THE

SECOND
ADAM

Philip Edward Zarling

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iii
 About The Author
Born in 1944, Philip Edward Zarling grew up in the upper Midwest,
the son of a Pastor, and became a third-generation pastor in the
Wisconsin Synod himself. He graduated from Northwestern College
in Watertown, WI, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and from
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, WI, with a Bachelor of
Divinity degree. He served in the public ministry for 44 years at
congregations in Nebraska and Kansas, and he spent the last 24 years
at Mt. Olive Ev. Lutheran Church in Overland Park, KS. He retired
from the public ministry in 2014 and now resides in Shawnee, KS.
During his years in the ministry, he wrote and presented a number of
theological and practical papers at conferences and served in a
number of positions in the larger church body of the Wisconsin
Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Most notable among these were years of
service as a member of the Committee on Interchurch Relations of the
WELS, the first Vice President of the Nebraska District, and the
Chairman of the Board of Nebraska Evangelical Lutheran High
School in Waco, NE. To underscore the theological environment in
which Philip Zarling was raised, both of his grandfathers, three
uncles, three brothers, four cousins, and one nephew also have served
as pastors in the WELS, as well as his mother and several cousins,
nieces, and nephews who have served as teachers in WELS schools.
Philip was married to Edna Lorene Richert in Seward, NE, in 1972,
and the couple was blessed with three children: Stacey, Joel, and
Tiffany. All three are married and live respectively with their spouses,
Darby, Janet, and Dustin, in Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City. In
addition to being a sports fan, Philip’s other interests are golf, travel,
and (in the past) running - in which he competed in a number of road
races including completing twelve marathons. Besides spending time
with his grandchildren, he occupies his free time doing yard work,
caring for flowers, filling bird feeders, and chasing away squirrels in
the backyard.

iv
 Introduction
This book entitled “The Second Adam” needs its subtitle: “From the
Beginning to the End and Beyond: God’s Plan to Restore Blessed
Life to a Fallen World.” Many theological books have been written.
Many commentaries on all or parts of Holy Scripture have been
written. This book is intended to approach aspects of theology and
commentary on Holy Scripture from the perspective of the subtitle. Its
goal is to provide a big-picture overview of God’s plan of salvation
from the time of creation to the glory of heaven hereafter. That would
be a humungous, almost unfathomable task to try to condense all
world history and God’s control of history to accomplish his goal of
salvation into one volume. This book makes no claim to have even
attempted it. Rather, it ties together the main points of Biblical
teaching in a summarized way with events in human history that are
controlled by God to become part of the big picture of God’s plan of
salvation. All along the emphasis is upon the blessed life which God
wants people to share with him. The blessed life Adam and Eve had
with God, in the beginning, is the same life God wants people to have
with him now. Though it is not possible to enjoy a completely blessed
life now because of sin, it will be a perfectly blessed life with God
hereafter in the sinless glory of heaven. Many Scripture passages are
used to support the truths of God’s plan of salvation and how it is
accomplished. Along the way, many personal insights and convictions
which have accumulated from years of preaching, teaching,
counseling, and applying the Scriptures to different situations are
woven into the narrative. References to the realities of living in a
world of sin and its impact on our lives are included to make the
narrative come alive and enable the reader to see more clearly how
real and important Scriptural truths are for the well-beingof our life
with God. The hope is that the reader will grow in his or her grasp of
Scriptural knowledge to be used as an overlay to make sense of all the
events going on in their lives and in the world around us. The
corollary is to be able to see the teachings and events of Scripture not
as isolated pieces of a puzzle disconnected and scattered all over the
table, but put together to see the complete picture and understand

v
what the artist has painted. God wants us to see, and understand, and
have the blessed life he has worked so hard to give us. It is a beautiful
picture to behold – and be a part of. And it is all possible because of
the Second Adam, Jesus Christ. He is the one who, with his life,
death, and resurrection, accomplished what the first Adam failed to
do: pass on God’s gift of a blessed life to the world. He is the
centerpiece of God’s beautiful, majestic masterpiece of life with God.
Without him, there would be no blessed life. Soli Deo Gloria

vi
 Acknowledgments
Thank you:
To my daughter, Stacey Zarling, and my brother, John Zarling for the
extensive time they spent to help edit the manuscript of the Second
Adam for grammar usage and offer content suggestions;
To fellow pastors in the Mid-America Circuit of the Nebraska District
for their encouragement to bring many discussion points in our midst
to the paper of a manuscript;
To my wife, Edna, for her patient support in the several years it took
to complete the manuscript of the Second Adam;
To David Turner, the Account Manager, and Mary Wilson, the
Associate Project Manager and their fellow workers at Authors Book
Publishing for the time and professional service they rendered in
bringing the manuscript of the Second Adam to its final version of a
printed book.

vii
 Dedication
This book is dedicated to my grandchildren Brandon, Kayla, Jacob,
Hazel, Ella, and James. May this book assist them in their journey of
faith and help keep them faithful to the Lord Jesus in these last times
to the full enjoyment of the blessed life God has prepared for us with
him in eternal glory.

viii
 Prologue
God encourages us to grow in grace and knowledge. “Grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and SaviorJesus Christ…” (2 Peter
3:18). It is God’s will we read the Bible faithfully and grow in our
understanding of God’s ways all our lives. We are to pray for
knowledgeof his ways. We are told to grow up to eat the solid food of
Scripture’s teachings, not remain stuck on only the milk of the basics.
The Holy Spirit directs us “Therefore, leaving the beginning
discussion of Christ, let us press on toward matters that require
greater maturity” (Hebrews 6:1ff). Obviously, this does not mean
leaving behind the teachings we learned in childhood, abandoning our
faith in Christ, and going on to different, new, and supposedly better
things (God forbid). Who in his right mind has ever abandoned a
well-built solid foundation and built the walls, floors, rooms, and roof
of his house elsewhere on unstable, shifting ground? This building of
a house is the imagery used in Hebrews. It calls on us to build on the
solid foundation of Christ and what he has done to save us; build on
the knowledge of how God has made the blessings of Christ’s
salvation our own by the Holy Spirit’s working through Baptism and
the basic teachings of Scripture. Then we are to continue building the
rest of our house of faith and furnish it with Christian understanding
and Christian living in keeping with the rest of God’s Word. To
repeat, we are to strive to grow in wisdom and understanding of
God’s ways. We are told when we lack wisdom and understanding to
ask God for them. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who
gives it to all without reservation and without finding fault, and it will
be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting… (James
1:5,6a). And God promises he will hear prayers of faith. For further
comment on spiritual growth see Addendum One after the conclusion
of this book.
However well-intentioned sanctified hearts might be, we must be
careful to distinguish between what God has clearly revealed to be
true and what pious opinion believes to be true. At the same time,
believers need to respect the value of pondering Christian insights
ix
which come from reflecting on God’s truths. We know God wants us
to grow in our knowledge and understanding to become spiritually
mature. We trust that when we pray for understanding of spiritual
truths, the Holy Spirit will answer our prayers. When believers
continue to read and hear God’s Word, the Holy Spirit often gives
insights into his truths believers had not previously grasped. And who
has remained a student of God’s Word who hasn’t experienced this?
The Holy Spirit is happy to give generously when it comes to giving
greater understanding and insights into the marvelous richness of
God’s ways. Insights can help us grow and marvel at God’s wonderful
ways, but unless clearly taught in Scripture, they should not be
viewed in the same way as doctrinal statements or confessions
of faith.
It is in this context of Christian meditation; this book reflects upon
God’s truths. Honest effort is made to differentiate between clear
Scriptural teaching, and an accumulation of personal insights. Points
of conjecture will be identified as such. We trust the Holy Spirit will
help readers see the difference between clear Scriptural teaching, and
pious opinion based on the convictions drawn from personal insights.
The title of this book is The Second Adam - From the Beginning to
the End and Beyond: God’s Plan to Restore Blessed Life to a Fallen
World. The subtitle provides the theme for the book. It is an overview
of God’s control of world history from the beginning (creation and the
fall into sin) to the end (the final judgment) and beyond (eternity).
The second Adam is the man who inherited the role given to the first
Adam in the Garden of Eden. The first Adam failed to carry out God’s
plan when he brought sin into the world and ruined God’s perfect
creation. This makes the second Adam the most important person in
human history. From an honest perspective of the entire history of the
world there is no ground for debate.
The second Adam accomplished more with his life here on earth than
any other person has, or ever will; there is no comparison. The second
Adam did more in his death than any other person ever contributed to
the well-being of mankind with his death, or his life; there is no

x
question. Let this also be said: The second Adam has healed more
hearts, lifted more spirits, comforted more souls, raised more hope,
gained more followers and is still doing so - more than any other
person who has ever walked on this earth. While at the same time, the
second Adam has been more misunderstood, angered more hearts,
raised more opposition, aroused more hostility, caused more division
and is still doing so – more than anyone else who has ever breathed
the breath of life. The second Adam has defined the course of history
more than any other human being. There is no second place. The
answer to this paradox lies in the natural condition of the human heart
– the sinful nature of every person who has ever walked on this earth
since the time of the first Adam, with the exception of the second
Adam. It is mankind’s sinful nature, our birthright from the first
Adam, which resists, rebels, and refuses to let God and his grace rule
in our hearts. Were it not for the second Adam and the gracious
working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we all would remain in that
sad state as enemies of God.
The second Adam is the real, historical person, Jesus Christ; born in
Bethlehem, sequestered as a child in Egypt, raised in Nazareth,
worked in Galilee, died in Jerusalem, now risen from the dead, and
ascended to heaven to rule all things in glory. The second Adam is the
greatest person who has ever lived. There is no possibility it could be
otherwise. Anyone who thinks it could be otherwise is grossly
misinformed or, sadly, refuses to be objective in evaluating the
Christian message. Either way, the end result: souls are drowning in
the polluted waters of unbelief.

xi
 Table of Contents
About The Author ........................................................................ iv
Introduction ................................................................................... v
Acknowledgments ....................................................................... vii
Dedication ................................................................................... viii
Prologue ........................................................................................ ix
1 Perfection .................................................................................... 1
The Image of God ....................................................................... 2
The Attributes of God ................................................................. 4
Reflective attributes, characteristics of God’s nature reflected in
human beings. ............................................................................. 6
Shared Attributes, Characteristics that make up “the Image of
God” .......................................................................................... 14
2 The Plan ................................................................................... 18
God’s plan emanates from his love. .......................................... 19
The role of each person of the Trinity modeled in the creation of
human beings ............................................................................ 22
The role of God the Father reflected in the creation of Adam .. 23
The role of God the Son reflected in the creation of Eve. ........ 25
The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son is
reflected in the birth of children................................................ 30
3 The Problem ............................................................................. 36
The woes of sin ......................................................................... 36
Spiritual growth ........................................................................ 39
Satan’s pride .............................................................................. 42
Confirmed in righteousness ...................................................... 42
War in heaven............................................................................ 43
The Fall into Sin........................................................................ 45

xii
 Consequences of sin .................................................................. 48
Death ......................................................................................... 51
4 The Promise .............................................................................. 53
The Promise .............................................................................. 55
Satan’s goal ............................................................................... 59
God’s goal ................................................................................. 60
The importance of sharing God’s Promise................................ 62
Remembering God’s Promise ................................................... 64
Sacrifices ................................................................................... 65
Circumcision ............................................................................. 67
The signs of the Zodiac ............................................................. 72
5 The Preparation ....................................................................... 75
God’s eternal plan to send His Son ........................................... 75
Before the Flood ....................................................................... 77
After the Flood .......................................................................... 81
The Tower of Babel................................................................... 83
The calling of Abraham ............................................................ 84
God commands the sacrifice of Isaac ....................................... 88
The family grows ...................................................................... 90
The Covenant of the law ........................................................... 97
Messianic prophecies .............................................................. 105
Intended blessings of the Law and the Prophets ..................... 108
God’s protection plan ...............................................................110
God’s discipline – capital punishment .....................................113
Israel’s rebelliousness ..............................................................115
World history............................................................................117
World powers .......................................................................... 121
The nation of Israel ................................................................. 123

xiii
 Other nations and empires ...................................................... 126
Spiritual warfare...................................................................... 128
The need for the gospel is served ............................................ 132
6 The Presentation .................................................................... 138
The time had come .................................................................. 139
Genealogy ............................................................................... 140
The announcement .................................................................. 144
Jesus’ birth .............................................................................. 149
Jesus is the God man ............................................................... 152
Safety concerns ....................................................................... 154
The holy innocents .................................................................. 159
7 The Performance .................................................................... 163
Jesus’ Youth and Young Adult Life ......................................... 164
Jesus’ childhood ...................................................................... 165
The role of Joseph ................................................................... 172
Jesus’ Public Ministry ............................................................. 176
The temptation of Jesus .......................................................... 180
Jesus gathers his disciples ....................................................... 188
The wedding at Cana .............................................................. 189
Serving the Father as true man................................................ 190
The threefold office of the Anointed One ............................... 193
Prophet .................................................................................... 194
Priest ....................................................................................... 195
King......................................................................................... 199
Popularity and Opposition ...................................................... 209
Desire for an earthly kingdom ................................................ 212
People turn away ..................................................................... 215
Jesus’ Passion History ............................................................. 222

xiv
 The Last Supper (Passover) .................................................... 227
The Lord’s Supper................................................................... 238
The Mount of Olives ............................................................... 244
Before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin ........................................ 251
Peter’s denial ........................................................................... 252
The trial and verdict ................................................................ 255
Before Pilate............................................................................ 257
The way of sorrows ................................................................. 262
A pause for reflection .............................................................. 264
Crucified ................................................................................. 265
The reality and meaning of the eclipse on Good Friday afternoon . 271
The last moments on the cross ................................................ 271
The precision of God’s preparations ....................................... 274
Normal death compared to Jesus’ death.................................. 276
Astounding witnesses to Jesus’ death ..................................... 277
A summary of everything Satan did to thwart God’s plan, yet
still led to his defeat ................................................................ 279
Satan’s own blindness ............................................................. 285
Jesus’ Resurrection.................................................................. 287
The ascension .......................................................................... 291
The critical Importance of the resurrection ............................. 292
8 The Promise Fulfilled............................................................. 297
By fulfilling the Promise, Jesus clearly showed us a man made
in God’s image. ....................................................................... 300
Loving parents still reflect both sides of God’s love towards His
children. .................................................................................. 304
Jesus reflected the image of God in his sinless human nature. 305
9 The Plan Continues ................................................................ 312
Sanctification .......................................................................... 315

xv
 Salvation Incorporated ............................................................ 317
The Holy Spirit’s work............................................................ 319
How the Holy Spirit works ..................................................... 321
Baptism ................................................................................... 323
The Sacrament of the Altar ..................................................... 325
No decision theology .............................................................. 329
10 People Renewed .................................................................... 332
Faith changes the attitude of the heart .................................... 333
The new man of faith is holy and sinless like God. ................ 335
Children of God ...................................................................... 340
Brothers and Sisters of Christ ................................................. 342
Faith produces good works ..................................................... 344
Fighting the good fight of faith ............................................... 358
The tragic loss suffered because of unbelief ........................... 361
Fruits of faith (good works) are a blessing for our lives ......... 363
The doctrine of election .......................................................... 366
Faith versus works .................................................................. 371
Only Two Religions – Law and Gospel .................................. 382
Balancing the scales ................................................................ 384
God is love .............................................................................. 385
Sincerity .................................................................................. 386
The Bible ................................................................................. 388
The greatest battle: grace versus works .................................. 393
The hard lesson of history ....................................................... 398
The Holy Spirit is still working .............................................. 400
The errors of false teaching..................................................... 401
The most dangerous false teaching ......................................... 404
Making it personal .................................................................. 408

xvi
11 Portends of the end............................................................... 415
Our sinful nature stands in the way of the blessed life ........... 417
Jesus Christ’s return for judgment .......................................... 421
Signs of the end times ............................................................. 423
Jesus second coming – the last day ......................................... 426
The final judgment – saved by faith ....................................... 428
The final judgment will be according to works ...................... 435
12 Perfection Again ................................................................... 443
Enjoying a Blessed Life with God for All Eternity ................ 443
The transformation of all things .............................................. 443
The new heaven and new earth ............................................... 448
Blessings of heaven................................................................. 465
The wonder of all nations. ...................................................... 466
The wonder of a beautiful life of love without sin as the Bride of
Christ ....................................................................................... 467
The wonder of life in God’s presence ..................................... 468
The wonder of a life of service in heaven ............................... 469
The wonder of life in a heavenly environment ....................... 474
The wonder of our spiritual bodies in heaven ......................... 476
The wonder of the Church Triumphant in heaven .................. 478
Heaven’s wonder described as the negative of the life we know
on earth.................................................................................... 479
Heaven’s most foundational wonder ....................................... 481
Perfection again The utter perfection that God restored to his
creation .................................................................................... 485
Chapter summaries.................................................................. 488
Addendum One: ........................................................................ 497
Addendum Two: ........................................................................ 509
Addendum Three: ..................................................................... 512
xvii
Addendum Four: ....................................................................... 514
Addendum Five: ........................................................................ 518
Addendum Six: .......................................................................... 520
Addendum Seven: ..................................................................... 521
Addendum Eight: ...................................................................... 522
Addendum Nine: ....................................................................... 532
Addendum Ten: ......................................................................... 537
Addendum Eleven:.................................................................... 540
Addendum Twelve: ................................................................... 544

xviii
 1
Perfection
The First Adam Is Made In God’s Image
In order to fully appreciate the magnitude of God’s majesty in
blessing the human race through the life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ as the second Adam, it is necessary to understand and
appreciate God’s handiwork in creating the first Adam.

God made everything in this world and in the universe in six

normal 24-hour days. There was a systematic order and progression
to everything he created. On the first day, God began with the basic
raw materials needed to accomplish his vision, including light. On
each succeeding day, he refined and developed those materials into
geographical, botanical, and biological systems to make a suitable
home for the beings he would make like himself. Finally, on the
sixth day, after successively creating ever higher life forms, God
finished his creation by making the first one and then a second being
in his own image.

The first person to live on this earth was personally fashioned

by God from the soil of this earth and aptly called in Hebrew
‘Adam,’ which means “from the ground or earth.” The Holy Spirit
breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of a piece of clay made
by the Potter’s almighty hand, and Adam became a living being
(Genesis 2:7). The details of how God made Eve from Adam’s rib
are provided in Genesis 2:21-22. The dust of the earth and a rib
were the materials God used to make the physical vessels into
which God placed the breath of life for these two human beings.
The blueprints for the spiritual nature of these two human beings,
however, are clearly spelled out in Genesis 1:27, “God created the

1
man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him.”When
the passage continues with the phrase, “Male and female he
created them,” we are reminded they were also physical beings
with – unlike God – a male and female gender. As we shall see in
chapter two, there was a good reason for this.

The Image of God

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Answers

often given use statements like sinless and holy, acknowledging
God’s will, living in perfect harmony with God, love for God, and
having a spiritual life like God. A simple and helpful way to
understand this is to say that the intellect, emotion, and will of both
Adam and Eve were fully in harmony with God. Descriptions such
as these are a good summary of what it means to be like God. It is
helpful to remember, however, that these statements are a summary
2
and do not reflect specific details. To be in the “image of God”
means even though they were not God himself, Adam and Eve were
sinless and, in this purity, were “like God” in every way.

If Adam and Eve were made to be like God, what is God like?
How can we describe him when we have difficulty describing our
own humanity? We have just stated that Adam and Eve lived in
purity, and one thing we know about our current humanity is that it
is not pure. How can we comprehend the fullness of what a pure
“image of God” means?

The safest way to know what a person is like is to listen to

what he says about himself. Ever since the fall into sin, people are
not always forthright about what they are truly like. Men or women
in courtship may not always reveal everything about themselves to
the other person because they want to put their best foot forward
and leave the most favorable impression they can. Only later, after
getting to know a person well, may less favorable characteristics
be revealed. A con man will present himself in a positive way to
conceal what he is really like with his nefarious intentions so he can
deceive people into trusting him. Most of us are not above
withholding things about ourselves or what we may have done if
we think it will make us look bad to others. That’s why companies
have background checks and character evaluations and request
references from other people. God is not like this. With no sinful
nature, God has nothing to hide or any evil intentions. “’For I know
the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to give you peace
and not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah
29:11). God’s purpose, his intention for us, is to give us “hope and a
future.” God is always truthful and forthright about what he is like.
What he reveals about himself in the Bible can be trusted. And what
we observe from history about God’s dealings with this world
verifies what God says about himself. You could say this is our

3
background check. God’s characteristics are good and noble. His
intentions are honorable and loving. We can safely attribute to him
everything he has revealed about himself in words and actions.

The Attributes of God

The characteristics of the personal divine being called God are
often called attributes. The attributes of God are a way to talk about
the very essence of who God is. Scholars of Scripture have long
contended there are limitations to finite, mortal human beings trying
to comprehend the infinite, immortal nature of the eternal God.
There are passages to support such a conclusion. “For who has
known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his adviser?”
(Romans11:34). “Certainly, my plans are not your plans, and your
ways are not my ways, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8). Attributes
thus, are the aspects of God’s nature we can safely attribute to him
in order to understand – as much as humanly possible – what he is
like. The attributes of God are all-inclusive; that is, they include
everything we can know about God within the limitations of human
understanding. The attributes of God can be categorized in different
ways. For our purposes, we will divide them into two categories:
Reflected in man’s human nature and shared in man’s sinless nature.

Before proceeding with comments on God’s attributes, two

important distinctions need to be made. First of all, this discussion
of God’s attributes is more wide-reaching than others.

Whether wise or not, it is an attempt as much as human reason

can attempt such a subject to include as much as God has revealed
about himself and who he is into one discussion category called
“attributes.” Secondly, it is a point which is very important to
remember. It is the distinction between reflected attributes and
shared attributes. The reflective attributes of God are those
characteristics of God’s nature that are partially reflected in
4
mankind’s human nature but not fully shared on an equal basis with
God. For the sake of understanding, we would say they are the
characteristics of God reflected in the physical makeup of people as
flesh and blood made from the earth human beings, but not always
to every person equally. The shared attributes of God are those
characteristics of God’s nature fully shared with Adam and Eve
when they were created. In order to contrast shared attributes with
reflected attributes, we would say shared attributes were a part of
Adam and Eve’s spiritual nature. They were the only earthly beings
God created who were given a soul and spiritual life like God, who,
in their human nature, possessed a will in complete harmony with
God’s holy will. They were spiritually alive. Had they continued in
their sinless purity, they would have continued to enjoy these shared
attributes with God and passed them on to their descendants.
However, when the fall into sin occurred in the Garden of Eden,
they lost these shared attributes of God because they were no longer
sinless and pure like God. They became spiritually dead in their
souls and became enemies of God. God restored these shared
attributes in Adam and Eve when he led them in repentance of their
sins to fear, love, and trust in him again. This is true now for any of
their descendants who are renewed in God’s image by the working
of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the shared attributes of God are
now possessed by those people who are led by God’s gracious
working to fear, love, and trust in God in the Christian faith. Like
the first Adam and Eve, these believing children of God still have a
sinful human nature - an “old Aam” that clings to their nature. But
their “new man” is the spiritual life of faith which desires God’s will
and strives to live in keeping with God’s will while at the same time
fighting to resist the still active inclinations of their sinful nature.

5
 Reflective attributes, characteristics of God’s
nature reflected in human beings.

Triune, Infinite, Eternal, Unchanging, Omniscient, Omnipotent,

Omnipresent

Triune. The triune nature of God is not literally an attribute by

most definitions. It is a description of God’s essence as the one true
God manifested in three separate persons. The doctrine of the
Trinity is difficult to comprehend for the human mind. Yet, it is
clearly taught in Scripture. Jesus said, “I and the Father are
one”(John10:30), and a few chapters later, “When the Counselor
comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth
who proceeds from the Father – he will testify about me…” (John
15:26). There are many other passages in scripture that speak of the
three persons of the Trinity, either individually or collectively. For
the purpose of this writing, we will simply acknowledge the triune
nature of God as a given. How it is reflected in the creation of
Adam and Eve and the human race is treated in chapter two.

6
 Infinite. Infinite could be explained as the opposite of finite.
Something infinite cannot be defined in terms of time, space, or
quantity. It is boundless, limitless, and endless in nature. God, in
his essence, cannot be defined as to the limitless extent of his
existence, knowledge, power, presence, or unchangeable nature
because of our limited ability to comprehend him. The best we can
offer is to use words like “all” or “always” regarding his attributes.
At first glance, we might think the infinite nature of God is not
reflected in the creation of Adam and Eve and other human beings
because our knowledge, power, presence (in one space), and ability to
not change is limited. But remember, the reflective attributes of
God are the ones only partially reflected in our human nature. They
are not possessed on an equal basis with God. Is it not fair to say
science has a difficult time defining the limits of human existence?
Sometimes, we say, “The sky is the limit,” when it comes to
marveling at the ability God gave the human body and mind to
imagine, invent, achieve, endure, overcome, and survive.

Eternal. God is eternal because he is without beginning or

end. He always has been, is now, and always will be the one true
triune God with all his attributes. This is not true of Adam and Eve
and other human beings because we have a beginning to our
existence. Eternal is reflected, however, in the fact that the life and
nature God has given us are everlasting. Our existence as a human
being (whether renewed in God’s image or condemned in unbelief)
will last forever.

Unchanging. Adam and Eve were not created with an

unchangeable nature. Their creation in God’s image included a
free will to act on their own. They had the ability to not sin (posse
non peccare for the Latin scholar) and the ability to sin (posse
peccare). When they fell into sin, it revealed their nature was
changeable. Of their own free will, they could, and did, choose to

7
disobey God’s good and gracious will. However, the unchangeable
nature of God in them was reflected in the fact it was possible for
them to become unchangeable in their sinless free will. Had they
continued to trust God and obey his will, they would have grown
spiritually and reached the spiritual maturity of “not able to sin”
(non posse peccare). There will be more on this subject in the next
section on omniscience. The status of not being able to sin, or the
unchangeable nature of remaining sinless, is referred to as
“confirmed in righteousness.” That is what it is like now for the
angels of heaven who are not able to sin and what it will be like for
all those who are saved to eternal life through faith in Christ. In a
similar way, our current sinful nature of “not able not to sin” (non
posse, non peccare) will become unchangeable for those who are lost
and condemned eternally.

Omniscience. Adam and Eve were not all-knowing (omniscient)

like God. They did, however, have a clear understanding of God’s
will and were capable of growing in their understanding of God’s
will. This was the loving purpose God had in mind by blessing their
lives with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. By obeying
God’s command and continuing to live in harmony with his will they
would experience the benefits of doing so in everyday life. They
would realize the wisdom of doing the will of a God who knows all
things and see ever more clearly how much he loved them. In this
way, they would grow not to omniscience but (with an apology for
trying to invent a word) “magniscience,” a great intellectual grasp of
the goodness and blessedness of God’s all-knowing will. They would
become more spiritually mature and, in a “knowing way” of their own
free will, consciously embrace the good and gracious will of God.
The intended result, finally, would become confirmed in holy living in
complete, perfect harmony with God’s will.

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 Of course, the fall into sin ruined all that. Yet, even in man’s
fallen state man’s intellectual capabilities to learn, to discover, to
understand, to invent remains impressive. It is true the will of the
natural man is now totally corrupted by sin. When it comes to
understanding spiritual things, comprehending the eternal mysteries
of God, and loving the goodness of God’s will, natural man now lives
in darkness. Man’s will is dead in trespasses and sin. He is totally
incapable of changing and bringing himself back into harmony with
the holy will of God. Consider this passage describing mankind’s
inherent human nature after the fall into sin. “The LORD saw that the
wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the
thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every
day” (Genesis 6:5). This reference was spoken after the Flood. It is
God’s declaration recognizing that the depth of man’s sinful nature,
which precipitated the Flood, would never change. Even godly Noah
and his family, the only ones who survived the flood, together with all
their descendants, still have to contend with the sad consequences of
being born with a sinful nature. In man’s fallen state, there are no
exceptions. “There is no one who understands. There is no one who
searches for God.They all turned away; together they became useless.
There is no one who does what is good; there is not even one”
(Romans 3:11, 12). “For the mind-set of the sinful flesh is hostile to
God, since it does not submit to God’s law, and in fact, it cannot”
(Romans 8:7). So, spiritually, man doesn’t get it. He can’t get it by
himself. And when it comes to agreeing with what God says, man will
often openly reject what is true (creation, life at conception, matters of
sexual morality, etc.) However, the potential God places in men and
women to grow in the understanding of our surroundings is still present
and is often remarkable. Space exploration, amazing technologies,
inventions of every kind, beautiful examples of art, music, literature,
etc., are evidence enough of that. So, man, now, according to his
human nature, is by no means omniscient. In spiritual matters, he is

9
corrupted by sin, leading to spiritual folly and blindness, and sinful
rebellion against the loving will of God. Nonetheless, this does not
take away from the fact God has gifted mankind with amazing
intellectual capabilities.

Omnipresent. The fact man is not omnipresent is obvious. Yet,

it is worth mentioning such limitation is built into the structure of
creation. God’s creation of the world included the creation of time,
space, and corporeal matter. According to the laws of physics, it is
simply not possible for a specific amount of earthly matter to be in
more than one place at any one moment in time. In his earthly life,
the body of Jesus was always at one specific place at any one
moment in time. In his earthly body, he was born in Bethlehem,
walked from one place to the next in Galilee, slept in a boat, went
to the Temple, died on the cross, and was placed into a tomb on the
outskirts of Jerusalem. When he walked through the crowd trying
to kill him at Nazareth (Luke 4:30) and escaped the grasp of those
trying to seize him in the temple area (John 10:39) - however, he
accomplished this - his presence left the space he was in and went
to another. Even after he rose from the dead in a glorified state and
passed through the locked doors of the upper room (John 20:26) or
appeared to the disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee
(John21:1), Jesus still was doing this in a physical world going
from one place to another.

It is, however, true the Scriptures still allude to Jesus

omnipresent nature when it says of him as having been made
“head over everything for the church. The church is his body, the
fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians
1:22,-23). One day, some human beings (namely, Christians) will
be raised incorruptible with a spiritual body (1Corinthians 15:42-
49) which has been transformed to be like Christ’s glorious body
(Philippians3:21). Yet, we make no claim we will then, also, be

10
omnipresent like Jesus Christ any more than we would claim to be
come omniscient like God. The “omni(s)” are God’s domain. Yet, in
the spiritual realm of heaven, there is no more time, space, and
matter as we now know it. Things will be different. “…because the
former things have passed away”(Revelation21:4). It is fair to
conjecture in a way we do not now understand in a realm of
existence we cannot now fully comprehend, the glorified bodies of
believers will always be in the presence of the omnipresent God.
And this in a way which is different than we now understand living
in God’s omnipresence. It will be like the angels’ current state of
living in God’s presence. Concerning both our being in the
presence of God and our knowledge of God, Paul writes, “Now we
see indirectly using a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now
I know in part; then I shall know fully, just as I was fully known”
(1Corinthians13:12). We humbly look forward to the blessedness
God has prepared for those who love him.

Omnipotence. The same thing is true of God’s omnipotence.

God is all-powerful; we are not. Nor will we be, even though by
the communication of attributes, Jesus, in his human nature as the
God-man, is all-powerful. It is different with us. As God’s children,
we have God’s divine power working in us and through us. Often,
that power is greater than we realize or ever use. We speak of
being “Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power”
(Ephesians 6:10). We say, “I can do all things through Christ who
gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Jesus encouraged his
followers to take God at his Word when he promised to answer our
prayers. Jesus said, “…Amen I tell you: If you have faith like a
mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to
there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you”
(Matthew 17: 20), and again, “…Amen, Amen I tell you: Whatever
you ask the Father in my name, he will give you” (John16:23). We
say these things, and we say we believe these things, but too often
11
we are weak in faith and fail to capitalize on this strength; we fail
to fully use the power of God promised to us in Christ. James said
this would happen. “…You do not have because you do not ask”
(James 4:2). And sometimes when we ask, “You ask and yet you do
not receive, because you ask wrongly (with the wrong motives)…”
(James 4:3). Having the wrong motives means we do not ask from a
heart of simple faith which desires God’s gracious, goodwill to be
done, but what we want done. “If any one of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask God, who gives it to all without reservation and without
finding fault, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith,
without doubting, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the
sea, blown and tossed by the wind. In fact, that person should not
expect that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:5-7).
When we doubt, we do not really trust God will grant what we are
praying for.

When Christians pray and trust God’s omnipotent strength to bless

their lives, we are to do so only from a heart of faith that desires to live
in keeping with God’s will. We do not ask selfishly to serve our own
will, thinking we know what is best. God has a far greater knowledge
of what is right and good in any situation, and Christians always want
his will to be fulfilled. Jesus could have called on his heavenly Father
to send twelve legions of angels to deliver him or used his own power
to have his enemies fall backward to the ground and stay down,
quivering like frightened bunnies while he walked away. He could have
easily used his power to step down from the cross. But he didn’t do
those things. He had already received his Father’s answer to his prayer.
As much as he prayed in agony to him for whom nothing is impossible
for the cup of suffering to be taken from him, he still knew his Father
knew what was best. And so, he prayed, “Father, if you are willing,
take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be
done” (Luke22:42). Like Jesus, we always want our heavenly Father’s
will to be done over all other wills including our own. The almighty
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power of God is limitless, and his will is perfect. When we lay hold of
the almighty power of God by faith and pray in faith for things to
happen in keeping with his will, great and mighty things are possible
for the child of God. “By faith they (God’s people) conquered
kingdoms, carried out justice, obtained things that were promised, shut
the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edges of
the sword, were made powerful after being weak, became mighty in
battle, and caused foreign armies to flee. Women received back their
dead by resurrection…” (Hebrews11:33-35a).

What is the point of considering the “omni” attributes of God in

order to describe what it meant for the first Adam and his wife,
Eve, to be created in the image of God? We do this simply to
acknowledge that although they were not God himself with almighty
power, and knowledge of all things, and a presence everywhere,
Adam and Eve were still very much like him in a lesser capacity
reflective of his image. Remember, we are discussing in this section
the reflective attributes of God, which he shared with Adam and Eve
in their physical and mental nature and continues to share with all
human beings. In varying degrees of physical gifts, Adam and Eve
and their descendants had/have the capability to think and reason
and accomplish wonderful things.

God’s command to have dominion over all the earth - to rule

over everything on behalf of God in wise and powerful ways - was
given to no other creature. It’s as if, if you will permit the
expression, human beings were made to be mini-gods. In support
of the concept of calling Adam and Eve mini gods, think of the
way Jesus spoke when he said, “…Is it not written in your Law, ‘I
said you are gods?’ (John 10:34). It is important to note, however,
in this passage Jesus was referring to the spiritual life of people to
whom the Word of God came. “If he called those people ‘gods,’ to
whom the word of God came…” (John 10:35). They were people

13
who heard the Word of God and believed it. In other words, it is in
keeping with Scripture to call people mini-gods when they are
changed by what the Word of God says to become like God
spiritually, not in their physical capabilities. This is the emphasis of
the next section on the attributes that God shares with people fully
in a spiritual life of faith. There will be more said about this subject
in chapter nine. Before proceeding to the spiritual attributes God
shares with people who hear the Word of God and believe it, take a
moment to reflect on the significance of the reflective attributes
of God. God gave Adam and Eve life, watched over them, and
blessed them; he gave them a wonderful world to live in and a
wonderful life to enjoy. As mini-gods, they were to use their
physical gifts to care for, protect, and make life good for the rest of
God’s creation.

Though we now live in a world corrupted by sin, ruling over

God’s creation is still the role God has given to mankind. All
people have the responsibility to use, care for, and preserve the
environment of the world in which we live.

Shared Attributes, Characteristics that make up

“the Image of God”
Sinless, perfect, spiritual, …and more

The rest of God’s attributes were made to be a part of Adam and

Eve’s nature also. However, these attributes, for the most part, can
be described as Adam and Eve being made in God’s image
completely. They were given these attributes fully, not just partially.
Everything we can say to describe the character and nature of God
can be said of the first Adam and his wife. Is God a spirit? Adam
and Eve were also given spiritual life, a soul that does not go out of
existence. Is God sinless? Adam and Eve, in their original created

14
nature, were sinless. Is God perfect and good? When God looked
upon all he made in the creation, the Bible says he declared
everything he made on each day as good. It was complete. Adam
and Eve were made good, also, perfect and complete in their being.
How many attributes should we list? God is loving, faithful, kind,
compassionate, just, righteous, holy (set apart from all that is sinful),
sinless, patient, longsuffering, merciful, true or truthful, does not lie,
caring, benevolent, jealous (jealous in the right way, in that God
does not allow anyone or anything change him from being what he
is, or make false statements about him - for example to claim he is
not always faithful, kind and compassionate). More could be listed.

These attributes or characteristics of God’s nature are not

separate and distinct entities by themselves, as if one could be
dropped and the rest retained, or one could be altered, and the rest
remain the same. That wouldn’t be unchanging. All God’s attributes
are intermingled, if you will, overlapping and affecting each other,
blended together seamlessly and inseparably to make one complete
being. It would be like so many liquids and powders of different kinds
blended together. They are dissolved into each other in such a way no
one ingredient would be able to settle to the bottom or separate out to
the top. They all work together in complement to comprise one being.
At the same time, this marvelous, mysterious blend of attributes is
endowed with the capability to know everything, do anything, and be
present everywhere. This being does exist and has given himself a
name: Jahweh, “I Am.” Even though God is spirit, we could say he is
the “embodiment” of all that is good.

Take another look at the label of ingredients (attributes)

attached to this one-of-a-kind being. There at the top as the first and
most prominent ingredient you see listed is the word “love.”“God is
love,” the Bible says (1 John 4:16). The attribute of love infuses and
governs all the rest of God’s attributes. It is the one with the most

15
potency we might say. Whatever is done in patient, merciful, just, or
holy ways is done in love. Nothing God does, says, or wills is done
without love. Without love, God as we know him would not exist.
And then look at the eternal nature of God. There is no “born on”
date or “sell by” date on this label, indicating the time for the useful
existence of this being has expired. He always has been, is now, and
always will be the same one, unchanging, eternal, loving God:
Jahweh - I am.

This is the pattern after which God made man - like himself.
There are two obvious exceptions to the first Adam being made
entirely like God. First, as created beings, Adam and Eve were not
eternal; the beginning of their existence took place on the sixth day
of creation. However, they were given as part of their human nature
something similar to eternal. This is where we use the word
everlasting. Adam and Eve received, as part of their creation, unlike
the animals, a spiritual existence that would last forever. The
Scriptural doctrine of everlasting life after death, either in heaven by
faith in Christ or in hell because of unbelief, clearly teaches this. The
other exception involves the “omni” attributes of God. Being ALL
powerful, ALL knowing, and present EVERYWHERE is God’s
domain. With these clarifications, we can say Adam and Eve were
endowed with the same attributes as the eternal God. The attributes of
God’s divine nature were infused into their earthly bodies to be a part
of their human nature. We can add that they possessed these attributes
in their sinless state to the same degree God had them. The first
Adam’s “image of God” characteristics were not diluted in any way.
This is important to remember later on, not only when we talk about
the life and work of the second Adam, but about the impact the
second Adam’s work has on us when, by the Holy Spirit’s working,
we are also renewed in God’s image.

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 Everything God made during the six days of creation was good,
and his creation of all things was complete. The Garden of Eden was
the perfect home for the human beings God made to be like himself
so he could “walk” with them, “talk” with them and share the
perfect existence of his blessed life with them. It was literally a
paradise. The first Adam was made in God’s image for a reason.
God had a plan.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,

Most blessed, most glorious, O Ancient of Days, Almighty,

victorious, your great name we praise!

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,

Not wanting nor wasting, you rule in your might,

Your justice like mountains high soaring above,

Your clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

All life you engender in great and in small,

Of all life Befriender, the true Life of all.

We blossom and flourish in richness and range;

We wither and perish, but you never change.

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 2
The Plan
God’s loving desire to share the
blessedness of his life with others
What was the plan? What was the reason God made this
universe and placed Adam and his wife, Eve, into the Garden of
Eden “in the beginning?” Were Adam and Eve the crown of God’s
creation above all the other creatures? What was God thinking when
he discussed and resolved, “Let us make man in our image, in our
likeness...” (Genesis 1:26)? What did God have in mind with the
first Adam?

Before addressing these questions, a reminder of what is said

in the prologue is essential. To try to know the mind of the Lord
with our own reason is, at the minimum, presumptuous. “For who
has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his adviser?”
(Romans 11:34). “Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
my ways are higher than your ways, and my plans are higher than
your plans” (Isaiah 55:9). So, to claim to know the mind of the
Lord with our own intellect is not Scriptural and is dangerous to
doctrine and faith. Let nothing written on these pages be
interpreted as human intellect trying to figure out the eternal
mysteries of God and present them as God’s truths to be believed.
Yet, do not forget the Lord has mercy on us in the weakness of our
human condition. God has revealed some things to us about
himself -who he is and what his plans are for us – because he
wants us to know them. “For I know the plans I have for you,
declares the LORD, plans to give you peace, not disaster, plans to
give you hope and a future”(Jeremiah 29:11). We talk about his
“plan of salvation” and pour over the Scriptures to understand as
much as we can about his plan. Think about the Old Testament
18
prophets. The Apostle Peter wrote of them, “The prophets, who
prophesied about the grace that has come to you, searched and
studied carefully concerning this salvation, trying to find out what
person and what time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating
when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would
follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11). It is in a similar way we contemplate
God’s merciful plans for our lives.

God’s plan emanates from his love.

What was the plan God had in mind for making the first Adam and
his helper, Eve? Let it be said simply: the plan emanated from the fact
God is love. In His love, God desired to share the life and blessedness
of his holy existence. He wanted others to have what he had. The plan
was to create life which would be capable of understanding,
appreciating, embracing, enjoying, and living the life he would give
them right along with him. The goal was to create life which would be
able to bask in the pleasure of its fellowship with God; even as God in
turn would rejoice with pleasure in the fellowship, he had with the
beings he created. The blueprint of this plan, as stated in chapter
one, was to make this being in his image. This created life would

19
be like him. The beings he wouldmake would have the same will,
the same holiness, the same characteristics, the same permanence
of lasting forever he had. And thus, the love at the center of God’s
nature would be multiplied exponentially in the lives of countless
beings living in never-ending love, harmony, oneness, blessedness,
and holiness with their Maker and with each other.

Do we need to state love, at the core of its nature, is selfless?

Certainly, love does not exist without the being whose nature is
love also loving him or herself. He or she loves and is committed
to nurturing and holding on to the existence of love he/she enjoys.
This is true of God, who is a jealous God. He will not permit
anyone or anything to take away from the loving being he is and
the perfect life of love he enjoys. It is also true of created human
beings. This is the point the Apostle Paul makes in Ephesians 5:29.
“To be sure, no one has ever hated his own body, but nourishes
and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church” In other words, a
loving being certainly loves himself or herself. However, in order
to be true God-like love, the core of a person’s nature is still not
“self” centered, but “other” centered. True love is not focused on
self, but is outgoing and focused on others. God loves us and the
world he made. We love God and other people and the world he
gave us. Love, which is outgoing, loves all the things God has
made, loves other people as much as one self, and wants good
things and love to be enjoyed by others. Uncontaminated by sin,
love is the most precious, joyful focal point of one’s existence. No
wonder the Bible simply states, “God is love” (I John 4:8b). “God
is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God, and God in him”
(I John 4:16b). Understood in the right way we certainly can envy
the first Adam and his wife, Eve, who were made to love and be
loved in this way.

As we reflect on this plan God had in mind to share his life of

love with others does anything come to mind? Is there anything that
20
might help illustrate how God resolved to share the blessing of a
loving life with others? More precisely, what is the blueprint God
employed to carry out his plan? If it does not jump out at you
immediately, then simply go back to what the Bible says God did in
the beginning. He made this world. And our focus here is not the
marvelous handiwork of God in making everything in this
world/universe good. The question here is, rather, why did God make
this world the way he did? He made it to be the wonderful, life-
supporting, beautiful home of the final objects of his creation. The
crown of God’s creation, the very reason he made this world and
everything in it, was the creation of Adam and Eve. They were the
beings God had in mind, which would enable him to share the loving
life he had with others. And to carry out his eternal plan to share a life
of love with others, he made the first Adam and his wife – as has now
been repeatedly stated – in his image.

Think about this, first of all, apart from the attributes of God
and apart from the everlasting nature of the life God gave them.
What is one of the first things we confess about God? What
important truth has he revealed about himself, which we have only
briefly referred to at this point? What is the one thing about God
which is more a marvel and a mystery to our human minds than
anything else? It is the profound, eternal mystery of the one true
God’s existence as the Triune God. One God in three Persons. This
will not be an attempt to explain the unexplainable nature of the
Trinity in a way our human nature can grasp. Nor is the goal to list
all the evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity clearly found in
Scripture. That has been thoroughly researched and carefully done
in doctrinal studies and dogmatic books by many gifted scholars of
God’s holy Word. Here, we simply take the truth of the Trinity as a
given. And we trust the readers’ sincerity when he joins Christians
throughout the ages and confesses to believe what has been
confessed for centuries about the Trinity in the three ecumenical

21
statements of the Christian Church: the Apostles, Nicene, and
Athanasian Creeds.

The role of each person of the Trinity modeled in

the creation of human beings
Is there anything about the Trinity we can say in reference to
being made in God’s image? Scripture teaches the one true God has
revealed himself to us in three distinct, separate, and equal Persons,
all of whom are eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, and present
everywhere. These three Persons are universally confessed as
Father,Son, and Holy Spirit. The work of each person is historically
confessed as the work of the Creator (Father), Redeemer (Son), and
Sanctifier (Holy Spirit). These three equal Persons of the Godhead
consulted together in the eternal fore-counsel of God to determine
how they were going to accomplish the goal of sharing the loving,
perfect life of their existence with others. “Let US make man in
OUR image, according to OUR likeness…” (Genesis 1:26). Chapter
one talked at length about the attributes of God’s divine existence he
incorporated into the nature of the human beings he made in his
image. Can anything be said about the PERSON and WORK of
each of the three Persons being reflected in the way God made man?
To clarify, it would be more precise to think about the ROLE each
PERSON of the Trinity had in carrying out the plan to bless people
with life (and still has in continuing to bless the people of this
world). To state this point in another way, is there anything in the
role each Person of the Trinity has in working out God’s eternal
plans, which is reflected in the IMAGE OF GOD with which he
made man?

As we ponder this possibility, it is best to repeat, again, what is

said in the prologue of this book and earlier in this chapter. There
is a line to be drawn between what God has revealed in His Word,
22
and what human reason conjectures to be true. Let nothing of
human conjecture in conflict with the clear teachings of Scripture
ever gain a foothold in our hearts. Yet, when what is conjectured is
seen to be in support of Scriptural truths, there is value in
pondering Scriptural insights. Doing so can help us grow in
appreciation for God’s marvelous plan to bless us with his life.

To pique your interest, go back and rephrase the question

asked a moment earlier: Is there anything about the roles each
Person of the Trinity has to carry out God’s plan for sharing life we
can say is reflected in the way the first human beings were made in
God’s image? There are distinct similarities. Even though God is a
sexless being, neither male nor female, he still made mankind male
and female. Why? Why didn’t he just create a sexless being like
himself who could generate another being with life along the lines
of asexual generation (look up the scientific word)? What can
there be in the roles of being male and female which reflect the
image of God?

The role of God the Father reflected in the

creation of Adam
Let’s begin with the pronoun “he.” Even though God is a
sexless being, neither male nor female, he still refers to himself as
“he.” We call the first Person of the Trinity God the Father. The
Bible calls him Father; Jesus calls him our heavenly Father; we pray
to him as our Father in heaven. We also call Jesus “he” because in his
eternal existence, he is repeatedly identified as the Son of God and
God the Son. When the Son of God took on the flesh of a human
being, he became a man, a male human being. The Holy Spirit, also,
is “he.” This can be said to have significance when it comes to
God’s creation of Adam and Eve. Adam was the first one made (2
Timothy 2:13), and he was made in God’s image. God is a spirit.
23
Human sexuality in an earthly body is not something that pertains
to any Person of the Trinity, including the Son in his pre-incarnate
state. So, Adam’s maleness is not the important thing to consider
when it comes to his being made in God’s image. Rather, the role
Adam had as the first human being in his male body can be
compared to the role of the heavenly Father in the Trinity’s work.
Yes, we could compare Adam’s ability to father or beget children to
the heavenly Father of whom the Son was eternally begotten. And
there is where sexuality became a part of the nature of human
beings. If you will permit the expression, it was an ingenious
invention of God’s creative mind.

Something not heretofore a reality in the spiritual realm of God’s

eternal existence became a reality of human temporal existence in
order to reflect the roles of the Persons of the Trinity. Remember,
being a father means much more than begetting children. To be a
good father means to raise one’s children by protecting, providing,
watching over, educating, and caring for them in every way necessary.
And how did Martin Luther explain the work of God the Father when
we study truths of creation in the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed?
We say not only did God make us who we are by giving each of us,
individually, my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my
mind, and all my abilities. We are taught, also, God still preserves me
by giving me all that I need to keep my body and life, and he defends,
guards, and protects our bodies and souls in our earthly lives.

In a Scriptural extension of these truths, we can say more

about the role of a father. God the Father is the highest authority
there is in all of heaven and earth. He exercises his authority and
rule over heaven and earth not to serve himself but to serve us.
Think, here, of what Jesus said about those in authority who want
to be great. “… let the greatest among you become like the
youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves… I am

24
among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:26-27). In other words,
the higher the authority and the more one who is in authority rules,
the more he serves others. So, it is with God the Father in heaven;
so, it is to be with human fathers on earth. So, God made the first
Adam the highest authority in his own home. As the head of the
household, the man is to accept responsibility for all he rules over
in his home. And he is to carry out his responsibility by serving his
wife and children in love. More than anything, God the Father is
concerned about the spiritual well-being of the people to whom he
has given life. This is because he wants them to live forever with
him in his love. So, an earthly father, more than anything else, is to
be concerned about the spiritual well-being of those whom he
begets. He is to make sure they are educated, trained, guided, and
encouraged in spiritual matters more so than in earthly matters. This
priority is implied in Ephesians when Paul says fathers are to bring
up their children “in the training and instruction of the Lord”
(Ephesians 6:4) so they may also be “children of your Father who is
in heaven” (Matthew 5:45). Fathers are to be in authority over their
children, serve them in love and guide and bless them with
everything good for life until they are raised to be responsible,
God-fearing adults who can have and raise God-fearing children
themselves. And so, the chain of life continues. It’s the role the
father has according to God’s plan of making human beings in His
own image.

The role of God the Son reflected in the

creation of Eve.
The same purpose can be said of the Son. The Son of God, in
his eternal state, was eternally begotten of the Father. He did not
come “after” the Father in his eternal existence, nor was he any
less than the Father as far as his omniscience, omnipotence, or

25
omnipresence. He was, however, different in his relationship to the
Father, or we might say, the role he had and still has as the second
Person of the Trinity. This is reflected in what Jesus told his
disciples, “… If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to
the Father, because the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28b). The
Father is greater than the Son not in the essence of his nature as the
one, true, almighty, and eternal God, the first person of the Trinity,
but in the role, he has as the one in authority, the ruler over all he
has made. The Son is not less than the Father in the essence of his
nature as the one, true, almighty, and eternal God, the second
person of the Trinity. He was, however, “less”—to use language we
can understand—in the role he has as the Son who submitted
himself to his Father’s will. In his eternal existence, the Son was
always in subjection to the authority of God the Father, and in
willing subjection, the Son always obeyed his Father’s will. This is
clearly spelled out in Scripture, in his earthly as well as his eternal
state. In Old Testament messianic prophecy, the Psalmist wrote,
“Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come – it is written about me in the
scroll. I desire to do you will, O my God; your law is within my
heart” (Psalm 40:8). In the New Testament Jesus said, “My food is
to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John
4:34). Also, in the Gospel of John, Jesus wanted to make clear to his
disciples that in his eternal nature, as well as his human nature,
people are to understand his role as God’s Son. “…But I want the
world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly
what the Father has instructed me” (John 14:31).

We see this relationship reflected already in the creation of the

world. God the Father is the creator of all things. That’s why we
call the work of the Father “creation.” And in the beginning God the
Father turned to his Son to assist in the creation. The eternally
begotten Son of God was the suitable helper the Father used to make
the plan of creation and giving of life a reality. The Father spoke the
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Word, and the Son was the Person who carried out the will of the
Father’s authority. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him everything was made, and without him, not one thing
was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3). The Apostle Paul said
the same thing concerning God’s Son. “For in him all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been
created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). In verse 14 of
John 1 we are then told, “The Word became flesh and dwelled (for 33
years) among us.” The Son “became” flesh, that is, the human nature
of the Son began with his conception and birth via the virgin Mary,
and that human nature was thus permanently united with the divine
and eternal nature of the eternally begotten Son of God. This is the
doctrine of the incarnation.

It would be remiss not to point out that in his incarnate state,

the Son became obediently subject, also, to the will of his earthly
mother and stepfather. In the account of the twelve-year-old Jesus in
the temple, we are told, “He went down with them and came to
Nazareth. He was always obedient to them” (Luke 2:51). Not only
remiss, but it would be puzzling and negligent if we did not refer
also to the culmination of the Son being perfectly and profoundly
subject to his heavenly Father’s will. In his human nature, the Son
trembled in agony over what obedience to his Father’s will
entailed. Yet, though he prayed for some other way to accomplish
the Father’s will, he still prayed most humbly, “My Father, if it is not
possible for this cup to pass from me unless I drink it, may your will
be done” (Matthew 26:42). Paul wrote, “When he was born in
human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other
man,he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of
death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). And why did the
heavenly Father will his Son should die? Simply put, the Son’s
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willing obedience to die was necessary to carry out the ultimate goal
of God’s plan: that the objects of God’s creation might have life.
The author of Hebrews understoodthis. Referring to Jesus, he wrote,
“Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from the things he
suffered. After he was brought to his goal, he became the source of
eternal salvation for everyone who obeys him” (Hebrews 5:8-9).

It is not difficult to see how this role of the second Person of the
Trinity was applied in God’s plan to make human beings in his
own image. First of all, when Eve was created, she was not created
from the dust of the earth like Adam, but came from Adam’s rib, one
in essence with him. “The man said, now this one is bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh. She will be called “woman,” because
she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23). And in the next verse the
comment is added, “For this reason a man will leave his father and
his mother and will remain united with his wife, and they will
become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). This reflects the relation of the
eternally begotten Son with the Father. Though a separate person,
the Son was still one in the essence of his nature as true God with
the Father. And so, the male and female nature of Adam and Eve –
and all future human beings when united together in marriage -

28
was to reflect this oneness of two becoming one. Two separate
persons being united together in the marriage bond of one couple.
They are equal in their status as human beings, equally loved by
God and equally important to carrying out God’s plans. But as
separate persons, they would each have their own role in carrying
out God’s plan to share life.

Like the Son’s role is to the Father in heaven, so is the

woman’s role in the oneness of marriage to her husband here on
earth. She is to be his suitable helper. She is not less than him as a
person but different from him in her sexuality and the way she is
equipped to carry out her role in God’s plans. Like the Son is
subject to the Father’s authority and helped him carry out God’s
plans, so the wife is to be subject to her husband’s authority and
helps him carry out God’s plans for their life together. More will be
said about this in chapter nine. For now, we limit ourselves to the
point of comparison. The Son is subject to the authority of his
heavenly Father and willingly and lovingly obeyed his Father’s
will to carry out God’s plan for life. So, also, the wife submits to
the authority God gave to her husband and willingly and lovingly
helps him carry out God’s plans for their life. What a glorious and
wonderful role that is. What a glorious and wonderful role model
every wife has in the role of the Son. What a glorious and
wonderful blessing of life she is able to provide, even as the Son in
his role has become the glorious and wonderful blessing for the life
he gives for allthe world. Yes, we freely acknowledge the presence
of a sinful nature in both men and women, which has now
adversely affected, to a great degree, the willingness and ability to
carry out their roles in a God-pleasing way. Nevertheless, even in a
sinful world, the degree to which men and women still embrace
and try to carry out their respective roles as God would have them
will greatly impact how happy and blessed their married life can
be.
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The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and
the Son is reflected in the birth of children

The Holy Spirit, also, has a prominent role in carrying out

God’s loving plan to share life with the objects of his creation. He
was there at the beginning, actively participating in the wonder of
creation as recorded in the second verse of the Bible. “…and the
Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis
1:2b). In the next chapter of Genesis, Scripture provides more
creation information when it makes specific reference to the
creation of the first Adam from the dust of the ground. In so doing,
it makes subtle reference, again, to the presence and work of the
Holy Spirit. “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the
man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). By “living being,” the
Bible means more than just a reference to breathing air into the
nostrils so Adam would become alive and start breathing on his
own. Since Adam and Eve (and all their descendants) were the
only creatures created with a soul, we can properly conclude this
includes a reference to spiritual life which goes on living forever.
Without the further record of Scripture, we might be hesitant to

30
attribute this life-giving “breathing” to the activity of the Holy
Spirit. But who is the one that is consistently credited with creating
spiritual life? That is always the role of the third person of the
Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Think of just a few of the references to the
working of the Holy Spirit, to breath and wind, and the giving of
life. (Ezekiel 33:4-14, John 3:5-8, Titus 3:5 - Paul’s reference to
the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration to spiritual life).

What else does the Scripture say about the Holy Spirit? The
wording of the Athanasian Creed, as it confesses Biblical truth,
says the Holy Spirit “proceeded” from the Father and the Son. It
confesses this because Jesus says, “… I will ask the Father, and he
will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the
Spirit of truth…” (John 14:16,17a). Moments later he adds, “But the
Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I told you”
(John 14:26). Later that night in the upper room, he again refers to the
Holy Spirit as the Counselor and this time says, “If I do not go away,
the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you”
(John 16:7b). So, the Holy Spirit is jointly sent by the Father and the
Son to carry out the role he has in the eternal counsels of the Trinity.
As stated above, the role of the Holy Spirit is to create and sustain
spiritual life.

To further underscore the role of the Holy Spirit as the one

who works like the wind and breath to give spiritual life, we can
turn to the confession of faith given by Job in the Old Testament.
“The Spirit of God made me. The breath of the Almighty gave me
life” (Job 33:4). In the vision of the dry bones given to Ezekiel, we
read,

So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I was

prophesying there was a noise, a rattling, as the bones came
together, one bone connecting to another. As I watched,
tendons were attached to them, then flesh grew over them,

31
 and skin covered them. But there was no breath in
them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind. Prophesy,
son of man, and say to the wind that this is what
the LORD God says. From the four winds, come, O wind, and
breathe into these slain so that they may live.”So I
prophesied as he commanded me. Breath entered them, and
they came back to life. They stood on their feet, a very, very
large army. (Ezekiel 37:7-10).

This passage connects the Holy Spirit’s activity as the breath

which breathes life with the prophesying power of the Word of God
to give life. In the New Testament, the conversation Jesus had with
Nicodemus connects the Holy Spirit’s giving of life also to the
waters of Baptism. It is written,

Jesus answered, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone

is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God! Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is
born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised when I tell
you that you must be born from above.The wind blows
where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you do not know
where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with
everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:5-8)

The activity of the Holy Spirit is compared again to the

blowing of the wind and to “breath.” To be born into this world is
to receive the life which is given by God at the moment of
conception in a physical way and start breathing on one’s own. To
be born “again” is to receive the spiritual life the Holy Spirit gives
through the waters of Baptism and the Word, and to start living a
spiritual life on one’s own. Where would we be without air? You
can’t live physically if you can’t breathe. And you won’t live
spiritually without the Holy Spirit breathing spiritual life into you.
Scripture consistently describes the Holy Spirit’s activity as the
blowing of the wind and the breath of air that gives life when he
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works in our lives through the Word and Sacraments. His role was,
and is, to give and promote the life God wants human beings to
have as he has.

What is it, then, that compares the first Adam and his wife
Eve, being made in God’s image, to God’s existence as the one,
true, eternal God? We could say it shows itself, also, in how God
manifests Himself as one God in three Persons. God is a spiritual
being and does not have the sexual identity of physical human beings.
While Scripture does use masculine pronouns and descriptions for
God, reflecting traditional roles and understandings, it also portrays
God in terms that express nurturing and care typically associated with
feminine attributes. For example, in Isaiah 66:13, God says, “Just like
a man whom his mother comforts, in the same way I will comfort
you” illustrating his deep, caring, and nurturing nature. This imagery
reflects the strong emotional commitment God has to his children,
emphasizing his love and care in ways that resonate with human
experiences of both fatherly and motherly affection. “Can a woman
forget her nursing child and not show mercy to the son from her
womb? Even if these women could forget, I will never forget you”
(Isaiah 49:15).

So, it is not sexuality, or lack thereof, which is reflected when God

made Adam and Eve in his own image. It is, rather, the roles each
Person of the Trinity has in carrying out God’s plans for life, which is
reflected in the creation of Adam and Eve as male and female. To
summarize what was said above about roles: The authority of God the
Father to rule all things was given to Adam to rule in his household as
well as to beget children and care for them. The role of the Son was to
be subject to his Father’s authority and assist him in carrying out God’s
plans to create the world and give life. This role was given to Eve to be
Adam’s suitability assistant (or helpmeet) to submit to his authority and
be the one through whom new life would be given. Adam and Eve

33
were given male and female genders—with all that involved—to
enable them to carry out their roles. And the role of the Holy Spirit, the
one who proceeds from the Father and the Son, is to be sent into this
world and continue his work of creating spiritual life. The children who
proceed from the union of husband and wife are given this role. They
are, first of all, united as one with their parents by inheriting the same
genes—half from each. When the time is right, they are to leave their
parents’ home to go out into the world to continue extending the gift of
life to the next generation. As they do this, male and female children
then adopt new roles as head of household and helper in order to give
life to children. This is not just to give physical life. After the fall into
sin, God’s intention to have people give life expanded, also, to give
children spiritual life. This would be accomplished by parents bringing
their children to know the Lord in faith and raising them for the Lord to
be a part of his family forever. And so, the chain of creating and passing
on the life God gives is continued to each succeeding generation.
This, then, was the plan—to have people share life with him.
More than just having all the same attributes of holiness and
godliness he has (chapter one), God wanted Adam and Eve and the
succeeding generations after them to have the same joy of giving
life to others as he has, to have similar roles in making life possible
that he, the three Persons of the Trinity, have; to carry out their
respective roles in love with the same harmony of working
together as one as he has; to have the same goal in watching over,
providing, protecting, and bringing to spiritual maturity the ones to
whom they give life as he had in his creation; to have the same
authority to rule over their world in beneficial ways as he has. To
summarize: God wanted the first Adam and his wife (and
succeeding generations) to have the same sense of fulfillment,
accomplishment, and pleasure in living life, giving life, caring for
life, and ruling over creation for its good as God had when he
looked upon all he made and saw that “indeed, it was very good”
(Genesis 1:31).

34
 We all believe one true God, Who created earth and heaven,

The Father, who to us in love, has the right of children given.

He in soul and body feeds us; All we need his hand provides us,

He, through snares and perils, leads us, Watching that no harm
betides us.

He cares for us by day and night; All things are governed by his might.

We all believe in Jesus Christ, His own Son, our Lord, possessing

An equal Godhead, throne and might, Source of ev’ry grace and

blessing,

Born of Mary, virgin mother, By the power of the Spirit,

Made true man, our elder brother, That the lost might life inherit,

Was crucified by sinful men And raised by God to life again.

We all confess the Holy Ghost, Who see hope and comfort giving,

Now with the Father and the Son In eternal light is living

Who the Church, his own creation, Keeps in unity of spirit;

Here forgiveness and salvation Daily come through Jesus’ merit.

All flesh shall rise, and we shall be In bliss with God eternally.

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 3
The Problem
The fall into sin ruins God’s plan of using
Adam to give life to others
Everyone who has ever learned anything about the Bible
knows about the problem which happened after God’s creation of
loving, sinless beings in his image. It was not a problem with
God’s plan. An event which happened after creation caused a
problem for God’s plan. That event is simply referred to as “The
Fall” – the fall into sin. And it was a big problem. It kept God’s
good plan from being implemented as he intended. We say this from
an earthly perspective. From an eternal perspective, God foresaw
and accounted for this problem. In his omniscience, he included in
the long-range plan the solution to this problem with his promise
of a Savior. He would send a person who would rescue people
from the fatal problem of sin by suffering the punishment for sin
for us. But that promise and its fulfillment is the subject of the
remaining chapters of this book. For now, we focus on the problem
the fall into sin caused for Adam and Eve and all their posterity.

The woes of sin

Even those who know nothing about the Bible or scoff at its
inspired record still know there is a big problem with life in our
world. From the young toddler who falls and scrapes his knee and
needs a band-aid, to the gray-haired senior citizen who falls and
tears up his knee and needs a knee replacement, to every other
umpteenth trillion example of pain, suffering, misery, and death
which could be cited about life in this world, it is obvious. This

36
world is not always, not nearly ever always, a life of love, harmony
and joy as God intended. Those who know Scripture and in faith look
forward to its promise of a better life know for now, “We must go
through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God” (Acts
14:22). Those who know nothing about the Bible still see and feel the
effects of evil, sin and suffering all around them. Those who deny
God’s unchanging reality of right and wrong or would like to
redefine the word “sin” to mean weakness, nevertheless, cannot
avoid the woes and throes of how life goes when sin’s blows are
inflicted on them. Even the most optimistic of idealists who see
good in people and laud the beauty and bounty of this world – as
we should – still cannot find blinders big enough to shield their
eyes from the bad and beastliness of man’s inhumanity to man.
They cannot turn their heads away enough to avoid seeing the
abuse that exists in and is inflicted upon this world. How can any
evolutionist in good conscience claim the world is gradually
evolving into a better place to live when the evidence to the
contrary is increasing at warp speed all over the world? To be
realistic, there are probably few, if any, who would take such an
irrational position anymore. What is becoming more common is to
blame religion for all the problems we see in the world through its
supposed efforts to control peoples’ lives with all its rules,
demands, and threats. What a sad commentary this is upon
peoples’ attitude toward life when religion is seen as the culprit for
the troubles of the world. Of course, that is what happens when
religion is seen as only law without the healing and hope the
gospel gives.

The truth about the world’s problems is much more obvious.

The Bible states it clearly. “The thoughts he (a man) forms in his
heart are evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21b). Paul elaborates on
this condition chillingly as he quotes Old Testament Scripture.
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 There is no one who is righteous, not even one. There is no
one who understands. There is no one who searches for
God. They all turned away; together they became
useless.There is no one who does what is good; there is not
even one. Their throat is an open grave.They kept deceiving
with their tongues.The poison of asps is on their lips. Their
mouth is filled with cursing and bitterness.Their feet are quick
to shed blood.They leave a trail of destruction and suffering
wherever they go. The way of peace they did not know.There
is no fear of God in front of their eyes. (Romans 3:10-18)

This is the natural condition of all people born into this world.
The original sin we inherited from the first Adam always has and
still is corrupting our lives. By God’s good purpose, even the world
of nature was afflicted with the ravages of sin’s impact upon life.
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but
by the will of the one who subjected it…”For we know that all of
creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time”
(Romans 8:20, 22). Whatever bad happens in life - whether it be
the result of man’s evil inclinations or the suffering a
frustrated/cursed nature can sometimes inflict - it can be traced
back to the fall into sin at the beginning of world history.

So what did happen? What so dramatically ruined God’s

creation that it messed up his plan to share a loving, joy-filled,
never-ending life with those he created and changed it to a life of
misery, sorrow, hardship, and death? It didn’t start with the fall into
sin on earth; it started with Satan’s fall from grace in heaven. Satan
and the angels who joined him rebelled against God’s rule in
heaven. To understand the first Adam’s fall on earth and all the
problems it subsequently inflicted on the life of all mankind as a
result, it will be helpful – without being presumptive - to at least
contemplate the first fall into sin which took place in heaven.

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 Spiritual growth

Satan’s existence began like everything else God created when

he made everything good. Satan, together with all the other angels,
was created holy and perfect in complete harmony with the good
and gracious will of God. He was one of the most powerful angels
God created. Yet, for reasons we find difficult to understand, Satan
wasn’t satisfied with the good, wonderful, powerful life God had
given him in heaven. As in other eternal matters, we can’t presume
to know what led him in his sinless state to lead many other angels
in rebellion against God. The traditional answer often given is
Satan was filled with pride, to which we would concur. And, as is
often stated, pride goes before the fall. But, if Satan was sinless in
his original state, how did sinful pride enter his (anthropomorphic)
heart? Why, in his sinless state, would he do such a thing as rebel?
We can only conjecture from after-the-fact reflection on what
happened. What happened sometime later on earth, what still
happens on earth, and what happened to the good angels in heaven
who did not follow Satan in his rebellion can give us some clues as
to why Satan would fall from grace in heaven.

