Gleanings for February 1

God Fulfills All His Promises

 

             Colossians 2: 13-15 NKJV- Selected Portions: “And you, He has made alive…having wiped out the certificate of debt that was against us.  And He has taken out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  He disarmed principalities and powers; He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

 

             The verse above is fulfillment of Genesis 3: 15 where we read about the first promise of a Redeemer after the disobedience of the First Adam.  “Jesus will bruise your (Satan’s) head and you (Satan) will bruise HIS (Jesus’) heal.”  A comment from the Kingdom Dynamics section in my Bible says this:

             “All of the richness, the mercy, the sorrow, and the glory of God’s redeeming work with mankind is here (in Genesis 3:15) in miniature.  God promises to bring a Redeemer from the Seed of the woman.  He will be completely human yet divinely begotten.  “That serpent of old, called the Devil,” would war with THE SEED and would smite Him.

             “But even as the Serpent struck at Jesus’ heel, His (Jesus) foot would descend crushing the serpent’s head. In Christ’s life and death this scripture was fulfilled.  Divinely begotten, yet fully human, by His death and resurrection He has defeated and made a public spectacle of the powers of hell.  (We see that in Colossians 2: 15)  This first messianic promise is one of the most clearly expressed statements of the gospel to be found anywhere.”   

              When God created mankind, He gave them total authority over everything that He had made.  When Adam sinned, he committed “high treason”—he gave the power which had been given to him, over into the hands of our worst enemy: Satan!  However, God had a plan for redemption by becoming “One with them”.

 

              Once again, Kingdom Dynamics brings out this truth, I quote:

“The domain originally delegated to man now falls to Satan, who becomes administrator of this now cursed realm.  The serpent’s “seed” and “head” indicate a continual line (seed) of evil offspring extending Satan’s rule (head).

 

             “However, a second fact offers hope.  Amid the tragedy of this sequence of events, God begins to move redemptively, and a plan for recovering man’s lost estate is promised and set in motion with the first sacrifice.”  We find this recorded in:

             Genesis 3: 21: “For Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”  This is a significant verse.  Adam and Eve had tried to cover themselves with fig leaves—using their “own effort”—too often in life we try to “cover up” using our own efforts to cover, something that will only total repentance can do.

 

             “Under the New Covenant, we can be “clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ rather than by our own “good works.”  Romans 13:14 NLB:  “But let the Lord Jesus Christ take control of you, and don’t think of ways to indulge your evil desires.”

 

REMEMBER:  THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH!!