Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: There are many contrasts between the old and new covenants. One concept that is unique to the new covenant is that of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Join us as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses the subject, Christ in Us, today right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the Scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, and his subject today is Christ in Us. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. And now, with today's installment, here is Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Welcome, listening friend, to our studios here in San Antonio, Texas. It's good to have you with us today as we continue our series of studies on the subject, Christ in Us. And we've seen that under the old covenant, God was around man, over man, with man, by man, upon man, and He even worked through man. But under the new covenant, God is in man.

In our pilgrimage through the Old Testament, we come now to the book of Exodus, chapter four. This is where we find Moses. In traditional Judaism, he's known as Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our teacher. The interesting thing is that the rabbis revere Moses even more than they do Abraham, even though Abraham was actually the first patriarch of the Jewish nation.

Why is that? Well, one reason is that Moses represents the law, and Abraham represents grace. And the Jewish people, like a lot of us Gentiles, have always had a propensity for legalism because it makes us feel like we're earning brownie points with God. So there are many of us, Jews and Gentiles alike, who find it a great deal easier to relate to the law than to relate to grace. I mean, grace is like accepting charity. We'd rather pay our own way. After all, we've got our pride, right? So we find the concept of grace threatening in a way because it constitutes an admission that we can't do it ourselves, that we can't pay our own way.

But that's why Jesus said that in order to enter the kingdom of God, each of us must become like what? Like a little child. Mark 10:15, "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." That's why most of us find legalism much less threatening than grace.

You say, well, I don't take anybody's charity. Well, then, you can forget about ever entering the kingdom of God, because that's what salvation is: God's charity, God's grace, God's unmerited, undeserved favor. It's a gift, which means you can't pay for it. Once you pay for something, my friend, it ceases to be a gift. Yet the Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you know what a gift is? The dictionary says a gift is something that is voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation. That's a gift. And that's what the Bible says salvation is. It's transferred by Jesus Christ to me and to you without compensation.

But there's another requirement. A gift must be accepted. It cannot be forced on the recipient. It must be voluntarily given and voluntarily received. And that's how salvation is. Christ has provided it and paid for it with His own blood, but I've got to accept it. I've got to receive it before it actually becomes mine. You see, Christ's part was to do it. My part is simply to receive it by faith.

Many years ago, when I was a young country preacher in rural central Illinois, an old Mennonite farmer told me something I've never forgotten. He said, "Gary, there are only two kinds of religions in this world. One kind says 'do', and the other says 'it's already done'." That's it. Every religion, every denomination, every church in this world fits into one of those two categories. It's either do or done.

But there's something about human nature that makes us want to do something, isn't there? You see, that's the appeal of so much of what we see in the religious world today. Religious leaders will give you plenty to do. There will be rites and ceremonies and rituals and all sorts of things that they will tell you will enhance your standing with God. It may sound good, but it's not what the Bible teaches.

What did Isaiah say? Now listen. What did the prophet Isaiah say? He said all of our righteousnesses are like what? Filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6. He didn't say all of our sins are like filthy rags in God's sight, but all of our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. That means the best we can do is still not good enough for God. That's why the cross is so essential to God's plan of redemption, because the cross is where Christ did on our behalf what we could never have done for ourselves. He was the perfect sacrifice, the spotless, sinless Lamb of God. The cross was the ultimate expression of God's grace.

Now I want us to turn to Exodus chapter 32, so I can show you one of the most remarkable passages in the entire Bible. It's Exodus chapters 32, 33, and 34. This is after Moses came down from Mount Sinai and he found the children of Israel involved in a drunken orgy. So in anger, Moses threw the tablets of the Ten Commandments to the ground and smashed them to pieces. And at the end of chapter 32, Moses realizes that this legal covenant isn't going to work. After all, the Sinai covenant was only a few hours old and Israel had already broken it.

Remember, the Sinai covenant, or the Mosaic covenant, was conditional. If one party didn't live up to its terms, the whole agreement was null and void. It wasn't like the Abrahamic covenant, which was unconditional. This legal covenant was conditional. And before Moses could even get down from the mountain with the two stone tablets, Israel had already broken the covenant. So Moses says, "Lord, this isn't going to work." And here's what he does.

Look at chapter 32, verse 30. It says, "And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin," he tells the people. So he goes back up the mountain. It says in verse 31, "And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Verse 32, Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written."

Now let me show you what Moses is saying here. In ancient Israel, they kept very detailed census records, especially during the wilderness wanderings. The census records were known as the Book of the Living, Sefer ha-Chaim. In other words, it was a record of all the living in Israel. And these records were kept on parchments of sheep or goats' skin. So when someone died, they would take a wet cloth and literally wipe that person's name out of the book. And the Jewish people recognized that the Book of the Living was God's book, because He's the one ultimately who decides who lives and who dies.

Even to this day, when the Jewish people greet one another on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, they'll say, "Shana Tova Tikatevu," literally, "May you be inscribed for a good year." Shana Tova, a good year. That is, may your name be written in the Book of the Living for another year. May you live through the year. So when Moses asked the Lord to blot his name out of the Book of the Living, what was he doing? Moses was offering his life as an atonement for Israel's sin.

And what was the Lord's response? It says in verse 33, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book." In other words, every man, including Moses, has his own sins to answer for. No man who has his own sins to answer for is qualified to atone for someone else's sins. The sacrifice had to be sinless.

But we're running out of time, and here's what I want you to see. In chapter 33, Moses prays for God's presence. And in verse 14, the Lord says, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." So here is God with a man, but not God in a man. Here was a man who spoke with the Lord face to face. The glory of God, it says in the Bible, would descend in a cloud at the door of the tabernacle, and Moses would talk with the Lord just like he would talk to a friend. But even Moses did not possess the indwelling presence of God's Spirit like we do under the new covenant.

Turn quickly to Exodus chapter 34. This is after Moses spent 40 days with the Lord on Mount Sinai. Here's what it says in verse 29, "And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with them." Verse 30, "And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone." It was shining, and they were afraid to come nigh him. They were afraid to come near him because his face was still radiant from his exposure to the Shekinah glory of Almighty God. Verse 35 says, "And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him."

Now let me finish with this. 2nd Corinthians 3:13 tells us that the reason Moses put a veil over his face was that he didn't want the children of Israel to be able to watch the glory of God as it faded away from his face. I know Jewish tradition says that Moses' face shone for the rest of his life, that it never faded. But the New Testament tells us something different. It says it gradually faded away. That's why he wore the veil. He considered the glory of the Lord so sacred and so precious, he didn't want people gawking at it like some circus act while it faded. But the same divine presence that was around Adam, over Abraham, and with Moses, that same divine presence now dwells in us. He's in you, my friend, if you're a believer in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And we'll talk more about that next time. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary, and thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. If you found today's program especially helpful and insightful, you'll be glad to know that we have placed the entire series of programs on compact disc. The title is Christ in Us by our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick. It's available for your gift of just six dollars or more to help us keep this program here on your station.

Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397.

Have you enjoyed this edition of Messianic Perspectives? Why not continue to learn about the Jewish roots of your Christian faith by inviting a speaker from CJF Ministries? Call our toll-free number 1-800-926-5397 and we'll be happy to handle all of the details. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on Christ in Us right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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