God “CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH” by RAISING CHRIST’S FLESH IMMORTAL, not ‘by punishing him for our sins’.

How did God “condemn sin in the flesh” when “sending His own Son in the likeness of sin’s flesh and concerning sin [i.e., “as a sin-offering,” cf. Leviticus, LXX]” (Rom. 8:1-4)?  What was the precise mechanism or process or procedure?  The common popular evangelical answer is that God ‘vented His wrath on His own Son at the cross’, thereby condemning sin.  But it’s not that way at all.  Much rather, the sin of condemning the sinless Son of God—this overwhelmingly wrongful deed of the Jews (leaders, populace, and disciples alike!), this fury of Satan in cahoots with all his witting and unwitting henchmen and hangmen (Judas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, Peter, the chief priests, the Roman soldiers, et al)—was itself openly, overwhelmingly, publicly demonstrated to be wrongful and unjust—outright SIN— by the display of God’s righteousness in raising Jesus the Messiah from among the dead (Rom. 3:21-26)! For in this exacting manner all his opposition were swept away decisively and irrevokably and unanswerably. The Resurrection shut every accusing mouth and opened every unhardened heart. It was calculated to melt all the opposition who were not adamantly confirmed in viciousness. Yet every age has its Pharaohs who progressively reject every merciful moment God extends them, “bartering the graciousness of our God for wantonness, and disowning our only Owner [who, in that assigned role, bought us back!] and Master, Jesus Messiah” (Jude 4), and harden their hearts, stiffen their necks, the “unbelieving…who are stumbling also at the Explanation [about God’s undeserved, completely unexpected, and even unimaginable graciousness and mercifulness], being stubborn, to which [stumbling] they were appointed also [by their own self-determined, rigid distrust]” (1 Peter 2:7-8).

In sum: God condemned sin by justifying Jesus in the Resurrection to agelong life so that we who simply trust this stunning message might inherit this same just recompense deserved by Christ’s sinless career, willing surrender, and obedient submission to the vicious, murderous sovereignties and authorities of this age—namely, the same agelong life that his obedience won triumphantly on our behalf!  Thus did he triumph by his cross (Col. 2:14-15), condemn sin, and bestow gratuitous life for us who are undeserving sinners!  And all we have to do to enjoy this boundless boon is to be “in Messiah Jesus” (Rom. 8:1, 2), which transpires at immersion, by faith, which in turn accomplishes implantation (Rom. 6:5, 6) into his body.  [4/10/06]

So where does “divine punishment” fit into the picture of “atonement” within Scripture? It most emphatically fits exactly nowhere within holy Scripture! Our salvation was not achieved by resorting to punishment of our sins. “Agelong punishment,” far otherwise, is the fate of all who reject a salvation so great that it did not need any divine punishment factor! It circumvented divine punishment altogether. The abuse suffered by Messiah was not divinely punitive in any sense, any more than Job’s was. The assault of Satan at the Cross was, to be sure, divinely appointed, but it had nothing whatsoever to do with divine wrath or the disfavor of Heaven. Jesus “tasted death”—“even a death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8)—“in the favor of God” (Heb. 2:9, Phil. 2:9).

In the meantime, whoever get destined for adoption experience divine discipline, yet such measures are corrective and for our good (Psalm 94:10, 12, Isaiah 53:5, Heb. 12), and thus are inescapable for any of us sons of Adam who are now children of a heavenly Father whose goal is our maturity.   This often painful procedure equips us to rule with Messiah in the age to come.  (Corrective discipline can be “atoning” only in a derivative and secondary sense.  See David Bercot’s “What the Early Christians Believed about the Atonement.”)  [4/10/06]

It was not while “in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6) that God’s Son won our salvation, but only after becoming a human being—a “son of mankind.”  It was in this form and after this fashion that he achieved full maturity of sinlessness, by learning obedience under the Law of Moses, an escorting disciplinarian (Gal 3:24-25), submitting to sinful authority (it could not be otherwise—whether parents, Jewish leaders, Roman occupiers), getting immersed in Wholesome Spirit, performing astounding acts of miraculous power to free his fellow human beings from the enslaving tyranny of the Adversary and, at the last, by being betrayed by one of his inner-circle friends and getting surrendered to his enemies, bearing their injustices patiently, not deserving their abuse, but giving it all over to Him Who judges justly.

