by Stanley R. Rankin

We have two “In the beginning” in the Bible. One is found in Genesis chapter one and the other in John chapter one. The one in Genesis shows the natural creation while the one in John shows the complete creation. There are two testaments or covenants in the Bible. The first testament or covenant was given through Moses to the natural children of Jacob. This changed them from the order of faith that had come through Abraham to the order of the law given because of their unbelief. In Galatians we find that the law was not a part of the original plan but was added because of the transgression of Jacob’s children which are called the children of Israel. “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (Galatians 3:19 KJV). This covenant was to serve only until Jesus came. Once the Christ came the law was done away with, and through His death and resurrection from the dead Jesus conquered the order of death which was the law.

In modern times the term Jew is loosely used by preachers referring to Abraham’s seed. Where did the Jews come from? One of the sons of Jacob was named Judah. From the twelve sons of Jacob is where we get the twelve tribes of Israel, and members of the tribe of Judah were referred to as Jews. In 1st Kings chapter twelve we read how the nation of Israel divided under the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. Ten of the tribes continued to be called Israel and two of the tribes formed the nation of Judah. Judah was made up of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin and Rehoboam was king over Judah. The people of the nation of Judah were referred to as Jews. The twelve tribes of Israel continued to be divided right up to the time of the coming of Jesus. Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem which was located in Judah. Jerusalem, the city in which Jesus was crucified, was also a city of Judah. Jesus was born and crucified among the Jews. That is the reason we see “Jews” referred to in the New Testament.

Jesus was not a Jew by birth because Joseph was not His father. Mary was a virgin and conceived not from Joseph, but by the Holy Ghost. Matthew 1:20. We see from this that the seed conceived in Mary was not that of the linage of Jacob, but it was of the Holy Ghost, and Jesus is forever of the linage of the Almighty God. From the beginning of time it has been the seed of the father that determines the lineage. Who was the father of Jesus? The answer to this is God is and was the Father of Jesus. If we do not believe that, it would mean that we do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. It was because He called Himself the son of God that the Jews wanted to kill Him.

Did Jesus begin with Abraham? Jesus tells the Jews, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58 KJV). Jesus was not and is not of the natural seed that could never live up to the order of God’s high law of obedience. He came to deliver the Jews from the hard law that they lived under as the sons of Jacob and to bring them into the order of faith and grace, the same order that Abraham lived under. Jesus did this by paying the price for those that would believe on Him. He became the final sacrifice for sin to all that would believe on Him.

Who is the seed of promise? The New Testament answers this question for us, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16 KJV).

It is time for a turning point in the life of every true believer in Jesus Christ. Who do we stand with in this day or any day? We have been called unto holiness and that means we are separated from the affairs of the world. We are not to think as does the ungodly think for we have been made a new creature in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our warfare is fought in the prayer closet with our faces buried in prayer to the Father God Almighty. We are taught in the Word how the problems of our land are solved, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV). It is not referring to the land of the ungodly, but it is referring to the land that the Father has given to us as true believers in Him. It is referring to the land of living or land of faith. The true life only comes by faith. The Word of God declares that the just shall live by faith.

Ever since we first believed we have been given the commission to claim the land. As we turn to the Lord Jesus in total submission to His will, we overcome the fears that control us and keep us from being free. The Bible tells us that God has not given us the spirit of fear. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7 KJV).

What is the great fear that conquers the natural man or woman? The answer to that is the fear of death. For the believer Jesus has conquered death by dying for us. The richest and most powerful men or women cannot buy or obtain eternal life through their own means. The Bible tells us that life is the gift of God. What we call life in the natural is but a vapor, it is here one moment and gone the next. Eternal life can only come through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the answer to the question of death. He saved those that were under the law that would believe in Him. He brought them forth from death unto life. The work that was accomplished for them and for us during Jesus’ three and a half years of ministry on earth was that the sin offering was replaced by the offering up of Jesus once and for all. Jesus took away the sin offering by fulfilling the law that imposed sin upon those under it. “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:5-6 KJV). Jesus replaced the order of the law with the order of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

It would seem for some that the fulfillment of the words of the prophets are hard to understand until you realize that was the purpose for Jesus coming. Sometimes when I hear preachers or Christians talking it would seem that they ignore His coming to earth altogether and look for Him to come again to accomplish what He has already finished. When Jesus comes to us and reveals our need to receive Him as our Savior, He does not offer us a half done work, but He presents to us the finished work of salvation.

