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Introduction
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Normally if one were asked: “Why did God redeem Israel?”, the
answer would be: “To bring them to the promised land”. Sadly,
such is perhaps the lowest reason for their deliverance for they
were redeemed for several reasons. By being redeemed (Ex. 6:6;
Psa. 111:9) and delivered by power (Ex. 14:9-31), they were
freed to: |
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a) |
Sacrifice to the
Lord: |
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i) |
“And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou
and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall
say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and
now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the
wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.” (Ex.
3:18) |
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b) |
Serve Him: |
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“Let my son go, that he may serve me.” (Ex. 4:23) |
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c) |
To be the executors of his judgements and manifestations of His
character: |
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“Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all
these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you.”
(Lev. 18:24) |
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ii) |
“For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord:
and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive
them out from before thee.” (Deut. 18:12) |
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d) |
To enjoy the inheritance He had for them: |
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i) |
“And I am come down to . . . . bring them up out of that land
unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and
honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and
the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites.” (Ex. 3:8) |
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e) |
To be the fear of the nations among whom they would dwell.
(Deut. 2:25) |
There was a higher purpose in their deliverance. It
was for God to bring them to Himself (Ex. 19:4). It appears to me that
this aspect is often overlooked in gospel preaching, with the focus
being for individuals to get delivered from the wrath to come, and
assure them of Heaven. Wonderful as that is, however, to be with the
Lord in Heaven necessitates a full reconciliation to Himself.
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To be brought unto God is more than being able to come near
Him. It means the removal of all that causes guiltiness,
slavery, disharmony, and distortion. Clearly then there must be
justification, peace and redemption, and resurrection for: |
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Without resurrection there could be no removal of distortion. |
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Without peace there could be no removal of disharmony. |
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Without justification there could be no removal of guiltiness. |
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Without redemption there could be no release from slavery. |
Only when these factors are dealt with can there be reconciliation.
That Which It Cost Divine Persons To Bring Us To God
When the Lord took Israel out of Egypt it was a work of love, power and
will, but it cost God nothing. When God provided redemption it was at
an infinite cost to the Father and the Son.
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What It Cost The Father
The providing of redemption, the cost to the Father came in two
ways: “He gave His only begotten Son” (Jn. 3:16) and on the
cross for salvation to be righteously provided (Rom. 3:25), “He
spared not His own
Son” (Rom. 8:32). Had Jacob known that which would befall his
son Joseph, I am sure he would never have sent him to see how
his brethren fared (Gen. 37:13-14). I suppose no one could
enter into the heart of Abraham knowing that which he was to do
to his beloved son. For three long days they walked together,
and despite Abraham knowing God would raise his son from the
dead, to deliberately slay his son must have been a burden of
incomprehensible grief. I knew a father who had to “pull the
plug” on his only daughter of twenty-seven years. He could not
do it on his own and asked another brother to come with him, and
neither of them ever got over it.
Easily, we read the words: |
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a) |
“Thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Psa. 22:15) |
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“The Lord hath laid on Him” (Isa. 53:6) |
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“Stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isa. 53:4) |
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“He hath made Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21) |
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e) |
“It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief”
(Isa. 53:10) |
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“See if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done
unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me” (Lam. 1:12). |
This was not the activity of a cold emotionless God, functioning no cold
clinical activity. For to hear His Son cry: “Oh my Father, if it be
possible remove this cup from me” (Matt. 26:39; Lk. 22:42), yet such was
the greatness of His love for humanity that He could not respond. To
see His son mocked and spat upon, to stand back and watch His Beloved
Son being lashed and the hair plucked of His face and do nothing must
have been immeasurably hard. Then at midday, to forsake Him and start
the deliberate measuring of righteous justice, sparing nothing, and do
such for three long hours is incomprehensible. We listen to His
orphaned cry: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me” (Matt. 27:46;
Mk. 15:34), and we hear words so profound: “He spared not His Son” (Rom.
8:32).
On such love my soul still ponder, love so rich, so full, so free,
Say while lost in holy wonder, why O Lord such love to me?”
Ponder it deeply, Christ suffered as a guilty hell deserving sinner.