In this flesh he got vindicated, the Highest Judge reversing the lower court’s decision.  As a human being he received overcompensating damages for his trouble, and that is precisely why he had the right to “give gifts to mankind” (Eph. 4:8, Ps. 68:18)—gracious presents of splendid varieties, salvation, and agelong life in his Father’s Kingdom, receiving these boons from his divine Father as the Son of God, and bequeathing them all to his human brethren as the son of mankind—the true Mediator between Deity and humanity.  [4/10/06]

Jesus’ PERFECT SUBMISSION to God WON him the rightful award of FAVOR to benefit all God’s children

The justly-required-award (δικαιωμα) of the Law of Moses is life agelong for Christ, God’s own Son, which was both attested (Rom. 3:21) and displayed (Rom. 3:25-26) via God’s righteousness/justice in raising him from the dead.  God’s righteousness/justice thus vindicated Christ’s sinlessness by awarding or recompensing him with the promised Gift—the Wholesome Spirit of life—which He also gives to get filled up and make its home in us,  Thus we become God’s daughters and sons—heirs by sonship/sonhood/adoption, who are walking in accord with and being led by that Spirit, because of Whose dwelling in us (Rom. 8:11) God will likewise vivify and raise us!  Because Jesus Christ was just (1 John 2:1), we may live through Him (1 John 4:9, Rom. 7:25) since we are in him (Rom 8:1-2) and he, in Spirit, is in us (Rom. 8:11, 9-11)—the contents (πληρωμα) that fills us as it did Christ, by baptism/immersion (Rom. 6:2-5).  [9/8/02]

By submitting to Jesus, the Son of God, I lose nothing of my authentic humanity.  By acknowledging his Explanation and directives as supreme I am not in the least diminished as a person, but only exalted and honored.  To bow before true Deity is the high meaning of my humanity.  By and because of Jesus’ obedient submission to the humiliating and abusive authority of Satan-inspired human beings, he was exalted to the throne of sovereignty and authority over the whole created universe—constituted Master of all.  [10/9/02]

Islam can only ‘live and let live’ at the cost of its own integrity, for it is inherently militant against all religious divergence and diversity.  It has no ultimate solution, no ultimate weapon…except war or, failing that, terrorism.  In the crunch, all else is regarded as compromise and servitude in principle.  We must understand this if we are to deal wisely and winsomely with devout Muslims, devoted to the Qur’an.

Christians have another solution, another weapon:  the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Explanation of God revealed in Jesus the Messiah and Son of God, our Savior.  It is the Proclamation of Messiah’s self-sacrificial death and multi-corroborated resurrection out of death’s cold grip.  He therewith declares a pardon for sins plus agelong life to all who trust and obey him as the exclusive way to God, his Father, Who gives His Spirit of wholesomeness and life to all who follow Jesus, making us His dear children, too.  This Message conquers the fear of death and thus renders its means, methods, and minions ultimately powerless over us.  [11/5/02]

Jesus Christ did not earn the favor of God, he won it by his faithfully obedient submission to Him.  And we are his rightful beneficiaries by faith!  [12/25/02]

THE INCLUSIVE CENTRALITY OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION BOTH IN PROCLAMATION AND IN THEOLOGY

Many Christians hold the incarnation of Jesus to be central in Christianity and speak of ‘incarnational theology,’ etc.  Others hold the centrality of the cross of Christ to best characterize our faith on the whole, and emphasize a ‘theology of the cross’ /’theologia crucis.’  However,  the Incarnation cannot be central because it is not inclusive of either the Crucifixion or the Resurrection.  And the Cross cannot be central because, although it presupposes the Incarnation, it does not necessarily imply the Resurrection from among the dead.

Only the Resurrection is inclusive enough of all the essentials of Messiah’s advent and career to serve as the proper center and axis of Christian Proclamation and theology.