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 What happened on earth after Satan’s fall from grace in
heaven? The Bible does not tell us how long after Satan sinned and
was cast out of heaven Adam and Eve fell into sin. It is normally
assumed, probably correctly, it was not a long period of time. Life
in Eden was perfect before the fall into sin occurred. Adam and
Eve lived in harmony with God and enjoyed companionship with
each other and with God as God had envisioned. His will was their
will. His will included the plan that they would share the
wonderful life they had been given with others. “Be fruitful,
multiply, fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:28). Since God’s
will that they have children had not yet happened, it is safe to
assume their perfect life in paradise did not last a long time. That
would also mean that they had not benefited very long from the
blessing God gave them through the Tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil and his command not to eat of it.

Whoever first used the phrase “from created innocence to

consciousholiness” has provided a concise insight into the path of
spiritual growth God intended Adam and Eve to have. The Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil was intended to help Adam and Eve
grow spiritually. It gave them the opportunity to show their gratitude
to God for the life they enjoyed by living in keeping with his will. The
point at issue is that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil enabled
them to do so of their own free will. Remember, they were created in
the image of God. That means they were not slaves forced to do his
will, but beings who by their own free will could choose to live in
harmony with each other and with God. Their lives started in created
innocence - sinless and beautiful. And as the days, weeks and years
went by they would be able to experience the benefit of living in
harmony with God’s will. They would become more consciously
aware of how beautiful and wonderful the perfect will of God was
with which he blessed their lives.

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 It is not much different than the way children grow up today.
We start off as babies instinctively trusting our parents for
everything, but not always understanding why. Sometimes, parents
simply explain the “why” of their commands to do something or
not do something with the words, “because I said so.” That’s all we
need to know if we trust them. It may be all we are able to
understand at our current level of understanding. As we grow
older, however, even when our sinful nature sometimes resisted
obeying our parents, we can still usually look back and understand
why they said and did what they did. We see how much our parents
loved us. We understand the reason they wanted us to obey their will
was to protect us and provide for us and raise us in the right way. In
essence, we “grew up” and became more mature and responsible
adults in our lives as a result. We became more aware and
committed to doing what is right and good in our lives. For further
comment on stages of spiritual growth see Addendum One at the end
of the book.

If the parents are God-fearing parents who strive to raise God-

fearing children, the result of spiritual maturity can reasonably be
expected. The Bible says, “Dedicatea child to the way he should
go, and even when he becomes old, he will not turn away from it”
(Proverbs 22:6). And yet, even here, we should not forget people
are born with an inherently sinful nature. What is the overriding
reason why children, and also adults, still become disobedient to
God’s will even if they were raised to know God’s will? Is it not
the desire “to do my own thing”? How many times haven’t we
heard children complaining they should be able to decide for
themselves what they want? How many times haven’t we heard
adults arrogantly saying, “I don’t need God (or the church, or the
government, or other people) telling me how I’m supposed to
live?” It is sinful pride which still wants what I want, wants what
my will decides, over what God or those in authority over me say.
41
 Satan’s pride
Keep this in mind when reflecting on Satan’s prideful
rebellion against God in heaven. He was a powerful angel ranking
high in authority over other angels. In his high status he saw
himself as good and powerful and more “like” God then other
angels. And so, he reasoned: With his lofty status, should he not be
trusted to do what he thought was best? Why should God always
have the final say? Why should he always have to submit to God’s
will? No! In his pride he thought it entirely appropriate and in
keeping with his status he should be able to do what he wanted. He
wanted to be recognized and respected for the powerful angel he
was. He had free will and wanted to do his own thing. Sound
familiar? And, so, he rebelled.
Is it any surprise this course is still followed by many young
people as they become more aware of themselves and what they think
they know? Even when raised in Christian homes, such an attitude
can surface, aggravated of course, by one’s sinful nature urging a
person on. However, they are still “growing up.” They don’t know
everything; they haven’t lived life yet like their parents; they don’t
have the wisdom of experience to guide them. Inevitably, they realize
later they didn’t really understand life like they thought. Who of us
hasn’t looked back in life and thought, “I wish I had the brain and
understanding I have now when I was younger?” One might wonder
whether Satan ever felt that way. In hindsight, we can say, “No!”
Without repentance, there was no righteousness left in him. Hardened
in sinful pride, he simply pressed on, determined to fight against the
God who gave him life and rule over God’s creation himself.

Confirmed in righteousness
Is that the way Satan’s fall from grace happened in heaven?
Certainly, as stated earlier, we cannot presume to know what has not

42
been revealed to us. We cannot go back in time and look behind the
curtain of life in heaven in the early history of creation. It may be, it
may not be. To support this possible explanation of Satan’s fall,
however, think of what happened to the good angels. The good
angels are the ones who continued to trust God’s good and loving
will when Satan tried to recruit them. They resisted Satan’s efforts to
get them to join the rebellion against God’s will ruling over them.
They fought against Satan and the evil angels, and they won. (See
the next paragraph). The good angels saw what happened to Satan
and the other angels who rebelled. They were part of the fight. They
grew spiritually stronger by their experience. Afterwards, they
continued to experience the blessedness of living in God’s presence.
They understood; they got it; they grasped the importance of staying
in harmony with God’s will. They saw how good and loving his will
was to people on earth and, with eyes wide open, saw the severity of
wretchedness when one chooses not to live in accordance with
God’s loving will. In short, they became more conscious of their
holiness and committed to living in keeping with God’s good will to
the point we now say they are “confirmed in righteousness.” They
are God’s elect angels (See 1 Timothy 5:21), the ones who didn’t sin
and are chosen by God to remain in their sinless, holy state and
never die (See Luke 20:36). That is, they will never die spiritually
like the evil angels did when they sinned. Is it not amazingly
wonderful and encouraging when the Bible says we will be like the
good angels and never sin when we go to heaven? By God’s grace
we, also, will be confirmed in righteousness.

War in heaven
This was not true of Satan and the angels which fell into sin
with him. They had not grown stronger; they had not yet
experienced the consequences of sin; they had not matured in their

43
sinless state. In their sinless naivety and free will, they still could go
against God’s good will and sin – and they did. And once they did,
there was no more room for them in heaven. God would not allow
the perfect, sinless, blessedness of his existence in heaven – and all
who lived with him in heaven - to be spoiled by sin and ruined by
rebellion. So, as mentioned in the paragraph above, there was
conflict between good and evil in heaven.

There was also a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
with the dragon. The dragon fought back along with his
angels,but he was not strong enough. There was no longer a
place for themin heaven. The great dragon was thrown down—
the ancient serpent, the one called the Devil and Satan, the one
who leads the whole inhabited earth astray—he was thrown
down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with
him. (Revelation 12:7-9)

Jesus, in his pre-incarnate state, was there. As Luke records, Jesus

was teaching his disciples. “He told them, ‘I was watching Satan fall
like lightning from heaven.’ (Luke 10:18). Satan and all the evil angels
were cast out. “And the angels who did not keep their position of
authority but left their own dwelling place behind—God has kept them
in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great
day”(Jude 6). Satan and his angels are doomed by God’s decree to their
home of eternal darkness which will come to full execution on the last
day of judgment. But, until this world is destroyed, they are still able to
roam to and fro on earth, seeking to carry out their evil will. Their will,
which is no longer – ever – in keeping with God’s good and gracious
will to give life, is now – always – evil, intent on harming and
destroying the life God gives.

After he was cast out of heaven, Satan wasted no time in

trying to get back at God. What better way to get back at God then

44
to harm and destroy the life God gave to the crown of his creation,
man. If an evil person who hates you cannot touch you and harm
you because you are more powerful than he is, then he resorts to
trying to hurt and destroy what you have made. He tries to cause
you as much pain as he can by hurting and destroying and causing
pain to what you love. And what is dearer to God – and to us –
than our children? So, Adam and Eve immediately became the
objects of Satan’s evil intentions. Satan would cause God pain by
ruining the wonderful creation of life God had given his children,
Adam and Eve. He would destroy Adam and Eve’s loving
relationship with God by leading them to rebel against God like he
had. He would show God he could lead and rule and influence
others to live in obedience to him rather than God. And he
succeeded. However, thankfully, not forever.

The Fall into Sin

Eve is often blamed for the fall into sin. And she was guilty of
the first sin when she doubted what God said and ate of the
forbidden fruit. However, we should not lose sight of the fact Eve

45
was more naïve than Adam. She had never experienced anything
like lying or deception. The world, and her relationship to Adam,
was sinless without the corruption of guile, craftiness, putting a
spin on things to change their meaning, or evil intentions. Not as
strong as Adam emotionally (see 1 Peter 3:7), we might say she
was more gullible. That did not excuse her from doubting God’s
goodness and believing Satan’s lie any more than it excuses a
child’s decision to go against his parents’ will simply because he
thinks they “don't understand,” or “don’t love him” when they
restrict him from doing what he thinks would be fun. So, yes, she
took the lead when it comes to falling into sin. And so, the Bible
says of Eve, “And it was not Adam who deceived; but it was the
woman who was deceived and became a transgressor” (I Timothy
2:14).

Eve’s sin, however, does not excuse Adam’s participation in

this tragic event. He was every bit as guilty of transgression against
God’s will as Eve. Where was Adam in all this? He was right there
with Eve. Genesis informs us that when Eve took of the fruit and
ate it, “She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and
he ate it” (Genesis 3:6b). Adam ate also. Why? He was not
deceived (Cf. I Timothy 2:14 above). He knew something was
wrong; he didn’t believe Satan’s lie; he knew they were going
against God’s will. So, why would he join Eve in this evil act? So
closely united with Eve in their God-given bond of marriage, did
he love Eve more than he loved God and so go along with her
wishes? Or, more nobly, as Eve’s head and protector, did he feel
obligated to stand by her side and think, “We are one; we are in
this together,” and not want her to suffer God’s displeasure alone?
Or, did he succumb to Satan’s temptation to be more like God?
Adam had grown enough from his state of created innocence to
reach some level of conscious holiness because he knew what they
46
were doing was wrong. But, not having reached a state of mature
discernment, he could have, in the heat of the moment, succumbed
to the curiosity of finding out what this would be like. At any rate,
whatever the explanation, he knew what he was doing was
contrary to God’s command and was wrong.

Since God has not revealed Adam’s motives for joining Eve in
eating of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of God
and Evil, it is reasonable to assume that it doesn’t make any
difference. Whatever the motive, sin is sin. There are different
kinds of sins; some of weakness, some of naively being fooled by
the tempter like Eve, some of ignorance, but the worst of them is
rebellion. When a person knows something is contrary to God’s
will, knows it is wrong, and for whatever reason chooses to do it
anyway, that is rebellion against God’s will. That is what the first
Adam did in the Garden of Eden and look what it led to. No
wonder Martin Luther once said, “There is nothing worse than a
rebel.”1

Rebellion against God’s will is the sin of which Adam was

guilty. So, God does not lay the burden of leading the world into
sin and its consequence upon Eve. Adam, later, tried to throw Eve
under the bus, but God would have none of it. Rather, he holds
Adam, the leader, responsible. Adam was the one who knew better,
the one who should have done what he knew was right and
intervened. Paul wrote in Romans, “So then, just as sin entered the
world through one man and death through sin, so also death
spread to all people because all sinned” (Romans 5:12; cf. also
verses 14-19)

1
(The quote is a condensed paraphrase from ‘Against the Robbing and
Murdering Hordes of Peasants, 1525.)
47
 Consequences of sin

And what were the consequences of Adam’s rebellion?

Exactly what God said, “…for on the day you eat from it, you will
certainly die” (Genesis 2:17b). Death is what happened, spiritually
and eventually also physically. Physically, they would now be
deprived of eating from the Tree of Life. And on that day, they
began the long, slow process of having the wonderful, majestic,
life-filled bodies God had given them slowly grow old, deteriorate,
and die. More importantly, the image of God's spiritual side of their
nature died. On that very day, immediately, the holiness, sinless,
perfect knowledge of God’s will, loving, caring, selflessness, sense
of responsibility, and everything else that belonged to the image of
God’s attributes of their spiritual life was gone. It was dead.
Evidence enough was what began to happen the rest of that day.
Now, they were ashamed of the wonderful bodies God gave them.
Their sinful nature put the nakedness of the reproductive capabilities
God gave them in a new light. Things were different. Their bodies
were now defiled by sin, unable to pass on the gift of a wonderful,
sinless, never-ending life to children. They were ashamed of what
their reproductive organs had become - instruments for lust, but
48
more importantly, instruments of producing life now contaminated
by sin. They had messed up God’s plan big time and they knew it;
they were ashamed.

In addition, Adam and Eve’s knowledge of God as a loving

and merciful God was now darkened. God had said they would die
when they ate the fruit of that tree. Their realization of his justice
and wrath against sin cast a dark pall over their previous feelings
about God. Now for the first time they were afraid of God.
Formerly, they enjoyed God’s presence; they knew God was
always with them to guide, bless and protect them. Now in their
fear they tried to hide from God. Confronted by their actions,
instead of being accountable, they tried to pass the blame. Eve
blames the serpent who deceived her. She says nothing of the fact
she doubted God’s goodness and ignored the agreement she and
Adam had made not to even touch the fruit of the tree. Adam
blames Eve for giving him the fruit to eat as if he had no choice
but to eat. He makes no mention of the fact he knew what they
were doing was wrong and should have intervened. By inference,
he even blamed God for giving him this woman to be his wife.
Sound familiar? These are the same kinds of attitudes and excuses
sinful natures habitually take to try to excuse themselves from
taking accountability for their sin.

More consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin were the

difficulties of life God said they would now face. No longer were
they able to eat of the Tree of Life. They were driven from the
Garden which was now guarded by an angel to keep them from
reentering to try to eat from the tree again. Now they would not
live forever in those marvelously made bodies, but would die also
physically. For Eve and every woman after her there would be pain
during childbirth. What characterizes a woman’s role in life
exclusively over a man’s role – her ability to have children –would

49
be affected. No longer would giving birth be just a blessed event,
but it would also involve birth pains and other difficulties during
pregnancy and birth. Besides that, her husband’s rule over her
would be adversely impacted by the corruption of sin. In the
original order of creation, a husband was to be a selfless, loving
head of the house who lived to serve his wife and family and make
them happy. Now, a man’s sinful nature often rears its ugly head. It
often leads him in a selfish way to demand his wife serve him,
make him happy and he thinks more of his own interests than hers.
Suffering under such a burden, women would often be led to resent
their role as a suitable helper and rebel against it. As for Adam, and
all men after him, their lives would be greatly affected when it
comes to what characterizes a man’s existence more than anything
else - his job. His ability to work and earn a living to provide for
his family would be adversely affected by the trouble of weeds as
he grew crops and cultivated fields. This, in turn, becomes
symptomatic of every broken gear, late shipment, weather delay,
computer glitch and every other difficulty affecting every
occupation.

In addition to the burdens God said would befall men and

women because of the corruption of sin, God placed all of creation
under the groaning burden of sin’s curse ever since then. It must be
said in deference to the goodness of God that all of these curses on
humankind’s existence were at the same time blessings from God.
No longer able to eat of the Tree of Life? God is love and, in his
mercy, wanted no one to have to go on living forever in a sinful,
painful world troubled with guilt, suffering, and hardship instead
of the perfect, blessed life he had designed for people. Pains during
childbirth, yet still giving life? This is a reminder of the joy God
intended for a woman after giving birth. Despite the pains of
childbirth, “…when she has delivered the child, she no longer
remembers the anguish, because of her joy that a person has been
50
born into the world” (John 16:21). Yet, even here, raising children
will still include difficulties in a world of sin. Much hard work,
patience and love will be required to raise children for God. Such
difficulties ought to remind people everywhere of the great pain
and cost it was for God to send his own Son into the world to
become one of us and suffer and die for us. Sweat and hardship
doing work reminds people how sin has adversely affected the
importance of work and the fulfillment of a job well done. At the
same time, it reminds us not to love this life and make earthly
priorities our main goal in life. This life is only trouble and vanity
under the sun; a greater life with God awaits those who love God
and his Son. There are blessings in God’s curses if we will see it,
but they are still curses, making our lives more difficult because of
sin.

Death
The greatest, fiercest curse of sin is death itself. Earthly death is
bad enough and grieved by all, but far worse is the death that never
ends in the eternal death of the lost. Living in darkness in an existence
forever separated from God’s goodness, to endure forever the
loveless, painful, guilt-filled life of physical suffering, unmitigated
sorrow, and tormenting regret – that is the greatest curse of all. It was
brought into human existence by the fall into sin and now,
specifically, into our existence because of our own sins. Problem?
Yes, this is a big problem for all human beings because we are all
sinners. More significantly, this horrific problem of death for human
beings needed to be addressed by God. His loving plan to share his
wonderful, blessed life of love with others through the first Adam and
his wife was ruined.

51
 All mankind fell in Adam’s fall, One common sin infects us all;
From sire to son the bane descends, and overall the curse impends.

Thro’ all man’s pow’rs corruption creeps And him in dreadful

bondage keeps; In guilt he draws his infant breath And reaps its
fruits of woe and death.

52
 4
The Promise
A second Adam is promised to restore the
wonderful blessing of life in harmony
with God.
Eve was tricked into eating the forbidden fruit, but that did not
excuse her sin. She still believed what Satan said even though it
went against what God said. She doubted God had her best interest
in mind and the truth of his word and, instead, believed Satan’s lie.
That was wrong; it was a lack of trust in the one who loved her and
gave her life. It led her to be disobedient to God’s will and what he
had commanded. Adam’s sin was wrong on an even deeper level.
He did not believe Satan’s lie, was not deceived and knew what
they were doing was wrong. He didn’t question God’s goodness,
but in a serious show of disrespect he willingly disregarded God’s
will. The first Adam failed to exercise his leadership role and stop
Eve from eating of the fruit. He failed terribly and grievously
messed up God’s loving plan to share life.
How would God react to this flagrant act of disobedience and
rebellion? How would his holy majesty respond to such disrespect
for his will and ingratitude for all he had done for Adam and Eve in
his goodness? How would he feel about the way they ruined the
perfect life he gave them in this perfect world? How do people
react when their love is scorned and whatever kindness they had
shown to someone is trashed? Think about it. Would God come
down upon them in wrath to crush them like bugs in his judgment
on their sin? Would this be the day of their death as Adam and Eve
feared, trying to hide from God?
The answer lies in the nature of God. Above all else, “God is
love” (I John 4:8). He has a loving compassion for all he has made
53
which governs and influences all his other attributes of power,
justice, wisdom and holiness. Do parents stop loving their children
when they do wrong? No, not normally, though they might in some
extreme situations because we are living in a weakened, sinful state
ourselves. But God never stops loving because it is his nature and he
never goes against his nature. Yes, Adam and Eve would die that day
as God warned. But it had already happened when they disobeyed
God and their spiritual life in the image of God died. No longer was
their will in harmony with God’s good and gracious will, loving and
trusting in him above all else. Their respect, love and trust of God
had died. It was gone, replaced by guilt, fear and trembling. And the
relentless march to their inevitable physical death had also begun. In
His love, God did not want them living forever having children,
tilling the ground, eating lunch and going to bed at night in a world
filled with sin, pain and problems instead of perfect love. More than
that, God’s love showed itself immediately when he confronted
them over their sin in the Garden. In love he called to them, came to
them and talked to them about their sin in an effort to lead them to
admit their sin and prepare them to humbly listen to his Promise.
It has been said by different people in different ways,
“Promises are made to be broken.” This is so sad, because it’s so
often true. In their weak, sinful condition human beings often do
not keep their promise. It may be innocent circumstances of health,
weather, or other unforeseen circumstances beyond their control
which prevents a person from keeping his promise. It may not be
innocent at all as when a salesperson, weary parent, or even a
spouse at the wedding altar, never really intends to keep the
promise he or she makes. But God expects people to keep their word
and not make vows or promises in uncertain things they may not be
able to keep.

God is never guilty of broken promises. He always keeps his

word; he always keeps his promises. “…it is impossible that God

54
would lie…” (Hebrew 6:18). Isaiah wrote, “The LORD of Armies
has sworn: Certainly, this will take place just as I have planned. It
will stand just as I have intended it” (Isaiah 14:24). “I am
the LORD. Whatever word I speak will be fulfilled” (Ezekiel 12:25).
And never was it more critical to the well-being of the human race
than the Promise God made to Adam and Eve in the Garden be a
promise he would keep.

The Promise

God’s promise started, oddly enough, with God speaking a

curse—a curse upon the snake Satan had entered to deceive Eve. It
wasn’t odd to God, of course, because as we will see, it would be a
blessing to Eve’s descendants. This curse would be used through the
centuries to call to mind and reinforce the promise God was about
to make to Adam and Eve in the Garden. Immediately after God
asked the woman what she had done, Eve tried to minimize her guilt
by passing the buck to the serpent for deceiving her. Adam, also,
lamely tried to pass the blame - first to Eve, then by inference to
God himself. How sad, but how inevitable for souls who had lost

55
their love and trust in God. With apprehension and fear, Adam and
Eve listened intently to what God then had to say.

The LORDGod said to the serpent: Because you have done

this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more
than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and
you shall eat dust all the days of your life.I will put hostility
between you and the woman, and between your seed and
her seed.He will crush your head, and you will crush his
heel. (Genesis 3:14-15)

What a wonderful, loving, breathtaking, sigh of relief giving

promise this was. More than music to the ears, it was life for the
soul. We will comment on this promise in humble deference to all
the scholarly words written, inspiring sermons preached, and
beautiful hymns composed on the basis of these words throughout
the world’s history. Adding more commentary on God’s Promise
hardly deserves a footnote to such multitudes of faith-filled men and
women of God preaching on and praising God through the centuries
for the wonderful message of this Promise. Yet, we will. This Promise
of God is the most important promise ever made by anyone under any
circumstance. All the rest of Scripture is based on God making and
keeping this Promise.

Why curse the snake? Why would God’s promise of rescue,

deliverance, and hope given not only to Adam and Eve but to all
human beings, begin with a curse upon the snake? The answer is
not difficult. Several times in the account of creation the result of
God’s handiwork is called “good.” When God finished his creation
on the sixth day, the Bible says, “God saw everything that he had
made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening, and there
was morning – the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31). The snake, like every
other creature God made, was made good. One of its features was
that it was a smooth, graceful creature more so than others as it

56
moved along the earth (KJV has subtle, NIV has crafty). Perhaps,
that is what made the snake more of an admired creature to Adam
and Eve which Satan thought he could use to his advantage.
Admired as it may have been, Adam and Eve should, nevertheless,
have been shocked to hear this creature could also talk. Still, it
wasn’t the serpent’s fault Satan entered into it and used it to
deceive Eve with his half-truths and outright lie. It wasn’t the
snake’s culpability for leading Adam and Eve into sin. It was
Satan’s doing. He misused this good creature of God, one of the
many blessings God gave to Adam and Eve in the creation, for his
evil purposes. Satan was the culprit, the guilty one, deserving of
God’s curse.

Nevertheless, God spoke his promise to Adam and Eve in such

a way that the physical snake was also addressed. This good and
admirable creature was intended by God to be a blessing for
mankind’sexistence like every other creature. But Satan misused it to
accomplish his evil purpose. He defiled the blessedness of the
snake’s existence by using it to bring the curse of death upon man’s
existence. So, God determined to make the snake a blessing to
mankind again. What greater blessing could the snake become then
to use it and the poisonous lies that came out of its mouth as a
perpetual reminder of the fall into sin? So the snake was cursed.
“You are cursed more than all the livestock and more than every
wild animal” (Genesis 3:14a). Ever after - not just in Eve’s sight,
but in every generation of human existence after Adam and Eve -
the snake would not be admired, but in many cultures treated with
revulsion. What other creature on God’s earth has been more
universally disliked, feared and hated? “You shall crawl on your
belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put
hostility between you and the woman and between your seed and
her seed” (Genesis 3:14b -15a).
Reduced to crawling on its belly, its tongue slithering through
the dirt and weeds for its sense of smell, the snake is disgraced as a
57
reminder: it has its low, cursed status because of the role it played
in the fall into sin. A snake slithering in the grass often arouses a
sense of fear to avoid, not approach and admire. Good! Avoid the
evil of that old, evil serpent out to bite you with his poisonous
fangs. “Get rid of it, we don’t want it around us or our kids, I hate
those things.” Good! Hate sin, we don’t want Satan and his
deceitful, lying ways around us either. To this day, speaking with a
forked tongue is a lie, like the serpent did in the garden; and a
snake in the grass is the bad guy who can catch you by surprise and
hurt you; and being a smooth operator often means someone is
adept at leaving a good impression to serve his own purposes. All
this, and more, is a blessing to us when we are reminded of what
the old, evil serpent in the Garden did to Adam and Eve, and still is
trying to do to us.
In keeping with God’s curse upon them, the feeling of dislike
and often hatred of snakes is passed on through the generations. In
2017 scientists in Europe conducted an experiment. They showed a
series of pictures to 6-month-old babies to see how they would
react. They did so by recording the dilation of the babies’ pupils.
When the babies saw a picture of a flower, their pupils remained the
same. Same thing when the babies saw a picture of a fish. Their pupils
remained the same. The experiment continued with more pictures and
the same result. But when the scientists showed them a picture of a
snake, the babies’ reaction was different. Even though those infants
had never had any exposure to snakes, their pupils dilated. Their bodies
grew agitated, and they displayed signs of stress. Because of this
experiment, the scientists concluded in their report that, for some
reason, most humans seem to be born with an innate fear of snakes2.
Ding, ding, Ding! You got that right. The normal reaction, especially
towards a poisonous snake, is to kill it if we can, especially if it poses a
threat to us and our children. What greater poison to man’s existence is

2
Hoehl et al., 2017: Infants react with increased arousal to spiders and
snakes.
58
there, threatening death if we are bitten, than the sin and death the old
evil serpent introduced in Eden? But how do you kill a poisonous
snake that is ready to strike you or is making his way toward your
children playing in the backyard? You have no gun or sharp
hunting knife and there’s no time to run for a shovel, or spade, or
club. But you’re not going to run away and leave young, helpless
toddlers to their fate – they’re your children. You run to their
rescue the best way you can and, though you’re only wearing
sandals, you try to stomp on the snake’s head with your foot. You
succeed! A well-aimed blow, repeated several times to ensure its
demise, crushes the snake's head as it twists and thrashes around.
However, the snake is exceedingly deadly and in the process of
jumping around and stomping, the snake managed to pierce your
heel with its fangs. It hurts badly, and you know you are dying. But
it was worth it. You die in peace, grateful that you were able to
save your children’s lives. As the story is retold to them, they will
always remember you for saving them. “He will crush your head,
and you will crush his heel” (Genesis 3:15b).

Satan’s goal
The illustration above is the picture God used to promise
Adam and Eve he would send one of Eve’s descendants to save
them from the serpent’s attack on their lives. And they knew it was
not just the serpent right in front of them he was talking about. It
was the old, evil serpent who sometime earlier had rebelled against
God in heaven with his fellow demons. No doubt, Adam and Eve
were unaware of what happened in heaven, but they knew it was
more than just a snake they were dealing with; and it was more than
just the two of them this was all about. Whoever this was, was their
enemy—was God’s enemy. They may not have had a name for him,
like we have from the Bible, but their eyes had been opened to see
good and evil, and they knew he was bad. They knew he had lied to
them; we know him as the devil, the father of lies, the bringer of
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evil. They knew he was God’s enemy who wanted to harm and
destroy the life God had given them; we know him as Satan, God’s
adversary who is out to destroy us. And as God’s adversary, who had
been cast out of heaven as the evil one, he was filled with rage.
Despite his furious anger, there was nothing he could do to
overcome the Almighty One who ruled over him. So he endeavored
to get back at God and hurt him by hurting the ones God loved.
Satan couldn’t destroy God, so he was determined to destroy the
lives of God’s children. He would ruin God’s wonderful plan for
sharing life with those whom God had made in his image and turn
this beautiful home God had given them into a place of misery. And
he succeeded, or so he thought. But what the almighty God said to
him in the presence of Adam and Eve in the Garden, made it very
clear, this wasn’t over. If God was true to his Word, then one of the
descendants of the woman he had just enslaved to sin and death
would fight for them and save them. God would rescue them from
the death they brought upon themselves through Satan’s trickery
and win them back for a blessed life with God as originally
planned.

God’s goal
Isn’t God’s Promise an example of the majesty and power of
God to do wonderful things, not just by himself, but through the
objects of his creation? God could have just waved his hand and
brushed Satan aside with his power. It’s not up to us to say what
God could or would have done other than what he promised to do
to put an end to Satan’s ways. We assume God could have just
conceded round one to Satan, destroyed everything, and started all
over. But that would have let Satan win – so to speak – and God
would have none of that. These were his children whom he loved
despite their sin. He did not want to see them die any more than

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any parent would want to see their children die, even if they had
been bad. God had no room in his loving heart to let Satan succeed
in his wickedness. Did Satan think he could keep God from sharing
his life with others through this couple God had made? Think
again evil one. Did Satan think he could put an end to God’s plan
to have the couple he created give life to others by being fruitful
and multiplying and filling the world with other human beings?
Dream on ignorant one. No! Satan may have won a temporary
victory when he led Adam into sin and inflicted sin and death upon
the world. But God would send another Adam to succeed where
the first Adam failed. A human being, a descendant of the woman
with flesh and blood like the first Adam, would crush Satan’s head.
He would kill and destroy Satan’s power to enslave people in sin
and drag souls to hell with him. This second Adam would win the
victory over Satan, save people from death and hell, and restore a
blessed life with God again. It would cost this person his life;
Satan would strike his heel with the sting of death, but it would be
worth it. Saving the lives of God’s children would be worth it.

This is what God promised in the Garden. And whether Adam

and Eve understood all the behind-the-scenes war in heavenly
places or the timing and manner in which God would accomplish
all this, we don’t know. They probably understood more than we
give them credit for. But whatever they knew, they knew enough.
They knew God promised to send another man, one of their
descendants born of a woman, to rescue them. This servant of God
would fight against this serpent of evil on their behalf. They knew
their descendant would be bitten by the evil one’s attacks and shed
his blood in death, but he would also save them. They understood
what God promised and they believed it. When Eve gave birth to her
son, Cain, it’s possible she thought he was the one God promised.
One way of translating the remark Eve made when she named Cain

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could be, “I have gotten a man, the Lord” (See Genesis 4:1.) Adam
named his wife Eve which means “living” (See Genesis 3:20)
because she would become the mother of those who would live, as
God promised, and not die forever as the serpent wanted. Adam and
Eve had faith God would keep his word. They believed God’s
Promise and by the faith God worked in their hearts became God’s
children again. We can look forward to meeting them in heaven. But
they were still sinners, facing the daily earthly consequences of sin.

The importance of sharing God’s Promise

Certainly, the struggle against sin was keenly felt by Adam
and Eve. One can empathize with them as they began to experience
the day-by-day realities of their new life under the burden of sin.
So dramatic was the change from holiness and happiness in
fellowship with God to the hardships and heartache of life after the
Fall that it’s hard to imagine a day went by without understandable
feelings of deep regret - not only for themselves but for their
children. How their hearts must have pained them to think about the
existence they had brought upon their children. It is impossible to
believe Adam never told their children what happened. Their
children weren’t there in the Garden. They weren’t even born yet,
but they needed to have everything explained to them so they
could understand. They needed to know why they had to face
difficulties and disappointments in life; why there was suffering
and so many things going wrong; they needed to know why they
faced a future which would end in death. And so, Adam and Eve
told them about the fall into sin, and the suffering and death it
brought into this world as a result. It was a hard truth, but their
children had to learn it so they could learn to avoid temptations to
sin themselves.

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 More importantly than all the difficulties they faced because
of sin, Adam and Eve’s children needed to know there was hope it
would get better. They needed to know in spite of what happened,
God still loved their parents – and still loved them, too, despite their
sins. They needed to know God said he would send someone from
among their descendants who would save them from the curse of
sin, suffering, and death. He would save them from Satan’s evil
designs on their souls. He would rescue them from the debt of sin
they owed, and the hell with Satan they were doomed to share. He
would redeem them by paying the debt of sin and enduring the
punishment of death for them. They needed to know God’s Promise.
They needed to believe God’s Promise to be his children and be
saved from death and hell. There was nothing more important
Adam and Eve could now do in all their many years of existence,
for all the many sons and daughters they brought into the world,
than share the promise of a Savior with them. They needed to
teach their children… and their grandchildren… and their great-
grandchildren…. and their great-grandchildren’s descendants that
God’s Promise of a Savior was the most important thing in their
lives. It would be contrary to the 8th Commandment and thinking
the worst of Adam and Eve’s priorities in life to imagine they were
now all caught up in carrying out the duties of their earthly
existence and had little concern about the spiritual well-being of
their children. Such misplaced priorities became a huge problem
for their descendants and still are today, but it’s hard to imagine it
happened to Adam and Eve. It is inconceivable to think Adam and
Eve didn’t long for a perfect life of love and harmony with God
again, without sin, and desperately wanted that also for their
children. Their descendants needed to know God’s Promise; they
needed to know God would keep his Word and the promised
Savior would one day come. If only they could remember his
Promise and keep on putting their trust in him.
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 Remembering God’s Promise

How does one communicate a promise from one person to

another? Obviously, you simply tell them what the promise is, and
since it is such an important promise you keep on repeating it and
reminding people regularly. We can be sure Adam and Eve did that.
One piece of evidence they did so, faithfully, can be seen in the days of
their son, Seth. By this time, Cain and his descendants were rejecting
the Promise of God. But at the time of Seth the Bible says, “This is
when people began to proclaim the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26).
Bible scholars generally agree: More than just calling on the name of
the Lord in their individual prayer life, believers in the Promise began
to gather together to proclaim the name of the Lord in public worship
and remind each other of God’s Promise. When something is especially
important, people will usually make extra effort to remember it. They
might well feel compelled to memorize the promise, or truth, to keep it
from being communicated in an inaccurate way which could be
misunderstood. They could write it down to make sure it would be
preserved as God did for his people in the Bible. Although there is no
record of Adam and Eve or any of their descendants developing a
written language before the flood, they most assuredly did something to
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remember the Promise. They may have started thinking of ways to
have visual reminders (pictures, plaques, symbols, artifacts) and actions
(plays, dramas, rites, ceremonies) to help them remember. We don’t
know to what degree such things were developed by Adam and Eve,
and Seth and other early believers. But it is reasonable to assume some
forms of memory assistance were devised to remember the Promise.

Sacrifices
How urgently Adam and Eve must have searched for ways to
help their children remember God is still good and gracious and
had promised to deliver them from their troubles and impending
death. The most obvious memory device which comes to mind is
the practice of offering as a sacrifice to God. The account of Cain
and Abel in Genesis chapter four makes it clear bringing sacrifices
and offerings to the Lord is what Adam and Eve’s descendants
learned to do. In our lives, we learn that making a sacrifice or
offering to God should be something believers do willingly from
the heart, not begrudgingly, because they feel they must. Paul
makes that clear. “Each one should give as he has determined in
his heart, not reluctantly or under pressure, for God loves a
cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). As the account of Cain and
Abel shows, a willing offering from a heart of faith is the only
thing with which God is pleased. Sacrifices and offerings are not
something people do to gain God’s favor, something of which Cain
was obviously guilty. The sacrifice/offering is made from a willing
heart not to satisfy God but as a way to honor him and what he
promised. We give back to God a portion of what he has given to
us to show gratitude to the Lord and thank him for all the blessings
he has bestowed on us. And Cain’s heart wasn’t in it at all. The
point here is to show that offering sacrifices to God became a part
of the family life of Adam and Eve early on. And we can safely
conclude they did so, also, as a way to teach that offering a sacrifice

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was an important part of God’s Promise. God’s Promise had made it
clear the descendant of the woman would be sacrificing his life to
save people. More about sacrifices will be said in chapter five as
part of God’s preparation for the second Adam.
It is worthy to note, however, we are not told in the Scriptures
whether God directed Adam and Eve to bring sacrifices to him. It
would seem likely he did not, for it would be fair to assume such a
command of God would have been referenced by Moses when he
was inspired to write Genesis and the other books of the
Pentateuch. Yet, when God’s command to bring offerings and
sacrifices were recorded for God’s people in the ceremonial law,
nothing is said about God commanding sacrifices in the beginning.
It is more probable to conclude the practice of bringing offerings
and sacrifices to God was something Cain and Abel learned from
their father, and was something Adam began doing on his own
initiative. Adam heard in God’s promise that the descendant of the
woman would crush the serpent’s head to rescue them, but in the
process, he would be bitten by the snake. Adam understood this
would be a deadly strike for God had said the punishment for
disobeying him would be death. The descendant of the woman
would give his life for them. What a promise that was: the one
whom God would send to save them from death would have to
sacrifice his life for them. This was critical to the fulfillment of
the Promise. Adam, no doubt, recognized the importance of
remembering this not only for himself, but also his children. You
can imagine him thinking our children need to remember how God
has been gracious; that in his love he will send one who will
sacrifice his life for us. We will honor God by showing him we
understand. We will honor him by showing we are willing to bring
our offerings and sacrifices to him in gratitude for what he does for
us. Our continuing to offer sacrifices to God will help us remember
this. The patriarchs of faith before the Flood understood and
continued the practice of making sacrifices to God. Noah was a

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man of faith, one of the last few souls who continued to believe
God’s promise. He remembered. When he disembarked from the
ark, the first thing Noah did was build an altar and sacrifice some
of the clean animals and birds to the Lord.

Circumcision
There is another practice which indicates the importance which
Adam and Eve and their descendants placed upon doing something to
help remember God’s promise. This is the practice of circumcision.
Let it be said from the start there have been many theories offered to
explain the practice of circumcision. Most of the suggestions
proposed in writing can be readily dismissed as wild speculation and
grasping at straws in an attempt to explain something that is not
understood. The reader may access the internet and go to the site
Wikipedia to verify this statement. Search for information along the
lines of “History of Male Circumcision” and one will find sufficient
evidence to convince him of the foolishness of most explanations.
However, a logical explanation for the practice of circumcision has,
from time to time, been identified in Christian circles. It has to do
with remembering the promise God made to Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden. From the perspective of a centuries-old practice and
by whom, circumcision as a way of remembering God’s promise
seems the only plausible way to identify why the practice started and
became widespread.

Here is the logic which leads to such a conclusion. The “given”

in circumcision is the cutting away of the foreskin of the male sex
organ. This, of course, would induce bleeding and a period of time
to heal. The male sex organ = reproduction; bleeding = wound,
injury, and sometimes death.

Place the two factors together and think of the Promise. An

offspring/descendant of the woman (future generations would be
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born through sexual reproduction made possible by the male’s role).
One of them (an offspring only of the woman) would crush the
serpent’s head (defeat/destroy him), and the serpent would strike his
heel (cause him to bleed and die). So, whether it was Adam himself,
or his son Seth, or another early descendant of Adam and Eve
who proposed the idea, the thought was simple. If we do this
(circumcision), and keep on doing this every time a baby boy is born,
then we will always be reminded an offspring of a woman will one
day be born who will shed his blood to destroy the serpent’s power
and rescue us from death. And so practicing circumcision became one
way those who believed would remember the Promise. Every time a
baby boy was born, and circumcision was administered, they would
be reminded of God’s Promise.

As the centuries went by, however, the number of believers began

to decrease, and the descendants of Cain and unbelievers began to
increase greatly. Circumcision was still practiced by those who
believed, but those who did not believe would not be inclined to
continue such “nonsense” and superstition. Yet, even among
unbelievers, circumcision continued for a time for some, not so much
because they remembered, but because it was a tradition which had
been carried on for generations. Regardless, when the violence was
great in the earth and the wickedness of men became so intolerable, the
Flood became necessary for God to preserve his Promise. Only the
believing family of Noah was kept alive in the ark. And Noah’s
knowledge of circumcision as a way of remembering the Promise
was also kept alive. After the Flood, the practice of circumcision
continued, not as something commanded by God and not necessarily
by all. But many of Noah’s descendants chose to continue the practice
they had learned from Noah and his sons as their forefathers. Some
cultures and individuals continued it; some did not. Some may have
remembered its meaning, but many probably did not.

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 Circumcision was not always practiced by every believer after
the flood. God had not commanded it. The fact that Abram
(Abraham), the father of believers, was not circumcised nor were
any in his household would indicate it was no longer universally
practiced after the Flood. However, when the birth of Abram’s
promised son, Isaac, was soon to be announced, things changed. At
the age of 99 when God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (father
of nations), God commanded him and every male in his household
to be circumcised. “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, a
covenant between me and you and your descendants after you:
Every male among you shall be circumcised” (Genesis 17:10, see
also verses 11-13). Circumcision would be the sign of the covenant
God established with Abraham and with Abraham’s descendants
after him. It was mandatory. “The uncircumcised male who is not
circumcised by removing the foreskin from his flesh, that person
must be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant”
(Genesis 17:14). Why God chose to institute circumcision as the
sign of the covenant between him and his people seems logical if not
obvious. God used what early believers had devisedas a way to
remember the Promise of a Savior to identify the people from whom
the Savior would come.
Keep this in mind: Beyond his universal moral law which
applies to all people of all time God does not always dictate to his
children how they should express their faith and make decisions
on how to live and worship him. He expects people who have
knowledge and love of his will to act in keeping with their faith
and give glory to him. We are not robots who can only do what we
are told mindlessly. We are human beings, renewed in God’s image,
with the ability to think, evaluate, and make decisions on how to live
our lives in keeping with his will. God is pleased when we express
our faith and give glory to him of our own initiative. Moses told
the people of Israel to not be afraid and stand firm when they were
trapped before Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea because God would
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deliver them. But when Moses, then, (apparently) cried to God for
directions on what to do, God responded, “Why are you crying out
to me? Tell the Israelites to set out” (Exodus 14:15). Namely, you
are the leader I have appointed, I have been with you and you have
seen my power to carry out the plagues you announced for me.
Why not trust that power now and figure out what needs to be
done? Show the people you are their leader and trust I will be with
you to do as you have directed. LET YOUR FAITH GUIDE YOU.

Let your faith guide you. That’s the way it was with Abraham
and God’s covenant with him and his descendants. Our conviction
is circumcision was devised by Adam and, if not Adam, some other
early believer, as a sign of faith in God’s Promise. It was a way of
remembering and passing on to the next generation the belief God
would keep his Word. Remember, the meaning of circumcision
was the belief that through reproduction a descendant of the
woman will be born who will shed his blood and die in order to
rescue people from Satan and the curse of death. Now God was
singling out Abraham as a man of faith to become the father of the
nation through whom God would keep his Promise. Abraham’s
son, Isaac, was soon to be born. The nation’s forefathers would
soon be walking this earth. The promised descendant of the woman
would be born from them; he would carry out his work in their
midst; he would die as a member of that nation.

Though not stated specifically in Scripture, it’s as if God was

saying that the practice of circumcision has been around since it was
devised by early believers to remember the Promise of a Savior. I am
now honoring their expression of faith in my Promise by
commanding you to use circumcision as the sign of my covenant with
you. Its message of faith in the Promise is among you and marks you
as the nation among whom it will be fulfilled. What the world has
been waiting for, for thousands of years, I have been preparing for and

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am now using you to make it happen. “All the families of the earth
will be blessed in you” (Genesis 12:3) because my promised Savior
will come from you.

How seriously did God take this sign of the covenant? Hundreds
of years later God sent Moses to lead Abraham’s descendants out of
slavery in Egypt. They had become established as a nation and it was
time to lead them back to the land God had promised to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob (Israel). As Moses and his wife, Zipporah, were on
the way down to Egypt with their sons, the Lord met him at a lodging
place along the way. Perplexingly, the Bible says the Lord was about
to kill Moses (Exodus 4:24). Why? Apparently, his wife Zipporah had
resisted having her youngest son circumcised. It was she who then
quickly circumcised their son and expressed her unhappiness with
having to do this with the cry, “…Surely you are a bridegroom of
blood to me. So, the Lord let him alone. (At that time, she said, ‘bride
groom of blood,’ referring to circumcision)” (Exodus 4:25-26). Then
the Lord let Moses alone. But why be ready to kill Moses for the
failure to circumcise his son? It was because he was to be the leader
of God’s people. He would speak to the people for God, and be the
one who would lead their deliverance out of Egypt through 40 years
of wandering in the wilderness. If Moses, the God-appointed leader
whom the people were to listen to and follow, did not faithfully follow
God’s command to have his son circumcised, why should they? If the
covenant seal of remembering God’s promised Savior was not
important enough for the leader of the people, why would the people
consider it important? But it was important. That was the main reason
for their existence as God’s chosen people – to have God fulfill the
Promise made in the Garden through them. If Moses was not ready to
have the people remember their national identity, then God was ready
to choose another leader who would. The message conveyed by the
practice of circumcision was serious business. It was a matter of life

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or death for Moses, even as fulfilling the Promise it foreshadowed
was a matter of life and death for the one promised.

The signs of the Zodiac

There is one more thought to consider on the subject of
helping Adam and Eve’s descendants remember the Promise. It is
the subject of the gospel in the stars. As is the case with the practice of
circumcision, the signs of the Zodiac have been around from such
ancient times no one can identify how or when they originated.
The gospel in the stars is the belief the constellations of the
heavens reflect the message of the gospel. However, we will speak
of it only briefly because the conviction that the signs of the
Zodiac were intended to help people remember the Promise is
admittedly a matter of conjecture and subject to debate. In favor of a
Christian interpretation of the meaning of the stars/signs of the
Zodiac are a number of authors dating back to the 1800s. These
began with Frances Rolleston and her writings in 1865 called
“Mazzaroth: Or, the Constellations.” About twenty years later an
American pastor by the name of Joseph A. Seiss published his book,
“The Gospel in the Stars,” in 1882. In more recent years the 1989
writing of Dr. D. James Kennedy, “The Real Meaning of the Zodiac,”
made some convincing points reaching the same conclusion. And in
February 2016 a woman by the name of Bethany Blankley published
“The Original Christian Zodiac,” written as the first in a 13 Part series
to be titled, “God’s Zodiac: The Gospel in the Stars.” It might also be
pointed out the Jewish historian, Josephus, stated that according to
Hebrew lore, Adam was an astronomer, and either Adam or his son
Seth created the design of the constellations and passed on the
information to posterity. These all support the belief God’s Promise is
reflected in the configuration and naming of the constellations. In
dispute of these conclusions, we will refer to the well-researched and
scholarly written work of Dr. Danny Faulkner in February of 2013
titled, “A Further Examination of the Gospel of the Stars.”

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 It can be acknowledged Dr. Faulkner makes some compelling
points questioning some of the conclusions of those who have
written in favor of a God ordained message of the gospel in the
stars. However, God did not ordain the signs of the Zodiac. The
position taken here is early believers designed their arrangement to
remember God’s promise. It would still seem some aspect of the
gospel message can be reasonably assumed to be conveyed in the
constellations of the Zodiac. Dr. Faulkner himself recognizes this
when he remarks on the likelihood of a gospel interpretation in the
constellation Hercules and the striking parallels of its imagery to the
first gospel Promise in Genesis 3:15. Other parallels to gospel truths
can be seen in various constellations. When evaluating possible
interpretations for many of them with an objective eye, an overriding
theme of a warrior/hero doing battle with an adversary such as a
dragon can reasonably be seen.
If a person agrees with the precept – like with circumcision –
that God did not invent or dictate the ways in which early believers
were to remember the Promise, then the gospel in the stars
certainly qualifies as a possibility. The point here is that God did
not make the stars of the heavens to be silent testimonies to the
gospel. In Psalm 19, David clearly states the heavenly bodies have
a message to proclaim, but it is the message of God’s divine
wisdom and power in the work of creation.
The heavens tell about the glory of God. The expanse of the
sky proclaims the work of his hands. Day after day they
pour out speech. Night after night they display knowledge.
They do not speak. They say no words. Their voice is not
heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, and their
word reaches the end of the world.(Psalm 19:1-4)
So, God did not make the stars or name the stars to help
people remember the gospel. Early believers such as Adam and/or
some of his descendants sought and devised ways to remember the
gospel themselves. And looking up at the stars every night would seem

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like an ideal opportunity to be used for that purpose. The stars and
their alignments don’t change. Imagining and interpreting their
arrangements in such a way to teach the convictions of their faith
would seem like an ideal way to pass on to future generations the
importance of remembering the Promise. What the first Adam failed
to do, God promised he would send a second Adam to accomplish—
fight as a warrior against God’s enemy to give life for all people.

Let the earth now praise the Lord, Who has truly kept his word,
And at last to us did send Christ, the sinner’s help and friend.

What the fathers most desired, What the prophets’ heart inspired,
What they longed for many a year Stands fulfilled in glory here.

Abram’s promised great reward, Zion’s helper, Jacob’s Lord—

Him of two-fold race behold— Truly came, as long foretold.

The Prophet gave the sign For faithful men to read:

A virgin born of David’s line Shall bear the promised Seed.

Crush for me the serpent’s head That, set free from doubt and
dread,
I may cling to you in faith, Safely kept through life and death.

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 5
The Preparation
What was needed to make the promise of
another Adam a reality

God’s eternal plan to send His Son

Think this through. What would need to be done to prepare for
another human being to do what the first Adam failed to do? First of
all, in order to keep his Promise, God knew his own Son would have
to become a man – a “descendant of the woman.” And there is a
reason God decreed he would be a descendant of the woman, not a
normal offspring of a marriage between a man and a woman. From
the fall into sin every person descended from Adam and Eve would
be born a sinner. “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. (i.e. sinful
flesh gives birth to sinful flesh) Whatever is born of the Spirit is
spirit” (John 3:6). And no sinful human being is qualified to be a
substitute for other human beings to take away their sin; he has his
own sins to account for. That is why God declares, “But no one can
by any means redeem himself. He cannot give God a ransom for
himself” (Psalm 49:7). God knew from eternity he would need to
send his own Son into sinless human flesh to be born only of a
woman -conceived by the sinless power of the Holy Spirit without
inheriting the sinful nature of Adam’s image. Isaiah wrote of God’s
anointed servant, “Listen to me, you coastlands. Pay attention, you
far away peoples! The LORD called me from the womb. When I was
inside my mother, he mentioned my name” Isaiah 49:1). So, Paul
later wrote, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son
to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in
order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as
sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). See, also, John 3:16.
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 To humble himself fully as a true man, God’s Son would lay
aside the full use of his divine powers (almighty, all-knowing, and
present everywhere) and live like other people. “Indeed, let this
attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Though he was by
nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be
displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant.
When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like
that of any other man, he humbled himself….” (Philippians 2:5-8).
With his true human nature, the second Adam would live as a human
being like the first Adam- except without sin.

What would it entail for God’s Son to live fully as a true man?
The second Adam was promised to be a “descendant of the
woman;” therefore, he would need a mother to bear him. As an
infant, he would also need God-fearing parents to raise him. Like
every infant, he would need to grow not only physically, but also
mentally to develop the intellectual capabilities of his mind. This
included being told who he was when he was old enough to
understand and having explained to him how he was born to fulfill
God’s Promise of a Savior. He would need to be thoroughly
instructed in his knowledge of the Scriptures so he would know
every detail of how to fulfill God’s Promise of a Savior. (Think of
the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple listening to teachers,
answering and asking questions.) He would need to grow
emotionally to become mature in his ability to cope with all the
demands, expectations, temptations, disappointments, ignorance,
weakness, resistance, and betrayal he would face in his life. This
included being mentally aware of and emotionally prepared to
endure the unfathomably horrific burden of what he would suffer
in his passion.

We can say, also, the second Adam would need to grow

spiritually as a true man. This was because the first Adam before him

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was created sinless. Yet, the first Adam still needed to grow in his
spiritual maturity to become committed to and confirmed in his
righteous living as God’s child. However, the first Adam fell into sin
and failed to reach such sinless spiritual maturity. The second Adam
was not just God’s Son, he was also a sinless man. As a true man, he
would need to grow spiritually so he could wholeheartedly embrace
his calling and become confirmed in his commitment (desire) to do
his heavenly Father’s will above his own. We should not be surprised
when the Scriptures state, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and with people”(Luke2:52). He needed to grow to
this point so he would not fail. What does all this tell us? There is no
way God could just dump a newborn child on the hospital steps of
this world and hope that someone would take him in and raise him the
right way. God had to prepare a proper environment for the
upbringing of the second Adam so he would be properly prepared to
carry out the mission he was sent to accomplish—fulfill God’s
Promise.

Before the Flood

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 The years before the Flood revealed how important it was that
God make such preparations. There were godly people who could
have been good parents for the raising of the woman’s descendant.
Indeed, it may well have been Eve thought her first born child was
the fulfillment of the Promise. Sadly, Cain’s life made it clear he
was not. Cain could not, of course, have been the one God
promised. He was made in “Adam’s own likeness” (in Adam’s
image, not God’s), that is, with a sinful nature. That is the reason
none of the other men of faith listed before the flood would father
the fulfillment of God’s promise. There were godly people before
the flood. There were a number of suitable people God could have
chosen to raise a child to fill the role of God’s promised Savior.
Enoch, the 7th from Adam, stands out as such a person. Before he
was taken directly to heaven (not by works, but by faith) his
sanctified life was “commended in Scripture as one who ‘pleased
God’” (Hebrews11:5). He would have been exceptionally qualified
as a God-fearing parent. Noah, the preacher of righteousness to an
ungodly world before the Flood (2 Peter 2:5), was another. One
might think God could have had the promised Savior be born of
one of them in the same way he did through Joseph and Mary. That
is, have the child conceived without a sinful nature in a virgin by
the power of the Holy Spirit and have her future husband be the
God-fearing stepfather. But God did not choose that way. Having
godly parents who set a godly example for a holy child was not
enough to produce the desired result. Why would that be? We
repeat again what God says, “Certainly my plans are not your
plans, and your ways are not my ways”(Isaiah 55:8f). We cannot
always say why God does what he does, but we can contemplate
reasonable possibilities.

God did not choose to have the fulfillment of his Promise be

born into this world by one of the believing descendants of Adam
before the Flood. It would seem most likely the reason was the
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great increase in godlessness and apostasy before the Flood. One
of the main reasons for this was a harmful trend like a malignant
tumor had metastasized in society. The choice of a wife by many
pre-Flood believers was not spiritually motivated. The Bible says,
“This is what happened when mankind began to multiply on the
face of the earth. When daughters were born to people, the sons of
God (believers) saw that the daughters of men (unbelievers) were
beautiful, and they took as wives for themselves any of them they
chose” (Genesis 6:1,2). Good looks were more important than
godly faith. Mixed marriage between believers and unbelievers
makes raising godly children more difficult. It puts passing on the
faith from one generation to the next at risk. It is worth noting in
the very next verse of Genesis that God was not pleased and
announced the coming of the Flood. “The Lord said, ‘My Spirit
shall not struggle with man forever, because he is only flesh. His
days will be 120 years” (Genesis 6:3). The corruption, wickedness,
violence, and “bent on evil” lifestyle of the pre-Flood world had
reached “critical mass” in God’s eyes. See Genesis 6:5, 11-12. The
vast majority of the world’s inhabitants lived only for the pleasures
of this life with no concern for the spiritual priorities of the next
life. “They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in
marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark…” (Luke
17:27).

What was God’s reaction to all this? It was predictable and

announced.

The LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his
heart was filled with sorrow. The LORD said, “I will wipe out
mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth,
along with the animals, the creeping things, and the birds of the
sky, because I regret that I have made them.”(Genesis 6:6-7)

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 Grieved and pained! What does that tell you? It doesn’t tell you
God did a poor job of planning and executing his plan to share his
life with others. God does all things well. When he made all of
creation, he saw that it was good. It does tell you how much the
wretchedness of sin ruins and rots the good life God had given
people, turning it into a stench in God’s nostrils. How would you
feel if something you made so well had to be destroyed? How well
would you be able to push the button and trigger the demolition of
something you had put your heart and soul into making it beautiful,
majestic, and good? Would you have the willingness to take
something you had so wonderfully made, such a blessing to others,
and an expression of your love for them, and now tear it down and
start over? It’s difficult to imagine how much it pained God to wipe
clean and rebuild the wonderful world he made. The original
creation was a beautiful monument to his love and creative powers,
but now it had been defaced and wrecked by vandals. So, in love,
the demolition had to be done. In order to share his life and love for
others, it had to be done. In order to keep his Promise, it had to be
done.

God’s decision was based on love and on how difficult it

would be to keep his Promise in the environment which had
corrupted his world. God knew how the imagination of man’s heart
was only evil from his youth. That is our natural inclination
because of the sinful nature all humans inherit from the first Adam.
Because of inherited sin and its inborn inclination to evil, it was
difficult even for those who believed in the Promise to keep on
fighting the battle of faith for 800 to 900 years and longer. It was
difficult for God-fearing parents to bring children into the world
and have them learn and hold on to the Promise when so much of
the world was against them.

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 Especially was this so as fellow believers weakened and
waned from the faith. As a result, the encouragement they could
have given to others to remain strong evaporated into mist. The
bad example set by the wicked was like a rainstorm drenching the
robes of the righteous causing many to exchange them for other
clothes. The values, priorities and lifestyles of so many others
smashed into the remaining believers like thunderous waves
constantly beating on them to rip their spiritual priorities out of
their grasp, or in calmer waters soak it out of their hearts. For
hundreds of years the pressure of the devil, the world and their
sinful nature to live and act like other people was like a dark cloud
constantly overshadowing them. Slowly, all the world would
succumb, save Noah and his family. Nor would the culture,
environment, and dangers to godly faith have been any less for the
one who would come as the second Adam. If anything, the
pressure would have been greater, the battle more fierce. For Satan,
the prince of this world, would put all of his resources, pull all of
his allies, push all of his temptations before him to try to pummel
him into submission and give up his cause. For the second Adam to
have to resist all this perfectly, remain sinless always, not fail even
once in the smallest of ways for hundreds and hundreds of years
would be a monumental challenge. It could be done with God’s
strength, of course, but God deemed it not necessary. And so, the
Flood came.

After the Flood

The Flood was sent to cleanse the world of sin’s corruption and
start over. And with starting over - together with changes of climate,
diet, the introduction of seasons, cold and heat, and seedtime and
harvest - came a change of lifespan. No longer would the battle of
faith last for hundreds and hundreds of years, but, roughly speaking,

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would become a tenth of that. Not long after the Flood man’s
lifespan became 70 years on average; if a person was strong enough
and blessed by God it could be 80, possibly for some even longer.
But in any case, our lifespan would soon be cut off and our spirits
would fly away while bodies returned to dust. However, the time of
suffering in this vale of tears because of sin and the need to contend
for the truth and to fight the battle of faith would be shorter. And that
was a good thing for those contending for the faith – and for the
second Adam. Preparation for the second Adam not to have to fight
Satan and carry out his ministry for hundreds and hundreds of years
was put in place.

To prepare the way for the second Adam a change was put in
place after the Flood, also, for the way he would be raised and
prepared for his work. Now, the culture and surroundings of his
life would be different than they would have been before the
Flood. Though they were still critical to God’s plan, parents and
some fellow believers would not be the only ones used to raise,
teach and encourage him. More than just a few individuals would
affect how he grew up and prepared for his calling. Now, a nation
of people and an entire society with a God ordained religion would
surround him. Now, a thorough instruction in God’s ways would be
written down and passed on from generation to generation to guide
him. Now, a structure of what God’s Word said – and those who
followed it in faith – would help buffer him from the blatant
outrage of the world’s wickedness. Especially while he was an
infant, but also during the years of his public ministry, this
structure would help to shield him from the blasts of error, idolatry,
and open opposition to God’s will coming from the world. Before
all of that reached him in full measure, he would be well instructed
and prepared to finish his work despite the error, ignorance, and
opposition he would face.

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 The Tower of Babel
It quickly became apparent after the Flood that not all the
descendants of Noah could be developed into such a godly society
of people. While Noah was still alive, many of his descendants
began to weaken in their faith. It wasn’t long before the majority of
them were not willing to follow the wishes of their God. The
majority rules, and together they openly defied God’s command to
spread out and populate the earth. They were determined to remain
together as a people and resolved to build a tower to the heavens to
demonstrate their ability to accomplish great things. “They said,
‘Come, let’s build a city for ourselves and a tower whose top
reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, so that we
will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth’”
(Genesis 11:4). This was the Tower of Babel. The goal was to rally
people around this symbol of human achievement. It would show
everyone human beings could prosper and accomplish great things
as they chose to, without God dictating how they should live. In
today’s world we would simply say they wanted to live their own
life as they pleased without God telling them what to do. It was
another volcanic eruption of humanism, a philosophy of life
spewing its poisonous ashes over the world after the Flood which
has continued to defy God’s authority over man’s life ever since. A
society dominated by such an attitude toward the will of God
would hardly make suitable soil in which to plant the human nature
expected to humbly learn God’s will and grow into the second
Adam. In this case, the ambitious pride and arrogant defiance of
God was short-lived. Without crushing and destroying, God simply
touched people’s tongues. Their coherent language became
incoherent babbling, and the great construction project was shut
down—a colossal failure and lasting testimony to the futility of
man when choosing to live in defiance of God. It also
accomplished God’s purposes to have people spread out and
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populate the earth as God had decreed. God could now continue
his preparations to create a godly society based on his will; one
which would provide a suitable training ground for raising the
descendant of the woman to fulfill his Promise.

The calling of Abraham

To build a God-fearing society to serve as the training ground
for the second Adam, God started with Abram - later to be renamed
Abraham. Not all the descendants of Noah were of the same
mindset as the majority that prevailed in the decision to defy God’s
will. Following the Biblical chronology in Genesis as outlined by
Archbishop James Ussher in The Annals of the World, Noah was
still alive at the time of the Tower of Babel. It’s hard to imagine
him not being vexed grievously by what was happening in the
society of his descendants. His son, Shem, lived slightly over 500
years after the Flood and was still living during Abraham’s time.
Shem was the son specifically identified as a God-fearing man by
Noah when he prophesied concerning his sons after the Flood.
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem!” he declared in Genesis
9:26. Shem held on to the faith of his father, resisting the spiritual
decline that was spreading into the rest of Noah’s clan. He passed
on the fear of God and faith in God’s Promise to his descendants.
By the grace of God, the effort to pass on godliness to his
descendants bore fruit in at least some of Shem’s descendants.
There were others, no doubt, but specifically in the household of
Terah and especially in Terah’s son, Abram, a God-fearing family
is identified.

Even in the God-fearing family of Terah, however, the

influence of worldly ways had begun. Evidence is seen later on in
the possession of household gods by Laban, the grandson of
Abram’s brother, Nahor, and the brother of Rebekah who would

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become the wife of Abraham’s son, Isaac. Sadly, venerating
idols/household gods had begun to undermine allegiance to true
faith. At what point the world’s idolatry had made insidious
beginnings into the religion of Abram’s extended clan is difficult to
determine. Whenever it was, God knew it was critical not to let
idolatry continue to undermine godly faith. To build a society
dedicated to the true worship of God based on the true Word of
God, he could not allow any contact with the world’s idolatrous
ways to contaminate his plans to prepare the way for the second
Adam.

To protect Abram from such idolatrous influence, God

directed Abram to remove himself from his country, his people and
his father’s household and go to the land God would show him. It
appears when Abram informed his father of God’s command to
move, Terah approved. As head of the household, he apparently
felt he should take the lead and he took his son and daughter-in-
law and his grandson, Lot, and began the journey to Canaan.
However, without drawing any conclusions about Terah’s faith or
motives, we simply note the journey stalled when they settled for a
time in the land of Haran where Terah died. It was Abram God had
called.

Abram had not dismissed what God called him to do. He

remembered what God had promised and left for the land God would
show him. From the start God made it clear what he intended to
accomplish through Abram. Not only would he make Abram’s
descendants into a great nation, but he would also richly bless Abram
in the process. And, even more importantly, he would use the nation
of Abram’s descendants as a source of blessing for the whole world.
God told Abram,“I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and
make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who

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bless you, and I will curse anyone who dishonors you. All of the
families of the earth will be blessed in you” (Genesis 12:2-3). No
scholar of Scripture would deny the last phrase is a direct reference to
the Promise of the Savior. Frankly, it is the only possible
interpretation. What else could be a blessing given to every last
person who ever lives on this earth - past, present and future - than the
gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And Abram, who believed
in God’s Promise, knew it.

When Abram came to the land God showed him, God

appeared to him and said, “I will give this land to your
descendants” (Genesis 12:7). So, Abram built an altar there to
worship the Lord. As time went on and he and Sarah got older,
Abram became concerned about having a son through whom God’s
promises could be kept. He asked the Lord about it and God
assured him he would have a son who would be the heir of the
Promise. God told Abram to look at the stars and count them if
such a thing were possible, and said that is how many descendants
he would have. Though childless, Abram believed God. And as a
testimony to the doctrine of justification by faith, the Bible records,
“Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as
righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Then God established a covenant
with Abram to assure him God would keep his promises. Because
they were still childless, Abram agreed with Sarah’s plan to take
Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid, as his wife. Any child Hagar would bear
would be considered Sarah’s child. However, as is often the case
when man attempts to do things his own way rather than trusting
God, the birth of Ishmael ended up causing problems in the family
of Abram.

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 When Abram was ninety-nine years old and Ishmael was
thirteen, God appeared to Abram again to confirm their covenant.
God repeated the promise to give Abram many descendants who
would be given the land of Canaan as their home. At this time, God
changed Abram’s name to Abraham to indicate he would be the
father of many nations. Then God established the practice of
circumcision as a sign of his covenant with Abraham and his
descendants. This had great significance. The practice of
circumcision had been carried on for centuries among many tribes
and nations. Refer to chapter four for an explanation of its origin as
a way to remember God’s promise of Savior. Through the years,
however, the practice of circumcision had fallen into disuse by
many. Though it was still found in some cultures, even Terah and his
family had not continued the practice. But, now, the origin of a
nation was being put into place through whom the Promise of a
Savior would be kept. So, God chose the age-old practice of
circumcision as a sign of the covenant between himself and
Abraham’s descendants. Think about this. Circumcision was started
by those who believed in God’s promise of Savior. So, God used this
practice to become a seal of his covenant with the people through
whom the Promise of a Savior would be kept. Take note world. The
Savior God promised for the whole world would be born from this
nation. On the very same day Abraham and his son, Ishmael, and all
the males of his household were circumcised. A year later when
Abraham was one hundred years old, Sarah’s child, Isaac, was born
as God promised. The process of building a godly nation, founded
on the faith of a godly man, to put in place a godly society for
raising the God-man to fulfill God’s Promise had begun.

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 God commands the sacrifice of Isaac

With a project this big, preparations would take time. First,

God’s preparations called for developing the descendants of
Abraham into a great nation. Again, God focused his attention on
Abraham. He needed to be a strong man of faith to engender
unquestioning obedience to the faith, also, among his descendants.
The long-awaited child, Isaac, was loved dearly and held the most
prominent place in Abraham’s world. Would Abraham still put God
first in his life?

Would he still love God above all things, and obey God’s will at
all costs? Could he still be held up not only to his family, but also to
future generations as the standard bearer of God-fearing faith for all
who believed in God’s promises? God put Abraham to the test, not
to find out for himself for God knows all things, but to strengthen
Abraham in his faith. He directed Abraham to do the unthinkable; he
put his heart through the wringer to squeeze out every drop of
hesitancy to obey God’s will; he passed his soul through the fire to
burn out every challenger to God’s throne in his heart. God told
Abraham to sacrifice the son he loved to the Lord. It’s hard to

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imagine what went through Abraham’s mind and soul when God
commanded him to do such a thing. It’s not hard to imagine why
Abraham said nothing of his plans to Sarah. This was between him
and God. On the very next day, lest he get cold feet in delaying, he
set out for the place God told him. On the third day, he arrived at the
destination. He left the servants behind and began ascending the
mount with only Isaac with him. As they trudge upward, a simple,
understandable question from obedient Isaac pierces father
Abraham’s soul like an arrow. Listen to the exchange. “Isaac spoke
to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father?’ ‘He said, ‘I am here,
my son?’ ‘Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a
burnt offering’?” (Genesis 22:7). The arrow found its mark. What
would you say? With a quivering heart, Abraham gently answers,
“God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son”
(Genesis 22:8). They continue on and reach the place God had
described to Abraham. It was already difficult; now comes the hard
part.

