This Is The Time Of Favour

The Old Testament and the New Testament are starkly different. We are under the covenant of the New Testament, where Jesus came into the world, sacrificed himself at the Cross of Calvary bearing the sins of the world.
 
As we live in this New covenant, the way God approached the world and its people changed. When reading the Old Testament, we come across God and his wrath upon the people. This often leads people to question the goodness of the Lord. In the New Testament, you see the goodness, mercy and love of the Lord. When Jesus came into the world, what He preached was the good news or glad tidings. The Gospel is too good to be true. He forgives our sins, He declares amnesty to all. Jesus’s death on the cross of Calvary, is the declaration of amnesty for all and we need to believe in Him and truly believe that He has forgiven us. However, many people still struggle to believe that, which is why they find ways to sacrifice in order to earn this forgiveness. Examples of these include travelling to holy places, inflicting pain upon oneself, doing charitable works etc.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, ‘The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.’

Who is this world’s god? 
When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them the keys of the earth as custodians of this world. However in the book of Genesis, we see that Adam lost the key and Satan got this key instead, through deception, hence self imposing himself as the ruler of the world. So the god of this age, who is Satan, has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they may never see the truth. Gospel is light and gospel by extension brings light to darkness. So Satan has blinded the unbelievers from believing and hearing the Word and that will allow them to enjoy the light that the gospel brings.

John 1:14 says, ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’

Man was created in the image of God. Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1.3). God is spirit and invisible.
 
Satan blinds the unbelievers from ever tasting and witnessing God. As John 1:14 says, ‘the Word became flesh…’ in the form of Jesus was created in God's likeness and displays the glory of Christ.
While many people live in this blindness, Satan introduced religion as a substitute to God's Word. This includes Christian denominations as well who live without understanding the word or without having any relationship with Christ. 

We live in a very different time now, where we live in a better and brighter era. In the Old Testament, through Adam and Eve, sin entered the world, then their sons fought among themselves leading to the death of one and as people increased, sin also increased, leading to God’s Spirit leaving the world and not living with mankind. God's wrath was so strong that He destroyed everyone on Earth except Noah’s family by commanding the waters to engulf the earth. And when the time came, God sent His only Son to redeem the world.

Galatians 4:4 says, ‘But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,’

2 Corinthians 6:2 says, ‘For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.’

This is the Lord's time of favour. 

Luke 4:18 says, ‘“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,’

The verse above sums up the Jesus Manifesto and sums up the essence of why He came down to this world. And from then on the good tidings began where God's favour is upon us. We are in a time where Salvation is given to all freely and fully. Anyone, even those who are the worst sinners can receive salvation. But why is it that not all people are receiving this salvation that is so freely available? Because many believe that it is too good to be true.

I have spoken about this next thing several times, Kairos and Chronos which indicates a way of measuring time. Chronos is time as per the clock. Kairos refers to the opportune time, the favourable time. This era that we live in, is the time of Kairos where God's favour is upon us. This was not available to those who were living in the Old Testament time. For those living in the Old Testament, they had to look ahead to the coming of Jesus and receive God's salvation. For us now, we have to look back and receive the salvation that we received through the death of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

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About The Author:

Dr. Damien Antony
Born and brought up in a Christian family, Dr. Damien Antony possessed an unquenching quest for truth right from his boyhood days and eventually his relentless search led him to the Bible. He is a Revival Preacher, Bible Teacher, Leadership Trainer, Author and a Life Coach. He moves under the anointing for Prophetic, Healing, Deliverance, Inner Healing and Financial Breakthrough. God has also blessed him with an Apostolic Mandate to take the Universal Body of Christ to the next level of revelation and anointing.