WHEN JESUS SAID HE WAS LORD OF THE SABBATH HE WAS SAYING HE WAS LORD OF THAT COVENANT! Mt.12:8

And now thankfully because of His death He is Lord of a “better covenant with better promises”. A covenant where grace, God’s love in action shown in Jesus’ coming, reigns unto eternal life.

In a phone conversation I was once privileged to have with pastor Chuck Smith on the radio program To Every Man An Answer, I asked him why he thought Jesus was able to forgive sins if it was necessary for Him to pay the penalty for sin first by dying on the cross. I now know that his answer was something students are taught in seminary because other pastors that I have asked gave me the same answer.

He said it was because those who lived before Jesus died were forgiven by looking forward to the cross. And those who live after Jesus died are forgiven by looking back at the cross.

After this conversation I thought about this and could not come up with the name of even a single Jew that lived before Jesus died that ever looked forward to a dying messiah. Can you? Do you know why Jesus was able to forgive sins before He died on the cross?

Some have said they believe it's because Jesus is God and of course God can do whatever He wants. So of course He could forgive sins anytime. But, this betrays their belief that Jesus' death was necessary first for sin's penalty to be paid.

Not to mention the fact that in Phil.2:7 Paul tells us that Jesus laid aside His power as God so He could live as a man just like we do. So this answer is not Biblical on several points. No matter how reasonable it may seem to some.

Truth is most Jews misinterpreted the purpose of the sacrifices they did. Believing as Paul said in Rom.7 that law keeping made them righteous before God. When the truth is that righteousness has never come by works. Which is why they kept the circumcision of Abraham. To join them to Abraham as ones who are also righteous by faith in God just as he was.

Paul said the sacrifices were only needed under the law because only under the law are sins imputed.

And at the same time anyone who was never under the law have never had any need for any such sacrifice. Making Jesus' sacrifice serve a different purpose for Jews who were accountable to the law, than for all other nations who never have been under the law.

For the Jew Jesus' sacrifice became the final once for all sacrifice to bring an end to the law for Israel. Heb.9:15 says it happened this way, "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

This means that for the Jew who was accountable to keep the law, any transgressions he may have committed were once and for all time redeemed by Jesus' death. By fulfilling the required final sacrifice so that it would "taketh away the first (covenant) that He might establish the second".

Heb.10: says, "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin."

When vs.14 says "perfected forever them that are sanctified" it means for the Jew that apart from works he has been made righteous forever simply by trusting in Jesus. And that the law with it's need for sacrifices has come to an end for those Jews who will be delivered from the law to believe in Jesus.

It also means that Jesus fulfilled the law just as He said He came to do in Mt.5:17,18.

So that it would pass away so that power was given to the New Covenant that is the only way to eternal life. If He had not fulfilled all that He said He came to do Jesus said heaven and earth would have to pass away first before the law could pass away. But, now it has passed away because Jesus accomplished all that He said He came to do. Which in these verses was to fulfill the law.

So anyone who believes they must still keep the law to be saved or to stay saved has placed themselves under the Old Covenant. A covenant that Paul said could not give life. This is why in Rom.7:1-4 Paul said the Jew must be dead to the law to be joined with Christ for eternal life.

But, for the Gentile who was never in covenant with God before, "being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world", Jesus' sacrifice gave power to a Covenant which Paul says was made available to them also. That they should, as 1Thes.1:9 says, be saved from idols to serve the living and true God.

So the Jew is saved from the condemnation and death of the law that could not give life. While the Gentiles are saved from idolatry. Both washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

These two Jew and Gentile have now become "one new man" by Jesus "having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." Eph.2:15-17

No longer under the law the Jew is now made whole. Made a spiritual righteous man by faith in Jesus without works for whom now there is no law. Made a spiritual man by the new birth. And no longer trusting in idols the Gentile is made whole. Made a spiritual man by the new birth.

So when Paul taught that the first Adam was a living soul. And the last Adam(Jesus) was a living spirit, he was telling us what Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus in John3:1-8.

That when we are born again we are made a spiritual being. And that unless we are born again we are only flesh and blood. And flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God because God's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom.

So the need for a payment of a penalty for sins, whether under or not under the law, was never necessary for the salvation of either Jew or Gentile. But, only the conquering of our mortality by Jesus joining with us in death and raising from the dead.

So why could Jesus forgive sins before He died on the cross? Because being the one who came to confirm the law for the week that was left of Daniel's 70 weeks prophecy showed that He was Lord of that covenant. And as Lord of that covenant He could forgive the sins of anyone He chose to.

But, forgiveness of sins under the law still could not give any of them life. This is why He had to die. Because only by conquering death could they and us have any chance at receiving eternal life. Because by conquering death through the resurrection Heb.9:15 says He became the mediator of the New Covenant.

And as mediator it is only by faith in Him and His resurrection that we can have eternal life. This is why Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. And that no man comes to the Father except through faith in Him.

If you believe this gospel then confess Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. And you will be saved. This is why Jesus said, "By your words you will be justified. And by your words you will be condemned."

Because in Mt.12:33-37 Jesus says our words come from our hearts. And our hearts are the tree that bears fruit either unto life. Or unto death. Unto life when we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. Or unto death when we confess with our mouth that works will save us.

If you will believe in Him you will be born again. If you will believe in Jesus you will have eternal life. If you will believe in Jesus you will be made a child of God and therefore an heir to His kingdom. If you will do this, and not add any works with this believing... I will see you there or in the air!

This message can also be heard at: https://rumble.com/v2eb94e-being-lord-of-the-sabbath-he-was-lord-of-the-old-covenant-mt.128.html