Abraham builds the altar, arranges the wood, binds his son, Isaac,
and lays him on the wood. And when the moment comes to “pull the
trigger” he reaches out and takes the knife. And he who had
committed in his heart to do the unthinkable; he who had never
imagined, seen or heard of anyone in history ever coming back to life
again; he who knew this child was the one God promised would be
the bearer of the promise through whom not only many descendants
would come, but the very Savior of the world would be born, was
about to slash a knife across the throat of his own son. The final step
would be to burn his corpse to ashes on the altar as an offering to
God. He was ready to do so because he believed. He believed what
God promised. He believed that from those ashes God would raise his
son back to life again because God said, “But my covenant I will
establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear for you.…”(Genesis
17:21). And so, even though God intervened and furnished a ram in
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the bushes to be sacrificed instead, Abraham passed the test. The
author of Hebrews states it clearly.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac. This

man, who received the promises, was ready to offer his only
son, about whom it was said, “Through Isaac your
offspring will be traced.”He reasoned that God also had
the ability to raise him from the dead, and in a figurative
sense, Abraham did receive him back from the dead.
(Hebrews 11:17-19)

Isaac also passed the test of faith. Without any reference

whatsoever in Scripture to Isaac resisting, crying out, or trying to
break away and run, he humbly submitted to his father’s will.
Because of this, Christians for centuries have been able to point to
Isaac in this incident as a type of Christ. Abraham’s willingness to
offer up his own son whom he loved is a type of God the Father
who willingly offered up his own Son as a sacrifice for us, and
Isaac’s humble submission to his father’s will is a type of Christ
humbly submitting to his Father’s will to be sacrificed. This all
took place to strengthen the pillars upon which the foundation of
God’s plan to fulfill God’s promise of a Savior would be built.

The family grows

Isaac was married to Rebekah; Rebekah gave birth to twins;
God’s decree the elder would serve the younger meant Jacob and his
family would become heir to the Promise of a Savior over Esau;
weakness by Isaac and deception by Jacob caused strife; Esau was
enraged over Jacob’s trickery to receive the blessing. When his
murderous intentions to get even were leaked to Rebekah, another trip
to Haran was proposed, supposedly for matrimonial purposes, but
mostly to escape Esau’s wrath. Jacob left, got married, spent twenty
years in service to his father-in-law, Laban, and, by God’s blessing,
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became wealthy. A return trip to Canaan included a struggle with God
in prayer over the imminent danger of Esau’s approach with 400 men
and led to Jacob’s name being changed to Israel (one who struggles
with God). At a meeting with Esau the next day the rift between the
brothers was healed. On Jacob’s side - the one who carried the
promise - there were twelve sons and at least one daughter who was
named Dinah were born, to continue the building of a nation. But the
building of a nation to serve God’s purposes in loving obedience and
faith was still in its infancy. Dangers threatened the goal. If the family
continued to grow by intermarrying with the residents of Canaan, the
same age-old problem of mixing Godly faith with the ungodly ways
of the people around them would create issues. God’s purpose of
building a godly society based entirely on his Word and an
unflinching commitment to live in keeping with his will would be
greatly undermined. Laxity to what God said, tolerance of other
beliefs, indifference to God’s will, and a desire to be like other people
around them would have inevitably if not quickly, corrupted God’s
plan for developing a godly society in which the second Adam could
be raised.

God took the steps necessary to preserve the integrity of his

plans. Of the twelve sons of Jacob, Joseph was his father Jacob’s
favorite. Dreams by Joseph and jealousy by the brothers turned into
hatred and a determination to get rid of him. Possible murder was
thwarted by God when Joseph was sold into slavery to Ishmaelites
on a merchants’ traveling caravan to Egypt, and they in turn sold
Joseph to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. A lustful wife
and her scorned lies led to the servant, Joseph, being cast into
prison. More dreams, interpretations, and an impressed Pharaoh led
to the release of Joseph who was elevated by Pharaoh to second in
command of all Egypt. It was God’s doing, of course, as were the
years of plenty and years of famine which followed as God foretold,
all of which led to Joseph’s tearful reunion with his brothers, and
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Jacob and the rest of the clan moving down to Egypt to live out the
famine. They stayed four hundred years.

At first things went well for Jacob’s clan in Egypt. The danger
of intermarriage with the Egyptians and undermining God’s plans
with laxity towards God’s ways was trumped by Egyptian social
norms. Racial bias and an aversion to having anything to do with
sheep herding foreigners kept Egyptians from mingling with the
Israelites. So, the descendants of Jacob (now also called Israel)
prospered and did well among themselves living in the land of
Goshen. They prospered so well and became so numerous a new
Pharaoh in Egypt was concerned about their presence in the land.
He feared an imagined danger of what would happen if an invasion
of Egypt occurred, and the children of Israel sided in battle with
the foreigners. So, he changed government policy, as new regimes
are wont to do, and made all the Israelites slaves. It was part of
God’s plan. Who would ever want to move back to Canaan en
masse after a couple hundred years of getting their roots down and
prospering where they lived in Egypt? So, they became slaves and
the slavery became increasingly harsh and unbearable, and the
Israelites prayed. And it got worse. Ethnic cleansing was initiated
by the Pharaoh’s command to kill all the newborn male babies of
Israel by throwing them into the Nile River, and the Israelites
prayed.

God answered their prayers and started the process of

returning his people to Canaan with the birth of a boy who came to
be named Moses. God blessed the plan of Moses’ mother to save
her child and he was spared. Pharaoh’s own daughter found the
baby Moses in a basket among reeds along the bank of the Nile
and had compassion on him. Unbeknown to Pharaoh’s daughter, it
was Moses’ own mother who was hired to nurse him and after he
had grown older Moses was taken to Pharaoh’s daughter to be

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raised in the royal family. Recognize this Bible story for what it is.
It is part of God’s big picture of preparing the way for the second
Adam. It was not just a baby who was happily spared from death.
It was the child God in his eternal planning would call to lead his
people. In his infancy and young childhood Moses learned to know
the true God of Israel and the promises God had made to the
descendants of Abraham. Think, here, of how important it is and
engrained it becomes when parents raise their children in the fear
of the Lord and give them an understanding of God’s ways and
promises. In Moses’ case, he was then taken to Pharaoh’s daughter
and learned the ways of the Egyptians and the protocol of royal
authority as it was practiced in the palace of Pharaoh’s family.

Moses becoming an adopted member of the royal family was

part of God’s plan. As an adult his God-fearing upbringing bore
fruit, and he remained faithful to what he had learned about God.
He identified with his own people rather than enjoying the benefits
of being part of the royal family of Egypt. At the age of 40, he tried
to help the Israelites by intervening when an Egyptian taskmaster
was oppressing one of the slaves, but his lethal dispatching of the
cruel taskmaster backfired, and he had to flee for his life. The
Bible describes Moses’ life during this time with these words:

By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s

daughter when he grew up. He chose to be mistreated with
God’s people rather than enjoy sin for a little while. He
considered disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater wealth
than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead
to his reward. By faith he left Egypt without fearing the
king’s wrath, because he persevered as one who sees him
who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:24-27)

Moses fled to the wilderness, ended up getting married, tended

sheep for his father-in-law, Jethro, and for forty years learned
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about the way of life in the wilderness. This, also, was part of
God’s plan, preparing Moses for the time when he would lead
Israel through the wilderness. It was part of God’s bigger plan to
raise up the nation of Israel as his people and keep his promises to
Abraham. This, in turn, was part of God’s big picture plan which is
the point of this whole chapter – that is, preparing the way for the
second Adam so that God could keep his promise of a Savior.
God’s ultimate goal was waiting at the end - to restore a blessed
life for people with him as he had with Adam and Eve at the
beginning.

The time came to return to Egypt to deliver God’s people from

slavery and lead them back to the land of promise in Canaan. So,
Moses left with his wife, Zipporah, and sons, and began the
journey. On the way, however, a perplexing incident takes place.
The Bible says, “At a lodging place along the way, the Lord
confronted him (Moses) and sought to kill him” (Exodus 4:24).
The brief three-verse reference of what happened at this lodging
place and why was discussed in chapter four. It is referred to again
here because of its significance as part of the preparations God was
making to develop the nation from whom the promised Savior
would come. What happened was Moses had failed to circumcise
one of his sons as God commanded, apparently because of his wife
Zipporah’s objection. At issue was obedience to God’s will. God’s
will is serious; his Word is the last word; his will is to be followed
no matter how much human reason doesn’t understand or agree
with it. This is true for all God’s people, but it is especially vital for
the leaders of God’s people. “If the leader doesn’t believe it’s
important, or do what God says, why should we?” This was an
important time in the history of God’s Old Testament people. The
descendants of Jacob had grown into a nation identified hereafter
for centuries as the children of Israel. Moses was being sent to lead

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them from slavery back to the land God promised to Abraham’s
descendants. Their existence as a nation was to be the worker
training school for the one who would keep God’s Promise. Their
identity as a nation was tied to the covenant God made with
Abraham to be his people. Circumcision was the sign of that
covenant. The nation of Israel was not only to remember
themselves but also to send the message to other nations: The
descendant of the woman whose blood would be shed to keep
God’s promise of a Savior would come from this nation. Look for
it. Believe it. That’s what the practice of circumcision was all
about. It was IMPORTANT to God that truth be remembered and
proclaimed. If Moses wasn’t ready to obey God’s will, God would
find someone who would. Point made.

There is need for a side comment about this unusual event in

Moses' life. Living in the New Testament age, Christians, do NOT
have to abide by the Old Covenant law of practicing circumcision.
The Promise which it was intended to remind us of has been kept.
The descendant of the woman came. The Savior was born and
crushed Satan’s power with his blood. To commandeer Zipporah’s
words for a higher meaning, he has become a bridegroom of blood
to us. Now we have a new covenant to live under. It is the new
covenant of Jesus’ blood poured out for many for the forgiveness
of sins. It reminds us the Promise uttered in the Garden to send a
Savior has been fulfilled. It is his body and blood given to us to eat
and drink in the meal that he instituted for us to remember him.
And by remembering him, we remember God’s promise of
forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation we have through him. The
provisions of the Old Covenant have been fulfilled. We live under
the new covenant.

Moses arrived in Egypt and, with his brother Aaron’s

assistance, began to do as God commanded him. Ten plagues,
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culminating in the death of first-born males throughout Egypt, and
the observance of the Passover which spared the first-born males
among the Israelites, brought everything to a head. Finally, Pharaoh
relented and allowed the people of Israel to leave the land and go
into the desert to worship their God. However, the Lord hardened
Pharaoh’s heart once again. Pharaoh changed his mind and ordered
the chariots and army of Egypt to pursue Israel. Trapped between
the sea and the chariots of Pharaoh, all seemed lost and the Israelites
cried out in despair. God’s deliverance was astounding and of epic
proportions. The crossing of the Red Sea is the stuff movies are
made of. After the waves came crashing back down engulfing the
Egyptians in defeat and death, the Israelites were safe. Moses led
them in the praise of God and then led them to the mount of God in
the wilderness, Mt. Sinai, where God directed them to encamp. It
was here God would start making specific, detailed, intensive
preparations to govern the Israelites as his people. His goal was to
lay the foundation and build a nation (society of people) which
would be a suitable birthplace for the descendant of the woman. It
was to be a society where worldly wisdom, morality and priorities
were not the accepted norm, which would have a bad influence on
his upbringing. In this nation the Word of God ruled and the second
Adam could be raised appropriately to keep God’s promise of a
Savior.

To accomplish this goal, God confirmed the covenant he made

with Abraham by establishing another covenant with his people on
Mt Sinai. Hence, it is called the Sinaitic Covenant or, by way of
content, the Covenant of the Law. Although this law comprised one
total and complete framework, Christians find it useful to divide
the law God gave to Moses through angels on Mt. Sinai into three
categories: The moral law, the civil law, and the ceremonial law.

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 The Covenant of the law

The moral law is the most important part of God’s law. It is the
only part of God’s law which is universal, unequivocal, and
unchanging – applying to all people of all time. It is the law written in
peoples’ hearts from birth and testified to by one’s conscience. It is
sometimes called the natural law because it has been part of every
person’s nature from the beginning. It is a declaration of God’s good
and loving will which makes clear what is right and wrong in God’s
sight. It was given to help people know what is needed to maintain a
good and loving relationship with God and with fellow human beings.
Jesus summarized this aspect of God’s law when he was asked by a
Pharisee which was the greatest commandment of the law. He
answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment”(Matthew 22:37-38). This summary is called the first
table of the law which governs man’s relationship with God. “The
second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew22:39).
The second table of the law governs our relationship with other
people. Jesus concluded his answer with the telling remark, “All the
Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments”
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(Matthew 22:40). The Apostle Paul underscored this important
summary of God’s law when he listed several commandments and
then added, (and if there is any other commandment)—are summed
]

up in this statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”Love does no

harm to a neighbor, so love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans
13:9-10). An important thing to keep in mind when striving to keep
the commandments is love equals law, and law equals love. In other
words, showing true, selfless love for another person -in whatever
circumstance – only happens when the law of God is kept. Or to state
the correlation from the opposite perspective, in any situation when a
person keeps God’s law, he is doing the loving thing for his fellow
man.

Unfortunately, after the fall into sin it has become impossible

to keep God’s moral law perfectly.“Just as it is written: ‘There is
no one who is righteous, not even one’…” (Romans 3:10). Since
that is the case, we recognize the main purpose of the moral law
has changed. Now, it best serves our need by showing us our
failure to keep God’s law perfectly. This means we have failed to
maintain a perfect, loving relationship with God. That is, the law
shows our sin. Paul states it clearly, “For this reason, no one will
be declared righteous in his sight by works of the law; rather, for
through the law we become aware of sin” (Romans 3:20). The
intended result of this change is to make us feel guilty. It is to
make us despair of any hope that we can get back into God’s good
graces by trying to keep the law. We realize we need help—we
need a Savior.

The moral law given to God’s people at Mt. Sinai was not the
first time God gave his law to people. As stated in the previous
paragraph, God placed his holy will into peoples’ hearts from the
beginning of creation. However, Adam and Eve had not become
confirmed in their commitment to keeping God’s law through

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years of experience and seeing the blessings that resulted. As a
result, they did not abide by it, though they still knew what they
did was wrong. And once they fell into sin their attitude toward
God and a clear understanding of his will fell also. Now, they
feared God as a punishing God, they tried to hide from God, they
made excuses for their sin. The effects of sin showed itself
immediately in a cloudy, distorted view of what God is like and
what his will is. As the years went by Adam and Eve’s descendants
fell away from God in increasing measure. Their knowledge of and
willingness to follow God’s will kept getting worse. Loveless
behavior, selfishness and violence overran the world as people
more and more didn’t understand, didn’t care and ignored God’s
will. They wanted nothing to do with God’s will ruling over them
and it showed. It led to the Flood, but soon after the Flood it was
no better when Noah’s clan tried to defy God’s will at the Tower of
Babel. In a sense, we could say God “resigned” himself to the
reality that man’s sinful nature constantly rebels against his good
will. He declared after the Flood, “I will never again curse the soil
because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from
his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I
have done” (Genesis 8:21).

As he made preparations for the descendant of the woman to

keep the Promise he made in the Garden, God addressed the reality
his will was no longer clearly understood and followed. His will
was still in peoples’ hearts, but it was tarnished by sin.

In fact, whenever Gentiles, who do not have the law (i.e., the
moral given at Mt. Sinai), do by nature what the law requires
– even though they do not have the law – they are a law for
themselves. They demonstrate the work of the law that is
written in their hearts, since their conscience also bears

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 witness as their thoughts go back and forth, at times
accusing or at times even defending them. (Romans 2:14-15)

So, people are without excuse when they sin against God’s
will. But man’s track record of confusing and abusing God’s will
was too great to ignore. To build a society from the descendants of
Abraham where there would be no misunderstanding his will, God
determined his will needed to be written down– in tablets of stone
no less.

The written law of God in his Word benefits all people. God’s
holy will applies to all people as God’s unchangeable moral law
for all time. So, God repeated his moral law, summarized at Mt.
Sinai by the 10 Commandments. In the New Testament, through
the teaching of Jesus and the apostles, God expounded on it,
explained it and made it clear keeping God’s law is more than mere
compliance in an outward way by simply doing what God
demands. God’s will came from his heart and doing God’s will
must come from man’s heart, also, not just his hands. Our attitude,
will and desires are to be in compliance with God’s will, not just
our words and actions.

God’s will applies to all people of all time. Nevertheless, his

written law was given only to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. It
started with them; they were to be a beacon to the world of what it
means to live in keeping with God’s will. The descendants of
Abraham had the written Word given to them; they would be the
first ones to benefit from knowing God’s will and having the
blessings which come from living in keeping with God’s will. It
wasn’t because God cared about them more than other people. It
was because God wanted to use them to become a source of
blessing for all people. That’s what he promised to Abraham. As
Abraham’s descendants, the people of Israel would be richly
blessed by having God’s written will be given to them. But more
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importantly - most definitely more importantly – they received the
written Word of God because one of those descendants would
become the source of blessing for all people. This descendant of
the woman, more than anyone else, needed to have the will of
God spelled out clearly. There could be no confusion, no
misunderstanding, no lack of clarity or direction concerning what
he must do to live in keeping with God’s law. And, we must add,
what he would need to do to fulfill all of God’s prophecies. He
would have to learn God’s will completely and fulfill it perfectly in
order to become the second Adam. Only then could he save us
from the first Adam’s failure to live in keeping with God’s will.
This was God’s top priority for giving his law in written form at
Mt. Sinai. He was doing everything necessary for the descendant
of the woman to know about God’s will in order tofulfill God’s
Promise.

The moral law given at Mt. Sinai still applies to all people of all
time. The civil and ceremonial laws do not. They were, however, still
an important expression of God’s will. They were given to a specific
people, for a specific time, so they could carry out their role in
preparing the way for the second Adam to carry out his role. As
Christians we rejoice that Jesus so fulfilled God’s law he kept all
aspects of the Sinaitic covenant perfectly. That is, he kept all the civil
and ceremonial laws in addition to the moral law, even though in the
New Testament the civil and ceremonial laws of the Old Testament no
longer apply to us. Jesus was the man of his time, the perfect Israelite.

As the name indicates, the civil law was the body of statutes
which governed civil life, the earthly affairs of God’s people. The
ceremonial law consists of the rites, ceremonies, and festivals which
governed the religious life of the descendants of Abraham. The
distinction made between civil law and ceremonial law is arbitrary.
The Bible does not establish those categories or list which decrees of

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God fit into each category. Even the moral law is not identified per se
as its own category. As stated in a previous paragraph, the content of
the moral law reflects what was written on the heart of man from
creation and testified to by man’s conscience. The fact it was repeated
and expounded upon by Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament
conclusively identifies it as the law which applies to all people of all
time. The civil and ceremonial laws, however, only applied to the
people of Israel. A few examples of civil law can be seen Exodus 20 –
23. They include such things as how to treat servants, how to deal
with personal injuries, protection of property and social issues such as
how to treat aliens, widows and orphans and money matters. Other
civil laws given by God through Moses are recorded elsewhere in
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Easy examples which
come to mind are the law establishing cities of refuge which protected
a person who accidentally killed someone from the avenger of blood
taking justice against him without trial (Numbers 35:6, 9-15 and
Deuteronomy 19:1-10) and the law of showing yourself to the priest
to have him verify you had been cured of leprosy (Leviticus 14:2,
Deuteronomy 24:8 and Luke 17:11-19). Another example is the Law
of the Levirate which directed the brother of a man who died childless
to marry his widow. The first son born to them was then to be raised
as the son of the deceased brother to carry on his name in Israel
(Deuteronomy 25:5-10). This law, however, should not be construed
as in conflict with Leviticus 20:21, but as a special circumstance to
preserve a family line. Confer the story of the kinsman redeemer in
Ruth 1:11-13 and chapters 3 and 4.

The civil law governed the earthly affairs of God’s people. In

essence, God was the law. At first, God ruled the earthly affairs of
his people directly by decreeing his decisions for their everyday
lives. For special needs, or decisions, he would speak through
Moses, and after Moses one of his successors, Joshua, succeeded
Moses in guiding God’s people. After Joshua God raised up a series
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of judges to meet the needs of the time. We call this direct rule by
God the time of the Theocracy – God’s direct power/rule of his
people – and lasted about 300 years. After the period of the judges
when Samuel spoke for God, the people of Israel wanted a king to
rule over them. God condescended to their desire and had Samuel
anoint Saul to be their first king. Why would the people want a king
to rule over them instead of the voice of God speaking directly to
them through his spokesmen? The answer lies in man’s human,
sinful nature. They wanted to be like other nations. They wanted the
glory and prestige of having their own king. They wanted someone
who would be visible and had the importance of royalty they could
point to, and count on to interact for them with other nations. They
wanted someone they could see and hear on a regular basis, perhaps
even influence, not just an unseen, far away God who only spoke
when he felt like it on “rare” occasions.

Why would God relent and give the people of Israel their own
earthly king? A sinful human being could never rule over them as
wisely and well as God did directly. The answer lies in the eternal
wisdom and foreknowledge of a gracious God. One is tempted to
say it was because he was tired of all their grumbling and
complaining. During the time of the judges, they repeatedly would
not follow his ways anyway. But God has always been a long-
suffering God who deals with people with patience and mercy.
Perhaps, it was because his civil laws were all in place, and at any
time he could send a prophet or spokesman to the king to declare his
will and provide encouragement. Perhaps, it was because he had
already used men to lead his people and make decisions – men like
Moses, Joshua and the judges. God has always been willing to use
people, sinners though we are, to accomplish his will. Finding
people who were men after his own heart and involving them in the
rule of his kingdom, would be a blessing to his people. Perhaps, it
was a combination of these things, and/or other reasons. But, in the
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final analysis, God was still in charge. He would accomplish his
purposes; he would be the one who would ensure everything
necessary would be done to prepare the way for the descendant of
the woman to be born.

To accomplish his purpose of preparing the way for the second

Adam to keep his promise, God also gave his people the ceremonial
law. We have already stated a sharp dividing line between civil and
ceremonial law is not provided by God. We would do ourselves a
favor by envisioning it as a broader gray line more like a buffer or
transitional line between the two. Sometimes the content of what God
decreed might seem to us to be civil law, such as health issues and
regulations on how to deal with mildew. Yet, at the same time they
can be seen as having ceremonial law implications because the
services of priests are involved, and the matter of being ceremonially
clean or unclean is a factor. In fact, we should point out again many
moral law stipulations are at the bottom of civil and ceremonial
decrees. For example, the extensive list of sexual prohibitions in
Leviticus 18 is clearly based on the moral code of the sixth
commandment, and civil punishments decreed for sexual sins are
given in Leviticus 20. The civil regulations of how to deal with
servants, personal injuries, and property issues in Exodus 21 and 22
are based on the moral premises of the fifth and seventh
commandments given in Exodus20. The distinction between God’s
moral law and the civil and ceremonial law is important to keep in
mind; however, when we remember the moral law applies to all
people of all time, but the civil and ceremonial laws apply only to the
people of Israel before the time of Christ.

This brings us to the ceremonial law of Israel. These are the

regulations governing the ceremonies of Israel’s spiritual and worship
life – i.e. their relationship with God as opposed to their relationships
with each other. They include festivals, purification rites, observances,

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tithing, and the many types of sacrifices the people of Israel were
directed to offer. Two well-known and important examples of
ceremonial laws are the Day of Atonement (See Leviticus 16) and the
Passover (See Exodus 12 and portions of 13). However, it is not the
intent of these comments to elaborate at length on the various types of
ceremonial laws the people of Israel were directed to observe and the
purpose/spiritual message these ceremonial laws were intended to
convey. That would be a lengthy – and worthy – study in itself. (There
will be a discussion on the Passover in chapter seven.) For our
purposes, here, it is sufficient to note that ceremonial laws, in general,
had three main purposes. First, they were intended to serve as
remembrances to remind people of the great things God had done for
them in the past and to help them stay committed to following him as a
gracious and loving God who would care for them in the future
(festivals).

Second, they were to serve as practical helps to keep the people

focused on their need to stay in close fellowship with God in humble
obedience and repentance (clean and unclean, purification rites,
observances). Third, and just as importantly, they were designed – in
some cases with daily repetition – to communicate the reality of sin
and the consequence of death it imposes on our lives, as well as the
promised Savior from sin who would be sacrificed as the atonement
for sin in our place (sacrifices).

Messianic prophecies
As important as the written law of God was (moral, civil, and
ceremonial), the prophecies of God were even more so. The
prophecies of God varied in content from warnings against sin and
impenitence to pronouncements of coming judgment on Israel
and other nations for their wickedness to promises of God’s
deliverance and blessings for his people. Of greatest importance in

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the promises of judgment, blessing and deliverance were the
Messianic prophecies. These were the prophecies which spoke of
some aspect of the coming Messiah –the one whom God would
anoint – to fulfill his Promise that a descendant of the woman
would save his people from their sin and restore a blessed life with
God as it was in the beginning. These prophecies took different
forms. Some used imagery or comparisons to communicate some
aspect of the coming Messiah or his work (Isaiah 40:11 – like a
shepherd); some spoke directly and specifically about the Messiah
and his work (Zechariah 9:9 – riding on a colt); some used visions
(Daniel 7:13-14 – the son of man). Many prophecies had a dual
meaning. One fulfillment would be in the near future (or had
happened in the past) and by God’s intention a second fulfillment
of the prophecy would take place in the distant future by the person
or work of the Messiah (example: Hosea 11:1 – out of Egypt).
Some of the prophecies spoke about the person of the coming
Savior (Isaiah 9:6 – a child is born), some about his rule as our
King (Isaiah 9:6-7), some about his offices (Psalm 110:4 – Priest,
Deuteronomy 18:17 – Prophet, 2 Samuel 7:16 – King), others
revealed something about the time the Savior would come
(Genesis 49:10 – scepter will not depart from Judah until the
promised one comes), places (Micah 5:2 – born in Bethlehem) and
conditions (Forerunner to prepare his way (Malachi 3:1). All such
prophecies would help identify the Messiah when he came. We are
compelled to identify, also, the great Messianic prophecy of the
Lord’s suffering servant as our substitute in Isaiah 52:13–53:12.
Written 700 years before it happened, it is one of the clearest
gospel presentations recorded in Scripture of how God would
fulfill his Promise of a Savior. There are hundreds of Old
Testament passages which in some way speak of the coming
Savior who would come to fulfill God’s Promise.

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 The number of Messianic prophecies identified in the Old
Testament will vary according to the viewpoint of the interpreter.
Those who see the Old Testament mostly as a history of ancient
times and the rise of the people of Israel as God’s people will see
less Messianic references. Those who view the Old Testament as
the inspired record of how God worked in history and raised up the
nation of Israel in order to prepare for the fulfillment of his
Promise will see more, often many more. To the eye of faith, it
seems there are Messianic references which are direct and indirect,
clear and veiled, bright and prominent and less bright and harder to
see, sprinkled abundantly throughout all the pages of the Old
Testament. Like an ever-present beam of hope, they shine upon the
believer’s heart with the radiance and beauty of God’s gracious
hand, painting the awe-inspiring picture of salvation for the eyes of
faith to behold. All the Messianic prophecies and references to the
Messiah’s person and work serve in their own way as individual
pieces to a giant puzzle. Each piece has its own cut, coloring, and
part of the big picture painted on it. By themselves, they may seem
hard to make sense of or figure out where they go. But once they
are all assembled, the full picture is complete, and the individual
pieces make perfect sense in relation to each other. The
masterpiece is a marvel to look at and inspires faith. Jesus himself
would sum all this up when he spoke to unbelieving Jews, “You
search the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in
them. They testify about me!” (John 5:39). And Jesus again used
the Old Testament to reassure two Easter disciples. “Then
beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them
what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke
24:27). Like the New Testament works of Jesus, so also the Old
Testament prophecies of his coming are written for one purpose.
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name” (John 20:31).
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 Intended blessings of the Law and the Prophets
It would be helpful at this point to remind ourselves of the
emphasis of this chapter. It is to contemplate everything God did to
prepare the way for the second Adam to come to this world and
fulfill God’s Promise of a Savior. And he would be the Savior for
all people of the world. It is true the Old Testament Scriptures were
an unfathomably great gift to the people of Israel. All the law
decreed in written form was a blessing given, first of all, to them.
All the sacrifices, festivals, and rites they were to observe
according to the ceremonial law served to guide them, rebuke them
as needed, and remind them of the great things God had done for
them. They were also to point them to the even greater spiritual
blessing of life God would give them by the one who would be
born from their midst as the glory of his people, Israel. It was the
same thing with the civil laws, even more so with the prophecies.
All the warnings of impending defeat and disasters if they turned
away from him; all the promises of deliverance for those who
would return to him; all the prophecies of what the coming Savior
would do to save them from their sins and enable them to
“tabernacle” with him as their God forever, were given to bless
them as his people. Clear, forceful, and loving are the warnings
and curses that would befall them if they turned from his ways, and
the promises of blessing if they followed his ways in faith. They
were his people. God wanted them to enjoy his blessings in
perpetuity by believing him and staying in loving fellowship with
him as his people.

Nevertheless, we are doing a disservice to God and his plan of

salvation by focusing only on God’s favor upon Israel. God wants
his favor to be enjoyed by all people of every “tribe, nation, and
people” throughout the world. And for that reason, we can say
God’s purpose in choosing Israel as his people and giving them the

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law and the prophets had a greater goal in mind than just showing
favor to the descendants of Abraham. The greater goal was to show
favor to all nations by protecting the Promise. To put it another
way, God’s purpose was to keep allegiance to the Promise pure. He
did not want knowledge of the Promise minimized, questioned,
ignored and eventually forgotten in any way. To reflect on this
point from the perspective of interaction with other nations, God
did not want contact with the customs and religious rituals of other
nations to adulterate Israel’s faithfulness to his way – the way of
the Promise. To look down on this point from above – God’s point
of view – God knew how critical it was to keep his plan to fulfill
the Promise intact so that it wouldn’t be ruined by the ways of the
world. There could be no confusion, no misunderstanding, no lack
of clarity or direction concerning what the descendant of the
woman must do to live in keeping with God’s law. Bottom line:
God knew the second Adam would have to grow up learning
clearly, understanding fully, and committed entirely to following
his way, the only way possible for fulfilling the Promise of
salvation and restoring a blessed life intended for all people. God
raised up Israel both to maintain the ancestral integrity of the line
of the Savior (think of the genealogies in Matthew and Luke) and
to provide not just believing parents, but an entire culture of
faith grounded firmly on his Word. They were to provide the
educational and cultural setting for a God-fearing upbringing of the
one who would fulfill his Promise. We will see in chapter seven,
The Performance, how Jesus proved his Father right with his
humble obedience to what he learned was his Father’s will.

So, it was for the sake of the second Adam, even more than for
the sake of the wellbeing of his people, that God governed Israel
with his laws the way he did. Yes, it was a blessing to Israel to
provide them with the written code of the moral law so they
might see clearly his holy, unchangeable will. By that law the
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descendants of Abraham would see what blessings resulted when
people strive to keep God’s commandments, as well as the
wretched, unavoidable consequences for failing to do so. Then he
gave them the civil and ceremonial laws so they might remember
his blessings to them and be protected from losing his blessing if
they forgot God’s ways. The goal for Israel was for them to look
forward in faith to the fulfillment of his Promise of deliverance
from sin and death. But, finally, here’s the big picture. The
foremost reason God did all this was to use his people to teach the
descendant of the woman the truth about his Promise so he (the
second Adam) could fulfill the Promise as God wanted. He was the
one who would make deliverance from sin and death a reality and
restore a blessed life with God, not just for Israel but the whole
world.

God’s protection plan

One illustration from Seminary training will help underscore
the point. God worked hard to safeguard his people from the
spiritually corrupting influences of the heathen nations around them.
It is taught that God used the civil and ceremonial law to serve as a
hedge around his people. This spiritual hedge was designed not so
much to keep invading predators from neighboring nations from
getting in to harm his people spiritually. Rather, the more important
security feature was to restrict his people from getting out of their
protected environment in God’s camp. God did not want them to
wander out into the territory of the wolves and lions which posed a
threat to their spiritual safety. Coming into contact with heathen
ways would put their allegiance to God’s ways (and God’s plans to
use Israel) in jeopardy. To underscore this danger, think of all the
restrictions God put on Israel’s contact with Gentile people. The
laws which governed their relationship with other nations were to

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protect them from interaction with other people which would
threaten to undermine their relationship with the one true God. They
were not to worship the gods of the Gentiles (with the Gentiles or
like the Gentiles did); to do so was punishable by death. They were
not to go into the homes of Gentiles and socialize with them; to do
so would make them unclean. They were not to intermarry with the
Gentiles around them; to do so would introduce unbelieving heathen
customs and beliefs into their homes and undermine/weaken/
compromise commitment to God’s truths in their families. It was
exactly this intermarriage between believers and unbelievers that
resulted in the global destruction of the Flood.

This puts into context the shocking decree issued during the
time of Malachi to the remnant, which returned to Jerusalem after
the exile in Babylon. In the second half of chapter two, God
rebukes the people of Judah for marrying foreign wives, “Judah is
married to the daughter of a foreign god…” (Malachi 2:11). Then
he talks about how many of them had broken faith with the
marriage partner of their youth by divorcing their first Israelite
wives. God culminates his rebuke by having Malachi write, “He
hates divorce! That is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says. He
hates it when a person wears violence as a garment. That is what
the LORD of Armies says. So, guard yourselves in your spirit, and
do not be unfaithful (i.e. to your wife)” Malachi 2:16. This problem
of marrying foreign wives is reported at length in Ezra, chapters
nine and ten. It is clear the people realized how greatly that had
disobeyed God’s will (Ezra 9:2, 12) and needed to resolve this
intermarriage issue in a way pleasing to God. The final proposal
which was carried out: divorce. Those who had married foreign
wives were to divorce them and send them and the children they
had together back to the towns and homes from which they came.

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 It took time to identify all those who were guilty of
intermarriage and implement this decision in an orderly way. But, it
was done and with God’s approval. In the New Testament, God does
not permit a person to end a marriage because his or her spouse is an
unbeliever (Cf. 1 Peter3:1). If the unbeliever departs (deserts) is
another matter. Why would God not object to such a mass divorce
decree at the time of the remnant returning to Jerusalem? Malachi
explains that God hated the way his people had divorced their wives
to marry foreigners. The Lord had made them one as husband and
wife who belonged to him.“And why one? He is seeking offspring
from God. (that is, godly children)”(Malachi 2:15a). In Israel, both
husband and wife born into a God-fearing society and raised to
know God’s Word and promises would be expected to be believers.
Through two godly people, united into one by marriage, God is able
more readily to bring forth children who would also be godly
because they were raised in a God-fearing household and had the
faith passed on to them. Malachi concludes God’s intent for God-
fearing marriages to bring forth more believing children into the
world by saying in the last half of the verse, “…So guard yourselves
in your spirit, and do not act unfaithfully against the wife you
married when you were young” (Malachi 2:15b). Meaning: Be
mindful of this spiritual blessing/purpose to have God-fearing
children when you marry. Do not thoughtlessly become unfaithful to
your marriage vows with unscriptural divorces.

It is worth including an application for today on this subject of

Christian couples having children. It is still true that God-fearing
couples who take their faith seriously and make a sincere effort to
raise their children in the knowledge of the Lord are the main
contributors to more souls being added to God’s kingdom. It is the
main reason God is long suffering and patient with this evil world
even as it increases in godlessness and wickedness in the last days.

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As long as God’s discerning eye concludes souls are still being
added to the number of his elect, it is worth it to continue this
sinful world’s existence.

God’s discipline – capital punishment

There is another thought worth reflecting on when considering
the way God raised up the descendants of Abraham to be his people.
It is not unusual for people living in the New Testament age to
sometimes cringe at the strictness of God in governing his people
and the seeming harshness of God’s discipline when they
transgressed his ways. In particular, we sometimes find ourselves
wondering why there was a need for decreeing the death penalty so
frequently, even sometimes for what seems to us to be the smallest
of offenses. Think of some of those examples which cause people to
wonder. There was the man gathering wood on the Sabbath day in
violation of God’s command to not work on the Sabbath. It was not
sure what should be done for punishment, so they enquired of the
Lord and the Lord told Moses he must be put to death. The whole
assembly was to take him outside the camp and stone him – for
picking up sticks. See Numbers 15:32-36. The same thing was
decreed for Achan, the man who kept some of the devoted things to
the Lord when Jericho was conquered. No doubt, Achan thought it
would be a waste to destroy a beautiful Babylonian robe and the
considerable silver and gold shekels he saw, and he coveted them.
When he was found out, not only he, but his whole family were
taken outside the camp and stoned. And after they were stoned, they
and all Achan’s livestock and possessions were burned. Then the
Lord turned from his fierce anger. See Numbers, chapter 7. For an
assortment of different kinds of sexual sins: death; for rebelliously
disobeying and speaking against one’s parents: death; for being a
false prophet: death; for the man who tried to steady the Ark of the

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Covenant when the oxen pulling the cart stumbled: death. For
Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, for bringing unauthorized incense
burners before the Lord: death; for Aaron and his sons if they drank
wine before entering the Tabernacle (see Leviticus 10:8,9): death;
for the infant son born of David and Bathsheba’s adultery: death.
For the man of God sent from Bethel to prophesy against Jeroboam
for introducing idolatry in Israel recorded in 1 Kings 13. He did
everything God demanded of him, but believed the lie of a prophet
of God who told him God had said he could accept the invitation to
have a meal at his house. His punishment: death. For further
comment on the man of God see Addendum Two.

These and other examples of God’s punishments on those who

didn’t obey God’s commands seem harsh. They don’t seem to be
consistent with God’s compassion in the light of what God
revealed about himself when he said, “The Lord, the Lord, the
compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and overflowing
with mercy and truth, maintaining mercy for thousands, forgiving
guilt and rebellion and sin…”(Exodus 34:6-7). However, we need
to remember the purpose for which God raised Israel to be his
people in the Old Testament. We need to evaluate the actions of
God in matters such as this in the light of God’s underlying goal to
prepare the way for the second Adam. God governed the people of
Israel the way he did – including the strictness with which he
imposed death for many transgressions against his will – in order
to prepare as much as possible a God-fearing society committed to
taking his Word seriously and following his ways no matter what.
This was the society in which his Son was to become a true man.
As true man, he would humble himself and, for the most part, put
aside the use of his divine powers in order to carry out the work his
Father had given him. He would employ none of his omniscience
and power as God growing up as a child, and only ended up using
them on select occasions after his public ministry began. As a
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result, it would be the parents, relatives, and teachers he had and
the society he was raised in, which would provide the environment
for his up-bringing. That is where the groundwork for
understanding his calling was done. The training, education,
mindset, worldview, and commitment to do his heavenly Father’s
will would be implanted in him through these people and through
Israel’s earthly institutions. The monumental effort of fulfilling
God’s promise to save the world would rest on this foundation. It
would hardly be possible for him to clearly understand and be fully
committed to his calling if he was raised in a society which didn’t
take God’s words seriously and did not earnestly strive to live in
keeping with God’s will. Laxity in carrying out God’s will in
society and indifference for failure to do so would surely have
adversely affected how the people entrusted with raising the
descendant of the woman did their job. Even more so, it would
place great temptation on the second Adam himself. It would
become extremely difficult to take as seriously as he should the
need to keep every last letter of God’s law perfectly if no one else
taught or thought it necessary to do so. Humanly speaking, it
would seem practically impossible for him to willingly endure the
great suffering and death he would face without a clear
understanding of God’s justice decreeing death upon sinners for
not following his ways (and how he would be their substitute).

Israel’s rebelliousness
Stringent faithfulness in following God’s ways is why God
deemed it necessary to use the decree of death for sin – for not
following God’s ways – as often as he did. That lesson needed to
be totally understood by all. Even with that, however, we need to
recognize what a challenge it was for God to prepare the way for
the descendant of the woman to come. This is not the place to try

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to review all the history and rebellious ways of Old Testament
kings and the people who followed them into idolatry. Nor was it
just outward idolatry which was the issue, but all the godless,
sinful ways and attitudes which follow when faithfulness to God’s
ways is abandoned. Suffice it to say, the sinful ways of Israel made
God’s plan to use them as a nation to prepare the way for the
second Adam exceptionally difficult.

Envision God’s plans to construct Israel as a nation to be the

training ground for the second Adam as so many blueprints. There
were drawings for the rooms of blessings and mercies he would
store up to give to them as needed. There was the schematic for how
he would deliver his truth to them through the messages of the
prophets and the inspired Scriptures. On another blueprint is
carefully sketched in detail all the festivals, feasts, and sacrifices he
would use to remind them of blessings past and the Promise of great
blessing to come. There was a template for giving different kinds of
victories and deliverance to his people when oppressed by their
enemies. Another area was the counsel room for kings to use to rule
their people wisely and lead them in their allegiance to the true God.
But wait, look, take a closer look at these drawings. Many of them
are ripped and torn through careless mishandling by the builders.
Some of them are barely legible as if they were being crumbled up
to start fires or wrapped up and used to pummel pests. Others have
directions scratched out and different procedures to be followed
written in instead. Still others are stuffed away in a closet gathering
dust, deemed unimportant and unnecessary by the builders who
decided to do things the way they wanted. Whoa, this is not what
God intended. This is not the way to construct a nation set apart for
God. This is not turning out to be the intended culture and society
God wanted to use as a home for the proper upbringing of the one
who was to keep the Promise. In spite of Israel’s constant rebellion,
apostasy, and wickedness, however, God stayed on schedule. He
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continually had to revise, redraft, tear down, start again, and scold
the builders for being indifferent, trying to cut corners and make
change orders, which God did not approve. They surely didn’t see
the big picture of what the end result was to be at all; or didn’t agree
with what God was trying to accomplish. They wanted the building
to be what they thought it should be. Inept builders, just imagine the
difficulty God faced working with reluctant, foot-dragging,
decision-questioning, heart not in it, rebellious, spiritually
adulterous, unfaithful people so desirous of being like everyone else.

God was still the Project Manager, however, and in his

omniscience and omnipotence was completely in charge of what
needed to be done. Even though Israel was “a tool,” a bent, weak,
dirt-covered, hard-to-manage tool, God still used this nation to carry
out his plans to build a society in which he could prepare the way for
the second Adam. God is still God who can do all things. He could
and would take the far less than ideal finished nation and make it
work for his purposes. His Word was still present; his Spirit was still
working; his Word would still accomplish what he pleases despite
man’s resistance. There were still godly people who looked for
redemption in Israel; there were still patient people who waited for the
Light to lighten the Gentiles. There were still God-fearing people who
would believe the miracle, give birth to, help raise, prepare the way
for, and follow the one who would come to crush Satan’s head and
keep the Promise God had made in the Garden. In fact, the mess
Israel had made of God’s building project was itself used by God to
provide the material needed for Jesus’ passion.

World history
At the same time, God was keeping his preparations for the
coming of the second Adam on course through the sinful nation of
Israel; he was also exerting his almighty power to manage the

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course of world history. Using the minds and employing the
decisions of totally unregenerate hearts to accomplish his purposes
required every bit as much attention as did governing the ways of
his own people, Israel. But God was up to the task. Do not let your
eyes of faith glaze over with a lack of focus which fails to see how
greatly almighty God was actively working in the world to prepare
the way for the second Adam. After all, Satan was ever vigilant
constantly directing his subjects to fight against anything the evil
serpent thoughtcould be used to crush the second Adam’s head. It
was not a battle the almighty God could ignore as if it were no
threat to his kingdom. The old evil foe is a powerful enemy who
used lies, deceit, and every available resource at his disposal to
prevent God from keeping his Promise. He did everything he could
to disrupt God’s plans to prepare the way for the Promise Keeper.
The might of kings was marshaled against him (Pharaoh, Herod,
the kings of Persia in the book of Daniel and Esther, the Seleucids
and Rome itself), run-of-the-mill government officials were used
to cause problems (trans Jordan lackeys, Haman), the lowest of
servants could be used to distract from God’s ways (Gehazi, the
covetous servant of Elisha who lied for personal gain), the voices
of those who spoke for God were lured into Satan’s service
(Balaam, false prophets). The hindsight of faith, which looks at
history objectively, can identify how extensively God was working
in the world to bring his plans to fruition. The record of Scripture
identifies clearly how much God was in control of the might of
men to accomplish his purposes. “For the kingdom belongs to the
Lord, and he rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:28). “A king’s
heart is like streams of water in the hand of the Lord. He directs it
wherever he desires” (Proverbs 21:1). King Solomon prayed,
“LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God in heaven? You are
ruling over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power
and might. There is no one who can stand up against you” (2

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Chronicles 20:6). Read Isaiah 37:21-29; 33-35 and Psalm 2 in its
entirety. It has been often and well said history can best be defined
as His Story. For nothing happens without God’s prescription or
permission; and he uses whatever good or evil happens as he
deems would best serve the needs of his kingdom. It is a forceful
reminder indeed that “...all things work together for the good of
those who love God, for those who are called according to his
purpose” (Romans 8:28).

As active as God was in the world making preparations for his

Promise to be kept, we will content ourselves here with only a few
remarks. Bible scholars have frequently recognized the role God
played in history to have everything ready for the coming of the
second Adam. We begin by noting from the beginning – after the fall
into sin – man’s sinful nature showed itself in many ways, including
the oppression and killing of other people. The first example is Cain
killing his brother Abel because his heart was not right with God and
he was jealous of his brother, Abel (Genesis 4:1-17). One of Cain’s
descendants was a man by the name of Lamech who killed another
man for hurting him and bragged about it (Genesis 4:19-24). His
attitude showed how much people had turned away from the will of
God and were ready to kill and hurt other people to serve their own
sinful ways. The Bible puts it bluntly, “The LORD saw that the
wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the
thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every
day” (Genesis 6:5). And a few verses later, “In the sight of God the
earth was morally corrupt, and the earth was filled with
violence. God looked at the earth and saw that it was corrupt, for all
flesh was corrupt in all their ways on the earth” (Genesis 6:11-12).
The conditions on earth had become unbearable and led to God’s
decision to destroy the world with the Flood. Before we go on,
however, take a moment to reflect again on a point mentioned earlier
in this chapter. Ponder the magnitude of what took place in history.
God destroyed the wonderful world he had made as the home for
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mankind and it hurt. “The LORD regretted that he had made man on
the earth, and his heart was filled with sorrow”(Genesis 6:6). Not
only did the corruption of man’s sinful ways grieve God deeply, but
it pained him to have to demolish his magnificent creation, in which
everything he made was good, and start over. But the situation was
no longer viable for God to keep the Promise he made in the
Garden, and so he did what had to be done.
We make this point because after the Flood the condition of
man’s heart and his sinful ways didn’t change. It wasn’t long
before the God-fearing family of righteous Noah, who had been
preserved during the Flood in the ark, had sons and daughters who
began to turn away from God again. People defied God’s will and
were bent on doing what their own sinful wills desired just like
before the Flood. The Tower of Babel provides sad evidence. So
does Nimrod “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. That is
why the saying is “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the
LORD” (Genesis 10:9). A “warrior” doesn’t mean he hunted
animals; he hunted down, conquered, killed and enslaved people to
further his own sinful ambitions of power, control and wealth. And
“before the Lord” doesn’t mean God saw and approved. It means
Nimrod did it right in the face of God. God knew about it, but did
nothing to stop him. Here’s the point: God knew man’s sinful
nature would continue to rebel against him and do evil things. But
he would not again put an end to their evil with a world-wide
devastation. There would also be fruits of faith from God-fearing
believers like Noah for him to enjoy while he made preparations
for keeping the Promise. The Bible tells us,
The LORD smelled the pleasant aroma (of Noah’s sacrifice).
The LORD said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the
soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in
his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again
strike every living thing, as I have done’(Genesis 8:21).

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 So, God’s post Flood legacy to the world is a different way of
dealing with man’s sinful inclinations and doing harm to one
another. Now, God has determined not to intervene with drastic
measures of a worldwide judgment to control man’s wickedness
but only intervene on a lesser scale if/when he deems it necessary
to accomplish his purposes. Rest assured; God never condones
evil. But he will not normally keep people from being evil and
doing sinful things according to their own will. For that, he
reminds us, the final judgment awaits. Until then, for the most part,
God will not crush evil with his judgment now, but he will use
people, even in their wickedness, to accomplish things he can use
for the good of his kingdom. It is exactly in keeping with what the
Apostle Paul says in Romans, “We know that all things work
together for the good of those who love God, for those who are
called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

World powers

How did the post-Flood legacy of how God deals with the
wickedness of man affect the preparations God needed to make for
the coming of the second Adam? Successfully, we could say. It led
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to consistently positive results which, despite sinful man’s
intentions, served God’s purposes very well. Return to Nimrod’s
great warrior success of hunting down people with his men to
conquer and enslave people. How could this serve God’s purposes in
preparing the way for the descendant of the woman and be of use to
God? To simplify the point, we could say Nimrod’s success in
building a kingdom for himself after the Flood initiated the age of
empire-building. Territorial cities/states under the control of one
person grew into establishing larger entities of nations, and
eventually to the extent of empires being built. This selfish desire for
power and control over people was sinful, but not without God’s
control. It was appropriated by God to establish the descendants of
Abraham as his nation. One after another, those earthly kingdoms
and empires ascended to power, then declined and eventually came
to an end. But there was a divine goal being achieved. God was
using nation and kingdom builders to set the stage for the builder of
the greatest kingdom which would never end. Consider a brief
overview of how history developed in those regions of the world
which most impacted God’s plans for preparing the way for the
second Adam.

From the Biblical perspective, Egypt became the first great

world power. We have already reviewed God’s use of Egypt as a
place to grow Abraham’s descendants into a nation earlier in this
chapter. It is worth noting once God was finished using Egypt to
accomplish his plans, they fell from their lofty status as a world
power. They were invaded, ruled by others, and reduced to a
secondary status among the nations. Even centuries later their efforts
to regain their prominence and power on the international landscape
were never fully realized. However, for the sake of recognizing the
marvelous handiwork of God to accomplish his ways and fulfill his
prophecies, think of the way God used Egypt again centuries later.
After all the time and effort of preparing a proper place for
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Abraham’s greatest descendant to come to this world, God once
again used Egypt to safeguard his plans. This time it was the object
of God’s preparations who was taken to Egypt and sequestered for a
time, and then at the right time returned to the land where he would
fulfill his calling. “This happened to fulfill what was spoken by the
Lord through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’”
(Matthew2:15).

The nation of Israel

God continued to rule the nations, and what followed on the
landscape of international power struggles was a time for God to
rule his people directly. This time of theocracy began with Moses
being called to be God’s spokesman and lead the people out of
slavery in Egypt to bring them to the promised land of Canaan
under God’s direct governance. Delivered from the armies of
Egypt at the Red Sea, the process of nation building and ruling
began. God reestablished his covenant with Abraham’s
descendants as his people and codified the laws and worship to be
followed as a nation at Mt. Sinai. Immediately trouble showed
itself. The rebellious idolatry of the golden calf was a prelude to
how difficult it would prove to be to rule a nation of weak, sinful
human beings to the level of godliness God sought for his people.
God was so irate at the wretched beginning of the golden calf
incident that he was ready to destroy them all were it not for the
intercession of Moses. Still, 3,000 people died as a result of the
transgression, and the nation was struck with a plague as a warning
against such faithlessness. Onward they went, but they were still
weak and doubting. When they reached the borders of Canaan, 12
men checked out the land and the report of the majority when they
returned showed a lack of faith in God to give them the victory.
The people rebelled against God again and wanted to choose a new

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leader to lead them back to Egypt. The consequence of their
unbelief was the fulfillment of their fears. They would not take the
land. Every person 20 years old and older except for the two
faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb, would die in the wilderness and
their children would inherit the land of Canaan. And with that, 80-
year-old Moses’ tour of duty as the leader of God’s people was
extended for forty years. When it was over, the next generation did
enter and take the land.

For a number of years under the leadership of Joshua and the

men who outlived him from the wilderness years, the people did
serve the Lord. But it didn’t last. A vicious cycle began to repeat
itself. God would be good to his people and bless them; the people
would grow weary of being obedient to the Lord and start
following the idolatrous ways of the people around them; God used
surrounding people like the Philistines to oppress them; the people
would repent and seek the Lord; God would raise up a leader to
deliver them and judge their affairs (period of the Judges); and
then the cycle would repeat itself.

Eventually, the people wanted to be like other nations and

have their own king. God relented, but with a warning. Their kings
would not always be good and would cause problems for them,
including their allegiance to God. The rule of the first king, Saul,
did not end well when he became proud with power and did not
faithfully follow the Word of the Lord. His successors, David and
Solomon, ushered in the time of golden years in Israel. For the
most part, the true God was worshiped and prosperity flourished.
But even that did not last. In his later years, Solomon wavered
under the influence of foreign wives and idolatry got a foothold
again. Under subsequent regimes, the kingdom became divided
into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of
Judah. Under the rule of a few good kings in the Southern
Kingdom there were times of spiritual revival, but for the most part
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wickedness and idolatry grew continuously worse. God compared
the two kingdoms to two adulterous sisters who were unfaithful to
him when they went whoring after other gods. God’s people were
hardly a nation of God-fearing people like the blueprints required.
The festering disease of turning away from God, ignoring his
Word, and wanting to be like other people became acute. The result
was God was forced to undertake extreme measures to keep his
preparations for the second Adam going forward. Where centuries
earlier God had used nations like the Midianites and Philistines to
trouble (chastise) his people, he now used regions like Syria and
Aram and kings like Ben-Hadad to cause difficulties for Israel.
Nevertheless, under the idolatry promoted by their wicked
kings, the spiritual condition of the people of Israel continued to
get worse. Read 2 Kings 17 in its entirety. It is a scathing summary
of appalling spiritual conditions. Finally, it led to national
amputation when the ten Northern tribes of Israel were conquered
in 722 BC and deported to other lands ruled by Assyria and
became mingled among the nations. The Scriptures record:
So the LORD was furious with Israel, and he removed them
from his presence. None was left—only the tribe of Judah.
Even Judah did not keep the commands of the LORD their
God. They walked in the practices which Israel
introduced. So the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and
he afflicted them. He gave them into the hand of plunderers
until he cast them out of his presence…So Israel went to
Assyria, into exile from her homeland to this day.
(2 Kings 17:18-20, 23b)
The Southern Kingdom of Judah suffered a similar fate. Read
2 Kings 24 and 25 leading up to the statement, “So Judah went
into exile from her country” (2 Kings 25:21b). However, in order
to keep his Promise alive, God limited his treatment plan for Judah
to national replacement surgery rather than amputation and sent

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them away to the rehab center of Babylon for 70 years. When
sufficient healing had taken place, a remnant returned, but now
they had become a weak and crippled nation unable to care for
itself and subjugated to the rule of other nations.

Other nations and empires

This brings us to the marvelous providence of God as he
raised up other nations to implement his treatment plan for his
people. This era of history, when God used lesser nations and the
growing empires of Assyria, then Babylon, followed by Persia to
carry out his bidding, demonstrated clearly how God was in
control of all history for the sake of his Promise. It is not our
purpose to detail all the campaigns and kings involved in the
conquests, deportations, and, finally, the resettlement of a remnant
in Judah. It is our purpose to show how God was at work in all
these nations. “The LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the
farthest end of Egypt’s rivers and for the bee that is in the land of
Assyria,” that is, to come and do his bidding (Isaiah 7:18). He
gives specific warning about how he will use people, “In that day
the Lord will shave with a razor hired from the regions beyond the
River Euphrates, namely, the king of Assyria. This razor will shave
their head and the hair on their legs, and it will also scrape away
their beard”- a reference to the degrading treatment inflicted on
people to mark them as captives of war and slaves (Isaiah 7:20).
God makes very clear he is the one who makes use of people to
carry out his wishes.
Have you not heard? From long ago I, the LORD, did this.
From days of eternity, I formed it, and now I have brought
it about that fortified cities crash into piles of ruined
stones. They’re inhabitants, powerless, are dismayed and
ashamed. (2 Kings 19:25-26a)

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 That was a message to be delivered to Sennacherib to remind
him all along God was the one who planned and made it possible
for him to carry out his conquests. In the same way, God would put
an end to Sennacherib’s conquests because of his arrogance.

Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom

have you lifted up your voice and raised your eyes to
heaven? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your
messengers you have taunted the Lord…Because you rage
against me, because your arrogance has reached my ears, I
will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you go back by the way you came. (2 Kings
22f, 28)

First, God raises up world leaders by allowing and controlling

how they come to power; then he grooms them for their respective
roles; then he uses them in all their worldly ambitions and
wickedness to accomplish his plans. He used Egypt first as a
shelter and incubator to grow his people into a nation and then as
an oppressor to prepare his people for departure back to Canaan.
He used surrounding nations like Philistines, Midianites, Syrians
and others to trouble his people and cause hardship for them as a
chastisement for their unfaithfulness. He used the empires of
Assyria and Babylon to afflict his people for their apostasy and
carry them into captivity as he had warned. In the Babylonian
captivity, he also used them as a place of refuge to allow his people
to maintain their identity.

Using these nations/empires to accomplish his purposes, of

course, meant using individuals who were in positions of power
and influence in these kingdoms. To name only a few examples, he
used Queen Esther to help thwart a devious plot to destroy the
Jews in the reign of King Xerxes. He used his government advisor,
Daniel, to influence the decisions of several successive rulers in
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the regimes of Babylon and the Medes. He used Cyrus, King of
Persia, to issue the decree allowing a remnant of his people to
return to their homeland and rebuild the walls and temple at
Jerusalem. Cyrus’ decree to allow whoever wanted from Israel to
return to Canaan merits further comment. God’s Word gives us
important insight into the battle with evil raging behind the scenes
before and during the time when Cyrus issued his decree. It is
information which helps us understand the magnitude of effort
God exerted and the degree to which secular history was entwined
in God’s preparations for the second Adam to keep his Promise.

Spiritual warfare
The scholar of Scripture will recall how God was with devout
Daniel and used him effectively to help determine the course of
history which God could use to carry out his plans. During all the
years of captivity and into his old age, God-fearing Daniel
remained steadfast in his allegiance to God’s will. He was
concerned about God’s people, prayed regularly for their well-
being, interpreted dreams from God, and was envied and
sometimes endangered for it (think Lion’s Den). With the people of
God on his mind as well as the promises God made to his people,
Daniel prayed God would keep his Word and return his people to
their homeland. See Daniel 9:1-4, 17-19. God heard his plea. In
chapter 10, Daniel was told about the spiritual battle being waged
between God and Satan over the matter of Israel being able to
return to Palestine and Jerusalem.

He said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, because from the

first day that you began to commit your heart to gaining
understanding and to humbling yourself before your God,
your words have been heard, and I have come in response
to your words. However, an officer of the kingdom of Persia
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 was standing against me for twenty-one days. Yet Michael,
one of the chief officers, came to help me, for I had been
left there against the kings of Persia. (Daniel 10: 12-13)

The prince of the Persian kingdom is not the earthly king of

Persia; that was Cyrus. This prince was one who ruled in spiritual
matters trying to control people to do his will and fight against
what God was doing. This prince of Persia is Satan himself, the
prince of this world who rules his followers in the darkness of sin
and unbelief. The Bible urges us to remember he is constantly
waging war against God and his followers.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against
the schemes of the Devil. For ourstruggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly place...
(Ephesians 6:11-12)

In this case, the spiritual warfare going on was over control of

the land – the land of Judah and Jerusalem. To be more specific, it
was over the matter of Israel being able to return to Palestine and
Jerusalem and be reestablished there as God’s people.

Satan does not know the mind of the Lord and his plans, much
less understand them. But he can see what God is doing and knows
what God promised about sending a descendant of the woman to
crush him. He was there when that Promise was made. He knew
the descendant of the woman God had promised would be born
from Abraham’s descendants and would be a blessing for all
people. That’s what God had promised Abraham (Genesis 12:3).
Satan knew what Isaiah prophesied about Cyrus and God using
him to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple:

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 He is the one who says about Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,
and he will complete everything I desire.” He is the one
who says about Jerusalem, “It will be rebuilt,” and who
says to the temple, “Your foundations will be laid” (Isaiah
44:28).

Please also read Isaiah 45 in its entirety for a fuller prophecy

about Cyrus and God’s big-picture goal. Satan knew Jeremiah
quoted the prophecy of Isaiah to give encouragement to the people
of his time when he warned them of their impending captivity.
Satan knew all these things.

Though he didn’t understand everything of how and when

God would keep his promise, he worked furiously trying to stop it.
Satan’s battle objective was to keep Israel from being reestablished
as a nation in their homeland so God couldn’t carry out his plans.
He worked feverishly in the inner councils of Cyrus’ court officials
to pressure Cyrus not to issue the “emancipation” decree. Satan
worked fiercely at his goal. And with no God-fearing people in
Cyrus’ court to counteract his efforts, the Lord took up the battle
himself. He fought mightily in the hearts and consciences of rulers
and advisors to battle against Satan’s schemes. Only Michael, one
of the “chief princes” (archangel), was there to assist the Lord in
this spiritual warfare. With Michael’s assistance, God won the
battle, of course, as he always does in his almighty ways. Though,
we should point out the role Michael served is similar to the way
God still uses people and angels to serve at his side in his kingdom
and accomplish his will in the world’s affairs (think guardian
angels). And so, the decree was issued.

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill

the word of the LORD that came by the mouth of Jeremiah,
the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so
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 that he made a proclamation throughout his kingdom and
put it in writing:This is what Cyrus king of Persia says.
The LORD, the God of Heaven, has given me all the
kingdoms of the earth. He himself has appointed me to
build a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
From all his people, whoever among you is willing (may
the LORD his God be with him) is permitted to go up to
Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) Read 2 Chronicles
36:11-23 for the full picture.

It is worthy of note to remember Satan never gives up. He is

the old evil serpent who will fight tooth and nail to the bitter end,
or more accurately with lying tongue and poisonous bite, trying to
prevent God from carrying out his ways. Though Satan will never
win the war, he still inflicts casualties in individual battles. He still
tries and, in this case, did everything he could to undo the decree
of Cyrus. He used the envy and rivalry of officials in Samaria to
trouble the people of Judah as they worked to rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem. See Nehemiah 4-6. He used the leaders of the people
living in the region of Trans-Euphrates to plot against the
rebuilding of the temple during the reign of Artaxerxes. They sent
a letter to Artaxerxes falsely accusing the Jews of sedition, and for
a time the work on the house of God came to a halt. When the
people started to rebuild it again, Satan used other leaders from
Trans-Euphrates to write another letter, this time to King Darius,
hoping to discredit the Jewish claims they had received authority to
rebuild. The end result, of course, was God’s control of history
accomplished his will. His promise that a remnant would return,
and the temple would be rebuilt was kept. And God’s plan to get
everything ready for the coming of the second Adam continued.

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 The need for the gospel is served

Remember, however, the big picture of who God is. He who is

almighty God does more than rule, control, judge and use people
for his purposes. Above all else, he still loves. He is a God of
mercy and grace who desires to deliver people from the
wickedness of their sins, and give them life with him. This
includes all people, for God our Savior “…who wants all people to
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”(1 Timothy
2:4). The wicked nations he used to afflict, chastise and finally
conquer his people and carry them into captivity are included. It is
true even as God used the wickedness of unbelieving nations to
accomplish his purposes, he still called them to account for their
wickedness and made known his judgment on their wickedness
was coming.

When the Lord has completed all of his work against Mount
Zion and against Jerusalem, (i.e. by having Assyria
conquer and deport Israel), I will bring punishment against
the bloated fruit of the willful heart of the king of Assyria
and against the glare in his haughty eyes. (Isaiah 10:12)

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 And again, “The voice of the LORD will terrify Assyria. He will
strike it with his rod” (Isaiah 30:31).

In other words, God by no means initiated or approved the

wickedness of Assyria and other nations. He foresaw it, and even
warned against it similar to the way Jesus warned Judas of his
betrayal. In the case of Assyria, think of the message of Jonah
calling Nineveh to repentance.

And when those nations either continued or in Assyria’s case

returned to their wickedness, he pronounced his judgment upon
them. See similar pronouncements of judgment against Egypt
(Isaiah 19), Babylon (Isaiah 13 and 14), and other Gentile nations
who afflicted God’s people (Isaiah 13:11). However, God is still a
God of love and mercy. Were the Arameans of Elisha’s time an
enemy of God’s people carrying out raids against the people of
Israel killing some and taking some into captivity? Yes, but it was
one of those slave girls serving in the household of an Aramean
master whom God used to bring Naaman, the Syrian, to faith in the
true God of Israel. Was Assyria a wicked nation whom God
foretold he would use to punish Israel? Yes, but before that
happened, Jonah was sent to Nineveh, and the great city of Assyria
repented and was spared. Was Daniel serving rulers of unbelieving
nations in Babylon? Yes, but by his influence the lives of
Nebuchadnezzar and Darius were touched in a way they at least
recognized the supremacy of Israel’s God. And, also, as leader of
the caste of Magi, Daniel had a profound impact on the hearts and
lives of this organization of wise men. Centuries later, some of
their caste still recalled what Daniel taught about the eternal king
being born in Judah. As astronomers, when they saw a new star,
they remembered Daniel’s teachings and journeyed to Jerusalem
and then Bethlehem to worship him. Other examples of God’s
merciful outreach to Gentile nations could be cited. God not only

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rules and controls, but in his mercy reaches out with his grace and
saves his children from among all nations.

We bring this chapter on the Preparation for the second Adam

to a close by recognizing, also, what has often been pointed out by
others. When God gave his visions to Daniel, he allowed Daniel to
see not only was God fighting a spiritual battle against Satan’s
forces in Persia, but future affairs in other nations as well. The
vision Daniel received in a dream in Daniel chapter 7 described, in
succession, the kingdoms of Persia under King Nebuchadnezzar
(Lion with the head of an eagle), followed by the United Kingdom
of the Medes and Persians (a bear), then by the rapid conquests of
Alexander the Great (the leopard) establishing the Greek kingdom
and, finally, the terrifying and powerful beast of the mighty Roman
Empire (iron teeth crushing and devouring its victim). The vision
goes on to relate other events in the future which would take place
after the Roman Empire. But the first four beasts identify the same
kingdoms of Persia (Babylon), Medes and Persia, Greece, and
Rome, which were foretold in the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar
in Daniel, chapter 2.

We are not implying God’s activity among the kingdoms was

limited to what we can easily identify. However, it is appropriate to
point out what we can identify. In the eternal realms of God’s
dominion, the time was drawing near for the Promise to the woman
to be kept: “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and
you will crush his heel” (Genesis 3:15). The descendants of
Abraham had been developed into a nation, chastised for their
unfaithfulness, and now restored to their homeland to rebuild
God’s temple. Enough of a godly society and religious structure
was restored which God could now use. The offspring
(descendant) of the woman was near; the second Adam was about

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to arrive. To make preparations for him, God had allowed empires
to develop and rule and used each for different purposes.

As the day above all days in human history was about to

dawn, God now used Alexander the Great to establish the Greek
Empire. With its rapid conquests, God not only spread Greek
culture and learning, but caused the Greek language to be
established as the language universally used in the civilized world.
This was vitally important. The New Testament was written in
Greek for this reason. It was so the great news of what the second
Adam would accomplish could be easily spread abroad to every
language, nation, and people without the need – and time delay –
of being translated. With that important preparation accomplished,
God next used the Roman Empire with its armies and roads to
establish the Pax Romana – the peace of the Romans. And for a
period continuing for hundreds of years, there was less strife and
warfare among the many nations Rome controlled. Traveling
across countries and ethnic regions among these nations could be
done more easily. Less resistance and trouble hindered those who
traveled because Rome was in control. The result, for God’s
purposes, was significant. Those who traveled abroad for business
purposes or fled their homeland because of religious persecution
could more readily share their faith with the result, again, the
gospel could be more easily spread.

The foundation for everything God did to establish the

descendants of Abraham as his people and use other nations to
serve his purposes was his plan to prepare the way for the coming
of the second Adam. Those preparations were extensive,
exhaustive and sometimes exceptionally excruciating when God’s
people failed to live as God’s people. But, they were always
carried out with one exclusive goal in mind: to make possible the

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fulfillment of God’s Promise to the woman. The salvation of all
mankind was at stake.

Abram’s promised great Reward, Zion’s Helper, Jacob’s Lord

Him of two-fold race behold–Truly came, as long foretold.

Praise the Almighty; my soul, adore him! Yes, I will laud him until
death.

With songs and anthems I’ll come before him As long as he allows
me breath.

From him my life and all things came; Bless, O my soul, his holy
name-Alleluia!

Trust not in princes, they are but mortal; Earth-born they are and
soon decay.
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 Vain are their counsels at life’s last portal When the dark grave
will claim its prey.

Since, then, no one can help afford, Trust only Christ, our God and
Lord. – Alleluia!

God the Almighty, the great Creator, Ruler of sky and land and sea,

All things ordained, and sooner or later They come to pass

unfailingly.

He rules o’er nations rich and poor, His promise is ever standing
sure. - Alleluia!

