Tree of Life:
How “Jesus Christ, and him
crucified,” is the answer to mankind’s problems
Paul D. Ackerman
And
I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of
wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
Foreword
Then opened he their understanding, that they might
understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it
behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all
nations…
Luke
24:45-47
This manuscript is assigned to public domain. The author
reserves no rights as to restricting its copying, translating, or distribution.
Its purpose is to teach the Gospel and to provide those who receive this
document with a ready help and tool for sharing it with others in whatever way
God might inspire. If you receive and are blessed by this writing, then I
encourage you to give it the widest distribution possible by whatever means our
Lord might enable.
Paul D. Ackerman
January 2009
Table of
Contents
Part 1: Introduction: The Old Rugged Cross
Chapter 1: What’s your problem?
Chapter 2: What does it mean to “have faith in Jesus”?
Chapter 5: The
Cross from Creation
Chapter 6: The
Cross in the Garden
Chapter 10: Birth of the Nations
Chapter 11: Pictures, Prophesies, and Teachings
Chapter 12: Gideons International Gospel Invitation
Chapter 13: Bible Study by the Light of the Cross
Note: Scripture quotes are from the King James Version unless otherwise
indicated. Contemporary English updates and explanations are noted in brackets.
Passages of particular relevance to the “Tree of Life” subject of this book are
indicated in bold.
Part 1:
Introduction: The Old Rugged Cross
A beloved hymn of the Christian faith is titled The Old Rugged Cross. The hymn was
written in 1913 by George Bennard (1873-1958). The words of the hymn are
printed below as a brief summary of this book’s message.
The Old Rugged Cross
George Bennard
On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
O that old rugged cross, so despised
by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark
Refrain
In that old rugged cross, stained
with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
Refrain
To the old rugged cross I will ever
be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.
Refrain
In the center of the Garden of Eden from whence we all came
were two trees: The Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil, from which our first ancestor parents were forbidden to
eat; and The Tree of Life from which,
along with all the other trees in the garden, our first parents could freely
eat (Genesis 2:16-17). The purpose of this writing is to recommend a change of
diet from the forbidden tree to the now freely available-to-all, Tree of Life. Our first parents ate of
the forbidden tree and were driven from the presence of the original Tree of Life. However, a new form of the
Tree of Life was promised to mankind
in the person of a Messiah, Deliverer, or Christ (Genesis 3:15 & Isaiah
53). The faith expressed in this book is that Jesus is that promised deliverer,
and His suffering and dying on the Cross constitutes, in effect, a new and
freely available form of the Tree of Life.
News of this available eternal life-giving “diet” is called
the Gospel, from a Greek word meaning
“good news.”
Chapter 1:
What’s your problem?
We all have problems. Some we recognize, some we don’t. The
purpose of this writing is to explain how Jesus Christ’s suffering and death on
the Cross is the ultimate answer to the problems of mankind. The universality
of its applicability means we need not elaborate on the vast array of human
problems. The problems in view are those that concern you; or, if I may
suggest, the problems that God knows should concern you.
The most important and pressing problems we face are
spiritual and often go unrecognized. The Bible teaches that unrecognized
spiritual problems are of far greater significance than recognized worldly
ones. Thus it is that one of the most important “solutions” by way of Christ’s
Cross is deeper recognition of spiritual problems. Recognition and solution of
spiritual problems result in the solution of worldly ones even if only by
rendering them as less significant to us.
The Universal Answer
The historical event of Christ’s crucifixion is foundational
to solving all problems including the mundane problems of everyday life. Wisdom
and understanding for dealing with the practical and mundane details of life
come by the grace of God through the righteous and loving provisions of the
Cross of Christ. Behind our generally successful negotiation of the routine
challenges of life is a deep inability to recognize and appreciate God as the
source of all life and blessing. But the Bible is emphatic: God is the sole
source of all life and blessing (James 1:17), and the revelation of the New
Testament is that the only means by which blessings and solutions come from God
is through the covenantal provisions of the Cross of Christ. There is no
problem that God cannot lead us through and ultimately solve.
Exclusive faith in the
Cross
The Cross of Christ is the salvation plan of God and the
singular and universal solution to the problems of mankind. Once the message of
the Cross is deeply comprehended, and through it the full Word of God, then one
comes to the realization that in the same sense that there is only one solution
to man’s problems, so also there is truly only one problem. The Bible calls the
one underlying problem of mankind sin in
the singular. It might also be called the “sin nature” or the “sin principle.”
One could define this singular problem as a failure to receive, comprehend, and
fully apply the message of the Cross, for it is only the lack of receiving,
comprehending, and applying the message of the Cross that thwarts the grace of
God in the life of man.
Salvation
The name “Jesus” in English traces to a Hebrew word and
means “savior.” So the word “Jesus” is a name designation in English, but also
has meaning relative to God as Savior. The meaning, “savior”, of course
transcends all particular languages. God has known us and our problems from all
eternity and purposed a mission from eternity to be accomplished through the
life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. God’s salvation, the
cornerstone of His solution to our problems, begins to work in souls that cry
out to Him from all times, places, and circumstances. Christ’s “work” on the
Cross provides the means by which God can save us.
God responds to souls who cry out to Him from where they are
historically, geographically, culturally, and regardless of social or
educational standing. During Jesus’ ministry his critics charged that he was making
up the teaching about salvation on his own and that it wasn’t truly from God.
He responded,
My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone
wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from
God or whether I speak on My own authority.
John 7:16-17
Elsewhere the people asked him, “What shall we do, that we
might work the works of God?”
John 6:28
Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on
him whom he hath sent.”
John 6:29
A Professor Cries Out
Consider the comfortable life of an academic professor and
skeptic. In today’s college campuses such a person would likely believe that
Christianity and its preaching of the Bible to be an active evil in the world.
But perhaps, spurred by a family tragedy, the professor cries out a prayer,
“Dear God, if it’s possible save my soul.” He is not sure there even is a God
to hear his prayer. Regardless of his uncertainty, the prayer is sincere and
God knows the man’s heart is truly open to the way of the Cross. And so, the
saving grace of God begins to work in the professor’s life.
Our professor (me, in point of fact) experiences a quiet
sense of God’s reality and comfort in the days following the tragedy. An
interest in the Bible is kindled and he begins to study its contents and
message. He finds in its pages accounts of miracles that are relevant to his
family’s tragedy and draws some small comfort to reading them in the solitude
of his grieving. He comes to understand the message of the Cross and how Jesus
endured torture and death in order to pay for the professor’s sins.
The professor is astounded to apprehend in the Bible’s
teaching a way of life he had never anticipated. He finds himself filled with
faith in the reality of God, a hunger to know Him, and a profound assurance
that he has entered into eternal life. His former tormenting fear of death is
gone. His conduct, language, and humor are “cleaned up” and transformed toward
“wholesomeness”. His commitment to his wife becomes bedrock,
To have and to hold,
from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in
sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part
Sunsets are suddenly beautiful. He becomes joyful.
Years pass and through the toils and troubles of life he
grows old. He comes to understand the Bible ever more deeply. His life is
better than he could have imagined in the days leading up to that long-ago
tragedy. Sitting in his comfortable living room he watches a gentle summer
rain. His faith is resting exclusively in “Christ and Him crucified,” He is a
child of God whose grace is flowing into the professor’s life by the agency of
the Holy Spirit. Benefits of the Cross are manifest in his life providing
answers and solutions. God provides him with grace to deal with tragedies,
hurts, and frustrations. The patter of gentle summer rain accompanies the
professor’s contemplation that whatever days lie ahead in this life, their
endpoint will see him standing in God’s presence blameless and in joy. He
begins to write a book on the sufficiency of the Cross.
The Cries of the World
By contrast to the professor, consider a mother living in
the third world, afflicted with AIDS and trying to care for her starving
infant. Christian missionaries trying to help her have been killed or driven
away by terrorists. From these missionaries the woman hears the good news of
Jesus and how He died on a cross to pay to God the sin-debt of humanity. She
receives and believes the good news and now in a somewhat more hopeful frame of
mind sets out to search a garbage dump for some bit of rotting food she might
find to sustain her and her infant. God takes faithful people from where they
are and ministers benefits of the Cross to them from that state and
circumstance. By her faith in Jesus, the grace of God will flow into her life
today, and benefits of the Cross that most would find disgusting will “appear”.
