Don't Pet the Cat Backwards

Have you ever wished you didn't know so much? Things would not bother you if you were a little more ignorant. Life could be less irritating. To some extent the phrase "Ignorance is bliss" actually has some merit. My best friend in Virginia really is a rocket scientist. He puts things into space, works for NASA and the Department of Defense. He has a hard time watching movies that are pretending to be accounts of some space event: "Space Cowboys", "Gravity" and the like, because he knows too much. The same is true with finished carpenters that see bad woodwork installation, carpet installers and bad carpet seams, and the auto body guy watching his neighbor restore his classic car with "bondo" and a can of spray paint in his backyard. To most people it looks pretty good, but for the one who knows, it can be at the least a distraction, at the worst you feel like a cat being pet backwards. (If you missed the analogy, pick up a cat and quickly and repeatedly pet it against the grain of its fur. You may generate enough static electricity to stick the cat to the wall. And no, I am not suggesting you try this; the point is Fluffy will not enjoy the experience).

Such is the reality that occasionally plagues my life. I have graduated from a Christian University with a minor in Bible, I completed my Masters of Divinity with an emphasis in theology; and I recently earned a PhD. in theology as well. So I know stuff. One would hope so anyway. My post graduate degree focused on the study of Scripture from a Hebraic perspective. The whole Bible is a Jewish book. The New Testament was written by Jews (with the possible exception of Luke). Jewish followers of a Jewish Messiah. They lived in a Jewish culture and they read, spoke, and wrote in Hebrew. The Gentiles were grafted in as followers of a Jewish Messiah and met with the Jews on the Sabbath in the Synagogues for at least 150 years after the ascension of our Lord. I was forced to take this into account as I worked on my degree. So I now ask questions as to how the first readers living in their Jewish culture would have understood the message. Recognizing that there was no New Testament, all references to God's Word and to the Scriptures were references to Torah, the Writings and the Prophets, Genesis to Malachi. 

The issue I face is that a significant number of people, preachers, and teachers do not share this perspective. They would agree with it, but either haven't taken the time to soak in the reality or simply are so immersed in American and Western thought that any alternative is foreign to them. There is no intent to ignore the cultural setting; the thought just never seems to come to mind. It never really did to me until I was forced out of my comfort zone a few years ago with questions that were not answered well from my traditional perspective. Now simple, honestly shared phrases by well-known and well received TV and radio preachers give me that "pet backwards cat" experience. I don't mean to be picky but we are to rightly and accurately teach the Word of God. If we just perpetuate thought without thinking we are guilty of a sloppy handling of the Word of Truth, the very Word of Life God breathed for directions and instruction as how best to live a life abundant in Him. 

Wow! What a long introduction. Now there is no room to really address the irritation that poked me this past Saturday. So I will ask you the question and see what you think, then give you my thoughts next week. I heard a popular Radio and TV preacher make a statement while I was listening to the car radio. By the way, I mean no disrespect, and the man has been used mightily of God to teach the truth and to see lives changed by the power of God's Spirit. I just think he is trapped in saying what has been said for hundreds of years. It seems to me we don't really think about what the words mean any more. That being said here is the sort of quote, maybe not the exact words but pretty close: "Saul, who God changed to Paul, was one of the greatest persecutors of Christians but was transformed, by God's grace, to become a man of faith." Are there any issues here? Any possible inaccuracies? Was Paul indeed transformed by the grace of God? Any little abrasions to the truth that rub you the wrong way? Give it some thought and we can talk next week.       

Redeemed ..... but when?

"Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the lamb", so wrote Fanny Crosby back in 1882. And I have no argument with that wonderful truth. My question is, according to God's Word, just when did this happen? I was told from early on in my Christian walk that it was through the blood of Jesus which He shed on the cross. He is the Lamb of God who was pictured in the Old Testament sacrifices now sacrificed for us on the cross. But, as was pointed out in my previous blog, the focus of the cross is victory over death, not redemption. First, allow me to point out a few problems with the picture we have been given.