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 6
The Presentation
The second Adam comes to this world to
carryout God’s eternal plan
God finished preparing the way for the second Adam to fulfill
the Promise he made in the Garden of Eden. The length of chapter
five underscores how profound and extensive those preparations
were. God worked for centuries in many nations, getting ready for
this time. It became an exceptionally challenging task. Did things
go as smoothly as God would have wanted? Was the result of his
efforts to prepare the way ideal? From God’s perspective we could
say, probably not. His intentions to raise a godly nation in which
the second Adam could be born and raised in a God-fearing way
were tested many times. The problem was not just the unbelieving
forces of Satan working in the world to fight against God. The very
nation God raised up from Abraham’s descendants to be the godly
society in which the second Adam could be raised added to the
difficulty. Their sinful weakness resisted and rebelled against
God’s ways so many times they were the proverbial handful for
God to raise as his nation and required significant discipline to
accomplish his parenting goals. In the end, though, were his
preparations sufficient? The answer is an unequivocal “yes.”
Conditions in the world were where God’s power and wisdom led
them to be. To wait any longer would have unnecessarily strained
Israel’s readiness to provide the proper nursery for the descendant
of the woman even more.

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 The time had come

After several millennia of working and waiting, the time had

finally come. Four hundred silent years had passed; the prophecies
were fulfilled; the world stage was set; the time had arrived. Never
before (save for the days of creation), nor ever again (save for the
days of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and second coming) would there
be a more monumental moment in the history of mankind than
when God’s Son appeared on earth as the son of man. The
descendant God promised the woman in the Garden of Eden was
now scheduled to arrive. The Apostle Paul put it beautifully.
“…when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born
of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to
redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons”
(Galatians 4:4-5). God sent his own Son to become a true man and
fulfill the Promise. By virtue of the virgin birth, he was born
without a human father and solely a descendant of the woman in
his human nature – just as the Promise had stated. Conceived by
the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), he was born without the
original sin passed on by father to son from the time of the first
Adam’s fall. And, as the Promise said, he would crush Satan’s
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power over us and deliver us from the doom of death to earn for us
eternal life. By perfectly fulfilling the law of God on our behalf the
son of man would make it possible for people to be God’s children
again, forever.

The account of Jesus’ birth is a time-tested compelling account

of God’s wondrous ways. Even though it is familiar we will repeat
it for its simple enduring, and endearing, beauty. We do so, also, to
reflect on these well-known verses from the perspective of the goal
of this book. This was the second Adam, the only other man to
ever live on this earth who had the same sinless nature as the first
Adam was given in his creation. This was the second Adam sent by
God to do what the first Adam failed to do because of the fall into
sin. Specifically, the second Adam came to restore a fallen world
from its sinful corruption and reinstate peace with God. He would
be used by God to pass on the gift of a blessed life with God to
other human beings as it had been in the beginning. This was the
descendant of the woman God not only promised would come but
had worked so hard to prepare for his coming. Think about these
things as you read.

Genealogy
First, we read from genealogy records. There are two records
of Jesus’ ancestry given in the Gospels, one In Matthew and one in
Luke. What is their significance to the life of Jesus as the second
Adam? Very much when it comes to authenticating Jesus as the
one God promised would be the descendant of the woman and also
a descendant of the great King David. In the first verse of his book,
Matthew begins a record of the genealogy of the child born to
Mary. “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David,
the son of Abraham:”(Matthew 1:1). The reason for the genealogy
is significant. The Jewish reader was Matthew’s intended audience.

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And people from the nation of Israel were very diligent about such
things. They knew God had promised their father Abraham one of
his descendants would be a blessing to all nations. And they knew
what God had prophesied involved their hero ancestor, King
David; it would be from his family tree this new king would be
born. Matthew makes sure his readers know both of these things
were fulfilled by the child born of Mary named Jesus. It is worth
noting at the end of the genealogy Matthew concludes with the
words, “So altogether there were fourteen generations from
Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the
Babylonian exile, and fourteen generations from the Babylonian
exile to Christ” (Matthew 1:17). Scholars have identified not every
generation is necessarily listed per se as we might assume. Naming
a person “the father of” can also include the possibility of a more
noteworthy ancestor, such as grandfather or even great-grandfather.
The conclusion is Matthew chose to write and arrange the
genealogy in this fashion of three sets of 14 generations for a
reason. But the reason is not identified. One possible reason is the
fact that a number of times God uses numbers to communicate the
preciseness of God’s divine control over history to accomplish his
will. See the frequent use of numbers for this purpose in the books
of Daniel and Revelation. In this case, the 14 generations leading
up to Jesus’ birth can be seen to underscore the message that even
with genealogy, God carefully controlled the timing for when the
descendant of the woman would be born to set his people free from
slavery to sin and restore their promised land of heaven. See
Addendum Three at the conclusion of this book.

Luke’s record of Jesus’ ancestry is recorded in Luke 3:23-37.

He does not provide his genealogy in the context of Jesus’ birth but
when Jesus begins his public ministry. It is apparent immediately
the genealogy of Jesus which Luke provides is not identical to the
one found in the Gospel of Matthew. The name of Joseph’s father
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in Matthew is Jacob, and in Luke’s genealogy, it is Heli. Many of
the other men listed between the time of David and Jesus’ birth are
not the same also. The Bible does not state the reason for this
difference, and we can only make logical assumptions. And,
logically, there seems to be a hint about why this is the case in the
wording used by Luke concerning Joseph. As he begins his
genealogy he writes, “Jesus himself was about thirty years old
when he began his ministry. Jesus was the son (so it was thought)
of Joseph…” (Luke 3:23). Since a person’s lineage in Jewish
culture was traced through the father, and most people of Jesus’
time thought Joseph was Jesus’ father - and we know Joseph was
indeed Jesus’ step-father who helped raise him from birth - it
makes sense Luke would list Joseph first in the lineage. But since
Joseph was not the real father genetically, Luke immediately
switches to Mary’s lineage in the succeeding names. And this
makes sense since those in Jesus’ immediate family of relatives
who knew Joseph was not the real father, would be comforted in
knowing Jesus’ lineage through Mary’s ancestors was also through
the line of David. And so they and future generations of believers
would be reassured the Scriptures were fulfilled also through
Mary’s line which said the promised Savior would be King David’s
descendant.

There is another significant difference between the

genealogies of Matthew and Luke. The genealogy of Matthew
starts with Abraham and runs through David to the time of Jesus’
birth. As said in a previous paragraph that was because Matthew
was writing to Jewish people to show them Jesus was clearly a true
child of Abraham’s descendants and the true descendant and heir of
David’s kingdom. Luke was writing to Gentile readers and his goal
was broader in scope. The Gentile nations of the world all had their
own deities they worshiped. Though surrounding nations knew

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Israel had their own God, and in many cases feared the might of
Israel’s God, they would not instinctively think Israel’s God would
be a blessing to them. When hearing about the prophet of Galilee
who was crucified in Jerusalem and rose again from the dead to
save his people and rule as their king, they would understandably
think that was only for the Jews. How does that help them? Luke
was taking the message of Jesus as our Savior and king to the
Gentile world. He wanted them to understand the message of
forgiveness and salvation through Jesus was intended also for
them, not just the Jews. That’s what God had in mind from the
beginning. And to substantiate Jesus’ promises of life and salvation
through him were meant for all people, he showed them Jesus was
not just a descendant of Abraham and David, but his lineage can be
traced back to the first Adam and his wife Eve, the first parents of
all people. More than that, the first Adam at the beginning of the
world received the gift of life directly from God, he could be called
God’s son (Luke 3:38). So, Jesus’ lineage can be traced back to
God himself. He was true God as well as a man. True God and true
man is who Jesus was (and still is), sent by God into this world as
God promised to save all people.

The birth of Jesus is a monumental moment in the history of

generations. Even the careful recording of genealogies is used to
communicate its significance. Both Matthew and John incorporate
the revelations given to Daniel into their inspired writings. By this
New Testament readers may know what is said about Jesus in the
New Testament is what was prophesied about Jesus in the Old
Testament. There is a reason, also, for communicating in visions
and symbolic numbers. “None of the wicked will understand,”
God told Daniel, “But those who have insight will understand”
(Daniel 12:10b). Jesus said similar things about parables when
explaining them to his disciples. See Luke 8:9-10.
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 The announcement
Matthew continues his first chapter with the announcement of
Jesus’ birth.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother,
Mary, was pledged in marriage to Joseph. Before they
came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy
Spirit. Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did
not want to disgrace her. So he decided to divorce her
privately. But as he was considering these things, an angel
of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home
as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give
him the name Jesus,because he will save his people from
their sins.”

All this happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord

through the prophet: “Look, the virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son. And they will name him
Immanuel,”which means, “God with us.”

When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he did as the angel of

the Lord had commanded him. He took Mary home as his
wife, but he was not intimate with her until she gave birth to
her firstborn son. And he named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-
25)

In his Gospel, Luke provides this record of the announcement

to Mary.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to
a town of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin pledged in
marriage to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of

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 David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her
and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The
Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.”

But she was greatly troubled by the statement and was

wondering what kind of greeting this could be. The angel
said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have
found favor with God. Listen, you will conceive and give
birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be
great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord
God will give him the throne of his father David. He will
reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will
never end.”

Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a

virgin?”

The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of
God. Listen, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a
son in her old age even though she was called barren, and
this is her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible for
God.” Then Mary said, “See, I am the Lord’s servant. May
it happen to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
(Luke 1:26-38)

Consider these two sections, and read between the lines a

testimony of how well God had prepared the way for the keeper of
his Promise, the descendant of the woman, to be born. Despite the
many exasperating difficulties God had in dealing with rebellious
and unfaithful people, he was still able to preserve for himself
some God-fearing souls. Despite the work righteous, make
yourself righteous, teachings spewed by the Pharisees; despite the

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misplaced confidence of those who relied on their lineage to
Abraham as their reason for hope; despite the worldly dreams of
those who looked for a Messiah who would come to restore
Israel’s freedom and establish them as the world power which
would rule the earth; despite the worldliness and greed of those
who lived only for this life and its power and wealth, God kept the
true fear of God alive among his elect. They were humble people
faithfully working, wondering, wishing and waiting for God’s
promise to be kept.

Joseph and Mary were two God-fearing souls God now

drafted to serve on the front line of his campaign to establish the
eternal kingdom of God. There were others summoned, also, such
as Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna in the Temple, and
others who were looking forward to redemption in Israel. But,
now, the King was coming. And meek and humble Mary, child of
God and believer in God’s promise of a Savior (Luke 1:46-47),
was assigned her role. What an assignment it was. In the eternal
schematic of God’s plans her name was filled in alongside of Eve
who was the mother of all those who would live. Mary would
become the mother of the one who would save the lives of all
people. She was the one chosen to give birth to a son whom she
should name ‘Jesus.’ Mary’s only question was how is that
possible since she was a virgin? Gabriel explained the power of the
Holy Spirit would enable her to give birth as a virgin. As a result,
her child would be a holy child and called the Son of God, for
nothing is impossible with God. Perhaps it was at that moment the
Isaiah file from the memory banks of her faith flashed open and the
prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 poured out to flood the chambers of her
heart. Devout Mary humbly submitted to her God’s will. She was
aware of probable repercussions. What would people think? Would
anybody believe this? Where should she go? How would Joseph
react? Would she be threatened with stoning for adultery? None of
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that mattered. She believed what the angel said. “See, I am the
Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said” (Luke
1:38).

How would Joseph react? He was a devout child of God also.

No doubt, he was hurt by drawing the only rational conclusion
possible – Mary had been unfaithful. Though they were officially
married because of their betrothal, they had not yet lived together
as husband and wife or been intimate. How could this happen?
Joseph knew Mary was a God-fearing young maiden and probably
found it hard to conceive why Mary would let herself be drawn
into sin like this. But there was no denying she had conceived, and
it was not by him. Joseph was a just man; he held to his conviction
of God-fearing ways. He would not condone such behavior by
permissively overlooking the apparent infidelity. Nor would he let
his own reputation for decency be questioned by those who would
conclude he must be the father if he continued with the marriage
anyway. He could not take her to his home now as his wife. Yet, he
was not vengeful and wanted to avoid the possibility of public
disgrace. He probably felt more badly for Mary because of the
situation she had gotten herself into than he did for himself. He
was filled with compassion and thinking about divorcing her
privately in some discreet way so as not to expose her to public
shaming and reprimand – or worse. God had taken all the
repercussions of this normal human reaction into account. As
recorded in the Matthew quote above, an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph, this time in a dream, and explained everything.
So, Joseph did as he was directed and took Mary home with him to
be his wife, but he did not have sexual relations with her until
sometime after the child was born. He took her home willingly,
just as Mary had willingly accepted God’s role for her. Joseph was
also willing to put up with any innuendoes, gossipy remarks, and
accusations people might make because of the circumstances.
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 How important was Joseph to God’s plans for fulfilling his
promise? Very important! First of all, from the perspective of
everything done decently and in order, Jesus needed to have an
earthly father. For Jesus to be considered a legitimate descendant
of David, as God had prophesied, lineage was traced through the
father. That’s why Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestry back to David
through Joseph, the husband of Mary – even though, in this case,
Joseph, in reality, was only the stepfather. More importantly, God
had been preparing the way for Jesus, the second Adam, to have
the best upbringing possible in a God-fearing home. For that, a
single-parent household would not be enough. A single-parent
household would present a number of difficulties for providing the
kind of upbringing the second Adam would need. A single mother
would have a difficult struggle trying to provide for her son in a
culture where women working outside of the home was not the
norm. If she did work outside the home, her son would not receive
the full attention he needed for love, care, Bible story time, and
everything else a full-time mother is able to provide. The care of
caregivers would not care as much about the spiritual needs of a
growing child as his own God-fearing mother. For a child to grow
up without a father in the house would likely subject him to the
condescending treatment of other kids. Kids being kids would
make remarks, treat him as “different,” insinuate things about his
mother, make fun of him and often exclude him from their
friendships. Being without a father would also deprive him of the
presence, example, guidance, support, and encouragement a father
gives, which is so important for a growing child. In addition, in
Jesus’ case, he would also have missed out on the kind of father
relationship he could use to communicate parallels about the
relationship we have with our heavenly Father. The same
deficiency would apply to benefitting from the experience of a
mother and father carrying out their God-given roles as husband

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and wife. Families are the foundational structure of society.
Without the blessings of a normal family life, a child would not be
fully exposed to the kind of family life God had designed for
passing on the gift of life to future generations. Family life as God
designed was part of God’s plan for the descendant of the woman
to keep his Promise. The newborn child God was presenting to the
world would need every last bit of upbringing and training in
God’s ways to be able to carry out his life-saving role as the
second Adam. In Joseph and Mary, the child born of a woman
would receive such an upbringing.

Jesus’ birth

The day arrived. Mother and step father were in place – ready
to provide the care and raising this special descendant of David
would need. And they were also in place in the town of David
which Scripture had prophesied (Micah 5:2) would be the place of
his birth. Because of the taxation census Caesar Augustus had
decreed, Joseph and Mary had made their way to Bethlehem.
Ponder, again, the inspiring words of Luke 2:1-20.

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In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that
all the world should be registered. This was the first census
taken while Quirinius was governing Syria. And everyone
went to register, each to his own town. And Joseph also
went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into
Judea, to the town of David, which is called Bethlehem,
because he was from the house and family line of
David. He went to be registered with Mary, his wife,who
was pledged to him in marriage and was expecting a child.

And so it was that while they were there, the time came for
her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son,
wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a
manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

There were in the same country shepherds staying out in the

fields, keeping watch over their flock at night. An angel of
the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were terrified! But the angel said to
them, “Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news
of great joy, which will be for all people: Today in the town
of David, a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the
Lord. And this will be a sign for you: You will find a
baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a
manger.” Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude
from the heavenly army, praising God and saying,“Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward
mankind.”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the
shepherds said to one another, “Now let’s go to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has

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 made known to us.” So they hurried off and found Mary
and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the
manger. When they had seen him, they told others the
message they had been told about this child. And all who
heard it were amazed by what the shepherds said to
them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering
them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God for all the things that they had heard and
seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:1-20

What a remarkable night. Never before has a child been born, nor
will one ever be born in the future, who has had a greater impact on
the history of this world, who was more important to the well-being
of all people of all time, who has had more written about him, sung
about him spoken about him, and pondered about him in human
hearts, than the infant Jesus born in Bethlehem. Truly, at his birth, the
child Jesus became the center piece of all the rest of history, before
and after. And what remarkable contrasts accompanied his birth. To
list just a few: The immortal, invisible second person of the Godhead
was couched in the mortal, visible flesh of a human being. The
peaceful evening shadows around shepherds – the glory of the Lord
shining all around them; the quiet voices of shepherds watching over
bleating sheep in the fields – the brilliant choir of angels filling the
sky with the harmony of heavenly voices; terrified before the angels –
praising God before the townspeople; the fine expensive clothing of
royalty in their palaces – the cloth wrapping of poor babies for the
King of kings in a cattle shelter; the dark starry night welcomes the
light of the world. It was all because of one simple truth: God had
kept his Promise. The descendant of the woman had come. The
Savior of the world was born. The second Adam was here.

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 Jesus is the God man

At this point, in order to underscore the impact of what God

planned from the very beginning, let it be said clearly: Jesus is the
second Adam. And it certainly was not in name only. It was the
miraculous reality of what God accomplished when he sent his
eternally begotten Son to this world to also become a true man.
The Hebrew word for man comes from the word adamah, which
literally means ground or earth and is the source of the name
Adam. Yes, the first and second Adams came into this world in
different ways. The first Adam came into being through the
creative handiwork of God. God took from the ground he had
created, fashioned it into the flesh of the first human being, and
breathed into it the breath of life. Receiving the breath of life was
the working of the Holy Spirit. In this way, the first man, Adam,
became a living being who was made in God’s own image. See
Genesis 1:26-27; see chapter one of this book. When the
descendant of the woman was born into this world to become the
second Adam, he was also made by the miraculous power of God.
This time, God took the flesh he had already made through her
parents when Mary was born. Once again, by the miraculous
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power of the Holy Spirit’s working, this second Adam’s flesh –
given to him through the virgin Mary – became a living being
when he was taken into the divine nature of the second person of
the Trinity. So, here’s the point. Since the second Adam was not
born from the sin-tainted flesh of a natural union between a
husband and wife, the human nature given to him by the Holy
Spirit’s doing was sinless. Jesus was the personification of the
divine nature, taking on the true but sinless flesh of a human being.
More precisely, the eternal God took the mortal flesh of his own
creation into the Godhead, the second person of the Trinity, to
become one person, the God-man.

We focus now on Jesus’ human nature by continuing the

thought of the previous paragraph. Not only was Jesus’ divine
nature one of true God from all eternity, but his human nature was
also made sinless in the image of God. In his human nature, Jesus
was just like the first Adam was in his original state of creation.
Both were holy and perfect, made in the image of God, and all of
God’s attributes were given to them. The only attributes they did
not receive as human beings were the divine attributes of eternal,
omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. So, this descendant of
the woman was, literally, the second Adam. They were the only
two male human beings ever to have God’s sinless nature created
also in them. (Ah, but… wait until chapter 10). The Apostle Paul
states it unequivocally in his letter to the Colossians. Speaking of
Jesus’ human nature he says, “He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15). The author of
Hebrews makes the same point when he says, “The Son is the
radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of the divine
nature”(Hebrews 1:3a). Lest we think, because of subsequent
verses, holy Scripture is referring to Jesus’ divine nature in these
verses, Paul says it again in a later verse, “For God was pleased to
have all his fullness dwell in him…”(Colossians1:19). Truly,
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remarkably, wonderfully, this child of the woman was special, very
special, the fulfillment of a centuries-old Promise. He was, “born
of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to
redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as
sons”(Galatians 4:4b-5).

But why was the keeper of God’s Promise, the second Adam,
born in this way? Why was the Son of God, born of a woman to do
such great things, born in such humble circumstances? Why was
great David’s greater Son not accorded the appropriate welcome
befitting the King of kings who would become ruler of all the
universe? Where was God’s honor? Where were the cymbals and
ram’s horns; where was the parade with palm branches in the
streets, and banquets in great halls to celebrate this monumental
occasion? They were conspicuously missing for a reason. In his
wisdom, God planned it that way because it needed to be that way.
First of all, there was no opportunity for the greatest descendant of
David’s royal family to be welcomed into the world with fanfare
because there was no descendant of David on the throne. And it
simply wouldn’t have gone well to have a lowly builder from
Nazareth tell the Idumean who was on the throne, to move out of
his palace for a couple of weeks so the future ruler of God’s people
could be born there. And, oh, from which line item on the royal
budget should all the birth expenses and royal celebration costs
come? From Herod? I don’t think so. After all, how did King
Herod react two years later when he was told the one who was to
be ruler in Israel had been born? That will give you a clue.

Safety concerns
There was a far more important reason for Jesus’ humble birth
than just safety reasons. If it were merely the safety of the child
God was concerned about, he could have easily dismissed it with a
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simple wave of his hand. And through some divine intervention of
his almighty power Herod and his soldiers wouldn’t have been a
problem anymore. Jesus’ humble birth was a far weightier issue
than simply security measures. There was a greater safety God was
concerned about – the safety of his plan to keep the Promise. What
had God been planning all along as an appropriate setting in which
the descendant of the woman could be born and raised? It was to
be in a humble, obedient, God-fearing household where the child
could learn all the ways and will of God completely. There were to
be no conflicting values and interests compromising what it would
take to be the one who would fulfill God’s Promise of a Savior.
This royal descendant would need to know what kind of Savior he
was to be. He would need to learn all the laws of God and what
was required to keep them. He would need to know all the
prophecies spoken of him and how he would have to fulfill them.
He would have to learn how to humbly serve others, yes, suffer
and die for them in order to save them from Satan’s rule.

How would becoming an obedient, humble servant to others

have worked if the child Jesus had been born into a royal family in a
royal palace and be a recipient of all the royal privileges? How would
he have learned what it meant to serve others before himself if he
grew up being the one who was always served by others? In fact, how
hard a lesson is it for anybody to learn humble service to others, much
less someone born into the privilege of royal authority? In such an
environment, it is a given that being served by others is accorded to
those in authority (and their families). But in the humble, God-fearing
household of Joseph and Mary, and as a student of God’s Word, Jesus
learned what serving and being served truly means in God’s kingdom.
Remember what he taught his disciples about this important truth.

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 A dispute arose among the disciples about which of them
was considered to be greatest. But he told them, “The kings
of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have
authority over them are called Benefactors. But it is not to
be that way with you. Instead, let the greatest among you
become like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one
who serves. For who is greater, one who reclines at the table
or one who serves? Isn’t it the one who reclines at the table?
(i.e. That’s the way the world views things and operates.)
But I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:24-28)

That’s the way it is in God’s kingdom. The greater the

authority a person has, the more he is to use his authority to serve
others. That’s what the upbringing of the second Adam was to
accomplish. He who had already humbled himself to become also
a true man must learn, also in his human nature, how to humbly
serve others no matter what the cost. That would become vitally
important in order to keep God’s Promise and save people from
sin, death, and hell.

The presentation to the world of the one chosen to keep God’s

Promise began in the sheep fields of Bethlehem, where the angels
sang, and in the cattle shelter of an inn-keeper, where the
shepherds came to see the newborn child. The news about this
birth was reported to the townspeople of Bethlehem when word of
mouth got around how the shepherds had glorified and praised God
for all the things they had heard and seen. Who knows how many
of those townspeople remembered that night 30 years later when
word got around there was a great rabbi and miracle worker up in
Galilee creating quite a stir? Perhaps there were some. The
presentation continued eight days later when, in fulfillment of the
law, the child was circumcised and given the name Jesus – “the
one who saves.” The angel made it clear – he was to be given that

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name because he was the one who would save people from their
sins. One wonders whether there were any, besides his parents,
who pondered the significance of his name, or simply thought he
was given that name to honor Joshua, the great leader of God’s
people in the conquest of Canaan. Perhaps there were some. Forty
days later Jesus was presented in the Temple to consecrate him to
the Lord with an appropriate offering as required by the law (Luke
2: 22-24). There were some there on that day who understood
what was happening was in fulfillment of prophecy. Simeon,
specifically, was there because the Holy Spirit had promised he
would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. And
now the Holy Spirit directed Simeon to go to the Temple in order
to keep that promise. Simeon definitely understood what God was
doing. Taking the child Jesus into his arms Simeon glorified God
for the salvation he had prepared for all people in words which
are still sung in the Church today. Aged Anna, the prophetess
and widow of many years, was also there. She spent her days
constantly in the Temple, worshiping God and praying and fasting.
Coming up to Simeon with the child Jesus and his parents at that
very moment, she thanked God and then began telling everyone
whom she knew was looking for God’s redemption in Israel about
this child, Jesus. He was the descendant of the woman God had
promised to send to redeem his people from their sins. Were any of
the people who heard these things among those who stood at the
foot of the cross thirty-some years later? And were they now
cognizant of the fact they were witnessing God’s redemption being
accomplished? Perhaps there were some. God knows them that
are his.

God presented the child Jesus to the world, not just by

delivering him to earth in a humble cattle shelter. He didn’t just
dump the package on Israel’s front porch and walk away saying, “I
hope you find it; enjoy!” Through the message of Gabriel, and the
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song of the angels, and by word of mouth from the shepherds and
other believers, God also began informing people the one they had
been told to look for was now here. By doing so, he was also
planting the seed of spiritual enlightenment to grow and bear fruit
in the hearts of faith. Those hearts of faith, in turn, would become
fruit for God years later when the fruit of his own labors to keep
his Promise was harvested.

The people of Israel were not the only ones informed that the
presentation of the world’s greatest gift had been made. This gift of
God’s love was intended to bless all people, not just Abraham’s
descendants. “All the families of the earth will be blessed in you”
(Genesis 12:3b). The seed of that truth had been planted in the
hearts and minds of other people, besides Israel, for years. Witness
the King of Salem, the Queen of Sheba, the rich man Job, the poor
widow of Zarephath, the harlot of Jericho, the army commander of
Aram, and no doubt scores of others not mentioned in Scripture.
Included in those Gentile numbers were the beneficiaries of
Daniel’s wisdom and his testimony of God’s Promise in Babylon.
Specifically, members of the professional guild of wise men - of
which Daniel had been the most renowned chairman - knew about
God’s Promise of a Messiah to come. Centuries later, those skilled
astronomers were still watching the stars and waiting for what
Daniel had talked about to happen. “The scepter will not depart
from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until the one
to whom it belongs comes. He will receive the obedience of the
peoples” (Genesis 49:10). And

The declaration of the one who hears the words of God,

who receives knowledge from the Most High, who sees the
vision of the Almighty, who is falling down, but his eyes are
wide open: I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not

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 near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise up
out of Israel… (Numbers 24:16, 17a).

And then they saw it – the star of Bethlehem. However they

identified it with their astronomy skills, the star convinced them it
was the fulfillment of prophecy. And so, a group of them got a
committee together – maybe volunteers, maybe those who drew
the long straws, maybe just the ones who believed it – and they
raised the money, gave thought to what they would bring as gifts,
organized the trip and set out on their way. The planning and the
long trip took a while, so when they arrived in Jerusalem, some
say, it was up to two years later. They went immediately to the
ruler, King Herod, to enquire where the one born king of the Jews
was being raised. The scholars of Scripture were asked, and
Bethlehem was identified according to the prophecy of Micah 5:2.
Assisted by the star which led them to the very house, the wise
men saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down to
worship him. God presented the gift of his Son to the whole world
as represented by these Gentile believers, and they, in turn, opened
their treasures and presented unto him their gifts of love and faith –
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You know what Herod’s nefarious
intentions were in all this. And so, warned by God in a dream, the
wise men began their trip home another way, and Herod’s
intentions to kill the child were thwarted.

The holy innocents

The murderous intentions of Herod were thwarted, but not
ended. When the wise men did not return and he realized his plans
had been discovered, Herod stayed true to form. He decided to
execute all the babies two years old and younger in Bethlehem and
its vicinity. That way he could be sure this child born king of the

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Jews would not become a threat to his throne. And the heartless
butcher did it. He gave the command, and it was carried out. “Then
what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:A
voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel
weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted, because
they are no more” (Matthew 2:17-18). Pharaoh of Egypt was not
the first ruler to carry out the barbaric practice of infanticide to
serve his own interests, nor was Herod the last. Proponents of
abortion and government rulers who want it legalized are not the
only ones who care nothing for the lives God creates in the womb
and brings into this world. Why would God allow such things? The
answer lies in the eternal counsel of God. Suffice it to say God
simply does not always intervene to stop the godless deeds of evil
hearts. Where should he draw the line? But in his final judgment,
he will not leave the guilty unpunished (Exodus 34:7b). In this, as
in all wickedness in history, God is not responsible to man, man is
responsible to God. And so it was, the infants of Bethlehem
became the first martyrs to die for the sake of the Lord, the one
who was given the name Jesus, and have been accorded the honor
of being remembered for the rest of history in the hymns, liturgies,
and calendar of the Church.

God, of course, did make sure the one who died for Herod’s
sins did not die at Herod’s hand. He sent an angel to warn Joseph
in a dream of Herod’s plans.

Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the
night, and left for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of
Herod. This happened to fulfill what was spoken by the
Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my
son”(Matthew2:14-15).

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 Another prophecy was fulfilled. What was true of his
ancestors when God called the descendants of Abraham out of
Egypt after they had been slaves there for years and objects of
Pharaoh’s murderous ways, was true of Abraham’s greatest
descendant who would free the world from slavery to sin and the
murderous intentions of Satan. The one who had been promised to
defeat Satan’s power had been presented to the world with little
fanfare but much drama because of Satan’s efforts to stop him. But
Satan failed, as he would again in future attempts. When Herod
was dead, the descendant of the woman was taken back to
Nazareth to begin preparing for his calling. Ironically, when the
final battle between good and evil was waged, the same plot line
unfolded. Thirty-some years later, Satan thought he had finally
succeeded by getting new worldly rulers and their soldiers to kill
the descendant of the woman. It took place in front of his own
mother, nonetheless, where a sword was piercing her soul, and
other women were weeping. Yet, in reality, it was Satan’s own
undoing.

Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all you nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’ angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ, by highest heav’n adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord,

Late in time behold him come, Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the God head see, Hail th’ incarnate Deity!Pleased
as man with us to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel!
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”

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 Hail, the heav’nly Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of
Righteousness!Light and life to all he brings, Ris’n with healing in
his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by, Born that we no more may die,
Born to raise us from the earth, Born to give us second birth.

Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”

*********

Blest be the God of Israel, Who comes to set us free;

He visits and redeems us; He grants us liberty.

The prophets spoke of mercy, Of freedom and release;

God shall fulfill his promise And bring his people peace.

He from the house of David, A child of grace has giv’n

A Savior comes among us To raise us up to heav’n.

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 7
The Performance
The second Adam’s great work of
redemption is completed.

God the Father’s plan to prepare for the coming of the

woman’s descendant was extensive and profound. As has been
stated, the length of chapter five underscores the planning,
blessing, guiding, protecting, adjusting, rebuking, chastising, and
controlling the course of history, God had to do to prepare the way
for the descendant of the woman to become the second Adam and
fulfill his Promise. Now, it was time for the second Adam to bring
to fruition all the preparations the heavenly Father made. Since it
involves the life of Jesus, this chapter will also be extensive. This
added length only underscores the importance of the life of the 2nd
Adam as it is the foundation for the Christian faith. We will divide
the life of the 2nd Adam into four categories: youth and young
adult life, public ministry, the passion history, and the resurrection.

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 Jesus’ Youth and Young Adult Life
It was time for Jesus to do his Father’s will- to carry out his
calling and fulfill what God had promised in the Garden. From the
moment of his conception to his last breath on the cross Jesus was
always the sinless Son of God and the sinless son of Mary. But in
sinless human nature, he was still an infant, not even a toddler,
totally not ready to do anything for his life’s calling, much less
carry out the deeds of the law. However, the heavenly Father had
made provisions for that. Included in God’s plan of preparing the
way for the second Adam was God’s choice of devout, God-fearing
parents to raise him. As was true for other families, his parents
would do for Jesus what the law required. In God’s eternal plan,
this was especially required of Jesus since his calling required him
to be our substitute “under the law.” First, as God had demanded of
Abraham and his household (Genesis 17:9-14) and as was codified
in the ceremonial law for all of Abraham’s descendants (Leviticus
12:3), Mary and Joseph had the infant Jesus circumcised on the
eighth day. He received the sign of the Old Covenant in his body,
which was the first time his blood was shed to fulfill the law. And
thus began the journey of establishing the New Covenant that
circumcision had foreshadowed. Jesus would establish the New
Covenant by shedding his blood again as our substitute in death.
Appropriately, it was on this day of circumcision that he was also
officially given the name Jesus – the one who saves - as the angel
had stipulated (Luke 2:21). Weeks later, Jesus was brought to the
Temple to be presented to the Lord as the law required.

When the time came for their purification according to the

law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present
him to the Lord. (As it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every
firstbornmale will be called holy to the Lord.”)And they came
to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of

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 the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. (Luke
2:22-24) See Exodus 13:2, 11-16 and 34:19-20 for the
consecration of the firstborn, also, Leviticus 12:6-8.

The offering Mary and Joseph brought for sacrifice was

intended by the law to redeem a first-born son from the obligation
of being consecrated for a lifetime of service to God. At first
glance, one might think it shouldn’t be necessary for Jesus to be
redeemed by sacrifice from a lifetime of service to God since God
had already chosen him to consecrate his life to God’s service.
Isaiah had prophesied, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my
chosen one in whom I delight. I am placing my Spirit on him. He
will announce a just verdict for the nations”(Isaiah 42:1). We
might think he who came to be the Redeemer as the Lord’s servant
didn’t need to be redeemed. Yet, Scripture’s record teaches us
otherwise. According to God’s decrees, Jesus did need to be
redeemed. His service to God was to be our Redeemer. He had
come to establish the new Covenant for God’s people, but as an
infant, he was still living under the Old Covenant of the law and
needed to fulfill it—including the civil and ceremonial laws.

Some scholars identify Jesus’ circumcision and presentation in

the Temple as the first instances of Jesus’ “Passive Obedience” in
fulfilling his Father’s will. In other words, these things were not
done actively by Jesus, but by others to him, for he was brought to
the Temple and his blood was shed (circumcision) by others. In
this way, even as an infant, he was fulfilling the law of God for us.

Jesus’ childhood
Scripture records Jesus' birth, the circumcision and presentation
in the Temple, the visit of the wise men, and the subsequent flight
into Egypt and return. Beyond this, with the exception of his first
Passover visit to Jerusalem as a twelve-year-old boy, nothing is said
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about Jesus' childhood. All we can safely say is what Scripture says
about him concerning his whole life. Even as a child, “He did not
commit a sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).
Being sinless is hard to imagine of anyone, but true nonetheless of
Jesus. No talking back to parents, no withholding of the truth and
trying to cover up his actions, no aloof haughtiness, no being part of
a clique or a gang and saying mean things about others, no teenage
“attitude.” Nothing in his life of any nature, including his speech,
would give us anything to question. We can also confidently say
what Scripture clearly infers about his childhood when it says at the
wedding of Cana. “This, the beginning of his miraculous signs,
Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee…” (John 2:11a). In other words,
no miracles as a child, no healing of a little bird’s broken wing, no
reading of people’s minds or prideful display of his power to show
off to his younger brothers and sisters. That would certainly be out
of character for Jesus, even as a child. Everything recorded in
Scripture clearly indicates Jesus lived humbly also as a child without
any use of his divine powers.

Here is an interesting point to consider: If Jesus did not use his

divine powers as a child, as Scripture clearly implies, there is a
logical conclusion that can be drawn. And that is Jesus humbling
himself to grow and learn as a child (Luke 2:52) would include not
being aware of his divine nature at birth and early life as an infant.
As he grew and learned about things as a human child, the
conscious awareness of his divinity would have come to him as his
mind developed, and he was able to comprehend this truth when he
was told these things by his parents, as well as the understanding
he gained through his study of the Scriptures. No doubt, his parents
began telling him early on, even in the toddler stage, how special
he was, what the angel had said, and how he was God’s child. (As
a sidebar, it is worth noting we can call each of our children
“God’s child” also. The Bible says all Christians are God’s
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children. “…you are all sons (children) of God through faith in
Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). When our children are baptized,
they become, literally, God's children by virtue of the new man of
faith which is born in them; they are renewed in God’s image). As
Jesus continued to grow and was able to understand more, he could
be told about such extraordinary things as the virgin birth, the star,
Joseph’s dream, and God’s providence in protecting him from
Herod's soldiers. All these things continued to grow and mature in
his heart, and he believed them because, in his sinless nature, he
completely trusted what his parents told him and what he was
learning about himself from the Scriptures.

The way in which Jesus grew up would have been different

than the way his siblings and friends grew up. His sinless
obedience to his parents, responsible behavior, initiative in helping
out, keeping his word, and showing compassion and consideration
for others no matter what their status would not have gone
unnoticed by family, friends, neighbors, and townspeople. His
words, actions, and attitude would have stood out in sharp contrast
to the typical behavior of other children, like a flower in a weed
patch. Such behavior seems unrealistic to say of any child, but we
must conclude it was true of Jesus because of his sinless nature.
And it is supported by the praise given to Jesus when Luke records
in the account of the twelve-year-old Jesus at the Temple. “Jesus
grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with
people” (Luke 2:52).

Note the word “grew” in Luke 2:52. What the first Adam
should have done after his creation, and would have achieved had
he not disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil, the second Adam did do. In his
human nature, he grew in spiritual maturity and commitment to
following his heavenly Father’s will. He became confirmed in his

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sinless holiness. That is not a redundancy. By sinless holiness, we
mean that without any sinful pride or desire for recognition
tarnishing his motivation, the boy Jesus became fully committed to
setting apart his life to do his heavenly Father’s will. He wanted to
learn and understand everything he needed to do to fulfill the role
of Savior. From early childhood on, he had learned this was the
reason he was born into this world. This helps us appreciate the
magnitude of what Jesus was doing as a twelve-year-old boy
sitting among the teachers in the temple courts, listening to them
and asking questions. He was preparing himself. Already then
there was not one thing God said he wanted to misunderstand;
there was not one bit of Bible history he could afford to dismiss;
not one deviation from the heavenly Father’s plan could be
allowed; not one detail of what he needed to do to be the Savior
could be omitted; not one prophecy of the coming Savior could be
overlooked. For example, think of one of the last things Jesus said
21 years later on the cross. Right before he cried out with a loud
voice, “It is finished!” he said, “I am thirsty.” He was certainly
very thirsty, but he didn’t say those words because he was so
desperate for a drink, he couldn’t take it anymore. It was so the
Scripture would be fulfilled. See John 19:28 and Psalm 69:21. And
then, once all the Scriptures were fulfilled, he could rightly cry out,
“It is finished!” (John 19:30).

As a boy in the temple courts, Jesus talked, and he asked, and

he learned, and he amazed the scholars with the depth of
understanding he already had. God the Father had spent all the
centuries of history since the Garden of Eden preparing the world
for this time and preparing the nation of Israel to be the nursery in
which the second Adam could be raised. Now, Jesus was doing
everything he could to prepare himself for his work—the work of
redemption.

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 Most of the details of Jesus’ boyhood years, and early years as
an adult are not provided for us for a reason. We don’t need to
know the reason because we know Scripture tells us everything we
need to know. What we do know is who Jesus was, also, as a child:
the sinless Son of God and sinless Son of man united in one person
who came to save us from our sins. How much fascination would
we have had with how he interacted with his (half) brothers and
sisters, who his boyhood friends were, what he did when he helped
Joseph at jobsites, and how he lived so perfectly? How much might
we have discussed his life and evaluated our lives and our kids by
comparison? Dissecting the temptations he faced and how he
resisted them, idolizing him as a good person, wondering what he
meant with what he said, and why he did what he did—all of this
as a child, teenager, and young adult—how much would it have
occupied a lot of our devotional attention? It may have posed the
risk of distracting us too much from the main goal Jesus came to
accomplish as an adult. “These are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

Besides, what John also said at the end of his Gospel is true.
“Jesus also did many other things. If every one of them were written
down, I suppose the world itself would not have room for the books
that would be written” (John 21:25). That’s talking only about the
roughly three years covering his public ministry, death and
resurrection, to say nothing about the 30 years of his childhood and
growing up. Perhaps, recording the events of the first thirty years of
Jesus' life would have meant a Bible so big we’d need to lift weights
religiously to be able to pick it up, or maybe even a forklift to get it
into a pickup truck to carry it around. We weak human beings have
enough trouble staying faithful to reading our Bible, memorizing
passages, and remembering what God tells us with the size of the
Bible we have. Maybe this is a good example of “less is more.”
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 Some of the conclusions reached in the preceding paragraphs
may raise questions or concerns about their merit. They call for
further explanation. When we strive to be faithful to Scripture and
pray for God’s Spirit to give wisdom and understanding, we are
acting in faith to ponder God’s truths. And when we ponder God’s
truths in faith and ask for God’s Spirit to give understanding, then
we should not doubt the Spirit’s willingness to give generously
(See James1:5-6). We should not dismiss the insights lightly. Let
this point help explain: The conclusions reached in the previous
paragraphs (as well as the entire book) come from the point of
view Jesus, in his divine nature, humbled himself completely to
live entirely as a human being would live, yet without sin. To
explain further, the line of thought unrolls in this way: If we
believe Jesus in his divine nature humbled himself completely and
set aside the use of his divine powers until he needed them to serve
the needs of God’s kingdom in his public ministry. Then, to be
consistent, this would include Jesus’ childhood, adolescence, and
young adult years. Those years would have been lived without
reliance on the use of his divine powers as God. Therefore, it does
not seem logical to assume Jesus in his infancy and early
childhood was always conscious he was also God. To think Jesus
in his human nature always automatically knew he was also God
and what his heavenly Father’s will was would seem to imply his
divine nature with its omniscience was actively engaged to
influence and control his human nature as a child and young man.
That, in turn, would infer Jesus didn’t humble himself completely
to live the human experience as fully as his brothers and sisters in
the flesh do. Then the concern and effort he put into learning the
Scriptures to understand his heavenly Father’s will were more of a
going through the motion’s formality than a necessity for his
human nature. And that sounds like blasphemy. It would also imply
he was, in fact, not tempted in all points LIKE AS WE ARE

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because the danger of falling into sin was not as real for him as it is
for us. And when you put it that way, it sounds like false teaching
pure and simple.

It is true Jesus did not have a sinful nature allied with the devil
and the world’s wishes to trouble him. We recognize his sinless
nature would have enabled him to recognize and resist temptations
more readily. But that doesn’t mean the temptation for sin was any
less for him than it is for us, any more than a 150-pound barbell
weighs less for a workout warrior than it does for a couch potato.
What it does mean is we, the couch potatoes, should be more like
the workout warrior, Jesus—as he worked out the Father’s plan of
salvation. For us, that would mean eating a healthy diet of the solid
food of God’s Word to feed our souls like Jesus did. Doing so
would help us grow in knowledge and, through constant training,
become more able to distinguish good from evil as Jesus did (See
Hebrews 5:11-14). It means we who have been drafted as warriors
into the army of God’s kingdom should be more like the Captain of
our salvation—ready to fight the battle against sin and temptation
by putting on the full armor of God and having the Sword of the
Spirit always at our side ready to grab and unleash a blow against
Satan. See Ephesians 6:10-17. Remember, “One little word can tell
him.” See Martin Luther’s battle hymn for the kingdom of God, A
Mighty Fortress is our God.

What all this means, finally, is we are led to conclude Jesus’

state of humiliation growing up as a child into early adulthood
meant he lived his life just like any other child and young adult. He
had the same situations, emotions, challenges, and temptations to
face as others his age –maybe even more when you wonder about
Satan’s activity. Yet even without his divine nature intervening, he
never sinned. Without being aware of his divinity as an infant and
toddler, he learned to know who he was as he was told by his

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parents and as he grew in knowledge and understanding, being
raised in the truths of God’s Word. What it means, finally, is all
glory be to God. All glory to God includes letting God and his
Word have the final say when it comes to all issues of faith and
life. We are not the ones to say with authority what was, or what
wasn’t, when it comes to matters not clearly stated in Scripture. We
need to remind ourselves again, reflections and conclusions found
in pages such as these are a matter of human conjecture and not
divine revelation. There are enough “it seems” and it “infers” and
“it implies” and we “conclude” in the previous several paragraphs
to safeguard us from thinking we can be sure about our insights in
the same way we can be sure about what God clearly says.
Conceding such conclusions above can be classified as pious
opinion, the author still believes they are true.

The role of Joseph

Before going on to reflect on Jesus’ public ministry in his
adult life, we will conjecture briefly on the subject of his step-
father, Joseph. The Bible says nothing about Joseph after recording
the incident of the twelve-year-old boy, Jesus, being inadvertently
left behind in Jerusalem after the trip there to celebrate the
Passover. The only fair, objective conclusion to be reached in
keeping with the Scripture’s record of Joseph’s character is the one
upon which Biblical commentators have agreed. Sometime before
Jesus’ public ministry began Joseph had died. There is no way of
knowing whether Joseph died by accident, injury, illness, foul play
or even possibly (if, say, Joseph was ten years or so older than
Mary) by the adverse effects upon aging brought on by a pressure-
filled life of danger, hard work, scrutiny, and heavy responsibility.
After all, it was the eternal Son of God, humbled to become true
man and destined to be the Savior of the world, he was entrusted

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with raising. How would you feel if you, along with your wife, had
the responsibility of providing for, protecting, teaching, training
and being an example to this holy child? Being a father is hard
work, heavy with responsibility; none ever more than Joseph had.
How long it was before Jesus’ public ministry began when Joseph
died, we cannot say. We can only safely conclude God’s heavenly
wisdom determined the role for which Joseph had been chosen to
help prepare Mary’s first-born son for his calling had been
completed.

Since Scripture says nothing about Joseph’s life during these

years, why should we be so bold as to comment on it? We
shouldn’t be, nor do we need to be. Nevertheless, the subject is
raised because we conclude it played a significant role in the big
picture of God keeping his Promise. Joseph was a God-fearing
man. He was a merciful and just person who wanted to do what
was right in God’s sight before he knew anything of God’s plans
for him and his betrothed. See Matthew 1:18-25. He listened and
was obedient to God’s directives to him (Matthew 1:24-25 and
2:13-14, 19-23). He and Mary faithfully did what was required on
behalf of the child Jesus according to the ceremonial law (Luke
2:21-24, 39). As Jesus grew and matured in Nazareth his parents
were the ones who home schooled Jesus for his general education
and, more importantly, preparation for his divine calling. No doubt,
Jesus also received instruction in the Old Testament Scriptures at
the feet of rabbis in the synagogue classes in Nazareth which
would serve him well. But it was Joseph and Mary who told him
about his birth, and the angel, and his calling and fleeing to Egypt
as a baby. His parents did all they could to let their toddler child
know who he was, how he was both different from other children
and at the same time like other children who needed to listen, obey
and be respectful to those who were placed over him. Joseph, no
doubt, did his best to prepare Jesus for what lay ahead of him. He
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was a devout and perceptive man, well aware of the religious and
political climate in Israel, and wanted Jesus to be prepared for how
he might not always be well received by those who weren’t so
devout.

As Jesus grew into his teenage years and then young

adulthood, Joseph would have been keenly aware of his
responsibility to guide this adolescent/young adult as God would
have him. Was Joseph too much influenced by the conventional
wisdom of others who believed the Messiah as a descendant of
David would also throw off the rule of the Romans and restore
Israel to glory? As a result, might he have tried to steer Jesus along
those lines of thinking also? (Probably not; Joseph knew the angel
had said he was to “save his people from their sins.”) Was Joseph
so heavily invested in raising and guiding Jesus as he grew up that
he found it difficult to let go and let Jesus be his own man? Would
he feel compelled to offer his guidance and counsel to Jesus once
Jesus “went public” with his life and work? (Maybe; it is often
hard for human fathers to let their sons go). Did God the Father
want to spare Jesus the tension of still wanting to listen to and
respect his earthly father’s wishes when those wishes weren’t
always what Jesus himself thought was best? (Who can say? We
just raise the thought.) Whatever reasons God had to call Joseph
home to heaven before Jesus’ public ministry began lie in the
eternal counsel of our omniscient God. We content ourselves with
knowing God does all things well. All glory to God. All glory to
God for everything he has revealed to us about the second Adam.
All glory to God the preparations he made for the coming of the
Savior were working. All glory to God those preparations were
working to keep his Servant on track – even in the perilous early
years of life - to become the Savior he had Promised in the Garden.
All glory to God, those preparations were working even while the
Servant, himself, in his human nature, was gradually becoming
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aware of who he was and what his calling in life was ordained to
be. Remember, when God made his Promise to Adam and Eve in
the Garden he didn’t say, “I will send my Son to save you.” He
said, “I will send one of your descendants (another human being
like you), to crush the serpent’s head.” All glory to God. His
preparations were working exactly as he had planned, as they
needed to work, in order for his Promise to be kept. God was
pleased. No wonder he announced publicly for John and Jesus to
hear at his Baptism, “This is my Son, whom I love; I am well
pleased with him.” (Matthew 3:17). Years before that moment,
Jesus had come to understand who he was and was preparing
himself for his calling. But, now, he heard it from the voice of God
himself. And, oh, how his heart must have exploded in joy for the
personal reassurance and confidence it gave him. This was his
heavenly Father personally assuring him he was doing the right
thing. Remember, Jesus was living and putting forth the effort to
serve his heavenly Father as true man– the second Adam.

God’s goal for the first Adam, with the command not to eat of
the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, was to have Adam and
Eve grow in their spiritual maturity. They would become more
cognizant and appreciative of the blessing which comes with living
in harmony with God’s will. Of their own free will, they would
naturally and happily choose to do the right thing and maintain life
with God because of the kind of people they would become -
confirmed in their blessed state. But they didn’t reach that goal.
They didn’t become confirmed in sinless, righteous living, but the
second Adam did. And what a blessed life resulted, not just for him
but for all people of the world. Those who believe in him and
continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ will enjoy more and more the peace, hope, joy,
assurance, and confidence they are God’s child, which the Holy
Spirit gives to us here on earth.
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 And upon death, losing their sinful nature interred with their
mortal remains in the ground, they will have a blessed life to enjoy
with God for all eternity – confirmed in righteousness. We repeat
what the heavenly Father said of him when he was about to begin
his public ministry to underscore how perfectly the boy Jesus grew
up, stayed in the Scriptures, became a God-fearing teenager,
responsible adult, and faithful to the Lord’s will in all his ways. At
his Baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and
the voice of God from heaven declared proudly and happily, “This
is my Son, whom I love; I am well pleased with him” (Matthew
3:17).

Jesus’ Public Ministry

God the Father was pleased with the way his Son had
willingly humbled himself to become true man, and prepared
himself to be the second Adam. Jesus was ready. The time to begin
his public ministry had arrived. The work of redeeming the world
was always his calling, all his life. But, until now he had been
preparing himself for his calling. Until now the rest of the country,
with the exception of his family and a few relatives, were unaware
of who he was. And they probably, understandably, said little about
his divinity to others if for no other reason than the difficulties it
would have caused Jesus as a child. Now, to fulfill his calling,
Jesus needed to go public. He certainly knew he was the Son of
God incarnate, but in keeping with how he humbled himself to live
as a true man, he most often viewed himself and called himself
what he was in his human nature: the Son of Man. Jesus knew the
Old Testament Scriptures had referred to him this way in prophecy.
See Psalm 80:17 and Daniel 7:13. And as the God-man, he knew in
order to complete his calling others would have to know who he
was and what he had come to do. He had to teach the people the

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truth about who he was and what he was doing to carry out his
heavenly Father’s will. That’s what he told his fellow townspeople
in the synagogue in Nazareth. “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in
your hearing” (Luke 4:21). That’s what he told the Samaritan
woman at Jacob’s well. She said, “I know that Messiah is coming”
(the one called Christ). When he comes, he will explain everything
to us” (John 4:25). Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you,
am he” (John 4:26).

Jesus also knew he had to prepare people who were believers

to take the message of who he was and what he had come to
accomplish to the rest of the world. That’s what he told his
disciples right after the conversation with the woman at Jacob’s
well. He said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and
to finish his work” (John 4:34). In the subsequent verses, Jesus
reminded them of their role of joining him in reaping the harvest
of souls for the Father’s kingdom (John 4:35-38). It’s the same
work to which he called them when he gathered them as his
disciples. “He said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make
you fishers of men’” (Matthew 4:19). Jesus underscored this
calling after his work of redemption was completed when he gave
them the great commission on the mountain.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and gather disciples from all nations by
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the
instructions I have given you. And surely, I am with you
always until the end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20), C.f.
also Mark 16:16

Jesus did not try to hide the truth of who he was and what he
had come to do from those who resisted him and hated him for it.
Read the following lengthy sections in John where Jesus
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repeatedly spoke of who he was. Even though many refused to
believe him, Jesus made it clear he had come from the Father, and
it was by the Father’s authority he taught and did the things he did.
(John 5:16-47; John 6:34-71; John7:1-52; John 8:12-49). Note the
poignant testimony of John 8:58, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Before
Abraham was born, I am!”– (i.e., Jahweh), and the Jews' response
for such alleged blasphemy in verse 59, “Then they picked up
stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden and left the temple
area.” Read also John 9:35-41; and John 10.

Jesus even made clear who he was when he was on trial for his
life before Caiaphas.

Then the high priest said to him, “I place you under oath
by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of
God!”Jesus said to him, “It is as you have said. But I tell
you, soon you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right
hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
(Matthew 26:63-64)

He implied much the same point when he said to Pilate while

he stood before him on trial. “My kingdom is not of this world… I
am, as you say, a king…Everyone who belongs to the truth listens
to my voice” (John 18:36-37).

Jesus left no doubt in his public ministry about who he was

and how he had come to do his heavenly Father’s will. To
underscore the significance of this point, Jesus in his human nature
knew he was true God, made it clear he was true God and had the
power of God – all while living and serving his heavenly Father as
true man.

What can be said about Jesus’ public ministry as God’s chosen

servant which hasn’t already been said? He had come to be the
second Adam to fulfill God’s promise of a Savior. He had come to

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be the Lord’s chosen servant to do everything God the Father had
directed in Scripture should be done. Fulfilling the Scripture meant
more than just saving the world from sin and death. That was the
ultimate goal, of course, but along the way, Jesus had other duties
to perform. He had come not just to save the lost, but to seek the
lost (Luke 19:10, Zacchaeus Luke 19:1-9, Samaritan woman John
4:1-42). He had come to the house of Israel to teach the way of
salvation, first of all, to them (Matthew 15:24). Though he had a
heart for the Gentiles and ministered to them (Syrophoenician
woman - Mark 7:24-30, Samaritans - John 4:1-42, the Centurion -
Matthew 8:5-10), it was his followers who were commanded to
take the gospel to the rest of the world (Matthew 28:16-20, Mark
16:16). He had come to serve people not only by saving them
eternally, but helping them in earthly ways also (healing of the ten
lepers, the blind, the deaf, the crippled, the ill, and raising the
dead). More importantly, he healed people spiritually by preaching
the gospel to the poor in spirit (contrite sinners), comforting the
brokenhearted (broken by guilt and shame), and comforting people
with God’s forgiveness (Isaiah 40:1-2, Luke 7:47-48,). He
performed miracles not only to help people but also to show his
power as God so people might know he was indeed God’s anointed
one and believe in him (John 10:37-38, John 14:11). He rebuked
error and explained God’s truths to those who were willing to
listen (Luke 8:9-10, Matthew 12:34-37). Jesus’ public ministry
included many things and much has been written about him. There
is much orthodox, sound Scriptural teaching which carefully
proclaims God’s truth. And there is also much which falls into the
category of unscriptural error. This chapter is not written to
expound in detail all the truths about Jesus that others have more
extensively and admirably covered. Nor does it attempt to address
the many errors which have arisen in church history. Our purpose
is to summarize the basic aspects of Jesus’ work of redemption as
the second Adam, and lend a few insights which are, God-willing,
beneficial to the reader.
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 The temptation of Jesus

The first Adam was sufficiently equipped to recognize

temptation. Scripture says, “And it was not Adam who was
deceived; but it was the woman who was deceived and became a
transgressor” (1 Timothy 2:14). Yet, though equipped, Adam had
no experience in resisting temptation. When the first temptation
came, he failed to act on his better knowledge and rely on what
God said and, instead, went along with his wife’s choice. For this
reason, Scripture holds the first Adam responsible for the fall into
sin and the consequence of death which was inflicted on the world.
(Romans 5:12-14). From the Word of God, he had learned growing
up, the second Adam also, was well equipped to recognize
temptation. As a child maturing to adulthood, he recognized and
resisted temptation completely. But now his public ministry was
beginning, and the pressure would increase. The battle was on to
crush Satan’s power and Satan was desperately intent on
preventing that. Satan pulled out all the stops to deceive this
second Adam, also, and ruin God’s plan to restore life for people
instead of death. To prepare Jesus for the onslaught, the Holy Spirit
led Jesus into the wilderness to have Jesus - if you will permit the
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expression - take a Navy Seal style boot camp course in resisting
temptation. This training period would compel Jesus to face
intense pressure in resisting temptation under extreme conditions.
The goal was to give him an increased level of strength for
overcoming some of Satan’s fiercest blows. Think of the Navy
Seal who is prepared to face extremely difficult circumstances to
carry out a dangerous mission against the enemy, or the man who
lifts weights in the gym and by doing so he exercises his muscles
to become stronger. In the same way, Jesus in his human nature
was sent into the wilderness to be made strong and experienced for
the battles with Satan he would constantly face in his public
ministry.

Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by

Satan (Luke 4:1-2). Who knows what kind of temptations Satan
contrived in order to get Jesus to yield to the old evil foe’s
strategies. But Jesus was fresh, strong and determined, and nothing
Satan tried worked. Still, Satan bided his time and would not give
up. At the end of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and prayer, Satan knew
Jesus would be physically weak, famished, thirsty, and mentally
exhausted. Satan may have figured Jesus would not be able to
think clearly under deprivation and weariness and would become
more susceptible to giving in to temptation. So, Satan attempted to
use food to get Jesus to sin. Satan had succeeded in using a similar
strategy with Eve with the fruit which was pleasing to the eye and
the “promised” benefits of eating it. And through Eve’s influence,
Satan also succeeded in getting her husband, Adam, to not trust
God and ignore what God said. We know the result. “So then, just
as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin,
so also death spread to all people because all sinned” (Romans
5:12). This strategy of tempting with food worked the first time
with Adam and Eve, so Satan thought why not try it again? He
knew Jesus would be physically weak, famished, thirsty, and
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mentally exhausted. The food wasn’t readily available like
pleasing fruit. This time, the food - so to speak - was rocks, which
Jesus, with his power, could turn into bread. In Jesus’ famished,
weakened condition, Satan tried to get Jesus to think of his own
needs rather than rely on the Father to care for him. Satan couldn’t
promise Jesus he would become like God. That would be
foolishness, for Satan knew Jesus was the eternal Son of God,
incarnate in human flesh. So, “Use your power, Jesus. You are
hungry; you need food; here are stones. Your Father in heaven isn’t
providing for you. You can’t rely on him for everything, especially
something as simple as food when you can provide for yourself.
Use your power and tell some of these stones to become bread.” At
the heart of the temptation was a sin against the first
commandment – not trusting in God - just like it was with Adam
and Eve in the Garden. And if Satan was successful, the result
would be the same also. Once again it would be death for people
instead of life with God. If Satan could only get the second Adam
in his human nature to not fear, love, and trust in his heavenly
Father above all else, then… Strike one! That’s a swing and a miss,
Satan. Jesus calmly quotes Scripture to put Satan in his place. “It is
written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that
comes out of the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4). Bread is important
enough for life, but spiritual life with God is more important. For
that, we live according to what God says in his Word. To fail to
trust what God says is sin.

Failure! But now, Satan thought he had a way to use Jesus’

trust of God against him. He took him to the highest point of the
temple mount. “So, you trust in God to be with you and care for
you, do you? How much do you trust? Do you really trust God to
care for you in every circumstance of life, completely trust in him
for everything? If you do, prove it! Jump!” Satan even quoted
Scripture in an attempt to get Jesus to do it. “If you are the Son of
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God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his
angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so
that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6).
Satan thought he had Jesus now. How could Jesus refuse to do
something even the Bible says he should be able to? Strike two!
There’s always a flaw with error. Satan quoted Scripture, but he
failed to take into account all of Scripture. If all of Scripture is
true, and it is, then one section of Scripture cannot be pitted against
another section as if the other is not true. Let Scripture interpret
Scripture is a sound Biblical principle. And Jesus did. “Again, it
written, You shall not test the Lord your God (Matthew 4:7). Yes,
God may use his angels to protect us in an accident or dangerous
fall if, in his mercy and wisdom, he so wills. But he may choose
not to do so if he decides it is time to give his child the greater
deliverance of going to heaven - if he sees a higher goal that may
be accomplished. Witness Jesus himself praying in the Garden of
Gethsemane, followed by the bleeding, struggling steps on the road
to Calvary. To trust God to save you in a calamity if it is his will is
one thing. To be reckless with your life and take unnecessary risks
to show off or to misuse God’s promises to try to force God to do
what you demand is quite another. The latter is sinful – which is
why Satan tried to get Jesus to do it.

The backdrop in these temptations was the old evil serpent,

which knew Jesus’ goal was to fulfill God’s promise to crush
Satan's power over people and win them back for God. And Satan
knew God would accomplish what he promised through one of
Eve’s descendants, another human being. How those words,
spoken to him in the Garden, must have rung in his ears and
infuriated him every time he thought of them. Satan knew he was
involved in a battle for souls between his kingdom and God’s
kingdom. And he knew God’s kingdom is one of eternal glory,
power, and majesty. He was once a part of that kingdom before he
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rebelled, and he hated God for throwing him out. He was furious to
get back at God and, by destroying souls, he could deprive God of
the pleasure of sharing his life of glory and majesty with others.
Satan hadn’t figured out exactly how God was going to keep his
Promise to save people from his clutches, but he remembered the
part about the “descendant of the woman.” That much he knew. He
knew about the descendant of the woman being born from
Abraham’s descendants. That’s why four centuries earlier he
tried to keep the king of Persia (Cyrus) from letting a remnant of
Abraham’s descendants return and resettle their homeland. (Cf.
Daniel 9 and 10, especially 10:13 and 20-21). (Refer to chapter
five, in the section with the heading, “Spiritual warfare.”)
Succeeding in that endeavor would have prevented any descendant
of the woman from being born in Bethlehem like, God said. Satan
failed in that endeavor. But now he was trying again.

It was clear Jesus was the one God had promised would come.
He was born of a woman; the angels who announced his birth said
he was the Savior (Luke 2:11); God the Father, himself, had just
verified who Jesus was at his baptism. Jesus was the descendant of
the woman who was sent to win the victory over him. And Satan
was determined to stop him. Satan was the adversary Jesus had to
stop if he was going to gain the victory. Jesus was the adversary
Satan had to stop if he wanted to keep the souls, he had deceived
enslaved in his kingdom of darkness. And Satan understood
enough about Scripture to know if Jesus succeeded in his mission,
he would inherit God’s kingdom of glory and bring all the souls
who follow him in faith to glory also. You can imagine the envy
and contempt Satan had. This descendant of the woman, this son of
man, this human being who was made a little lower than the
angels, would have what he, a powerful angel, coveted to have.
This lowly human being would have favor with God, sitting at the
right hand of the throne of God to rule over God’s kingdom with
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the Father. He would become King of kings and Lord of lords with
honor, majesty, and power in a glorious kingdom instead of Satan.
And Satan was “hell-bound” to stop it.

Satan had failed in his attempts to stop Jesus so far and was
getting desperate. He couldn’t get Jesus to question God’s love and
give up his trust in his heavenly Father’s will. Maybe, Satan
thought, he could appeal to Jesus’ self-interest in another way. Eve
jumped at the chance to become like God knowing good and evil
right away. She thought it would be better than having to wait and
grow into a mature understanding of God’s will like God intended
with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And Adam followed
her. Maybe it would work with the second Adam, also. Appealing
to people’s desire for glory and riches, and power usually works
with others. “It’s what I want,” Satan thought. “It can work here
too. Promise this anointed one all the power and riches and the
glory of earthly kingdoms right now. Surely, this second Adam
must understand how difficult I can make things for him if he
doesn’t accept my offer. He knows the Scripture; surely, he must
know how difficult a task it will be for him to keep doing God’s
will without sinning all his life. He knows how much hardship,
resistance, and pain he’s going to have to face to accomplish his
goal. Surely, he must know how much he’s going to have to give of
himself all the time and have second thoughts about whether it’s all
worth it.” Jesus didn’t think that way, of course, but Satan could
only think according to his selfish, pride-filled nature and fool
himself into thinking Jesus would react like many other people
have when so tempted.
“I am the ruler of this world,” Satan figured. Not really, but in
a sense he was. It is a vast kingdom of people in this world in
whose heart Satan rules. And he does rule tyrannically, to enslave
people in their sins, leading them astray with his lies, filling their
hearts with selfishness, lust, and a desire for riches, power, and
glory. But there is no peace in people’s hearts in his kingdom – just
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anger, fear, hopelessness, and despair. “There is no peace, says my
God, for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21). The Bible acknowledges the
kind of rule Satan has in the hearts of the wicked and calls Satan
the Prince of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). It agrees the
ones who are disobedient to God are obedient to Satan. “…you
followed the ways of this present world. You were following the
ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people
who disobey” (Ephesians 2:2). So, in a sense, Satan could offer
Jesus what he had stolen from God in the first place. It would be a
shortcut for Jesus, the easy way out, the immediate path to glory
and riches and fame. He could have all the glory without all the
effort, pain, and suffering he would endure if he did it God’s way.
And so, Satan made the offer (wink, wink - we know he is a liar).
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed
him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him,
‘I will give you all of these things, if you will bow down and
worship me’” (Matthew 4:8-9). Strike three! You’re out of here,
Satan. “Jesus said to him, ‘Go away from me, Satan! For it is
written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”(Matthew
4:10). Again, Jesus turned to the Scriptures and the mandate of the
first commandment: fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
The devil did leave. The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God, will always prevail against Satan if you use it. With Satan
gone, the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was over. And the
second Adam did not fall, like the first Adam had. When it was
over, the lying spin Satan tried to put on the care of angels was
discredited by the truth of God’s loving care when angels came and
attended to Jesus’ needs. Satan would be back again, that is true,
but Jesus, tested, proven, and prepared, would be ready.
Jesus’ human nature grew stronger spiritually by resisting
temptation in his wilderness trial. It was exactly what the Holy
Spirit intended when he led Jesus into the desert to be tempted.
Having been strenuously exercised to become strong and skillful in

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the important ability to recognize and rebuff Satan’s most insidious
lies, the second Adam now began his public ministry. As we begin
this brief overview of Jesus’ public ministry, we reiterate that Jesus
was performing a task. He was carrying out the calling for which
the heavenly Father had sent him, that is, to become a true man, the
second Adam, for the purpose of keeping God’s Promise of a
Savior and restoring a fallen world to life with God.
As we review different aspects of Jesus’ public ministry, keep
in mind the writers of the four Gospels are striving to communicate
the life and blessings of Jesus to different audiences. They have
different vocabularies and styles of writing and differing incidents
and points they record by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They
assembled the events in Jesus' life to vividly tell Jesus’ story. The
Gospel writers never intended to write formal history but to
effectively highlight the events in Jesus’ life. As a result, when
comparing Gospel accounts, it is not always possible to give an
exact chronological sequence of events. The first three Gospel
writers—Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic
Gospel writers because their records, in general, follow a more
chronological timeline, and weaving them together gives us an
overall harmony or synopsis of Jesus’ life and ministry (seeing
things together). The fourth Gospel writer, John, spends less time
recording a timeline of events and focuses more on the teachings
and love of Jesus, focusing especially on the last weeks of Jesus’
life and his passion. Our purpose is not to try to sort out all the
details of when Jesus said or did things, or why one Gospel writer
writes about one incident or teaching of Jesus and another does not
mention it. Our focus is to emphasize how wisely and willingly
Jesus went about his heavenly Father’s business. Despite sinful
opposition and rejection by many he still wondrously performed
his duty and made sure God’s Promise to Adam and Eve in the
Garden was kept—for all mankind.