Regardless of her lowly estate and the trials she will have to endure, the end
point of God’s manifested blessings for this precious soul will be identical to
that of the professor. Both will stand together in the presence of God
blameless and in joy. God takes believers from where they are.
If you, as did the mother and the professor, put your faith
in Jesus Christ, His broken Body, and His shed Blood for you on the Cross, the
Holy Spirit of God will likewise minister grace to you uniquely, perfectly, and
comprehensively from where you are. Whatever your problems or circumstances,
God will solve and lead you through them to an eternal destiny of standing
before God blameless and in joy. That’s the good news of the Cross, now become
God’s Tree of Life.
For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Chapter 2:
What does it mean to “have faith in Jesus”?
By present physical nature and to the extent persons are
free, the natural way of life is to walk according to appetites and desires
with some degree of guidance by practicality and a basic, conscience-led
understanding of right and wrong. All accountably normal people will have some
belief about the spirit world which may include belief in life after death with
the possibility of reward or punishment. The key words are “reward” and
“punishment,” because in the natural way of thinking people’s hope for the
after-life is linked to correct moral
performance in this one.
By contrast to this “normal” way of thinking, saving “faith
in Jesus” involves an emphatic contrast. A saved person’s wants, desires, sense
of practicality and understanding of right and wrong all still influence
conduct. However, “faith in Jesus” transforms one’s hope for the after-life
into a living and purifying assurance no longer based on the person’s
performance. Rather, hope of eternal life and heaven’s rewards are now believed
to be a free gift from God based on Jesus Christ’s identity, obedience, and
sacrifice on the Cross at
The name “Jesus” derives from the Hebrew language meaning
“God saves,” or “rescues”. The word “Christ” is a title meaning “the appointed
one.” Thus, simply stated, the name Jesus Christ means “the Anointed One
through whom God saves or rescues.” Biblically interpreted, it means that it is
God who saves us by His will and effort, and not we who save ourselves by our
own efforts. Jesus was a man in history whom God appointed to live a life He
would require of all, and then give his life in sacrifice for our failure to
live the required life. To show His acceptance of what Jesus did by his life
and sacrifice, God raised him from the dead after three days. Our side of the
“transaction” is to put our faith in Jesus; that is, put our faith in his identity,
life, and sacrifice on our behalf.
In this salvation plan of God, the power source for life is
the Holy Spirit of God, and the source of information about everything relating
to God is the Bible. Laying it all out we find that the elements necessary for
eternal life are:
1.
the reality and faithfulness of God
2.
Jesus Christ’s identity, life, and
sacrifice
3.
a person’s repentance of
faith-in-self and turning to faith-in-Christ
4.
the Holy Spirit of God to empower
life eternally
5.
and the Bible by which God instructs
people about this good news so it can spread with joy throughout the world
What about the commandments of God?
Jesus taught that the commandments of God can be summarized
in two Great Commandments: (1) love
God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and (2) love your neighbor
as yourself. To some degree most of mankind would accept these with
considerable debate over exactly whom or what is God, and who or what is our
neighbor. For the Christian, the Bible serves to instruct us as to the identity
of God and neighbor.
The central issue regarding these summary commandments is,
therefore, how do we obey them? The Bible boils the answer down to two
possibilities (Romans 5-8). One could be called obedience under the principle of law, and the other could be
called obedience under the principle of
grace. The originating dynamic of living by the principle of law is found
in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, which relates the history of our first
“parents” Adam and Eve, and how their disobedience of a simple command brought
the human race under what the Bible calls “the law of sin and death.” The two
principles were originally manifested in two trees in the center of the garden
where Adam and Eve were miraculous created by God.
The principle of law was manifest in a tree which God named,
“The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” God commanded Adam and Eve not to
eat of this tree and informed them that if they did so, they would die. It is
the only command that God gave them.
The principle of grace was manifested in a second tree that
God named “The Tree of Life.” God made no commands about the Tree of Life and
Adam and Eve could have eaten of it if they so chose.
Satan, in the form of a serpent, deceived Eve and she ate
from the forbidden tree. Adam then ate willfully. (Genesis 2-3) Eating of the
forbidden “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” brought death into the
world just as God had warned. Death is the chief evil of which we have
knowledge.
The inevitable result of disobedience to God is loss of
fellowship with God, and lost fellowship with God is the ultimate meaning of
death. To be in opposition to God is to experience death and evil.
As a result of the original willful disobedience by Adam,
mankind now drowns in death and the knowledge of good and evil. Under the
prevailing principle of law we must live by self-will and wit. Some do better
than others under this principle, but the Bible warns that none can find
acceptance from God by their own meritorious doing of good and avoidance of
evil.
Man cannot survive under the principle of law. No one
operating via their knowledge of good and evil can rise to the standard of love
appropriate to the righteous character of God. We are, in our fallen state—like
it or not—children of evil, that first evil of Adam. In the same sense we are
also children of the Devil traced to our first ancestor’s following the lie of
Satan rather than the commandment of God.
Next to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the
Tree of Life. That tree is representative of the principle of grace, and it is
a figure of the Cross of Christ. Believers refer to the basis of their
salvation (or life under the principle of grace) with different terms: Jesus, the Blood, the Cross, Faith,
Jesus died on the Cross and was placed in a tomb, but God
raised him from the dead and he appeared to his disciples and many others. Then
he ascended bodily back into Heaven. To operate under the principle of grace is
to repent of your life via the dynamic of self-will and knowledge of good and
evil, and receive the sacrifice of Jesus for your sin. Under the principle of
grace, you love God and neighbor not by your own will and knowledge, but by the
power of the Holy Spirit of God flowing through your life. Of course, the Holy
Spirit empowers and employs your will and knowledge in this process, but the
power is God’s coming to you through the provisions of the Cross and your
exclusive faith therein.
For the believer in the Cross, behavior in accord with God’s
moral commandments is not a matter of producing religious obedience out of
ourselves but the fruit of a transformed heart in agreement and unity of mind
with God’s moral law. (Ezekiel 11:18-20) The critical obedience for the
Christian is obedience to the “perfect law of liberty” which is faith in “Jesus
Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2)
Moral behavior and avoidance of evil is not so much
point-by-point obedience as much as a deeper spirit of obedience reflective of
who we are. Conformity to the moral law results from the operation of the Holy
Spirit in our lives. The believer’s defining obedience is in keeping the Cross
of Christ as the focus of faith. That is work enough.
There is a lovely old hymn titled, Trust and Obey, and its lyrics tell us that “there is no other way
to be happy in Jesus but to trust and
obey.” The trust part is belief
in Jesus and his redemptive sacrifice on the Cross. In terms of etymology, the
word “believe” is related to the word “dear” and thus, in its meaning, to love. The word “obey”, on the other
hand, relates in antiquity to Latin words meaning “toward hearing.” To trust
and obey God is not merely to submit and go through prescribed motions, but
rather to hold dear and turn toward hearing what God has to say.
So, what does God’s Word have to say? Through obedience to
the “Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” man is forgiven and healed of
the disastrous effects of Adam’s original disobedience in eating of the
forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The deadly fruit of that
disobedience brought the consequence of what is known as “original sin” upon
all mankind. Under the original-sin consequence, man is:
1.
Born into a state of imputed sin
through his ancestor, Adam;
2.
Burdened with a sin-nature which
inclines him toward sin; and
3.
Therefore doomed to miss the mark of
God’s Holy standard in thought, attitude, and deed.
However, the good news of God’s redemption plan (willful
faith in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross) countermands the three
consequences of Adam’s original sin. The Cross of Christ is an infinitely
superior and more powerful counterpart of the original Tree of Life in the
Garden of Eden. After man’s fall, that tree could merely afford continued
physical life in our cursed condition. Therefore, God mercifully drove Adam and
Eve from the garden and barred access to the old Tree of Life. In its stead, God
provided a new Tree of Life, the Cross of Christ. “Eating” of this tree
countermands the judgments of the fall. Under the provisions of the new and
everlasting covenant believers in the Cross of Christ:
1.
