Open Our Eyes And Minds to Truth- Part IV

Part I and Part II of this series began the discussion of how God protects His revelation. Part III offered insights into limitations on God’s protection.

A Surprising and Startling Discovery?

There is a widespread misunderstanding of why Christ suffered and died on the Cross. The following material is set before you for prayerful consideration.

A statement that appears to me to have recently become popular among Christians is “Jesus was born to die”. My automatic response to this statement is to immediately cry out: “No! That’s not true.”  I believe that misstatement should be corrected to say, “Jesus was born to save and redeem humanity, with the full knowledge of and acceptance that He would suffer and die [on the cross as a significant and important detail of achieving that task].”  While true, I realize it is flawed by what it omits because Jesus was born to show us “the way, the truth, and the life”; that was God’s eternal purpose in creating us, by His personal example and to give to God, through His humanity, perfect obedience every human owes to God.

As Jesus stated:

I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me (John 6:38).

The statement “Jesus was born to die” is one way of expressing the widely believed and taught opinion of fallible individuals, that Jesus affected our salvation by His suffering and death on the cross. This opinion has deep roots. I respond with a statement of fact and two very serious and relevant questions.

The fact that Jesus suffered and died on the Cross is something sinful men inflicted on Him by their misconduct, it is not something Christ actively did!  Since the infliction of suffering and death on the cross is something men did to Christ; the vital question we need to clearly understand and answer is:  “What exactly did Jesus do to save and Redeem man?”

Christ’s acceptance of His suffering and death on the Cross was an act of total human obedience to the permissive will of the Father; who allowed men to crucify Jesus and do other similar vicious things as a direct and inherent consequence of the misuse of their free will. Christ’s loving act of obedience, to this detail of the Father’s will, also serves as a guide and model for the saints, especially all martyrs, of the need for obedience to God’s permissive will. Christ revealed His incredible and awesome love for us.

It is the widespread opinion of many fallible individuals that “ Jesus effected man’s salvation by His suffering and dying on the cross”. Is this compatible with the following lessons from Scripture?

For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51: 16–17).

Do not invite death by the error of your life, or bring on destruction by the works of your hands; because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal (Wisdom 1:12–15).

Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live (Eziel 18:31–32).

Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11–12).

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6: 6).

for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it (Wisdom 2: 23–24).

You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8: 44).

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart (Psalm 40: 6–8).

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God (Hebrews 10: 5–7).

When Christ said the above, He abolished the first in order to establish the second. It is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10: 9–10).

And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross (Philippians 2:7–8).

Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous (Romans 5:18–19).

From the moment of His conception onward, Jesus offered and offers, in and through His human nature, perfect obedience to the Father, which every human owes to God. This obedience is what Jesus did and does which effected our salvation and Redemption. His suffering and dying on the cross was the ultimate test of the obedience that Jesus expressed in and through His human nature.

We need to examine and understand how God incorporated the suffering and death of Jesus on the Cross as a vital detail in His overall plan of salvation and Redemption. Scripture records that Cain was the first man to offer a sacrificial offering to God, and the significant detail is that he did that without any identified command or instruction from God. Also notice there are two core details inherent in the nature of a sacrificial offering to God.

1)  The purpose or intent of making a sacrificial offering to God is to acknowledge Him as the author of everything we are and have.

2)  That acknowledgment is expressed by totally destroying the gift offered, as the means of dedicating it totally and irrevocably to God.

There is much in the concept and the intent of man in making a sacrificial offering to God which is good, noble, and valuable. However, there is also a subtle flaw in the destruction of the gift that is offered. Destruction of the gift involves an inherent conflict with God’s stated intent and purpose of creation is affirmed in several of the quotations previously identified. Here again, there is an important detail in the Scriptural record. God had not yet given any command, instruction, or warning about sacrifices. Notice what Paul has to say about the situation of God not having given a command, warning, or law in the book of Romans.

In a computer search of Scripture, Genesis 22: 2 is the first Scriptural record,  I found, of God commanding anyone to offer a Sacrificial offering. It is important to note that at the moment that Abraham is about to obediently offer his son Isaac to God in sacrifice, God stops him.  God’s purpose was to test Abraham’s faith:  it was not to receive a sacrificial offering. This example of tiny details that are so easy to ignore, neglect, and dismiss.

Because God is not limited by time as we are, He knew immediately upon His commitment to creating the world we inhabit and the various creatures identified in Scripture, that Jesus would suffer and die on the Cross. He knew this because he witnessed it unhampered by the barrier of time that limits us. So, God used the consequence of Christ’s loving act of obedience “… to the point of death—even death on a cross”, as a key and vital detail in His awesome plan of salvation.

Christ’s death, like all death, was a  contingent natural consequence of sins committed by men who misused their freedom. His death was not something directly willed or required by the Father, it was only permitted. So, how did the Father incorporate into and use Christ’s death in His plan of Salvation?

1)  Put simply, God guided, directed, and limited man’s desire to make sacrificial offerings to Him through the detailed instructions He specified in the Jewish Law.

2)  God also designed the offerings of the Jewish Law to be a type of foreshadowing of  Christ’s death on the Cross. Their purpose was to point to Christ and His death.

3) Thus, Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross was, by God’s design, used as the ultimate and perfect sacrifice that fulfilled the Jewish Law, which also fulfilled man’s desire to offer sacrifices to God.

4)  Of even greater importance is the fact that Christ replaced the destructive and ineffective sacrificial offerings of the Jewish Law with His own superior offering of perfect obedience, not only to His Father’s positive will but even to the permissive will of the Father. This superior sacrificial offering of perfect loving obedience to the Father is what affected the salvation and Redemption of mankind. Jesus made this offering at the misleadingly labeled “Last Supper”.

