May 27, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
‘BACK TO EDEN’ MEANS MUCH MORE THAN ORIGINAL DIET
“God the Father always worked through His Son, both in creation and redemption (Gen. 1:1-24; Col. 1:15-19; Heb. 1:1-3,8]. Therefore it was Jesus Christ who created ‘the heavens and the earth’ and ‘rested the seventh day.’
‘All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. He was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.’ John 1:3,10,KJV.
It is a great comfort to a poor, weak sinner to know that our Savior and mighty Deliverer is no less than “the mighty God’ (Isa.9:6) who ‘spoke the worlds into existence’ (Ps.33:6,9), and ‘who is upholding all things by the Word of His power (Heb. 1:3).
His Word has creative power, and if we receive the Word by faith, it will transform our hearts, minds and lives, endowing power to obtain victory over our sins!
As the crowning act on the sixth day, the Lord Creator made man (not any animals) “in His own image and likeness,” and only then “rested on the seventh day” from a FINISHED WORK OF CREATION (Gen. 1:27, 31; 2: 1-3).
Thus the seventh day stood THE MEMORIAL and REMINDER of a FINISHED WORK in Christ.
And when man lost the (moral) image of God through SIN, Christ came to restore IN man the DIVINE image by a NEW CREATION (Col. 3:10; Eph.4:24; 2:10; 2 Cor. 5:17).
On the cross He cried out: ‘It is finished!’ John 19:30. See Heb. 9:26,28; 10: 10,12,14,19,20.
This was on Friday evening (3 PM, Jewish time), and thus rested in death on the same seventh day Sabbath of creation FROM His work of REDEMPTION. Both events were not for the Jews only as Calvary was located OUTSIDE the gates of Jerusalem.
Christ says: “The Sabbath was MADE FOR MAN.” Mark 2:27,28. Therefore the the Sabbath was “made” when man was “created.” This was TWO THOUSAND YEARS before Abraham, the first Jew, was born. Therefore the seventh day Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the Bible Sabbath could NOT be Jewish, for as Jesus the Creator declared, “the Sabbath was made for man,” and the term ‘MAN’ is never confined to any one race or class of man but embraces MANKIND.
Thus the Sabbath day institution is for mankind, the whole world which “the Lord of the Sabbath,” “the Lord God Creator made for man created in His image and likeness! Tell it to the people before the final Sabbath test comes! NMF