By Phil Harris
PROLOGE
In the Mosaic Old Covenant, the tribe of Levi was set apart by God (as the figurative “first born”, Num. 3:1-13 and Lev. 16) with only the line of Aaron being priests, and with only one man being the high priest who could approach God only once a year in the Holy of Holies. In the New Covenant, the order of things is much different. Jesus is our High Priest who is not of line of Aaron. In the New Covenant, all who are covered by the shed blood of Jesus have authority to approach God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son of God without any of the old covenant restrictions, because Jesus is the Father’s First Born.
However, at birth we are slaves trapped in the kingdom of darkness. Unless something happens to effect an escape, this is our “nationality”:
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:9-14)
The Apostle Paul who recorded these words of God was personally selected and appointed by Jesus Christ to be his “apostle (ambassador) to the Gentiles”. Since there is only one gospel, there can be only one way of escape from the kingdom of darkness. Paul, under the authority of Jesus, is speaking to the whole church in the city of Colossae, both Gentiles and Jews. There is only one “Body of Christ” (Col. 1:1-2, 1 Cor. 1:1-10 & Acts 26:15-15). It is as part of the many members of one “Body of Christ” that we now have direct access to God.
Now, instead of just one man who could appear before God as the nation’s high priest, our enemy the devil is confronted with the fact that millions upon millions of members of the kingdom of the beloved Son can now approach God the Father at any time directly through our advocate Jesus Christ.
This startling inversion of the Old Covenant model, where one man alone could approach God only once a year and never without personally bearing sacrificial blood, now, because of Jesus’ blood of the eternal covenant which paid for the sins of the world, every person who believes may approach God. Moreover, they may approach on the basis of the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
This access to the Father is simply the fulfillment of what said God to the serpent on the day Adam and Eve sinned.
Since there may be some who read this blog who don’t fully know or understand the gospel message concerning our salvation or what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ growing together in spiritual maturity, I will begin there before stressing the wonder and responsibility of our ambassadorship in the kingdom of God.
OUR ESCAPE FROM DEATH
Of course, those who have already become members the kingdom of God most likely already know how their escape from the kingdom of darkness was made possible. For those who question or simply do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, however, it is best to begin with a brief outline of the biblical salvation message.
God’s command given to Adam not to eat of the tree of the “Knowledge of Good and Evil” was that on the very day he did so he would die. Since Adam and Eve did eat of this tree, they did die on that very day. This death of Adam and Eve on the day they ate reveals one of the errors of Adventism’s false gospel message: it ignores in what way the human race was created in the image of God. They were not merely bodies; they had God’s life breathed into them, and just as God is spirit (Jn. 4:24), they also had spirits. It was Adam and Eve’s human spirits that died on the day they sinned. This fact is made clear by Jesus when he said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again in your (human) spirit by the Holy Spirit” before you or any other sinner can join the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:1-15). Notice that in John 3:16–21 Jesus outlines what he would very soon accomplish at Calvary.
To summarize; those who believe in Jesus (verse 16) are born again in their human spirit. At that moment, they enter into the kingdom of God and have eternal life.
In the Garden of Eden God’s very first assurance that he had a plan for the deliverance of the fallen human race from Satan’s kingdom of darkness is revealed to us when he said this to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden:
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:14-15).
Our eternally existing, holy and righteous God is a totally sovereign God who is all-knowing and all-powerful. God does not choose to reveal in this assurance to the fallen couple nor the serpent what his plan of redemption is. Later, God further reveals in the Mosaic Old Covenant the promise of a coming Messiah, that only a perfect “without blemish” sacrifice could and would cover the sins of fallen mankind. We now have the understanding that only Jesus, the eternal, holy Son of God, could and would be born of a woman, sinless and “without blemish”.
Even though Jesus said exactly what must happen, none, including the serpent, understood that Jesus would rise again from the grave three days after his death at Calvary for the atonement of the sins of the world. While Jesus’ death atoned for our sins, His resurrection from the grave means we also have the promise of our resurrection into eternal life. This promised resurrection is outlined here:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve (1 Cor. 15:1-5).
To receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior for the eternal atonement of your sins, simply and humbly from your heart do as the thief on the cross did:
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:39-43).
