GRACE GAZETTE
Volume IVIssue 9
Published occasionally for Zion’s mourners
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Hebrews 12::12-13

THE DEATH OF THE TESTATOR

And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Hebrews 9:15-17

GOD does nothing out of necessity except those things which HE by HIMSELF makes a necessity. Some seem to think that GOD is a GOD of reaction rather than action. I have often heard men say that they hope GOD will intervene in this situation or that as if HE was idly sitting by while HIS children play with their toys only rising up to action whenever one of them is in some sort of trouble or imminent danger which HE desires to deliver them from. Or we hear some say that GOD often changes the circumstances as if the circumstances have a mind of their own. The GOD with whom we have to do is presently working all things according to the good pleasure of HIS will. GOD does not change circumstances. HE prescribes the circumstances we find ourselves in and HE does not "intervene" because HE is already actively involved in the ordering of all events so that it is quite impossible for anything to occur which HE has not directed from the very throne of Heaven. (see Dan.4:35; Eph.1:11)

The salvation of the LORD's people sprang out of the exact design for which HE created the heavens and the earth. HE did not create man only to discover that HE would then be forced into coming up with a scheme of redemption. Rather the scripture tells us that before there was ever a sinner there was a SAVIOR and before the fall the means of man's redemption was already determined. (see Eph.1:4,5; I Pet.1:20; Rev.13:8) The world exists in order to manifest the glory of GOD in the redemption of HIS elect children through the blood of JESUS CHRIST.

When the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us that "of necessity" there must be the death of the testator we understand that this necessity only comes about because of the good pleasure of GOD's purpose and not because some outside force demanded it. GOD is under no obligation nor can he in anywise be held accountable by men or be subject to their judgment of HIS actions. HE will do right, HE may show mercy. (see Gen.18:25; Deut.32:4; Job 34:17-19)

That JESUS CHRIST is the "TESTATOR" (i.e.; one who testifies) of the New Covenant (which is not really new, but ancient) is one of the most glorious of truths revealed in all of the scriptures. The writer here uses the illustration of the administration of a "last will and testament" setting forth the necessity of the one making the "will" having to die in order for the "will" to be administered. A man may be a rightful heir to a great fortune but until the one who owns the property included in the "will" dies, that man cannot take possession of it even though he can see it and perhaps even feel it. Abraham and all of the old testament saints up to and including John the Baptist could look at the promise but were not allowed to actually possess the fullness of that which was promised to them even though they were as much the heirs of the promise as are any of the elect who by the grace of GOD have now witnessed the death and resurrection of our blessed LORD. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."(Heb 11:13) A valid will and testament consists of three things, and in the New Covenant JESUS CHRIST fulfills all three. A will must have:

An Author or Testator. JESUS CHRIST has determined all of the blessings which HE would bestow on HIS elect. The New Covenant is really older than the Old Covenant because its precepts were laid before the Old. The Old Covenant was temporary and only had an existence for the purpose of bringing in that which was better. The Law written in tables of stone could only condemn, but the LORD promised to write HIS law upon the hearts of HIS children. JESUS CHRIST has determined to set HIS people free from the principle of sin and death which they were all their lifetime subject too. HE has promised to set these bodies in which we dwell free from the power of death which is the last enemy. (see Jer.31:33;Heb.2:15;7:19; I Cor.15:26)

The death of the Testator. All of the promises which JESUS CHRIST determined to bestow upon HIS elect before the foundation of the world have now become our possession because HE has died to purchase our redemption. Our election and vital union with HIM from eternity as glorious as these blessings were, were not our salvation. Though our justification had its decree before the foundations of the earth were laid yet that decree was not our justification. Though our sanctification was certain from ancient times it did not come into our possession until the death of the ONE who was the TESTATOR of the New Covenant. All of the actual blessings of the sons of GOD, though they were chosen before the foundation of the world and ordained to receive them, have only now become theirs because of the death of the TESTATOR.

The Executor or Admininstrator. No will is of any value if the executor of the will fails to see it carried out. JESUS CHRIST is the Administrator of HIS own will. Not only did HE die to secure our redemption but HE rose from the dead in order that HE may apply that purchased blessing to all of those for whom HE intended it. In this natural world; it is possible for a man to be an heir to a great fortune and yet die in poverty because of the inability of the executor of the will to locate him. But such is an impossibility in the case of the new covenant because the same ONE who wrote it also administers it and HE calleth HIS own sheep by name. "But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." (Dan 7:18) "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb 9:14)

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