Christ, The Surety of All Things – Joseph Addai Kusi

By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. (Heb.7:22)
Now this I say, that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers …… (Rom. 15:8)
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea. For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen unto the glory of God by us. (2Cor.1:19-20)

To understand the work and the way of God, we must grasp firmly his way and dealing with the elders of faith who obtained a good report – this will enable us to see his work in reality as it was in a shadow with the fathers. (Psa. 90:16-17, Heb.1:2) Elsewhere, it is said that all the Scriptures were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. From the era of Abraham, Moses and the prophets up to the time of Christ, God spoke to the fathers by the prophets who foresaw the things concerning the Holy One to come.

These great promises delivered to the fathers became a testimony in Jacob and a law in Israel, which was commanded to be taught to the generations following (Psa. 78:5). We must be concerned with the weight and consequence of these promises – the means by which they were carried on and made sure to all the seed to which it was promised. (Rom. 4:16). This concerns not only the Abrahamic covenant and promises but also, the law of commandments given to Moses to be taught the generations of Israel as a perpetual statute. In the 9th chapter of Hebrews, the appointed time at which Christ came is called the time of reformation.

The word “reformation” in the Greek New Testament is used only once and connotes a straightening out of that which has gone out of line In confirming the surety of his promises, God reforms that which in shadows is unclear into the light of the reality that is Christ. When these words were spoken to Israel, many stumbled at it and they fell short of the rest apportioned unto them. (Heb. 4:1-3) Their carcasses fell in the wilderness because they provoked God, lusted after evil things, and in so doing failed to enter the land of promise. We are admonished to consider these examples lest we also fall short of God’s rest through disobedience. We seek to establish by what means God made his promises sure and confirmed them to the heirs as immutable (Heb.6:16-20) and by this understanding, we can reckon the means also to establish the surety of these better promises delivered to us who have believed in Christ.

Here therefore is the testimony which we seek to establish; Wherein God willing more abundantly to confirm the immutability of his counsel to the heirs of promise confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us…. (Heb.6:17-18). According to this testimony, God willed more abundantly to confirm or make sure the promises, so that the heirs may more readily hold on to them steadfastly. It is evident that the promise would be obtained through and by a seed or a remnant.

Isaiah makes this clear…For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. (Isa. 10:22)….A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. (Psa. 22:30) Christ indeed came as the seed in whom the Word spoken would be fulfilled. (Gal.3:16). Yet it is most essential to establish that not only is the promise fulfilled in him, but also that he is the means by which it is fulfilled and also the fulfillment itself – it is fulfilled in him, by him and as him. For all the promises of God in him are yea, in him Amen. (2 Cor.1:19).

This confirms the promises in him. We must understand the other aspects also. He also is the executor, minister and confirmer of that which is promised: And this I say, that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. (Rom. 15:8). Yet the confirmation or making sure of the promises is incomplete if we are not presented with the thing confirmed itself… By so much was Jesus made the surety of a better testament. (Heb. 7:22). Jesus therefore came in due time as the seed in whom, by whom and as whom all the promises, the law and the prophets would be fulfilled…He is the therefore the surety, the pledge, the confirmer and the confirmation of all that which was spoken to the fathers – but he hath in these last days spoken by His Son who is the confirmed and determined Son of God with power, having being made Lord and Christ by the resurrection from the dead. (Rom. 1:4, Acts 2:36)

In Christ therefore, we have the greatest and utmost pledge of surety of the hope set before us. In the law, Moses said…No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge, for he taketh a man’s life to pledge. (Deut. 24:6). The Lord forbade the usurers from taking the grinding mill of a borrower as collateral for a debt owed – the grinding mill consisted of the upper millstone and the nether millstone, and was used to crush the grain to make food for the family. To take it away then was to doom the debtor’s family to starvation.

Christ we know is our grain offering, crushed that we might live….And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. (Matt. 21:44) Jesus is the both the nether and the upper millstone taken to pledge or as a confirmation – his life is taken to pledge as our surety. He is the grain crushed that became bread which is his life given to us, and he is yet also the grinder at the mill. As the grinder, He crushed the grain which is himself, by the mill which is himself and made it into the pure bread of life, which is himself given us as our life.

By him therefore, the grain is crushed by the upper and the nether millstone, the nether being the firmer and the stronger. (Job 41:24) The upper millstone speaks of the things which were spoken before to the fathers, and its grain became food for their eating in the wilderness…For they did eat all the same spiritual meat (food/bread) and did all drink the same spiritual drink…for they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them: and that Rock was Christ. The nether stone is a firmer rock made from solidified volcanic lava8 – this bespeaks the confirmation in Christ which is the body of things to come, stronger and firmer than the upper millstone, being the shadows the fathers held on to in the wilderness.

Having therefore these promises, we must hold on steadfastly to them, with Christ as the confidence and we must cast anchor unto him who has gone ahead of us, so that we may have a stable and unwavering profession which holds great reward. (Heb 3:6, 14, Heb 6:12, Heb. 10:35-39) All this answers to the finished and normal work of God in Christ, and the present work of the Spirit in us, yet it must all culminate in the consummate work of God, when Christ shall be all in all (Eph. 1:10, 1Cor. 15:28). In that, Christ shall abound as the surety and fulfillment of all things, even the dispensation of the fullness of times.