Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Fulfilled!
By Ramone - April 8, 2008
This picture came immediately after thinking through the picture of the law in "The Plundering of Sheol", which shows Jesus descending into Sheol past the broken tablets of the Law to rescue its righteous prisoners. I thought it could get theologically confusing, because actually, Jesus fulfilled the law! By fulfilling it, its power was broken.
The law (the old covenant) was broken when Israel danced to the golden calf, and Moses came down the mountain and threw the tablets of the covenant on the ground, breaking them to pieces -- showing that the covenant had already been broken. I know that new tablets were made, but the covenant had already been broken (indeed, the greater, universal law had already been broken long ago in Eden, which brought death).
The earth dries up and withers,What Jesus did was actually put the pieces back together that Moses had broken -- He fulfilled what Israel did not and could not. He obeyed God and fulfilled (or "healed") mankind's broken covenant with God from Eden.
the world languishes and withers,
the exalted of the earth languish.
The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.
- Isaiah 24:4-6 NIV
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh...I had depicted the Law (the Old Covenant) nailed to the cross in a picture a year ago, called "Before & After". That time the word that was on the tablets of the covenant was "PAID". This time, the word is "INRI", which is the initials of the Latin phrase "IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM", which comes from John 19:19, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews".
- Romans 8:3 NASB
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
- Colossians 2:13-15 NIV
Bless you in Jesus, today, as you see that the Law (the Old Covenant) and even the law or covenant of Eden were things that were broken too far for you and I to repair. Only the blood of the Lamb - Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews -- could repair what our sin in Adam had done. And having fulfilled what we (mankind) had broken, He gave us a new way...
See this picture: A Better Law
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For more about how Jesus fulfilled the Law to completion, read Haroldo Camacho's excellent Jesus-glorifying article in the January/February 2005 issue of Proclamation! magazine: The Law Fulfilled
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See also: "Fulfilled!" (at Heart For Adventists)
# posted by Ramone @ 5:20 PM 
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