There is a perceptual matter that falls into this Kicked. If I use my best Texas speech I would explain to you, "It rained cats and puppy dogs here last night." Now, I have a Chain Link fence around 3/4 of an acre and if I go outside the ground will be soaked after the 6 inch rain last night but... but I will not find one pup nor will I finde one cat, dead or alive except the ladies here let the dogs or one of my cats outside. It still rained cats and puppy dogs last night.
This very use of context to define, by the useage, is the reason the KJV and the other thought for thought translations are so popular. The reader does not need to hurt their head pondering and they do not need to be submissive to the Holy Spirit, they believe, to receive something they think they can work with, the translators have ?already? done the hard work for them.
A dictionary explanation can be very useful or it can be useless. The matter is just as my favorite Jr. High Teacher taught us, context, context, context and then go back and find the context, it matters.
God bless brother.
I may not be that intellectually sophisticated, but it seems to me that you may be saying to keep scripture in context. I do always make my best effort to do that as I have been through the NT hundreds of times and really have dug into the OT the past couple years. I believe I have a pretty good handle on the context but am always willing for Jesus to reveal more to me. BOY, DOES HE NOT disappoint! I am not talking about outer things we experience in our physical humanity, but deeper things of the Spirit and TRUE heart. Thus, it's important to know that order to see him (who is ALL TRUTH!) and those things, we have see a deeper spiritual meaning that is going on that what our natural carnal, human mind (that only see's and understand physical things) understands. Many of us are not aware or don't yet fully understand the difference between the Old Covenant of law and the New Covenant of grace and truth in the Spirit and not the flesh. Or we do not know that they don't mix. We can have no mixture of "leavening of the law" (putting any law in with the new covenant). Any amount of law will kill you every time.
For example, many of us know that the Old Covenant of LAW the Israelites were under (which was a covenant of the flesh or outer, physical man, was only a
SHADOW of the real and
TRUE covenant which is in the TRUE realm of the Spirit. The realm of Earth where flesh exists is
not the TRUE substance as it is a
shadow. Every try to grab a shadow? Check this out.
For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near Hebrews 10:1 NASB (Check out verse 2, it's AWESOME as it tells us the HUGE difference between OLD and NEW covenants!)
Here is more to show us the Old covenant of law is only a shadow or copy of the TRUE covenant which is in the Spirit (TRUE) realm.
Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” Hebrews 8:4-5
If the covenant of Jesus were on physical Earth, he would NOT be a priest at all. See verse 5 where it tells us again that the law is only a shadow and copy of the true things in the Spirit or heaven.
So, if we follow that, we begin to realize that the NEW and TRUE (SPIRITUAL) Covenant is NOT on the PHYSICAL Earth or for PHYSICAL man (Adam) but for the new creation or SPIRITUAL man born ABOVE and not below. Adam, (who is in the "copy and shadow of Earth) is always under law and he will always sin and thus, he will always die. The wages of sin is death and this is what kills Adam. Being reborn is being transferred or "translated" from the realm below on Earth under law (and sin and death) to HEAVEN itself where you are a TOTALLY NEW creation. This next BEAUTIFUL verse shows us this.
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son Col 1:13 NASB
I say all this to point out that "Adam's covenant" is law and he will die, all of him. If he dies and is reborn in Christ, then EVERYTHING changes. Things that meant one thing under his Old Covenant of law, now mean something totally new and totally different. For example, who or what was an Israelite or "Jew" under the old covenant of Adam (flesh)? Well, we know it was a physical Israelite who was physically circumcised in his
flesh and under the Mosaic law and 10 commandments (law for flesh or outer man). So, who is an Israelite under the completely NEW covenant (a SPIRITUAL) covenant? Paul tells us:
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. Romans 2:28-29 NASB
This is just ONE EXAMPLE of this. Again, EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED under the new and TRUE or SPIRITUAL covenant. People of the flesh or natural human thinking do NOT see this and do not know this because it takes GOD to show us this in our deep, inner man. Anyone who has not been shown this will always fall under LAW BASED THINKING and will experience guilt and condemnation because their conscience will always tell them they need to be PERFECT!
So, my friend, let's go beyond what we see and into the things we DON'T see because that is where the TRUTH occurs. All the outer things we see are of the flesh and are passing away as they are of the flesh, the law and the OLD Covenant. It's also important to KNOW that you can NOT MIX the covenants or the creations! They don't mix at all. New Wine (new covenant thinking) does not fit into Old wineskins (old covenant mindsets)! ALL the old creation will pass away as it is under law and the law always kills anything that isn't God himself because God is the ONLY one who does not sin. Adam's physical creation is of 'darkness" and we are children of the Light. The darkness and "night" is passing. Day is almost here! YES!
God bless,
kicked
Totally agree.
