We're Living In The Age of God's Favor, The Age of God's Answering and Helping!

We've been looking at the time is fulfilled scriptures which support the ideas that the when of the Kingdom of God was 2000 years ago. The Kingdom of God has been here 2000 years. We saw it first in Mark 1:14-15 where Jesus says the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God has come near. Well if the time is fulfilled then it's not a question of time, there's not more time is fulfilled, so the kingdom came near 2000 years ago. Then we saw in Luke 4 when Jesus preaches in his hometown synagogue , he reads from Isaiah 61, and the switches to Isaiah 58 towards the end, but these scriptures are about the Gospel preacher, who proclaims good news to the poor, recovering of sight to the blind, setting at liberty the oppressed, and proclaims the year of the Lord's favor. Jesus is basically saying that's me, that Isaiah was talking about, when he finishes by saying, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing. So the year of the Lord's favor was present 2000 years ago when Jesus preached at Nazareth. The year of the Lord's favor is essentially a synonym for the gospel of the Kingdom of God, i.e. that the Kingdom of God has drawn near. Finally we started looking a 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:2 where Pauls is talking about how God has reconciled us by Jesus. You can tell from the context that reconciliation doesn't just mean forgiveness of sin, as though our sins were forgiven and that was it, but it means reconciled to favor with God. We have favor with God, because we're in Christ Jesus. Then Paul says we've been given the ministry of reconciliation, we are Christ's Ambassadors, we have been made the tzedekah of God, God's acts of loving kindness, we are God's coworkers, offering reconciliation to divine favor to the world. Then Paul warns per the Mace translation, let not the offers of divine favor be made to you in vain. What does that mean? In the same way that Jesus made the offers of divine favor to the people Nazareth and they rejected them and took him to throw him off a cliff and stone him, so that Matthew and Mark say he was unable to do any mighty works there because of their unbelief. Paul finishes up with what I call the time is fulfilled scriptures, Now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. SCRIPTURES WE LOOK AT IN THIS EPISODE 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:2, Romans 1:16-17, Isaiah 49:8, N.T. WRIGHT TRANSLATION OF 2 COR. 5:21 The New Testament for Everyone, Third Edition, N. T. Wright 2 corinthians 5:21 The Messiah did not know sin, but God made him to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might embody God's faithfulness to the covenant." Mace translation of 2 Cor. 6:1-2 6:1 Invested then with such a commission, I beseech you let not the offers of divine favour be made to you in vain. 6:2 for he saith, " I have heard thee in a favourable time, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee." now this is the favourable time; this is that day of salvation. TDNT (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Abridged - Little Kittel)) "…The word has a messianic sense in Is. 61:2: The messianic age is the time chosen by God as the time of the divine presence and salvation. This time comes with Jesus (Lk. 4:18ff.). The acceptable time of divine election and presence is that of Christ's coming. This is for Paul the time of God's hearing and helping (Is. 49:8ff.), i.e., the acceptable time, the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).…" [W. GRUNDMANN, II, 50-59] WANT TO LEARN MORE GO TO OUR WEBSITE: https://www.IVChristianCenter.com CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THIS MINISTRY BY FEEDING THE OX VIA PAYPAL: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s...