Before you read the next few posts, please deeply consider this one. I will keep it short. But remember, dynamite comes in small packages!
God will, I will!
In the OT we find David and King David often saying “God will” and “I will”. He might have been hiding in caves and being hunted from house to house, but he kept saying “God will” and he kept saying “I will”. That dogged determination is evident in all the leaders throughout the OT.
God has, you are!
But in the NT we find something entirely different. Paul keeps saying “God has” and “you are!” Have you noticed that? Look in Colossians and every other book by Paul, he is always talking past tense. For example Paul says “Through Jesus Christ, God HAS reconciled the world” and he keeps saying radical things like “you ARE seated at the right hand of the Father” or “you ARE made holy, pure and blameless”. He doesn’t ask you how you feel or if you think you are… he knows what Jesus Christ did on the cross and he is TELLING you what you are – as a result of His blood on the cross!
This is how it works…
- In the OT the Prophets looked FORWARD to what was to come and had faith that it would come.
- In the NT we look BACK to what happened and have faith that it DID occur… all the way back then!
Here is a visual explanation of the difference between OT Prophets faith and NT Apostles faith…
You are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone. – Eph 2:20
God will -vs- God has
Both kinds of faith are still workable, but in my personal experience nothing has ever matched the power of believing the full and complete and finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
What is a cornerstone?
It’s the hardest stone that takes the pressure between two sets of stones. If the cornerstone crumbles, the whole archway collapses.
This is also a useful visual idea of how Jesus Christ connects the OT and the NT types of faith. It shows faith in Him, old or new, is built upon Who He is and what He did on the cross. In this image we can see Him as a foundation on which the whole of the Old Testament and the whole of the New Testament are all built upon…
Having a NT type of faith as Paul did is absolutely vital if you want to go over the Jordan and enter into the promised land, because the key to it all is your faith! We (gentiles) are no longer moving into a physical land, but into a spiritual land.
Filed under: Faith