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 Jesus gathers his disciples
One of the first things Jesus did in his ministry was to begin
gathering his disciples. John the Baptist had been preparing the
way for people to receive Jesus as the promised Messiah and
specifically pointed Jesus out to his disciples. “Look! The Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29. Verses 30-
34 also call Jesus the Son of God). When John identified Jesus
again the next day (John 1:36), the disciples with him got the
message. They left John and started following Jesus as well as
telling others about Jesus (John 1:40-51 - Andrew tells brother
Peter, and Philip finds friend Nathanael). More would follow when
Jesus found others to become his disciples from among the faithful
believers God had preserved in Israel. Gathering all the men Jesus
officially called to follow him as his disciples (Matthew 4:18-22
and Luke 5:1-11; Mark 2:11 and Luke 5:27) took some time, but it
took place early in his public ministry and the purpose was clear.
They were to watch, learn, and be taught directly by Jesus, not
only the truths of God’s kingdom but the caring for and feeding of
souls they would be called upon to do. They were being trained
and equipped for ministry so they would be ready to spread to the
world the good news of what Jesus had accomplished when his
work on earth was finished.
Jesus began his public ministry “low-key.” His intention was
not to draw attention to himself with drum beating, siren sounding,
and wonder-working display of power as the son of God. He wanted
people to be drawn to him to hear what he had to say rather than
marvel at what he could do. He wanted the lost sheep of the house
of Israel to learn the truths of God’s Word and to touch their hearts
in a way they hadn’t experienced before. He didn’t want those sheep
just to follow him as the alpha ram because they thought he would
smash Rome’s power over them. He wanted them to see him as the
innocent lamb whom John the Baptist described. This lamb would,

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in his own way, smash a far greater power than Rome. Specifically,
Jesus wanted people to see the promises of Scripture read from
Synagogue scrolls every Sabbath were now being fulfilled. The
passages which elaborated on the Promise God spoke in the Garden
were now coming true. Their fulfillment would make the words of
David ring true, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to
the house of the Lord’” (Psalm 122:1); and the feelings of Jeremiah
come alive, “Your words came to me, and I devoured them. Your
words became my joy, the delight of my heart…” (Jeremiah 15:16);
and the waiting of the Psalmist finally over who said, “My soul
waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more
than watchmen wait for the morning.” (Psalm 130:6); and give
people hope in life. Jesus wanted them to understand he was the
Prophet which Moses had said would come to teach them like
Moses had, and listen to him. He didn’t want people rushing to him
to see him perform miracles and ask for his help for earthly needs
without taking time to hear about the truths which would help the
spiritual need of their souls.

The wedding at Cana

Jesus’ desire to begin his public ministry in a low-key manner
is the reason he spoke to his mother the way he did shortly after he
started gathering his first disciples. Jesus had been invited with his
disciples to the wedding at Cana and Christians have all heard
about the problem which developed at the wedding reception – the
guests had run out of wine. When Mary wanted Jesus to do
something to help, he said, “Woman, what does that have to do
with me? My time has not come yet come” (John 2:4). Jesus was
not being unkind to his mother or indifferent to the wedding
couple’s needs. You can almost hear the tone in his voice as he
says, “Woman,” and feel the struggle in his heart when he balanced
her legitimate request with his original plan of not showing off his
divine power right away. Of course, the prayer of a righteous
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person is powerful and effective (James 5:16) and does not get
dismissed lightly. So, in his compassion for the wedding couple,
Jesus accommodated the wishes of his mother and, by changing
water into wine, provided the help they needed. Compassion for
people's lives took precedence over ministry strategy.

Serving the Father as true man

One more thought occurs on the subject of Jesus performing

his first miracle which merits consideration, but not an answer
which warrants unequivocal acceptance. Did Jesus change the
water into wine by his own power as God? Or, as true man, did he
call on the power of God the Father to carry out the miracle fully
confident of the result because he trusted his Father to be with
him? In other words, did he perform this miracle by himself as true
God? Or did he continue to lay aside the use of his power as God
and perform the miracle as true man in the same way he told the
disciples to rely on their faith in God? If they had the faith of a
mustard seed, they could move mountains (Matthew 17:20), or
uproot trees to be planted in the sea (John 17:6). In the same way
Peter by faith in God’s power later did heal the crippled man at the
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temple gate (Acts 3:1-8) and raise Dorcas from the dead in Joppa
(Acts 9:36-41). It is fully giving glory to God to think this person
who served God in his human nature as the second Adam, humbled
himself as true man also by turning to his heavenly Father for the
power and strength to perform miracles. This latter possibility is
raised also because of the way in which Jesus’ raised Lazarus from
the dead is recorded. In that instance, Jesus thanked his heavenly
Father for hearing him in the matter of raising Lazarus from death,
even as the Father always heard his prayers regarding the things
Jesus said and did. When they took away the stone, John writes,
“Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you heard me.
I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the
crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me”
(John 11:41-42).

This possibility seems plausible and is not in violation of

Scriptural truth because there are other instances in which Jesus
indicates his reliance on the heavenly Father to do miraculous
things. Think of what happened in Gethsemane when Peter tried to
protect Jesus from arrest with the sword. Jesus put an end to that
and said to Peter in the hearing of all the rest, “Do you not realize
that I could call on my Father, and at once he would provide me
with more than twelve legions of angels? But then how would the
Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” (Matthew
26:53-54). Note: Jesus didn’t say, “Do you not realize I can
command twelve legions of angels to help me?” or, “That I – as
God – couldn’t “crush their puny human powers if I chose to?” He
said, “…that I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at
my disposal more than twelve legions of angels.” Or think, also, of
what Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews when they picked up
stones to stone him. “But Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you
many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you
stone me?” (John 10:32). In the rest of the conversation Jesus
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continued to show the intimate relation he had with his heavenly
Father as he defended himself as a man against the claims of
blasphemy.“If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not
believe me. But if I am doing them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works so that you will know and understand that the
Father is in me, and I am in the Father” (John 10:37-38). See,
also, John 10:25 in which Jesus referred to the miracles which he
did “in my Father’s name.” It is a given that Jesus, as true God,
would always be doing what his heavenly Father willed. However,
Jesus wanted it to be clear what he did and said as true man (John
7:16 and 8:28) was always fully in keeping with his Father’s will.

Certainly, we can say by his miracles Jesus also made clear the
truth of his divinity, even to those whowould not believe in him.
See John 8:58 and John 10:25-26. In other words, he also acted on
his own authority and power as true God to perform miracles and
do things in keeping with his heavenly Father’s will when needed.
Jesus healing the centurion’s servant (John 7:1-10), raising the
widow of Nain’s son (John 7:11-15), reading the hearts of his
enemies (Mark 2:6-8), identifying his betrayer (John 13:9-11 and
18-19), etc., would seem to be evidence of that. On occasion, as
needed, he did use his own power as God to carry out his public
ministry and fulfill Scripture’s prophecies. The point we are
making, however, is Jesus never lost sight of or shunned the reality
he was the second Adam. He was the true man God said would
come as the descendant of the woman whom God anointed to
fulfill his promise of a Savior. He predominately referred to
himself as the son of man and humbled himself to live, serve,
teach, and work as a true man to fulfill all righteousness as a man.
He taught as a man according to what he had learned from the
Scriptures and from his parents and teachers growing up. And,
often, what he did to help, heal, and serve people in their needs he
did as true man by calling on his heavenly Father’s help and
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strength to be with him. As God, the Son, he submitted himself to
his heavenly Father’s will and came to earth to become, also, true
man, the son of Mary. And as true man at his baptism, he was
anointed by the Holy Spirit with the wisdom and power of God to
be with him in order to carry out his ministry as the second Adam
and save people from sin and death. He was Jesus, the Christ.

The threefold office of the Anointed One

To be anointed means to have some substance poured upon a
person (usually water, or some anointing oil, or perfume) in order
to identify that person as honored or called to some special
capacity. Think of how Jesus was anointed with perfume in
Bethany by Mary, the sister of Martha, to honor him in advance as
one set apart for burial. Think of how the waters of Baptism are
poured out (or sprinkled) on a person to set him or her apart as a
believing child of God called to live their faith as a child of God all
their lives. More pertinent to its general usage in the nation of
Israel, anointing a person with oil served as public induction into
office for those who served in public offices such as a king, priest,
or prophet. This is the way Jesus is identified as God’s Anointed
One. At his baptism the Holy Spirit was poured out upon him to
guide and strengthen him for his calling to be the second Adam and
do the work of saving people from their sins. As the one God
anointed to keep the Promise of a Savior, Jesus’ calling carried
with it a number of responsibilities. Jesus was always aware the
fulfillment of his calling to be God’s servant would lead up to and
culminate at the cross, but he was completely cognizant of all the
other aspects of his calling to be the Anointed One (Hebrew: the
Messiah; Greek: the Christ) as well. In his public ministry, he
served faithfully, doing all the things the Scriptures had outlined
that God’s servant would be doing. Following the lead of Scripture,

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the Christian Church has traditionally taught Jesus was given three
different offices to perform his duties. This teaching is entitled The
Threefold Office of Christ: Prophet, Priest, and King. This is
because, in a similar, but far higher and more complete way, Jesus
was to perform the same kinds of duties Old Testament prophets,
priests, and kings had carried out before him.

Prophet
As a prophet, Jesus was to teach and preach God’s Word to
lead people to understand God’s will. This duty included the
proclamation of God’s law as Moses, the law giver, had done when
Israel first became a nation out of Egypt. For Jesus it meant, also,
expounding and explaining the intent of those laws. That included
how the law was to be used to guide people in their daily lives, as
well as rebuking God’s people for their sinful ways in breaking
God’s law and warning them of God’s judgments like the Old
Testament prophets had done before him. His warning of God’s
judgments included prophecies of the last times and the end of the
world. However, like the Old Testament prophets - and even more
so – Jesus’ preaching always had the gospel as foundation. He
knew why he was sent, and his teaching was the most important
thing God the Father wanted people to hear. In Zacchaeus’ house,
he proclaimed, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the
lost” (Luke 19:10). Think not only of Zacchaeus, but Nicodemus,
the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and others. He had come
“...to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set
free those who are oppressed…to bind up the broken hearted, to
comfort all who mourn…” (excerpts from Luke 4:18-19 and Isaiah
61:2). Think of the sinful woman who anointed his feet, the
woman taken in adultery, Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus,
and others. Jesus was locked in and diligent in his duty to be a
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prophet to the people as he went through the towns and villages
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom (Luke 9:35). He had great compassion for their souls
(Luke 9:36) and earnestly wanted people to know what God was
doing through him to keep the Promise of a Savior.

Priest
As a priest, Jesus served as the intermediary between God and
people. One way of remembering the difference between a prophet
and a priest is to recall the confirmation class illustration of two
arrows. One arrow pointed down and represented God speaking to
his people through his prophets. The other arrow pointed up and
represented the priests going to God on behalf of the people. There
were duties the priests carried out in their hometowns when they
were not serving their appointed shifts at the Temple in Jerusalem.
Serving as a health official was one of them as, for example, when
Jesus directed the ten lepers to show themselves to the priest
whose duty it was to declare a person cured of leprosy
‘clean.’(Other duties going back to the time of the Tabernacle and
Aaron’s sons are spelled out in the books of Leviticus and
Numbers). The most prominent features of the priesthood,
however, are to be found in the Temple and its courts. There is
where the priests received the animals the people brought and
offered them up as sacrifices to God according to the various types
and occasions prescribed by God. There is where the priests
offered up the daily prayers interceding for the people before God.
Of particular note was the role of the High Priest who was the only
person who could enter into the presence of God in the most holy
room where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. This was on the
annual Day of Atonement when the priest carried out his duties to
make atonement for the sins of the people.

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 In the discussion about priests and the High Priest and their
sacrificing duties according to the ceremonial law, it is important
to remember the purpose God had in mind. The sacrifices they
offered on behalf of the people never had any value before God to
take away sin. They were intended by God to serve as a regular,
daily, bloody reminder of people’s sins and the need to be saved
from the punishment of death their sins deserved. Those sacrifices
pointed forward to the one great sacrifice for sin who was coming.
They were intended to help people remember what God promised
about a Savior from sin. His heel would be struck by the fatal bite
of the serpent when “darkness ruled” and Satan orchestrated the
bloody execution of Jesus’ life on the cross at the hands of wicked
men. But the evil acts of men and Satan were used by God for his
purposes. Jesus’ death became the sacrifice for sin divine justice
required and, in the process, crushed Satan’s power. By his
sacrificial death, Jesus did satisfy God’s wrath against sin in our
place. He became the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world as the Scriptures had prophesied (Isaiah 53:5-7) and John the
Baptist had preached (John 1:29). In the first fourteen verses of
chapter ten, the writer to the Hebrews spells it out clearly.

In fact, the law is only a shadow of the good things to

come, not the actual realization of those things. It will
never be able to make perfect those who continually offer
the same sacrifices year after year. If it could do this, would
they not have stopped bringing sacrifices, because the
worshippers, once they were cleansed, would no longer
have a bad conscience about sins? Instead, these sacrifices
reminded them of their sins year after year. The fact is that
the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.
(Hebrews 10:1-4)

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 And then the author goes on to show how Jesus Christ is the
fulfillment of what those Old Testament sacrifices foreshadowed.
He is the one whose sacrifice does take away our sin.

Therefore when he entered the world, Christ said: Sacrifice

and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for
me. You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin
offerings. (in the sense that they were insufficient to take away
our sins).Then I said, “Here I am. I have come to do your will,
God. In the scroll of the book, it is written about me.”

First, he said: Sacrifices and offerings that were offered

according to the law, both burnt offerings and sin offerings,
you did not desire, and you were not pleased with them. Then
he said: Here I am. I have come to do your will. He does away
with the first (the Old Testament Covenant based on the law),
in order to establish the second (the New Testament Covenant
based on the gospel and his sacrifice for sin for us). By this
will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the
sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ.

In the one case, every priest stood ministering day after day,
offering the same sacrifices again and again, which are
never able to remove sin (Old Testament priests and their
daily sacrifices). In the other case, this priest (Jesus Christ,
our great High Priest), after he offered one sacrifice for sins
for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. Since then,
he has been waiting until his enemies are made a footstool
under his feet. By only one sacrifice he has made perfect
forever those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:5-14)

Once his sacrifice for our sins was completed – “once for all,”
as stated in the passage above – Jesus, our great High Priest, never
had to make atonement as High Priest again.

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 Becoming the one great sacrifice to satisfy God’s wrath against
sin on our behalf was not the only way Jesus carried out his office of
priest. He, who made it possible for people to be spiritually clean and
healthy by taking away the guilt of our sin, was also - and still is -
concerned about people’s physical well-being. Whenever he had
compassion on people’s physical needs, whether it was by feeding the
multitudes by the Sea of Galilee, performing a miracle of healing,
or making a judgment call not to punish the woman guilty of
adultery (see Numbers 5:5-31 for comparison to the priests’ role
in determining adulterous accusations), he was not just demonstrating
his kingly power (Office of King). He was also reflecting the role of
the Old Testament priests in their assigned duties as guardians of
bodily health and morality.
Jesus served as a priest, also, by being an intercessor for the
people before God. Certainly, believing children of God could
always come to God with their own prayers and be confident they
would be heard. In Psalm 66, the holy writer says, “but God has
surely listened. He has paid attention to the sound of my
prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned aside my prayer
or turned aside his mercy from me! (Psalm 66:19, 20). And so,
David prayed, “May the speech from my mouth and the thoughts in
my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer”
(Psalm 19:14). Abraham acted boldly to plead with God repeatedly
to spare Sodom for the sake of Lot, and Jacob struggled with God
in prayer for protection from his brother’s feared vengeance on the
banks of Jabbok, and Elijah prayed with confidence for it not to
rain upon Israel as a warning to Ahab and the people of Israel (and
it didn’t rain for 3 ½ years). Old Testament believers trusted God to
hear their prayers, not because of their own merit, but because they
knew God was a gracious and merciful God. He promised to have
mercy on those who came to him with repentant hearts and trusted
in his promise of a Savior.

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 At the same time, in an official capacity, the Old Testament
priests offered prayers on behalf of the people at the hours of
morning and evening sacrifice. They were types of the one great
High Priest to come. Jesus is that great High Priest who in his
office as priest still intercedes for his people. Jesus’ prayer life was
exemplary as we might expect. A number of times the Bible speaks
of Jesus withdrawing to be alone with his heavenly Father in
prayer. He prayed for courage and strength to carry out his Father’s
will of saving people, but regularly prayed also for other people.
He prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:32) in the
hour of temptation, and for the benefit of the people gathered at
Lazarus tomb “so that they may believe that you sent me” (John
11:42). In what is known as his High Priestly prayer, Jesus prayed
both for his disciples and for all who would believe in him through
their message (John 17:20). And Jesus continues serving in his
office as our High Priest Jesus still today by interceding for us
before the throne of God in heaven. “…he is able to save forever
those who come to God through him, because he always lives to
plead on their behalf” (Hebrews 7:25). “Intercessor, Friend of
sinners, Earth’s Redeemer, hear our plea…” the hymn writer wrote
(CW 169). Stop for a moment to reflect on all the things for which
Jesus, your Friend, your Redeemer and your great High Priest,
intercedes for you as his child in your battle of faith. It is safe to
venture, it is far more than you realize.

King
As our King, Jesus rules. It is easy to say Jesus rules in
heaven. Paul wrote:

How surpassingly great his power is for us who believe. It is

as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God
worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far

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 above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above
every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the
one to come. God also placed all things under his feet and
made him head over everything for the church. (Ephesians
1:19b-22)

The passage is referring to Jesus’ ruling in his state of exaltation

in heaven after the resurrection. Jesus also ruled in his state of
humiliation on earth when he carried out his Father’s will as the
second Adam. He ruled over the forces of nature. “Then he got up,
rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a complete calm.The
men were amazed, saying, “What kind of a man is this? Even the
wind and the sea obey him!”(Matthew 8:26b-27). He ruled over the
forces of evil in Satan’s kingdom by casting out demons and
explained,

Yet if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the

kingdom of God has come upon you.When a strong man,
fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are
safe. But when someone stronger attacks him and defeats
him, he takes away that man’s full armor, in which he had
trusted, and divides up his plunder. (Luke 11:20-22)

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 Most importantly, Jesus ruled in the hearts of his followers
when the Holy Spirit led them to believe in him and put their trust
in what he said. The disciples said, “Lord, to whom will we go?
You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). The people of
Sychar at Jacob’s well also are an example. “Many more believed
because of his message. They told the woman, ‘We no longer
believe because of what you said. Now we have heard for
ourselves. And we know that this really is the Savior of the world’”
(John 4:41-42).

It is evident from Scripture the way Jesus rules differs

according to the circumstances he addresses and the means he uses
to rule. For this reason, the church has clarified the distinctions in
Jesus’ ruling authority by referring to the activity of Jesus in his
office as king into another threefold division - not of his office but
of his kingdom. This division is the kingdom of power, the
kingdom of grace, and the kingdom of glory. In the kingdom of
power, Jesus rules in the physical world of men and nature and in
the spiritual world of angels to accomplish God’s will with his
power. In the kingdom of grace, Jesus rules in the hearts of people
in the spiritual matters of faith by the gracious working of the Holy
Spirit through the Word and Sacraments. And in the kingdom of
glory, Jesus rules all things with his power and his grace in the
glorious kingdom of heaven.

Jesus’ kingdom of grace here on earth is the most important

one for our consideration and was the most important one for Jesus
while he was here on earth. The reason is God saves no one by
using his power to force people to behave and be the kind of
citizens he wants us to be. Only when Jesus changes our hearts by
the gracious working of the Holy Spirit through the Word and
Sacraments, do we become willing children of God who fear, love,
and trust in him with our hearts. Only then do we become citizens

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in his kingdom of grace. A warning is in place, however. If we start
listening to the rebellious cries of our sinful nature urging us to
protest against the rule of God’s Word in our hearts because we
want to live like the rest of the world, that puts our citizenship in
the kingdom of grace at risk. We are in danger of becoming like an
unhappy citizen who doesn’t like to pay his taxes, disrespects
authority, and disregards the laws of the land which he doesn’t like.
(Disobeying an earthly law which requires people to sin is another
matter. “...We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Think
of the Old Testament examples of the three men in the furnace, and
Daniel in the lion’s den).

A Christian who resents and disregards the rule of God’s Word

in his heart is like a person who ends up emigrating from a free and
prosperous country with many benefits to take up citizenship in
another country he thinks will be better. Only he lives to regret it
because it turns out the other country is run by a tyrannical dictator
who takes away all his freedoms and makes life miserable for
everyone. That’s what the child of God is doing when he falls
away from faith. He is leaving God’s wonderful kingdom of grace
with all its blessings to join the kingdom of darkness run by the
lying despot Satan with all his murderous oppression. We need to
remain loyal citizens who listen to our King and obey him all our
lives with repentance and faith if we want to enjoy his kingdom of
glory. And that’s the goal. “...Be faithful until death, and I will give
you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). That is the goal Jesus
always had in mind when he taught about God’s kingdom. Stay in
his kingdom of grace now by faith and inherit the kingdom of
glory hereafter.

Unfortunately, the kingly office of Jesus is the one most

frequently misunderstood. The inability (or unwillingness) to
understand the difference between Jesus’ rule in the kingdom of

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power in this world, and the spiritual rule of his kingdom of grace in
our hearts has plagued the church for ages. This is related, also, to
the misguided desire for earthly glory in God’s kingdom here on
earth often called a theology of glory. Instead of being content to
wait for the glory God promises in heaven people desire, or
mistakenly expect, God to make everything good for them in this
earthly life. These misunderstandings and desires also plagued
Jesus’ ministry during his time on earth.

The people of Israel had a decent grasp of what the coming

Messiah’s role as prophet would be. They knew the prophecy of
Moses that another prophet like him would come from among their
own people to whom they should listen (See Deuteronomy 18:15).
Early on, some wondered whether Jesus was that prophet or some
other prophet who had come back to life. See Matthew 16:14.
When Jesus raised the widow of Nain’s son, people were awed and
praised God saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us… God
has visited his people” (Luke 7:16). They said this because like
great prophets of old, Jesus had the power to raise people from the
dead. Later on, after his feeding of the five thousand, and again
after listening to his powerful teaching at the Feast of Tabernacles,
some said, “This is truly the Prophet” (John 7:40) meaning the one
about whom Moses had spoken. So, whether Jesus was perceived
to be another great prophet like in years gone by or actually the
fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy, Jesus was readily recognized and
accepted by many as “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” He
had come to teach God’s Word to people and to help them.

The peoples’ understanding of Jesus’ role as a purported king,

however, was, in most cases, decidedly tainted. It’s not hard to see
why many in Israel were confused about Jesus’ role as king and
had a misunderstanding of what it involved. Human nature is what
it is. Unless corrected, misconceptions get easily transmitted from
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one generation to the next. For centuries the people of Israel had
heard about a righteous branch one day growing out of Jesse’s root
to become king over Israel again. Jeremiah wrote, “Listen, the
days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David
a righteous Branch, who will reign wisely as king and establish
justice and righteousness on earth. In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel will dwell securely.” (Jeremiah 23:5-6a). It will be
wonderful they thought. Except too many did not focus on the
implications of the last part of Jeremiah’s prophecy: “This is his
name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness”
(Jeremiah 23:6b).See also Jeremiah 33:15-16a. Not only that, but
this branch which would come from the roots of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1)
would also rule over the Gentiles in his kingdom.

Nations will walk to your light, and kings to the brightness of

your dawn. Look up. Look all around and see! All of them
have been gathered. They are coming to you. Your sons will
come from far away, and people will carry your daughters
on their side. Then you will look and be radiant. Your heart
will race with excitement and burst with joy. For great riches
from the sea will be delivered to you. The wealth of the
nations will come to you. (Isaiah 60:3-5)

Unfortunately, many people saw such prophecies as promising

a great earthly rule for Israel instead of the spiritual blessings of
God’s heavenly kingdom. So when great David’s greater son
would finally come to establish himself as king, the prevailing
expectations were he would establish an earthly rule to elevate
Israel to its former glory and subjugate Gentile nations to himself.
The conviction was so widespread and deep-seated even John the
Baptist in prison sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the
Coming One, or should we wait for someone else?” (Matthew
11:2). Whether it was for himself or for the assurance of his
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(John’s) disciples cannot be clearly discerned. But the question
seems to have stemmed from the failure to see any progress by
Jesus in throwing off the rule of the Romans and reestablishing
Israel’s autonomy as a nation. They heard about the miracles of
healing and help, and the preaching and the teaching up in Galilee.
All well and good, but where was the show of power against the
wicked? Where was the ax already being laid to the root of the
trees (Matthew 3:10); where was the winnowing fork in his hand to
gather the wheat into his barn (the believers) and burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire (the unbelievers) as John had prophesied
(Matthew 3:12)? Where was the judgment against the unbelieving
nation of Israel and the restoration of the new God fearing,
glorious kingdom God had promised? Jesus’ answer simply
directed them to the Scriptures. Were the Scriptures not being
fulfilled by what he was doing? Blessed is the man who does not
fall away because they don’t see Jesus doing what they expect him
to do and when they think he should be doing things. Just believe
the Scriptures were being fulfilled by the miraculous signs Jesus
did do. Even Jesus’ own disciples had a difficult time ridding
themselves of this misconception and on the day of his ascension
still asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you are going to
restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

Unfortunately, those who thought this way did not examine

earnestly what the Old Testament Scriptures said about this
subject. The Scriptures of the Old Testament are very clear about
what kind of king the coming Savior would be here on earth. The
passages which speak of his kingship, also over the Gentiles,
invariably include references to his rule bringing us into a right
relationship with God. The passages from Jeremiah cited above
conclude with the important truth, “This is the name by which he
will be called: The Lord our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6b and

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33:16b). Those who let the coming King rule in their hearts will be
righteous in God’s sight and will be saved eternally. They are
promised righteousness in God’s sight, not the benefits of peace
and prosperity in a glorious earthly kingdom. In chapter eleven of
his book, Isaiah describes at length what kind of king and what
kind of kingdom will be established when the fulfillment of God’s
promise comes. In verses 1-5, Isaiah says, “The Spirit of the Lord
will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding… and he
will be delighted in the fear of the Lord (He is going to rule
according to the will and wisdom of God)… with righteousness he
will judge the poor (those who recognize their need for God’s
mercy), and he will render fair decisions in favor of the oppressed
on earth (it will be a good decision of mercy for all people of the
world who are poor in spirit with contrite hearts of faith)… But,
also, He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with
the breath from his lips, he will put the wicked to death… (It is not
with sharpened sword of strategic missile that he will fight against
this world and strike it with his judgments – and final judgment –
or slay the wicked, but with the Word of his mouth as he says
“Depart from me” and declares the judgments of his law upon all
the ungodly.) “Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the
sash around his waist…”He will always do what is right in God’s
sight and be faithful to what God has promised. In verses 6-9
Isaiah paints the beautiful picture of nature itself living in complete
harmony and goodness without any harm or evil to spoil life in the
kingdom the coming king will establish.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie
down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the
fattened calf together, and a little child will lead them. The
cow and the bear will graze together, and their young ones
will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the cattle.
The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the
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 weaned child will put his hand into a viper’s den. They will
not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the
earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters
cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Isaiah’s description of harmony in chapter 11:6-9, can only

refer to the perfect kingdom of glory in the new heavens and the
new earth. The citizens of God’s kingdom are patiently waiting for
this kingdom to be put in place when the King comes again on the
last day. See Romans 8:18-25. Life here and now will continue to
be a life of trial and trouble as God’s people endure the toil and
turmoil, pain and hardship, and death that prevail in a world of sin.
See Acts 14:22. Finally, in the closing verses of chapter eleven
Isaiah makes clear the blessing of eternal rest in God’s kingdom of
glory is to be enjoyed by people from all nations who come to him
in faith. “This is what will take place on that day. The peoples will
seek the Root of Jesse, who will be standing like a banner for the
peoples, and his resting place will be glorious” (Isaiah 11:.10),
while those who are not God’s people will suffer the consequences
(vs.11-16). Read, also, the six verses of Isaiah 12 for the proper
emphasis of how to understand the kingdom that Jesus came to
establish.

The passages from Jeremiah and Isaiah cited on these pages

are only a sample of the variety of passages the Old Testament has
to offer to help us savor the truth about Jesus’ role as our King. The
Psalms have many references to the office of king that Jesus held
according to God’s anointing. Psalm 145, in its entirety, is a good
example.

I will exalt you, my God, the King; and I will bless your name
forever and ever… Everyone you have made will thank you,
O Lord, and the ones you favor will bless you. They will tell
about the glory of your kingdom, and they will speak about
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 your might, to make known his might to the children of Adam,
to make known the glorious splendor of his kingdom. Your
kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, and your dominion
endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his
words and merciful toward all he has made. (Psalm 145:1 and
10-13)

Don’t take only a small bite of Psalm 145, enjoy the whole
Psalm. So, too, Daniel and the minor prophets provide us with a
well-rounded diet of all we can digest concerning Jesus’ office as
king. Unfortunately, through the course of time the mindset of
many people in Israel started favoring what appealed to their desire
for a king who would establish an earthly kingdom of glory for
them. Unfortunately, still today, many who profess Christianity
pick and choose what they want to eat (interpret) to satisfy their
longing for a better life of a godly kingdom here on earth. It will
never be. This world is a world of sin in the midst of rebellion
against God. It wants no part of the bread of life God offers to feed
people’s souls. Our sinful flesh and the world with its prince of
darkness will never bow down before God’s king – until he comes
again.

Time has been spent on the subject of Jesus’ threefold office of

prophet, priest, and king for a reason. It is important to understand
everything Jesus did as true man he did to carry out all the roles
and responsibilities the Scriptures had outlined for him. These
were the things his heavenly father had ordained for him to do in
order to rescue us from the devil’s kingdom – in order for him to
be the second Adam God had promised would save us. And Jesus
held these offices and carried out their duties not consecutively, but
concurrently. He wore all three “hats”: Crown, Mitre and prophet’s
shawl at the same time. And it was an extraordinarily difficult task
to be faithful to each job description fully. Can you imagine how

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difficult a job it would be for one person to be a player, coach and
general manager in the NFL at the same time and commit all the
time, energy, effort and wisdom to do justice to each position
completely? They would do it only for earthy gain and fleeting
glory – for themselves. And, if they win, it’s only a paltry trophy
and pittance of money they gain compared to the heavenly riches
and eternal glory for which Jesus was laboring – for everyone. If
NFL coaches failed, they would only lose their jobs and, perhaps,
some respect. If Jesus would have failed, we all would have lost
our lives, and the shame and disgrace of eternity would be our lot.
Jesus worked long hours and often stayed up late into the morning
to pray to his heavenly Father for guidance and strength. It’s no
wonder he could end up sleeping, exhausted, in a boat in the midst
of a severe storm and was disappointed when his followers didn’t
get it or even watch with him for one hour. Yet Jesus did it all,
patiently, willingly and perfectly.

Popularity and Opposition

When Jesus began his public ministry, he was well-received
by many at first. It’s not hard to imagine the wave of fervor which
began to swell over the nation as news about the prophet from
Nazareth spread. Gatherer of disciples, worker of miracles,
powerful preacher, compassionate person, teaching things people
hadn’t heard before to his followers, filling their hearts with
excitement and hope; the word spread, and the crowds came.

Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in their

synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing
every disease and every sickness among the people. News
about him spread throughout all Syria. People brought to him
all who were ill with various diseases and suffering severe
pains, the demon-possessed, those who experienced seizures,
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 and the paralyzed. Then he healed them. Large crowds
followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea,
and from beyond the Jordan. (Matthew 4:23-25)

His teaching was powerful and convincing. ”When Jesus

finished speaking these words, the crowds were amazed at his
teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, and
not like their experts in the law” (Matthew 7:28-29). Even those
sent to arrest him acknowledged this. “No one ever spoke the way
this man does” (John 7:46) the guards explained to their superiors.
People were helped and healed.

That evening, when the sun had set, the people kept bringing
to him all who were sick and demon-possessed. The whole
town gathered at the door. He healed many people who were
sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. But
he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew
who he was. (Mark 1:32-34).

Those who were honest with themselves recognized what a

remarkable man of God Jesus was. Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we
know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can
do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him”
(John 3:2). Nicodemus wanted to know more. Jesus had to explain
the spiritual things he was talking about in their conversation, but
Nicodemus believed and became a devout follower of Jesus. As
Jesus’ ministry progressed, not everyone was in agreement about
who he was. “…Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Jesus asked
his disciples. They said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say
Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matthew
16:13-14). Despite the differing opinions about the person of Jesus,
there is no question his teachings, miracles, and compassion for
people became well-known throughout the nation and surrounding
regions, and he was well-received by many.
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 There were issues, however, which made it difficult for Jesus’
ministry and it did not take long for storm clouds to start
developing. From the beginning, Jesus had skeptics frowning.
Chief among them were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a strict
religious sect who prided themselves as guardians of the law
(Torah) and the traditions of the fathers. They took upon
themselves the role of religious police in order to keep society on
the straight and narrow. Their goal was to keep Israel a nation
dedicated to being the obedient people of God, and not fall into the
ways of idolatry, immorality and worldliness like the nations
around them. Right from the start Jesus was on their radar. They
were watching how this new prophet was driving and whether he
was obeying all their speed limits. They didn’t like what they saw.
Jesus’ teaching clearly did not support their philosophy about how
an appropriate religious life should be lived. Not only was Jesus
critical of the way they interpreted and applied the law, but he
denounced their additions to the law and called them hypocrites.
Often, they tried to catch him saying something they could use
against him and even asked trick questions to set him up. For
example, they asked him, “Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar
or not” (Luke 20:22)? Their goal was to try to trap him in an
answer they could use to either accuse him of heresy against God
or disobedience to Rome. When Jesus healed someone on the
Sabbath day, they accused him of working on the Sabbath. See
Matthew 12:9-14. Every tactic they used, however, failed. And
when they saw huge crowds following him and realized how they
were losing their influence among the people, they became
envious. This renegade rabbi even called them a brood of snakes
and said they were of their father, the devil. It was more than they
could take. They felt it was their right and even duty to find a way
to get rid of this false teacher and blasphemer of God. The problem
was he was so popular among the people. Many of them not only
thought he was a great prophet but accepted him as the coming
Messiah.
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 Desire for an earthly kingdom
However, the belief in Jesus as the coming Messiah by many
posed another obstacle to Jesus’ ministry. The majority of the
people were looking for any earthly king who would restore power
and glory to Israel. This was the issue referenced in previous
paragraphs of this chapter, which addressed Jesus filling the office
of king. However, such a conviction reflects how our human nature
has a consistent insistence to dwell on earthly things. The glory of
Christ is favored over the gory of the cross. Our earthly nature
craves what is brave and what people rave about now, but crawls
into a cave of spiritual blindness to glaze over how God saves after
the grave. And so the longing among many in Israel was for God’s
anointed one to bring them earthly blessings. The reality of a
spiritual kingdom (kingdom of grace) in which people from all
nations would be delivered from the power of Satan did not
prosper in the teaching of the rabbis. In the popular vote of the
people the Sovereign Lord of Isaiah 60 and 61 far outpolled the
popularity of the Lord’s suffering servant in Isaiah 53.

This sad misunderstanding of the kind of king the Messiah

should be, confronted Jesus constantly. Throughout his ministry, it
competed against the correct understanding of the kingdom of God
which Jesus preached. It was the reason Jesus sent the disciples
ahead by boatto Bethsaida and withdrew by himself to the hills
after the feeding of the five thousand. Because of the miracle he
performed, he knew the crowd intended to come and make him the
new king by force – an earthly king (John 6:15).

However, being able to feed people, heal people, cast out

demons, and have the power to throw off the rule of the Romans
was not the way Jesus wanted people to view him. He didn’t want
people to seek after him just because he was a miracle worker. He

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didn’t want them to follow him and “believe” in him as an earthly
king who could vastly improve their earthly lives but had little
time to listen to him be concerned about the spiritual deliverance
of their souls. It was the reason a number of times he told people
he healed, as well as his disciples, not to tell anyone who he was
(Matthew 16:20; Mark 7:36, 8:30,9:9; Luke 8:56, 9:21). He didn’t
want their glowing praise of him as a miracle worker and mighty
prophet sent by God to feed their false hopes of an earthly king.
Note: It is a different point than when Jesus forbade the demons
which he cast out to speak about him. “He healed many people
who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons.
But he did not allow the demons speak because they knew who he
was” (Mark 1:34 see also Luke 4:41). In these cases, the cries of
the evil spirits about Jesus being the son of God would not help,
but hinder his work. Think about it this way. Would it help or hurt
your cause if you were running for office and trying to convince
people to vote for you, and among those attending your rallies
were known drug dealers, pedophiles, mobsters, and gang
members shouting your praises? People are known by the company
they keep. And when the bad guys start saying good things about
you, the “good” people start to think bad things. And, in a related
sense, demons testifying who Jesus was could be misused by
Jesus’ opponents to accuse him of being in league with the devil.
See Matthew12:24 and Mark 3:22.

The problem was, simply, when the Messiah came most

people were yearning for and anticipating an earthly restoration of
Israel to its former glory. This misperception helped fuel much of
Jesus’ popularity early on. To understand how deeply our human
nature creeps in when evaluating our own allegiance to Jesus,
consider the question the disciples James and John asked of Jesus
shortly after he had talked about his impending death and the

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victory of his resurrection. Urged on by their mother who wanted
this for her sons, they requested they be able to sit on the right
hand and left in Jesus’ kingdom (Matthew 20:21 and Mark 10:37).
As close, faithful followers of Jesus’ inner circle, these sons of
Zebedee (and their mother) thought they should be entitled to such
a position. It was a desire for earthly grandeur with Jesus. As
mentioned earlier, even after his resurrection, when Jesus
addressed his disciples for the last time on the day of his ascension,
the disciples were still unclear about when, where, and how his
kingdom would be established. They wanted to know, “Lord, is
this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
(Acts 1:6). Such is the nature of our human nature when it comes
to the popularity of Jesus in our hearts.

We should not think it strange the disciples at the time of

Jesus’ ascension still asked the question they did, or be judgmental
of what was in their hearts. Jesus didn’t rebuke the disciples and
neither should we. Still today Christians have difficulty
distinguishing between the different aspects of God’s kingdom and
confuse them. Some preach a prosperity gospel, thinking the good
news means God, in his grace, will bless his followers with earthly
prosperity and blessings. Others think with John the Baptist or his
disciples that God’s kingdom of power here on earth should be (or
will be) leading to more glory for God’s people here on earth and
the rule of God’s law among the nations. (Millennial teachings).
Not so. Jesus’ threefold kingdom of power, grace and glory is
really, in essence, one eternal kingdom. God’s power is always in
play; he always accomplishes what is best for his kingdom. But his
kingdom here on earth is all about God’s patient grace, striving to
win souls for his heavenly kingdom. And that is accomplished by
the Holy Spirit’s working of faith in peoples’ hearts. In answer to a
question from the Pharisees about when the kingdom of God
would come, Jesus made it clear, “The kingdom of God is not
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coming in a way you can observe, nor will people say, ‘Look, here
it is!’ or ‘Look, there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is
within you.”(i.e., faith in people’s hearts)”(Luke 17:20b-21).
That’s the kingdom of grace. It’s the one Jesus was working to
establish when he told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If
my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so I would
not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from
here (i.e., it is in our hearts/heaven)” (John 18:36). And then he
added, perfectly, “I am, as you say, a king. For this reason, I was
born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the
truth…” (John 18:37). It wasn’t just the truth of who he was, the
promised King of Israel. It was also the gospel truth about what he
had come to do: make it possible for God in his grace to fulfill his
promise of a Savior. Pilate didn’t get it.

People turn away

Because Jesus steadfastly adhered to his heavenly mission and
did not satisfy the longings of the people for an earthly Messiah
many people began to lose interest and turn away. On one occasion
Jesus was teaching in the synagogue of Capernaum following the
feeding of the five thousand. Jesus knew many of those people
wanted to make him their king because of the way he fed them. He
even told them,
Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because
you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves
and were filled. Do not continue to work for food that spoils,
but for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of
Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed
his seal of approval” (John 6:26-27).
To support their interest in an earthly bread king, Jesus’
listeners raised the point about God giving the people bread from

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heaven to eat at the time of Moses. Jesus responded by
acknowledging the manna from heaven kept the forefathers alive
in the wilderness. Then he made the point that he was the true
manna, the real bread from heaven the Father had sent, which
gives life to the world. This is, of course, a spiritual message.
When someone eats of this bread (i.e., believes in Jesus) he would
not die but live forever. Despite being part of this larger group of
disciples following Jesus, many had a difficult time accepting what
Jesus taught. “When they heard it, many of his disciples said, ‘This
is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it’” (John 6:60)? At that time,
the Bible says, “…many of his disciples turned back and were not
walking with him anymore” (John 6:66). They were still concerned
about earthly things; they still looked upon the Messiah as
someone who would rule in earthly ways and give them earthly
blessings like food. (Read the entire fascinating discourse in John
6:25-69).
Thankfully, the twelve men called by Jesus to be his disciples
understood what Jesus was talking about and did not follow the
many who left. Answering Jesus’ question about whether they
would leave also, Peter said, “…Lord, to whom will we go? You
have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know
that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). May that ever
be the response from the heart of Christian faith. When faced with
religious questions (and there are many we encounter as we travel
the road of life) and the uncertainty of what to do or believe (as the
spiritual darkness of this world casts its shadow over our path);
when faced by the doubts, earthly longings and the reluctance of our
own sinful nature to embrace what God says, don’t be spiritually
spineless. Stop equivocating. Instead of wondering whether we
should follow the ways of the world, may God help us to
remember the truth Peter expressed. “Lord, to whom will we go?
You have the words of eternal life.”

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 The willingness of many to “give up” on Jesus as their
Messiah hero was exacerbated by the way Jesus dealt with their
refusal to accept the truth. More accurately, we should say by the
way Jesus began separating the wheat from the chaff by the way he
distilled out the impurities of error and unbelief from the pure
waters of life needed to nourish his followers. In short, Jesus began
to teach and preach more and more in ways those who still
believed in him could understand, but those whose foolish hearts
were darkened by unbelief could not. He used statements (i.e.,
John 2:19 and Matthew 26:61 – destroy this temple), illustrations
(i.e., the Good Shepherd in John 10:1-6; 7-18; and 25-30) and
parables which taught spiritual truths by comparing them to earthly
matters to teach people. Note, especially, the confused and hateful
reaction of people in John 10:6, 19-20 and 31. There were
occasions when those who rejected him understood a parable, but
it was because it was obvious Jesus was speaking the parable
against them. “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his
parables, they knew that he was talking about them. Although they
were looking for a way to arrest him, they were afraid of the
crowds because the people regarded him as a prophet” (Matthew
21:45-46, the Parable of the Tenants). Most of the time, however,
the parables were not understood by Jesus’ opponents. It was
God’s judgment against them.

Those who had the truth but rejected it now had it withheld
from them. “His disciples asked him, ‘What does this parable
mean?’ He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of God, but to the rest I speak in parables so that even
though they see, they may not see, and even though they hear, they
may not understand’” (Luke 8:9-10, see also Matthew 13:10-13).
In other words, Jesus’ teaching in parables was a blessing to those
who received God’s truth in faith and were nourished by it, and a
judgment against those who rejected it and refused to be nourished
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by it. To put it in a way we can easily understand: Those who did
not want to hear the truths of God’s Word and threw it into the
trash because they hated it no longer had it served to them. They
were left with the garbage of confusion and misunderstanding by
their own choosing. It’s like those who refuse to eat healthy food
and keep on eating only junk food will suffer the consequences of
their diet by their own choice.

Things happen the way they do for a reason. And the reason is
God is in control of everything to accomplish his purposes. In his
grace, God does not force anyone to believe and do what is right
and good. But he still uses the unbelieving actions of people to
serve his kingdom. “We know that all things work together for the
good of those who love God, for those who are called according to
his purpose” (Romans 8:28). So, it was with Jesus’ ministry and
the way he was received by some and rejected by others. Even the
wicked in their unbelief and rejection of God’s truth were used by
God to accomplish his purposes. Think of what God’s ultimate
purpose was for Jesus’ ministry. It was to keep his promise of a
Savior. And for that to happen the descendant of the woman would
have to suffer at the hands of the serpent – i.e., Jesus would need to
arrive at the cross. (Always keep in mind Genesis 3:15 when
evaluating history.) That’s what God was doing here.

Let’s list most of the negative things which made Jesus’

ministry difficult. There was the misunderstanding of what most
people wanted Jesus’ kingdom to be and the refusal by many to
accept the kind of kingdom Jesus said he had come to establish.
There was the way Jesus angered the religious leaders by calling
them out for misleading the people and calling them hypocrites and
a den of snakes. There was the envy of the religious leaders
(Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests and elders among the people)
because of Jesus’ popularity among the people and the influence he

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had as a prophet. There was the worry among the leaders. They
feared all this turmoil caused by Jesus among the people would
bring the wrath of the Roman sword upon them, and they would
lose “their place and their nation.” Underneath it all was the most
corrupt influence of all. The devil was conniving behind the scenes to
stir up all the resistance trying to keep God from keeping his Promise.
This descendant of the woman must be stopped! It was all part of the
big picture. Everything that happened in Jesus’ ministry and the way it
was received contributed to the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan.

The increasing opposition and hatred against Jesus led by the

religious leaders brought Jesus to the end game of his ministry. The
work of redemption his father had sent him to do was nearing
completion. The cross was near; the promise would soon be
fulfilled; the finish line was in sight. But as it is in a marathon
when the last paces are the hardest struggle and the most difficult to
endure, so it was with Jesus’ ministry. In a marathon, the
exhilaration, the adrenalin, and the long-awaited achievement of the
race soon coming to an end can spur a person on, as it did Jesus. But
that does not diminish the difficulty of what it will take to cross the
finish line and raise one’s arms in triumph and cry out, “It is
finished!” Even so in Jesus’ ministry the agonizing final chapter of
being arrested, tried and crucified remained to be written.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew very well what the
Scriptures prophesied. A number of times he told his disciples to try
to prepare them for what would happen. In the region of Caesarea
Philippi, Jesus had asked his disciples who people thought he was,
and then followed by asking the disciples what they thought. Peter
answered with a confession of faith shared by all the disciples,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

Jesus acknowledged Peter’s confession of faith as the foundation

on which the Christian Church would be built. And then he used the
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opportunity to start making clear what being God’s Messiah
included. “From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that
he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders,
chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed and on the third
day be raised again” (Matthew 16:21; also Mark8:31, Luke 9:22).
What happened next shows how much the disciples still didn’t
fathom God’s plan and needed to be prepared for what was
coming. Peter objected to what Jesus said about suffering and
dying and started to scold Jesus for talking that way. “May you
receive mercy Lord! This will never happen to you!”(Matthew
16:22). He and the disciples still had the common misperception of
an earthly Messiah stuck in their minds, distorting their ideas about
Jesus as the Christ. Jesus’ blunt reply to Peter shows how
dangerous such thinking is. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a
snare to me because you are not thinking the things of God, but the
things of men” (Matthew 16:23). It was dangerous to the disciples’
faith to continue to entertain those wrong ideas about what kind of
a king Jesus should be. At the same time, it was a very real
temptation Satan was using as a stumbling block to try to trip Jesus
up in his ministry. Jesus knew many people wanted him to be an
earthly king, and now Satan was using Peter’s words to try to push
him into thinking that way, too. It was the same temptation Satan
had used before with the last temptation in the wilderness when
Jesus was beginning his ministry. And no doubt it is why Jesus
addressed Peter as he did – calling out Satan. See Matthew 4:8-10.
No! Resoundingly, Jesus rejects the worldly idea of becoming an
earthly king over the servant’s role of suffering and dying
according to God’s plan.

A little over a week later on the Mount of Transfiguration,

Moses and Elijah encouraged Jesus as they talked about what he
would soon be facing, talking with him about his impending
departure at Jerusalem. Their words and their very presence on the
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mount in a state of glory were a powerful reminder to Jesus. He
would succeed in his mission. God’s eternal kingdom of glory
would become a reality. Soon after, Jesus began his last trip to
Jerusalem. Again, he told his disciples what would happen there,
giving them even more details about what to expect.

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus

was leading them. The disciples were amazed, and the others
who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again
and began to tell them what was going to happen to
him. “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of
Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the experts in
the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him
over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog
him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.’ (Mark
10:32-34, also Matthew 17:22-23, Luke 18:31-33)

What Jesus told them was very clear, but the Bible also makes
clear the disciples still didn’t comprehend everything Jesus was
saying. “They did not understand any of these things. What he said
was hidden from them, and they did not understand what was
said” (Luke 18:34). It’s hard to imagine how the disciples could
still be confused about everything but not really. They knew the
Old Testament Scriptures and heard what Jesus said, but they still
hadn’t lived it. It still did not make sense in the light of what they
expected of the Messiah and what his kingdom would be. After
everything the Scriptures teach and people have heard preached,
how often don’t Christians today still lack understanding, still have
questions, with many who will still be surprised by Jesus’ second
coming?

Some of Jesus’ followers were not as slow as the disciples to

cull out of their hearts the false notions of Jesus as an earthly
Messiah. They were the ones who focused on Jesus’ real mission
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as the one anointed to save people from their sins. Among these
were Mary and Martha of Bethany and their brother Lazarus whom
Jesus had raised from the dead. It was in Bethany Jesus stayed
when he arrived at the outskirts of Jerusalem for the last time. It
was six days before the Passover and a dinner was being given in
Jesus’ honor at the home of Simon the Leper. At the dinner, Mary
anointed Jesus with an expensive perfume, which she poured on
Jesus’ head and feet, wiping them with her hair. The depth of
understanding behind this gesture of honor can be seen in Jesus’
defense of her actions to those who criticized the deed as a waste
of money. He said, “Why are you causing trouble for this woman?
She has done a beautiful thing for me… When she poured this
perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial” (Matthew
26:10, 12). Mary knew what would soon be happening. This act
was a testimony to her faith in Jesus’ upcoming death and burial as
her Savior. But among the disciples was one who was no longer
interested in such things and led the criticism of Mary. What a
contrast. After Mary in faith gave her gift, Judas went to the chief
priests and made a deal with them to betray Jesus.

Jesus’ Passion History

The next day was the beginning of what is now known as
Holy Week. It was Sunday and Jesus arrived in Jerusalem with
great fanfare. Despite the vitriol and death that awaited him from
Jerusalem’s elite and their socially influenced followers, there were
still pilgrims from the small towns and countryside who looked to
Jesus as their Messiah. They had gathered in Jerusalem and its
suburbs to celebrate the upcoming festival of the Passover. It was a
day the Scriptures had foretold, and accordingly, as Jesus drew
near to Jerusalem, he sent two of his disciples ahead to acquire a
colt, the foal of a donkey, on which he could ride. When word got

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around, the crowds gathered with their palm branches, and on the
hill leading past the Mount of Olive overlooking Jerusalem, they
began to shout with loud voices and praise God, “Hosanna (he
saves)! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is
the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
(Mark 11:9-10, also Matthew 21:1-9, 19:28-38). The Pharisees in
the crowd objected, of course, but the shouts of the people were high
praise for Jesus. It served to strengthen him for what lay ahead to
hear and see this happening, just as the Scriptures foretold. At the
same time, we see the sadness engulfing Jesus’ heart as he saw the
city before him and wept over the judgment to come upon it because
of their unbelief.

He said, “If you, yes you, had only known on this daythe
things that would bring peace to you. But now, it is hidden
from your eyes. (And you can feel the hurt in his heart as he
foretold its future): In fact, the days will come upon you
when your enemies will build an embankment against you,
surround you, and hem you in on every side. Within your
walls, they will dash you and your children to the ground.
And within your walls, they will not leave one stone on top of
another, because you did not recognize the time when God
came to help you. (Luke 19:42-44)

It was not the first time Jesus expressed his feelings with a
heavy heart over Jerusalem’s unwillingness to receive him as the
source of their true Hosanna. Earlier he had said, “Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her!
How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing”
(Matthew 23:37, also Luke 13:34). To put some meat on these
bones, imagine the river of tears inundating your heart if you were
in a position similar to the one Jesus faced. How much would you

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lament with a grieving heart over your children and grandchildren
who, despite all your prayers and pleading, turned away from
God’s truth to follow the wisdom of the world? Even more, imagine
how heavy your heart would become if, in addition to all your
prayers and pleading, the money you spent to give them a Christian
education, and the example you set for them, your heart even aching
to the point of being willing to give your life in order to keep your
children faithful to the Lord Jesus, yet they still wanted no part of
you and what you believe?

The first days of Jesus’ last week on earth were filled with
end-of-life efforts to teach as much of God’s truth as he could. He
wanted to prepare his followers for the time near at hand when he
would no longer be with them. After his entry into Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday, Jesus went to the Temple to view its environment
again and then returned to Bethany where he spent the night. The
next day, he returned to the Temple where, for the second time, he
drove out the merchants and money changers from the temple
courts because, in their greed, they were cheating the people to
enrich themselves. During these first several days of the holy
week, Jesus went back and forth from the Mount of Olives (Luke
21:37) to the temple courts to teach. He taught in parables, told his
followers about the signs of the last times and the final judgment
when he would come again, answered questions, and deflected the
attempts of his enemies to find fault with him. He still had his
followers who believed in him, but also his enemies who wanted to
be rid of him.

By now, Jesus’ enemies were already committed to finding a

way to “take Jesus out.” They had reached that point at a meeting
of the Jewish Sanhedrin called by the chief priests and Pharisees
after Lazarus had been raised from the dead. The chief priests and
Sanhedrin feared the new surge in Jesus’ popularity following
Lazarus being raised would lead everyone to believe in Jesus. If
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that happened, they feared the Roman armies would come to
squash this tumult among the people caused by Jesus, and they
would lose their positions of honor. Even the very existence of
Israel as a nation might be at stake. What to do? (Keep in mind,
also, the envy in their hearts). Their evil intentions coalesced
around the rationale provided by Caiaphas, the high priest. At their
meeting, he put an expedient spin on the situation in an attempt to
justify what they should do. “But one of them, Caiaphas, who was
high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all. You do
not even consider that it is better for us that one man dies for the
people than that the whole nation perishes’” (John 11:49-50). But
Caiaphas was only a pawn, a foolish tool used by the all-wise
God. He may have been a devil of a man and a master of the
devious, but he was still the high priest. And so, despite his
unbelief and evil intent, because he was still the religious leader
of God’s people, God used him to utter a fundamental truth of the
gospel. The Holy Spirit explained, “He did not say this on his
own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was
going to die for the nation, and not only for that nation but also
in order to gather into one the scattered children of God”
(John11:51-52). From that day on they plotted to take Jesus’ life.

Jesus would not resist, but he was still in control. The timing
of his death was important. It hadn’t happened earlier when the
citizens of Nazareth became furious over the sermon Jesus
preached in the synagogue and tried to throw him off a cliff outside
of town. Jesus simply walked through the crowd and went on his
way. See Luke 4:16-30. It wasn’t earlier when Jesus purposely
stayed away from Judea for a time when the Feast of the
Tabernacles was being held because the Jews were waiting to take
his life. Even when his brothers urged him to go, Jesus told them,
“You go up to the Festival. I am not yet going up to this Festival
yet, because the right time for me has not yet arrived” (John 7:8).

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See the entire section of John 7:1-30). It wasn’t after this incident
when Jesus told a group of Jews who were proud, they were
Abraham’s descendants that they belonged to their father the devil.
And then they then picked up stones to kill him because he said he
was “I am” – i.e., Jahweh – who existed before Abraham was born.
Jesus simply hid himself from them in some way and left the
temple grounds. See John 8:42-58. It wasn’t on another occasion
when Jesus was in the temple area teaching at the Feast of the
Dedication. Again, unbelieving Jews tried to stone him for
blasphemy because he, being a mere man, claimed to be God. And,
again, though they tried to seize him, he escaped their grasp. See
John 10:22-39. It wasn’t during the increasingly dangerous time
leading up to holy week when Lazarus was sick and even the
disciples had warned Jesus not to go to Jerusalem because they
knew the Jewish leaders were waiting to arrest him (John 11:8).
When Jesus went anyway, Thomas encouraged the rest of the
disciples to go along with him saying, “Let’s go too, so that we
may die with him” (John 11:16). Nor was it during the
exceptionally dangerous time early in holy week, when every day
the chief priests, teachers of the law and leaders of the people were
watching for an opportunity to kill him, but away from the
presence of the crowds (See Luke 19:47-48). Jesus’ life had been
in danger many times as the opposition against him increased.

Now, however, as the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew close,

the right time for Jesus to finish his work and die was coming
close. Philip and Andrew came to Jesus and told him some Greeks
were in Jerusalem to worship at the Feast and wanted to see him.
This request touched Jesus emotionally. It reminded him his
suffering and death would impact the lives of everyone in the
world. What was about to happen to him would benefit Jews and
Gentiles alike. And he replied, “The hour has come for the Son of
Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat

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falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it
dies, it produces many seeds (i.e., the fruit of many souls saved
from many nations)” (John 12:23-24). Even so, the immediacy of
what he would now finally face began to press heavily on the
nerves of his sinless human nature. It would not be easy. Jesus
added, “Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say, ‘Father,
save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27-28). As the events began
to unfold on this last evening of his life, Jesus felt even more of the
emotional burden of what he would soon face. The time had come
for him to leave this world and go to his heavenly Father.

The Last Supper (Passover)

The day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had
to be sacrificed came. Jesus sent Peter and John to go and make
preparations for the Passover meal at the place where he directed
them. When the time came to celebrate the Passover Jesus arrived
with his disciples.

The Passover meal was being served, but an act of etiquette

normally handled by servants still had not been done. So, Jesus got
up from the meal, took off his outer garment, wrapped a towel
around his waist and poured water into a basin. Then he began to
wash his disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel. When he
came to Peter, Peter objected. He didn’t think Jesus, his Lord,
should do this menial task for him. Jesus explained to Peter he
would understand the significance of what Jesus was doing later.
To which Peter replied, “You will never, ever, wash my feet” (John
13:8a). Jesus' response is important for all people to understand.
Jesus answered, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me”
(John 13:8b). The point is that Jesus is our Lord, but he came to

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serve us. And the most important way in which he came to serve us
would soon be happening. In less than 24 hours he would give his
life to wash away our sins. If we want no part of Jesus serving us
and think that we can clean up our own act by doing enough good
to please God ourselves, then we will never be clean (cleansed of
our sins) before God.

There is a secondary point Jesus also emphasized with this

foot washing. We should be willing to serve others just like he is
willing to serve us. Foot washing was an example of humble
service to others, but it was by no means limited to just one deed
like that. It makes no difference how lofty our status in life may be
or how lowly the service to others may be. If we are truly Jesus’
disciples, if by the Holy Spirit’s working of faith in our hearts we
have been renewed in God’s image to be like Jesus, then we will be
moved to love and serve others as Jesus did. At the end of this
teaching moment, Jesus added this significant statement, which is
true for everything God says to us in his Word. “If you know these
things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John13:17). Lip
service is no service before God.

The hands of the clock were ticking, and the hand of God was
at work. Everything that needed to transpire in Jesus’ final hours
on earth was being put into place. Next on the agenda of fulfilling
all the Scripture foretold was a most unpleasant task. Jesus had
already begun to steel himself for this moment and prepare the
disciples for it while washing their feet. After Peter was corrected,
Peter did an about face about foot washing and said Jesus should
also wash his hand and his head. Jesus responded by saying people
who have had a bath are clean and so for reclining at a meal like
this a person needs only to have the dust washed off his feet. And
then he added an eyebrow-raising remark saying, “And you are

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clean, but not all of you.” (John 13:10b). What does that mean?
Was he implying one of them had skipped the ritual cleansing bath
in preparation for observing the feast? No, not at all.

What Jesus did with his remark that not all of his followers
were clean was make a transition in thought from taking a physical
bath and being clean, to the fact one of them was not spiritually
clean. By inspiration, John’s Gospel clarifies, “Indeed, he knew
who was going to betray him. That was why he said ‘Not all of you
are clean’” (John 13:11). The rest probably didn’t get what Jesus
meant when he said it, but he was preparing them for the
unpleasantness of what he had to do. When he finished washing
the disciples’ feet, he returned to his place at the table. The meal
had been served. As they were eating, Jesus began explaining to
whom he was referring with the remark about not being clean. “I
am not talking about all of you: I know those I have chosen. But
this is so that the Scripture may be fulfilled: ‘One who eats bread
with me has raised his heel against me’” (John 13:18). What does
that mean? In hindsight centuries later, we can see the picture Jesus
had in mind. He was about to lift his heel and crush the serpent’s
head; but for that to happen someone at the meal was going to lift
his heel against Jesus and play a part in crushing Jesus’ earthly life.
This person would be one of the agents Satan used to strike Jesus’
heel. Jesus continued by telling his disciples this, now, so when it
happened, they would believe he was the one God sent to fulfill
Scripture.

Frankly, it must have been gut-wrenching for Jesus to have to

do this. It was hard on him. The Scripture tells us, “After saying
this, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, ‘Amen, Amen, I
tell you: One of you will betray me’” (John 13:21). Jesus had
spoken the harsh truth about people who opposed him before. On a

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couple of occasions, he called out the Pharisees and teachers of the
law telling them they were snakes and a brood of vipers. See
Matthew 12:34 and 23:33. He called Herod a fox. See Luke 13:32.
He told those who refused to listen to him and believe in him they
were children of the devil. See John 8:42-44. Though, in love, he
was still willing to die for them, those people were his enemies.
This was different. Now he was talking about one of his own
disciples, one whom he had called to follow him. He was calling
out a person who called him “Rabbi,” whom he called a friend. It
hurts to have to do this. His soul was troubled. Jesus knew the
Scriptures had prophesied this and it was part of God’s eternal
plan. Yet, still, he may have felt a burden of remorse, surely for the
person’s soul, but perhaps also for the fact that by calling him out,
he would be forcing his hand. He would be the one who spoke the
truth, which when it was resisted, would open the door for Satan to
enter and harden his heart. He was the one saying, “Do it now.”
And who was this person? Of course, we know. All the world
knows his infamy now. But the disciples still had to ask. “Who is
it, Lord? Is it I? Surely, not I Lord?” Peter motioned to John who
was next to Jesus. “You ask him.” John asks, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus replied, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of
bread, after I have dipped it in the dish.” Then he dipped the
piece of bread and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon
Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into
him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do
quickly. (John 13:26-27)

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 As was often the case, the other disciples were still slow to
understand everything Jesus’ was saying. They thought since Judas
was the treasurer Jesus was telling him to get something still
needed for the feast, or he should give something to the poor. But
that was beside the point. Judas knew he could no longer pretend.
“As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was
night” (John13:30).
This was it. The die was cast. The wheels were now being set
in motion. The fuse had been lit and Jesus knew it. Everything that
is written of him in the Scripture had to be fulfilled. Jesus had been
speaking from the perspective of knowing what would now happen
as a result.
After Judas left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is
glorified, and God is glorified in him.If God is glorified in
him,God will also glorify the Son in himself and will glorify
him at once.“When he was gone, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son
of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is
glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will
glorify him at once. Dear children, I am going to be with you
only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the
Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
(John 13:31-33).
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 Was Judas sorry for what he did? Most certainly he was. When
he saw a few hours later how Jesus was condemned by the
Sanhedrin, Judas was filled with stifling remorse. Did he try to
undo what he had done? Yes, but the chief priests couldn’t care
less. There was no return policy or buyer’s remorse provision in
the business they were running. Was Judas repentant? Yes, he was,
but only in the narrow sense of contrition, not in the more
important sense of contrition plus trust in God’s forgiveness. After
he saw what was happening, Judas did not follow the path of God’s
forgiving grace and peace back to Jesus. Satan, who had been his
ally and advocate in crime, was now his adversary and antagonist
in conscience. Satan’s lying accusation that Judas’ sin was too
great to be forgiven pushed him in the other direction. Down the
dark path of guilt and despair he went with a rope at its end.
Skeptic of what God says, lover of money, stifler of conscience
beware.

Jesus continued with the celebration of the Passover meal. As

they dined, there was discourse between Jesus and his disciples.
However, this was no ordinary banter-filled small talk as one might
find at a dinner meal. This was the God-ordained Passover meal
observed, and it had a serious message and tradition. And Jesus
used the occasion also to continue preparing the disciples for what
was coming after this Passover night was over. He answered their
questions and told them what to expect when he was with them no
more. He comforted them and told them not to be troubled by what
would happen. He was going to the Father and promised that after
he was gone, the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them. He
spent a good amount of time talking to them about the work of the
Holy Spirit. They needed to know how important it was to stay
connected to him in faith, especially when they faced the hatred of
the world. It was the Holy Spirit who would continue to comfort

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and counsel them with everything they needed to know and remind
them of the things Jesus had told them. They would grieve over his
departure (death), but their grief would last only for a little while
and then be turned to joy. He wanted them to know these things
because they would always have trouble in this world, but they
should take heart knowing he had overcome the world.

At the end, now that the time had come for his suffering and
death, Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify his name with the
successful completion of this work. That was the glory of it all. All
glory would be given to God when the work of redemption was
completed for all people, and eternal life was given to those who
knew the Father and trusted in his Son, Jesus Christ, as their Savior
from sin. Jesus also prayed for his disciples that night. He prayed
they would be protected from the evil one and kept in faith. He
prayed they would be made and kept holy in God’s sight by the
truth of his Word which they were being sent to proclaim to the
world. Finally, Jesus prayed not only for his disciples, but for
everyone who would believe in him through their preaching of his
Word. He wanted all those who believed in him to be with him to
see his glory and enjoy that glory with him hereafter.

The evangelist Luke tells us how much Jesus looked forward

to celebrating this Passover meal with his followers. “He said to
them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer, for I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the
kingdom of God.” (Luke 22:15-16). It is difficult to frame into
words the picture of eager anticipation that swelled ever greater in
Jesus’ heart at the celebration of this Passover. This was not the
same as excited children looking forward to the celebration of their
birthday, or Christmas, with their family and birthday guests. They
look forward to a fun time; what was coming for Jesus after the
Passover would not be a fun time. It is not the same as the prisoner

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awaiting his last meal before his execution. Unless the prisoner has
accepted what is going to happen to him, is at peace with it, and
wants to get it over with, he does not eagerly desire to taste that
meal; he dreads it. And even if he has accepted the fact, he
deserves the death sentence and wants to get it over with, it’s not
so much an eager desire for his death as it is a calm acceptance of
something he would surely change if he could. The only good to
come of it is the message justice has been done, and the relief of
justice being done given to those whose lives he had harmed by his
crime(s).

Jesus’ eager desire to eat the Passover with his disciples was
far different. He knew he was innocent of sin, and the death
sentence pronounced upon him the next day would be unjust from
an earthly point of view. It would be corrupt and a total failure of
the judicial system. Yet, he also knew from a heavenly point of
view justice was being done. God’s perfect judicial system was
being satisfied, and great good would come from it for everyone.
And Jesus knew his heavenly Father was doing this in love at the
greatest expense to himself, offering up his own innocent Son to
pay for the crimes of the guilty. Jesus knew – had always known
from the lessons he learned in his childhood and youth – he was
the one whom the Father chose to redeem the world from sin. He
was the descendant of the woman who would keep the Promise of
a Savior made to Adam and Eve in the Garden. He would be the
sacrificial lamb whose blood would be shed to save the lives of
God’s people from death. He was the one who would restore a
fallen world to a right relationship with God. All who put their
trust in him would enjoy a loving life of peace and harmony with
their Creator as it was at the beginning of the world.

And this, dear friends, is what the Passover was all about. The
Passover was the descriptive name given to the way God saved his

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people from death on the night of the last plague in Egypt centuries
ago. The tenth, and last, plague God had decreed upon the land of
Egypt to force Pharaoh to let his people go and free them from
slavery was the most horrific plague of all, the death of the
firstborn. Every firstborn male throughout Egypt – royalty or
common citizen, prisoner or slave, man or beast, young or old -
was sentenced to die by God’s decree. The destroyer would sweep
through the land of Egypt to execute God’s judgment. Talk about a
pandemic plague. Death was to come to every house, in every part
of the land, in one night. In mercy, God provided a way for his
people to be spared. Every family among the Israelites was to
choose a lamb (or young goat) and care for it for four days. It was
to be a one-year-old lamb, or kid, healthy and without any defects.
On the fourth day, the young animal was to be slaughtered, its meat
roasted over fire for a meal, and its blood smeared on the sides and
tops of the doorframes where the meal was to be eaten. The meal
was also to include bitter herbs and unleavened bread along with
the meat. And the meal was to be eaten in haste, with the people
dressed and ready to go with staff in hand. It was the night of the
last plague and God’s people were to be prepared to leave Egypt.
On the night of the plague, God came at midnight to pass through
all the land and strike down every firstborn male. As you can
imagine, there was devastating grief in Egypt. But the Lord passed
over the homes which had bloody door frames as God had
commanded, and the lives of God’s people were spared.

It was a mighty deliverance. To commemorate this great

deliverance God commanded his people to celebrate the Feast of
Unleavened Bread every year for a week and on this day to eat the
Passover meal again. It was to be a lasting ordinance for every
generation so that the people would remember when God freed his
people from slavery and saved them from death. But God had
something else in mind, also. The past history of the Israelite
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nation was important, but the future deliverance of all nations from
slavery to sin and eternal death was even more important. That is
why God had his Old Testament people keep on celebrating the
Passover meal. He did not institute this meal for them only to
remember God’s blessing of deliverance from the past and be
thankful, but to remember also the future deliverance God had
Promised in the Garden. This was the far greater deliverance God
was working for and the far greater reason he wanted people to
remember him and put their trust in him. It was the deliverance
from slavery to Satan and deliverance from sin and eternal death
that the second Adam would accomplish.

