Gods Plan of Salvation | Page 7

right
hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my
mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider
Jerusalem my highest joy.
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At one point after their return, God has to reprimand them
because they have built themselves fine houses, but his
House they have neglected. And although back in their
Promised Land, they do not have the freedom they used
to enjoy.
Yes, a second temple was built, but this was ransacked
by Antiochus Epiphanes in BC 168; later to be restored
under King Herod. By now they were well-and-truly under
Roman domination. What had happened to God's
promises?
Things were stirring, and certain passages from the
prophetic writings were hot topics of discussion in
Jerusalem, notably from Daniel chapters 7 and 9 and
Habakkuk chapter 2.
Most notably a promise had been given by God to Daniel
of eventual restoration (cf Dan 9:24-27) There have been
many spurious attempts to use this prophecy to calculate
the time of the End. It is worth noting the exact wording of
v24: "Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning
your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression,
to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in
everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and
prophet, and to anoint a most holy place"
In the first century AD many Jewish scholars were
debating and keenly awaiting the return of Messiah to
establish the Kingdom and the Daniel prophecy above all
others was quoted. The original Covenant-never reneged
on by God, relied on the Torah which (a) served to keep
the Jews (to an extent) on track and (b) was but the
guardian until Christ came (Gal 3:24) The Jews at Jesus'
time considered (exile not excepted) that they were in a
privileged position, and that 'all' they need to was keep it.
But therein lay the problem, and a solution they didn't
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anticipate, and failed to perceive.
The solution was the outworking of God's promises in the
coming of Jesus, Messiah and Saviour, and in the next
chapter we turn to this.

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4. THE COVENANT FULFILLED IN THE MESSIAH
The coming of Jesus was God bringing his promise
to Abraham to fruition
Jerusalem, as we have seen was awash with expectation
during the first century AD. They were awaiting their
Messiah; one who would come to deliver them, and for
them deliverance meant throwing off the Roman yolk and
the establishment of God's reign in Jerusalem.
For Christians, we can easily miss the fact that Jesus was
the Messiah. We speak of 'Jesus Christ', and almost
naturally think that 'Christ' was his surname, that his
parents were Joseph and Mary Christ! (pace Wright)
Peter's reply to Jesus' question, “W ho do you say that I
am”- “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
(Matt 16:16) is correctly translated by the NIV
The original Covenant-never reneged on by God, relied
on the Law. As we have already noted, the Jews at Jesus'
time considered (exile not excepted) that they were in a
privileged position, and that 'all' they need to was keep it.
But Paul makes the point that the Law can do no more
than give consciousness of sin (Rom 3:9;7:21-23) But in
Jesus came a descendant from Abraham came;
'descended according to the flesh' (Rom 1:3)
The fact is that Dan 9:24 was fulfilled in an unexpected
way in the death on the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who atoned for sin and 'sealed up righteousness'. He was
the one faithful Jew. Jews were as much as all humanity
under the Law found under sin (Rom 3:9,19), and could
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never then rely upon their privileged position since they
had no hope under the Law, (Gal 3:10) By
his resurrection God's righteous reign was established
This had been foreseen by one who stood as the last of
the OT prophets: John Baptist (Matt 3:2) and when Jesus
began his public ministry he brought the same
message: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is
at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:14-
RSV
He had in the Cross and by his resurrection put all
rebellion under his feet and he was established Head of
the Church (Eph 1:22) The Church is God's people-of-
promise, and heirs to Abraham (Gal 3:29); among those
there is no distinction between Jew and 'Greek' (Gentile)
(Gal 3:28) The Church was in God's plan from the
beginning (cf (Eph 3:4) Paul who had found the futility of
the Law considered his keeping of its requirements as
excrement (Phil 3:7-8) and found his true freedom and
salvation in Christ (cf his contrast of the two ways (Gal
2:18-20))
W hen Jesus died on the Cross, he dealt with the