Receive imputed righteousness under
which God reckons us as perfectly and eternally obedient to every command in
the Word of God;
2.
Are bestowed with a new living
spirit and transformed heart inclined to love and obey God; and
3.
Bear fruit of true righteous
obedience in thought, attitude, and deed.
Through this faith we “trust and obey.”
Through this faith we find the only true happiness.
In Summary
The two trees in the Garden of Eden represent two
administrations, one of death (separation and judgment by God) and one of life
(friendship with God and recipients of His grace). By physical birth under
Adam’s sin we are “dead men walking” and trapped under the administration of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The salvation plan of God through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross
rescues us from the administration of The
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and “births” us spiritually into the
administration of The Tree of Life.
Under the Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil administration, the differing ideas of
good and evil—and laws related to such—constitute strong walls that separate us
from God and divide us from one another. But now, under the Administration of
the Tree of Life:
1.
The walls of separation are
abolished (Ephesians 2);
2.
All are imputed with perfect
righteousness (Romans 3-5); and,
3.
All are given a new heart inclined
toward hearing the Word of God in service of loving God and neighbor (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
The Bible is about a plan of God determined before the
universe was created. (1 Peter 1:18-22)
The plan entailed the promise and foretelling of an appointed man, a
Messiah or Savior, who would deliver the willing into the fullness of life
worthy of God’s glory and majesty. The history and foretelling leading up to
the Messiah was given in the Old Testament of the Bible. Then, in the New
Testament of the Bible, God’s plan comes to fruition as the appointed Messiah
is born of a virgin by conception of the Holy Spirit of God. This coming of the
Messiah is marked by our common calendar date and so occurred about 2,000 years
ago. God’s appointed man, or Messiah, was named Jesus, which translates
essentially as “Savior”. This savior,
Jesus, lived a perfect life not out of
himself but from God by the power of
the Holy Spirit of God. (John 5:19, 30; also see John 8:28; and 15:5) He is
known to the world as “Jesus Christ”. The title, “Christ”, is a Greek language
word for the Hebrew word, Messiah; it means the same thing.
Jesus lived not for God
and neighbor out of himself, but from
God for the glory of God and salvation of neighbor. Having lived a perfect
life, Jesus then gave his life on the Cross to be the “Passover lamb” or blood
sacrifice so that his perfect life could be a substitute before the Throne of
God to stand in for our imperfect lives. (John 1:29) Jesus’ sacrifice was
acceptable to God, and so God raised him from the dead with an eternal and
glorified body.
The commandment of God for you and me is to receive the
sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf thereby allowing his perfect life to stand in
for our imperfect ones. Doing so brings us into ownership of God’s promise of
eternal life. (John 3:16, etc.) Looking at the matter from the viewpoint of
God’s love, receiving the sacrifice allows Jesus the joy of bringing us with
Him into the family of God. The purpose of salvation is joy, love, family, and
community.
Focus of Faith
People say, “My faith is in God.” That is good, but it is
vague. Vague faith can be “without works” and “dead”. What does it mean to have
faith in God? How does faith in God inform one’s conduct? What is the character
of God and his attributes such that we should have faith in him? James warned
us that “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17)
Others say, “My faith is in the Bible.” That’s good, but the
Bible can’t save you except in the sense of informing you as to who does save
you and how. Jesus reprimanded the religious leaders of his day saying, “You
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these
are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you
may have life.” (John 5:39-40, NKJV)
Some say, “My faith is in Jesus.” That’s good, but not all
that call Jesus Lord will be accepted. He warned that, “Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
Some say, “I have a personal relationship with Jesus.” That
is good, but such a faith can be a delusion if it is not anchored in belief in
the Cross of Christ, the only basis on which one can have a “personal
relationship” with God or Jesus. Jesus taught,
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your
name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness!’
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him
to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall,
for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not
do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the
rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and
it fell. And great was its fall.”
Matthew 7:22-27
In the full revelation of the New Covenant, as taught by the
Holy Spirit through the Apostles of Jesus after his resurrection, we know that
the identity and perfect life of Jesus were necessary for our salvation, but
did not, nor could not alone save us. We are saved by faith in his sacrifice on
the Cross substituting his perfect life for our imperfect ones. It is Christ’s
victory on the Cross that must ever be the centerpiece of our faith and the
life-spring of our relationship with God. When we make “Jesus Christ and him
crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) the focus of our faith and fountainhead of our
first love (Revelation 2:4; Jeremiah 2:2; Matthew 24:12) then it is the power
of the Holy Spirit that keeps our Christian walk, moral conduct, and
relationship with Jesus where God wants these evidences of regenerated life to
be found. (1 John 5:3-5)
So, to remain steadfast in your Christian walk and
experience the fullness of your salvation in this life, keep the focus of your
faith on Jesus Christ and him crucified. To state it in terms of love, to help
fulfill God’s joy in manifesting His love while being the greatest possible
blessing to family, friend and neighbor, keep the focus of your faith on Jesus
Christ and him crucified.
Cross-Wise Faith
By trusting Jesus Christ’s work on the Cross we can now see
how and why we are God’s children, and, like our elder brother, Jesus, living
not for God and neighbor, but from God for the glory of God and
blessing of neighbor. Jesus once said, “If any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) When we,
by faith, make the Cross of Christ our own Cross and “take it up daily” we are
not taking up misery and punishment for sin but abundant life and benefit of
infinite value and extent. To “deny yourself” is not to consign your willpower
to the task of depriving yourself of worldly pleasure and enjoyment, or even
avoiding sin and doing good works. To “deny your self” is to repent of the
whole principle of life out-of-yourself based on your knowledge of good and
evil and ability to negotiate life as though you were God and had life in
yourself. (Genesis 3:4-8) To “take up the Cross” is to embrace, by faith, the
principle of living from God by way of Christ’s Passover sacrifice.
The Holy Spirit has an unending supply of teachings and
images by which to bless your soul with assurance of the depth of power and
riches inherent in Christ’s victory on the Cross. In Romans 6, Paul gives us an
image of reckoning ourselves dead with Christ. One might imagine the dark and
quiet tomb where Jesus lay. Lying there dead beside him, the cares and worries
of this world are passed away. And what looms in your future? Resurrection!
Coming empowerment of the Holy Spirit for life!
As you lie there with Jesus, the grace of God is flying to
the aid of your soul and spirit. You do not know the times and seasons of all
things, but you know with calm assurance that knowledge, wisdom, joy, and the
refreshing needed to meet the challenges of life are always on their way.
Whatever scriptural imaginings the Holy Spirit might use to
bless and comfort your soul, remember always that your source of comfort is
nothing you imagine but the historical reality of what Jesus accomplished on
your behalf during the six hours he spent suffering and dying on the Cross for
your sins some 2,000 years ago. Imaginings waver and fade, but the historical
reality of the Cross event is forever firm and sure.
Bible passages showing the Cross from eternity past
to eternity future
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
In the context of the passage above, one should speak about
matters of Bible interpretation with trepidation. I do so and offer the
following Bible passages as the basis for my understanding of the Cross. Though
any imperfections in understanding are clearly my own, my loyalty is to Jesus
Christ and the New Covenant as explained by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle
Paul. Any departure of my position from that revelation to the Apostle Paul
should be resolved by amending my position accordingly.
The above being said, on the basis of the verses I will now
lay out, I conclude that the tie that binds the Bible together as a singular
and pointed revelation of God is the scarlet ribbon of blood that flowed from
the side of the broken body of Jesus on the Cross. It was never the intention
of God to establish His creation either on the innocence of those created in
His image, or their ability to negotiate the landscape of right and wrong based
on their own knowledge, ability, and will.
