“So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law? Or by your believing what you heard?

Abraham ‘believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness’ (Genesis 15:6). Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 

Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you’ (Genesis 12:3, Genesis 18:18, Genesis 22:18). So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 

All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’ (Deuteronomy 27:26). 

Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith’ (Habakkuk 2:4). The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, ‘the person who does these things will live by them’ (Leviticus 18:5). 

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’ (Deuteronomy 21:23). He redeemed us in order that the blessings given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles (everyone) through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the spirit” (Galatians 3:5-14). 

The Blood of Christ is what the law required.

In Hebrews chapter 9 Paul is explaining what the law required to access God and the forgiveness of sins. In verses 9:1-10 he describes that the temple for God was decorated with specific religious adornments: the lampstand and the consecrated bread was in the section of the temple called the holy place, signifying that God is the light (lamp) of the world, that his words bring wisdom that gives life (bread). 

In another place that was called the most holy place, there was a golden altar for incense sacrifices, the gold covered ark of the covenant and inside the tablets of law and Aaron’s staff that had budded. These articles indicate the covenant God has chosen to use to provide for his people and the people he has chosen to be in service to him and to speak through.

Only priests would enter the holy place to offer the sacrificial bread to God and light the lamp and only the high priest would enter the most holy place once a year to sprinkle the blood offering on the symbolic items as an offering to God for forgiveness (Hebrews 9:1-10). 

But Paul shares these details about the temple to explain how Jesus’ sacrifice was a greater sacrifice to God than the sacrifices offered to him by priests and even the high priests of the temple because, ‘he (Jesus) went through the greater more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands…He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12). 

Paul explains that the blood of goats and lambs in the earthly tabernacle was used to symbolically cleanse and sanctify the tabernacle adornments and the people “so that they were outwardly clean” (Hebrews 9:13). 

But that Jesus through his death has entered heaven itself to appear for us in the presence of God as our advocate (Hebrews 9:24). Jesus came to fulfill what the law required, blamelessness for forgiveness. But because humanity could not meet what the law required sacrifices were given to God of symbolically blemish-free goats or lambs so that God would accept the sacrifice of the blameless and put the sins of the guilty on it. The law also required death for sin, so the goats and rams, lambs and sheep were killed in place of the guilty. 

Jesus fulfilled what the law required through the shedding of his blood and established a new covenant between God and humanity. “The law required that everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). 

For this reason Christ is the mediator (symbolic high priest) of a new covenant that those who believe in this covenant may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Jesus died as a ransom and set us free from the guilt of the sins committed under the first covenant (Hebrews 9:15). 

Jesus has enabled everyone who believes to enter the most holy place, meaning the presence of God through him and access God’s eternal promises and his Spirit that gives power. 

Paul explains that every law that God commanded through Moses was put into effect through the death of a goat or lamb. “When Moses proclaimed every command of the law to all the people he took the blood of calves together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the tablets and all the people. Symbolizing that this is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep” (Exodus 24:8). In the same way Moses also sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle, and everything used in its ceremonies” (Hebrews 9:19—21). 

Paul reasons: how much more, then has the blood of Christ who through the Spirit of God offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from useless rituals that lead to death (speaking of the law and the sacrifices of goats) so that we may serve the living God in the way that he requires under the new covenant that he has established through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:14). 

“It was necessary then for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with the sacrificial blood of goats and lambs, but the heavenly spiritual things were purified with a better sacrifice God himself through Jesus (Hebrews 9:23). 

“Jesus Christ has appeared before God once for all at the culmination of the ages in the fulfillment of God’s plan and word to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to appear before the judgement seat of God as an offering to take away the sins of many…. (Hebrews 9:26-28). 

Because of love, Jesus died and through his death he has been given all authority over the dead and the living. His act of love is the fulfillment of the law and has done the work that the law requires so that his kingdom of life would be established on faith in him alone, not the law. 

Jesus’ sacrifice has made us legal heirs to the kingdom of God.

Paul explains further, “Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds’, meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed’, (Genesis 12:7, Genesis 13:15, Genesis 24:7). Meaning one person, who is Christ. 

What I mean is this: the law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 

Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 

Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. 

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 

So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Because you are God’s sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hears, the Sprit who calls out ‘Abba, Father’. So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 3:15-4:7).

Born under the law.

Jesus was born under the law to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship, heirs of God’s eternal inheritance and promises, grace, eternal salvation and life through the Spirit of God and power through his Spirit (Galatians 3:4). 

Jesus is God’s promise to establish his kingdom through a new covenant, a new promise that all who follow the laws of this covenant built on faith would be made righteous before God. 

Jesus is God’s love and compassion for a rebellious and imperfect people who cannot on their own be made acceptable before God, cannot receive the gift of life that exist only with God because he is the giver of life, cannot know wisdom or justice because of our imperfection.

Before this Jesus was born, God sent messengers to announce his arrival. These were the prophets of the Old Testament and old covenant. Also another messenger was prophesied. God said I will “send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking (the God who brings justice for the oppressed and all those in need of salvation which is us all who are incapable of righteousness or faithfulness) will come to his temple the throne of God. This messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come (Malachi 3:1) 

The two messengers that the prophet Malachi prophesies about are John the Baptist who will announce Jesus the messenger of the new covenant.

Luke 1:5-25 shares the account of the fulfillment of God’s word through the prophet Malachi to send a messenger to announce Jesus, the new covenant message of the kingdom of God. 

