I am always amazed by those who think God could have saved us some
other way than through the finished work of Christ on the cross and His
resurrection. There is the matter that "without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins" (Hebrews 9:22). And then of course, there
is Paul's declaration regarding Jesus that He "...was delivered up for
our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25).
To whom must fallen man be justified but before His Creator only?
Therefore God, to show Himself just (in His nature and his abhorrence of
sin) and the only one who can be the justifier of those who put their
trust/faith in Him, He spared not His own Son (Romans 3:19-26).
A law is of no consequence if there is no penalty for the violation of
it or as the Bible states it: "where there is no law there is no
transgression" (Romans 4:15). Therefore, how does God maintain His
holiness and justice while establishing a relationship with man who is a
sinner? That is, one who has violated His law (Romans 3:23). The only
answer can be through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Since man's fall, the picture of the cost of redemption has always been
portrayed as a price which no sinful human could pay.
Since
man's fall, God has always been pictured as the one
who provides for redemption. We see God's provision in
Genesis 3:21, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of
skins and clothed them." This picture of God clothing man with the skins of animals clearly suggests that God did for man what
man was incapable of doing for himself. In order to cover man, it
required the death of an animal. It prefigured Christ - the seed of the
woman - doing for us what we could not do for ourselves, namely, sacrificing Himself for our sins (Genesis 3:15)!
Furthermore, if we look at the language God used in Abraham's sacrifice
of Isaac (Genesis 22) we are hard pressed not to see the sacrifice of
Jesus being prefigured. God tells Abraham in verse 3, “Take your son,
your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and
offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I
shall tell you.” How can we miss the "your son, your only son, whom you
love" and not sense the heart of God in giving His Son Jesus? Then when
God stays Abraham's raised hand with the knife, as it is about to slay
Isaac on the altar, the language is clear again, “Do not lay your hand
on the boy or do anything to him...seeing you have not withheld your
son, your only son, from me” (vs. 12). Again, we get a sense of the the
depth of a father's heart in offering his ONLY SON! Furthermore, that
fact Abraham's hand is stayed reveals again that the cost of man's
redemption cannot be paid by man himself but the Lord will provide (read
carefully vv. 8, 13-14)! Thus, the ram being caught in the thicket for Isaac once again is a prefigurement of Christ as our
offering/sacrifice. Thus, THE LORD WILL AND DID PROVIDE the only
acceptable sacrifice necessary for our redemption and justification,
namely, His Son.
The whole animal sacrificial system of the OT
is God's provision for man. Yet the truth is that not even the blood of
those animals could take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). Consequently we read
further, "When he said above, 'You have neither desired nor taken
pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin
offerings' (these are offered according to the law), then he added,
'Behold, I have come to do your will.' He does away with the first in
order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...But when
Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat
down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies
should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has
perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews
10:8-14). The Lord provided for us in Christ what we could not provide
for ourselves, namely, the forgiveness of sins through which He
establishes a relationship with us.
Praise The Lord He provides!
Suppose our purpose in reading the the Scriptures was to truly learn more about the God who gave them, rather than trying to assert more about what He meant by the Scriptures based on the latest and greatest scholarship. Would it not help us resolve many of our differences or at least enable us to approach our differences with greater humility? (Matthew 11:27-29; 16:17; Galatians 1:15-16, see also vv. 6-12).
People who think they can and must make the Scriptures relevant are drinking from their own hubris. Too often they imagine they have thought of something no one else ever has! It is the epitome of hubris to think we can and must make the Bible relevant. We must learn the basic and most fundamental of all truths when preaching the gospel; namely, the Bible IS relevant because the God who gave it IS relevant, real and the basis for ALL reality. We don't make the Scriptures relevant. The Scriptures are relevant because God who gave the Scriptures is relevant -- end of sentence!
I am quickly put off by Bible class teachers whose first question after reading a text of scriptures is: "What is this passage saying to you?" A far better question is, "what is this telling us about God?" It is God with whom we have to do and not how someone feels about the scriptures. There is a growing lack of confidence in the Scriptures because we have forgotten where they came from and with whom they have to do.
I am not opposed to reading or quoting scholarship! What I am opposed to is using scholarship as a substitute for our own thinking with regard to the scriptures. I am paraphrasing because I cannot find the exact quote from Everett Ferguson, a scholar on the First Century, (help me if you know where it is) who said something to the effect that with regard to the New Testament, we stand where second century Christians stood, with the exception of time and geographical location. That is, we are looking at the New Testament and reading it trying to understand what those who went before us did to know and please God. In the words of the late and beloved Robert Turner, "The revelation God gave is suited the man God made."