Rather, the creation, in the form to which it is destined
from eternity past, will be founded firmly and forever on the identity and
righteous life of Jesus; his sacrifice and suffering on the cross; and his
resurrection from the dead. Our eternal life and mind-set for conduct now
should be based on the mind-set of possessing salvation and abundant grace of
God for present day conduct as an entirely free gift of God earned by means of
the “Cross-event.” This being the case, Christians should not allow themselves
to be seduced into a mind-set of life by means of either innocence or knowledge
of good and evil. The abundant grace of God through child-like faith in
Christ’s sacrifice will produce more good works and avoidance of evil in our
lives than wit and knowledge of good and evil ever could.
The chapters which follow present Bible passages showing the
central theme of the Cross which constitutes the Bible’s divine intent. In the
quoted passages, words, phrases, and portions central to the Cross are
emphasized in bold. Again, let me make clear that when I speak of “the Cross” I
am not referring to the wood or the particular artifact as though either was
somehow special or sacred. “The Cross” is shorthand for the historical event in
which Jesus, as the sacrificial Lamb of God, used a Roman cross as an
instrument on which He suffered and died to pay the sin-debt of the world. The
essential thing is the identity of Jesus and historical reality of what
transpired when He allowed Himself to be crucified 2,000 years ago. (Revelation
13:8)
The Cross from Eternity Past
1 Peter 1:18-21
The Alpha: Eternity
Past
…Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers; but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you, [who] by him do believe in God, that
raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might
be in God.
1 Peter 1:18-21
From this verse and the “Cross-Wise”
anchor it provides from “before the foundation of the world” we can scan the
vista of history’s full picture. The plan of the Cross gives us concrete
meaning to Christ’s description of Himself as the “Alpha and Omega.” God’s
redemption plan is the Alpha (the letter A
in the English alphabet) and the culmination in the new heavens and earth is
the Omega (the letter Z in the
English alphabet). See now Revelation 21:
All Things
Made New
Revelation
21:1-7
The Omega: Eternity Future
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God
himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these
words are true and faithful.
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life
freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and
he shall be my son.
Revelation 21:1-7
The Straight and
Narrow Way from Alpha to Omega:
And how is it exactly that we “overcome” as mentioned in the
above verse? We “overcome” by singular faith in Jesus, who he is and what he
has done for us at the Cross.
For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 4-4
For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Colossians 1:9-29
The Big Picture
The Holy Spirit presents us with this wonderful panorama of
God’s plan of the Cross from eternity past through the whole of history. Full
understanding of God’s plan begins from the standpoint of persons who have
repented of their dead, worldly ways and obeyed the good news of life through
faith in the sacrifice of Jesus. Having entered into life, the desire of the
Father is that believers become knowledgeable of the depth of history and
wisdom behind His redemption plan of the Cross. This glorious passage from Colossians
1 lays it out. The verses I put in bold draw attention to the Cross of Christ
which constitutes the engine that runs the redemption plan of God. The
Cross-event does so by providing the loving yet righteous base for God the Holy
Spirit to work in the lives of those who will place their faith in Jesus and
his sacrifice on the Cross.
“[We] … do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye
might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience
and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath
made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and
for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is
the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the
preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
And, having made peace through the blood
of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say,
whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and
unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and
which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am
made a minister;
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for
you, and fill up that which is [lacking] of the afflictions of Christ in my
flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister,
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil
the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and
teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which
worketh in me mightily.
Colossians 1:9-29
God’s eternal plan of redemption through the Cross of Christ
is the perfect gift for every individual.
What exactly do you need? Are you weary and needing rest?
The Gospel is true and perfect rest.
Are you tragically stricken and needing comfort? The Gospel
provides true and perfect comfort.
Are you without hope and in need of meaning and a vision for
your life? The Gospel provides lasting purpose and meaning for life.
Are you sad and in need of good news? The Gospel is eternal
good news, the word “Gospel” means “good news.”
Are you complacent, satisfied with your mere existence, and
in need of stern warning? Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is the sternest of
warnings. To reject God’s secure free provision for forgiveness and life is to
personally bear the frightful and eternal weight of God’s perfect judgment for
your conduct in this mortal life.
Are you mindful of sinful shortfalls and in need of mercy
and forgiveness? The Blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.
Are you plagued by doubt and unbelief? Invest whatever
modicum of faith you can muster in Christ and Him crucified, and in His time
God will wash away all your doubts and fears.
Are you disgusted with the cruelty and injustice of the
world? Through the Cross, God has the power and will one day right all wrongs,
compensate all victims, and bring lasting peace and justice to the world.
In short, God knows exactly what you need and through faith
in His Son’s sacrifice He will in His perfect time provide it.
Chapter 5:
The Cross from Creation
The Bible’s first chapter tells us
of the six days of miraculous creative work by God. The miracles of creation
week bear the same “artist’s brushstrokes” as the miracles that Jesus performed
during his ministerial mission to the Cross. As we saw in the last chapter,
this is no surprise since Jesus is the author of both the creation-week and
salvation-mission miracles.
Genesis 1:1-5: First Day of Creation
In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.
And God said, Let there be light:
and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided
the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:1-5
In the first day of God’s miraculous
creation of the world we are given a glimpse of the full scope of His plan for
mankind in skeletal form. In the light of the rest of Scripture we can see
intimation of the distinct persons of the Godhead in the “moving” of God the
Holy Spirit, “speaking” of God the Son, and “seeing” of God the Father.
Further, in this passage there is prophetic indication to the believing eye
that the true and full light of God enters the creation at the time of Christ’s
human incarnation and mission to the Cross. Spiritual ignorance and darkness
prevails prior to that culminating event in God’s eternal plan. The good light
appears and separates light from darkness thus intimating God’s final judgment.
At the end of the Bible we learn that in the Heavenly city, “There shall be no
night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives
them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:5) Such is
the eternal plan of God.
Genesis 1:26-31: Creation of Man
And God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he
them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon
the earth.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing
seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is
the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every
beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that
creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb
for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold,
it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 1:26-31
The details exceed the scope of this book, but, in brief,
from this beginning point of an innocent, beautiful world with neither sin nor
death, free choices were made by certain angels and the first man and woman
that would plunge God’s “very good” creation into sin, death, and misery. This
“fall” of the creation from its initial innocent state began to set the stage
where in the fullness of time the sacrifice of Christ will bring God’s creation
to its destined end of resting securely and eternally on the power of Jesus’
sacrifice and shed blood.
John 1:1-14, 29: Jesus in His Joint Office as Creator and
Savior
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any
thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same
came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him
might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that
Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth.
John 1:1-14
The next day
John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world.
John 1:29
The intentions of the Godhead in
creation were orchestrated in the service of Christ’s mission to the Cross.
Though it is of great value to see in fullness how God’s redemption plan is the
root wisdom under-girding the whole of creation, the application to one’s own
relationship with God is the primary subject of this book. The Cross of Christ
is the light of God that brings life and comprehension to the darkened deadness
of each believer’s soul. Apart from restful faith in the Cross, the things
pertaining to God and life are ever beyond the comprehension of man. Man is lost
in darkness; the Cross brings light and hope.
Chapter 6:
The Cross in the Garden
Genesis 2:7-9 - The
Cross in the Garden
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in
Genesis 2:7-9
The two trees represent opposing principles: The first
principle is (planned from eternity past as we saw in the last chapter) based
on faith in the power and grace of God. The second and diametrically opposed
principle is based on self-generated knowledge, works, and merit obtained
independently by God’s creatures. The true Tree of Life is the Cross of Christ
and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is manifested in the numerous
ways of life and systems of thought that dot the human landscape. Worldly ways
of thinking, and the way of the Cross are utterly different and incompatible.
They are ever at war and, in the end one must always drive out the other.
Genesis 2:16-17 - Two
Trees: The way of the Cross and the way of sin and death
And the LORD God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 2:16-17
The ultimate meaning of death is separation from God. All
that is not rooted in the will of God is destined for banishment and judgment.
It is impossible for it to be any other way.
Genesis 3:1-15 – The
Cross promised after man’s fall into sin and death
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field
which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye
shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God hath said, Ye shalt not eat of it, neither shall ye touch
it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves
aprons.