After all, accomplishing spiritual deliverance from sin and

death for all people is why God chose Israel as his nation in the
first place. God chose to make the descendants of the great man of
faith, Abraham, into a nation he could use to fulfill his Promise of
a Savior. He blessed them as he did and, when needed, chastised
them as he did in order to have a proper incubator ready in which
the newborn Savior could be placed and then raised and trained to
be the Savior. As chapter five discussed, that is what all the
prophets and customs, civil and ceremonial laws, sacrifices, and
feasts of the Old Testament Covenant with Israel were all about.
They were instituted to prepare for and point to the coming Savior.
It was through Israel God would keep his Promise of a second
Adam who would save all people from their sins. (An
unmistakable example of the emphasis on deliverance from sin by
way of a substitute for the people is seen in the observance of the
Day of Atonement. See Leviticus 16 for the ordinance and
Hebrews 9 for the explanation.)

Chief among all the Old Testament festivals of Israel was the
Passover, which so forcefully pictured and foreshadowed God’s
greatest deliverance from sin and death. This was why Jesus so

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eagerly looked forward to celebrating this last Passover meal with
his disciples. This was it. This was not just big; this was
humongous. What the Passover foreshadowed for centuries; he
was now going to fulfill. What God had planned from eternity, he
was now about to accomplish. The Scriptures are perfectly clear
about this. John the Baptist said as he prepared the way for Jesus,
“Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”
(John 1:29). The Apostle Paul wrote to the congregation in
Corinth, “…our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, namely
Christ!” (1 Corinthians 5:7b). No matter what the next day held for
Jesus in the way of suffering and death, what it meant for God’s
plan was salvation to eternal life for the world. And Jesus
understood this. After preparing and working all his life for this
goal to be accomplished, the time had come for him to finish the
work. And Jesus was eager to spend these last destiny-filled
moments with his disciples, savor his role as the Savior, and then
go forward and do it.

What the Passover meal was meant to foreshadow was about

to come to an end because the body which cast that shadow was
now in their midst. In fact, all the symbolism and messages God
gave to his people through the feasts, sacrifices, and rites of their
ceremonial laws would no longer be needed because the person
they pointed to was now here, and the things he would be doing
were now being done and would shortly be finished. That’s just
common sense. When the person for whom you have been eagerly
waiting for a long time finally arrives, you don’t keep looking at
his picture and ignore him. You set the picture down and joyfully
welcome him. When the day of the big game you’ve been eagerly
waiting for finally arrives, and your team wins, you don’t keep
looking at the date on the calendar afterward and wondering about
the outcome; you celebrate the victory that was won and afterward,
remember that day with joy. That’s only natural. Put down the
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news clips that predict the victory and watch the video of how it
was won. That’s what Jesus now did on the night of the last supper.
It was the last time this supper foretelling what would happen
would need to be eaten. It had served its purpose. See Addendum
Four for further comment on the role of the Old Covenant.

The Lord’s Supper

Most of the discourse Jesus had with his disciples on that
Thursday evening is recorded in the Gospel of John. It remained
for the other evangelists (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and the
Apostle Paul to record for us the one discourse most often repeated
from the last supper Jesus had with his disciples. It is the event we
in the New Testament era are told to repeat in order to remember
what the celebration of this Passover night was about. Instead of
the Passover meal given by Moses to remember their deliverance
in Egypt as commanded in the ceremonial law of the Old
Covenant, Jesus gave his followers a new meal to eat in its place.
Instead of the flesh of the lamb to eat with its blood smeared on
door frames, Jesus gave them the flesh and blood of the Lamb
which dripped down from the nails of the cross to eat and to drink.
This would be a New Covenant in my blood, Jesus said.
Remembering him and how his body and blood were given and
shed for them for the forgiveness of sins became the sacred meal of
this New Covenant. And this Lord’s Supper was no longer
intended just for God’s earthly nation of Israel. It was to be
celebrated by all God’s people from every nation who, in faith,
would remember how he gave his body and blood unto death to
deliver them from slavery to sin and eternal death.

Jesus gave this new meal for his followers to eat sometime
during the discourse of that evening as the Passover meal was
coming to a close. The old meal had been eaten, and now Jesus
used this time to institute the new supper he wanted them to eat –
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the Lord’s Supper. He took some of the unleavened bread of which
they were eating, broke it into pieces and gave it to them. Matthew
records what happened this way.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke
it, and gave it to the disciples. He said, “Take, eat, this is my
body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to
them, saying, “Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood
of the New Testament, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins. (Matthew26:26-28).

See, also, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20 and 1 Corinthians

11:23-25 for the other places in Scripture where the words of
institution are recorded. The minor variations in wording are not a
problem. They say, in essence, the same thing. Each writer of
Scripture recalled and repeated the wording as he remembered and
chose to phrase it. It was wise of the Holy Spirit to communicate
God’s truth in this way. The minor variations in wording show it is
not the exact words, spoken literally in the exact same way each
time the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, which determines the efficacy
of the Sacrament. The words God uses are important. However, a
slip-up in saying them precisely as Jesus did does not render the
Sacrament invalid. As long as the words used express the truth of
God accurately in the way in which Jesus meant them, as reflected
in the four places where Scripture records them, we can properly
accept them as the “words of institution.” Each time the Lord’s
Supper is celebrated, whether in a public service or private setting,
these words are repeated, which Jesus used to begin or “institute”
the New Covenant.

This is not the place to elaborate at length how the doctrine of

the Sacrament of the Altar, which is the place where this meal is
normally served, is understood and practiced by different Christian
denominations. It is sufficient to let the words of God speak for

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themselves. Jesus said, “This is my body; this is my blood.” By
themselves Jesus’ words are clear enough. Some might say such a
reality is not possible because Jesus was still present with the
disciples with his flesh and blood still intact; and then conclude
Jesus was merely using a figure of speech, to communicate what
he wanted them to remember. If so, we should remember there are
other words in Scripture which speak of the real presence of Jesus’
body and blood in the Sacrament. Speaking of the Lord’s Supper,
Paul wrote, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it
not a communion of the body of Christ” (1Corinthians 10:16) The
word communion literally means “union with” so, yes, God says
the body and blood of Christ are really present in a holy union with
the bread and wine. Does this mean that Christians are literally
eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood when they partake of the
Sacrament? No, though, that is what some people thought when
they accused early Christians of being cannibals. However, Paul
does not say we are eating and drinking flesh and blood. He says
the cup of blessing which we bless (containing wine), and the
bread which we break (and then distribute). So, it is still bread and
wine that Christians eat and drink. Yet, in a remarkable way, in a
way made possible by God, he is able to do what the Words say.
He is always able to do what he says. God gives us the real body
and blood of Jesus in union with the bread and wine – or, as Martin
Luther said, “in, with, and under” the bread and wine.

How are we to understand this? Could this be understood as a

reference to Jesus’ glorified body, which does not have the
limitations of merely a physical or corporal body? Think of Jesus
entering into the room where the disciples were staying on the
evening of Jesus’ resurrection. He didn’t enter through the doors,
he just appeared in their midst and later disappeared, similar to the
way he appeared and later disappeared from the two disciples on
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the road to Emmaus earlier in the day. And that was not Jesus
being only a spirit or ghost, as some might imagine. That’s what
his disciples thought on Easter evening, and they were frightened.
But Jesus told them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts
arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I
myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh
and bones, as you see that I have” (Luke 24:38-39). Perhaps it is
what Paul describes our existence will be like in heaven when he
says we will have a spiritual body like Jesus. Read 1 Corinthians
15:35-49. First comes the natural (physical) body we all have –
like the first Adam. Then, in our own resurrection from the dead on
the last day, we will have a spiritual (or glorified) body like the
second Adam. In the last 40 days he spent on earth before his
ascension, Jesus lived in his resurrected state with a glorified or
spiritual body.
What about the upper room during the celebration of the
Passover on the night he instituted the Lord’s Supper? Jesus was
still in his state of humiliation, and not with a glorified body when
he gave his disciples the bread and wine and said, “This is my
body… this is my blood.” To employ the language of a teenager
who does not always understand something fully but still accepts
what is said, he might say, “So…? Whatever!” And this is not
meant sarcastically. It is the voice of faith which even though the
mind cannot understand fully the “how,” still humbly accepts
“whatever” God says. Jesus was the God/man, both God and man,
at the same time, with both natures being fully his ever since his
birth as a man. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). Even though Jesus
lived in a state of humiliation, which means he humbled himself to
live as man, Jesus still had the divine nature of God as a spirit as
part of his existence. He could still employ the power and
existence of his divine nature at any time he deemed necessary. In
that light, Jesus could have given his disciples his actual body and
blood in the new meal he instituted in union with the bread and
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wine that they were to eat and drink. That is not the same as
spiritually; it is both spirit and body as one. What about when
Jesus simply passed through the midst of the crowd at Nazareth
when they tried to throw him off the cliff (Luke 4:30) and was
gone, or when the unbelieving Jews picked up stones to try to
stone him for blasphemy and he simply “hid” himself and “slipped
away?” (John 8:59. See, also John 10:39). Could Jesus have been
using his spiritual body then to avoid being apprehended? We don’t
know. Scripture does not say. So, go back to the teenager analogy,
“Whatever.” These thoughts are not intended to be a definitive
statement of how Jesus accomplishes the miracle of the real
presence of his body and blood in the Sacrament. It is not for us to
always know how something is possible, just to believe it is
possible, for “…with God all things are possible” (Matthew
19:26).

Finally, the benefit of partaking of the Lord’s Supper is not

deprived from what we eat and drink. It is important we believe in
the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood in the Sacrament – in,
with, and under the bread and wine. Scripture says, “Therefore,
whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the Lord’s body
and blood. Instead, let a person examine himself and after doing
so, let him eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For if anyone
eats and drinks in an unworthy way because he does not
recognize the Lord’s body, he eats and drinks judgment on
himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29). The judgment comes because
he is doing something in unbelief. He does not believe what God
says about the presence of Jesus’ body and blood. And that is sinful
and does not receive the benefit of forgiveness of sins and
strengthening of faith which the Sacrament provides as a means of
grace. Eating and drinking would benefit only the body or, in the
case of an unworthy communicant, bring possible harm to the
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body. Paul adds that thought in the next verse of 1 Corinthians 11.
“Because of this many among you are weak and sick, and quite few
have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). But the promise of
forgiveness and strengthening faith benefits the soul. And that is a
spiritual matter which comes only through believing what God
says. All this is beautifully summed up by Martin Luther in his
explanation of the Lord’s Supper. See Addendum Five.

Jesus had finished celebrating the Passover meal and given his
followers a new meal to eat as part of the new covenant
relationship God was establishing for all people. The evening,
fittingly, ended by singing a hymn together, probably the
traditional Passover singing of the Great Hallel (Psalm 136). Now,
Jesus turned his attention to the battle he would be fighting in the
final crucial hours of his life. He left with his disciples to go to the
place he often retired to for solitude and prayer, the Mount of
Olives. Despite the heavy burden and horrendous suffering, he
faced, however, Jesus did not forget about the spiritual needs of his
followers. He warned his disciples they would all fall away from
him (i.e. when they deserted him in fear). At the same time, he
gave them the encouragement of knowing he would still go to
Galilee to meet with them (i.e., as his forgiven followers) after the
resurrection. When Peter objected that even if all the others fell
away, he never would, Jesus told Peter he would deny Jesus three
times before the temple trumpet starting the workday sounded the
second time. He warned Peter Satan was trying to sift him as wheat
to separate Peter from his Savior (i.e., by leading him into despair
and unbelief afterwards. Note: it was the same tactic Satan was
using at this same time on Judas). But Jesus also encouraged Peter
with the assurance he was praying for him that his faith would not
fail. He was to use this experience afterwards to strengthen his
fellow disciples when they faced trials. Still too confident in

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himself, Peter doubled down by saying even if he had to die with
Jesus, he would never disown him. It was this bravado promise
Peter, no doubt, still had in mind when he later drew his sword and
started swinging in the garden to defend Jesus.

The Mount of Olives

When they arrived at the Mount of Olives, Jesus went with his
disciples to a place called Gethsemane (the place of the olive
press). He told them to sit and wait while he prayed and then took
Peter, James, and John with him a little way away. The pressure and
anxietyof what was about to transpire was spiking greatly, and
Jesus told Peter, James, and John, “My soul is very sorrowful,
even to the point of death. Stay here, and keep watch with
me”(Matthew 26:38). Overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of
death! This statement cannot be taken lightly and trivialized as an
overstatement. This was the Son of God and a sinless human being
speaking, fighting not for his life but for the life of the world. He
does not exaggerate for effect. He always spoke the truth. As long as
a person is living, the soul and body are irrevocably locked in one
person. What the soul feels affects the body. People get ulcers
when stress and anxiety increase in their lives. There is an element
of truth beyond the medical pronouncements of coroners’ reports
which causes people to say, “He died of a broken heart.” While in
the middle of the prayers he prayed that dreadful night, the distress
of Jesus’ soul was putting so much pressure on him mentally and
spiritually, that the ability of his body to function properly was
shutting down (See also Luke 22:44). It was killing him, and he
needed life support. Jesus’ sought it from the three disciples with
him. He told them how much of a toll this was taking on him and
told them to pray for him. Then he went about a stone’s throw
away to pour out his heart to his heavenly Father. Just a day or two
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earlier the reality of what awaited him began to weigh heavily on
his heart. And at that earlier time, he prayed, “Now my soul is
troubled. And what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’?
No, this is the reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your
name!” (John 12:27-28). Then, the time came to celebrate the
Passover Meal with his disciples, and during that meal – only hours
ago –he had passed the cup of blessing to them to memorialize his
impending death.

Now, the hour of Jesus’ death was imminent, and the cup of
blessing was replaced by another cup. In reality this cup needed to
be drunk by Jesus before his followers could again drink of the cup
of blessing in the Lord’s Supper. And as Jesus figuratively stared at
the cup being handed to him, the contents seemed too bitter for his
human nature to drink. The tension pulling at the sinless nerves of
a troubled heart is obvious. Jesus knew everything was possible
with God the Father, and so he pleaded to be spared. “Abba,
Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup away from me.
Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). Jesus is
praying as a true man in the same way he taught his disciples to
pray. He had told them to pray God’s will be done on earth, just as
it is in heaven. And he had no double standard for himself. In the
cauldron of soul boiling anguish, he pleaded with God the Father
that he does not have to face the suffering and death which
awaited, but he still wanted that only if it was God’s will. It was
not God’s will to take the cup from him and the disciples were not
helping Jesus by praying for him. At this late hour, exhausted not
only physically, but by the gravity of everything taking place that
night and overcome with sorrow by what Jesus said would happen,
the disciples were sleeping. But God the Father answered Jesus’
prayer by sending help. “An angel from heaven appeared to him
and strengthened him” (Luke 22:43). When Jesus returned to
Peter, James, and John, he found them sleeping and expressed his

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disappointment. He asked Peter, “So, were you not able to stay
awake with me for one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). And then he
warned them to be wary of the very temptation his sinless human
nature was fighting. “Watch and pray so that you do not enter into
temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew
26:41). Then Jesus left them again and continued to pray.

Jesus prayed the same thing, but this time from a different
perspective. His prayer had been answered; he knew what the
answer was when his heavenly Father sent an angel to strengthen
him. He had always been obedient to his Father’s will, but now he
was experiencing the reality of obedience which required death.
“In the days of his flesh, he offered prayers and pleas with loud
cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was the
Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered” (Hebrews
5:7-8). Knowing what faced him, Jesus prayed even more
fervently. Think about this. With “loud cries and tears” tells us a
lot. “As he was in agony, he prayed more fervently. His sweat
became like great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke
22:44). We should not think Jesus’ agony was based solely on a
fear filled dread of crucifixion. To be sure, Jesus had learned about
the wounds to be inflicted on the Lord’s suffering servant in his
Biblical education as a child. See Isaiah 53. And he certainly was
not blind to the cruelty of the tortuous method of execution used by
the Romans to discourage criminals and rebels from opposing
Roman authority. He had even told his followers he would be lifted
up to indicate the kind of death he would die. See John 12:32-33.
Death on a cross was a known commodity. There was more than
enough shame and disgrace, humiliation and agony, excruciating
pain and slow, torturous dying to go around for everyone who had
to endure such an execution. So, we’re not saying Jesus had no
apprehensive concern for how he would die. Jesus, by no means,
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pretended fake bravado acting as if crucifixion didn’t scare him.
But there was more to it than that, much more.

Whatever degree of dread one soldier’s scourge and another

soldier’s hammer placed upon his human nature, it was still
secondary. There was a greater foreboding weighing heavy on
Jesus’ soul that night – so heavy he, literally, sweat blood. The
pressure on his soul, which caused the perspiration of his body in
the cool night air to be mixed with blood oozing from his rupturing
capillaries and nearly killing him, was a different beast. It wasn’t a
physical dread; it was unfathomable spiritual terror. There was,
literally, hell to pay. The weight of the world was on his shoulders.
The eternal salvation of everyone throughout all of history was
dependent on him. What if he failed? What if his overwhelming
misery and pain kept him from focusing on every prophecy of
Scripture which needed to be fulfilled? What if the suffering got so
great his human nature buckled and instead of forgiving them, he
cried out an unloving curse on those who were crucifying him?
What if he got so disheartened and fed up with the mocking and
slurs and abuse heaped upon him by the ungrateful wretches for
whom he was dying, he had enough? And instead of enduring their
taunts, he stepped down from the cross to silence their taunts and
show them who’s boss. He really was the king, Lord, overall. For
whatever reason, what if he did slip up and commit even the most
minor sin, which we would think was understandable considering
what he was suffering, but was still a sin, nonetheless? Then what?

What would happen if the innocent son of man, the second

Adam, who had been sinless in all his ways slipped up just once?
What if he was no longer the holy one of God offering up his
sinless life to satisfy God’s justice for all mankind’s sin, the just for
the unjust, once for all? It would have been over, the work of
redemption not finished, the plan of salvation failed, the Promise

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of God not kept. Then what would happen to all those infants
dying unnoticed in their cribs of SIDS, all those toddlers breathing
their last in their mothers’ arms of an incurable genetic disorder, of
the immature teenager breaking his parents’ hearts with his
reckless driving and sudden death on the rain-slicked road, to the
young, brave hero giving his life for his comrades on the battlefield
far away from his home and grieving family? What would happen
to the caring mother so sadly taken from her young children and
husband by cancer; to the hardworking father doing everything he
could to provide and care for his family dying suddenly of the
widow maker heart attack, to the elderly grandmother who had
served her family, her neighbors and her friends so selflessly all
her life now quietly falling asleep to the loving tears of the many
she left behind? What would happen to everyone, everywhere from
every age of history? Only the crackling flames of unquenchable
fire! The eternal darkness in smothering heat! The endless grinding
of teeth over unbearable regret! The torment of living forever in
Satan’s domain! It was too much. Jesus could not bear the thought
of it. His soul ached in agony over the prospect of what lifeless
misery awaited everyone if he somehow choked on the contents of
that bitter cup and spit it out. And so, he prayed, but this time, his
prayer included his humble acceptance of proceeding on the path
of suffering and death as his Father willed. “My Father, if it is not
possible for this cup to pass from me unless I drink it, may your
will be done” (Matthew26:42).

He returned to his disciples, but they had fallen asleep again,

and they didn’t know what to say to him. But Jesus knew his
Father’s will and his mind and heart were one in submitting to it.
Though his soul was exceeding sorrowful even to the point of
death, it would not do to have Jesus succumb in bitter agony to the
unbearable burden crushing his soul. Sinless though he was, it
would have not been appropriate for Jesus to die in this way. The

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Scriptures had not yet been entirely fulfilled; the fury of hell had
not yet been endured; the work of redemption was not yet
complete. So, Jesus went away the third time to pray the same
thoughts. When he was finished, he was filled with the strength
and resolve needed to go on. Returning to his disciples the third
time he said to them, “Are you going to continue sleeping and
resting? It is enough. The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is
betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Look, my
betrayer is near” (Mark 14:41-42).

It was right on cue in God’s plans. “Just then, while he was

still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. A crowd was with
him, armed with swords and clubs. They were from the chief
priests, the experts in the law, and the elders” (Mark 14:43).
Everything happened in only a few moments. Jesus knew
everything that was going to happen. So, he stepped forward from
the disciples as the obvious leader of the group and asked those
who approached, “Who are you looking for?”(John 18:4). They
replied, “Jesus the Nazarene,” and Jesus said, “I am he”(John
18:5). As soon as he said that the entire band of armed soldiers and
officers stepped back and fell down. Reader, take note. This was no
helpless victim unable to withstand the authorities who had come
to take him into custody. Jesus and the will of God was the
ultimate authority here, and we need to know that.

Jesus asked again who it was they were seeking, and they
repeated “Jesus the Nazarene.”“I told you that I am he,” Jesus
replied. “So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was
to fulfill the statement he had spoken: “I did not lose any of those
you have given me.” (John 18:8-9). Judas was with the crowd and
approached Jesus to give him the kiss of greeting as had been
agreed upon with the Jewish leaders. Jesus, with a heavy heart,
spoke to Judas as a friend. “Judas, are you betraying the Son of
Man with a kiss? (Luke 22:48) Friend, why are you here?”

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(Matthew26:50). Jesus wanted the last words he spoke to Judas to
leave open the door for Judas’ heart to return to him in repentance
for forgiveness. The men with the arrest warrant stepped forward
and seized Jesus. Jesus’ followers cried out, “Lord, shall we strike
with sword?” (Luke 22:49)? At that moment Peter, still with the
bravado he would die with Jesus, if necessary, drew his sword to
defend Jesus. He started swinging and cut off the ear of the High
Priest’s servant. Jesus immediately spoke up to put a stop to any
further bloodshed. He told Peter to put away his sword for that
only leads to more bloodshed and death. “…because all who take
the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Crime bosses
and your henchmen, hired hit men, hooligans and hate filled bullies
threatening violence take note. You know what kind of exit
strategy from this world you can expect.

Right after Jesus stopped Peter’s misguided willingness to

protect him, Jesus says something significant to show this was all a
part of God’s plan. He was still true to his character, serving his
heavenly Father’s will as true man. He didn’t say to Peter and the
rest of the disciples something along the lines of, “Don’t you think
I have the power as God to put an end to what’s happening if I
wanted.” Instead, he underscored he was enduring this as true man
in his state of humiliation because it was God’s will. And as a man,
who relies on God for help and deliverance, he said, “Do you not
realize that I could call on my Father, and at once he would
provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? But then
how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this
way?” (Matthew 26:53-54). Still, he showed his power as God and
picking up the ear healed the man. Then, he rebuked those who
arrested him for treating him like a thief. How cowardly of them to
come out in the middle of the night to take him into custody rather
than during one of the many times he taught openly in the Temple
courts. “But this is your hour when darkness rules” (Luke 22:53)
he said – to be understood in more ways than one we should note.
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When they saw what was happening, all Jesus’ followers forsook
him and fled, just as Jesus had said they would. See Matthew25:31,
Mark 14:27 in fulfillment of Zechariah 13:7.

Before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin

Jesus was taken to the house of the high priest. An emergency
meeting of the Sanhedrin was called, even though it was an illegal
meeting according to their own bylaws as to when and how such
meetings should be called. But corruption in high places does not
surprise us, common as it has been throughout the centuries. So,
this meeting was deemed permissible in this situation because it
was what they felt they had to do to satisfy their wicked agenda,
never mind the illegality of it. As can be imagined, the house of the
high priest was more than just an ordinary house, but a palatial
compound which included not only living quarters, but meeting
rooms for various purposes including governmental duties, holding
cells for those awaiting trial and a spacious courtyard. The Gospel
writers do not spend any time on the silent time Jesus spent
awaiting his hearing/trial. But we can imagine how lonely and
despondent Jesus must have felt.

Here he was in the middle of the night, waiting anxiously in

one of those underground, dark unlit cells all by himself with no
one to be with him, only his own human emotions engulfing his
soul. Actually, we don’t have to imagine how Jesus felt. This also
was described in the prophecies of Old Testament Scripture. In
what is the only Psalm without a shred of gospel hope, Psalm 88
foretold the somber sadness and despair the servant of the Lord
would feel in his solitude. All his followers had deserted him, and
darkness was his closest friend. Read the Psalm in its entirety with
the thought of Jesus waiting alone in this pitch-black cell in mind.
Those who tour Israel with this particular site included will not
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hesitate to speak of the experience. Led down into an underground
room chiseled out of rock with the lights turned off into total
darkness and hearing Psalm 88 solemnly read over a speaker
evokes emotions that make this time in Jesus’ passion become very
real. Jesus was fighting the battle he knew he would face.

Peter’s denial
Meanwhile, another battle testing one of the disciples’ spiritual
stamina was being waged. Peter had stopped fleeing and gathered
up the courage to follow John to the high priest’s palace to see
what would happen. Since John was known to the high priest, he
was not only able to enter the courtyard after Jesus did, but was
able to go back and speak to the servant girl at the gate and gain
entrance for Peter also. It was cold at night and Peter went to warm
himself around the fire where servants and other officials were
gathered. The servant girl who let him in was suspicious and asked
him, “You are not another of this man’s disciples too, are you? ‘I
am not’ he said” (John 18:17). But she looked at him closely in the
firelight of the courtyard and said, “You, also were with Jesus, the
Galilean …This man was with him. “But Peter denied it and said,
“Woman, I do not know him, I don’t know what you’re talking
about” (Matthew 26:69-70, Luke 22:56-57 and Mark 14:66-68)
describing the same incident as John 18:15-17. Peter left and went
back to the entryway. When the servant girl saw him there, she said
again to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.”And
another servant girl said, “‘This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.’
He denied it again, with an oath: ‘I do not know the man’”
(Matthew 26:71-72, Mark 14:69-70, Luke 22:58 describing the
same incident as John18:25). About an hour later several people
confronted Peter again. “Didn’t I see you with him in the olive
grove?...”Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a
Galilean”… “Surely you are also one of them because even your
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accent gives you away” (John 18:26, Luke 22:59, Mark 14:73,
Matthew 26:73). Peter’s response was as emphatic as he could be,
“Then he began to curse and to swear, ‘I do not know this man you
are talking about’” (Matthew 26:74, Mark 14:71). The day was
starting to dawn and just as Peter was speaking the rooster crowed
the second time. At that moment Jesus was being led through the
courtyard as he was being transferred to Pilate’s jurisdiction. The
Lord turned and looked straight at Peter (Luke 22:61a). “Then
Peter remembered what Jesus had told him: ‘Before the rooster
crows twice you will disown me three times’… and he broke down
and wept.” (Mark 14:72 and Matthew 26:75).

Peter’s sorrow was great, magnified immensely by the shame

he felt for so confidently declaring only hours earlier that he would
never deny Jesus and would even die with him if necessary. Peter’s
bitter remorse, however, was different from Judas' despairing
sorrow. As the Scripture records later, Peter’s repentance was
complete. When Jesus forgave him, he believed in the love and
mercy of Jesus to forgive – which is contrition and faith, not the
narrow meaning of repentance demonstrated by Judas – which is
contrition only, but not believing in God’s mercy to forgive. It is a
lesson to be learned by all who are confident in their faith. It is
good to be confident in what a person believes. That is, it is good
to be confident in knowing what kind of person Jesus is, and the
forgiveness he promises to us in his mercy for any sin. It is not
good for a believer to be overconfident in his own strength of faith,
lest he fall. Scripture warns, “So let him who thinks he stands be
careful that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). It is worth
noting how much Peter grew from this experience and later drew
from it to strengthen his brothers as Jesus had encouraged. At the
end of his first epistle, he wrote,

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 Have sound judgment. Be alert (not overconfident). Your
adversary,the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion,
looking for someone to devour. (Like he had done to Judas
and was trying to do to Peter when he sifted him as
wheat.) Resist him by being firm in the faith. (Something
Peter had not done in Caiaphas courtyard.) You know that the
same kinds of sufferings are being laid on your brotherhood
all over the world. (Whatever that may be because Satan is
always working.) After you have suffered a little while, the
God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in
Christ Jesus, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and
support you. To him be the glory and the power forever and
ever. Amen. (1Peter 5:8-11)

The child of God will face various circumstances in life where

the attitude of the world towards God and his Word will strongly
oppose what he believes and challenge him for it. (Think abortion
rights as opposed to pro-life, moral issues such as homosexuality
and same sex marriage as opposed to the sanctity of sex only in
heterosexual marriage, accusations of being unloving, intolerant
and guilty of hate crimes leveled against those who speak out
against sin or confess faith in Jesus as the only way of salvation,
etc.) Such circumstances may include threats of various kinds like
loss of friendship, loss of employment, fines and worse as the
world gets worse. The child of God may face the same kind of
pressure that Peter felt in Caiaphas’ courtyard. As a follower of
Jesus, he may face the accusing questions, glowing stares, shaking
fists, and angry threats of the world, which opposes and hates the
ethics and wisdom of God. If the child of God is not prepared to be
challenged for his faith or be condemned for it, he may in the heat
of the moment succumb to temptation and deny what he believes
in order to save himself from – whatever. Jesus said, “But whoever

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denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father who is
in heaven. (Matthew 10:33). Be careful and alert.

The trial and verdict

While Peter was in the courtyard waiting, Jesus was being
marched back and forth by his accusers. First, he was brought
before the retired high priest, Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas.
It may have been not only out of deference to Annas, who still
carried a lot of influence but a way of buying time while the
members of the Sanhedrin assembled at this early hour. Annas
questioned Jesus about his teachings and his disciples, but Jesus
simply reminded him that his teachings were well known. What he
taught had always been done in the open, not secretly, and his
followers would be the appropriate witnesses to speak for
themselves. See John 18:12-14 and 19-24. Jesus was then led
before the current high priest, Caiaphas, who conducted the
interrogation. It was a mock trial because the outcome had already
been predetermined. Caiaphas and the gang of self-righteous
hypocrites were simply trying to find a pretense of wrongdoing to
disguise their murderous intention to execute an innocent man.

Things did not go well. It’s not easy to find an innocent man
guilty of false teaching and crimes without any evidence. And all
the paid perjurers they hired couldn’t keep their stories straight.
Even when the false witnesses used Jesus’ own words about
destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days with a temple
not made with hands, they couldn’t agree on how he said it, or
what it meant. All the while Jesus remained silent.” …Like a lamb
he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of
its shearers, he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7b). Their
mockery of providing testimony to the court was not worthy of
refuting, the mock trial was failing.

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 Finally, in desperation, Caiaphas placed Jesus under oath and
demanded an answer. “Then the high priest said to him, “I place
you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the
Son of God!” (Matthew 26:63). Under oath, Jesus answered. And
what an answer it was. “’It is as you have said. But I tell you, soon
you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and
coming on the clouds of heaven.”(Matthew 26:64). How could
Jesus’ response be any more fitting under the circumstances? He
not only answered clearly without equivocation but majestically as
the one who was really in charge, prophetically warning Caiaphas
and all his cohorts of the consequences of their actions. Yes, he
was the Son of God now standing as true man before Caiaphas and
this court. They were his judges, now, ready to condemn him. But
they should know the day was coming when he would descend in
the clouds of heaven from the right hand of the throne of Almighty
God. And then they would be standing before him as their judge,
ready to condemn them. Wretched men! How could they so
callously dismiss such a warning of their own doom? But that’s
what the darkness of unbelief does; it hardens and blinds a person
to the truth. “Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has
spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? See, you
have just heard the blasphemy! What do you think?” They
answered, “He is deserving of death!” (Matthew 26:65-66). The
hearing was over and some of the people there began to mistreat
Jesus and mock him. The soldiers and guards on duty joined in and
were part of the merciless mockery and abuse giving us an ancient
example of real police brutality. They spit in his face and hit him
with their fists; others blindfolded him, slapped him, and taunted
him by demanding that he “prophesy” and tell them who had hit
him. “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open
his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7a). See Matthew 26:67, Mark 14:65, and
Luke 22:63-65.

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 Before Pilate
The Jewish court achieved their goal. They condemned Jesus to
death on the charge of blasphemy because he claimed to be the Son
of God. Yet, they had no authority to execute Jesus because the right
to impose capital punishment was reserved by the Romans for
themselves. So, early in the morning the whole assembly rose and
led Jesus away to the Roman governor, Pilate. The sun had just
dawned, and Pilate, up early, may well have grumbled to himself
about what grievance these Jewish people had this time. He found
out that it was more than just a mere grievance. The first case on the
docket placed before him was such an extraordinary situation of
administering justice that his mishandling of the case has placed him
on the top of history’s infamous list of injustices done. It didn’t start
that way for Pilate. He listened to the accusations of the Jewish
leaders against Jesus and was unbiased in his attempt to settle the
case. The Jewish leaders didn’t accuse Jesus of blasphemy because
Pilate would have simply dismissed the case as a religious matter
which was no concern to Rome. So, they accused Jesus of being an
insurrectionist who opposed paying taxes to Caesar and of claiming
to be a king. The accusation that Jesus opposed paying taxes to
Rome was outright perjury because Jesus said exactly the opposite.
Earlier in the week, when asked by representatives of the Pharisees
about the payment of taxes to Rome, Jesus had said, “Give to
Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are
God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

The insinuation that Jesus’ claim to be a king was a threat to

Rome’s authority was investigated by Pilate. Amazed that Jesus
remained silent and didn’t try to defend himself against his
accusers, Pilate simply asked Jesus whether he was the king of the
Jews. Jesus' answer made it clear he was a king as Pilate said, but
not an earthly king who posed any threat to Rome. “My kingdom is

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not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants
would fight so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But
now my kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). Pilate was
confused by Jesus’ answer that he was indeed a different kind of
king, but Pilate wasn’t interested in trying to understand the point
Jesus was making. However, Pilate did know the Jewish leaders
had brought Jesus before him because of envy (Matthew 27:18,
Mark 15:10), not because of any wrongdoing. And he rightly
concluded Jesus was no threat to Roman authority. He went
outside and announced his verdict to the gathering crowd, “I find
no basis for a charge against this man” (Luke 23:4, John 18:38).
But the Jewish leaders refused to accept the verdict because they
were determined to have Jesus put to death. They continued to
insist Jesus was a troublemaker, stirring up the people all the way
from Galilee down to Judea and Jerusalem.

Pilate didn’t want to mess with this situation anymore. When

he heard Jesus was from Galilee, he gladly had Jesus taken in
custody to Herod, who was in Jerusalem at that time because of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover. Pilate was hoping
Herod would settle the case, and that would be the end of it. Herod
was happy to finally have a chance to see this prophet from
Galilee. He had heard about the many miracles Jesus had
performed and he was hoping Jesus would perform a miracle for
him. But Jesus said nothing at all before Herod and his court
despite all the accusations of the Jewish leaders. In disgust and
anger, Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked Jesus. They put
an elegant robe on him, mocking his supposed kingship, and Herod
sent him back to Pilate. See Luke 23:6-12. When Jesus was
returned to him, Pilate went out to the Jewish leaders and the
crowd and announced,

You brought this man to me as one who is misleading the

people. Look, I have examined him in your presence. I have
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 found in this man no basis for the charges you are bringing
against him. Herod did not either, for he sent him back to us.
See, he has done nothing worthy of death. So I will have him
flogged and release him. (Luke 23:14-16)

Pilate couldn’t get rid of this case. He had concluded Jesus

was innocent; now he knew Herod didn’t consider him any threat
to Herod’s authority or any other punishable offense, or he surely
would have done something. Pilate also knew it was because of
envy the Jewish leaders had brought Jesus before him. But Pilate
didn’t want to antagonize the Jewish leaders even more by setting
Jesus free. So, he tried to set Jesus free by telling the Jews Jesus
had done nothing worthy of death, but still placate the Jews by
saying he would punish him and then release him. He even tried to
make it difficult for them to still cry out for Jesus’ death by making
them choose who should be released, Barabbas or Jesus. It was an
annual custom to release a prisoner every year at the time of the
Passover. Pilate thought the people would certainly choose to have
Jesus set free over the worst criminal he had in custody, the
insurrectionist and murderer, Barabbas. He was wrong. The chief
priests and elders had stirred the crowd into a frenzy against Jesus.
“Take him away! Release Barabbas to us!”(Luke23:18).

Pilate was still intent on releasing Jesus. That, of course, is

what justice would have done long before the proceedings had
gotten this far out of hand. But Pilate also was trying to placate the
Jews and held onto the hope that punishing Jesus without
crucifying him would be enough to satisfy them. So, he ordered
Jesus to be flogged. Flogging was a brutal ordeal, administering 40
lashes (save one, making 39) with a multi-stranded whip equipped
with pieces of metal and stone tied to the end of each strand. The
result was a savage shedding of blood as flesh was ripped from the
backbone and ribs, which the movie The Passion of the Christ
graphically portrayed. It was so severe sometimes those who were
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flogged died of the ordeal. But it was not yet time for Jesus to die;
all Scripture had not yet been fulfilled. His ordeal also included the
cruel mistreatment of hardened soldiers, satisfying their sadistic
pleasure at his expense. The whole company of the governor’s
soldiers on duty at that station gathered to join in the fun. They hit
him, put a purple robe of royalty over Jesus’ shoulders, and pressed
a crown of thorns on his head. Then they bowed down before Jesus
and mocked him by saying, “Hail, King of the Jews”(John 19:3).
At this point, Pilate was ready to bring Jesus out to the crowd. He
went out to the Jews and for a third time declared there was no
basis for a charge against Jesus, and then had Jesus brought out. He
was a pitiful sight, wearing a robe with a crown of thorns, mocked,
bloody, beaten, and seemingly helpless. Pilate looks out at the
crowd, gesturing to Jesus, and says, “Behold the man” (John19:5).
He hopes the wretched suffering of this object of their fury would
be enough to satisfy them. It was not. Again, the chief priests and
their officials shout, “Crucify! Crucify!” (John 19:6).

Pilate had enough. He told the Jews to take Jesus and crucify
him - he wanted no part of this –and repeated his position that he
found no grounds for all the charges against Jesus. But the Jewish
leaders insisted, claiming according to their laws, Jesus must die
because he claimed to be the Son of God. In essence, they admitted
Pilate was right about all their previous charges being baseless. It
was really the accusation of blasphemy they wanted to be enforced
because they did not believe Jesus was the Son of God. When
Pilate heard that point, he was even more afraid of what to do.
Multiple factors combined to increase his confusion and fear. He
knew Jesus was innocent; all the strange talk about Jesus being a
different kind of king from another place, his wife sending a
message telling him to have nothing to do with this innocent man
because she had suffered a nightmare because of what was
happening (see Matthew 27:19), the fact it was really envy
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motivating the Jewish leaders to try to get rid of Jesus; and now the
proclamation by Jesus, himself, claiming to be the Son of God.
This was an even bigger deal than he realized; there was something
otherworldly going on. He went back inside the palace and asked
Jesus where he came from, but Jesus didn’t answer. Pilate was
frustrated, agitated, irritated, and desperate all at the same time;
you might say panicky. “Are you not talking to me? Don’t you
know that I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?”
Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over me at all if it
had not been given to you from above. Therefore, the one who
handed me over to you has the greater sin” (John 19:10-11). Yes, it
was sinful for a judge to pervert justice; but the sin of impenitent
unbelief and hardening oneself against the truth of God by
rejecting his Son was a greater sin before God. Impenitence
stemming from unbelief is always the greatest sin before God, the
only one resulting in eternal condemnation.

To what extent Pilate grasped the full implications of Jesus’

answer, we can’t say, but it struck him in the heart. “From then on,
Pilate tried to release Jesus…” (John 19:12a), but the Jews kept
objecting and shouted, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of
Caesar! Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar!” (John
19:12b). What hypocrites, Pilate must have thought. He knew very
well how much the Jewish leaders hated being ruled by the
Romans and would have rejoiced to be free of Caesar’s rule, but to
push their agenda they were willing to feign being friends of
Caesar. But it gave him another concern; these despicable Jews
could be a pain in the neck and cause him much grief. He didn’t
want this ugly scene to escalate into a riot with the result being a
serious black mark recorded on his performance review before
Emperor Tiberius in Rome. That would be a career killer, if not
worse.

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 Pilate felt he was between a rock and a hard place. He knew
Jesus was innocent, and to condemn this innocent man who claimed
to be the Son of God could have some very serious consequences
before the deities, whoever they may be. But, the pressure of the
immediate troubles he was threatened with for his career and maybe
his life won out. The more he tried to release Jesus, the more the
crowd shouted, “Away with him away! Away with him! Crucify
him!” (John 19:15). As one envisions this scene, you could be
excused for conjecturing there was probably a lot of contempt and
derision in Pilate’s voice when he sneered, “Should I crucify your
king?” (John 19:15b). When Pilate saw he was getting nowhere, he
finally gave in. He washed his hands before them all to try to
absolve himself of any responsibility in this sordid perversion of
justice and, in essence, said, “This is on you.” With the foolish
arrogance of unbelieving ignorance, all the people answered, “Let
his blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew27:25). It was a
self-pronounced curse which God did visit upon them 40 years
later when the Roman armies came, and history records the total
devastation they did to Jerusalem, its people, and their Temple.
Then Pilate released Barabbas who had been imprisoned for
insurrection and murder, and handed Jesus over to them to be
crucified.

The way of sorrows

The Roman soldiers led Jesus away to a place called Golgotha
which means the place of the skull. It could mean either the place
where skulls could be found because of other executions, or a hill
shaped like a skull. On the way, Jesus was so drained of strength
and ability that he was no longer physically able to carry his cross.
The service of a man called Simon, further identified as from
Cyrene (in Libya, Africa) was commandeered to carry Jesus’ cross

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for him. Oh, how great is the love and compassion of our God. The
most momentous hours in God’s plan to keep his Promise in the
Garden by sending his Son to the cross were now being
implemented. These were vital, crucial hours in God’s plan of
salvation. Everything hinged upon their successful completion. Yet
despite the intense focus on his Son to fulfill the role of the second
Adam and save us, God did not lose sight of opportunities to reach
out and touch the life of a sinful descendant of the first Adam. For
further comments on Simon of Cyrene see Addendum Six.

It should not be surprising to us to see, even now, how Jesus

shared the same compassion for souls as his heavenly Father.
Along the way to the cross women mourned and wailed for him as
was traditionally done when someone died, or in this case was
about to die. Jesus turned and told them not to weep for him, but
for themselves and their children because of the impending doom
which awaited them. See Luke 23:27-31. The degree of calamity
they and their children would face would be so great they would
wish they had never had children, and the mountains and hills
would fall on them to put an end to it all. This was a
compassionate warning of the judgment of God and, more
importantly, a call to repentance. For if the Jews rejected and killed
God’s Son when he was in their midst with his Word, acts of love
and healing (while Jerusalem was still a green tree with the hope of
fruit), what would happen to people when they no longer had Jesus
and the truth of his Word in their midst? Answer: God’s judgment
would come upon them as a dry tree being cut down because it
was dead and bore no fruit. Did this compassionate warning of
Jesus succeed in bringing at least some to repentance? We are not
told so directly, but it is in keeping with Scripture to assume it did.
The Word of God and the working of the Spirit through God’s
Word does not fail to bear fruit. God’s Word always accomplishes
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his purpose. What Jesus said here and what these women heard
about him and his resurrection afterwards should be accepted as
more evidence of this truth. Nor should we lose sight of how much
the compassion of Jesus for others continued to show itself even
when he reached the place of his greatest suffering on the cross.

A pause for reflection

The crucifixion of Jesus and his “seven words” from the cross
are well known to millions upon millions of people born into this
world ever since. For a list of the “seven words” of the cross see
Addendum Seven. We will review these final hours of Jesus’
earthly life with emphasis on the way he endured his suffering and
death as the second Adam who had come to fulfill all prophecies
and carry out God’s Promise of a Savior. Previous to this, Jesus,
from infancy on, had perfectly kept all the requirements of God’s
law without sin. “He did not commit a sin, and no deceit was
found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22); he was and is “the Righteous
One”(1 John 2:1), “a lamb without blemish or spot”(1 Peter 1:19).
And since we are all sinners (Romans 3:10-11 ff; 3:23; 1 John 1:8)
and by reason of our sinful nature incapable of being perfect
(Genesis 6:5), Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of God’s law for
us. “Let it be so now, because it is proper for us to fulfill all
righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). This fulfilling of all God’s law is
called Jesus’ active obedience because he was the one and will
always be the only one who did everything of his own free will to
obey God’s law perfectly.

Now it was time for Jesus’ passive obedience to be completed.

Passive obedience means Jesus, of his own free will, passively
submitted without complaint to the evil will of earthly authorities
to put him to death. But even more importantly than that, he
obediently submitted without complaint to the righteous will of his

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heavenly Father to die in our place. For sin leads to death and,
according to God’s divine justice, sin cannot be overlooked lest
God be complicit in the guilt of sin by condoning it; sin must
suffer the consequence of death. “For the wages of sin is death...”
(Romans 6:23). So, Jesus, in his passive obedience, took our place
in satisfying the demands of divine justice against sin as our
substitute. “He himself carried our sins in his body on the tree (of
the cross) so that we would be dead to sins and alive to
righteousness; By his wounds, you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24). And
this was for everyone’s sin throughout the entire history of the
world. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for
ours but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). This is what was
happening on the cross. What Jesus suffered there was precisely
what God had prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures. Read
Isaiah 52:13–53:1-12.

Crucified
The slow-moving procession of Roman Centurion, soldiers,
heralds, the condemned, and the crowd of priests, leaders, and
other followers along the way reached the place of execution. The
crucifixion detail arrived at Golgotha at the third hour according to
the Jewish reckoning of time, or 9:00 AM according to the way the
world tracks time today. The soldiers immediately went to work.
First, they offered Jesus a sedative of wine mixed with myrrh, but
Jesus refused it. He did not want to mitigate in any way the full
weight of suffering he was to endure to pay the price of sin. He
also wanted to remain mentally aware of what was going on in
order to fulfill all the prophecies of Scripture. The soldiers
proceeded to hammer spikes through Jesus’ hands and feet to the
cross on the ground, which then was raised upright from the earth.
It was exactly the way Jesus said he would die when he said, “And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
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myself” (John 12:32). It also fulfilled the type of Christ portrayed
in the Old Testament by the brass serpent being lifted up on the
cross in the wilderness. In that case, all those who looked at the
brass serpent on the cross in faith were saved from dying from the
bite of poisonous snakes. Ding, ding, ding, check one box of Old
Testament prototypes being fulfilled. “Just as Moses lifted up the
snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so
that everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but have
eternal life” (John 3:14-15). True to his nature as the sinless God-
man and practicing what he had preached about forgiving even
one’s enemies, Jesus did not speak a word of rebuke against the
soldiers who were crucifying him. They were only doing what
their job required them to do, and in compassion, Jesus simply
prayed for them, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what
they are doing” (Luke23:34).

At the top of the cross was written the notice identifying Jesus
and his crime. As Pilate had ordered, it said simply, “Jesus the
Nazarene, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). The Jewish leaders
objected to such a notification and wanted it changed to say Jesus
only claimed to be the king of the Jews. But Pilate had enough of
being pressured by the Jews. To show he was the one in authority
over them, even though he caved to the Jewish demands earlier, he
said, “What I have written, I have written” (John 19:22). Actually,
we might add, this notice was even more God’s doing. No
unbelieving Jews were going to keep divine truth from being
proclaimed. In its own way, we could say this was checking another
box of fulfillment. God had promised a descendant of David would
come to assume the crown of king of God’s people again. (See many
Old Testament references in the Psalms and Prophets - Psalms 2:6;
24:7-10; 89:18; 149:2; Isaiah 6:5; 33:17, 22; 43:15; Jeremiah 10:7;
23:5; 30:9; 46:18; Zechariah 9:9 to name only a few.) Many of those

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passages spoke of the king in his glory when his work of saving
people was finished.

Here on the cross, Jesus was still in his state of humiliation,

completing the work of redemption with his suffering and death. It
looked like a gruesome, not glorious, thing. But the notice on the
cross sent God’s message clearly. Here was God’s promised king.
His suffering and dying will enable all of God’s people to look
upon what Jesus did on the cross as a beautiful and glorious thing
as he carried out God’s plan to save people from sin and death and
restore righteousness and peace with God to a fallen world.

When the soldiers had finished their job of crucifying those

sentenced to die, they sat down to keep watch until their assigned
shift was over. As part of the benefits of drawing the crucifixion
detail, the soldiers were permitted to claim for themselves any of
the clothing of those being executed. So, they divided up Jesus’
garments, but rather than tear apart the seamless robe which served
as an undergarment they cast lots to see who would get it. Check
box number three of fulfilling Scriptural prophecy. “This was so
that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: ‘They divided my
garments among them and cast lots for my clothing’” (John 19:24,
see Psalm 22:18). Soldiers are not known for having a gentle
nature or being filled with compassion. They often become
hardened against emotion in their profession. So, like the guards
and other soldiers had done earlier in mocking and abusing Jesus at
his hearings before Pilate, these men joined with the Jewish rulers
around them who sneered at Jesus saying things like, “He saved
others. Let him save himself if this is the Christ of God, the Chosen
One!”(Luke 23:35). So, the soldiers also mocked him. They
offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the King of the
Jews, save yourself!” (Luke 23:37).

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 Two other men, criminals, had been crucified with Jesus, one
on the right and the other on the left. They also joined in berating
Jesus and heaping insults on him, especially because he wasn’t
helping them. At one point, one of them unleashed a barrage of
insults and sneered, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
(Luke 23:39). By this time, however, the other criminal had a
change of heart. He saw and heard how Jesus had been mistreated
and mocked but did not rant or rave against those who were
mistreating and verbally abusing him. He even had forgiven the
soldiers who crucified him. Who does that? Apparently, this man
received the proper upbringing of a Jewish child with instruction in
synagogue schools and attendance at the religious festivals. Now,
on his dying day, he remembered some of the childhood lessons he
had been taught but had grown to ignore in his adult life. Now,
with soul-shuddering fear, he was faced with the stark reality of his
eternal fate. And God had not forgotten him; the Holy Spirit was
working; what all the people were saying about this person next to
him to mock him was, in fact, true. This man was the Son of God.
All this fit with some of the Scripture lessons he had learned. In
honest admission of his own guilt, he rebuked the other criminal
for saying what he did. You’re at the point of death. “Don’t you
fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? We are
punished justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we
have done, but this man has done nothing wrong.” (Then, without
a shred of worthiness in anything of himself, he simply turned to
Jesus with a repentant heart and asked for mercy,) “Jesus,
remember me when you come in your kingdom” (Luke 23:40-42).
Jesus’ compassion for souls showed itself again. This was the very
reason he submitted to the suffering he endured and the impending
death he faced: to save souls. True to his forgiving nature and love
for lost souls, Jesus did have mercy and promised, “Amen, I tell
you: Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43).

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Another portion of Scripture was met. As part of this death
sentence to the grave Jesus was enduring, a part of Isaiah was
being fulfilled. “They would have assigned him a grave with the
wicked…” (Isaiah53:9a) Check box number 4.

With loud heaving in his chest to keep on breathing, pain

searing through his body with nerve endings screaming, blood
dripping to the ground from wounds still bleeding and the
unending insults and mockery he was still hearing, Jesus
persevered. In the middle of all of this torture and pain, Jesus’
loving concern for other people continued. He looked at his mother
standing there with his disciple, John, standing nearby, and he had
compassion for his mother, Mary. How she must have been hurting
to see her own son suffering this shameful, horrific degradation of
crucifixion like a common criminal with people mocking him.
Check another box. Another prophetic pronouncement about Jesus
had come true. It was what the aged Simeon had told Mary in the
Temple in the very first days of Jesus’ infancy. He had foretold,
“And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke2:35).

How difficult the future was going to be for Mary in her

remaining years as a widow. Joseph had been dead and gone for
some time. Up to this time, her other children had not gotten on
board and had not been supportive of the way Jesus had conducted
himself in his ministry. They had even convinced Mary earlier that
Jesus was acting too strange in his ministry, and they tried to have
an intervention. See Mark 3:21 (“out of his mind”). In fact, Jesus
had drawn so much irefrom the respected leaders of the religious
world it had come to this day. At this point in time Jesus’ family
members had not shown themselves to be supportive of Mary and
her allegiance to Jesus (whom they may have perceived to be her
favorite son) or embraced everything she said about her firstborn.
Physically, Mary’s future would be challenging at best and her

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spiritual needs would not be well met under the present
circumstances. So, Jesus did what would be best for Mary. He
assigned her future care to his disciple, John. Looking at her, he
says, “Woman, here is your son,” and to John, “Here is your
mother” (John 19:26b-27a). From that time on, John took her into
his own home to provide and care for her.

Time dragged tortuously on. Finally, the day advanced to the

ninth hour according to the ways Jews kept time, or 12:00 PM.
Now came the dagger of judgment as far as God was concerned.
Now came the final blow of God’s justice against sin, the very real
sentence of the worst part of death – separation from the love and
providence of God. And separation from every aspect of the loving
providence of God is one of the basic definitions of hell.3 Hell is
real, including not only separation from God’s loving goodness,
but other aspects of eternal suffering described in the Bible. As
such, Jesus’ body, while still alive, could remain on the cross,
visible for people to see in this earthly dimension, but at the same
time, Jesus’ soul could be enduring the real suffering of separation
from God’s love and mercy that exists in the dimension of hell.
How could one Person of the Trinity be separated from another
Person of the Trinity in the unity of the Godhead? We dare not
trifle with matters that our human minds, created to live for now
in this dimension of time, space, and matter, have difficulty
understanding, much less explaining. Suffice it to say, Jesus is both
true God and true man inseparably united into one person, the God-
man. And Jesus, the second Adam, though sinless as both God and
man in one Person, was left alone by God the Father to suffer the
torments of hell for three hours. Jesus was willingly enduring this

3
Hell is another dimension of existence prepared by God for the devil
and all the angels who joined him when they were cast out of heaven for
their rebellion against God. See Matthew 25:41. As another dimension,
hell is not bound by the limitations of time and space which God created
as part of the properties for life in our physical universe.
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because he was taking our place under the law to suffer death for us -
spiritual death, separation from God – as the punishment for sin that
the law demanded. And darkness descended upon the world. See
Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44.

The reality and meaning of the eclipse on Good

Friday afternoon
One of the conditions of hell is eternal darkness. God is the
light of the world, spiritually. In heaven we will have no need of a
sun to give light to our lives, “because the glory of God has given
it light and the Lamb is its lamp” (Revelation 21:33). So, without
the presence of God’s loving-kindness to light it, hell is a place of
stifling, suffocating, eternal darkness. To draw attention to the
torments of hell Jesus was suffering, God plunged the entire world
into darkness for three hours. Forget the rationalistic attempts at
explanation such as a total eclipse of the sun. Total eclipses do not
last for three hours and do not cover the entire earth at one time.
Pay no attention to the scoffing of pseudo-science which is not
faithful to unbiased scientific investigation. When God created the
world, there was darkness over the surface of the deep–period.
Then God created light on that first day and there was a separation
of the light from the darkness so that there was an evening and a
morning, the first day. Yet, the sun was not created until the fourth
day. So, he who gave light to the world in some way those first
three days, can just as mightily block out the light of the sun in
some way and leave the world in darkness for three hours.

The last moments on the cross

If we think the first three hours of Jesus’ time on the cross
could drag on tortuously, imagine what it must have been for Jesus
to endure suffering that seemed like it would never end in this
darkness. It was torture for his soul. As true man, Jesus had never
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experienced any time in his life without the loving presence of God
the Father to bless him. He had never experienced a time where he
could not go to the heavenly Father in prayer and be heard. He had
never been without the love and support and strength of his
heavenly Father. He had never experienced a time when he was
lacking the heavenly Father’s approval for what he was doing to
fulfill God’s promise of a Savior. And now he was suffering the
torments of hell and dying in order to carry out his heavenly
Father’s will (not my will but yours be done he had prayed) and
there was –naaaaaathing! Abandoned, left alone, absolutely on his
own with no one else! Jesus cries out in utmost agony, “My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34), just as the
Scriptures had foretold. See Psalm 22:1. Check box number 6.
Here, Jesus no longer called God his Father, for God was not there
to come to Jesus’ aid as a father would. Yet, alone, Jesus had
persevered. Under the pressure of his greatest stress and his
greatest temptation to give up on God, Jesus did not fail. Without
trivializing it, you could say he did not “tap out.” There is a
difference between being filled with dismay and overcome with
despair. By calling God “My” God, Jesus showed he still was
faithful to the decree of the first commandment; he still had trust in
God. Some who heard him cry out, “My God, my God,” which in
Aramaic is “Eli, Eli,” thought Jesus was calling to Elijah for help.
So they said, “Leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save
him?” See Matthew 27:49 and Mark 15:36. But Jesus was not
looking for any help or relief. In his forsaken state he was crying
out in agony as the Scriptures prophesied.
The darkness faded; the suffering of hell was over; the end was
near, and Jesus knew it. Jesus had accomplished everything his
Father had required of him to satisfy the law of God on our behalf.
There was only one thing left to do to fulfill the Scripture’s
prophecies. Up to this point, Jesus had refused anything to drink to
satisfy his thirst and ease the suffering. But now the work God had
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given him to fulfill the Promise was done. Death was only moments
away, perhaps only a minute or two. Bad as it was, there was no
need to satisfy his thirst now. He had made it this far; he could
endure for the last seconds that remained. Yet, in order to fulfill
one last prophecy of Scripture, Jesus cried out “I thirst.” (John
19:28). See Psalm 69:21. Check box number 7. As soon as he had
received the drink from one of the soldiers, Jesus cried out with a
loud voice, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Normally, those dying of
suffocation in crucifixion have hardly any breath left even to utter
a raspy whisper. But this was different; this was Jesus. This was
the end of a struggle, of a battle, of centuries of preparation by
God, of years of preparation and effort by Jesus to accomplish the
greatest conquest of all time. Jesus mustered all his strength, his
last burst of dying energy before life’s battery went dead, and cried
out with a loud voice, “It is finished!” What relief, what joy, what
exhilarating cry of victory could be more profound? With the same
last breath of energy, Jesus goes on to say with a loud voice,
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:30b).

The last chapter of Jesus’ work of redemption was written on

the cross. He had endured the spiritual death of separation from
God in hell during the three hours of darkness; now, he completed
the process of death by dying physically. It is worthy of note, as
many have said, that Jesus’ life wasn’t taken from him unwillingly.
He had prayed his Father’s will would be done, and aligned his
will with his heavenly Father’s will when it was clear the cup of
suffering and death would not be taken from him. Therefore,
instead of saying his life was taken from him, it is more appropriate
to say Jesus offered up his life as the sacrifice for mankind’s sin
which divine justice required.

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 More boxes are checked. Even in death, Jesus fulfilled the
Scriptures. The Jewish leaders had requested Pilate to hasten the
death of those being crucified so that their bodies weren’t hanging
on the crosses during the Sabbath, and Pilate consented. So,
soldiers came and broke the legs of the other two being crucified.
This was done so they could no longer push up with their legs to
give more room in their lungs and gasp for breath. When they
came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead. Rather than club his
legs they simply thrust a spear into his side to verify he was dead
(John 19:33-34). As John records, “Indeed, these things happened
so that the scripture would be fulfilled, ‘Not one of his bones will
be broken.’ Again another Scripture says, ‘They will look at the one
they have pierced’ (John 19:36-37). See also Exodus 12:46b,
Numbers 9:12a, Psalm 34:20 (bones), and Zechariah 12:10
(pierced).

The precision of God’s preparations

Another observation is worth mentioning. According to the
requirements of God’s decree, the first day of the festival of
Unleavened Bread was to be the day of preparation in which the
Passover lamb was killed in preparation for the Passover meal. See
Matthew 26:17 and Mark 14:12. While our days start at midnight,
the Jewish day started at sunset. So, according to Jewish calendars,
the first day of unleavened bread started at sunset on what we
would identify as Thursday and lasted until sunset on Friday.
Because Jesus desired to celebrate the Passover meal with his
disciples before his own death, he had his disciples prepare the
meal in the upper room immediately after the Passover lamb was
sacrificed at the beginning of the day (sunset). That way, the
Passover meal would be ready when he and the other disciples
arrived in the evening. We call that evening Maundy Thursday

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even though, for Jewish people, it was already several hours into
their Friday. This is significant for understanding remarks about
time later in the day. Several times, the Bible tells us that the Jewish
leaders were concerned about observing the requirements of the day
of preparation so they would not defile themselves for eating the
Passover meal. See John 18:28, 19:14, 19:31, and 19:42. Do not be
confused, however, by the way, Matthew, Mark, and John identify
different times of the day other than by following a straight 24-
hour time measurement starting at sunset of what we call Thursday.
Apparently, the writers followed the Roman practice of using two
sequences of 12 hours for the entire day as we usually do. Twelve
hours from sunset on the Jewish day would be around 6:00 AM our
time on Good Friday, but the beginning of the new twelve-hour
cycle in Jewish time. That would mean John’s reference to the
sixth hour until the ninth hour for the hours of darkness would
coincide with our time of twelve noon until 3:00 PM in the
afternoon. What is the point of all this? A very significant timing
for Jesus’ death as far as God is concerned. Jesus’ death at 3:00 PM
on Good Friday left only three hours before sunset. That meant in
Jewish society Jesus’ death occurred at the time most people were
killing the Passover lamb on the day of preparation. What a
poignant time. At the very moment many Jewish people were
killing their Passover lambs to celebrate the Passover that evening,
God’s Son was being sacrificed to fulfill what the Passover
observance foreshadowed. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed,’ (1 Corinthians 5:7). A coincidence? Hardly! God is the
master at communicating his messages, even the timing of Jesus’
death. Normally, God speaks to us in his Word. But Jesus’ death was a
momentous event, something God had been coordinating from
eternity to fulfill his Promise of a Savior. No secular event in all of
world history begins to compare. The timing of Jesus’ death on
the day of Passover preparation warranted the special timing to
communicate it was all a part of God’s plan.
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 Normal death compared to Jesus’ death
Jesus, the God-man died. Some might ask, “How can God
die?”It seems impossible. But it is a question that misses the
obvious; there is no mystery here. Since Jesus is true God, it is
possible for people to say our “God” died. But God the Father
didn’t die; the Holy Spirit didn’t die. Since Jesus was/is also true
man, Jesus died the same way other human beings die. As true man
his physical body breathed its last and died. His spiritual nature as
true God, left his body and returned to his Father in heaven just like
he said – “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”In the same way that
God as a spirit does not die, the spirits/souls of human beings do not
die either. All people (with the exception of Jesus, the second Adam)
are born spiritually dead. It is a biblical standard of Christian
confession to acknowledge that all people are born “dead in
trespasses and sin.” But after their birth, people become spiritually
alive when they are regenerated in God’s image through faith in
Jesus Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit (the life giver). Or, in
unbelief (never coming to faith/falling away from faith) people
remain in a state of spiritual deadness. That is, their souls enjoy none
of the spiritual benefits of being renewed in God’s image and the
result of spiritual life with God – no true inner peace, no real
comfort and joy in the midst of life’s travails, no eternal hope, etc.
When believers die, their bodies cease to function physically and in
a host of ways they return to dust – being consumed by worms, fire,
wild animals, decay, explosion, etc. But their spiritual life doesn’t
die. Jesus said, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never
perish…”(John 11:26). At death, just like Jesus, the spirits of
believers go to be with God in heaven. The Bible states that truth
clearly. “And the dust (the body) goes backinto the ground it – just
as it was before, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it”
(Ecclesiastes 12:7). When unbelievers die, they go through a similar
process. The BIG difference is the souls of unbelievers are not

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spiritually alive through faith in Christ but remain spiritually dead in
trespasses and sin. So, when unbelievers die, their souls continue to
be spiritually dead–without God’s life – and do not return to God
who gave it. Their souls go to the other place where they will
forever be separated from the goodness of God’s love and
providence. Their souls do not pass out of existence into oblivion
because spirits don’t die, but body and soul remain in hell, eternally
separated from God’s blessed life.

Astounding witnesses to Jesus’ death

A number of things happened when Jesus died which give
remarkable testimony to who Jesus was as true God, and to the
immeasurable importance of what he did for us as true man. Before
Jesus died, there was already the testimony of the dying criminal
who confessed his trust in Jesus as the Messiah who could have
mercy on him and save him from eternal death. The three hours of
darkness were God’s miraculous testimony of something
ominously significant going on. And when Jesus died, there was
more testimony from both God and man to proclaim to the world
the truth of who Jesus was and what he had accomplished. God
was the first to speak, and he did so in nature. There was a mighty
earthquake as if the earth itself was shuddering in dismay over the
death of its creator, and rocks split open as if to cry out with their
voices when men had remained silent (compare to what Jesus said
on Palm Sunday in Luke 19:40). The hardened Centurion and
soldiers guarding the crucifixion site who had been there with
mocking and derision hours earlier now were terrified. The
Centurion who watched how Jesus died and heard what he said,
now experienced this mighty earthquake and cried out, “This man
really was righteous (Luke 23:47). Truly, this man was the Son of
God!” (Mark15:39) and the other soldiers agreed (Matthew 27:54).
When all the other people who gathered to watch and, in some
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cases no doubt, joined in the mocking, saw what happened, they
quickly dispersed. And as they did, they beat their chests (Luke
23:48) as if to confess their sinful folly in dismay to a mighty God
looking down on them. It's a trite comparison, but think of how
many times you see people today, in sports or otherwise, beat their
chests as a way of saying, “My bad, my bad.”

God continued to speak, also, in ways that indicated the

significance of the victory Jesus’ death had now accomplished. At
the moment of his death, as the earth shook and rocks split open,
the large, heavy curtain in the temple separating the most holy
place from the rest of the temple was torn in two. See Matthew
27:51 and Mark 15:38. That curtain had separated man from the
presence of God in the most holy place which no person could
enter without dying –with the exception of the high priest once a
year on the Day of Atonement. People are sinners, and any sinful
human being who came into the presence of God would die–
because sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. But the veil
was now torn in two. Because of Jesus’ death, the barrier of sin had
been removed. Now, people would be able to come into God’s
presence in repentance and live. Also, during those moments, many
graves of people who believed in God’s Promise were opened.
“Tombs were opened, and many bodies of saints who had fallen
asleep were raised to life. Those who came out of the tombs went
into the holy city after Jesus’ resurrection and appeared to many
people” (Matthew 27:52-53). It’s as if God couldn’t wait to show
to the world the victory over death Jesus’ sacrifice had won. The
penalty of sin has been paid; death could no longer hold people in
its chains; people will be able to rise from the dead and live again
because of what Jesus had suffered for them. Think of how
awesome that message was to people in Jerusalem when they saw
those resurrected people later on Sunday.

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 With Pilate’s permission, Joseph of Arimathea, with the
assistance of Nicodemus, was granted the body of Jesus to be taken
away for burial. They both had been secret followers of Jesus and
had not consented to the sentence of blasphemy deserving death
the rest of the Jewish leaders had decreed. The hour to begin the
Sabbath Day was approaching, and they hastily wrapped Jesus’
body in linen and carried it to a nearby garden where a new
sepulcher had been hewn out of the rock. It was Joseph’s own
sepulcher, and it had not yet been used by anyone. They placed
Jesus there and began preparing his body for burial with spices.
Then, they rolled a large stone in front of the entrance and left.

To underscore the overall point of this entire chapter, we declare

again: the work God the Father had given to the “descendant of the
woman” to fulfill the Promise God made to Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden was finished. The second Adam had successfully
performed every bullet point on the checklist of redemption the
heavenly Father had assigned to him.

A summary of everything Satan did to thwart

God’s plan, yet still led to his defeat
Before we conclude this chapter with the account of Jesus’
resurrection, we pause for a moment to reflect on the big picture
and note how hard Satan had worked through the centuries to
prevent God from keeping his Promise of a Savior. Attempting to
describe all the ways Satan tried to keep God from keeping his
Promise would require omniscience and be virtually impossible for
human beings to accurately reflect. For our purposes, we will
simply list an overview of some of the major tactics Satan
employed which we can identify.

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A. He led almost everyone into his kingdom of darkness in
the time of increasing unbelief and violence in the world
before the Flood.

B. After the Flood, he was again successful in leading many

people away from God by getting Noah’s descendants to
defy God’s will at the Tower of Babel where they tried to
glorify their own capabilities and will.

C. When God chose the descendants of Abraham to become

his people through whom he would keep his Promise,
Satan focused special attention on them. He was out to
destroy their relationship with God not only to lead people
into unbelief but urgently trying to keep God from using
them to keep his Promise.

D. He made life miserable for Israel by making them slaves in

Egypt and then tried to ethnically cleanse them by getting
the Pharaoh of Egypt to decree the death of all male babies
born to the Israelites.

E. He tried to destroy them with Pharaoh’s army when they

were trapped before the Red Sea.

F. He moved Israel to rebel against God which aroused the

righteous anger of God against them at the incident of the
golden calf at Mt. Sinai.

G. He goaded Israel into constant grumbling and complaining

against God in the wilderness in the hope God would give
up on them.

