Series: The Book of Revelation; Finished Works

Sun am 7 January 2010 – Kobus Swart

Rev. 1:1-6; Heb. 7:11-28; Eph. 5:27; (Gal. 6:15); (2 Cor. 5:16-20); 1 John 1:7;

(Rom. 8:28-29); (Heb. 2:10); (Lev. 16:6-28); (Heb. 9:12); Rom. 5:12-18; John 1:12;

Heb. 10:1-3, 12-14; (Col. 1:13); (Heb. 13:12-13); Rom. 7:24-25; Rom. 8:1

Something happened when Mary approached Elizabeth. The baby leapt in her womb as Mary was speaking. In these days the revelation of Jesus Christ in our spirit, is going to activate a recognition in the other hungry person. There will be a resonance in the hearts of those who seek the Lord.

“To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins in His blood” (Rev. 1:5). The lack of a proper understanding of what this verse means, could be the reason for the delay of final unveiling  of the Christ. He is coming to present to Himself a Bride without spot or wrinkle.

When Jesus came 2000 years ago, the priesthood changed! (Heb. 7:12-16). The new priesthood was different from the old Levitical priesthood. “Who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life” (Heb. 7:16). This implies a sinless life. Although Jesus was tempted in all things like we are, He did not sin. He became the Guarantor of this New Covenant. Sin consciousness is still a problem for many believers, because of a lack of understanding what Jesus actually did on the Cross.

The first Adam was a living soul, but the LAST ADAM became a life giving spirit; a new kind of humanity. He had no memory of sin; He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus established a new priesthood: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek…t he Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’ (Heb. 7:17-19). The new covenant rests not on what we will do but on what He has done. There is no need for sin consciousness to linger on in God’s people, because sin has been dealt with by the last Adam. The truth will set us free, and the truth is that we have been released from our sins in His blood! If we are in Christ, we are a new creation. When Jesus came, the outer court with all its sacrifices fell away. Tell the people the truth; become ministries of reconciliation, not condemnation (2 Cor. 5:16-20). Jesus came to take away sin! (Heb 9:26). What about Christians that may still occasionally miss the mark? “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Jesus became the complete sin offering, He not only forgave our sins; He also removed the sin (See Jn 1:29). Compare the two goats – one to be slaughtered as a sin offering, and the other a scapegoat upon whose head all the sins of the people had to be imparted, and then had to be removed into the wilderness (Lev. 16:6-28). He has released us from our sins in and through His blood (Rev.1:5). That will be testimony of the kings and priests that the Book of Revelation 1:6 is talking about. These kings and priests will have no memory of sin, because, like Melchizedek, they have become part of an indestructible life.

When we are born from above and have been transferred from darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, our past is of no consequence anymore. Unfortunately Satan (the accuser of the brethren) uses fellow Christians to remind us of our past. Satan will try to reactivate the old, but we must stand in the truth of the finished works of Christ, and Satan will find nothing in us.

If you take this truth, nobody or anything will ever offend you again because you are of another dimension of life; you are of an endless, indestructible life. All of this is what it means to be brought into a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Not like the old, where you are reminded of your sins daily. There is no memory of the fallen nature, no memory of sin, no memory of the fall, no memory of the Garden of Eden, no memory of the serpent. We are part of an indestructible life!

Through one man, Adam, sin entered the human race (Rom. 5:12). Between the first Adam and the Cross people were born sinners; after the Cross a fundamental change took place. The force of gravity (downward pull of sin) changed. Through One Man – Jesus Christ – there resulted justification of life to all men (Rom 5:17,18).  Legally, provisionally we have been set free, we have access to total righteousness in Christ because of the finished works of the once-for-all Sacrifice. What is needed is to receive Him, and be given the power to become sons of God (John 1:12).  No need for endless dealings with what we may have inherited from our ancestors. We are free from our past. The answer is in the truth of the endless life. The last Adam shed His blood and made His divine life available to all humanity. Father appointed a Son, who came to bring many sons to glory (Heb 2:10). They will conform to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29).Life is in the blood. If Jesus did not pour out His blood on the cross, He would have forever been the only perfect man; the only manifested Son of God. But He poured out His Blood, His life, into a whole new race of people, the holy nation.

We may not have all this experientially yet,  but remember – He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. The experience is progressively becoming ours (Heb. 10:12-14). Is this perhaps causing the delay of the final unveiling of the Christ? Jesus is waiting, seated at the right hand of the Father until this truth of the once for all sacrifice is fleshed out.