Genesis 3:1-7
The making of clothes by Adam and Eve is representative of
all human attempts to become acceptable in the presence of God by ingenuity and
effort. Such is impossible.
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God
called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And [Adam] said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
And [God] said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast
thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou
hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast
done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the
field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of
thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:8-15
The seed of the serpent (Satan) encompasses all of humanity
as children of disobedience, while Jesus Christ, the Savior, is the “seed of
the woman”, Eve. The bruising of the serpent’s head is fulfilled in the
resurrection of Christ following his suffering on the Cross. The serpent’s
bruising of the “seed of the woman’s” heel, on the other hand, is fulfilled in
the agony of Christ’s Crucifixion.
Genesis 3:17-24: The
World is cursed as sin and death begin their reign
Then to Adam [God] said, “Because you have heeded the voice
of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying,
‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil
you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles
it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the
sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out
of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Genesis 3:17-21
Recall that I mark Scripture phrases with bold that relate to the event of
Christ’s dying on the Cross for our sins. The first application of the power of
the Cross is when God made clothes for Adam and Eve using the pelts of slain
animals. The first death in God’s perfect creation occurs at the hand of God
prefiguring the Cross of Christ and applying its saving power. Animal sacrifice
would continue among faithful believers as a picture of God’s promised
Deliverer until the true and final deliverance occurred with Christ’s shed
blood and sacrificed life on the Cross. Christ’s crucifixion, of course, marks
the end of legitimacy of animal sacrifice for approaching God. Human sacrifice
with the exception of the Cross of Christ was never legitimate for any purpose.
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one
of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also
of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—therefore the LORD God sent him
out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He
drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden,
and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of
life.
Genesis 3:22-24
After the sin of eating of the forbidden tree, eating of the
original Tree of Life could not be allowed because it entailed no shedding of
blood as payment for sin. The new and eternal Tree of Life was now Jesus, the
Son of God, who would sacrifice his life on the Cross to save us from our sins
as the Godhead had planned in Eternity past (1 Peter 1:20). The next chapter
will sketch out the big-picture regarding the warfare between the seed of the
serpent who is Satan (portrayed after the successful temptation of Eve as the
“god of this world” so to speak) and the seed of the woman who is Jesus, the
incarnation of the Godhead or True God of Heaven.
2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:30-32;
Ephesians 2:1-3
The Big Picture
The Bible is the only public source of detailed information
about the true God of Heaven. Among its teachings is the distinction between
the true God of Heaven and the false god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4; John
12:30-32; Ephesians 2:1-3). The only way to know the true God of Heaven is to
trust the sacrifice of blood he made for you on the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Knowledge of this one correct sacrifice for approaching the true God is gained
through study of the Bible.
True and False
Preaching
Some people who study the Bible believe what it teaches
about the perfect life of Jesus in substitution for yours and mine, and his
subsequent offering of himself as the one and only proper sacrifice to the true
God for our misdeeds. These people then tell this teaching to others. The false
god of this world, in company with human sin and wisdom, confuses and distorts
in all sorts of ways the Bible’s simple good news of Jesus and his perfect life
and sacrifice opening the doorway between us and the true God of Heaven.
Warfare
There is warfare between the true God of Heaven and the
false god of this world. This warfare is entirely about Jesus Christ and the
simple message of his life and sacrifice to rescue people from cruelty and
enslavement under the rule of the false god of this world. The false god of
this world uses many forms and guises to fight against the simple good news of
the Cross and power of Christ’s shed blood. The deceptions of the false god and
his many guises are always effective to some degree. Sometimes they are
effective to a blindingly remarkable degree. Yet, the simple message always,
here and there, breaks through the darkness again. This is the story of history
from the beginning.
At some point in the future known only to the true God of
Heaven, the time for his rescue efforts will end. The god of this world along
with the entirety of his dominion will be banished forever to the punishment
and torment of perfect justice. The Bible calls the true God’s prison of
perfect justice “The Lake of Fire.” It’s present day holding cell is called
Hell.
Escape Route
Two thousand years ago a man named Jesus Christ lived a
perfect life of speaking the truth, loving his neighbor, and obeying the true
God of Heaven. He did this not for his own sake or to simply demonstrate his
goodness as an example to us. Rather, Jesus did it in substitute for you and me
who do not, will not, and can not live up to the true God’s moral standards.
Having lived a perfect life, Jesus then willingly gave his life on the Cross to
endure in our stead whatever punishment we should rightfully receive for our
morally imperfect lives. To prove his acceptance of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice
for our sins, the true God of Heaven raised him from the dead. A simple
decision to place your trust in this free gift of a perfect substitute life and
sacrifice frees the true God of Heaven to annul the ownership which the false
god of this world has over your soul. Then, safely at rest through faith in
Jesus and his Cross, the true God of Heaven will forgive and transform you out
of your conditions of enslavement to the god of this world into the glorious
joy and liberty of his family. Henceforth, along life’s pathway, the grace of
the true God will attend you. Beyond this life you will stand before the true
God of Heaven forever blameless and in joy.
A Relevant “Two
Gods” Bible Passage: Ephesians 2:1-10
By Grace Through Faith
And you He made alive, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once
conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the
others.
But God, who is rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:1-10, NKJV
The grace of God is everything He does for mankind
pertaining to His redemption plan by way of the Cross. His wrath is always
righteous and just but essentially exercised in the service of safeguarding His
redemption plan.
The Hard Reality of Hell
The Biblical revelation of a world of people infected with a
terminal condition leading to inevitable eternal torment may be terrifying, but
the revelation is accompanied by a simple and readily available cure. The
revealed “disease” of sin and death is inextricable intertwined with the
realities of created choice and personhood. The eternal destiny of individuals
is linked to a God-created, underwritten, sustained, and therefore genuine
choice of the human will. We will either inherit the fruits of our own will, or
trust the loving and perfect will of God.
The terminal condition leading to the torment of receiving
perfect justice (i.e. Hell) has a number of designations in Scripture, one of
which is “darkness.” Part of the problem intrinsic to the human condition with
its element of choice is man’s inclination to prefer “darkness” to its opposite,
“light.” “Light” is one of the appellations given to God’s simple and readily
available antidote for the pandemic of mankind’s condition as lost and bound
for judgment. However, the Holy Spirit informs us that man is not inclined to
come to the “light” for deliverance and salvation.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. John 3:19
It’s the love of darkness not the reluctance of “light” that
causes Hell to be so richly inhabited.
Genesis 4:1-8 - Two
boys - one follows the way of the Cross, the other the way of the knowledge of
good and evil.
Now
[Adam] had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to
Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the
LORD." Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of
flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of
time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.
Genesis 4:1-3, NASB
Cain’s
offering is in accord with the principle of self-generated righteousness in
accord with his knowledge of good and evil. As such his offering seems
reasonable and honoring of God to our minds. However, it is contrary to God’s
eternal plan of the Cross and impossible for Him to accept. In His wisdom God
knows that the principle of life negotiated by knowledge of good and evil can
never work. What man must repent of is not doing evil, but doing good or evil
under the operating principle of knowledge of good and evil, i.e. the Law.
That is
not to say that doing good or evil doesn’t matter, that it’s all the same. We
should do “good” because it’s good, and avoid “evil” because it’s evil.
Furthermore, the Bible educates us as to what is good and what is evil. The
Bible is God’s Word and is good and teaches “good” because God is good. The
Bible promotes doing “good”, which boils down in a nutshell to loving God and
loving neighbor. However, doing good and avoiding evil is irrelevant to our
condition of being lost and separated from friendship with God. We have all
sinned and have a sin-debt to pay. The required payment for sin is separation
from God into a state of experiencing the precisely just torment we deserve for
harm we have inflicted on creation, neighbor, and God. To “receive Christ,” as
Christians often say, means to present Christ’s suffering and death on the
Cross to God as a substitute for our own soul in full payment of our sin-debt
to God. To do so is, in fact, an act of obedience that restores one’s proper
membership in the family of God.
