The church of today is frustrating God’s purpose for giving us a New Testament through our unending fascination for Old Testament types and shadows! And this aberration constitutes a HUGE BARRIER to accessing the full realities and blessings of the New Testament, fully paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament era, God used various types and shadows to communicate various aspects of the life and ministry of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. However, after the New Testament was triggered by the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all the types and shadows CEASED TO BE RELEVANT AND BINDING on God’s people. In other words, Jesus is the SUBSTANCE of all the Old Testament types and shadows. And once we have the SUBSTANCE, of what use are the types and shadows, described by Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:17 as “…a MERE SHADOW of what is to come…”?
The first-fruits offering is one of such types and shadow. The feast of first-fruits is one of the seven feasts that God gave as types and shadows of the coming Messiah. Particularly, the feast of first-fruits foreshadows the resurrection of Jesus Christ; which would result in an unimaginable harvest of fruits (souls) that would be delivered from their sins, and ushered into the fullness of God's blessings.
At this stage of Christianity, both Jesus Christ and all those that come to God by Him ARE THE FIRST-FRUITS OF THAT HARVEST. The full harvest would come as God's plan unfold for mankind with the second coming of Christ, eventually resulting in the full restoration of Israel (Romans 11:26), and as the nations of the world learn to obey God. “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one (Zechariah 14:9). This is the full harvest. We are the first-fruits of the harvest.
At His resurrection, Jesus Himself BECAME THE FIRST-FRUITS of those that had died, thereby paving the way for all that believe in Him to ALSO BECOME first-fruits unto God. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” (1 Corinthians 15:20). James 1:18 describes believers as “a kind of firstfruits of his creatures”. In addition, Apostle Paul described some believers as “the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ” (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:15). There are other similar New Testament passages that show that Jesus and those that believe in Him are the first-fruits that God had in mind in giving that ordinance.
At that time, the ordinance was given to Israel as a shadow - a mark of remembrance of their days of captivity in Egypt, their supernatural deliverance, and the inheritance of a land that flowed with milk and honey (Leviticus 23:9-14, Deuteronomy 26:1-10, etc). Do you see how all these foreshadow how Jesus saved us from our sins, and has now caused us to be “… blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places”? (Ephesians 1:3). So, the first-fruits ordinance was a mere shadow. Today, in Christ Jesus, we live in the SUBSTANCE of that shadow.
Therefore, to teach New Testament believers that God requires them to give Him their first salary in a new job, their January salary every year, etc, as a first-fruits offering is COMPLETELY UNTRUE!!! Please note this: nowhere in the Bible would we ever see that Jesus Christ or any of His Apostles ever MENTIONED OR COLLECTED such money from people! It never happened, because God does not expect believers in Christ to build a tabernacle around types and shadows AFTER we have seen the SUBSTANCE that they symbolised. This may constitute IDOLATRY. It is almost akin to killing lambs today as atonement for our sins! It is a gross abuse of the types and shadows that God used in the Old Testament.
If you are a believer, you are already the first-fruits that God desires. Praise God for this awesome privilege! This has always been His plan. He does NOT require a first-fruits offering from you! If there’s anything that God requires from you, it is that you should be focussed on working out your salvation with fear and trembling TO CONFORM TO YOUR STATUS AS A FIRST-FRUITS OFFERING UNTO HIM. That is what He truly requires from you, not your first salary, January salary, etc.
In our days, many believers may be repudiating or nullifying the work of Christ in their lives because they are being taught to build a shrine around the Old Testament. In some ways, this was how error crept into the Galatian church. The work of Christ was becoming ineffectual in their lives because of the additives they were introducing to the completed work of Christ at Calvary.
Jesus told us clearly that we cannot pour New Wine into Old Wineskin (Matthew 9:17). The Old Wineskin lacks the capacity to retain the strength and vitality of the New Wine - so, it bursts and the New Wine is wasted. It is to avoid this wastage that God is not committing the New Wineskin of the knowledge of the grace of God to this generation of Christians. We are too attached to the Old Testament and its carnal ordinances!!!
And this attachment is being fuelled by our men of God that exhume these Old Testament types and shadows to raise money for their ministries. Have you not noticed that most of the Old Testament precepts that are emphasised today have to do with money? In leading you back to exhume Old Testament precepts, our ‘men of God’ may really and truly be putting your eternal life in jeopardy – all because of money!!! This is the destructive work of the god of mammon in the church system of today.
There is too much deception all around us these days. Satan is on the rampage looking for spiritual destinies to steal, to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10). Please do not become his victim through the huge deception he is perpetrating today through ‘men of God’. Learn how to go back to Jesus Christ DIRECTLY. Learn to know Him for yourself. Learn to sit at His feet and LISTEN TO HIM in fellowship as Mary did (Luke 10:39-42).
God WILL NOT DELIVER YOU from false leadership if you VOLUNTARILY continue to allow yourself to be led astray by deceitful ‘men of God’. This is clear from the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:14b: "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch”. Please note those words: ‘BOTH SHALL FALL’. This means there will be no exemption on the basis of ignorance. BOTH SHALL FALL.... Please do not allow anybody to lead you to fall.
If you are a true seeker of Jesus Christ, WAKE UP today. Please ARISE, RETURN, and CONFORM to the patterns that Jesus Christ and His Apostles gave us in the early days of Christianity. These patterns and precepts ARE ENOUGH for us to follow. They will give us the fruits of the New Testament that Jesus purchased with His blood. This is the ONLY path to safety. Therefore ARISE, RETURN, and CONFORM.
He that has an ear, let Him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
Thanks for reading, God bless you.
#AriseReturnConform
(THE RELEVANCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH: Please let us be very clear about this: Believers must NOT dare to underrate or underplay the importance of the Old Testament in the Bible. The Old Testament has its full and valid divine purpose, just as the New Testament. The Old Testament IS an integral and highly essential part of the Christian faith.
BUT in this New Testament era, everything that we must obey and practice from the Old Testament has a precedent or a pattern in the New Testament. In other words, the New Testament is our God-given torchlight to understand, and to know how to relate to the much valuable Old Testament. So, we dare not ignore or trivialise the Old Testament.
But, if we do not understand Jesus, we CANNOT understand the Old Testament fully. Because the Old Testament speaks about Jesus (John 5:39). And since our generation of believers today do not TRULY know Jesus, unscrupulous men are using the Old Testament to bamboozle us, and exploit our ignorance. This is why a lot of the wolves-in-sheep clothing ALWAYS turn to the Old Testament when they want to fleece the people of God out of their money! Be wise. Know Jesus for yourself, and then you’ll understand the Old Testament clearly. Thanks.)