We begin with a statement made by the Apostle Paul to the believers in Corinth. First we need to recognize the audience Paul was writing to. Acts 18:4 tells us, when visiting Corinth, "he [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks [Gentiles]." So in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians he writes to Jewish and Gentile followers of Messiah. They are all well versed in Jewish tradition and Torah. They meet at the Synagogue on the Sabbath, as that is where the Word of God was and could be heard (There were no Bibles and no printing press). In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul writes,"I delivered to you first of all that which I also received; that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." Now as a Jewish believer or a Gentile well familiar with Jewish teaching, where would your thoughts go? Most likely to Leviticus where all the information about sin offerings was written. You were to bring a lamb, goat, bull, turtle doves some approved animal, female or male, depending upon the passage. It had to be spotless, without blemish, presented to the priest, hands laid on it in identification, at the Tabernacle or the Temple, where it was killed painlessly, and its blood poured out at the altar for the forgiveness of sin. This would be the picture in the mind of the Corinthian believer. A person was redeemed by the grace of God, through the blood of the approved sacrifice. How does any of that remotely remind you of the events of the cross. No Temple, no priest, no altar, blemished beyond recognition, dying slowly in agony, no laying on of hands, no blood poured out at the altar; no way do the events of the cross look like a death for our sins, according to the Scriptures.

Where does that leave us? Let me suggest that our redemptive timing is off a bit. Isaiah writes of God's suffering servant in Isaiah 53. Most of the verbs are in the perfect tense or are participles. In Hebrew there is no past, present and future. Perfect is a completed event with ongoing results, and imperfect being incomplete action, sort of present or future. What this means is that when Isaiah wrote these words he wrote them as an event that was completed with ongoing results. Our Bibles translate it as a past event. "He was wounded, He was oppressed He was lead like a lamb to the slaughter."  Past event with ongoing results. How can this be? Jesus had not even been born yet. Now hop over to Revelation 13:8 If you have a KJV or a NKJV it reads, "All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from (or before) the foundation of the world." The NASB, NIV and other translations rearrange the words to make it "the names written before the foundation" but the Greek reads the Lamb slain before the  foundation of the world. Was the Lamb really offered before the foundation of the world? 

Looking back to Revelation Chapter 5, we see John's vision as he enters heaven. He sees One called the Lion of the tribe of Judah (vs 5), but what John also sees is a lamb as though it had been slain. His vision will go on to see an altar and servants making offerings and incense, the prayers of the saints. It appears to be a heavenly temple. The writer to the Hebrews, in chapter 9, tells us that Christ is a better sacrifice and a better High Priest. Verse 11 explains that He entered a better more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation. Verse 12 goes on to say He offered His blood when He entered the Most Holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of bulls and goats was not enough but "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot or blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (14). Where is the record that , during his earthly ministry Jesus ever enter the holiest part of the temple to offer Himself as a blood sacrifice? Being from the tribe of Judah he could not enter the earthly temple. It was a heavenly temple not of this creation.

As the Apostle John writes his Gospel account he quotes John the Baptist in 1:29 where John proclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." The word translated "takes" is airon. It is a present active participle. Which means it is an ongoing action. A more accurate translation would be "who is taking away the sin of the world". The Lamb of God is, as John writes, taking away the sin of the world. Not in the future, not at the cross, but now, for the price has already been paid. His blood has already been shed on a heavenly altar in a heavenly temple perhaps by the Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Perhaps the picture of the sin sacrifices in Leviticus are looking back instead of forward. Perhaps the Old Testament believers were already under the blood of the Lamb. The picture of the sacrifices was to remind them of the past rather than to have them hope for a future redemption. Just as the celebration of the Lord's Table reminds us of His death, for it is His death that is proclaimed, not His redemption (see I Cor. 11:26), until He comes again. If Messiah paid the price before the foundation of the world, the whole issue of redemption for the Old Testament believers is taken care of. Like all who believe they have always been under the blood of the Lamb.

