For the past few weeks we have been investigating the full-on, unlimited grace of God, which alone can fill the sails of our own, personal,
Ship of the Kingdom. Today, I want to look at what appears to be the furthest thing from an armada of these ships attacking the Gates of Hell, as we were created to do. After the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed a message to the defeated Jews that included this surprisingly appropriate word for us today, in 2025 A.D., 2611 years later. Here is Jeremiah’s message:
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
“And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33, 34)
Can you see what this means? Today, these words don’t apply to just today’s “house of Israel,” the Jews but to us, today’s “people of God,” those from “every nation, tribe and tongue.” These two verses are prophetic words from God Himself, telling me what Jesus summarized with three, simple words as He died on the cross, 600 years after Jeremiah. I believe that today these words are actually and fully true: “IT IS FINISHED!”
Jesus has accomplished at the cross what He came to earth to do. His death fully satisfied God’s judgment for the sins of the people of the whole world, for we are all now “My people (God’s)”: “Christ is the sacrifice that takes away our sins and the sins of all the world’s people” (1 John 2:2).
Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascent into Heaven not only took away our sin totally, as Jeremiah prophesied in these verses, but also culminated in Jesus, the Son of Man, being crowned as “King of kings.” God gave Jesus His Kingdom He had retrieved from Satan at the cross (Daniel 7:13, 14).
A man was then ruling over the earth, just as God intended at creation (Genesis 1:26-28)! Man had nothing to do with what God had done at that point—but that was about to change! Ten days after Jesus’ Ascension and Coronation in Heaven at God’s right hand, King Jesus delegated that Kingdom to us, His newly redeemed people, at Pentecost! There, King Jesus gave us His Holy Spirit. He put “My law within them (us)” and wrote it “on their hearts (our),” as proclaimed in Jeremiah 31:33 above!
hen I see this and believe it, with God given heart-knowledge (ginosko), I find myself doing what God wants me to do—by simply doing what I want to do! Philippians 2:13 has become a reality: “For it is God who works in you, both to will (want to) and to work (be able to) for His good pleasure.” This marks the end of “ought-to, need-to, and should” Christianity!
I suddenly discover that “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be FULFILLED “IN US” (not “by us”), who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. I find myself, naturally, spontaneously, and unconsciously (NSU), actually keeping the law of God—because I want to!
I believe that “seeing this” with spiritual understanding is something only God can and will do—at just the right time in His master plan for each of us. Little four-year-old children who know nothing, when given a command by their father, don’t ask him “Why, Daddy?”, but simply reply , “Yes, Daddy!”
Jesus tells us that unless we “become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3). Jesus, as the Son of Man, demonstrated being a “little child” like this for us as He faced His impending crucifixion: “And He said, ‘Abba (Aramaic term of endearment meaning “Daddy”) Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will’” (Mark 14:36).
Paul reiterates Jesus’ use of the term “Daddy.” He wrote to the Romans: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15).
And also to the Galatians: “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” (Galatians_4:6).
For those of us who did not have a “Daddy” as little children whom we could trust, love and eagerly follow, this is a very difficult step to take. However, living by faith, or walking in the Spirit, with the faith of a little child, always forms the foundation for living in the New Covenant that Jeremiah 31 has described. We will talk about that faith next week
