen if God's laws were disobeyed.  No mystery about it.  

We know God never changes, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)  

However, God knew that mankind could never fulfill the covenant He made with Israel.  The law was given to help us understand God's standards, and His standards are absolute perfection.  But in Romans chapter 3 it tells us that not a single person is righteous, we all fail to live up to God's standards, and not a single person can ever reach perfection.  (Romans 3:10-13) That is precisely why the law was given, it was given to show us our sin, so that no one can ever say they are righteous by thier own works.  (Paraphrasing Romans 3:19-20)

Jesus came to fulfill the law.  He was able to fulfill it not only in his actions, but also in His thought life.  The Pharisees thought that they had fulfilled the law, because they were able to follow it with their actions, but Jesus explained that you don't have to commit the act outwardly in order to be in violations of God's laws, if you think wrong thoughts or have hatred in your heart, your thoughts are the same as if you commit adultery or murder.  Jesus said that not one jot or tittle of the law would ever pass away until it was fulfilled.  But Jesus was able to accomplish absolute perfection.  

Romans 3:21-22 tells us, "But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, aas was promised in th writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. (22) We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.  And this is true for everyone who believes no matter who we are."

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 &21"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life had begun! (18) And all of this a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ.  And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.  (19) For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them…(21) For God made Christ who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

So we can now be made right with God through faith in Jesus, and God made a new covenant with us. 

Hebrews 8:6-7 tells us, “…he [Jesus] is the one who mediates a far better covenant with God based on better promises.  (7) If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second one to replace it.”

Hebrews 8:13 “when God speaks of ‘new’ covenant, it means he made the first one obsolete.  It is now out of date and will soon disappear.”

This was always God’s plan, He spoke the Gospel message to Abraham.  We can read about that in Galatians chapter 3.  God always planned to reconcile the whole world to himself and make his blessings available to all people, not only the 12 Tribes of Israel.  I won’t type out that whole chapter, but I would encourage you to read the whole thing.

 Galatians 3:13-14 make it clear that we are no longer under the curse of the Mosaic Law, “But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law.  When he hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrong doing.  For it is written in the Scriptures, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. (14) Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham….”

The curses listed in Deuteronomy 28 have been broken, and we have a better covenant with God, a covenant of blessing just like Abraham had.  God is not mysterious, He always operates according to His established covenant.  In the Old Covenant for example, healing was based on obedience. 

Exodus 15:26 "And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee."

Exodus 23:25 “And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless thy bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” 

Today, we can receive healing because of what Jesus did at the cross, Matthew 8:17 “…He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”  Healing is not automatic though, just like salvation is not automatic.  We must believe with our hearts, and confess with our mouths.  (Romans 10:9 & Mark 11:23-24)  The blessing of Abraham are available to all that believe.