Abel, on his part also brought of
the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel
and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So
Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
Then
the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance
fallen? "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if
you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you,
but you must master it."
Cain
told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain
rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
Genesis 4:4-8, NASB
Abel’s offering represents faith in the grace of God through
the promise of a Deliverer who would die for the sins of the people and become
the true Tree of Life. Human devised religions and philosophies, as exemplified
by Cain, are proud and dangerous toward those who live by simple faith in the
sacrificial provision of God’s grace. Living righteously by self knowledge of
good and evil is beyond human moral capability, and attempted life by that
principle ever seeks to “murder” the principle of life by the free, loving
grace of God. Even within the believer, the sin-nature is ever at war seeking
to “kill” the divine nature that is born through faith in the Cross of Christ.
Preachers typically invite people to put their faith in the
Gospel, but it is equally proper to command
in the name of the Lord that hearers believe and obey. The Gospel “good
news” is also the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). In
speaking to the Greeks at
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men everywhere to repent [because] he hath appointed a day, in …
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man [Jesus Christ] whom
he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead.
Acts 17:30-31
So we see that it is proper to command of people that they
put their faith exclusively in the sacrifice Jesus made on the Cross for the
sins of the world. Christ’s death on the Cross is the only payment other than
the damnation of one’s own soul that God can legally accept.
A moment’s reflection will show that whether one regards
belief in the Cross as a means to the freely offered gift of salvation from
God, or, an “or-else” commandment from Him is moot. With respect to salvation
in the Cross, invitation to receive and believe, and commandment to obey or be
damned are functionally equivalent. Obedience to the command, however, cannot
be coerced or imposed from the outside. Saving faith is a matter of the heart
and spirit within. Disobedience of God’s command to believe in Christ does not
cause God or his family to stop loving the disobedient soul, but it does impose
ultimately damning limitations on their “walking together.”
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Amos 3:3
All other Bible commandments and teachings are matters on
which pastors should exhort, beg, and plead, but not “command” as warranted by
the preeminent importance of God’s requirement that we present to Him the
proper sacrifice for our sins. The point I make is that whether we speak of
faith-in or obedience-to the Cross, we speak of a one-of-a-kind matter with
which no other faith or obedience should be allowed to share center stage. In
that spirit—the spirit of love—I command
you (or invite you if you prefer) to
heed what I am saying about trust in the Cross.
What about extreme
cases?
Let us suppose—as indeed happened similarly in the city
where I live—that a pastor were to discover evidence proving that a member of
his church was a long-hunted serial murderer. (In the real case, it was the
police and not the pastor that discovered the identity of the killer.) Should
the preacher go to the man and command him, “Thou shalt not kill”? Of course
not, he should turn him into the police! Afterward, when for the good of the
community and the killer’s own soul, he is locked away and headed toward trial
and permanent removal from society, the pastor should visit and command him—or
invite him if it seems more suited—to obey the Gospel by putting trust entirely
in the merit of Christ’s life and sacrifice at Calvary. (The pastor truly has
visited the killer, although I don’t know what was said.) The decision of
whether to “invite” or “command” should be governed by the loving, neighborly
assessment of which approach is most likely to achieve the will of God that all
come to repentance and be saved.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise … but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
After proper teaching of the Gospel, the pastor might well
exhort and plead with the killer—get down on his knees and beg if necessary—to
never engage in or tolerate a moment’s pleasure from recalling or imagining
violence against any person. To do so, is like unto murder (Matthew 5:21-23).
(People who commit and take pleasure in heinous acts against their neighbor
invariably begin by tolerating and taking pleasure in the imagination of such
acts.)
Gospel teachers should instruct all—including murderers
whether in deed or imagination—that the power to fully obey God’s moral
commands is not within us, but only comes to us through the power for life by
the agency of the Holy Spirit through the provisions of Jesus’ victory on the
Cross. Though we may have the grace of God to resist all sorts of temptations,
here or there we all inevitable fail, and some do so in ways that can only be
described as monstrous. In our fallen state, there is not one among us who
would be beyond doing great wickedness to his neighbor under certain
circumstances. That being said, Gospel teachers should also warn against the evil
and futility of trying to use the promises of God against the purposes of God.
One could suppose that obedience to the Gospel might be used as a means to
provide safe passage for free indulgence in evil pleasures. Such an idea is
incompatible with the Gospel. They are like oil and water. Life under the
provision of the Cross and willful evil intent cannot mix. The Gospel is purely
and simply about mercy and forgiveness in the service of love toward God and
neighbor. A person who does not desire to live in the community of love with
God and neighbor is not a person who desires to be a member of the family of
God. Moreover, God and his family have no desire to have such a person in the
family. God and his family will love the person, but, for the good of all,
assign him or her to the realm of perfect justice.
But, let us imagine more hopefully and assume that our now
convicted and condemned murderer has become assuredly obedient to the Gospel,
repentant for his sins, and willing to be transformed into the dominion of
love. No longer able to harm anyone in deed, he has forsaken harming anyone
even in imagination. This being the case, a pastor should comfort him with the
truth that through the provision of Christ’s victory on the Cross, the infinite
wisdom and power of God Almighty will one day make right all cruelties and
injustices. We learn this from study of God’s prescribed trespass offering in
Leviticus 6.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and
commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour … in a thing
taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour … sinning therein: Then
it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that
which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten,
[and] he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part
more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it [belongs] …
Leviticus 6:1-5
A person who was the victim of a
crime was to be compensated for what was wrongfully taken and to receive an
additional one-fifth of its value making for the victim thereby a nice profit.
Oftentimes we cannot compensate the victims of our trespasses and crimes, but
the infinite God of the Bible, to whom all things are possible, can. When Jesus
suffered and died on the Cross he took upon himself the sins of the world (John
1:29). Isaiah puts it this way,
The LORD hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6
Part of the payment for trespass
is the requirement for restitution to victims in the manner God prescribed in
the Trespass Offering. We don’t know exactly how God will compensate victims
and perform justice for all, but a blessed part of Gospel faith is that He can
and will do so. Whether in Heaven or Hell there will be no notion of some
injustice that has not been made right. But, the Bible warns quite sternly that
perfect justice is not what you should desire. Truly you should seek justice,
but moreover: forgiveness, mercy, and grace. God puts it this way:
…O man, what is good; and what
doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8
Faith in the Cross of Christ
gains God’s accreditation of this character to our souls and empowers this
character to our walk.
Chapter
9:
Ark of Safety
Genesis 7:1-5 –
And the
LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I
seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt
take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not
clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the
male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet
seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty
nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the
face of the earth.
And
Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
Genesis 7:1-5
In terms of calamities that have befallen the world, the
great flood of Genesis is second only to the fall of man after Adam’s and Eve’s
disobedience in the Garden of Eden. The fall saw the very existence of sin and
death make entry into God’s “very good” creation, and the great flood of Noah’s
day is the earth’s single greatest episode of death and destruction. Even
today, the instabilities of the earth’s broken crust and related energy dynamics
resulting from that cataclysm continue to plague us. Today’s volcanic
eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and draughts are, in effect,
aftershocks of the “great flood.” In turn, all these as well as Noah’s flood
itself are “aftershocks” of the fall.
To learn scientific-research details about Noah’s flood and
other questions relating to creation and evidence of design in nature consult
the website, Answers in Genesis.
Scientists and academics who operate from a biblical worldview have chronicled
many good evidences for creation and counterarguments to modern evolution
theory. This writer and countless other Christians have been blessed by
learning of such evidences.
However, as regards the historical veracity of the great
flood and other events recorded in the Bible, I would urge upon the reader that
if Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God having come to earth in the
flesh as the sacrificial Lamb of God crucified dead for the sins of the world
and raised from the dead by God on the third day, then the biblical account of
the great flood and all other historical events recorded in its pages are true.
Moreover, the calmest and most restful assurance of the Bible’s trustworthiness
comes from knowing God in the context of experiencing His power and
transforming grace through focused and singular faith in Jesus and His
sacrifice on the Cross.