Time and again throughout their many centuries as a

nation (from the time of the judges through the time of the
kings to the time when foreign powers ruled over them),
Satan succeeded in getting Israel to crave to be like the
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 world around them and turn away from the worship of the
true God. When God had to chastise Israel for this reason
and afflict them with the conquests of foreign powers and
finally send them away into captivity as he had threatened,
Satan may have thought he was succeeding in his efforts to
keep God from using Israel to keep his Promise. After all,
the ten Northern tribes of Israel were dispersed among the
nations, never to be heard from again. However, there was
still a remnant of the Southern tribe of Judah hanging on to
their identity in the Babylonian captivity and subsequent
rule of the Medes and Persians.

H. So, Satan orchestrated another attempt at ethnic cleansing

by moving Haman to convince King Xerxes, the ruler of
the Medes and Persians, to issue a decree to kill, destroy,
and annihilate every Jew (man, woman, and child) in the
kingdom. That attempt of Satan was thwarted by a counter
decree permitting the Jews to defend themselves. See
Esther, chapters 3-9. But Satan kept trying.

I. Satan worked mightily behind the scenes, trying to

convince King Cyrus of Persia not to let a remnant of the
Jews return to Judea and resettle their homeland. See Ezra,
chapters 1-2 in the light of Daniel, chapters 9-10 (Note
especially 10:1,12-21 where the prince of the Persia
kingdom is Satan, the spiritual ruler, working behind the
scenes).

J. When the above failed, Satan tried to keep the Jews from
rebuilding their temple and the wall of the city by causing
trouble for them through the rulers of surrounding nations.
See Ezra, chapters 4-5.

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K. When that failed, Satan returned to an old tactic of trying
to get Israel to forget about God’s ways and become like
everybody else. His strategy was for them to lose their
national identity through intermarriage with the people
around them. See Ezra, chapters 9-10.

The examples listed are not a series of unrelated events

caused simply by the earthly consequences of racial
prejudice and opposition against the Jews by Gentile
nations. Do not minimize Scripture’s warning of spiritual
warfare in high places.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but

against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12).

The one common denominator in all those centuries of

history before and after the Flood was Satan working
mightily to get people to turn away from God in unbelief, as
he still does today.

Have sound judgment. Be alert. Your adversary, the

Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for
someone to devour. Resist him by being firm in the
faith. You know that the same kinds of sufferings are
being laid on your brotherhood all over the world.
(1Peter 5:8-9)

L. Satan was still very active trying to sow seeds of

rebellion, unfaithfulness to God and unbelief during the
years when no prophets were sent to Israel from the time of
their return from captivity in Babylon until the birth of
Jesus. We have no Scriptural history from those silent years

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 to study other than the prophecies in Daniel of nations like
Greece and the Roman Empire coming to power during
those centuries. See the visions in Daniel, chapters 2 and 7,
and the brief comments in chapter 4 of this book on how
God used the nations of the world during this time to
prepare the way for the second Adam.

M. After the 400 years of silence, when Jesus was born, Satan
began attacking Jesus even as a little child. Satan knew
very well what was happening. He knew what the angel
Gabriel had told Mary about her son.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the

Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne
of his father David. He will reign over the house of
Jacob forever; and his kingdom will never end.
(Luke 1:32-33)
Satan was not away on vacation when an angel of the Lord
announced to the shepherds, “Today in the town of David, a Savior
was born for you. He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). A “Savior”
and the “Lord” declared so by the angel. The angel also revealed
the following about Jesus, the “Son of the Most High,” who will
rule over God’s people like David did and whose “kingdom will
never end.” Here is the one God was talking about in the Garden.
Nor was the implication of the song by the Heavenly host lost on
Satan when they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward mankind” (Luke 2:14).The peace-filled,
loving relationship the first Adam and his wife had with God when
they were created and which he had successfully ruined on that
fateful day in Eden, was going to be restored.
Oh, how the words God spoke to Satan in the Garden about
crushing him, which had rankled his evil soul to the core for
centuries, now must have come rushing back to infuriate him

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again. “Over my dead spirit,” he might have raged to himself if he
were inclined to react like a human being. But his existence as a
spirit was already spiritually dead, so we might rightly react by
thinking, “You’re correct about that, evil one.” It would be over
Satan’s dead spirit that the second Adam would win the victory.
And even if perchance Satan was not literally present when those
angels came to Bethlehem – for he is not omniscient, and God is
under no obligation to announce his plans to him – Satan was still
very much aware of who this child was. Even his comrades in
crime who had rebelled with him in heaven cried out, “I (we) know
who you are –the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24 and Luke 4:34).
So, it was game on for Satan. This was his last chance, all
hands-on deck, every play in the book, nothing or no one would be
spared to accomplish his goal. If Satan could get rid of Jesus and
keep him from becoming the Messiah, the King who would rule in
his kingdom forever, then God’s plan to crush Satan would be
crushed – the Promise not kept. And so, Satan watched for
opportunities, but despite all his wicked conniving, cajoling, and
lying, he kept failing. Early on, the wise men who came to worship
Jesus were warned of Herod’s threat and went home another way.
So, Satan tried to kill the child Jesus by moving Herod to decree
the heartless murder of all the infants and toddlers in the region of
Bethlehem, two years old and under. Satan’s plan to be rid of
Jesus, of course, failed when an angel warned Joseph in a dream to
flee with his family to Egypt. And Satan continued to fail, time
after time, when he tried to tempt Jesus – the second Adam – to go
against God’s will like the first Adam had. Satan’s strategies failed
when Jesus’ own family tried to stop him (Mark 3:21, 31-32), the
townspeople of Nazareth tried to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-
30), and Jews in the temple courts tried to stone him (twice – John
8:57-59; 10:31-33-39). Some of Jesus’ followers left him (John
6:66); Pharisees constantly tried to find fault with him (Matthew
22:15); religious leaders opposed him (Luke 13:14); his own

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disciples often didn’t understand (Matthew 16:5-12). Everything
Satan did to try to discourage Jesus from continuing his ministry or
get rid of him failed.… until now, until Calvary.

Satan’s own blindness

One can’t help wondering what Satan was thinking with his
fanatical obsession to kill Jesus. The simple answer is he thought
by getting rid of Jesus, Jesus could no longer become the king who
would sit on David’s throne and rule God’s kingdom. But that
doesn’t seem to make sense. Satan knew the Scriptures and even
quoted them. Did he not know Isaiah 53 and its prophecies about
how the Lord’s servant would die and what it would mean (same
thing with Psalm 22 and other passages)? Could he not see what
those passages prophesied is the very thing he himself was causing
to happen on Calvary? Was he not aware of other passages of
Scripture such as Psalm 16:10, or Job 19:25 which either stated
directly or implied God’s servant would not only die, but rise
again? Could he not connect the dots from the words he himself
heard in the garden – by striking “the descendant of the woman’s”
heel (like a poisonous snake causing him to die), the “descendant
of the woman” would crush his head (kill Satan’s ability to destroy
peoples’ lives)? Yes, he knew those passages, but he was not a
believing servant of God. He was like the Jews who didn’t “get
it”when Jesus taught in parables and in their hardness of heart
closed their minds in unbelieving rejection of God’s truth. So,
Satan, in his spiritual deadness, was blind to the divine truth of
what God was accomplishing. His foolish heart was darkened and
in his unbelieving rejection of God’s truth, imagined he could still
win. He had gotten many people in Israel to believe the lie that the
coming Messiah would be an earthly king who would defeat their
enemies, restore Israel to the power and glory of David’s kingdom,
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and rule forever. But, as it often happens with unbelief, Satan
believed his own lie, and that’s what he thought Jesus was striving
to do – establish an earthly kingdom. After all, that’s the way Satan
looked at things. Satan’s goal was to have power and glory for
himself and be able to rule over peoples’ lives instead of God.
That’s why he tempted Jesus the way he did in the wilderness at
the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. “If you fall down and worship me,
I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.”
See Matthew 4:8-9. Surely, he thought, Jesus would take him up on
that offer and save himself from all the hardship and fighting of
having to establish his kingdom himself. Note: It was, in essence,
the same temptation Satan had put before the first Adam and his
wife in the Garden. “Simply eat this fruit, and you will have a
better life. You will have more knowledge and wisdom for
yourselves just like God.” See Genesis 3:4-5. The implication was
they wouldn’t need God to lead them and guide them anymore
(i.e., have God continue to rule over them like Satan selfishly
wanted for himself). But the second Adam didn’t fall for his
temptations. So, Satan was left with the conviction he needed to
get rid of Jesus and have him killed before Jesus could establish
the earthly kingdom of power and glory for himself. And that, dear
Christian friends, is what Satan thought he was accomplishing on
Good Friday.

Ironically, when the pivotal battle between good and evil was
being waged on Good Friday, the same plot line unfolded as Satan
had tried 33 years earlier. He had failed then when he tried to get
Herod the Great to use the wise man to identify the newborn king
and terminate the threat to Herod’s crown. So, he used Herod’s
wicked cruelty to command his soldiers to murder all the infants
and toddlers in the vicinity of Bethlehem. That, also, had failed to
kill the newborn king. This time, however, Satan thought he had
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won. He had succeeded in getting a different cadre of worldly
leaders to collaborate in their efforts and kill the woman’s
descendant. Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, a new Herod, Pilate, and
his soldiers were the ones who carried out the wicked deed. It took
place in front of the victim’s own mother, where a sword was
piercing her own soul, and other women were weeping. Surely,
that was a sign of his success. For a number of hours at least,
stretching to the third day, Satan felt that Friday was a very Good
Friday indeed. But as successful as Satan’s murderous plot was, it
was his final undoing. He had failed again. Never again would he
have the opportunity to prevent God from keeping the Promise he
had made in the Garden. Satan’s power was crushed. Jesus’
resurrection from the grave would prove God had won the victory
over Satan, sin, and death.

Jesus’ Resurrection
Satan may have been celebrating in hell, thinking he had
gotten the best of God, but his evil gloating was short-lived. Jesus
died at 3:00 PM on Good Friday at the same time of day the
Passover Lamb was to be killed. How so like God to perfectly time
the fulfillment of what the Old Testament Passover foreshadowed.
And Jesus was buried before sunset when the day of the Sabbath
began. All through the dark, long hours of that night, through the
second day, and into the somber hours of the next night, the
crowning touch of God’s plan waited. The disciples were in hiding,
the followers of Jesus were sad and confused, and the women were
in mourning, waiting for daylight on the third day when they could
finish applying the burial spices on Jesus’ body. The anticipation of
what the Scriptures had prophesied and what Jesus had said would
happen was absent from their minds. But mighty things were
happening.

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 In the early morning hours of the third day there was a violent
earthquake. An angel appeared and rolled away the stone sealing
the sepulcher to reveal it was empty and then sat on the stone. At
the sight of the angel, the soldiers fainted dead away in fear
(Matthew 28:2-4), and when they came to their senses, they fled.
Some of the guards reported to the chief priests what happened, but
they were bribed to say someone came to steal the body of Jesus
(Matthew 28:11-15). On the way to the tomb, the women who
were coming with spices were wondering who would roll away the
stone, but as they approached, they saw the stone was already
rolled away. One of the women, Mary Magdalene, turned back to
tell the disciples Jesus’ body was gone. The others went inside the
empty tomb, wondering what had happened. While they were
standing there, two angels suddenly appeared robed in clothes
gleaming like lightning and stood beside them. The women were
filled with fear and bowed down with their faces to the ground.
The angels sat down on the place where Jesus’ body had been laid,
and one of them told the women not to be afraid. He continued by
telling them the amazing truth of what had happened, the most
wonderful news their ears could have heard.

He said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for

Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. Why do you look for
the living among the dead? He has risen! He is not here. See
the place where they laid him. Remember how he told you
while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be
delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified,
and the third day rise again? Then they remembered his
words. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, he is going ahead
of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told
you. (A compilation of Luke 24:5-8 and Mark 16:6-7)

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 All the Gospel writers report the same truth in their own
words. The women left immediately filled with trembling, but very
excited. Meanwhile, Peter and John went running to the tomb
because of what Mary Magdalene had told them. John arrived first
and bent over to look inside seeing the strips of linen cloth lying
there. Then Peter arrived and went inside. He saw the linen burial
clothes and the cloth which had been wrapped around Jesus’ head
neatly folded, and he went away wondering what happened (Luke
24:12). Finally, John went inside also. He saw everything lying
there and believed Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:8).
However, neither of them, as yet, had connected the dots and
remembered this is what the Scriptures had prophesied would
happen (John 20:9). They both left, but then Mary Magdalene
came back and remained outside crying. When she bent over to
look inside, she saw the two angels in white seated where Jesus’
body had been. They asked her why she was crying, and she told
them it was because someone had come to take away the body of
her Lord, and she didn’t know where they had put him. At this, she
turned around and saw Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him and
thought he was the caretaker of the garden. Jesus made himself
known by simply saying to her, “Mary” (Luke 16). She cried out,
“Teacher,” but he told her not to touch him because he had not yet
returned to the Father. She went back to tell the disciples she had
seen the Lord and told them what he said. Jesus appeared also to
the other women on their way back into town. They also told the
disciples they had seen the Lord. However, the rest of the disciples
didn’t believe them because what the women were saying didn’t
make sense to them (Luke 24:10).

Sometime later in the day Jesus appeared to Peter also (Luke

24:33-34). Without any information, we can only conjecture what
happened. Most scholars suggest the appearance to Peter may have
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been to personally assure Peter of his forgiveness for denying the
Lord during Jesus’ trial. In the afternoon that day, Jesus appeared
to two of his followers who were walking to Emmaus and talking
about the events of the past weekend. One of them was named
Cleopas. The other was not named, although some scholars suggest
it may have been Luke, the author of the third Gospel, who would
have first-hand knowledge of this event. At first, they did not
recognize Jesus and when Jesus asked them what they were talking
about, they were surprised this “stranger” didn’t seem to be aware
of what had happened. They explained a prophet mighty in word
and deed named Jesus had been crucified by their leaders, and
expressed the dismay they had hoped he was going to be the one
who would redeem Israel. But then, they added, some women had
reported they had seen angels who said he was alive. Jesus
chided them for being so slow to understand and believe
everything the Scriptures had prophesied, and then proceeded to
explain everything to them clearly. Upon arriving at their
destination, the two followers of Jesus prevailed upon this
“stranger” to spend the night with them because it was getting late
in the day. When Jesus gave thanks for the meal at the supper table
and broke bread to give to them, their eyes were opened, and they
recognized it was Jesus. Immediately, Jesus disappeared from their
sight. They, in turn, decided to hurry back on the seven-mile trip to
Jerusalem and tell the eleven and others what happened. See Luke
24:13-35.

While the two followers of Jesus and the other disciples were
still talking about this, Jesus himself appeared to the group and
said, “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36). The group was startled
and thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus asked them why they
were troubled and so filled with doubts. Then he showed them his
hands and feet and told them to touch him to prove he was not a
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ghost; he ate a piece of fish to assure them that it was truly he,
himself, in their midst. And then, as he had done for the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus, he explained the Scriptures to
them. His death and resurrection and everything that had happened
were done to fulfill the Scripture’s promise of a Savior. They were
witnesses to these things and were now to be the ones to preach the
message of forgiveness of sins through Jesus to others.

The ascension
For the next forty days, Jesus continued to show he was alive
to his disciples and others. He appeared to his disciples again at the
Sea of Galilee as the women on the day of his resurrection had
said. He used that appearance, also, to publicly reinstate Peter to
his position as an apostle. He gathered them again at a mountain
where he told them to go to Galilee and gave them the great
commission of the Christian Church.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and gather disciples from all nations by
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and

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 of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the
instructions I have given you. And surely, I am with you
always, until the end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)

At the end of the forty days, he gathered his followers one last
time in Bethany for his final appearance on earth. He spoke to
them again about the kingdom of God, directed them to be his
witnesses to the ends of the earth, and promised the Spirit’s power
would be with them. Then he lifted up his hands in blessing and,
rising into the clouds, ascended to heaven.

The critical Importance of the resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is most
certainly true. It is not a fable concocted by zealous followers to
make Jesus Christ look more powerful than death and attract more
followers. Jesus is more powerful than death. The Bible says,
“…our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and has brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).
To say Jesus did not rise from the dead is to call Jesus a liar and
claim what the Bible says is not true. And that is like building the
foundation of your belief system on quicksand. The resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead is not a pious figure of speech to
convey the idea the love of Jesus and the life lessons he taught live
on after him. His love and his lessons on a life which lasts forever
continue to be taught because Jesus did rise from the dead. The
Apostle Paul wrote, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the
dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1
Corinthians 15:20). No unbiased scholar of Scripture has ever
denied it. No unbiased observer of history has ever uncovered any
evidence to the contrary. The claim Jesus’ body was stolen by his
followers was started by the chief priests when they bribed the
Roman soldiers and has long been discredited as false propaganda.
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Anyone who believes Jesus did not rise has been deluded into
embracing the most blatant conspiracy theory of all.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is taught

throughout the pages of Scripture. It was prophesied in the Old
Testament. “You will not abandon my life to the grave. You will not
let your favored one see decay” (Psalm 16:10). It was believed by
Old Testament believers. Job said, “I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the end of time he will stand over the dust” (Job 19:25).
It was foretold by Jesus about himself. “ From that time, Jesus
began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and experts in the
law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised again” (Matthew
16:21).”Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up again in three days’” (John2:19). It was
preached by the apostles. “The apostles continued to testify about
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christwith great power, and
abundant grace was on all of them” (Acts 4:33). And it has been
confessed by Christians in every age. “I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son our Lord… on the third day he rose again from
the dead…” (From the Second Article of the Apostles Creed)

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a necessity

for the Christian faith. It is part of a tripod of teachings that hold
up the saving faith of what Christians believe about Jesus Christ.

A. Who he is. Jesus Christ is the true God from all eternity
who came to this earth to be born as a true man in order to
fulfill God’s promise of a Savior. Matthew 1:23, 1 John
5:20, Romans 9:5,1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:14

B. What he did. Jesus’ work of redemption consists of his

active obedience whereby he did everything to keep God’s
law perfectly on our behalf so his perfect life might be

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 credited to us; and in his passive obedience, he allowed
himself to be mistreated and put to death to satisfy God’s
justice against sin by suffering the punishment for sin as
our substitute so that we might be spared. Isaiah 53:5-6, 2
Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13, Matthew 3:15

C. His resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is

evidence his work of redemption was successful. We are
now justified in God’s sight through Christ and able to live
again in God’s presence because Jesus has conquered
death for us. Romans 1:4, Romans 4:25, John 14:19

Look at it this way: A swimming instructor stands at the side

of the pool and tells his class what to expect. He will teach them all
the strokes of different styles of swimming so they will all be able
to swim safely and enjoy swimming. Then, he dives into the pool
to demonstrate. But he sinks to the bottom of the pool like a rock
and would have drowned if he were not rescued by others. How
much confidence are you going to have in him as a swimming
instructor? If he can’t swim, how is he going to teach you to swim?
Or think of a doctor who has developed a lifesaving drug and
advertises it to everyone. But when he gets sick and takes the drug,
he promptly dies. Are you going to trust his word that his drug will
save your life? If Jesus had no power to rise from the dead, how
would he be able to raise you from the dead?

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you
are still in your sins. Then it also follows that those who fell
asleep in Christ perished… But in fact, Christ has been
raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have
fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:17-18, 20).

Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19b).

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 The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead verifies that God
did what he said he would do. He sent a “descendant of the woman”
to crush Satan’s power, deliver us from the death we deserved for our
sins, and enable us to live in loving harmony with our God again.
Jesus, the second Adam performed everything he was called to do to
keep God’s Promise of a Savior and restore blessed life to a fallen
world. As a result, we also will rise from the dead. A crown of life is
now ours to share with Jesus and our heavenly Father in glory. What a
victory celebration that will be. Cheering in the streets of a parade for
the championship won by your favorite team, with banners waving
and hundreds of thousands gathered to hear the victory speeches
and celebrate, doesn’t even begin to compare. Or imagine confetti
showering down from the windows, bands playing, people dancing
and yelling in the streets all across the nation because the war is over,
and the victory has been won. Maybe that would be a smidgen
like Christ’s victory celebration over death. But those kinds of
celebrations are only about earthly matters and are short-lived. Who
won the championship in what year is soon forgotten, and now your
favorite team is at the bottom of the standings. Celebrating victory in
a great war may well be remembered for a long time. But it’s only a
memory and soon enough tensions rise, troops deploy, and another
conflict breaks out. All of that is nothing, even meaningless, in the
great scheme of eternity. It cannot compare to the spiritual warfare of
fighting against Satan and his forces finally being over for good, and
the eternal celebration of the second Adam’s victory over sin and
death lasting forever.

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 The strife is o’er, the battle done;
Now is the victor’s triumph won
Now be the song of praise begun.
Alleluia!

The foe in triumph shouted, When Christ lay in the tomb. But lo, he
now is routed; His boast is turned to gloom. For Christ again is
free; In glorious victory; He who is strong to save, Has triumphed
o’er the grave.

Triumphant from the grave, Rose Jesus, strong to save.

He crushed, O Christian, mark it well – Sin, Satan, death, and hell.
Now sing your glad song, And joyous praise to him prolong.

Now Satan is undone! Now death’s dread pow’r is gone!

From fear of hell you are set free Through Jesus’ victory! Now sing
your glad song, And joyous praise to him prolong.

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 8
The Promise Fulfilled
Life is restored to the whole world as a
free gift.

The promise God made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of

Eden was fulfilled. The “descendant of the woman” did everything
necessary to save us from the consequences of our sin. Now, people
will be able to enjoy life with God again like the first Adam and his
wife before the fall into sin. The second Adam performed his
duties not only admirably but perfectly. Jesus dotted every ‘i’ and
crossed every ‘t’ the letter of the law required to satisfy God’s
justice. Not only this, Jesus checked every box in the long list of
prophecies. He lived the perfect life we needed to live in order to
remain in harmony with God, and he died the death we deserved to
die for our sin so we could be spared. In this way, he freed us from
the condemnation of death we deserved for sin by being our
substitute under God’s law. What Jesus did with his active
obedience to God’s will (in word and deed obeying all of God’s law

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perfectly) and passive obedience (what he endured – including death
– to satisfy God’s just punishment of sin) he did on our behalf. To
put it succinctly we could say, “Jesus lived our life and died our
death so we might live and not die.”

The work of redeeming us from sin and death is often referred

to as Jesus’ vicarious atonement. That is, as our substitute (vicar)
under the law Jesus made us at one with God (atonement, literally,
at-one-ment). The Apostle Paul wrote,

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to
be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the
law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we
would be adopted as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

As a result of Jesus’ vicarious atonement, Satan’s power over us

was crushed. We are rescued from Satan’s stranglehold on our
souls and freed from the fear of eternal death in hell into which
Satan so demonically wants to drag us.

It is important to note that when we refer to Jesus as our

substitute under the law, we are talking about Jesus fulfilling the
requirements of God’s law for everyone. The pronouns “we” and
“us” in this context are not referring to a special group of select
people who in Biblical terms are often referred to as God’s elect, or
saints. The pronouns “we” and “us” are referring to all human
beings - everyone who has lived, or ever will live in the history of
the world. This includes Adam and Eve, the first people who ever
lived in God’s creation of this world, to the last person born before
God’s destruction of this world in the final judgment. This point
needs to be underscored. It is a fundamental truth of the Christian
faith. Jesus’ redeeming blood covers the sins of Joan of Arc and
Adolf Hitler alike, his mother Mary, and his betrayer Judas equally.
Because of what Jesus did to satisfy the demands of God’s law for
everyone, God has declared everyone righteous in his sight. This

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includes murderers, rapists, thieves, terrorists, serial killers and
psychopathic deviants as well as church goers, hard workers,
faithful spouses, little children, society’s benefactors, those who go
out of their way to serve others and everyone else in between. That
may not sound fair to ears accustomed to hearing how the world
judges things. But we don’t want justice according to the world’s
standard of the bad get punished and the good get rewarded. We
would all be doomed if that were the case. The Bible is clear on
this point. When it comes to being righteous based on our own
merit, the Bible says, “There is no one who is righteous, not even
one” (Romans 3:10). That is because our own righteousness
according to God’s holy standard means being perfectly righteous
and without sin. And we haven’t done that. “In fact, whoever keeps
the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of
breaking all of it” (James 2:10).

Our complete inability to be righteous before God based on

our own merit is why we don’t want God’s justice; we want God’s
mercy. And God’s mercy upon us is made possible by Jesus
satisfying God’s justice for us. That’s where the second Adam
steps to the plate and pinch hits for us. He is the perfect God-man
who committed no sin and satisfied all of God’s demands for
justice for us – for everyone. Game seven, walk off style, grand
slam, clearing the bases, game over. Yes, indeed, in the spiritual
big leagues Jesus is now the World Champion. We are winners
with him because, as human beings, we are on the same team as
him, who is a true man. Jesus won the victory for all human beings
by redeeming us from our sins. God has made this point perfectly
clear in his Word also. The apostle Paul writes, “…all have sinned
and fall short of the gloryof God and are justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans
3:23-24). By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul’s fellow apostle
agrees. In his first letter John writes, “…If anyone does sin, we

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have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous
One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours
but also for the whole world” (1 John 2: 1b-2). Lest we forget too
quickly the point made in the previous paragraph, “the whole
world” means the whole world. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice who
satisfied God’s demands for justice and takes away the guilt and
punishment of sin for everyone.

By fulfilling the Promise, Jesus clearly showed

us a man made in God’s image.

Jesus was conceived with the image of God in his human

nature just as the first Adam was when he was created. Jesus then
lived for us a life of divine perfection in his human nature. What
Jesus did to fulfill the Promise God made in the Garden of Eden
and become the world’s one and only real superhero is absolutely
astounding. His work of redemption incorporated every aspect of
the divine attributes of God. What we mean to emphasize by this is
that God made the promise of a Savior and governed the course of
history to prepare for the coming of the Savior because of who he

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is by the nature of his being (attributes). If God had been, petty,
vengeful, a hard case, heartless, impatient, letting his anger over
sin rule over his love for people, ready to disown his children
because they had disobeyed him, determined to punish them for
their sin to the full letter of the law because they deserved it, then
salvation from sin would never have been promised, much less
carried out. But that is not the kind of God he is. It was because he
was true to his nature as a kind, loving, patient, merciful, forgiving
God (yes, including his just condemnation and judgment upon sin)
and all his other attributes that the Promise was made and history was
governed to make it possible.

The same characteristics of God are true for Jesus in his

human nature. Yes, Jesus, as true God, possessed all the divine
attributes of God. But it was his human nature as the descendant of
the woman that was the crux of the matter. It was because he lived
as true man fully possessing and living in keeping with all the
divine attributes God shared with him in his human nature (See
chapter one on “shared” attributes) that he was able to carry out the
work of redemption he was sent to do and fulfill God’s Promise of
a Savior. Think of what would have happened if Jesus had not
lived a sinless life fully in keeping with the divine attributes shared
in his human nature. Rebelling against his parents as a teenager
because he didn’t always like what they wanted of him; giving up
on his disciples because so many times they just didn’t get it when
he was trying to teach them; getting discouraged and ready to give
up when many of his followers turned back and no longer wanted
to listen to his teaching; holding a grudge and not forgiving Peter
when Peter denied him in Caiaphas’ courtyard at a critical time in
Jesus’ passion; stepping down from the cross to silence all the
mocking and mistreatment he was receiving and show everyone he
truly was God, and so on. You get the picture. But Jesus didn’t do

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those things. He was true to the sinless, “image of God”
characteristics shared with him in his human nature.

Think of a few more examples from Old Testament history

and from Jesus’ life. We do this, not to repeat the points of history
recorded in chapters three through seven, but to provide a few
examples of how God the Father and Jesus were true to their nature
as true God and Jesus as true man with a sinless human nature in
the image of God. And this, in turn, was the only way God’s
Promise of salvation could have been successfully fulfilled.

We will start with God the Father. It was love, of course, that
moved God to create the world in his divine wisdom (omniscient)
and power (omnipotent) and share his blessed life with human
beings made in his own image. When Adam and Eve fell into sin,
he was faithful to his word and the condition of spiritual death he
warned them about came true. Yet, in his love he did not inflict on
them immediately the physical death they deserved, but instead
promised them a Savior from sin to restore them to a blessed life
with him. To keep that Promise, he carried out the just judgment
against a wicked world with the destruction of the Flood, but
before that in his longsuffering perseverance gave them 120 years
to turn from their wicked ways. He was patient with Abraham and
Jacob in their times of weakness and still blessed and prospered
them in his kindness with many material blessings. He was
gracious to Sarah, Rachel and Hannah when he heard their prayers
and gave them sons, and to the widow of Zarephath when he
provided for her and her son through the prophet Elijah. He was
merciful to the city of Nineveh and did not destroy them when they
repented of their ways. He was merciful and forgiving to King
David when he repented of his sins of adultery and murder. He
was exceptionally patient and longsuffering with the nation of
Israel and the many times they turned away from him in idolatry,

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and then faithfully kept his word when he brought back the nation
of Judah from captivity in Babylon. He was holy and jealous of his
name and the truth when he did not condone sin and allow what
was evil to stand in the way of his plan of salvation and often dealt
with it severely as in the incident of the golden calf at Mt. Sinai.

There are many more examples that could be cited to show

how God was faithful to his nature as the one holy God. He always
spoke and acted in keeping with his nature to carry out his plan to
restore a blessed life with him for people as he had Promised.
There is one more we shall dwell on for a moment – the one hinted
at in the last sentence of the previous paragraph. People sometimes
find it difficult to accept the sometimes-severe punishment and
death God’s judgment carried out against people because of their
sin. They just don’t see it as loving and forbearing in keeping with
the nature of loving and forgiving God. But it is. God is a holy and
zealous God who is jealous (in a sinless, good sense) for the truth
of who he is, and what is right and good in life. He deals with sin
and wickedness patiently, but, also, in a way that does not allow sin
and wickedness to be permitted as acceptable. Hence, on occasion,
his decision to carry out judgments against what is sinful and
wrong in this world is made because it is the loving thing to do.

Yes, even God’s justice, his wrath against sin and his
condemnation of those who continue in their sin of unbelief emanate
from the core of his being which is love. It was his love for what is
right and good, his love for everything which is a blessing to
mankind, and his love for the very life he desired to share with
mankind, which moved him to carry out the acts of judgment that
he did. He warned people of the consequences of their sin so they
would stay close to him and the blessings of his love. He chastised
his people with acts of judgment (earthly hardships, defeats,
captivity) so they would see the seriousness of their sin and return
to his love in repentance. He judged the wicked with acts of
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destruction to protect others by removing the influence of sin and
evil from corrupting even more people. And, finally, in the last
judgment, it will be love which moves him to eternally separate
from himself all the wicked in their unbelief. In that way, he and
all those with him in heaven will be able to enjoy a life of
everlasting love, perfection and glory without the presence of sin
and unbelief by others still plaguing their existence.

Loving parents still reflect both sides of God’s

love towards His children.
For those who might question God’s love when it comes to
administering acts of justice and judgment against unbelief, think
simply of a loving father. When a father disciplines his children by
scolding them, warning them, removing privileges from them, and
often – because it is the simplest and best way for children to fully
grasp the seriousness of their actions – by applying physical
discipline in the form of appropriate (not abusive) spanking, ask
yourself this question. Does he do so because he hates his children
and doesn’t care if what he does hurts them? Is he doing it for his
own sake because he demands obedience to whatever he wants? Or
does he do so because he loves his children and doesn’t want them
to continue to do things that will hurt themselves and others? Does
anybody else remember their father saying right before the switch,
“This hurts me more than it will hurt you,”? The reason for applying
appropriate discipline includes, especially, the goal of keeping
children from hurting themselves or the concern of eventually
depriving themselves from enjoying the blessings of God. For those
who find it difficult to administer physical discipline because they
don’t want to inflict pain upon their children, think about this.
Which is worse, the pain inflicted now which lasts only a few
moments and teaches valuable lessons of right and wrong to a loved
one? Or, the pain inflicted at the end of life which lasts forever for

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those who chose wrong instead of right because they were not
appropriately disciplined in love as children? The book of Proverbs
answers the question for us. “Do not withhold discipline from a
child, for if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. Strike him
yourself with a rod, and you will rescue his soul from death.
(Proverbs 23:13-14). It is true love which disciplines appropriately
when it is necessary. God tells us so, also, in Proverbs. “A person
who withholds his rod hates his son, but one who loves him
administers discipline promptly (Proverbs 13:24). Remember also
the warning for those who refuse God’s discipline through parents.
“An eye that mocks its father and despises the obedience due its
mother—ravens of the valley will peck it out, and young vultures will
eat it” (Proverbs 30:17). God has experience in these matters and
inspired a wise man to write these warnings.

Jesus reflected the image of God in his sinless

human nature.

Scrutinize Jesus’ behavior throughout his entire life. He was

respectful and obedient to his parents and all in authority. He loved
God’s Word, eagerly learned it as a child, and was zealous for

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God’s truth all his life. He had compassion on the widow of Nain
and the people who were without a shepherd; he had mercy on the
woman caught in adultery and did not condemn her; he was
faithful to his Word; he was longsuffering with his disciples; he
was patient with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman; he was
gentle with children and took them in his arms; he was righteous in
all his ways and did everything the law of God demanded. He had
the courage to condemn the unrighteous when he rebuked the
Pharisees; he was selfless and caring in his service to others when
he fed the five thousand and washed his disciples’ feet; he was
zealous for God’s honor when he cleansed the temple courts of
thieves; he was meek and turned the other cheek to the soldiers
who struck him; and we could go on. For glory’s sake, how can we
not mention, also, his suffering and death? Even when he was
mistreated by the soldiers, spat upon, hit, had his hair pulled out,
scourged, mocked and nailed to the cross enduring excruciating
pain and suffering the very torments of hell, how did Jesus act? He
did not resist authorities; he did not disrespect those who unjustly
condemned him; he did not lash out at those who cruelly mocked
him; he did not get angry at those who harshly crucified him. He
remained selfless and forgiving, and continued to show love to
others (the women wailing, his mother, the thief on the cross). His
entire life as true man combined all the divine attributes of love,
mercy, compassion, patience, justice, selflessness, righteousness,
faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, kindness, wisdom and obedience
to his Father’s will into one great wondrous act of saving mankind
from sin and death.

If God hadn’t been faithful to himself in all his divine

attributes (an impossibility we might add), the second Adam would
have never made it to the starting line of his quest, much less finish
the race in victory. But here we are now. The second Adam did
come as the descendant of the woman and fulfilled God’s Promise
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of a Savior. In his sinless nature fashioned in God’s image as true
man, Jesus performed the task his Father had given him to do. He
did what human nature would consider impossible: be a man, live
as man-but sinless, suffer and die as a man (yes, still at the same
time the God-man; we are not incognizant of that reality), in order
to do what the first Adam failed to do. That was to be the man
who, by reconciling a fallen world to a right relationship with God,
would do what God intended the first man and his wife to do.
Adam and Eve were made not only to be like God and live in
harmony with him but to share God’s life and happiness with
others by bringing into existence more human beings who were
born to be like God. The first Adam failed, but the second Adam
did not. Deed done! Jesus picked up the baton and ran the race to
victory. Think about this for a moment. God didn’t just smite Satan
down with his power and push him off a cliff into the abyss of hell
for his wickedness. God used the very creature Satan thought he
had vanquished – a descendant of the woman, a human being- to
come back from the jaws of defeat and the sentence of death with
the most remarkable comeback of all time. The second Adam
gained victory over Satan and restored to a fallen world the gift of
life for all people as God desires.

The Bible does a magnificent job of communicating this

profound truth. The Apostle Paul states this truth in Romans chapter
five. There are some “givens” assumed by Paul in this section of
Scripture which might lead to questions or misunderstanding by
some. Therefore, we will quote this section with some clarification
and explanatory remarks included in parentheses.

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man

(Adam) and death through sin, so also death spread to all
people because all sinned. For even before the law (the
written law in Exodus) was given, sin was in the world. Now,

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 sin is not charged to one’s account if there is no law, (This
implies there should have been no death) and yet death
reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even
over those whose sin was not like the transgression of Adam,
(a specific command “Do not eat” in the same way Adam
did), who is a pattern of the one who was to come. (Romans
5:12-14)

Adam in his original perfect state before the fall into sin was a
pattern for the second Adam who was also sinless in his human
nature–Jesus. Comment: The reason people still died even before
the written law was given and even though they did not sin by
breaking a specific command like Adam had was - they still
sinned. They were still guilty of going against natural law, the law
of God written in their hearts.

But the gracious gift is not like Adam’s trespass. For if the
many (all people) died by the trespass of this one man, it is
even more certain that God’s grace, and the gift given by the
grace of the one man Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many
(all people)! And the gift is not like the effect of the one
man’s sin (Adam’s fall into sin in the Garden), for the
judgment that followed the one trespass resulted in a verdict
of condemnation (for all people), but the gracious gift that
followed many (everyone’s) trespasses resulted in a verdict
of justification (for all people).Indeed, if by the trespass of
the one man (Adam), death reigned through the one man, it
is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing
grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through
the one man Jesus Christ! (Romans 5:15-17)

Paul makes a necessary distinction here. He words his

thoughts carefully to recognize the truth of subjective justification.
Even though God’s gift of righteousness and life is given to all

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people, only those who receive it through grace by faith will live
and reign with Christ in glory. This is talked about in the next
chapter of this book. He then returns to the main point he is
making in this section of Scripture which is objective justification–
righteousness and the gift of life has been given to all.

So then, just as one trespass (the fall into sin) led to a verdict
of condemnation for all people, so also one righteous verdict
(God’s verdict on Jesus’ work of redemption –He fulfilled
God’s Promise of a Savior completely) led to life-giving
justification for all people. For just as through the
disobedience of one man (Adam) the many (all people)
became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man
(the Second Adam – Jesus obeying his heavenly Father’s
will) the many (all people) will become righteous. (Romans
5:18-19)

The entire chapter adds even more insight to this truth. Paul
condenses this profound truth with a short reference in his first
letter to Timothy. “For there is one God and one mediator between
God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a
ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy
2:5-6). As true man Jesus served as a mediator to resolve the
conflict between God and mankind because of sin. He did so as the
second Adam with his work of redemption.

So, what point is this entire chapter intended to underscore?

The answer: What a remarkable plan and what a glorious God we
have to give us the gift of life we now enjoy through the Savior he
promised. God created this world, and everything in the universe as a
place where he could share his glorious life with the objects of his
creation made to be like him, Adam and Eve. In his goodness he
wanted Adam and Eve to have the same joy of sharing the life he
had, which they would have in giving life to their offspring. Adam

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failed to do that because of the fall into sin (Romans 5:12-19.) See,
also, 1 Timothy 2:14 for an explanation of Adam’s guilt. Eve was
deceived, but he wasn’t. He knew something was wrong during
that fateful moment in the Garden of Eden, but he chose to disobey
God’s command and join Eve in eating of the forbidden fruit
anyway. He was the first person made, the one who heard God’s
command specifically spoken to him and who, in turn, then shared it
with Eve. He knew what they were doing was wrong. Eve was
deceived. In his love for Eve, Adam should have intervened and
stopped what they were doing, but he didn’t, and God held him
responsible. (Refer also to comments in chapter three).

Because of the fall into sin, Adam and Eve now passed on
death to their descendants, instead of life with God as God
intended. But God remained who he is – both just and true to his
Word (death for sin), but at the same time still filled with love for
the objects of his creation with whom he had shared his life. In his
mercy, he promised to rescue them and their descendants from
their plight of death and separation from God. And in his wisdom
and justice as God for whom nothing is impossible, he didn’t just
do it by passing a decree and disregarding the consequences of sin.
Nor did he just do it “by himself” as true God. It was a man who
had sinned and needed to die for sin. So, God promised to send a
descendant of the woman – a man – who would save them. In his
hatred, Satan had not succeeded in spoiling God’s plan for sharing
life with human beings by leading Adam and Eve into sin and
death. It’s kind of like saying, “In your face, Satan!” He has no
power of evil to stop God from doing what God wills to do in his
love. God would send another human being, a second Adam, who
would accomplish what God intended all along – share God’s gift
of life with more human beings. This is precisely what Jesus
accomplished with his life, death and resurrection as the second
Adam. God’s plan to save mankind was carried out in the courts of
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eternal justice fully in keeping with who God is in all his divine
attributes. In Jesus, “Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness
and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10). The Promise was fulfilled.
Life was restored to the whole world as a free gift.

All mankind fell in Adam’s fall;

One common sin infects us all.
From one to all the curse descends,
And over all God’s wrath impends.

But Christ, the second Adam, came

To bear our sin and woe and shame,
To be our life, our light, our way,
Our only hope, our only stay.

As by one man all mankind fell

And, born in sin, was doomed to hell,
So by one Man, who took our place,
We all were justified by grace.

We thank you, Christ; new life is ours,

New light, new hope, new strength, new pow’rs;
This grace our ev’ry way attend,
Until we reach our journey’s end.

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 9
The Plan Continues
The Holy Spirit does his part to give life
to people.

The plan worked. God’s plan to keep the promise he made to

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and save people from the
consequences of their sins was successful. Because of what Jesus
did for us as the second Adam, the work of redemption was
complete. Death because of sin was conquered and Paradise was
regained. The blessing of a loving, harmonious life with God was
given to all people. The promise was fulfilled, but there was still
work to be done.

It is apparent simply by observing what goes on in this world

not everyone enjoys the blessing of a harmonious life with God.
Even for Christians, trouble still fills our lives. Accidents, illnesses,
hardships, earthquakes, hurricanes, mudslides, droughts, floods,
and other natural disasters still make life difficult and often

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painful. More is the trouble people bring upon themselves and
others with their sin. There is the vandalism of property, the
bloodshed of wars, and the corruption of greed; arguments,
adultery, animosity; bullying, fighting, and cheating; stealing, lying
and deceiving; from rioting thugs and savage rapists to serial
killers and murdering terrorists; and everything else that comes
under the category of man’s inhumanity to man—not to mention
man’s ungodliness to God. Much in this life can be thrown into the
dumpster fire of tribulation. What kind of life is that, God? Even
those who are God’s children often must endure life with trials and
heartaches. In fact, from an earthly perspective, many Christians
may have a more difficult life than those who do not worship the
true God through faith in Jesus Christ. In addition to the hardships
of life mentioned above, it is not unusual for disrespect, hatred and
persecution to be leveled against Christians from a world which
does not want God and his truth to rule over them. Jesus said, “If
the world hates you, you know that it hated me first” (John 15:18).
His disciple John remembered what Jesus said when he wrote in
his first letter, “Do not be surprised brothers if the world hates
you” (1 John 3:13). The Apostle Peter infers the same kind of hateful
attitude and mistreatment from the unbelieving world when he urges
Christians to keep a clear conscience and adds, “…so that those
who attack your good way of life in Christ may be put to shame
because they slander you as evildoers” (1 Peter 3:16; see also, 1
Peter 2:12 and 4:4). The Apostle Paul makes the same point when
he urges God’s children to remain true to the faith and says, “We
must go through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God”
(Acts 14:22).

Not as apparent for many people, sadly, is the truth of what

comes next for unbelievers. It’s going to get worse. People blind to
God’s truth when they live in the darkness of sin often refuse to

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accept the miseries and torments of this life will continue and even
get worse for them when they die – though they still fear it in their
hearts. Tragically, this will be true for the majority of mankind.
The Bible leaves no doubt about that. When it comes to entering
the next life it says,

Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and
broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are
those who enter through it. How narrow is the gate, and
how difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few
who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Destruction in these verses does not mean the end of one’s

existence. It means the end of one’s time of grace here on earth
and, in its place, the total loss of any kind of life with God’s
blessings in the eternal torments of hell “where their worm does
not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). Such a terrible
fate is by no means what God wants for people. Saving people
from such a fate is the reason God sent his Son to become the
second Adam and restore this fallen world to a right relationship to
God. “The Lord …Is patient for your sakes, not wanting anyone to
perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). “God our
Savior… who wants all people to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth” (1Timothy 2:9).

So, yes, there is still work to be done for people to have the
life that God wants us to have – to have the kind of life Jesus
restored for us. This work, however, was not done by Jesus. His
work, as he stated on the cross, was “finished.” Nor can this work
be done or even help get finished by people. When it comes to
doing the work of acquiring the life God wants us to enjoy with
him, God says, “You can’t do it!” He tells us clearly, “because all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). As
much as anyone may try to live his life good enough to please God

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and earn the right to live with God in glory, he or she will always
fall short because of their sin. James writes, “…whoever keeps the
whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking
all of it” (James 2:10). When it comes to being perfectly righteous
before God by our own doing, Solomon wrote, “There is surely not
a righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin”
(Ecclesiastes 7:20). And paraphrasing Solomon, Paul wrote, “Just
as it is written: There is no one who is righteous, not even one”
(Romans 3:10). As sinners we could never do any work which
would help us have the life Jesus lived and died to give us, and
which God wants us to have. And that’s a problem; this work still
needs to be done for each and every person. Thankfully, in his
wisdom, God knew what needed to be done and it was part of his
plan. Enter the Holy Spirit.

Sanctification
To put it succinctly, the Holy Spirit is the one whom both God
the Father in heaven and Jesus, in his exalted state, sent to earth to
do this work. In essence, the Holy Spirit’s work was to deliver to
mankind the gift of life Jesus earned for all people. The word most
commonly used to summarize all the things the Holy Spirit does
to bring the blessing of life to people is “Sanctification.”
Sanctification comes from the Latin word “Sanctus” which means
holy. And holy, by itself, is a rich word which combines the
meanings of both “perfect (sinless),” and “set apart for God.” In
other words, the Holy Spirit sets people apart for God (as God’s
children) by making them holy in God’s sight. He accomplishes
this by, first of all, bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ so the
holiness of Jesus’ life becomes their own in their “new man” of
faith. Remember the passage, “In fact, you are all sons (children –
male and female) of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians

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3:26). Secondly, the Holy Spirit works in people’s hearts to
motivate and lead their new man of faith to live holy lives. “Just as
the one who called you is holy, so also be holy in everything you
do. For it is written, ‘Be holy because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15,
16). These two activities of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in
our lives are tied together but need to be recognized separately.
The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to make us holy by
bringing us to faith in Jesus Christ is solely his doing. We do not
cooperate with the Holy Spirit in choosing to believe. It is entirely his
doing to instill spiritual life in us by leading us to faith in Jesus
Christ. Therefore, this usage of the word sanctification is the more
important, or main, one. Once the Holy Spirit has worked faith in a
person’s heart, the new man of faith is holy and capable of
cooperating with the Holy Spirit as he leads us to live holy lives,
set apart for God. This is the secondary use of the word
sanctification when we are urged to live sanctified lives. It always
follows and is dependent on the first sanctifying work of the Holy
Spirit whereby he made us holy before God through faith in Christ.
This is not to imply God’s children can lead completely sinless
lives for they still have a sinful nature always inclined to sin. It
means with the Holy Spirit’s leading and strengthening a person’s
new man of faith will constantly strive to live a holy life in keeping
with God’s will. First of all,“…it is God who is working in you,
both to will and to work, for the sake of his good pleasure”
(Philippians 2:13).

There is much the Scriptures say about the sanctifying work of

the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith, keep us in faith, and enable us
to have a blessed life with God, which Jesus gained for us as the
second Adam. It will be helpful to use an illustration to put the
Holy Spirit’s work into the perspective of God’s entire plan of
salvation. The purpose of this chapter is to show how God’s plan to
share his blessed life with people was renewed once the second
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Adam came and fulfilled God’s promise of a Savior from sin. This
is what the work of the Holy Spirit is all about and why the
illustration is being introduced at this point. However, since the
illustration is intended to tie together truths of the entire plan of
salvation, it must, of necessity, include the work of God the Father
as our Creator, and the work of God the Son as our Redeemer.
These truths have been the content of the previous eight chapters
of this book and, even summarized, would be lengthy repetition at
this point. For that reason, we will only give an outline and brief
summary of the illustration here, to identify the work of the Holy
Spirit in conjunction with the work of God the Father and God the
Son. In essence, the illustration could be used as a summary for
this entire book. It could even be a summarizing overlay for the
entire Bible since the goal of the illustration is to underscore how
completely all three persons of the Trinity worked in harmony with
each other through the ages, first to give life, then to redeem our
lives and, finally, to restore spiritual life and give the blessing of
eternal life to human beings. The full illustration with Scriptural
truths woven into the illustration to support the main points is
provided in Addendum Eight at the end of this book. Here is the brief
summary of the illustration.

Salvation Incorporated
1. God the Father – the Design and Engineering Division
God the Father planned the creation of the world in
consultation with the Son and the Holy Spirit. By the power of His
Word, he brought into existence our world, the entire universe, and
all the creatures that live in it. His goal was to share blessed life
with human beings (Adam and Eve) who were made in his image,
and they, in turn, were to reproduce and share their blessed life
with God with their children. God also cares for His world and

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human beings with his providence. After the fall into sin, God
designed a way to save people from sin and made sure it was
implemented (ordained it) by engineering his control over history
to accomplish his goal of restoring a blessed life for people.
2. God the Son – the Production (or Manufacturing) Division
God the Father gave his eternally begotten Son the work of
manufacturing everything the Father had designed for the
creation of the world/universe and the beings which would
live in it. When God the Father spoke the Word, the Son
implemented the plan by producing everything in the created
world, and without Him (the Son) nothing was made that had
been made. Then, the Father directed the Son to enter the realm
of human existence and put aside his divine powers for a time to
become also a human being and carry out God’s plan to save
people from their sins. By becoming a “descendant of the
woman” and doing everything God had designed for the plan of
salvation, the Son successfully rescued mankind from the
sentence of death for sin and restored a blessed life for all the
world’s inhabitants.
3. God the Holy Spirit – the Sales Division (Product delivery
and support)

The work of saving the world from the guilt and punishment
of sin was completed. People could now have peace with God and
live in harmony with Him again. Now it was time to accomplish
the next item on the agenda of God’s eternal plan of salvation. The
Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world to deliver the
product of salvation to people. It was/is the Holy Spirit’s work to
work on people’s hearts and lead them to believe what God had
done to save them from sin and death was true. The Holy Spirit
used words to sell people on the product of salvation and change
their whole outlook on life. They would become new people to

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rejoice in the life God had given them, live in keeping with God’s
loving will for them, and strive to stop doing the things harmful to
life (sin). The Holy Spirit also used special gifts connected to his
Word (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) to work on people’s hearts -
not only to bring them to believe this blessing of life was real, but
to keep nourishing and strengthening them in their newfound life
of faith. He used the good news of what Jesus Christ had done to
help and encourage people to use the product of salvation
faithfully. Another aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work was to have all
the words of salvation put into written form (an owner’s manual)
so people served by God’s company (Salvation Incorporated) could
clearly understand all the blessings they were receiving from
Salvation Incorporated and be able to share these blessings with
others. They would do so by sharing the good news of a blessed
life with God through Jesus Christ with their family, friends, and
neighbors, and make an effort to reach out to people in other
neighborhoods and other countries of the world so they also could
hear the good news of God’s salvation.

The Holy Spirit’s work

It ought to be obvious the Holy Spirit’s work is essential in
order for people to enjoy God’s gift of salvation to eternal life.
Jesus did the work of making salvation a reality. He saved the
world from the consequences of sin by redeeming us from sin,
death, and the devil with His life, death, and resurrection as our
Savior. He was and is the second Adam. The Holy Spirit’s work is
to bring that salvation to us so we can personally enjoy it, both
now in this life of sin and, as we will eventually see, perfectly in
the next life without sin.

Before proceeding with how the Holy Spirit works his

blessing of giving, growing, supporting, strengthening, and
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encouraging the new life God wants people to have, we need to
pause for a moment. We need to put everything said in the
subsequent pages of this chapter into the context of the chapter
heading: God’s Plan is Continued. What was God’s plan,
originally, at the creation of this world? That was chapter two.
Simply put, it was to share his perfect life of love and everything
good with the beings he made to be like him. With the Tree of Life
to sustain them, Adam and Eve were intended by God to live
forever in the blessed life of love, harmony, and oneness with God.
In this blessed life, they would be given the same joy God had in
giving life to people. They would make people in their own image,
their children, and give a blessed life with God also to them. This
is why God made them sexual beings with the ability to procreate
(for creating life) and replicate the blessed roles in life which
reflect the relationships of the Trinity. See chapter two.

It would take time, however, for Adam and Eve to experience

life themselves and grow in their understanding and appreciation of
what a blessing life is when lived in harmony with our gracious
God. That is what the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was all
about. God gave them the opportunity to grow spiritually by
experience. And by continuing to live in obedience to God’s loving
will of their own free will, they would reach a state of spiritual
maturity we call confirmed in righteousness. If that thought is
difficult to grasp, consider this comparison. Think of how long it
takes kids to learn, understand, and appreciate what their parents did
for them growing up. And finally, hopefully, and prayerfully, of their
own free will, they embrace and practice the values and ethics their
parents worked to instill in them. Adam and Eve never reached that
stage, of course, because they believed Satan’s lies and fell into sin –
just like gullible, easily misled kids get led astray to do something
contrary to their parents’ wishes when tempted by others.

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 As we continue with the Holy Spirit’s work to bring us the
blessings of life through faith in Jesus, keep this truth in mind. The
Holy Spirit’s work is to bring us to faith in Jesus so we might be
saved from our sins and live eternally with God. However, the plan
is not just to live eternally with God in heaven. It is to live
eternally with a new life of love, peace, and oneness with God in a
state of sinless perfection as the entirety of our very being – like
God. Of course, the fact we are born with a sinful nature and will
have that sinful nature as part of our existence until we die sheds
light on what the Holy Spirit’s work entails. He does not just bring
us to faith and, in the process, renew in us a spiritual rebirth which
makes us like God again in our new man. In addition, he must
work mightily throughout our lives to sustain our faith, nurture our
faith, help us grow stronger and more mature in our faith so we
are less likely to fall away. He needs to comfort, counsel, discipline,
warn, encourage, guide, motivate, and give reassurance as needed to
keep us in the true faith until we reach a blessed end, shed our
sinful flesh, and rest in peace. How difficult it is and what is all
involved in that work is what the subsequent pages will unpack.

How the Holy Spirit works

To do his work of saving souls by bringing them to faith in
Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit uses tools. Just like a physician uses
things like electrocardiograms and x-rays to point out a patient’s
need for surgery or a certain medication, so the Holy Spirit uses
the law of God to point out a person’s sin and the need to be healed
of the cancer of sin lest he die. Then the physician uses tools like the
scalpel or chemotherapy or radiation to heal a person of his
disease; or, in the case of mental and emotional ills, may use words
to encourage, counsel, and give hope to his patient. In the same

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way, the Holy Spirit uses the tools of the Word and Sacraments to
heal a person of the spiritually terminal illness of sin.

It is important to note the distinction between law and gospel

and their roles in the work of the Holy Spirit. As mentioned above,
the law portions of God’s Word will point out a person’s sin and
need for a Savior. But it will not heal him of his sin just as an x-ray
or some other diagnostic procedure will not heal a person of his
illness. For healing and saving life, the gospel portion of God’s
Word is needed. The gospel is the good news God loves people and
has sent his Son to save people from their sins. The message of
God’s love and the pronouncement of forgiveness to the repentant
sinner, for Jesus’ sake, comforts and gives hope to the heart. A
person no longer feels the burden of guilt because of sin or has a
fear of God’s judgment against sin (eternal death) when he or she
dies. They trust what God says, are at peace with God now, and
know life with God is waiting for them in heaven. This is the spirit
of a new hope, a new man now living in them.

The spoken Word of the gospel is not the only tool the Holy
Spirit uses to work and preserve faith in Jesus in a person’s heart.
He also uses his Word in connection with earthly elements in what
is referred to as sacred acts, or Sacraments. A sacrament is defined
by Lutheran Christians with three characteristics. It has (1)
God’s command to carry out the sacred rite; (2) his promise of
forgiveness of sins; and (3) the earthly element prescribed by God.
All three are necessary for a rite to be called a Sacrament. A
Sacrament defined by these characteristics is a rite whereby God
works or nurtures faith and bestows the blessings of forgiveness of
sins, life, and salvation.

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 Baptism
One Sacrament is baptism—the application of water upon a
person as the Word of God is being spoken. The words used to
baptize are the simple proclamation: “(Name spoken… I baptize)
you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit…” and are taken directly from Jesus’ command to baptize as
recorded in Matthew 28:18-20. The Sacrament of Baptism is to be
given to all who confess faith in Jesus as their Savior and request
baptism for themselves or their children. Children are specifically
included in God’s command to baptize, as Peter preached on the
day of Pentecost: “Peter answered them, ‘Repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (i.e., the
gift of faith in Jesus Christ which carries with it forgiveness of
sins, life, and salvation). For the promise is for you and for your
children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our
God will call” (Acts 2:38-39).

The command to baptize is especially important for children

who are infants. Infants cannot intellectually understand the
significance of what is going on in baptism and request baptism for
themselves. Yet, the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit is still at
work in baptism, working faith in their hearts and bestowing God’s
blessing of forgiveness of sins. Paul writes in his letter to Titus,
“He God saved us—not by righteous works that we did ourselves,
but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of
rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). The
washing of rebirth is a reference to baptism, whereby God the Holy
Spirit works the new life of faith in children’s hearts. In this way,
they are reborn spiritually and renewed in the same image of God
Adam and Eve had in the beginning. Read the entire section of

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Titus 3:3-8 for a full appreciation of God’s working in us by his
Holy Spirit.

The Apostle Peter also spoke of the importance of baptism in

his first letter. Speaking of the waters that lifted up the ark, saving
Noah and his family from the worldwide destruction of the flood,
Peter adds, “And corresponding to that (the waters of the flood
holding up the ark), baptism now saves you—not the removal of
dirt from the body but the guarantee of a good conscience before
God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). The
waters of the flood washed away the filth of sin and unbelief from
the earth, and at the same time lifted the ark above all the
destruction by which the believing family of Noah was spared. So,
the waters of baptism are not simply washing away the guilt of sin
by this ceremonial act. All people have their sins paid for by the
blood of Jesus and are saved from death by his work of redemption.
So, like the flood waters, the waters of Baptism lift us up to life by
applying God’s promise of forgiveness of sins given to us by Jesus.

Also, it ought to be obvious that the passage in 1 Peter is not

referring to something as literal as washing dirt off the body. That
doesn’t make sense since something as simple as sprinkling with
water does very little to wash away dirt. Nor is baptism by
immersion the answer, for no sane person would claim that washing
dirt off the body physically makes a person clean before God
spiritually. That ignores the spiritual context of saying baptism
saves us. Being saved comes only through faith in Christ. The
phrase “not the removal of dirt from the body,” is to be understood
in its spiritual context. It is saying baptizing a person does NOT
take away the dirt of the body spiritually. That is, baptism does not
wash away the filthy dirt of the sinful nature of our body—a
reference to the original sin with which all people are born.

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 In other words, baptism does not wash away the sinful nature
of our old Adam which will continue to afflict us until death. What
baptism does by the power of the Holy Spirit is work faith in
people’s hearts—and faith in Christ makes God’s gift of
forgiveness of sins and spiritual life our own. That, in turn, enables
people to give an answer to God on the last day (see Romans
14:12) with a clear conscience. They no longer have the fear of a
guilty conscience because they can give an answer to God that they
know their sins are forgiven. In the case of people who have come
to faith in Jesus as adults and requested baptism for themselves,
baptism then becomes a seal of faith. It guarantees the Holy
Spirit’s continued working through the Word to preserve faith in
Christ, which he does for all who faithfully continue to use God’s
Word and Sacraments.

The Sacrament of the Altar

The second Sacrament is intended specifically for adults who

already believe and fully understand what the Sacrament does for
them. The Sacrament has several names depending on which
emphasis one chooses to make. It is called the Sacrament of the Altar
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because it normally (but not always) is celebrated at the altar of a
church. It is called the Lord’s Supper because it is the new supper
(meal) the Lord instituted for his followers to eat to replace the last
supper he ate with them before he died (The Passover Meal). It is
called Holy Communion because in this supper Jesus gave his
disciples his real body and blood to eat and drink in holy union with
the physical bread and wine which they consumed when he handed
it to them. For this reason, this teaching about the Sacrament of the
Altar is called the doctrine of the Real Presence. The eating and
drinking of his true body and blood in this miraculous way is a sign
of the New Covenant Jesus established for his followers. It was to
help them remember how he gave his body and blood into death on
the cross to redeem people from their sins and marked the end of
the Old Covenant God had with his people.

It should be noted, however, the Old Covenant Passover

celebration with its meal of eating lamb had a dual purpose. God
intended all along to use it not just to remember deliverance from
slavery to sin and the death of the firstborn sons of God’s people in
Egypt. It would also be used for a greater purpose to underscore a
greater deliverance: to point to the Lamb of God being sacrificed to
save all people from slavery to sin and eternal death. Instituting
this new meal rightly would deflect attention away from the Old
Testament Passover lamb which was only a shadow of what was to
come to the fulfillment of that shadow in the real body and blood
of Christ. The Sacrament is also called the Eucharist which means
Eu=good and charis=love or grace. In other words, it refers to the
gracious words of good spoken as part of celebrating the Sacrament
when the word of forgiveness is pronounced upon believers.

This is what Jesus wanted his followers to remember when he

instituted the Sacrament. When they ate and drank of the bread and
wine and received at the same time his true body and blood, they

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were to do this to “remember him.” They were to remember how
his body and blood were given into death to gain for people the
forgiveness of sins. In this way, on a regular basis, Jesus’ disciples
(believers) would have their faith strengthened not only by hearing
the gospel preached but by partaking of a meal which called to
mind vividly the sacrificial death on which the gospel is based. As
such, it should be noted this meal is to be given to and eaten only
by believers in Jesus Christ. That is because God’s blessings of
forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are received only through
faith in Christ. An unbeliever or an unrepentant person receiving
the Sacrament would not receive forgiveness of sins. They would
receive only the condemnation of doing something sinful, since
whatever is not done by faith is sin (see Romans 14:23).

In addition, we also note those of a certain age—either too

young to understand or in old age if senility renders them no longer
able to understand what they are doing—should not be communed
since celebrating the Sacrament requires remembering and
knowing what Jesus has done for them. The same thing is true of
the mentally incompetent for other reasons. This does not mean
such people are not believers or are not forgiven of their sins. God
does not forget his own. It simply means in these circumstances,
the tool the Holy Spirit uses to strengthen faith requires believing
hearts to have the mental competence to examine themselves and
remember what Jesus did to gain forgiveness for them.

One final condition concerning the celebration of the

Sacrament should be mentioned. Since Jesus required the
Sacrament be celebrated only by believers, only those who through
faith in Christ are part of the one, holy Christian Church (the Una
Sancta) should partake of the Sacrament (see 1 Corinthians 10:14-
17). This one body of believers can be called the catholic church,
which in its true sense means the whole body of believers who
confess faith in Jesus Christ throughout the world. Or, as is more
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commonly done, it can also be called the invisible church because
faith in Christ is a matter of the heart which is not visible to men.
When it comes to the presence of faith, Jesus also told Christians
not to judge the hearts of other people, for only God knows the
heart (see Matthew 7:7). Rather, we are to base our judgments of
other people on the basis of what they say and do (see Romans
10:10 and Matthew 7:16, 20). For that reason, rather than judge a
person’s heart, Christians look to what a person says he believes
(his confession of faith, i.e., his church membership) and how he
lives his life (whether there is obvious impenitence of sin or not) to
determine whether a person meets God’s criteria for celebrating the
sacrament. God also requires unity of faith (agreement on the
doctrines of faith) for Christians to commune together. This
safeguards against tolerating error, which undermines faith and risks
losing the blessing of life with God, which the Holy Spirit gives to
people through faith in Christ. Since the beginning of the New
Testament age, a true orthodox church (a visible church which
teaches all the truths of God according to the Bible) has always
practiced closed communion. That is, celebrating communion
together is open only to those who are in agreement on the teachings
of their faith (what they say) and do not live in open/unrepentant sin
(what they do). To do otherwise is to judge people’s hearts.

These, then, are the Means of Grace – the gospel in Word and
Sacrament. They are the means by which the Holy Spirit does his
job. Through these means, he delivers God’s saving grace to human
beings by working and preserving faith in Jesus Christ in their
hearts and giving them God’s Word of assurance their sins are
forgiven. Paul wrote in Romans, “So then, faith comes from
hearing the message (God’s Word), and the message (of
forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation) comes through the word of
Christ (specifically, the gospel portion of God’s Word)” (Romans
10:17). The Holy Spirit inspired all the Word of God to be written to

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accomplish this purpose. “…these are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Furthermore, once being
brought to faith in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit’s life-giving
power working through the means of grace, God urges people to be
faithful in continuing to hear and learn God’s Word to remain in the
true faith. Jesus said, “…if you remain in my Word, you are really
my disciples” (John 8:31).

No decision theology
A warning against error is needed here. Some people
mistakenly think they are responsible for their own faith and talk
about making the decision to believe in Jesus Christ themselves. It
is not possible for the dead to become alive by themselves, either
physically or spiritually. Everyone is born spiritually dead. “You
were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Original
sin inherited from our parents is still sin. “…the thoughts he (man
or woman) forms in his heart are evil from his youth…” (Genesis
8:21). We can’t change this reality by ourselves. Only the one
who gives life is able to make spiritually dead hearts come to
life by faith.

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Life for a reason. He is

the head of the Sales Division of Salvation Incorporated who is
responsible for delivering the product of salvation to people by
convincing them to take it. They cannot buy it with their own merit
because no matter how much good they think they have done, they
are still sinners, born in sin and doomed to die because the wages
of sin is death. Without the Holy Spirit working faith in Christ in
their heart through the means of grace, they remain spiritually
dead. They are unable to decide to believe and choose life for

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themselves in the same way a dead body in the grave cannot
choose to come alive by itself. Only God’s power can raise dead
people to life as he will on the last day. And only God the Holy
Spirit can give spiritual life to people born spiritually dead. All the
credit goes to the Holy Spirit when he works with his Means of
Grace to create faith and give life.

It is true people in their sinful state can still say, “No. I don’t
want anybody’s pity; I can take care of myself; I don’t believe what
you are saying is true; Nothing’s free, everything comes at a price,
who are you trying to fool; I’d rather do what I please than have
God telling me what I should do; There is no god, quit bothering me
with such nonsense;” and on, and on. But when they do receive it,
when they do not throw away the free gift the Holy Spirit places in
their hand, when they embrace the forgiveness of sins and rejoice in
it as a gift of God’s grace through His Son, who deserves the credit?
Who convinced them? Who changed their outlook on life? It is all
the Holy Spirit’s doing. The best that might be said about those who
claim to have made a decision to believe in Jesus themselves is that
they are still weak in their understanding of Scriptural truth. They
have not yet understood or accepted the reality of what being
spiritually dead means. Without realizing it, what they are really
doing is recognizing the Holy Spirit overcame their unbelief and
gave them the blessing of faith. Martin Luther put it well when he
explained things this way: “I believe that I cannot by my own
reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him.
But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me
with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith...” Believe
this: without the Holy Spirit’s working through the Word and
Sacrament, no one would ever stay in the Christian faith, much less
choose to believe by themselves.

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 As you read and ponder the previous paragraphs, if you find
yourself drifting back to the thought the Holy Spirit’s work is to
bring us to faith in Christ so we might be saved from our sins and
live eternally with God in heaven – well, that’s the main point,
that’s the starting point, that’s the gospel. But there’s more to it
than that. God’s plan for the Holy Spirit’s work to give us faith in
Christ includes more than that. Changes needed to be made.

Holy Spirit, enter in And in our hearts your work begin,

Your dwelling place now make us;
Sun of the soul, O Light divine, Around and in us brightly shine,
To joy and gladness wake us
That we, may be truly living, To you giving prayer unceasing,
And in love be still increasing.

Give to your Word impressive pow’r That in our hearts,

from this good hour, As fire it may be glowing;
That in Christian unity We faithful witnesses may be
Your glory ever showing.
Hear us, cheer us by your teaching: Let our preaching and our
labor
Praise you, Lord, and serve our neighbor.

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 10
People Renewed
Renewed in God’s Image to be like Him
again.

The work of Jesus Christ was to keep God’s Promise of a

Savior made in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. He did just
that. He lived a holy life as we should have lived and suffered the
punishment of death for the sin we deserved. He did this as our
substitute before God, and as a result, God declared all the people of
the world righteous in His sight. In this way, Jesus earned
forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life in heaven for all
people. His work as our Redeemer was finished. The Holy Spirit’s
work is to bring the blessing of forgiveness of sins and the gift of
eternal life to people so they could enjoy the blessing of life in a
harmonious, loving relationship with God as Adam and Eve had in
the beginning. The Holy Spirit does this by working faith in Jesus
Christ as our Savior in our hearts. In this way, we can personally

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enjoy the blessing of forgiveness of sins and life with God which
Jesus gained for us. But that work of the Holy Spirit is not finished.