God had to not only look on Him as that, not only judge Him as that, but
execute judgement on Him as such. There could be no minimizing the
severity of the executed judgment. He had to be treated as one under
the condemnation of God by birth and self will. Such things are too
wonderful for me.
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What Did It Cost The Son?
It is so “natural” when we think of the cost to Christ that
immediately our minds go to His sufferings on the cross when He
suffered for our sins in the three hours of darkness. However,
we need to go before that chronologically, and consider that
which it cost Him. |
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There was the cost of Him taking the “form of a servant” (Phil.
2:7) which was followed by His condescension and incarnation.
In so doing, he gave up the outward manifestation and
acknowledged worship for who He was. He was treated as one: |
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Who was counted as nothing (Isa. 53:3) |
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Lived a hard life of continual hounding, hatred and sorrow
(Isa. 53:4) |
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He paid the cost of providing propitiation for the sins of the
whole world (1 Jn. 2:2), and thus be the sacrifice for all who
put their trust in Him. |
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On this subject there are several teachings which are totally
evil in their content: |
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Christ became “satanized” when on the cross: |
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This teaching is based on the words: “And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted
up” (Jn. 3:14). The first observation is that the serpent was
lifted on a pole to be high enough for all who were bitten to
look upon and live (Num. 21:8-9). The narrative can be used as
an illustration of salvation: “Look and live”, but the serpent
never was to prefigure Christ when on the cross. It is the
lifting up that is the similarity, a fact that the Lord spoke
several times of (Jn. 8:28; 12:32, 34). |
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Christ became a sinner when on the cross: |
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When Paul wrote: “He hath made Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor.
5:21) it does not mean that our Lord was made a sinner! There
can be no doubt He was judged as that, for He was bearing the
penalty for our sins “in His own body” (1 Pet. 2:24) on the
tree, but suffering the penalty for the sinner is totally
different from being made a sinner. When our Lord was suffering
for sins He never lost His holiness, being still as holy as when
in the arms of Mary or prior to His leaving Heaven. The Holy
Spirit records God’s evaluation of the sin offering when He
wrote: “It is most holy, as is the sin-offering” (Lev. 6:17);
when speaking of the sin offering He said: “This is the law of
the sin-offering . . . it is most holy” (Lev. 6:25); and
concerning the trespass offering He said: “So is the
trespass-offering: it is most holy” (Lev. 14:13). Our Lord
became a sin offering but was never made or became a sinner! |
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Christ suffered for sins during the entire six hours He hung on
the cross. |
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i) |
This teaching is built on the words of Peter when he wrote: “Who
His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet.
2:24). Those who teach this change the word “on” to “upon”, or
“up to”. The Greek preposition “epi” is used in seven hundred
and ninety verses of the New Testament and is translated: “about
the time” (Matt. 1:11); “upon” (Matt. 3:16); “in” (Matt. 6:10);
“of” (Mk. 9:12). This being so, it is evident that context must
decide how “epi” is translated and furthermore, to my
understanding, it is never used to teach doctrine. If, and it
is a very big “if”, if Christ was bearing our sins the six hours
on which He hung on the cross, and in all that time He was being
forsaken by God, which is what hell is, receiving the punishment
for sins then: |
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In Hell sinners can torment other sinners, for sinners tormented
the Lord when on the cross. (Matt. 27:40) |
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In hell there is room for forgiveness for it was in the six
hours the Lord asked the Father to forgive. (Lk. 23:34) |
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In hell it will not be blackness of darkness (Jude 1:13), for
the first three hours were daylight (Matt. 27:45-46) |
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Make no mistake about it, it was in the three hours of darkness,
which it must be for several reasons. God made our Lord to be
an offering for sin (Isa. 53:10; Heb. 10:8, 10). |
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Christ did not mean the work was finished even though he said
so, but had to go into hell to be tormented by the demons. |
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This evil teaching signifies that the Lord deliberately told
lies when on the cross, for it was not really finished because
He had to go into Hell. This is taken from an obscure and hard
to understand scripture which says: “He went and preached unto
the spirits in prison” (1 Pet. 3:19), but even that does not
indicate He was abused in Hell for three days! First, in Bible
interpretation one must never let an obscure verse nullify the
teaching of that which is plain, and to build a doctrine on what
is not said is very dangerous. The body of the Lord was in the
tomb for three days (Matt. 12:40), His spirit went to the Father
(Lk. 23:46), and any teaching which goes contrary to that clear
scripture is wrong. |
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To this one adds that the work of redemption was never in the