Rising above the obvious
The Bible’s story of God’s judgment in the fall, great
flood, and other calamities is also the story of God’s provision for forgiveness
and restoration to the safety of His fellowship. We can see that clearly in the
provision of the
In the Bible’s account of the flood it is easy to overlook
the most important detail. Mentioned almost in passing is the inclusion of five
additional “clean” beasts beyond the two needed to preserve the seed. Five has
been observed in the Bible as God’s number for grace. (For instance, note the
five offerings at the beginning of Leviticus; Burnt, Meal, Peace, Trespass, and
Sin.) The righteousness of Noah came not by sinless perfection on his part, but
by faith in God’s promise to send a Deliverer or Messiah to be a Savior. It was
by obedient offering of God’s commanded blood sacrifices that Noah’s faith in
the Messiah was demonstrated. Noah observed the prescribed sacrifices and God
therefore accounted him as righteous. It is the same for us today when we put
our faith in the Blood sacrifice of God’s appointed Lord and Savior, Jesus.
This obedience on our part allows us to have fellowship with God and to
experience the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Such faith
and its resulting grace bring forth a bounty of righteous, loving, and joyful
fruit. Such faith is pleasing to God and all His family.
Upon landing safely through the deluge, Noah’s first act was
to offer sacrifices from the select “clean” animals.
And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth [from] the ark,
thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth …
every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of
cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may
breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon
the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every
clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the LORD smelled a sweet [aroma]; and the LORD said in his heart, I will
not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every
thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest,
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:15-22
Chapter
10: Birth of the Nations
From the landing of the
Genesis 11:1-9 - Birth
of Nations for whom Christ would die on the Cross
And the
whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as
they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the
And
they said one to another, [Come], let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly.
And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said,
[Come], let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven;
and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the
whole earth.
Genesis 11:1-4
Our fallen nature is to be
as our own God doing what we want to do and inclined toward trying to
“capture” God by self will and human wisdom. This is the way of things as we
operate under the “administration” of the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We either reject God altogether, or
attempt to enter His presence by effort and ingenuity. First of all, such
attempts can never work; and, secondly, they constitute the very heart of
wickedness and rebellion against God’s plan of redemption via the blood
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The historical project of building the city and
tower, and its intent, were in direct violation of God’s command to spread over
the earth. The project also ignored the fact that God could only be approached
by way of the prescribed blood sacrifice pre-figuring Christ’s suffering on the
Cross.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which
the children of men [were building]. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is
one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing
will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. [Come], let us go
down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face
of all the earth: and they [stopped building] the city. Therefore is the name
of [the city] called
Genesis 11:5-9
Approaching God in any other than the prescribed “way of the
Cross” can only bring judgment. The mercies, blessings, and judgments of God
always operate in the service of the Divine intent to protect and advance the
one and only way of salvation for the peoples of the world through the
sacrifice of the Cross. It is in this light that we can understand the sense in
which the commandments of God are always to be understood and obeyed in the
service of faith in the Cross and its resultant fruit of love toward God and
neighbor. (I Timothy 1:5)
Genesis 12:1-4 – A
nation to provide the “womb” for Messiah
With the languages confused, the
descendants of Noah begin to migrate to the far ends of the earth. Post-flood
conditions were such as to be more favorable to migration than would be the
case in later generations. Later conditions tended to seal off the dispersed nation
groups. Today, technology and communication are making mankind global in
perspective once again in spite of language and geographic barriers. The
contrasting ways—the broad way of the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil versus the narrow way of the Tree of Life—are becoming salient on a global
scale. Historically, the two previous times of universal salience of the
contrasting ways were the post-fall generation of Adam and Eve and the
post-flood generation of Noah and his family.
In the prevailing spiritual
darkness of the post-Babel dispersion God called out a single man who would
become the father of the nation of Israel
Now the
LORD had said unto Abram, [Leave your] country, and [depart] from [your]
kindred, and from [your] father's house, unto a land that I will [show you]:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy
name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed.
So
Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him…
Genesis 12:1-4
Abraham continues the
ancestral line to Jesus
In the post-flood world Abraham would continue the line of
promise that would lead to the birth of Jesus. The man now known as “Abraham”
was originally named “Abram” which means “exalted father.” God later gave Abram
the new name, “Abraham”, which means “Father of a multitude.”
God communicates truth about Himself and His plan for
forgiveness, freedom, and deliverance from sin in the Bible. He uses many
overlapping pictures or “types” to do so. One key episode in Abram’s/Abraham’s
(i.e. exalted-father-of-a-multitude’s) life presents a type of God the Father offering up His only begotten Son, Jesus, to
save us from our sins. The same episode also demonstrates the principle of God
Himself providing the sacrificial offering to save His people. From what I have
written so far in this book you should be able to extract the meanings and
applications regarding the Cross of Christ from this Biblical account excerpted
from Genesis 22:1-18.
And it
came to pass [that God said to Abraham] …Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac,
whom thou lovest, and [go to] the
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and … took … Isaac
his son, and … wood for the burnt offering… [He] rose up, and went unto the
place of which God had told him. … And Abraham took the wood of the burnt
offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and
a knife… And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said… Behold the fire and
the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering…
And they came to the place which God had told him of; and
Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his
son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto
him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and [Abraham] said, Here am I.
And [the angel of the LORD] said, Lay not thine hand upon
the lad, neither do … any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God,
seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold
behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took
the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the [place] of his son. And
Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh [which means “the Lord will
provide”]. …
And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven
the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because
[you have] done this thing, and [have] not withheld [your] son, [your] only
son: [t]hat in blessing I will bless [you], and in multiplying I will multiply
[your] seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea
shore; and [your] seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in [your]
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because [you have] obeyed
my voice.
Genesis 22:1-18
In Abraham’s lifetime he never saw these promises fulfilled,
yet by faith he did see them. We who obey the Law of the Spirit of Life in
Christ Jesus enter into our portion of God’s blessings promised to Abraham.
Long after Abraham’s life on earth, his descendants did become a great nation
under the Kings of
God uses the troubles and challenges of life to teach His
faithful children that the only true security is that which God provides
through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. Let us therefore thankfully
remember that in the Cross The-LORD-Hath-Provided.
Chapter 11: Pictures, Prophesies, and Teachings
With what has been taught so far, the reader should now be
able to understand the following Scripture selections which provide types and
pictures to teach us about the Cross of Jesus and its Tree-of-Life redemptive application in our lives. Read the passages
at your leisure and think about what spiritual details concerning the Cross the
Holy Spirit is relating to us through them.
Exodus 12:1-41 – The Angel of Death passes over those protected by the
Blood of the Lamb
And the
LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first
year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep
it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the
congregation of
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and
will [strike] all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and
against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the
blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see
the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to
destroy you, when I [strike] the
…
Then Moses called for all the elders of
And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and
to thy sons for ever.
…
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and
thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the
LORD went out from the
Exodus 12:1-41
Isaiah 53:1-12 – Jesus
on the Cross foretold in the Old Testament
Who hath believed our report? [And] to whom is the arm of
the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a
root out of a dry ground: [He has no stately form or majesty]; and when we shall
see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it
were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: [The]
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and
the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not
his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? [For] he was cut off out
of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because
he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to
grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto
death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:1-12
Luke 1:67-75 – Jesus’
mission to Cross foretold at his birth
…Zacharias
was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up
an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by
the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we
should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To
perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
The oath which he [swore] to our father Abraham, [that] he would grant unto us,
that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without
fear, [in] holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.”
Luke 1:67-75
John 1:29 & 33 – Jesus’ mission
to the Cross foretold at start of his ministry
The
next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. … [The] same is he which baptizeth with the
Holy Ghost.
John 1:29 & 33
John 6:29-63 – Jesus reveals his
mission to the Cross
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God,
that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. … [My] Father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. … I am the bread
of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me
shall never thirst. … And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one
which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I
will raise him up at the last day.
… Verily [i.e. truly], verily, I say unto you, He that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life.