Jesus promised the thief on the cross that they would be together in Paradise that very day. Jesus was speaking of Paradise as a real place where one who believes in Him is present with Him after death. From Jesus’ own lips we hear that death is not a time of non-existence. This promise is the same for us, only now, on this side of the resurrection, we serve a Savior who fully, eternally conquered death and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. The most important thing for us to know, though, is that in death we will never be separated from the love of God (Rom. 8:31-39).
HANDS-ON TRAINING (SANCTIFICATION)
Even as we are commissioned to be priests and ambassadors of our Savior, the moment we become members of the kingdom of God we begin a life of spiritual growth in our present “life of the flesh”.
“Hands-on” means to learn by doing. An analogy of this concept is that of a child who is born into a family. At birth the child can do nothing but grow towards becoming an adult with increasing maturity, ability, and responsibility. The same concept and truth applies to those who are born-again spiritually into the family of God. While there is much more than only this maturation process to our spiritual growth, this growth nevertheless leads us to the Apostle Paul’s teaching in First Corinthians chapters 12 and 13 concerning spiritual gifts. God gives gifts—as He wills—to every member of his kingdom, to build up the Body of Christ and to equip them to reach out to the lost and perishing of this world. These spiritual gifts are separate from but certainly support our so-called “natural abilities”. The one gift from God that we are all to desire above all other gifts is to love others without restraint, in the same way God loves us:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13:1-7).
For former or current Adventists, “becoming perfect” is an issue that causes major trauma in our lives. Knowing I was not perfect and not likely ever to be so was why I left Adventism to join “the world” of sin. Later on it was a life-changing experience for me to learn that because Jesus is my Savior, I could never be separated from the love of God. Even more, I’ve learned that sanctification is also a work—an ongoing work—of our Savior. It is not a process by which we become sin-free in this life of the flesh because we all fall infinitely short of the glory of God. Nevertheless, we grow spiritually because of our Savior’s work in us. Without question, without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit it is not possible to receive the promised gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of loving others as God loves us.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (Jn. 14:26)
OUR AMBASSADORSHIP
In the Mosaic old covenant there were those that God set apart to lead and bring His word to His covenant people. They were known variously as prophets, judges, and Levites including those of the line of Aaron who alone could serve as priests. Of the priesthood, only one was the high priest, and only he could approach God from within the Holy of Holies of the temple of God on Mt. Zion on one day of the year, the Day of Atonement. One person, on a certain day of the year and only within a certain place—the Holy of Holies—was he permitted to approach the presence of God.
The new covenant, however, is different. In the new covenant, Jesus, our Great High Priest, is not after the line of Aaron. The order of His priesthood is much different. Jesus, the eternally existing Son of God, is declared to be a priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek (Heb. 4:14-16; 7:11-17). Furthermore, having a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek and not in the order of Aaron means that the entire priesthood is different than in the old covenant. For example, we learn in 1 Peter 2:1-9 that from the moment we are newborn Christians, we are to grow with “pure spiritual milk” as a member of God’s royal priesthood:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
Jesus’ words to His disciples applies to all of us who are of His royal priesthood. Peter, who wrote the verse above, was with Jesus when He gave His commission to preach the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations and people:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).
The New Covenant contrasts totally with the Mosaic Covenant regarding who, how, and when we may approach God the Father. When Jesus died at Calvary, the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was forever torn away:
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared too many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matt. 27:51-54).
Our Great High Priest, the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, has given those covered by His shed blood all the authority “in heaven and on earth”. This promise is true for all down to the very humblest He has rescued out of the kingdom of darkness. This is an invitation to all those were once without hope to surrender to the infinite power of a loving God who far outshines any of a person’s infirmities.
As we respond to our mission of making disciples of all nations, Jesus Christ our Great High Priest declares all Christians to be His ambassadors with His authority:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it (Jn. 14:12-14).
Jesus promises His ambassadors that He will to do whatever we ask of Him simply because the blood He shed at Calvary now and forever covers all our sins. Moreover, we have an ambassador’s passport—an extraordinary “diplomatic passport” to deliver the message of reconciliation to those who are lost (2 Cor. 5:11-21). We no longer live for ourselves:
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:20-21).
As ambassadors of Jesus Christ, we all have the authority to approach God from anywhere, at any time, and we have His authority to ask Him for anything so that the Father may be glorified in the Son! †
All biblical references quoted from the ESV.
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