hands of Satan and his hordes. This follows on from the
previous section, for the question to be asked is: “If Christ
went into Hell to be abused by Satan and his associates, did
this also happen on the cross?” When the Lord hung on the cross
as a sacrifice for sins, it was a work of divine persons in
which the evil one had absolutely no part. |
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Christ paid a debt to Satan. |
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This teaching was first made by Origen (185-254) who taught that
Satan held humanity captive and on the cross Jesus paid off
Satan. Gregory the Great (540-604) further developed this
concept by saying that Jesus came disguised as a man to trick
Satan like a worm on a hook to capture the devil. Let it be
clear, God never tricked the devil nor anyone else. Salvation
was done in righteousness on righteous grounds. |
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One very interesting fact is clear, a person will search in vain
for a single verse that says that Jesus paid a debt for our
sins! We may sing: “Jesus paid the debt for all the little
children” or “He paid a debt He did not owe”, but the closest I
can find of a scripture supporting this is: “The Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life
a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). In the parables debts are
always forgiven and there is never any mention of a debt being
paid. If an individual insists that Christ paid the debt then
it must be understood that because of sin man was and is
deficient in moral perfection, and at the cross the Lord cleared
the guilty, and God had the ability to righteously impute
righteousness (Rom. 4:11). There are two Greek words translated
“ransom” and “lutron” which means “price of release” (Matt.
20:28; Mk. 10:45); and “antilutron” (1 Tim. 2:6) which carries
the idea of exchange. Gustav A. Deissman states: “When anybody
heard the Greek word lutron, ‘ransom’, in the first century, it
was natural for him to think of the purchase-money for the
setting free of slaves (not for the payment of a debt, my
observation). |
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Christ complained to God when on the cross. |
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When our Lord was on the cross there is only one cry which
was endorsed by the Holy Spirit to be the fulfilment of the
scriptures. That was when he cried: “I thirst” (Jn. 19:28
quoted from Psa. 69:21). The fact that we have taken the cry of
the Lord: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” to be the
fulfilment of Psa. 22:1 does not make it such. However, there
is the tendency to go further and quote the balance of Psa.
22:2-5 as if the Lord said these further words from the cross.
It must be clear the Lord never said: “O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am
not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the
praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted,
and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were
delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded”.
There are those who have taught our Lord was remonstrating when
he said: “Our fathers trusted in thee and you never let them
down, but I thy perfect son who always did all that you desired
you have not come to my need but instead have forsaken me”.
(Not a translation but as it is said by those who so argue)
That which He did say was the first clause and only the first
clause of verse one! To say otherwise is an unwarranted
assumption. It is in fact putting words in the mouth of the
Lord, words that we have no scripture for. This is blasphemy! |
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ii) |
Complaining
can be: |
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An attitude of heart as seen in
Israel and it was a sin. |
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“Your carcasses shall fall in this
wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your
whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have
murmured against me” (Num. 14:29) |
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“And ye murmured in your tents,
and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth
out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the
Amorites, to destroy us.” (Deut. 1:27) |
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Complaining was the way of Judas, and it was a sin. |
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“For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence,
and have been given to the poor, and they murmured against
her.” (Mk. 14:5) |
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Complaining was the way of the Pharisees and scribes and it was
a sin. |
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“And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man
receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” (Lk. 15:2) |
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To indicate that the Holy Son of God complained is to lay the
accusation of sin against Him, and that being so it means that: |
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He sinned in a rebellious attitude toward God. |
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God is a false witness when He said, prophetically: “Behold My
servant . . . in whom my soul delighteth” (Isa. 42:1);
personally: “Thou art my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”
(Mk. 1:11). How could God find fullness of pleasure in a man
who in heart was rebelling against Him? |
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I state very emphatically, the Lord was utterly sinless, void of any
discord with God, and His entire life was one of superlative pleasure to
God.
May God grant us good understanding as He, by His
Holy Spirit, deigns to guide us into all truth.
John 16:1
Rowan Jennings, Abbotsford, British Columbia
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