God Is Good - Pt 5

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:10-14, ESV). So much is packed into the background and meaning of the passage we have been using in this series. John Piper suggested that Christians "love" the Jeremiah 29 passage due to the setting in which God delivered His message to the Jewish community exiled and enslaved in Babylon. "We Christians, we Gentiles especially, go to it and we love it because it holds out the prospect of not destruction for us, but life and hope and joy in the future," said Piper. "The reason we can do it is because at the Last Supper, Jesus lifted up the cup which represented his blood and he said 'this cup is the new covenant in my blood.'" Piper went on to suggest that Christ's crucifixion meant that the Old Testament promises would be fulfilled with those who come to faith in Jesus. "Everything that God meant to be fulfilled for His people Israel now is going to be fulfilled in his people of the New Covenant. So that not only Jews but also Gentiles, through faith in the messiah, become part of the covenant people of God, so that every promise can be laid hold on by Gentiles who are in the messiah, in Christ Jesus," Piper added. There are two important New Testament passages that support this truth: For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 1:20-22, ESV). He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:32-39, ESV). We no longer need fear anything that comes into our lives! God is Good!