Genesis 1:28 – Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Jesus came to restore what rightfully belongs to man. After creation Adam received authority and dominion over the whole earth. He was to be god of the earth, just like God was God of the heavens. But in the fall, Adam surrendered his authority and right to have dominion over the earth to the enemy. The enemy then began war on all that was good.
Let’s be clear though, negatives are very real, but they cannot be “taken away.” They can only be replaced by the positive. For example, sin/bitterness is very real, but to get rid of them you must bring in the antidote. The antidote is righteousness/forgiveness. This is why you simply can’t stop sinning by abstaining from the acts of sin. Because sin is not an act. It is the absence of righteousness. Even in abstaining from sin, your sin remains. Even if you proudly manage your negative behavior, you remain a sinner until righteousness enters.
Jesus makes all that’s been taken from man through the fall available to him again through the finished work. Man’s inheritance is tangible. Yet, it can be taken away. Righteousness can be taken away. But it is the loss of righteousness that brings sin. It is the loss of joy that brings sorrow. Through the fall, man lost his original position and authority. Sin entered the world, because it is the definition of the vacuum created by the loss of righteousness or right-standing with God. SO, the only proper way to remedy sin was to restore and bring righteousness back to man. Jesus accomplished this by fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law perfectly as a man. He did it through faith and relationship with the Father.
The new covenant is between the Father and the Son – Jesus. The old covenant was between God and man. The old covenant was dependent on man’s performance. The new covenant depends only on one man’s performance. Jesus the man! He completed the work. The work is finished. The terms of the covenant are settled forever and cannot be broken. Men are invited to be the beneficiaries of this covenant through faith alone. As beneficiaries we become joint heirs with Jesus. Everything He has is ours, and everything we have is already His. He holds legal title to whatever it is that we call “ours” by terms of the covenant between He and the Father for the victory He won over sin and death.
So, we cannot “lose” anything by coming to Him. We actually get access to much more than we had before. This is not merely in material things. There are greater spoils that we have access to than material things. For example: righteousness, peace, and joy. Wealth is not defined by how much you have in the bank, but rather how much you have access to. Wealth doesn’t mean you’ll be rich. Wealth means you are satisfied in excess, so that you can share your blessings with others. These are the rights of the beneficiaries more than they are the obligations.
This is GOOD NEWS!
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