It’s Only Fair!

“The Bread from Heaven” eaten in the Lord’s Supper was likened by Jesus to the manna that miraculously fed Israel. A jar of that manna was kept in the Ark of the Covenant as a memorial to God’s miraculous sustaining of their lives/souls during their wilderness sojourn. That ark was covered by protective cherubim, overshadowing the solid gold protective cover (kapporeth / hilasterion) where “atonement” was made by the spattering of blood annually, and where Jehovah promised to meet His people—the earthly figure of His celestial throne.

These sorts of images or pictorial representations intermingle and mount and recombine and romp and play with one another in symbolic attempts to convey the heavenly truths that they never quite attain. But they do manage to teach that communion is a New Covenant incorporation of atonement—ingesting heavenly power to nourish our resistance/immunity to sin. (Baptism/immersion in like manner focuses on the complementary aspect—washing.) [6/12/09]

The disposition of Jesus’ flesh was enmity toward God, just as ours is (Romans 8:7). But he was not (as incarnated) responsible for that factual circumstance, any more than any of the rest of the human race is. He was, however, responsible for walking in the Spirit of life instead of in that mortal, sinful flesh of his. Thus Jesus never gave vent to his death-oriented flesh, but only to his life-oriented Spirit. And he has left us this example so that we might follow in his steps.

Moreover, at length, through his death on the Cross, Jesus killed the enmity in his flesh, condemning sin in it (Ephesians 2:16, 14, Romans 8:3, 7, Colossians 1:20-21) as well, via his resurrection, which, conversely, acquitted him and his Spirit (1 Timothy 3:16!). Thus Jesus’ flesh was condemned and his Spirit was justified all in one fell swoop at the ‘Crossurrection’ events. Accordingly, he won/acquired/procured (peripoi–) from God a whole new body! [6/14/09]

God was “in Christ” on the Cross and God was in Christ in the Unseen, in the Tomb…and beyond! That’s why Christ could declare, “I am laying down my soul that I may be getting it again. No one is taking it away from me, but I am laying it down of myself. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to get it again. This precept I got from my Father” (John 10:17-18). “Raze this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). [6/17/09]

God purposed Messiah Jesus “as a protective shelter…because of the passing over of the penalties-of-sins which occurred before in the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25), that is, God’s righteous forbearance was being manifested or displayed precisely by his provision of a protective shield over sins justifying him in passing by their penalties! It was, of course, the faithfulness in Christ’s blood that elicited His resurrectionary display of justice toward him and his. [6/18/09]

Romans 1:17-18 distinguishes between “a righteousness of God”—namely GRACIOUSNESS (1:5; 3:24; 4:4-5, 15-16; 5:1-2; 1:7; 5:15-21; 6:14-15; 8:32-34)—which is “revealed from heaven” in historic outbreaks of divine judgment. Thus both the premial and the penal are in view, but with very different results! Paul expounds God’s penal justice in 1:18-3:20, in grim terms, but then turns on a dime to expound God’s premial justice in 3:21 onward, in glorious words. [6/18/09]

Whatever Jesus got by his faithfulness is what we, too, get by our faith. God reciprocated with outrageous graciousness to Jesus in just recompense for his faithfulness in obedience to Him. Thus it is only fair and right that all others who exert a like faith receive a like reward of graciousness. [6/18/09]

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #59)

59.     What is “the Word of the Cross”?

By this expression the apostle Paul meant nothing less or other than God’s Explanation for the Cross.  In a nutshell:   God justified the crucified Jesus from unjust condemnation by wicked authorities under the influence of Satan, by means of raising him from the dead to be Messiah and Lord, in order successively to deactivate this Adversary who has the control of death and to undo his works; dissolve the enmity in his own Jewish flesh; neutralize our body of sin; exempt us from and abrogate the Law of Moses with its directives and decrees; deactivate all sovereignty, all authority, and power—the chiefs of this present wicked age—along with the final enemy, Death; and then usher in His everlasting Kingdom, in which we can share, too, if we trust and follow him.  In sum, “the Word of the Cross” is the Explanation about Jesus’ Resurrection from a death of the Cross, and all it implies.  Without the Resurrection, the Cross means exactly zip.  The Cross emphatically highlights “dead” in the phrase, “Resurrection from the dead”.  If God hasn’t raised Christ from a death that serious and certain, we’re all still in our sins, and any other “word of the Cross” is empty, our faith, futile!  This means:  No Atonement without Resurrection!  The Explanation of the Cross = Jesus’ Resurrection from the Dead.  That’s the clincher.