What Do Mt Sinai and the Cross Have In Common?

The Bible is an amazing book. It is complicated in that it is actually a library of books rather than a single book. As a library it has separate sections for different kinds of writing. Yet it is simple in that from one section to another, and from one book to another there is a unity in purpose so that the message is related and constant. That message is how the redemption/salvation of man was brought about following man's fall.

God does not change. His will does not change. The things that please Him and the things that anger Him do not change. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." The Old Testament has the same message, for example in Malachi 3:6, "For I the Lord do not change."

The purpose of this article is to examine how this unchanging God has dealt with mankind in different ways throughout man's history. More so, our purpose is to notice that God throughout all of that time had an unchanging plan for man's salvation.

I strongly suggest that you read Ephesians 1:3-12, and Eph 3:9-13 as a minimum background for what will be discussed here. In these verses Paul makes it clear that God had a plan for man's salvation before God even created man. This has been discussed in previous Trying to Walk articles. One may wonder why it is that God had a plan ready to go before the beginning of time, and yet kept it a mystery (Paul's inspired word is the Greek "mysterion" from which we get our English word mystery) from the time of Adam to the time of Christ.

What is required to comprehend this interesting dilemma is the humility to realize that God is so much wiser and knowledgeable than us that it is ridiculous to even try to make a comparison. In Isaiah 55, God said the difference is like comparing a galaxy to the earth. We are out of our league. God in His wisdom knew that a period of time (Gal 4:4) was required for circumstances to be right for Jesus to come and complete the plan of redemption.

The Development Chart which accompanies this article as an end attachment illustrates that just as humans go through stages of growth which are demonstrated physically as well as in numerical and verbal skills, humankind has gone through a similar process spiritually as guided by the wisdom and plan of God. There have been three ages which are not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, yet are clear to the Bible student. Each age is distinguished by the maturity level of man's relationship with God. There was a spiritual infancy, a spiritual adolescence and a spiritual maturity that took some time to develop.

The Development Chart shows that our spiritual infancy was known as the Patriarchal Age, a time during which God spoke his will to certain men known as Patriarchs (Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc.) Eventually mankind reached a point of spiritual adolescence which was known as the Mosaical Age. During this time the Law of Moses was where man found the will of God. Finally mankind reached a point of spiritual maturity known as the Christian Age. This age is connected with Christ's redemptive sacrifice for the salvation of man, and the New Testament in which we now find the will of God revealed. If we don't understand this chronology we are going to have great difficulty keeping God's will in a way that pleases Him.

The chart titled "God's Eternal Purpose" (GEP) adds to the fundamental understanding provided by the Development Chart. Remember, that all of this is connected to the first and third chapters of Ephesians as noted above (and other places in the Bible as well.) You should read through those verses before during, and after your consideration of the things written here. The charts, and the explanation given of the charts, are really nothing more than what Paul is talking about in Ephesians.

GEP shows Adam and Eve beginning mankind's spiritual journey in the lower left corner and heading toward redemption and an Eternity in Heaven with God in the upper right hand corner. Adam and Eve, representative of all of mankind, are in the time of spiritual infancy, The Patriarchal Age. During this time period people lived in nomadic clans and there was no well organized society.

This is a time during which God spoke to selected men, patriarchs of their tribe, or clan, giving them His instructions for what He wanted them to do. Some examples of this would be telling Adam and Eve to tend the Garden of Eden, telling Noah to build an ark, telling Abraham to leave Ur and go to a land that God would show him. This period, or dispensation, lasted until the children of Israel came to Mt Sinai. It seems that during this period of spiritual infancy it was God's major intention that people come to know that there is a God, and that as He makes His will known, He expects them to follow it.

How do we know the Patriarchal Age came to an end at Mt Sinai? We know because Mt. Sinai is the iconoclastic point at which God instituted the Hebrew religion. God stopped talking to family patriarchs and put priests in the position of "leading" the religion and being an intermediary between God and man. The various sacrifices and holy days were instituted and instructions were given for priestly duties and what God's expectations for behavior and obedience were. The Law of Moses is much more than Ten Commandments. It was a whole system of religion by which man was to access God.