…
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any
man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. … Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his
blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is
meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent
me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
…
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this,
said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and
if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit
that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:29-63
Romans 5:8-21 – The
Holy Spirit clarifies the message of the Cross
But God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his
life.
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned:
(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not
imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over them that had not sinned [in the likeness] of Adam's transgression,
who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is
the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the
grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath
abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for
the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences
unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more
they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all
men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:8-21
Galatians 3:13-14 –
Message of the Cross made clear
Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:13-14
Hebrews 9:11-14 - Message of the Cross made clear again
But
Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the
blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:11-14
Revelation 5:6-14 – The Cross
in Heaven
And I
beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he
came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell
down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of
odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals
thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our
God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round
about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten
thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud
voice,
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I
saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty
elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Revelation 5:6-14
Revelation 22:1-5 –
The Cross in eternity future
And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of
the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life,
which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the
leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no
more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his
servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in
their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle,
neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall
reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:1-5
2 Corinthians 6:2 –
NOW is always the time to put your faith in the Cross
…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:2
Revelation 22:16-17 – God the Son and God the Holy Spirit call you to
the Cross
I Jesus
have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the
root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him
that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely.
Revelation 22:16-17
Revelation 12:9-11 –
By faith in the Cross we overcome the world.
And the
great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were
cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come
salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by
the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Revelation 12:9-11
Chapter
12: Gideons International Gospel Invitation
I include this chapter by way of assurance that the message
of this book is in line with that of respected Christian ministries, of which Gideons International is certainly
representative. Their Gospel invitation will serve well for the reader who is
just now entering into eternal life or as a reminder to those who have already
done so. The Gideons are among the most well-known and respected of Gospel
messengers, and the following verses and “sinner’s prayer” are taken from their
website.
The Gideons International salvation verses and sinner’s prayer
http://www.gideons.org/Tgi.web/TGI.Web.PublicWebSite/pages/Become_A_Christian.aspx
God Loves You
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. —John 3:16
But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. —Romans 5:8
All Are Sinners
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. —Romans 3:23
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.
—Romans 3:10
God's Remedy for Sin
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. —Romans 6:23
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. —John 1:12
All May Be Saved Now
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the
door, I will come in to him. —Revelation 3:20(a)
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. —Romans 10:13
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his
name. —John 20:31
Receive Christ as Your Savior Now
Confessing to God that I am a sinner, and believing that the
Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins on the cross and was raised for my
justification, I now receive and confess Him as my personal Savior.
Assurance as a Believer
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
—John 5:24
ß
à
Benediction
Now may the God of peace who
brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good
work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. –-Hebrews 13:20-21
Chapter
13: Bible Study by the Light of the Cross
To close our study we are ready to consider how to apply our
understanding of the Cross to the study of the Bible in general: That is, the
faith application of the significance, promise, and power of the historical
event of Jesus Christ and Him crucified
to Bible study on any and all subjects. The six historical hours that Jesus
suffered on the Cross provides the sure foundation for us to stand firm in our
position as children-of-God-by-faith. Such faith forever enriches and empowers
not only our reading of the Bible, but also the application of God’s Word to
meeting the troubles and practical challenges of life.
As an exercise, assume that you
are an ordinary Jew living in
Messianic Prophecies
Genesis 49:10
The scepter shall not depart from
Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his
kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 40:3-5
The voice of him that crieth in
the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill
shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places
plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
An encounter with John the Baptist
You, our imagined Jew, happen to
be in the area near the
You work your way through the crowd
and see the center of attention, a strange personage clothed in a camel’s hair
garment with a leather belt around his waist. He is not preaching now and the
crowd is clustered about in small groups here and there talking amongst
themselves. The wild man is sitting at rest, and the people are respecting his
break.
You stand watching from a nearby
vantage point as the man named John is eating a lunch of locusts and wild honey
gathered and prepared from the surrounding countryside. After eating, the wild
preacher is back in the river baptizing people as they come to him in a long
orderly line. As the turn of each arrives some cry out loudly confessing
various sins. John appears to pay little attention to these confessions as he
goes purposefully about his baptisms. Suddenly and surprisingly, as he sees the
approach of a group from the religious establishment—both Pharisees and
Sadducees—John erupts in an angry voice,
O generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet
for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, “We have Abraham to our
father”: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up
children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees:
therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast
into the fire.
I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I
am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Matthew 3:7-11
Thought Questions:
1.
What do
you think you would do in response to this imagined encounter with John the
Baptist?
2.
What
would you hope you would do?
3.
What do
you think God would want you to do?
4.
How would
you apply “the message of the Cross” to your right standing with God in the
light of your answers to the above questions?
An encounter with Jesus
Jesus often taught in parables and perhaps his most well
known is that of the farmer sowing seed,
"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
Matthew 13:3-8 (NIV)
The
disciples had a heart to follow and listen to Jesus, and a bit later he
explained the parable’s meaning to them.
When
anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil
one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown
along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the
man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no
root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of
the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among
the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the
deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received
the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands
it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was
sown."
Matthew 13:19-23 (NIV)
Anyone
hearing and believing in Jesus would strive to follow him and be “good soil.”
This is what God wants and Jesus commands. But, in the wisdom of God we also
know the rest of the story that the followers of Jesus day did not know. We
know the truth taught later by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul as, for
example, in his letter to the Romans. (Romans 3:9-28)
…they
are all under sin… There is none righteous… There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they
are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good… , no, not one.
Romans 3:9B-12
Now we
know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, … that he [God] might be just,
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It
is excluded. … [We] conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds
of the law.
Romans 3:19-28
From our deeper knowledge of the message of the Cross we
know that on our own none of us can lay claim to being good soil. With the best
of intentions we might set out to follow Jesus, which is good and which we
should certainly do. But, though the spirit may be willing, the flesh is weak
(Mark 14:38). The best among us fail in many ways. The followers of Jesus in
his day including the Disciples, who were taught the meaning of this parable of
the sower, were scattered from him in the end when he went to the Cross. But
after his sacrifice on the Cross to pay the sin dept of the world, Jesus rose
to life again and went back to gather his scattered flock. He reassured them,
and told them to wait for the coming of the promised Comforter, God the Holy
Spirit.
Thought Questions:
1.
Prior to
understanding the message of the Cross, what do you think your response was or
would be to the parable of the farmer sowing seed?
2.
Prior to
understanding the message of the Cross, what part of the parable best fits you?
3.
In the
context of the message of the Cross and your particular place in life, how do
you think God wants you to respond to the parable?
4.
If you
were to reckon yourself dead with Christ in the manner Paul instructs in Romans
6, what sort of fruit do you think the grace of God by the agency of the Holy
Spirit would bring forth out of your “good soil”?
As the Lord enables, I suggest
you find time over the next few days or weeks to read the Gospel of Matthew. As
you do so stop to pray and ask yourself relevant questions along the lines of
how to apply the historical fact of Jesus’ sacrifice and death on the Cross to
its loving purpose of establishing and guarding your standing as an approved
and beloved member of God’s family? Of course, such exercise can and should be
done with any and all portions of the Bible. In short, Bible study should
always be done in the spirit of obedience to the Gospel. Such obedience brings
profit to the student and joy to God.
The overarching purpose of
everything written in the Bible is to lead us to Christ in order that we might
be justified by faith…to be precise, faith in “Christ and Him crucified.” (1
Corinthians 2:2) Learning to read, study, and apply the Bible by the light of
the Cross opens up its life giving powers.
In Conclusion
The source of salvation is God.
The means is the Cross of Christ. The end is love of God, and love of neighbor
as your self.
Wisdom is good, but we cannot
live by our finite wisdom. Understanding is good, but we cannot live by our
finite understanding. Through trust in the sacrifice of Christ we are
reconciled to God and thereby live forever in the security of His infinite
wisdom, understanding, and love.
The national motto of the
Home:
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E-Mail:
paul.ackerman@cox.net
Office:
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E-Mail:
paul.ackerman@wichita.edu
Dr. Ackerman is an assistant professor and assistant
chairperson of the Department of Psychology at