Page 40 - Overcoming Addiction

Lord Yahshua. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy
Spirit came on them...

Salvation in Christ Yahshua incorporates both of these events. By faith we
believe and confess that Christ has atoned for our sin, and has restored our
fellowship to the Father. This provision allows us to stand before God and appear
righteous before Him, no longer separated by sin. The second part is equally as
important. Christ does not merely provide forgiveness for sin, but He supplies all
that is necessary to no longer walk in sin. This is accomplished as He sends forth
His Spirit to dwell in our hearts.
The entire plan of salvation through Christ is pictured in the events of Israel
leaving the slavery of Egypt and journeying through the wilderness to take
possession of the Land of Promise. The Holy Spirit being given to the people in
order to enable them to live lives pleasing to God is also foreshadowed there. This
occurred at Mt. Sinai when Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God and
he brought back down with him the Law inscribed by the finger of God on tablets
of stone.
Like all the other symbols we have looked at thus far, this event provided
only a shadow and a type of the good things to come. It was not the perfect
provision Yahweh envisioned for man. Even as the blood of a lamb was deficient
in that it was unable to completely remove the penalty of sin for all time, nor could
it remove the consciousness of sin from a person’s life, so too did the Law fall far
short of accomplishing those things that Yahweh envisioned for man, and would
one day bring forth. Even as Yahweh planned on that first Passover to one day
send His Son as the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sin of man, so too He planned
on the first Pentecost to send His Holy Spirit into the hearts of men and women to
create in them the desire and the power to do His will.
Yahweh chose to give mankind many parables through which we might
understand the nature of His salvation, and the particulars of His plan of
redemption. These shadows were not the actual thing, nor were they intended to
remain perpetually, for they would one day be replaced by that which was perfect.
Even so, the covenant that God made with the Israelites in the wilderness was a
temporary covenant that would remain only until it was replaced by that which
was perfect.

Hebrews 8:6-13
But now [Christ] has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He
is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better
promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have
been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says,
"Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant
With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant
which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to
lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My
covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the
Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their