The “Last Supper” was in fact the first “re-pres-ent-ing time and space of Christ’s single offering to God. Too many professed Christians fail to understand that Jesus, our High Priest, being God, extends His one offering, making that single offering present in every time and place that a priest commissioned by Him presents the “pure offering” identified in Malachi 1:11. That “pure offering” is Christ’s perfect loving obedience to the permissive will of the Father. His personal loving act of obedience “… to the point of death—even death on a cross”, was completed on Calvary, as explained in detail by Dr. Scott Hahn. There is more through Christ’s body, the Church. See Col 1: 24 & 1 Pet 4: 13.

In a three disk set of DVDs, Dr. Scott Hahn fills in many valuable details of Christ’s institution of the Eucharist incredibly better than any thoughts or insights I could hope to present. Their title is: “The Eucharist in Scripture”, and the set is available from the Saint Paul Center.

Though I had long recognized that Jesus identified as “The Lamb of God” by John the Baptist and was the focus of that “Last Supper” celebration of the Jewish Passover with the apostles, it was many decades before I became aware of the tiny detail that the traditional sacrificial lamb at the center of the Passover ritual is not mentioned in any of the Scriptural accounts. Clearly, this omission is for the simple reason that Christ, who is the true Lamb of God, is the real center of His superior offering.

During a recent Mass, shortly after the priest, who at the command, commission, and empowerment of Jesus, caused bread to be transubstantiated into the body of Christ and wine to be transubstantiated into the blood of Christ, I became vividly conscious of the priest saying these awesome words of the new and eternal offering of Christ made present to, for, and through His body the Church:

We offer the Bread of life and the Chalice of salvation.

The details of that perfectly lived human life totally dwarfed – not eliminated – not diminished – not take anything away from – but rather, awesomely towered over Our Lord’s death on the Cross. Thus, this shift in focus identifies the awesomely greater significance and importance that Christ’s total lifelong human obedience, even to the Father’s permissive will, had in effecting our Salvation.  Obedience vs. disobedience is a major thread that one finds woven throughout Scripture.

I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me (John 6:38).

Thus, Jesus was born to show us by His personal example, “the way, the truth, and the life” that was God’s eternal purpose in creating us.

There is another unexpected meaning in the words of Scripture:

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9: 22). 

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, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10: 8).

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12: 1-2).

Keep in mind that Jesus’ suffering and death were the perfect fulfillment of the Jewish Law!  But do not ignore all that the very plain statements of Scripture actually do affirm:

We, … who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, … because by works of the law no one will be justified  (Galatians 2: 15-16).

For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law (Romans 3: 28).

Scripture sometimes includes prophetic meanings beyond the human context of a Scriptural statement. For example Isaiah 7:14 with respect to the Virgin birth of Jesus and the following quote that is generally assumed to be a reference to Christ’s death, but which I believe is a much clearer and explicit reference to Christ’s gift of “pouring out His Blood” from the “Chalice of Salvation”:  which is Christ’s extension of His one offering of His perfect and total human obedience to the Father. An extension that the Catholic Church participates in daily in obedience to Christ’s “Last Supper Command”.

Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19–22

Many are certain to point out that Christ’s suffering and death on the cross were more than adequate, more than sufficient to redeem mankind. That is true. Even a single drop of Christ’s blood shed for us is more than enough to redeem all of mankind. But, that truth does not preclude Jesus from doing more in the awesome perfection of the Father’s plan of Salvation. Another problem is that there are statements in Scripture that clearly affirm that Christ’s suffering and death on the cross are what redeemed us. Keep in mind that these statements were written by men intimately familiar with and immersed in the Sacrifices prescribed by the Jewish Law and the history of those laws. This included acts of consecrating and redeeming every “Firstborn male” of the Israelites. Thus, the human authors of Scripture correctly recognized that Jesus was the ultimate and perfect fulfillment of the Jewish law. This truth is what they recognized and were affirming. Jesus Himself had affirmed this truth:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place (Matthew 5:17–18). 

What these authors had failed to understand and explain was inconceivable to them: that there was more to God’s plan than that suffering and death of Jesus; and that the more actually dwarfed what they saw and, which from their limited human perspective, they reasonably believed was the ultimate and perfect offering to God.

The suffering and death of Christ on the cross fulfilled the human expectation, concept, and desire to appropriately acknowledge God’s majesty with sacrifices. It also perfectly fulfilled this detail of the Jewish Law. All human assumptions to the contrary, the Scriptural record clearly records that acts of worshiping God through offerings and sacrifices were initiated by men, without any identified command from God. I submit that God accepted and incorporated what was good in the human concept of sacrifice into His awesome plan of salvation and replaced what was defective.  The fact that Jesus suffered and died at the hands of men was incorporated by God as a major detail in our Salvation.

However “incorporation” was not an inherently essential detail in our Salvation. Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross do contribute to that salvation in an important way, but as noted, it is not what Jesus actively did to effect our Salvation, nor what truly pleased the Father. Jesus offered His perfect obedience to the Father in all the contingent things He experienced throughout His life on earth. His suffering and death on the Cross are only one part of Christ’s total loving obedience to the Father. This is the awesome perfection of God’s plan of Salvation that I see and believe is true.

I have heard it taught that the resurrection of Jesus is proof that God accepted His suffering and death on the Cross. I submit that His Resurrection is evidence that God accepted Christ and His loving offering of perfect obedience. I further submit that the resurrection of Jesus can also be viewed as an emphatic rejection of Christ’s death by the Father.

Grant O Lord, through your Son, Jesus the Christ, that I always remember, understand and heed the lesson of Genesis 22: 1-18, which You proclaimed in Genesis 22: 18.