photo #4492978

ESTABLISHING THE SECOND "Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." (Heb. 10:9) Woven throughout the Bible we find numerous themes. The preservation of the promised seed is a theme. Redemption through blood sacrifice is a theme. God's coming kingdom is a theme. Suffering before glory is a theme, and there are many more, including the theme that we'll address briefly in this article: the theme of Establishing the Second. Our text is Hebrews 10:9, which speaks of Christ's sacrifice replacing the Old Testament animal sacrifices. Knowing this would be the case from the very beginning (the former would be replaced by the latter), God sprinkled His word with little reminders of this principle . . . It wasn't the First Coming of Christ that established His kingdom; it will be the Second Coming. It wasn't in Adam that we secure our eternal relationship with God; it's in the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin enters during the Old World; sin exits during the New World. Sin entered in the Old Testament; sin exits in the New Testament. Your old birth condemns you; your new birth saves you. You die in a body of death; you live eternally in a new glorified body. The promised seed was killed with Abel; the promised seed was restored with Seth. Abraham had hopes for Ishmael; God chose Isaac. Esau the elder serves Jacob the younger. It's not Manasseh the elder the receives Jacob's blessing; it's Ephraim the younger. It's not young Moses that leads the Israelites out of Egypt; it's old Moses after forty years in the desert. It's not Moses (the law) that leads Israel into Canaan; it's Joshua (Christ) that leads them in after Moses dies. It's not Saul that God chooses as a king; David is the man after God's own heart. The mobile tabernacle is replaced by the permanent structure of Solomon's temple. Returning from the first captivity doesn't settle Israel permanently in the land; this happens after the return from the second captivity (Isa. 11:11). Mt. Calvary begins what is completed at Mt. Zion. The new believer enters the kingdom spiritually long before he sees the kingdom literally (John 3:3-5; Col. 1:13). The disciples chose Matthias; God chose Paul. It's not the sufferings of Christ that complete God's program; it's the glory that follows. It's not a cross; it's a crown. It just never ends. The above are only a few samplings. If we'll slow down and read our Bibles more carefully and prayerfully, supernaturally instead of naturally, then we'll see this theme unfolding page after page because God has told us from the beginning that He would take away the first in order to establish the second.