The account shares that John’s parents were both descendants of Aaron and that John’s father Zechariah was a priest who presented sacrifices before God along with the Aaronic priests who God had chosen to bring offerings to him on behalf of his people for forgiveness.

While Zechariah was performing his priestly duty God spoke to him. God would speak to messengers and prophets and to priests directly and they would share those messages with the people of God. Now that a new covenant has been given through Jesus, we no longer have mediators to God’s throne, Jesus gives all believers access to God to speak face to face as heirs and children of God, a privileged of sonship to know and speak with your father, who is also the Creator of all things. 

But at this time God was only speaking to his people through messengers and God spoke to Zechariah as he was offering up a sacrifice of incense. An angel appeared and spoke to Zechariah and said (announced) ‘Do not be afraid Zechariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 

He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.

He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord in the Spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Malachi 4:5-6, Luke 1:9-17). 

The angel sent the same message that the prophet Malachi had prophesied, that God would send a messenger to his people who would turn the heart of God the father back to his children and the disobedient or rebellious and unfaithful children of God back to their father God in preparation to receive the gift of Jesus that would reconnect humanity with God through his sacrifice that takes guilt and makes blameless before God all who accept him as the new covenant of the kingdom of God that would give the gift of adoption, the promise of heirs inheritance to all who believe. 

God was announcing this to Zechariah that his son was chosen to be that messenger, so that people would believe in Jesus. God had spoken through his prophets that Jesus would be rejected, because God knew that the way that he was sending his son, people would reject him.

As proof and a sign that Jesus was who God had promised, God spoke to Zechariah in a supernatural way through one of his angels, but Zechariah didn’t believe. He didn’t think that God was able to choose him because he was old and his wife was old and he said to the supernatural being who appeared to him standing in the temple of God at the right side of the altar of incense, “How can I be sure of this” (Luke 1:18)? Meaning, you as a messenger are not enough of a sign for me to believe. I cannot believe your message and even if it were true you’ve got to be crazy to think that two old people beyond childbearing years could have the child that you are announcing. 

And God rebuked Zechariah for his disbelief and faithlessness. The angel said, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news” (Luke 1:19). Meaning what more do you need to hear or to see to believe that what I’ve just said is true? I am speaking the same word of God that is true, that God has used to create all of creation and to speak the promise of the coming Messiah. 

Then the angel said, since you do not believe God’s word, I will take your voice and “you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time” (Luke 1:20). 

So God took Zechariah’s voice away as punishment for his disbelief and to help his unbelief and anyone else who would not believe what God had spoken. God did this to further confirm his word that “many people of Israel would be brought back to God” through John’s message and they testimony of his birth (Luke 1:15-22). 

And as the angel Gabriel had spoken, Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth did become pregnant, and she secluded herself for five months to protect God’s promise of a child and to keep away from doubters who would have tried to challenge or harm God’s promise to her. Her faith and belief in God’s word is confirmed when she said, “The Lord has done this for me. In these days (of terror, uncertainty, disbelief, old age) he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people” (Luke 1:25). 

Elizabeth believed in the God who works wonders and miracles that he would not only do the impossible but also that her son would do what God promised, announce the coming of the Messiah and prepare people’s hearts to receive this new covenant of faith and forgiveness through repentance, God’s new covenant of love through faith not works his new command that fulfilled all other commands that if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength you will live and have favor with God (Deuteronomy 6:5). 

Jesus is the fulfillment of this command that God so loved the world that whoever choses to love and honor him through faith and belief in Jesus will live and become a child of God the father who he accepts, corrects, and blesses. This is exemplified in a parable that Jesus teaches about the lost son. 

The parable of the lost heir. 

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them. 

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 

So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.” So he got up and went to his father. 

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him. The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But the father said to his sevants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate. 

Meanwhile, the elder son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come”, he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.” 

The elder brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:11-32). 

Jesus sends out the seventy-two.

Luke 10 shares promises that heirs of the kingdom of God have access to when they repent of their own power and might to do anything of use for them and put their faith in the new covenant power of Jesus. 

In this account Jesus is appointing seventy-two additional disciples and sends them two by two ahead of him as messengers of the coming kingdom of God to every place where he was about to go to prepare the hearts of the people to believe and have faith in his message of salvation (Luke 10:1). 

Jesus told them that many people are prepared to receive God’s message of salvation through faith in Jesus like a field that is ready to be harvested and that he was sending them to the fields as workers in the kingdom of God to bring people back to God (Luke 10:2). 

Jesus told them that everything that his messengers need he will provide, housing, clothing, food and wages all that he asked is that they speak about what he has told them, the good news of the kingdom of God, salvation through faith, not through the law or sacrifices. And Jesus tells them that he has given them authority to heal the sick by the power of his name (Luke 10:3-15). 

Luke 10:17 says that those seventy-two messengers that Jesus sent ahead of him came back to Jesus “with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’” Jesus replied that he was witness to Satan’s defeat before the beginning of time and has been given the authority to give authority to people who have faith in him over all wicked spiritual powers so that they will submit to them and not harm them. Then he tells them that the greater inheritance is not that demons submit to you, this is not a reason to celebrate. The greatest gift of your inheritance is that your names are written in heaven, you are an heir of the kingdom of God, this is why you should celebrate (Luke 10:19-20).