This new "religion" was a step toward more maturity in several ways. God now had official priests (and prophets) through whom He gave His messages to the people, and through whom the people accessed God. Having initiated a religion at Mt Sinai, the Israelites soon established themselves, through God's guidance, as a nation in a world of nations. There was the Law of Moses that explicitly recorded the significant factors and precepts of the Hebrew religion. Importantly, with the Law, God's expectations were better known and well defined.

It seems that it was now God's major intention that God's people, trying to keep the Law and being faced with all the attendant sacrifices would come to understand that they, that is mankind, simply cannot measure up to what God needs them to be and are in grave danger without some kind of help. That help was promised as God's son, Jesus, who would come as the Messiah. The Mosaical Age, or dispensation, lasted from Mt Sinai to the cross.

"In the fullness of time" Ephesians 1:10, when mankind came to a point of spiritual maturity, God sent Jesus to earth to perform His work of redemption leading to the salvation of mankind. Jesus' death on the cross marked the end of the old Law of Moses, "nailing it to the cross," Colossians 2:14. It also marks the beginning of Christ's church on this earth as Jesus had predicted in Matt. 16:18, and so a new dispensation began, the Christian Age.

Several important distinctions mark the Christian Age. Now God's chosen people have changed from being the Jewish nation to being those from every nation (Gentiles) who choose to believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Ephesians 2:11-13. The history and teachings of God's former people, the Jews, were found in the Old Testament and that was replaced with the New Testament containing the teachings pertinent to and some history of God's new people, the church, 1 Peter 2:9-10. All of the sacrifices "of bulls and goats" which could never take away sin, but only move it forward till the next sacrifice, Hebrews 10:3-4, have been replaced by the "once-and-for-all" sacrifice of the son of God, Hebrews 10:12.

Most importantly, a system which involved a person being judged by their perfection in keeping a system of laws, thereby proving to people that they didn't measure up, has been replaced by a system in which salvation depends on the grace and mercy of God bestowed upon those who are honestly and lovingly trying their best to follow His will as it is revealed in the New Testament. Gods intention in the Christian age is to provide the sacrifice of Christ through which man could finally be offered salvation, the "mystery" be solved, and God's plan be fulfilled and completed.

What we've seen is that God has taken his people through three very different dispensations of dealing with them and their issues. But though each of the three was different from the other two, all of them went together to make up the one plan that God had for man's redemption before He even created man.

The most important take away for us is that in each age people had to adhere to God's will for that age. Jewish people in 700 BC could not please God by observing Christian teaching found in Galatians. Noah could not please God by observing Jewish feast days. Jewish people could not please God by not observing Jewish feast days and then claiming they were being like Noah.

For us, living in the Christian age, we cannot worship and serve God in the same way that Abraham was expected to because we are not living in the Patriarchal Age. Nor can we please God and serve Him by doing the things outlined in Leviticus or Deuteronomy that pertained to the Law of Moses.

There are concepts that can be found in both the Law of Moses and the New Testament which contains the will, or the Law, of Christ. It is our duty to be obedient to these concepts, not because they are part of the Old Testament, but because they are found in the New Testament of Christ. For example. In Rom. 13:8-10, Paul explains how many of the Ten Commandments from Moses' Law are subsumed in the "law of Christ." Also, the 4th and 5th chapters of 1st John have much to do with how the commandment of loving God in Deuteronomy 6:4 (and repeated by Jesus in Mark 12:30) are fundamental to the New Testament.

But the system in place during the Mosaical age reached its end and is no more. The same is also true of the Patriarchal age. Now all people who wish to please God, must worship and serve Him according to the New Testatment which went into effect with the death of Christ on the cross. Read Ephesians 2:14-18. There is no other way, John 14:6.

• (I am required to tell you that the cross on GEP, and the representations of people in the physical column and spiritual column on the Development Chart are AI generated, (DIdn't realize how high tech I am, did you?))

• There were some problems adding the charts. You can find them on the Trying to Walk Facebook page. I apologize for the inconvenience. You are welcome to use them in any way that will further the gospel and church of our Lord, Jesus Christ.