Читать книгу Blessed Generation (First Edition): Unveiling Jesus In The Tithe - Kenny Mokoena - Страница 5

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last” Revelations 22:13

Jesus is God’s Firstborn. Through Him, God created everything and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Romans 8:29, the bible says that Jesus is the Firstborn among many brothers. We are the many brothers of Jesus by virtue of our new birth. This means that we have been elevated to a level that is much higher than our minds can fathom. We are joint heirs with Jesus and beneficiaries together with Him. God has made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:6), far above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:20). As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). I don’t know about you, but this is what I remind myself of every day.

In this book I used types, pictures, symbols and shadows to illustrate various points. Also pay attention to the words and phrases that I have underlined for more or special emphasis. I have mainly used the New King James bible version for the scriptures, unless otherwise stated and also have incorporated the AMPC bible version, which is known as the Amplified Classic Edition.

The bible is a book of typology, symbols, pictures and mysteries. For example, Romans 5:14 says,

“...Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

Galatians 4:22 says,

“For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bond-woman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman according to the promise, which things are symbolic.”

In Colossians 2:16-17, the apostle Paul refers to foods, festival or new moon or Sabbaths as “a shadow of things to come.” There are many such scriptures throughout the bible. Jesus is in the entire bible, hidden in types, symbols, shadows and pictures.

Before we can appropriate the reality of the new birth (our born- gain status) and what it means to us, we must first understand how much God loves His Son, Jesus. Understanding how much God loves Jesus, will help us realise how much God loves us. Jesus is the sum total of everything that God has ever created.

For the Believer, everything starts and ends with Jesus. Anything else that we try to do apart from Him is a waste of time (John 15:5). If what you hear every Sunday in your Church is principles, but those principles are not built around what Jesus has already done on the cross, you are wasting your time. Life is not about principles, but about Jesus. Principles are good, but not apart from Jesus. They must never replace what Jesus has accomplished through His death on the cross.

To live on principles apart from Christ is a demotion because principles will never ever be able take us close to what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross. What separates us from the world is not principles, but Jesus Christ (see Galatians 4:3-5). The world operates on principles, but the Church operates on faith in Jesus Christ. If you live on principles as a Believer, then you are trying to buy what has already been purchased and paid for with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. In John 15, Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing. God has designed creation to revolve around Jesus Christ.