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"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy to anoint the most Holy." Daniel 9:24 KJV In 457 BC the decree of Artaxerxes released the Jews from captivity of Babylon and allowed them to return home. This date is used with those who study prophecy with Daniel’s seventy weeks and where Jesus said to forgive seventy times seven. 69 (weeks) x 7 is 483 prophetic years. 483 added to the BC number of 457 gives us AD 26 when Jesus came forth into His ministry. Jesus was not born in 0 AD. The calendar system we use tried to adjust the dates from His birth and is off a few years. For 69 weeks (483 years) God dealt with the people of Israel to accept Him as their God. He extended His hand towards them. God spoke directly to Hebrew people. But He was rejected because they went after another spouse (other gods). Jesus ministered for three and one-half years which is the middle of the seventieth week. He was killed. Three and one-half years later, Stephen was stoned finishing the seventy weeks of Daniel. The Hebrew people had rejected the ministry of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through Stephen. We shall not develop a discussion on the seventy weeks because we wish to focus our attention on the last portion of the verse. The study of biblical time tables while appropriate for some is not an area for us to develop. Rather we wish to explain the six particular prophetic messages which are: 1) finish the transgression, 2) make an end of sins, 3) to make reconciliation for iniquity, 4) to bring everlasting righteousness, 5) to seal up the vision, and 6) to anoint the most Holy. All six of these were finished in the last week, the 70th week. Let us discuss the first one, finish the transgression. There must be a finish to sin. In truth it ended before it began. We know that death (the wages of sin is death) is the fruit of sin, the end result, the finish of it. Yet, we also know that Jesus brought life and immortality to light. We know that death is swallowed up of life through the victory of the cross (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). Genesis 1:1 states: " In the beginning God created..." God had a plan, a purpose for His creation. His plan was a complete, holistic, harmonious approach.The word "beginning" has within its scope of meanings "firstfruit" (see our message on the firstfruit). Christ was the firstfruit of God’s creation. John 1:3 reveals " All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." The pre-existent Christ was a firstfruits, a pattern. He offered Himself as a sacrifice, a lamb slain, before sin occurred! Isaiah 46:10 states that the "end is declared from the beginning (firstfruits)." The ending of death is declared from the beginning. Sin ended before it began! The life of God was shed before anything was created because it was covered by the blood so that sin could not be victorious.If sin occurred before there was a sacrifice offered, its decimating ways would precede the life which comes from God. No my friends, sin occurred after life came. Sin runs its course - to its end which is to be swallowed up into the life of God. " When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death (James 1:15)." The word "finish" here has in its meaning: to bring to perfection, an end, a complete end, to complete entirely. When sin has is its complete work in you, when it finishes its course, it causes you to come to Christ! Think about your time of initial salvation. When sin had its end in you, you realized you needed help. In desperation you cried unto God and He delivered you. When you run out of your rope, when you hang yourself high, then God steps in to put an end of sin in your life. The finished, complete work of sin, brings salvation.Sin occurs as part of the process to bring us unto eternal life. So we see sin in the world? Yes. Must sin occur? Yes, it leads to Christ eventually. Life will create life. All things come out of Christ in the beginning. In the end, all things will be in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:28). In between is sin. We " call those things which be not, as though they were (Romans 4:17)." We see every man in Christ, especially those that believe (1 Timothy 4:10). The end result is that when sin has completed its function, the person cries out for salvation.In John 17:4 Jesus states: " I have glorified Thee in the earth. I have finished the work which You have given me to do." This word "finish" means: to make perfect, consecrate, of full age, maturity. What was the work that Jesus did? He manifested the kingdom of God in a person. He finished the work of God by bringing that which was invisible into light, manifestation. Jesus was the work of the Father. He was consecrated to God, that is holy, pure, undefiled. When we accept Christ as our Savior we then become consecrated, holy and undefiled. We grow in the nature and admonition of the Lord. Jesus was a mature, full of age, manifestation of the kingdom of God. He moved under divine authority. When we were a slave to sin we moved under its dominion and grew in the strength of sin. But when we came to Christ, we accepted new leadership and grow in the strength of Him who bought us, purchased us from sin.When Jesus finished the work, He completed what He had begun in pre-existence. He was the author of the faith in the Spirit realm and now He was the finisher of our faith in the natural realm (Hebrews12:2). In Hebrews the word "finish" means: one in whom in his own person raised faith to perfection. Faith normally is considered an "ethereal"realm. But here we seen that Jesus took that which was spirit and encapsulated it into the flesh. He caused faith to be seen in a person. Faith is a person who lives, manifests the life of God. Jesus presented in His life a higher order. He lived above sin, even as the saint can do. Consider 1 John 5:18: " We know that whosoever is born of God sins not; but he that is begotten of God keeps himself and that wicked one touches him not." We can live the life of God in this flesh and sin not. Jesus went on to say in John 4:34: "...my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." As a Son, He was to finish the work of God. The word "finish" here means: to perform. Complete faith is revealed in performance. Commitment accepts no excuses only performance. Performance is the result of relationship with the Father. Love constrains us to willingly sacrifice our life.Paul was committed to excellence. He writes in 2 Timothy 4:7 that he had finished the course, kept the faith. Jesus finished the course set before Him and revealed the life of faith by living it. Paul, a man like you and I, stated that he finished his course. He lived, manifested faith. Ghandi was asked by a friend, "If you are so intrigued with Jesus Christ, why don’t you become a Christian?" Ghandi replied, "When I meet a Christian who is a follower of Christ, I might consider it." If Ghandi met you, would there be enough of a commitment to performance for him to see Christ in you? Some saints know the Lord, but allow sin to reign. Some saints are not committed to the fire of perfection. A son, like Paul is called to finish the work of God which is to do greater works than He. This is performance. In John 19:30, on the cross, Jesus stated: " It is finished." Here the word finish means: to discharge his duties, to perform. We need to realize that that this statement of Christ was not a sigh, a whimper of a statement. Do you remember when the chief priest’s soldiers came to take Christ? He said: "I am He." Then they all fell down by the power of the spoken word. Well, when Jesus said "It is finished," the earth quaked, graves were opened, the veil was rent, and darkness covered the earth. It was a victorious statement. These words, "It is finished," caused the world to change literally and spiritually.The end of transgression has come. " Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest....Romans 16:25-26)" The pre-existent Christ did it all but brought faith to sight in the flesh that we might be able to walk as He did. The end of sin has come. Grace rules. Not that sin would more abound. God forbid. How should we live that are dead to sin? Can we live any longer in it? No we are freed from sin. Sin has no dominion, no rulership, no kingdom over us. We are not under the law but under grace. (Romans 6)This brings us to the second prophetic message - to make an end of sins. When sin is done, then sin does not exist. Sin is brought to an end. Oh, you may sin "out there". It is like a tree that is cut off from its roots in the spring. The sap is still going up the tree. It may bring forth leaves, even though it has been cut off from its roots. I’ve seen some even bring forth buds of fruit. The tree is dead when it is cut, it just doesn’t know it! Jesus made an end to sin. We proclaim those things which are not as though they are (Romans 4:17). The victory of the cross is complete. The life of Christ exchanged for the death of Adam brings forth life! Sin is done away with in Christ. He has delivered us. " Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past... And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (Romans 3:25, 1 John 2:2, 4:10)." The Greek for propitiation is "mercy seat." The blood of the animal in the Old Testament was taken and sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. This action by the High priest cleansed the whole nation of Israel from sin. The animal was a substitution for the nation itself. Jesus was the substitute for us. He who had no father or mother; that is He that was spirit and not of this world order was well ale to deliver us from this world. When He raised from the grave we were raised from the grave with Him. We left the realm of death with Him.Many look to their natural flesh and see aging, pain, decay working. Do not look on the external it is a deception. For Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 4 that we are being renewed after the inner man daily. In fact, if our external house was to be dissolved we would see a heavenly one. The third message is that to make reconciliation for iniquity. The Hebrew means perversity, depravity, guilt. The death of Christ exchanged depravity, guilt, and perversity for worth, value and freedom. The work of the cross did not just provide salvation to the soul, but rather delivered the vessel completely - "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The work of the cross delivered all creation from the bondage of corruption (Romans 8:21). Hebrews declares: "He takes away the first, that He might establish the second." The coming of the Savior in the first century delivered mankind, the world as we know it and the cosmos of all corruption. Awake you who sleep! Shake the dust off your feet. Come forth out of the tomb of deception. Your life is hid with God in Christ. Proclaim the jubilee to the captives. The lie of the church system is: "You have to sin a little until you get to heaven when you are made perfect."But 2 Corinthians 5:19 states: "To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world (cosmos) unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation." From this verse we see Jesus reconciling all things, even the Jews who rejected Him , the Father and the Holy Spirit. This seems to be in contrast with Matthew 12:32 which reads: "And whosoever speaks a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world (not cosmos but "aion" meaning age) neither in the world ("aion" again in the Greek meaning age not "cosmos") to come." Who sinned that it would not be forgiven in, as some teach? Jesus was speaking to the Jews, not to the world nor to the Christians of today. Hear and understand! The Jews would not be forgiven in their "age" meaning at that time right then, nor the age to come, meaning during the time of the church, the church age. But after that God would bring them in too.2 Corinthians 5:19 then becomes true - "...reconciling the world". The Jews had to "fill up" (Matthew 23:32) their cup as part of the plan of God. " Fill ye up the measure of your fathers, ye serpents..." Jesus would not have been offered as a sacrifice for us, if the Jews had accepted Him. The work of the cross to remove sin was/is complete. The first section of the six part prophecy of Daniel 9:24 was fulfilled with Jesus and the Jews. The Jews did the ultimate transgression - killing the Father’s son and they then proclaimed that they wanted the blood of Jesus on them (Matthew 27:25) and their children. The transgression was full. What sin could be worse than the rejection of the Son of God? Yet, even that sin was not enough to be too big for God to reconcile unto Himself. It is finished! Sin has ended by the reconciling work of Christ.The word "reconcile" Thayer brings out in his Greek Lexicon to mean "to exchange, as exchange coins of equivalent value." Thus, if we are to reconcile the world to Christ we must exchange their filthy rags by placing their "rags" on us who are identified with Christ, that we might give them Christ. For we bear in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ that the life of Christ might be seen (2 Corinthians 4:10-11). The exchange rate is Jesus Christ for the sins of Adam. Once the exchange is done, the reconciliation is done. The fourth message is that of everlasting righteousness. The word everlasting means: "of long duration, a time that has an end but it is so far away it seems as though it has no end." Until all things are gathered together in Christ in the fullness of time (Ephesians 1:10), righteousness will be seen. Then only He will be seen. Righteousness is a just measure. The work of the cross brings a just end to death and sin and establishes true justice. Justice as a way of life is brought forth not a legalistic code. The work of the cross of Christ not only did away with Adam it also destroyed all legalism. He has quickened us out of death and our trespasses in which we had walked and now has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son (Colossians 1:13). We are in Him. "To seal up the vision..." the fifth message states. The word seal has within it the connotation of "affixing a seal" like hot wax on the back of a letter has a seal affixed on it. This shows that the letter has no been tampered with nor has anyone even tired to open that which has been sealed. When Christ died on the cross, He put an end to the ability of Satan to tamper with or even break the seal of God’s hand written, expressed image (Hebrews 1:3) Who allows us to be one with Him.
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