Not only does it presume an actual incarnation (against Gnosticism, particularly docetism, and later Islam) and an actual death (which the drawn-out process of arrest, double trial before Herod and Pilate, and public, officially supervised execution by Roman crucifixion absolutely assured), but it also turns out to have been (contrary to Western cross-centered views of atonement) the authentic pivot of Biblical soteriology as well.  In fact only such an all-inclusive event could serve as an adequate focus of saving, redemptive expectations.  This powerful event concentrates the revelation of Jesus’ very name—Jehovah-salvation!  The Cross didn’t save Jesus, it killed him.  The Resurrection saved him for all to see, who were willing to!  The Resurrection openly exhibited God’s power for ransom, rescue, redemption, liberation. forgiveness, regeneration, agelong life, immortality, holiness, conciliation, peacemaking, justification (although in noteworthy contrast to the cross-centered theories of the Western church, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant), being begotten above, sonship/adoption, and even glorification—in a word, salvation.  Resurrection says it all!

Moreover, the blood of Jesus, as the central symbol of the apostolic message (being the single word in the New Testament actually associated contextually with virtually every other soteriological category whatever), refers also to the Resurrection of Messiah for its own authenticity.  For it is precisely as the unjustly but divinely retributed shed blood of God’s own Resurrected One that this fluid gains its extraordinary meaning and derives its spiritual power, lo! these two millennia hence.  This blood lives!  It is life-giving, and that means wholesomeness and healing and justness and wealth, etc. for us—and more so in the future when we fully inherit God’s Kingdom, yet even now to a rich degree, as a testimony to the truth of Messiah’s covenant promises to all who endure in trusting him and obeying his voice.  [2/22/03; 9/22/12]

God’s Raising of Jesus Retroactively Endorsed Everything He Had Taught

The Resurrection of Jesus from among the dead invested with Divine and covenantally binding authority everything he had taught, retroactively.  It was precisely because of this one Divine seal of acceptance placed upon the faithful and voluntary sacrifice of the Son of God that his own disciples were enabled to look back over all he had both taught and done and thereby to recognize him as the Christ of God, in truth.  This seal of the Father, soon followed by the outpouring of Wholesome Spirit from God’s own nature, empowered them to testify exuberantly to all they had perceived throughout their disciplehood training.  The light thus generated was subsequently beamed into all nations to draw them also into God’s Kingdom and agelong life.  [01/23/97]

Did Christ’s “bearing our sins” mean that our sins loaded him down?  (Isaiah 53)  Is this, in other words, primarily a figure of oppression and belaboring?  [01/29/97]  In that case it means something quite different from the common Protestant theological and homiletical (i.e., preaching) expressions such as that he “bore our guilt” or that he “bore our penalty.”  For to bear someone else’s sin against oneself incurs neither their “guilt” for inflicting it, much less the penalty they deserve for inflicting it!  [07/08/07]

From popular Evangelical discourse one might almost conclude that the apostles were witnesses of the Crucifixion of Christ.  But the New Testament contains meager explicit evidence that this is the case.  In fact, only John and a handful of women appear to have witnessed Jesus’ public torture and last moments before his death.  After all, it was scarcely the burden of apostolic Proclamation to establish a witness to “the Cross” as factual at all; that was Rome’s role and responsibility.  Much rather, it was the mighty unexpected Resurrection to agelong life of the Lord, Jesus Christ that drove the all-consuming flame of apostolic heralding across the face of this stricken planet!  It was for this single-minded purpose that the Wholesome Spirit was poured out—to empower a testimony of one piece with the Resurrection itself!  It was Life in the leering face of a dreaded Death—made  grimly certain by an official Roman state execution, to be sure—that was to be broadcast to all nations for their rescue!

The Crucifixion of Jesus had the attestation of public record—a trial before not one, not two, but three sets of authorities:  the Jewish Sanhedrin (in effect, the instigators of the whole ghastly spectacle), the Roman Procurator Pilate, and Herod, the Edomite (descendant of Esau) king of Israel.  They collaborated on Jesus’ wrongful condemnation and public execution.  Roman authority proffered the official seal for the gravestone, at the insistence of the chief priests and Pharisees, and even endorsed a military detail to secure the site (Mt. 27:62-66).  Everyone was perfectly aware of the whole morbid procedure.  What caught the whole world off guard and gave fresh expectation and wholesome motivation to all who acquiesced in the unvarnished facts was the humanly impossible Divine escape from such a guarded tomb by such a manifestly mangled victim!  [02/01/97]