In the United States we celebrate two holidays that should show us the revelation of what Jesus has already done. First comes the Christmas season celebrating the birth of the Son of God, and second, Easter showing the finished work of Calvary. We are not waiting for the power to win people into the kingdom of God, but Jesus administered the power on the day of Pentecost when He filled His hundred and twenty disciples with the Holy Ghost.

The work of the Holy Spirit is beyond the understanding of the human mind. It is impossible for us, in the natural, to understand that God can dwell in us. By natural or human I am referring to our nature before the redemptive work of salvation transforms us into a new creature in Christ Jesus. We must first accept the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. This makes us clean from all sin because we are covered by the blood of Jesus making it possible for us to receive the Holy Spirit into our life, or I should say our new life.

“John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:15-17 KJV). Under the law, or old testament which was given by Moses, there was not the forgiveness that makes one free from sin. You either obeyed or did not obey the command of the letter of the law. There was no forgiveness for those that could not obey the law until the precious Messiah came and gave His life upon Calvary’s cruel cross. No animal sacrifice could take away the sin which separated God from man and no human on earth was found worthy to be that sacrifice. Only God Himself was found sinless. I have heard well-meaning ministers say that Jesus was a Jew, but in reality He was God manifested in the flesh. Joseph, of the lineage of Judah, was not the father of Jesus for the virgin Mary conceived of the Holy Ghost. The Bible tells us concerning Jesus, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9 KJV).

Within the chosen of the Lord dwells the Christ. Yes, the Word of God declares that it is the Christ within that is the hope of our glory. Colossians 1:27.

Jesus said that the work and function of the New Testament believer is as follows, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18 KJV).

In Mark the ninth chapter we find a man who had brought his son to the disciples of Jesus. The son was tormented by an evil spirit which the father desired the disciples of Jesus to cast out. They were unable to do so. When Jesus came the man approached Him desiring that He would cast the evil spirit out of his son. Jesus did so calling it by name. “When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose” (Mark 9:25-27 KJV).

When the disciples ask Jesus why they could not cast it out, He told them, “...This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29 KJV). It is obvious that the disciples prayed, but Jesus revealed to them that prayer alone was not enough. They needed to add to it fasting.  The New International Version and the New American Standard Version leave the word fasting out of this verse and yet it is in the original text. Those that use these translations will never be able to cast such a spirit out of a person so that they might be delivered. Could Jesus have been wrong as these translators seem to think? We know the answer to this is that Jesus is never wrong. In this case prayer was not enough, fasting was needed with the prayer. We must be very careful for the devil is in the business of taking out words or adding words to what God has said. In Adam and Eve’s case the serpent, which is just another name for the devil, added the word not to what God had told them. This one word added caused the fall of all mankind.

The same story is in the book of Matthew where Jesus also says, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21 KJV). The New International Version leaves this verse out all together. Why would they do such a thing when it is in the original? Jesus was revealing to the disciples how to deliver the child by casting out the devil which was tormenting the child. Jesus was revealing to them that the devil, or evil spirit, could not withstand prayer and fasting.

I have discovered,  in my more than fifty years of ministry, that there are things the devil cannot withstand. First, of course, is the name of Jesus. Second is prayer and fasting, and, of upmost importance, the blood of Jesus.

Where does the name Christians come from? The people of Antioch began to call the disciples Christians about A.D. 42. Acts 11:26. It was because they did the same works that Jesus the Christ did that they saw the likeness of Him in the disciples. The name Christians was given to them because they were Christ like. To have the people of the ungodly world hate Christians is not an unusual thing. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:22, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Mark 13:13. Again we find in Matthew 24:9, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.” Once again we can see from Luke 21:17, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.” All through the New Testament we find that the Jews as well as the Gentiles hated and persecuted the first century Christians. They were hated of all the peoples of the nations on earth for the Gospel sake. Only those that heard their message and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ loved them.

“And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” (Daniel 6:20 KJV).

Is there a difference in the God we serve? Darius saw the difference between his god and the God of Daniel. One thing that is clear in this verse is that Darius had seen Daniel in what he calls continuous service to his God. Darius was about to have a great discovery concerning the God of Daniel and that being that Daniel’s God was able to deliver him from the mouths of the hungry lions. This made a believer out of Darius. “Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6:25-27 KJV).

Daniel’s trial turned the eyes of the great king of the earth upon the Great King of Heaven. We may not always understand why we are required of the Lord Jesus to go through some things which seem bad to us. Even when we are not aware of it, people have their eyes on the way we serve the Lord. Our confession is not enough. Our actions must bear witness to our confession where others are concerned. The Spirit of God writes through the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3 KJV). It is not what we build or how we build that impresses others, but it is how we serve our God.