It seems that, just as we were chosen before the foundation of the earth (Eph. 1), we were also redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, before the foundation of the earth. God was so passionate for us and loved us so much He resolved the sin problem before sin even entered the world. The curse of death would not be dealt with until the cross, when the Son of Man rose again and defeated death and broke the curse. Death has no Sting and the grave no victory for He is risen. This is the focus of the cross; however, redemption was already ours.

"And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain"(Revelation 5:6), "the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. How about you?          

Is there Redemption in the Cross?

This article has been one of much thought and prayer knowing that some may react to the thoughts and misunderstand what it is I am suggesting. So right from the start know that I believe that the cross is central and essential to my faith and the hope that I hold for eternity. Also know that I believe that Messiah shed His blood on my behalf and it is through His blood that I have redemption, the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to the Father. I agree with Hebrews 9:22, “that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” I do not question the truth, just the timing of the event, and how the event was realized. I simply want to be true to the Scriptures.

The key verse to the common held theology, that the focus of the cross is the shed blood of Yeshua for the forgiveness and cleansing of sin, comes primarily from 1 Peter 2:24, “He bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” He took our sin and removed it on the cross. Eph. 2:16 declares that He, “reconciled them both through the cross.” And Col.1:20 says we are, “reconciled through the blood of His cross.” However these both speak of reconciliation not redemption, and there is a difference. Perhaps these hold merit, but when we look at the rest of Scripture is that honestly the focus of the cross?

Of the 24 references to the cross in the New Testament, all can be seen as the cross being an instrument of death, even 1 Peter 2:24. Sin brings us death for death is the curse passed on from Genesis Chapter 3. We will surely die. Torah set God’s standard before us and we disobeyed, and thus we are under the curse (death). Christ redeemed us from the curse coming from disobedience to the Law (death) when he became a curse for us, for cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree [cross], (see Galatians 3:10 & 13). In John’s Revelation, after telling us in Chapter 20 that death and the grave are cast into the lake of fire, John goes on to describe the New Jerusalem; in Chapter 22 we are told that “there shall be no more curse” (vs. 3) and that we shall reign forever and ever (vs. 5). Through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ the curse of death is broken and we have life. He is the first fruits and we will follow in His resurrection.

The point of the cross throughout the New Testament is victory over death. So Paul can proclaim to those in Corinth, “Death is swallowed up in victory” and ask “O Death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55). The curse of death has been broken and we are delivered through His death and resurrection. Without His death and resurrection we have no hope. Forgiven or not we would still be under the curse of death, but the cross changes all that. Death is defeated and victory is there for all who believe.

One last thought comes from our Lord’s own illustration in John 3. Nicodemus has come to Yeshua under cover of darkness to seek to know if He is Messiah. The Master Rabbi turns to Numbers and the story of the fiery serpents, a story Nicodemus was well familiar with. It is found in Numbers 21. In brief the children of Israel sinned and God sent fiery serpents among them and, when bitten, they died. They cried out a clear confession of guilt and sought forgiveness. They came to Moses to plead for deliverance. Deliverance from what? From the fiery serpents that were bringing death among them. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. Whoever was bitten was to come and look upon the serpent lifted up and they would be delivered from death. They would not come if they did not believe. For those who believed and came and looked upon the serpent lifted up they were delivered from death. That was the focus, not redemption or forgiveness, but deliverance from death. Yeshua said in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up. Thus, like the serpent, all who would come believing would be delivered from death.

The predominate evidence from Scripture is that the point of the cross is deliverance from death, not redemption. Redemption, to some degree, may be there, but that is not the focus or the message from God’s Word. So where does redemption come in? We are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, which is for certain; the questions are where and when. But I will save that for the next blog.