- Christ was dealing with His covenant people, Israel. And the whole basis of Salvation was still under the Law of Moses, but now it was an added responsibility to repent, and follow it with water baptism, but the crux of the whole thing was, they had to believe Who Jesus was. They had to believe that He was the Christ, their Messiah. They had to have a change of direction from their hardheartedness and unbelief.
-Then afterward Redemption and Salvation goes to the Gentile world through the Apostle Paul, then yes, it becomes the Gospel of Grace, based on His death, burial, resurrection and ascension and our being placed in Him through out this working of God. The answer to the hidden secret of God. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
So let’s look at it in Luke chapter 18, and let’s drop in at verse 31. My, these are interesting verses and should settle the argument when people try to tell you that Jesus and the Twelve preached the Gospel that we believe (that Christ was going to die, and that He was going to be buried, and He was going to be resurrected and ascended). See, that’s probably their main argument. "Well, no it hadn’t happened, but they knew it was going to happen." No they didn’t know, and these verses make it so plain. This took place toward the end of His ministry. They’re up there in Caesarea Philippi, and they’re going on up to Jerusalem for the crucifixion.
Luke 18:31-33 "Then he took to him the twelve, and said to them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. (that is concerning Jesus of Nazareth) 32. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, (to the Romans) and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated. and spitted on: 33. and they shall scourge him, and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again."
Is that plain? Well, we can’t make it any plainer. Why weren’t the disciples sitting outside the tomb, which no doubt was in the sidewall of a limestone cliff, waiting for the great event that resurrection morning? Well, they didn’t know that He was going to be raised from the dead. But remember Jesus had just told them that, but they didn’t know, God had veiled (hidden) it from them. And it isn’t until we get to John chapter 20, when Peter and John run into the tomb, and see the evidence of resurrection that the Scriptures says, "and they believed. For as yet then knew not the Scripture that He must rise from the dead." How could they not know when Jesus told them? Well the answer is in the next verse.
Luke 18:34 "And they (the Twelve) understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." Well Who hid it from them? God did.
Deuteronomy 29:29a "The secret things belong to the LORD our God: but those thing which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever,…" (this is a Hebrew principle for our understanding and learning)
Now its just here that we need to share some thing written by Andrew Murray in his little book titled "Two Covenants" its found in chapter 12.
"And Moses took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these wards."-Ex. xxiv. 7, 8 ; comp. HEB. ix. 18-20.
HERE is a new aspect in which to regard God's blessed Book. Before Moses sprinkled the blood, he read the Book of the Covenant, and obtained the people's acceptance of it. And when he had sprinkled it, he said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made concerning all these words." The Book contained all the conditions of the Covenant; only through the Book could they know all that God asked of them, and all that they might ask of Him. Let us consider what new light may be thrown both upon the Covenant and upon the Book, by the one thought, that the Bible is the Book of the Covenant.
The very first thought suggested will be this, that in nothing will the spirit of our life and experience, as it lives either in the Old or the New Covenant, be more manifest than in our dealings with the Book. The Old had a book as well as the New. Our Bible contains both. The New was enfolded in the Old; the Old is unfolded in the New. It is possible to read the Old in the spirit of the New; it is possible to read the New as well as the Old in the spirit of the Old.
What this spirit of the Old is, we cannot see so clearly anywhere as just in Israel when the Covenant was made. They were at once ready to promise: "All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient." There was so little sense of their own sinfulness, or of the holiness and glory of God, that with perfect self-confidence they considered themselves able to undertake to keep the Covenant. They understood little of the meaning of that blood with which they were sprinkled, or of that death and redemption of which it was the symbol.
In their own strength, in the power of the flesh, they were ready to engage to serve God. It is just in this same spirit in which many Christians regard the Bible; as a system of laws, a course of instruction to direct us in the way God would have us go. All He asks of us is, that we should do our utmost in seeking to fulfil them; more we cannot do; this we are sincerely ready to do. They know little or nothing of what the death means through which the Covenant is established, or what the life from the dead is through which alone a man can walk in covenant with the God of heaven.
This self-confident spirit in Israel is explained by what had happened just previously. When God had come down on Mount Sinai in thunderings and lightnings to give the law, they were greatly afraid. They said to Moses-: "Let not God speak with us, lest we die; speak thou with us, and we will hear." They thought it was simply a matter of hearing and knowing; they could for certain obey. They knew not that it is only the presence, and the fear, and the nearness, and the power of God humbling us and making us afraid, that can conquer the power of sin and give the power to obey. It is so much easier to receive the instruction from man, and live, than to wait and hear the voice of God and die to all our own strength and goodness. It is not otherwise that many Christians seek to serve God without ever seeking to live in daily contact with Him, and without the faith that it is only His presence which can keep from sin. Their religion is a matter of outward instruction from man: the waiting to hear God's voice that they may obey Him, the death to the flesh and the world that comes with a close walk with God, are unknown. They may be faithful and diligent in the study of their Bible, in reading or hearing Bible teaching; to have as much as possible of that intercourse with the Covenant God Himself which makes the Christian life possible---this they do not seek. End of quote.
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