In the previous chapter, we used the word “Sanctification” to

describe the Holy Spirit’s work in people’s lives. It is only the
Holy Spirit working through the means of grace (Word of God and
Sacraments) which works faith in people’s hearts and nothing we
have done makes us holy in God’s sight. Holy Scripture uses
several other words to describe the Holy Spirit working in a
person’s heart to make them a believer. They are: ‘regeneration’ (a
person is born again with a new spiritual life he didn’t have before
being brought to faith); ‘quickening’ (a person’s spiritual life is
“raised up” from being dead in trespasses and sin and made alive
when he is brought to faith in Christ); and ‘renewal’ (a person’s
new spiritual life is renewed in God’s image; made to be like God
as Adam and Eve were in the beginning). However, the reader will
recall the Bible uses the sanctifying work of the Spirit in a wider
sense than just bringing a person to faith in Christ. We also use the
‘verb’ sanctify or ‘noun’ sanctification to describe the ongoing
activity of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s heart. This is the small ‘s’
sanctification where a person’s faith cooperates with the Holy
Spirit’s efforts to strengthen, admonish, encourage, comfort, guide,
give hope, keep the faith, and produce fruits of faith in his life.
That is the focus of this chapter.

Faith changes the attitude of the heart

Simply put, God wants people to be like him in their life of
faith. That’s the way it was in the beginning. And that’s the way
God wants it to be again in the restoration of a fallen world. And
the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit does this. Even though a
person will always have a sinful nature clinging to him and
resisting God’s will as long as he lives in this world, the influence

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of the Holy Spirit can still overcome this. And that does happen
when a person is brought to faith in Christ. This includes a
person’s will, which, when acting in faith, will always desire what
God desires. God doesn’t force anyone to believe in him and share
his life with him. He didn’t in heaven with the fallen angels and he
doesn’t on earth with people who have fallen into sin. God doesn’t
point a gun at anybody’s head or wave a sword in front of their
throat threatening people with the command to convert now, or die.
He doesn’t make people mindless robots who must obey what he
commands (which is always right and good) without any will of
their own agreeing that what God says and does is right and good.
This is a will which not only desires to be like God but actually is
like him. If their own will were not involved and people were
simply forced to do what is right and good without their assent,
they wouldn’t be like God. This is what renewal in the image of
God is all about. Since people are born dead in trespasses and sin,
their natural will is always governed by sin. They cannot be like
God. “There is no who is righteous, not even one; there is no one
who understands. There is no one who searches for God” (Romans
3:10-11). But when the Holy Spirit calls people to faith by the
gospel, he overcomes their sinful will and gives them a new and
holy will. This is where the Scripture speaks of being born again
by the Holy Spirit with a new will. See Jesus speaking to
Nicodemus in John 3:5-6 and Paul writing about being renewed in
God’s image by the Holy Spirit’s working in Colossians 3:10 and
Titus 3:4-5. In other words, when God the Holy Spirit works faith
in Jesus Christ in us, that faith changes the attitude of our hearts.
Now, the very will of the new man of faith is in harmony with
God’s will. More about this in the next several paragraphs as we
apply this truth to our lives.

What is being like God all about? We can go back to chapter

one, “Perfection,” to review what it means to be made in God’s
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image. Besides being all-powerful, all-knowing, and present
everywhere, God’s nature is to be what he is—a loving, giving, life-
sharing being who wants the people he makes (and has saved) to
be like him and share his blessed life with Him.

The new man of faith is holy and sinless like

God.
How would that work if people died with the sinful nature
they had from birth and were resurrected on the last day with their
sinful nature still controlling them? What would happen? That
sinful nature would keep on doing sinful things because that’s all it
is capable of doing. And if God’s children entered heaven still
doing sinful things, how would that work? Would that be living a
blessed life in harmony with God’s good, just, and loving will? Of
course not! Sin would spoil the perfect, sinless life of heaven and
completely ruin it. Sin ruined the sinless, holy, loving life lived in
harmony with God once before in the history of this world. And
NO WAY, IN HEAVEN, will God let it happen again. In order to
enter into heaven, we have to be restored to a state of holiness,
living without sin, to a blessed life of perfect love and goodness in
harmony with God’s will. In other words, we have to have a life of
love renewed in the image of God like Adam and Eve had before
the fall into sin.

Giving us this renewed life is what God in love has done for
us by the Holy Spirit bringing us to faith in Christ Jesus as our
Savior. He does this through the preaching of the gospel, “So then,
faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes
through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). He does this through
baptism, “He (God) saved us through the washing of rebirth and
the renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Through baptism, God
the Holy Spirit gives us a rebirth of spiritual life which renews us
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in God’s image. And, as noted in the previous paragraph, no one
can see the kingdom of God and enter into heaven unless he has
the new man of faith born in him. “Jesus replied,

Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from

above, he cannot see the kingdom of God...Whatever is
born of the flesh is flesh. Flesh gives birth to flesh (the
sinful nature in our bodies is passed on to our children
when they are born), Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit’
(the Holy Spirit gives us the new spiritual life of our new
man). (John 3:3, 6)

Even while we still have our sinful nature (the old Adam)
clinging to us, God the Holy Spirit makes us alive spiritually in our
new man through faith in Christ. “But God, because he is rich in
mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses”
(Ephesians2:4-5).

Here are several more passages to remind us the new man of

faith the Holy Spirit works in people renews us in God’s holy
image and produces in us good works in keeping with God’s will.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works…” (Ephesians 2:10). “For God did not call us for
uncleanness, but in sanctification” (I Thessalonians 4:7). When
God called us to faith by the gospel (religion of grace), his intent
was we no longer serve the impure nature of our sinful old Adam,
but according to our new man strive to live a holy life in keeping
with God’s will. “He (Jesus) gave himself for us to redeem us from
all lawlessness (save us from all our sins and give us life) and to
purify for himself a people who are his own chosen people
(sanctified us in his image to be his children), eager to do good
works” (Titus 2:14). There is no question God’s purpose in saving
us from our sins through Jesus was not just to save us from the
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condemnation of death because of our sin. It was also to make us
into a new person by the Holy Spirit’s working of faith in our
hearts. According to our new man, we will live a blessed life of
love and good works toward others as he does. To emphasize and
fully appreciate this truth, ponder carefully what the Apostle John
is saying in this lengthy quote from his first letter.

Dear friends, let us love one another because love comes

from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and
knows God. The one who does not love has not known God,
because God is love. This is how God’s love for us was
revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we may live through him. This is love: not that we
have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be
the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God
loved us so much, we also should love one another.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God

remains in us and his love has been brought to its goal in
us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in
us: He has given us of his Spirit. We have seen and testify
that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world. If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God. We also have come to
know and trust the love that God has for us.

God is love. Whoever remains in love remains in God

and God in him. In this way his love has been brought to its
goal among us, so that we may have confidence on the day
of judgment, because in this world we are just like
Jesus. There is no fear in love, but complete love drives out
fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who
continues to be afraid has not been brought to the goal in
love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I
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 love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can
anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has
seen, love God, whom he has not seen? This then is the
command we have from him: The one who loves God
should also love his brother. (1 John 4:7-21)

Being rescued from the fall into sin in the Garden opens our
eyes to see more clearly what God is like. Besides being just,
righteous, and holy, he is also the God who is merciful,
compassionate, patient, forgiving, caring, faithful to His Word,
selfless, and everything else he has revealed to us about himself in
his Word. This is the way God wants us to be also. To put it simply,
God wants people to be like him in the attitude of their hearts so
they can enjoy a life of peace, love, goodness, and joy which will
last forever with him. “You have made known to me the path of
life, fullness of joy in your presence, pleasures at your right hand
forever” (Psalm 16:11).

Certainly, it is true, as God has made clear in his Word, that

God’s nature of righteousness, holiness, and justice includes the
fact he hates sin and punishes sin. That’s because sin and
everything sin leads to brings death and destroys the blessedness of
life God wants people to have. God says, “I will punish the world
for its evil, and the wicked for their guilt. I will put an end to the
arrogance of the insolent, and I will humble the pride of the
ruthless” (Isaiah 13:11). This also is the way God wants people to
be. In order to have the kind of life God has, people need to
recognize, resist, and have contempt for the sin and evil that spoils
the blessedness of life God wants for us. It’s both positive and
negative. Love and do what is good for life; hate and resist sin
because it is bad for life. The Apostle Peter wrote:

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another. Show

sympathy, brotherly love, compassion, and humility. Do not
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 repay evil with evil or insult with insult. Instead, speak a
blessing, because you were called for the purpose of
inheriting a blessing. Indeed: Let the one who wants to love
life and to see good days keep his tongue from evil and his
lips from saying anything deceitful. Let him turn from evil
and do what is good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For
the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are
open to their requests. But the face of the Lord is against
those who do evil. (1 Peter 3:8-12)

How does this work? This, also, is what the Holy Spirit is
accomplishing with his life-giving work. When the Holy Spirit
works faith in Jesus in people’s lives, their hearts are changed.
They fear, love, and trust in God again like the first Adam did at
the beginning. (Fear God in the sense of holding God in high
esteem, living in genuine respect and awe for his majesty knowing
he is a holy God who will punish sin, and willingly humbling
themselves before him in obedience to his will.) They are renewed
in God’s image to be like God, like the first Adam was made at the
beginning. “...and put on the new self, which is continually being
renewed in knowledge, according to the image of its Creator”
(Colossians 3:10). In other words, they are like God again,
renewed in His image. That which was lost by the fall into sin has
been restored again by the working of the Holy Spirit. This new
man, like God, loves the life of goodness, righteousness, holiness,
and blessedness as God does. Of their own free will, people strive
to live their lives according to God’s gracious goodwill, not
because they have to, but because in their new nature they want to
be holy like God is. We repeat what Peter said in his first letter,
“...just as the one who called you is holy, so also be holy in
everything you do. For it is written, “Be holy, because I am
holy”(1 Peter 1:15-16).

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 Children of God

For this reason, the Bible can very appropriately call those
who have faith in Jesus Christ the “children of God.” The Apostle
Paul wrote, “In fact you are all sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). It is apparent Paul is using the term “sons
of God” generically, meaning both male and female children, for
he states clearly about all people two verses later, “There is not Jew
or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one and the
same in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

Think carefully about the implications of being called God’s

children. This is more than just a figure of speech indicating God loves
us “as if” we were his children. This is more than just a reference to
being created by God like all things. We are literally God’s children in a
spiritual sense when we are “born again” (regenerated) to be like God,
or as was said in the previous paragraphs “renewed in the image of
God.”

God is a spirit, and through the faith the Holy Spirit works in
us, the inner man of our being (our soul, the inclinations of our
heart) is changed. It comes alive to be like God. When this new
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man of faith (male or female) is born in us by the life-instilling
power of the Holy Spirit (working through the means of grace), we
inherit the spiritual characteristics of God’s genes, so to speak. It’s
just like being born of earthly parents with physical and mental
gifts. The way children inherit their physical characteristics (color
of their eyes, hair, skin, ability to sing or not, abilities to run, jump,
think, do math, read maps, etc.) from the genes of their parents is
the same way God’s children inherit their spiritual characteristics
from God. His attributes of being kind, gentle, patient, forbearing,
forgiving, loving, helpful, etc., are passed on to us.

It is an amazing gift of God’s love to fashion us in our spiritual

life to be like himself. The Apostle John wrote, “See the kind of
love the Father has given us that we should be called children of
God, and that is what we are! The world does not know us
(recognize us as God’s children), because it did not know him
(what God is really like in all his goodness and mercy)”(1 John
3:1-2). One more passage is worth noting on this subject. When
speaking to the Jews in defense of his claim to be the Son of God,
Jesus once said,

Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said you are gods’? If he

called those people ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came,
and the Scripture cannot be broken, what about the one
whom the Father set apart and sent into the world? Do you
accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?
(John 10:34-36)

The point is, the Word of God is God’s means of grace which
works faith and changes people to become like God. When, in Old
Testament times, people believed the Word of God proclaimed to
them, God could call them “gods” because, in their spiritual rebirth
by the Holy Spirit, they had become like God. The same thing is

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true for believers today. Believers are “godly” people; in their
spiritual new man, they are literally “children of God.”

Brothers and Sisters of Christ

Speaking of being members of God’s family as his children,

the same kind of thought finds expression when Jesus calls us his
brothers and sisters. There are a number of places where Jesus does
this. One of the more prominent sections of Scripture is in
Hebrews: “For he who sanctifies and those who are being
sanctified all have one Father. For that reason, he is not ashamed
to call them brothers. He says: (and then the author of Hebrews
quotes Psalm 22:22)
I will declare your name to my brothers. Within the
congregation I will sing your praise’” (Hebrews 2:11-12). Several
verses later, the author continues with his theme of redemption.
Therefore, since the children share flesh and blood, he also
shared the same flesh and blood, so that through death he
could destroy the one who had the power of death (that is,
the Devil) ...For this reason, he had to become like his
brothers in every way, in order that he would be a merciful
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 and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, so that
he could pay for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:14, 17)
Jesus refers to us as his brothers and sisters. When he was told
his mother and his stepbrothers were outside wanting to speak to
him, Jesus replied,
Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?’ He reached
out his hand toward his disciples and said, ‘See, my
mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my
Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’”
(Matthew 12:48-50).
Yes, Jesus had earthly brothers and sisters born to Mary of
Joseph who were his half or stepbrothers and sisters. But the
relationship more important in the big picture is to be one of his
spiritual brothers and sisters who do the will of his Father in
heaven, that is, are reborn spiritually to be like him when we
believe.
There are two ways in which Jesus can be called our brother.
First, he became like us. He was born with flesh and blood of the
virgin Mary—though without inheriting original sin because of the
virgin birth. In this way, as true man, he qualified to be the
descendant of the woman promised in the Garden who would
redeem his physical brothers and sisters from sin and death. The
second way he is our brother is when we become like him. Born
without sin, Jesus, in his human nature, was made in the image of
God, as the first Adam had been in the Garden. We are born with
sin, not in the image of God, but in the image of the first Adam
after the fall into sin occurred. But when we are brought to faith by
the working of the Holy Spirit, we are born again spiritually to be
like God, just like the second Adam, Jesus, in his human nature.
Another point can be made to emphasize this truth. It is correctly
confessed: Jesus is the only eternally begotten Son of God, true
God with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. Then, as

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a true man, Jesus was born without sin by the power of the Holy
Spirit. When we are born, we are born as sinners begotten with the
same nature as our sinful fathers. But when we are brought to faith
by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become the spiritually begotten
(but not eternally begotten) sons and daughters of God. We are
born again like Jesus in his human nature, and in this way become
brothers and sisters of Christ in the family of God’s children.
What is the reason for stressing this point? Why is it important
we remember we are literally the children of God, and literally
brothers and sisters of Christ—not physically, but spiritually—
when we are brought to faith? It goes back to the very reason God
created human beings in the first place. He wanted the human
objects of his creative power to be like him so they could enjoy a
beautiful, wonderful, loving, everlasting life with him. And that
very much includes living, being, talking, doing, and enjoying life
like he does of our own free will. And our free will lives in such a
way because it has been reborn in the image of God by the
working of the Holy Spirit. Our will is fashioned after God’s will.

Faith produces good works

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 What does being Jesus’ brother or sister look like in real life?
How does this spiritual truth show itself in the words we speak, the
work we do, the priorities we have, and the emotions we feel? Here
are just a few admittedly generalized examples of how the child of
God lives his/her life of faith. Those who by faith are renewed in
God’s image speak with kind words, show compassion to the
needy, have patience with the shortcomings of others, recognize
their own shortcomings and weaknesses, and with God’s help,
strive to overcome them. They are faithful and loving to their
spouse, do everything they can to raise their children according to
God’s will, work responsibly at their jobs, help their neighbors
when they can, testify of God’s goodness to others, and forgive
those who wrong them. They happily enjoy the blessings God
gives us in this life, but do not live for this life. And at the same
time, with God’s help, they patiently endure the hardships of life
God sends without complaining or doubting his love. They are good
citizens and respect authority whether the one in authority is godly
or not. They regularly spend time in God’s house and are faithful
in the regular use of the Word and Sacrament to nurture their faith
and guide them in Christian living. This is only a short list of
examples. Literally every aspect of life for the children of God and
brothers and sisters of Christ is guided by the will of their new
man, renewed in the image of God. Of their own free will, they
desire and strive to live in keeping with God’s gracious, good will.
They do so not just because they know it is God’s will they do so,
but because that is who they are. They know it is the best way to
enjoy a blessed life.

We need to recognize that living a godly life is not easy. It

comes naturally to the child of God, but it does not come easily.
The reason is that at the same time the child of God is led by the
godly will of his new man, he also must constantly fight against
the completely opposite bully of the sinful nature still clinging to
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him. That sinful nature is like an infectious disease. It is a chronic
condition of which we cannot cleanse ourselves all our lives. The
child of God knows this. The Scripture speaks in many places
about the need for our new man to resist the impulses of the sinful
nature which still plague us. The lies of Satan and the glitzy
appeals of the world are constantly waving to our sinful nature to
come on over and have some fun, and our sinful nature is eager to
accept their invitations. In full disclosure, the Scriptures recognize
how often we fail. To repeat a section of Scripture used before, the
Apostle Paul put it very succinctly.

For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not

keep doing what I want. Instead, I do what I hate. And if I do
what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. But
now it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in
me. Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in
my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but
I am not able to carry it out. So I fail to do the good I want
to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I
keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no
longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. So I find
this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is present
with me. I certainly delight in God’s law according to my
inner self, but I see a different law at work in my members,
waging war against the law of my mind and taking me
captive to the law of sin, which is present in my
members. What a miserable wretch I am! Who will rescue
me from this body of death? (Romans 7:15-24)

This section of Scripture can be a huge comfort for the child

of God as he struggles against the sinful impulses, even sinful
addictions, tarnishing his life of faith. It is not a comfort to our old
Adam giving us license to go on sinning because “I can’t help

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myself.” That’s an excuse to sin, not a repentant heart which wants
to turn from sin.

It is a comfort to our new man to know I am still God’s child.

This is not the real me; I don’t want to do this. My wretched sinful
nature keeps trying to ruin my life of peace with God, but I know
it’s wrong. It pains my heart when I do this and I confess my sins.
And to whom does the repentant child of God turn to be rescued
from this miserable body of sin and death and find the comfort of
forgiveness? His Savior! Paul concludes, “I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). And the child of God
continues on in peace knowing he is forgiven of his sins and
striving to live as God’s child with the guidance and strength of the
Holy Spirit.

The point of the previous several paragraphs is the child of

God whom the Holy Spirit has brought to faith and in whom the
Holy Spirit continues to work with his Word will produce fruits of
faith. Yes, he is still a sinner plagued by the frequency with which
his old Adam leads him into sin. But he is still a child of God with
repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior. And faith in
Jesus Christ is not a dead, lifeless thing that produces no fruit even
in the midst of a garden with plenty of weeds. The vineyard owner
does not plant and cultivate grape vines which produce no fruit.
Branches which produce no fruit are cut off and thrown in the fire.
See John 15:1-8. The orchard owner is not content to own dead,
lifeless trees whose branches are barren and brittle, devoid of
leaves and fruit. Even trees having the appearance of life with
leaves, but which produce no fruit are in danger of being cut down
and removed to make room for trees that will. See Luke 13:6-8 and
Mark 11:12-14 and 20-21.

Fruits of faith for a child of God are nothing else than the
thoughts, words and deeds of love and service to others which
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spring spontaneously from hearts which have been renewed in
God’s image. Like God they are the words and actions of kindness,
caring, compassion, patience, politeness, perseverance, mercy,
meekness, motivation, helpfulness, thoughtfulness, gentleness, plus
the readiness to courageously stand up for God’s truth and boldly
give witness to God’s love in a wayward world which wants little
to do with God’s ways. If you’re not convinced all these are fruits
of faith according to God’s standards, listen to what he says. “But
the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such
things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22). Such things and everything
else fashioned after the attributes of God’s nature reborn in us are
the fruits of faith God is looking for in our lives. They make life
good, sweet-smelling, and tasty not only to God but to those who
produce the fruit and those who are blessed to enjoy partaking in it.
That’s what God wants – people able to enjoy life as he does;
people who help other people enjoy life through their fruits of
faith. That’s part of God’s plan.

This is why, in Scripture, faith and good works are often

melted together as two sides of the same coin. Jesus did this.
Speaking to his followers who believed in him he said, “In the
same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in
heaven” (Matthew 5:16). In the well-known section of Ephesians
in which Paul clearly spells out the way of salvation is by God’s
grace through faith he sums up, “Indeed, it is by grace you have
been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians
2:8-9). But it’s not a situation where good works are extraneous to
Christian faith. In the very next verse Paul is quick to point out
what also is true as a result. “For we are God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
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advance so that we could walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). As an
encouragement, the author of Hebrews wrote, “Let us consider
how to spur each other on to love and good works” (Hebrews
10:24). And then, as an example, in the next chapter (Hebrews 11)
he lists many heroes of faith who did such things. Speaking to the
lax Christian who is tempted to minimize this truth, or one who is
weak in understanding, James quite sternly asks, “What good is it,
my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but has no works?
Such “faith” cannot save him, can it?” (James 2:14-15). Then
James refers to the father of believers, Abraham, for an astonishing
example of how faith shows itself in works. He refers to
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac as God commanded as
evidence of faith and works going hand in hand.

But do you want proof, you mindless person, that such “faith”
without works is dead? Wasn’t Abraham our father shown to be
righteous by works when he offered Isaac his son on the
altar? You see that his faith was working together with his
works, and by his works his faith was shown to be
complete. And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham
believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”He
was also called God’s friend. (James2:20-23)

In other words, Abraham’s actions proved his faith by which

he was declared righteous was real; it produced the work of being
ready to do what God commanded. Read Genesis chapter 22. And
then, to underscore his point, faith and its fruit of good works are
tied together, James says, “You see that a person is shown to be
righteous by works and not be faith alone” (James 2:24). James
finishes the chapter with a simple comparison, “For just as the
body without breath is dead, so also faith without works is dead”
(James 2:26). In the very next book of the Bible the Apostle Peter
speaks of the same point. He clearly states Jesus Christ has taken

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away the guilt of our sin by his death on the cross. “He himself
carried our sins in his body on the tree (the tree of the cross)” (1
Peter 2:24a). But immediately, Peter continues, “so that would be
dead to sins and alive to righteousness…” (1 Peter 2:24b). That is,
the deliverance from sin accomplished by Jesus for everyone
becomes our own when we die to our sins (repent) and live for
righteousness (of our new man’s free will we strive to live
righteous lives).

This is precisely what the Holy Spirit accomplishes when he

leads people to faith in Jesus. By doing so, the Holy Spirit not only
delivers to us the forgiveness of sins and life with God Jesus
restored for us, he also renews people in God’s image. He gives
them God’s gift of a blessed life, saved by Jesus, and enjoyed in
this life by those who believe. The blessed life they enjoy by faith
literally changes them. People believe God is a gracious God
whom they can trust. They have peace with God in their hearts and
are not afraid of God’s judgment anymore because they know Jesus
has suffered the punishment of sin for them. Now, of their own free
will, they want to live righteous lives to enjoy the life God gives
them because that’s who they now are – children renewed in God’s
image. This was God’s goal all along. He saved us from our sins
and gave us eternal life through faith in Jesus by the Holy Spirit’s
working. And thus, by the Spirit’s working, he changes our nature
(new man of faith) to want to speak and do what is right and good
for life. Faith in Christ will produce fruits of faith pleasing in
God’s sight. Paul writes to the Philippians concerning the gifts
which he received from them, “(They are) a sweet-smelling
fragrance, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God”
(Philippians 4:18).

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 To speak of saving faith and the fruits of faith together as one
unit, however, requires a threefold warning:

A. Never attribute merit for salvation either to faith or to

the fruits of faith.

B. Recognize the fruits of faith produced by Christians

will vary in quality and amount.

C. Do not judge the hearts of other people when evaluating

what is faith or a fruit of faith.

For a good understanding of these points, it is helpful to

elaborate more extensively.

A. When it comes to saving faith and the fruits of faith, there

is no merit which gains credit before God to earn heaven for either
one. We don’t gain any credit before God for believing any more
than a patient deserves credit for saving his own life when he takes
the life-saving medicine his doctor gives him, or any more than a
child merits a reward for eating a meal Mom prepared. We simply
benefit from the work of others by taking the medicine or eating
the meal. Nor do we gain any credit, any merit, or any worthiness to
earn heaven by producing fruits of faith (good works) any more than
a child deserves credit for being born with a high IQ, or musical
ability, or some other ability he has because he was born with such
gifts from God (via his parents). We simply benefit ourselves and
others in this life by using our gifts and abilities as God has given
them to us. For that matter, how can we help gain heaven for
ourselves if heaven is already ours through the redeeming work of
Christ – already freely and fully given to us through the sanctifying
work of the Holy Spirit? We simply benefit from what Jesus has
done for us, and make it our own by the faith the Holy Spirit has
worked in us.

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 By saving faith, we mean faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior,
which is alive and produces fruits of faith in our lives as opposed
to what might be called “dead faith” or fake faith, which is the
“faith” of the hypocrite. Dead faith is only an outward mask that
looks good to human eyes. It is not alive with genuine fear, love,
and trust in God and does not produce any works of faith (words,
deeds, and emotions proceeding from a new man of faith). Fake
faith is only the image or pretence of being a Christian, just like a
picture of a tree is only a picture of a tree and does not produce
fruit like the real thing. Fake faith may produce “fake fruit”, that is,
words and actions which are not motivated by faith. This fake fruit
may look like a Christian life to others, but these “fruits” are not
produced by a new man of faith. They are like plastic fruit a child
can play with, but are of no nutritional value if he or she actually
tries to eat it. In fact, fake plastic fruit would prove harmful to a
person’s health and, in the end, kill him if he actually depended on
it to feed his body. In other words, depending on good works to
satisfy the soul and keep a person alive – spiritually (save him) –
will prove to be a painful and fatal mistake in the end.

Artificial works stem from some other motive besides fear,

love, and trust in God. Often it is the self-centered motive of a
person who is acting in keeping with his knowledge of right and
wrong according to his conscience and trying to gain merit before
God (the “opinion legis” for the scholar). Or it could be seeking
the approval and praise of others for his own gain or honor. Or,
perhaps, it could be merely continuing the perfunctory habits of the
way a person was raised without a genuine desire in the heart to do
what is right and good. However, God is not looking for the mere
performance of deeds to please him. It certainly wasn’t good
enough for Cain who thought he was doing what God required. See
Genesis 4:2b-7. What God wants is the new nature of a person,
fashioned in the image of God, thinking and acting like God does.
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This only happens when the Holy Spirit is working in a person’s
heart. King David wrote, “Create in me a pure heart, O God.
Renew an unwavering spirit within me. Do not cast me from your
presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me…” and later in the
Psalm, “For you do not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You
do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices God wants
are a broken spirit. A broken and crushed heart, O God, you will
not despise” (Psalm 51:10-11 and 16-17).

That’s what Cain didn’t have. That’s why the Bible also says
elsewhere, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God…”
(Hebrews 11:6a). A person may speak the right words and claim to
be a believer in Jesus Christ, but if this is not supported by a life of
good works which come from the heart and a genuine desire to be
like God (the new man), it’s still a dead faith. That’s why Jesus
once said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my
Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Jesus also made clear what
doing God’s will is. John wrote, “…This is the work of God: that
you believe in the one he sent” (John 6:29). And later in the same
chapter, “For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees
the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise
him up on the last day” (John 6:40). See also 2 Peter 3:9 and 1
Timothy 2:3-4.

Both saving faith and the fruits of faith are the work of the
Holy Spirit. In one case, the Holy Spirit does all the work of
overcoming our spiritually dead nature and, through his means of
grace, gives us the gift of saving faith. In the second case, the Holy
Spirit continues to work through his means of grace and our new
man of faith works with him. The Apostle Paul wrote, “In fact, it is
God who is working in you, both to will and to work, for the sake
of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). The Holy Spirit works in

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us to motivate, guide, and encourage us in the works we are to do
as God’s children, and our new man of faith cooperates, readily
assents, and gladly does the work God wants of us. It’s like the
Holy Spirit saying, “Here’s what you should do, it’s for your good,
work with me on this. I’ll help you.” And our new man says, “Yes,
I understand, I’d be happy to,” and then does.

B. Recognize fruits of faith vary. Christian faith will produce

fruits of faith (good works). That is a given. However, it is entirely
in keeping with Scripture to acknowledge fruits of faith will vary
in amount and quality among Christians. For proof, consider the
parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13:3-9 and 18-23. In
the work of farming, the farmer plants and cultivates seed with the
full intent of producing as many bushes as possible in his field.
However, conditions of soil and weather vary from one year and
field (or even portion of a field) to the next. And the reality is the
crop produced may also vary from a smaller yield of fruit, say 30
times what was planted, to larger yields of 60 or even 100 times of
what was planted. The truth of this parable is reflected in the
observation sometimes made that 80 percent of a church’s budget
is supported by 20 percent of the members. The parable also
teaches other truths about the presence of faith in people or the
lack thereof. It acknowledges the hardness of heart in some people
which refuses to let the preaching of God’s Word take root and
germinate into faith before Satan quickly comes with his
temptations and snares to snatch it away (seed that fell on the
path).

The parable teaches clearly that a person brought to faith by

the working of the Holy Spirit can still lose saving faith. A person
can lose his faith if he allows the trials and hardships of life to lead
him to think God doesn’t love him or doesn’t keep his Word, and
he gives up his trust in God (seed that fell on rocky soil). A more

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common problem in affluent societies is to let love for the things of
the world become more important to a person than the things of
God (weeds choke out faith). “Do not love the world or the things
in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him” (1 John 2:15). When the heart’s priority places earthly
matters above spiritual matters, faith gradually gets choked out by
the weeds and eventually dies.

Our emphasis, though, in this section, is fruits of faith will

vary among Christians. There are Christians who give evidence of
a strong and active faith. They attend worship services every week
without exception unless illness or some other unavoidable
circumstance prohibits it. They do this as a matter of habit without
even thinking about whether or not they will attend because it is a
spiritual priority in their life. They know the one thing necessary to
enjoy the blessed life of love, peace, and happiness with God is to
faithfully hear and learn the Word of God. See Luke 10:38-42.
Only by being fed with the spiritual bread of life can faith be
nourished and stay alive. They give generously and willingly to
support the work of the church, often using the Old Testament tithe
(or more) as a guide and also give of their time and abilities to
serve the church in other capacities when they can. Not only to the
church, Christians also give their financial support and volunteer
their help to other charitable organizations as well as friends,
neighbors, and family members when they can. They carry out
their responsibilities as spouse, parent, worker, employer,
neighbor, and citizen faithfully and lovingly. They recognize the
blessing of the world God created for them and strive to care for
the land, sea, and sky and the creatures inhabiting those domains.
Christians will do such things. However, they will do them in
varying degrees according to the knowledge and abilities they have
and the faith which is in them. See 1 Peter 4:8-11 for a
commentary on producing fruits of faith. If there are those who,
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because of time, circumstance, inability, or weakness of faith, do
not produce the same amount of fruit we see in others, we should
not complain about this. We should support and encourage every
Christian with loving hearts and be thankful for the fruits of faith
God does produce in them. There is also the important truth that
some fruits of faith are never seen or recognized by people but are
known by God.

C. Do not judge hearts; God is the one who judges hearts. This
should be self-evident for a Christian. David reminded his son,
Solomon when he took over the rule of Israel, “You, Solomon, my
son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a whole heart
and with a willing mind because the LORD searches all hearts. He
understands every thought people plan…” (1 Chronicles 28:9). A
familiar verse in Hebrews says the same thing about the Holy
Spirit working through the Word of God to speak to our hearts.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any
double-edged sword. It penetrates even to the point of dividing soul
and spirit, joints and marrow, even being able to judge the ideas
and thoughts of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from
him.” (Hebrews 4:12). There is no question God not only knows
the thoughts and intents of our hearts but also the presence, or lack
thereof, of saving faith. We don’t. We are able to judge the words
and actions of others as God-pleasing or not, but we can be wrong.
We would have thought Cain bringing his offering to God was
evidence of his faith, but God rebuked him because his heart was
not in it. Eli thought Hannah, mouthing words to herself in deep
emotion before the Tabernacle, looked like she was drunk, but he
was wrong. Hannah was pleading with God in prayer. And her
prayer was answered with the birth of the child she named Samuel,
whom she dedicated to the Lord and who served the Lord as a
great prophet in Israel all his life. We would have thought there is
no way the thief on the cross being executed for his crimes was
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going to heaven. But in the end, the dying thief spoke repentant
words and Jesus, who knows men’s hearts, declared he was going
to heaven on that very day.

The point is we who are called upon to judge words and

actions of others and act accordingly are still not to judge people’s
hearts. And who hasn’t come to a conclusion based on what we see
or hear and assumed the worst, only to find out later we were
wrong? There is a reason we are urged by Christian guidance to take
another person’s words and actions in the kindest possible way – until
proven otherwise. The point being made is we are to apply the
principle of not judging hearts when it comes to the fruits of faith.
We may look at a lack of church attendance, or meager offerings,
or the sinful habit of using bad language, or even the voting
choices of another person which don’t seem to reflect an allegiance
to the principles of Scripture. We may look at all these things and
conclude such behavior is not the way a child of God lives. And we
have every right – even obligation – to address situations of sinful
living with loving reproof, admonition, and Christian discipline as
necessary. And when impenitence over sins is clear and obvious
(manifest), we have an obligation from God to rebuke and declare
a person outside of the kingdom of God. It is the loving thing to do
for that person’s own good, so he might finally be brought to
repentance. But when impenitence over sin is not obvious
according to the standards of Scripture, we should not judge the
heart. We do not know everything concerning another person’s
circumstances and should not confuse weakness of faith with no
faith. We should stop short of judging the heart of someone to be a
wicked person or unbeliever. If we knew more about the
circumstances of another person’s life, or walked in their shoes, or
were more patient with weakness of understanding, or would be
willing to honestly evaluate whether our understanding of God’s

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ways is correct, we might see things differently and be better
served to serve our neighbor in love as God directs us.

The opposite is also true. When we observe the kind of

behavior which reflects Christian values, such as regular attendance
at worship and church activities, a kind and patient attitude,
generous giving, willingness to serve not just at church but in the
community and world around us, helpfulness to our fellow man, a
humble spirit, respect for authority, appropriate language, etc., we
can be thankful for that. We have a right to conclude such a person
is a child of God based on their words and actions and we praise
God for his goodness to and through such people. Yet, if it’s all a
show, if what we observe is only an outward performance of deeds
without a genuine heart of faith, if secret sins hidden from our eyes
are nurtured in their lives without repentance, and a sad life of
anger, evil, selfishness, and greed is the double life most other
people don’t see, well, God sees. And he will judge. We do not.

Fighting the good fight of faith

Another point should be made about the subject of saving faith
producing fruits of faith. When Christians are renewed in God’s
image, they not only love, help, and have compassion on others,
they also hate sin and what sin does to our lives. There is so much
sin prevalent in this world it becomes a real danger. We get used to
some of the world’s aberrations, condone them, start accepting
them, and, worse, embrace them. Honestly recognizing what is
sinful, being dismayed by it, speaking out against it, and
condemning it is also a fruit of faith. God hates sin. “I hate
haughtiness, arrogance, an evil way, and a perverse mouth”
(Proverbs 8:13b). And God’s children are to hate evil also. “To fear
the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:23). God is always fighting
against sin and the forces of Satan and the evils of the world on our

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behalf. “God is our refuge and strength, a helper who can always
be found in times of trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Likewise, Christians,
according to their new man, not only hate sin, but are constantly
striving to resist sin and fight against Satan and the old Adam
which still plagues them.

Christians understand how important it is to recognize Satan’s

lies and reject him. They know Satan is a powerful enemy whom
they need to resist steadfast in the faith. They listen to the Apostle
Paul’s call to arms when Satan lays siege to the Church and leads
his forces on an invasion into God’s kingdom. This, also, is part of
the Holy Spirit’s work. He helps us fight the battle of faith against
the devil, the world, and our flesh and equips us for the battle. This
battle starts with recognizing how serious a battle this is, and how
important it is to be prepared to fight. The schemes of Satan cannot
be taken lightly. He is trying mightily to destroy our spiritual life
with God. The Bible is not over-dramatizing the danger when it
calls Satan a roaring lion out to devour our souls and illustrates the
urgency of being ready to fight him. The Apostle Peter wrote,
“Have sound judgment. Be alert. Your adversary, the Devil, prowls
around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist
him by being firm in the faith” …(1 Peter 5:8-9a). Take the time to
read all five chapters of 1 Peter for both its warnings and
encouragements to fight the battle of faith in a world filled with
both the blessings and promises of God and the trials and sufferings
Christians must endure.

The only way to win this fight is to fight the battle of faith
using the weapons God has given us to defend ourselves.
Especially do we need to become adept at wielding the sword the
Holy Spirit gives us to defeat Satan and his troops which is the
Word of God. Take seriously the words of the Apostle Paul when
he urges:

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 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put
on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the
schemes of the Devil. For our struggle is not against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the world rulers of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. For this
reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be
able to take a stand on the evil day and, after you have done
everything, to stand. Stand, then, with the belt of truth
buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of
righteousness fastened in place, and with the readiness that
comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals.
At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will
be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil
One. Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God. At every opportunity, pray
in the Spirit with every kind of prayer and petition. Stay alert
for the same reason, always persevering in your intercession
for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:10-18)

In a similar way, Paul wrote to Timothy,

But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and
gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal
life, to which you were called and about which you made your
good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1
Timothy 6:11-12)

This is encouragement for every child of God to fight

courageously as a warrior. It is not a choice. We are soldiers in this
eternal battle. It is God’s command to us as soldiers in His army to
fight the good fight of faith and not surrender to evil lest we lose
our blessed life to the enemy. With their new man and the Holy
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Spirit’s weapon of God’s Word, Christians can defeat the attempts
of our old evil foe, Satan, and our own old Adam who are fighting
as allies to destroy our way of life in God’s kingdom. Read
Romans 8:31-39 for the exceptional comfort and strength it
provides. And remember what Paul says at the end of life here on
earth, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

Will Christians fail in many daily conflicts with sin? Sadly, we

will all too often, because we are still sinners ourselves. But will we
lose the war? Not with God on our side. Not while we still have the
Captain of our Salvation fighting for us. Not with the Intercessor
praying for us. Not with the Holy Spirit leading us to daily contrition
and repentance over our sins. Like trusting children who know their
father still loves them, Christians come to God with repentant hearts
knowing he will forgive them. And as forgiven sinners, they rise up
to fight again the daily battle against sin.

The tragic loss suffered because of unbelief

The unbeliever has no hope to escape the war crimes he
committed against God with his sin. He is still encamped on the
side of the enemy, conscripted as a combatant in Satan’s forces to
fight against God’s kingdom. He does not believe God is a
gracious God who forgives him for Jesus’ sake. He does not want
God or God’s will to rule over him because, like Satan, he wants to
live his life the way he pleases. Sadly, the way he wants to live is
according to the sinful nature with which he was born. It is the way
of self-serving interests, of pride in his own perceived goodness, of
desire to enjoy the pleasures of sin, of scoffing at the Bible’s
message as foolishness, all of which Satan continually puts before
him. Or, tragically, perhaps he does not even know about the way
to life through Jesus and continues to live in the darkness of sin.

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 For whatever reason, the unbeliever does not trust in God’s
goodness to give life. He does not know about this life, or rejects
this life, or tries to earn his own way to life, or turns away from the
promises of God to follow the lies of Satan on how to enjoy life.
And in the end, the unbeliever is punished for his own sin not
because he sinned, but because he did not believe Jesus paid for his
sins. He did not believe the way to life Jesus earned for him. He
resisted the working of the Holy Spirit and closed his heart to the
message of God’s forgiveness in Christ. The apostle Paul does not
try to soften the sad truth. “

He (God) will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those

who do not know God and on those who do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus. Such people will receive a just
penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the
Lord and from his glorious strength. (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9)

Please note: The passage does not condemn sinners for their
sin per se. As stated just a moment ago, Jesus has already paid for
their sins. The passage condemns those who do not obey the
gospel’s call to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

They do not listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. They do not
believe with repentant hearts the good news that Jesus has saved
them from their sins. They do not appropriate for themselves the
forgiveness of sins Jesus has earned for them, and so their guilt
remains. Their punishment is, therefore, carried out because God is
just. Their forgiveness of sins and salvation to eternal life with
Christ have been wasted, rejected, thrown away, scoffed at, and
neglected, so they must pay the debt of sin that remains. The
unbeliever will be sent to his own place in the torments of Satan’s
realm, where sin, suffering, and eternal separation from God is
their lot. This is truly sad. Yet, we can still be thankful for God’s
will being done. Who would want a life of evil, guilt, pain, hate,
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heat, and hell as part of their eternity? God does not allow such
madness for His own existence; nor will He permit it to spoil the
existence of those who, by the working of the Holy Spirit, share
His blessed life with Him.

Fruits of faith (good works) are a blessing for

our lives
More can be said to fully understand the blessings of the fruits
of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior will always produce
good works. Producing fruits of faith is a part of a Christian’s
nature. It is in his spiritual DNA as a result of his new man being
reborn in God’s image. As has been emphasized several times,
these good works are not meritorious before God to help earn a
place in heaven. But they are a blessing. They are a blessing, first
of all, as evidence of faith.

Jesus talked about this. He compared the deeds of believers

and unbelievers to fruit produced on trees and said,

So then, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree
produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit,
and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Every tree that
does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.
(Matthew 7:17-20)

As a result, Christians have a pretty good handle on who their

fellow Christians are – whom they can trust, with whom they can
worship, who will pray for them, etc. This is not saying Christians
can’t expect any help or concern from the general public of the
world also, or shouldn’t show care and concern for all people
themselves. However, it is the prayer chain of the church, the
charity of fellow members, or church programs already in place,
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which are often the support teams God uses to help people at a
time of need. And when it comes to praying for and helping others,
Paul reminds his readers, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us
do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the
household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). Finally, on the day of
judgment, Jesus will point to a life of good works as evidence of
faith. Only he can judge the secrets of people’s hearts and the
presence of faith or not; we cannot. So, to preclude any false
accusations of being unfair when the wicked are condemned, God
will point to the good works of believers as proof of their faith.
The evidence for making his judgments is there for all to see. See
Matthew 25:31-46.

Secondly, the good works Christians do are a blessing not only

to their own lives but to others as well. Keeping any of God’s
commandments can serve as examples. When a person is honest
and does not try to deceive or take advantage of people when
buying, selling, or trading goods and services with others, good
things result. The person himself is appreciated for his integrity
and builds trust for future dealings, and the other person receives
fair treatment and is not defrauded (7th and 8th Commandments).
When a person controls his anger and does not let real or perceived
wrongs incite him to harmful words or actions, then things like road
rage, fistfights, destruction of property, shouting matches (or worse)
between spouses, and the like are avoided. And everyone involved
is blessed (5th Commandment). Even the simple act of being
faithful in church attendance (which is a fruit of faith) is a blessing
to our lives (3rd Commandment). It is a blessing to the faith of the
person who worships as God’s Word and Sacraments nurture faith.
And it is a blessing to others when fellow believers are encouraged
by their examples or when neighbors are interested in finding out
why. Why do they do that? What is it about going to church they

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find so important? Is that the reason they always seem calm and at
peace and able to handle the problems which arise in their lives?
And people are moved to learn more about God’s Word and find
out about God’s good news for eternity themselves and are blessed.

The fact good works of Christians lead to blessings for earthly

life is not in conflict with Scripture’s reminder there are many
hardships Christians must also endure in life. “We must go through
many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God…” (Acts 14:22).
We haven’t shed our sinful nature yet; we haven’t left this world of
sin yet. The good and the bad stand side by side for the Christians
in this world of sin. See Jesus’ words in John 16:33 and Paul’s
words in passages such as Romans 5:3, 8:28, 12:12, and 2
Corinthians 1:4 for a few examples of how blessing and hardship
overlap and are woven together by God for our good. Since a
Christian’s good works are a blessing to themselves and others to
ameliorate the hardships and crosses4 a person faces in life, it is
safe to say good works are pleasing to God. The Bible tells us so in
numerous places.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer

your bodies as a living sacrifice—holy and pleasing to God—
which is your appropriate worship. (Romans 12:1)

Certainly, a person who serves Christ in this way is pleasing

to God and has the approval of people. (Romans 14:18)

Therefore, beyond this, brothers, just as you received

instruction from us about how you are to walk so as to please God
(as indeed you are doing), we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus
that you do so even more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1)

4
In Scripture, to bear a cross means more than just enduring a hardship. It
is the hardship a person endures because he is a Christian, something he must
bear as a result of living his faith as a child of God.
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 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first
learn to be devoted to their own household and repay their
parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. (1 Timothy 5:4)

These are only a few passages. The good works of a child of

God do not please God in the sense they earn God’s favor and help
get him to heaven. That is an unscriptural conclusion. But they do
please God. They please God because he sees the new man of faith
is alive and well and producing fruit in a person’s life. They please
God because his children are being a blessing to others just like he
has been a blessing to them. They please God because he can see
his plan of renewing people in his image to live and act like him is
accomplishing his goal. This is what God wants to happen as a
result of people being saved from their sins and restored to a new
spiritual life of faith by the Holy Spirit’s working. Here is a good
place to remind ourselves again of something said earlier. The
good works Christians do are a result of the Holy Spirit working in
people and the new man of an individual cooperating with the
Holy Spirit. One of the prayers in the liturgy of a Christian’s
worship life states it this way,

“Mercifully grant, O God, that your Holy Spirit may in all things
direct and rule our hearts, for without your help we are unable to
please you; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.”

The doctrine of election

There is one more very important blessing enjoyed by
Christians when they produce words and actions reflective of a life
of faith. It is so important, that in a sense - rightly understood - it
could be said good works help get a person to heaven. How can
this be? We are not saved by our works, nor do we help save
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ourselves by our good works. To claim works help get us to heaven
is rightly condemned as false teaching. The paradox of claiming
good works do help get a person to heaven - let us add “indirectly”
here - is summed up compellingly in the nine-verse section of 2
Peter 1:3-11. The heading of this section of Scripture is titled,
Making One’s Calling and Election Sure, which gives guidance to
properly understanding what is being taught. As you ponder the
verses, note first the fruits of faith encouraged in the life of a
Christian in verses 5-8. Then take heart-warming encouragement
from the result of producing fruits of faith inferred by Peter in the
second half of verse 4 and stated clearly in verses 10-11, along
with the proclamation that by doing these things, you will never
fall away from being a Christian. Explanatory comments are in
parentheses.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life

and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us
by his own glory and excellence. Through these (our
knowledge of him and his goodness) he has given us his
precious and great promises (i.e., the promises of the gospel:
forgiveness of sins, peace with God, the assurance we are
God’s children, prayers answered, strength for this life, the
hope and promise of eternal life and salvation in heaven), so
that through them you may share in the divine nature, having
escaped from the corruption that sinful lust causes in the
world. And, for this very reason, after applying every effort,
add moral excellence to your faith. To moral excellence,
add knowledge. To knowledge, add self-control. To self-
control, add patient endurance. To patient endurance, add
godliness. To godliness, add brotherly affection. And to
brotherly affection, add love. For if you have these qualities
and they are increasing, they are going to keep you from
being idle or unfruitful in regard to your knowledge of our
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 Lord Jesus Christ. (you won’t fail to produce fruits of faith
which come from knowing Jesus as your Savior). Indeed, the
person who lacks these qualities is shortsighted and, in fact,
blind, because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from
his old sins. Therefore, brothers, be more eager to make your
calling and election sure for yourselves. For if you do these
things, you will never stumble. In fact, in this way you will be
richly supplied with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (You will never fall away
from being a Christian) (2 Peter 13-11)

As stated in the parable of the Sower and the Seed, a Christian

can fall from faith. Peter warns against that in this letter.

Indeed, if, after escaping the defiling things of the world

through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Chris(i.e. saving faith), they are again entangled in them and
controlled by them again, (fall from faith to become
ensnared in the ways of sin) they are worse off than they
were at first. In fact, it would have been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing
it, to turn back from the holy command passed on to them. (2
Peter 2:20-21)

Does that sound scary? Does that properly impose a righteous

trepidation of what will happen to a person if he falls away from
faith? Does it instill an ominous warning to our soul if instead of
continuing to produce fruits of faith, we return to the darkness of the
world's ungodly ways? Well, it should. But at the same time Peter's
words give encouragement to Christians. He states clearly they
won't fall from faith when a conscious effort is made to continue to
use God's Word to nourish our faith, grow in faith, and produce
fruits of faith. “If you do these things, you will never fall,” he said.

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 This word of encouragement is like everything else in this
world when a person strives to do what is good and beneficial for
life. For example: If a runner is faithful in his training regimen and
runs appropriate miles for his age and health, he strengthens his
muscles and builds up his cardiovascular system. By continuing to
do so, even when a part of him doesn't feel like it, he will be able
to maintain better overall health as he gets older. “If you do these
things… you will not be so susceptible to becoming overweight
and falling victim to heart disease.” Or, think about the result when
a person is faithful in being a good steward of his finances. He
gives, first, of his income back to God with his contributions to the
church, helps others in need and is blessed accordingly. See Luke
6:38. He does not spend beyond his means or get into debt
problems, but rather saves and invests what he can with a mind
toward future needs and an inheritance for his heirs. By doing this
he is more likely to be in good financial standing as he gets older
and is able to have a more secure retirement and ability to provide
for his needs. “If you do these things… you will not lose your
home and become dependent on others.”

Certainly, in earthly matters we would acknowledge also the

Scriptural truth which says, “Do not boast about tomorrow,
because you do not know what a day may produce” (Proverbs
27:1) and what James writes in his letter, “You do not know what
tomorrow will bring…” (James 2:14). The examples in the
previous paragraph would be classified as probabilities if God so
chooses to bless. The spiritual truth, however, goes beyond
probability to a promise of God. It lines up with Jesus' assurance
that when we continue in his Word and strive to live as his children
according to the Holy Spirit's guidance in the Word, God will keep
us as his own.

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 My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I
give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one
will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given
them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out
of my Father's hand. (John 10:27-29)

This is part of God's promise to save the elect. The doctrine of

election is meant to give comfort to God's children. God the Holy
Spirit is the one who will preserve in the faith, protect from falling
away and keep as his own those who faithfully listen to Jesus'
voice (God's word) and have been elected to eternal salvation. But
who is there who is not still, on occasion, nagged by the question:
“Am I truly one of God’s elect? How can I be sure I will never fall
away? Here – among other assurances of Scripture – is God's
answer.

Therefore, brothers, be more eager to make your calling and

election sure for yourselves. For if you do these things, you
will never stumble. In fact, in this way you will be richly
supplied with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11).

What a comforting promise to the Christian heart. What a

blessing producing fruits of faith gives to assure us we are one of
God's elect. The main point of this chapter has been made. It is the
Holy Spirit who delivers God's gift of salvation to eternal life to
people by using the means of grace to work and preserve faith in
Jesus Christ in peoples' hearts. By doing so, he renews in people a
spiritual life like God's just as Adam and Eve had before the fall
into sin. They not only have the promise of eternal life hereafter,
but by the Holy Spirit's blessing a life of peace, hope, comfort, joy,
knowledge, enlightenment, strength etc. already in this life. By the

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Holy Spirit's leading, this motivates them to produce good works
as fruits of faith.

In the things of God, however, it is often true not only what is

true and good needs to be said. It is also important to make clear
what is not true, right or good on the same subject. As much as
anything else in Scripture such is the case here. A proper distinction
between law and gospel, a right understanding of the relation
between saving faith and the fruits of faith (good works) is
essential to orthodox teaching about the life and work of the
second Adam. Satan is too clever and successful at misleading
people if what is not true (false teaching) is not made clear and
condemned.

Faith versus works

The distinction between truth and error is so important in this

case because the Scriptural teaching of being saved by faith alone
in Christ and its corollary that faith (our new man) always
produces good works has been badly misrepresented, mangled,
mauled and in many instances emptied of its meaning throughout

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the history of the world. Instead of a blessing to faith, such errors
have undermined and often destroyed the saving faith of many
souls. The good teaching of faith and works, being happily married
for the good of our lives, has so often been attacked and falsely
accused; a suspicion of unfaithfulness to God's truth has been
engendered in the hearts of many. The result is an ugly divorce has
occurred between the teachings of faith and works in many
religions and people are left with the unpleasant predicament of
picking sides. Who are you going to believe in this spat, faith or
works? Unfortunately, the vast majority end up siding with works.
Many people end up believing what you do and how you live
determines whether or not a person is good enough to enter
heaven.

The thought of the previous paragraph needs to be put into

perspective. It is a natural thing for people to lean toward the side
of works. It makes sense. When left to themselves, people
invariably favor works over faith when it comes to trying to find
favor with God. There is a good reason for this. People are born
with a natural law in their hearts of what is right and wrong before
God. They have a conscience (though it can be misled) which tells
them whether they have done right or wrong according to the
natural law within them. They know God is a righteous God and
demands obedience to his law for him to look with favor upon
them. As a result, they also instinctively know about and fear God's
wrath against sin. To put it simply, a religion of works in order to
earn God's favor is built into man's nature from birth. To know
Jesus as the Savior from sin is not known naturally by people. It
needs to be revealed to them by the Holy Spirit's working through
the means of grace (Word and Sacraments) and is called just that –
the revealed knowledge of God. In other words, all people are born
with a natural knowledge or awareness that God requires good
works (the opinion of the law) and they need to please God to stay
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on his good side. And unless they learn the truth (revealed
knowledge) about the other person in this marriage (Mr. Faith), or
are lied to about what kind of person Mr. Faith is, their natural
inclination is to side with Mrs. Good Works. The comparison may
not be the best and seem chauvinistic, but it's not meant to be. It's
kind of like a custody case in the breakup of a marriage. If people
don't have a good knowledge of what kind of person the ex-
husband is, they will often just assume the kids are better off with
their mother. In the spiritual realm, people choose Mrs. Works

A few other thoughts are worth sorting through to understand

more clearly the reason the majority of people trust in their works
to save them rather than simply trusting what God has done to save
them. For the sake of discussion, we will change the terminology
from faith vs. works to grace vs. works. This change switches the
emphasis from the narrow emphasis of people believing (having
faith) to be saved, to the more appropriate emphasis of what God
has done for us in his undeserved love (grace) to save us. By grace,
God sent his Son to the world to save us from our sins. By grace,
God gave us the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts in Jesus as
our Savior through the Bible and the Sacraments. We even call
these “The Means of Grace.” By grace, God preserves and
strengthens faith in Jesus in our hearts by the same means of the
Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacraments. By grace,
the Holy Spirit guides and motivates our new man of faith to
produce fruits of faith pleasing to God. The emphasis is clearly on
what God has done for us in his love (gospel) as opposed to what
people do for themselves with works (according to the law). The
latter includes the harmful idea that my faith saves me (because it
is something I am doing) over and against the truth God, in his
grace, has saved me (because Jesus saved me from my sins, and
the Holy Spirit led me to believe this).

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 So why do most people still want to rely on themselves and
their own works to get to heaven instead of believing what God
says about saving people through Jesus? Why would people favor
their own works to earn God's favor over God's free gift of grace,
especially, when in their own hearts they constantly and rightly
worry their own works are never good enough? The first reason
would be the simple explanation they have never heard about the
gospel of Jesus Christ as their Savior. God acknowledges that.
“And how can they believe in the one about whom they have not
heard” (Romans 10:14a)? Without hearing and knowing the gospel
people are left only with a natural knowledge of God and the need
to please God in some way (with their works) to be accepted by
him. This certainly underscores the importance of people who do
know Jesus as their Savior needing to tell others who have not
heard the gospel. As the next part of the verse states, “And how can
they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14b). That's why Jesus
told his followers, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to
all creation” (Mark 16:15). What about today's world? In many
areas of the world today countries are not predominantly Christian.
In some instances, Christianity is not permitted, even persecuted.
What about all the souls living in such areas of the world with
children growing up never hearing the gospel and only being
taught (if their family still believes in any god) a religion of works?
Jesus died also for their sins. What chance do they have to be
saved if they never hear the gospel and only have a natural religion
of works instilled in them?

Lest people think God is being unfair when judging the

unbelief of people in such areas of the world, two things need to be
said. First of all, having no opportunity to hear the gospel is not
nearly as widespread as people might think. There has never been
a time in the history of the world when the gospel has not been
proclaimed. And for the purposes of before Christ (BC) and after
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Christ (AD) we will define the gospel as the “good news” in which
God Promised he would send a descendant of the woman to save
people from their sins (BC); and when that Promise was fulfilled
by Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who suffered, died and rose
again to save us from our sins (AD). There were two times in the
history of the world (BC) when everyone knew the gospel. One
was when Adam and Eve heard and believed the gospel from God
himself in the Garden of Eden, and then told their children and
succeeding generations about God's Promise of a Savior. The other
was the time after the worldwide Flood when Noah and his family of
eight believers were the only ones left. And, again, to the extent
they told their children everyone knew the gospel. Obviously, not
everyone held on to their faith in the Promise. The history of
people falling away from faith - starting with Adam and Eve's
firstborn, Cain, to the apostasy of many before the Flood, to the
rebellious spirit which prevailed leading up to the tower of Babel
has been recounted in the earlier chapters of this book. Those sad
pages of history include many recurring instances of generations of
God's own people, the descendants of Abraham, turning away from
the worship of the true God to adopt the idolatrous ways of
neighboring nations. The same thing happened after the time of
Christ. Without trying to document the growth of Christianity with
detailed records, we will simply state what can easily be observed
from history.

After the time of Christ, despite persecution, Christianity

spread, grew, and prospered in many regions of the known world.
And the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ continued to
spread to other areas of the world as well. Yet, what happened
before the time of Christ, was repeated after the time of Christ. As
has been stated many times, the gospel's rich watering of the earth
was like a passing rain shower. Well-received and nourishing lives
of faith for a time were replaced by laxity, apathy, and, finally,
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apostasy. And the rain cloud of the gospel moved on to other areas
where it was received until the cycle repeated itself. And the grand
cathedrals of Europe became empty tourist attractions for visitors.
And the prospering cultures of the East became ripe targets of
Muslim conquest. And strongholds of Christianity in the new
world became hotbeds of controversy over the truth of the Bible
and the enemy of toleration and acceptance of all beliefs. Why?
What happened?

First of all, let this be said clearly. People turning away from
the truths of the gospel and God's Promise of life through faith in
Jesus Christ is not God's fault. In the history of the world before
the time of Christ, God did not leave himself without witness to the
truth, even the truth that he cares about people and provides for
them. Paul told the people of Lystra, “Yet he did not leave himself
without testimony of the good he does. He gives you rain from
heaven and crops in their seasons. He fills you with food and fills
your hearts with gladness” (Acts 14:17). There were those who
held on to faith in God's promise and gave witness to God's
promise to others. Enoch and other pre-Flood patriarchs: Noah, the
preacher of righteousness; Terah, the father of Abraham;
Melchizedek, king of Salem; faithful Job and his suffering in the
land of Uz, the Queen of Sheba, the widow of Zarephath in Syria
are examples of this and representatives of others not listed. The
writings and legends of many ancient tribes and civilizations
reflect a collection of things similar to events (like a worldwide
flood) recorded in the Bible and are evidence that knowledge of
God's ways was at least at one point known. Also, in New
Testament times, God has left his testimony in the world. Jesus
said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never
pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Things like the Reformation in
Europe, and remaining remnants of believers in areas, which were
once Christian, new believers still being brought to faith, people
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having a conscience, as well as God's promise his gospel will be
proclaimed to the ends of the earth, show God is still working in
this world to bring his gift of life to people. God is not to blame for
people not believing or falling away from the Christian faith.

The problem about lack of faith in God's promise of life, or

falling away from faith, lies entirely at the doorstep of people
themselves and the activity of the father of lies who is out to
deceive and destroy peoples' souls. Let us rephrase this point
from the viewpoint of properly understanding law and gospel
and its corollary of grace versus works. It may sound like an
oversimplification but at the heart of the problem of unbelief and
loss of salvation is what we have referred to earlier as the opinio
legis (the opinion of the law) given preference in a person's heart
over the message of God's grace saving us solely through faith in
Christ. It is an oversimplification, if we ignore the fact there are
differing reasons for not believing the gospel in favor of trusting in
the deeds of the law. As mentioned earlier, a person may never
have heard the gospel and is left only with the natural law of God
in his heart to govern his thinking. Or he may have heard the
message of God's grace proclaimed by the gospel, but rejected it as
foolishness along the lines of nothing is free, you get what you pay
for. Here’s the reason, “…, an unspiritual person does not accept
the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to
him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
evaluated” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

There are other reasons for not believing the Gospel. A person
may have heard about the grace of God, but is so caught up in
living for the goals, pleasures and success of this life, he doesn't
care about his spiritual life and pays no attention to spiritual
matters. He may have been deceived by the errors of false religion
as Satan spews his lies and thinks the teaching of God's gracious

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and free forgiveness is a “cop out” to excuse wrongful behavior.
He may have turned to a life of wickedness, evil and crime so
totally, he cares nothing about right and wrong and does whatever
his sinful nature leads him to do. He may have given in to the age-
old desire of the sinful nature to be like everybody else and live
like the rest of the world and closed the door of his heart to
anything that would preclude that. There may be still other reasons
someone could identify for not trusting in God's grace for salvation
through faith, but the bottom line is the light of God's grace in
Christ has not replaced the darkness of unbelief in his heart and
the person is still a slave to the opinion of the law with which he
is born.

To demonstrate how trust in God's grace for salvation to

eternal life, which had been believed by people for a time, can be
replaced by the opinion of the law and a belief that a person's
works save him, consider the example of ancient cultures mentioned
earlier. Everything God had promised to do for people in his grace
was not completely wiped away from their memories. Remaining
in their memories, traditions, and beliefs were remnants of what
their ancestors once knew. Only now, because they had turned
away from worshiping the true God with faith in his Promise, their
sinful nature reverted back to works. They lost the revealed
knowledge of God, who made heaven and earth and replaced it
with idols made by their own hands from the earth. They retold the
historical record of God's acts with distorted versions of what has
come to be known as legends of ancient cultures. What had been
God-fearing practices done as fruits of faith and testimonies of
trust in God's grace and forgiveness gradually morphed into
sinful imitations. Their worship practices became works to appease
their gods and a testimony to their fear of punishment. They
brought their offerings not as gifts of love and gratitude, but as
deeds of obedience and appeasement. They said their prayers
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fervently not to the almighty God of heaven, but to helpless earthly
idols, sometimes in unfathomable displays of folly. See Isaiah
44:13-20. In worship to their gods, they went on pilgrimages, built
Temples and Ziggurats, and shouted their chants. They did these
things not with trust in mercy and forgiveness, but in rituals filled
with hope for merit, and fear of their god's wrath. Grace was
replaced by works.

Perhaps the most significant example and the saddest of all the
ways ancient people turned what was once a knowledge of God's
promise into a detestable atrocity of their own works was the
practice of human sacrifice. Ancient cultures had a distinct memory
about sacrifice sealed into their now heathen consciousness and
passed on from one generation to the next. Their forebears knew
something about a descendant of the woman, a human being, who
would shed his blood – be sacrificed – to appease God's justice
against sin and save people. But having turned away from a true
knowledge of God for various reasons (laxity, indifference, love of
the world, the errors which Satan propagates, etc.) their foolish
hearts were darkened. In their ignorance of what a gracious being
God truly is and what he would do for mankind, they turned their
memory of a sacrifice for sin into an act of obedience they must do
themselves. Some burned their babies alive on the iron arms of
their god, Moloch, or sacrificed them in other ways (Isaiah 57:6);
some cut the beating hearts out of their victims while still alive;
some pushed their maidens into volcanoes, and in other ways
with great fanfare they took the lives of their own people or their
enemies and sacrificed them to appease the wrath of their god(s). Is
that nothing else than turning God's greatest act of mercy and love
into a Satanically misguided act of obedience and merit on their
part? In his grace, God promised to send a descendant of the
woman to become the second Adam and sacrifice him on the cross
for the sins of the whole world. But instead, according to their

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natural knowledge of God's righteous judgment, people thought
they should do the sacrificing and, by their own work, appease
God's wrath against sin. Grace versus works.

As bad as it was for unbelieving people to turn away from

faith in a God of grace and, in spiritual ignorance, rely on their
own works for merit, it got worse. It got worse for those whose
spiritual ignorance was self-inflicted because it went against what
God had revealed to them about himself and left them without
excuse. The Scriptures state,

Indeed, God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against

all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who try to
suppress the truth by unrighteousness. This happens because
what can be known about God is evident among them,
because God made it evident among them. In fact, his
invisible characteristics—his eternal power and divine
nature—have been clearly seen since the creation of the
world, because they are understood from the things he made
(the natural knowledge of God). As a result, people are
without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

The next several verses make it clear people's wickedness and

unbelief were not just the result of blind ignorance. Rather it
reflects their intentional rejection and turning away from the
natural knowledge of God given to them so they could live life as
they pleased. The Apostle Paul continues,

…because, even though they knew God, they did not honor
him or give him thanks as God. Instead, their thinking
became nonsense, and their senseless heart was darkened.
Although they claim to be wise, they have become fools and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to
look like a mortal human, or like birds, four-footed animals,
and crawling things. (Romans 1:21-23)

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 Read the rest of Romans 1 for a scathing rebuke of the depths
of depravity sinful human beings spiral into when they knowingly
reject the natural knowledge of God given to them and follow the
path of wickedness and unbelief.

In all of this we need to remember God is still a gracious and

long-suffering God. God was still there for those who never heard
the gospel, and had not rebelled against the natural knowledge of
God given them. In the convictions of their guilty consciences,
they sought to find answers to calm their fears and satisfy their
souls. He controlled the time and place of their lives in such a way
for them to have an opportunity to hear the gospel and have their
search for God's truth answered.

From one man, he made every nation of mankind to live over

the entire face of the earth. He determined the appointed
times and the boundaries where they would live. He did this
so they would seek God and perhaps reach out for him and
find him, though he is not far from each one of us. (Acts
17:26-27)

Paul was saying this about people who lived before the time of
Christ. In his own way, God still placed before people who were
spiritually searching for answers the times and place (and people)
whom the Holy Spirit could use to lead them to God's gracious
promises of a Savior. Even though these examples are at the time
of Christ, think of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-39 (note
especially verse 29) and the rich young ruler who came to Jesus
with his earnest desire to find what he could do to inherit eternal
life (Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22, Luke 18:18-24). Both
examples demonstrate the struggle going on in human hearts when
all they know is the natural knowledge of God as a powerful and
righteous God to whom all people must answer. They felt the
burden of guilt for their sins and the conviction their own works
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were not enough to save them. And they wanted answers to give
them peace. The Ethiopian Eunuch had already pursued his desire
to find out about the true God of Israel, but he still needed to know
the revealed knowledge of God about the gospel which Philip
explained to him. The rich young ruler was sincere in his desire to
find answers about life and his natural knowledge of God made
him uneasy that keeping God's commandments (works) were not
enough. Jesus' heart went out to him (Mark 10:21) as a result and
he gave him an answer which directed him to give God first place
in this heart and worship him above all else. Eternity will answer
whether the rich young ruler took Jesus' answer to heart. For the
rest of history, Jesus' command to his followers will always be the
main priority of all believers. “He said to them, 'Go into all the
world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes
and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be
condemned’” (Mark 16:16). Salvation will come by God's grace
through faith in Jesus; those who do not believe but trust in their
own works will be lost.

Only Two Religions – Law and Gospel

In evaluating the difference between grace versus works for
obtaining favor (and peace) with God, one thing should become
apparent: These are the only two religions in all the history of the
world. So there is no misunderstanding of this concept, we will
provide an expanded definition of each.

First, is the religion of grace: Finding favor with God to enjoy

peace with God now and salvation to eternal life hereafter comes
to us by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior
from sin. This is the gospel (good news).

The second, is the religion of works: Finding favor with God

to enjoy peace with God now and salvation to eternal life hereafter
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comes to us by our own merit when we do enough to please God
with how we live in obedience to his commands and save
ourselves. This is the law.

Two observations immediately come to mind. First, it is a

great relief (good news) to hear that despite our sins God still loves
us and forgives us for Jesus' sake. To know Jesus lived the life we
should have lived according to the law and endured God's wrath
against sin as our substitute sets peoples' hearts at rest. God's
justice has been satisfied and people don't have to earn God's favor
themselves. They have peace with God now and no longer fear
God's judgment at death. Instead, with joy and hope they look
forward to everlasting life after death. The Bible teaches this
conclusion. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans
5:1). Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, (by trying to earn God's favor with their works) and I
will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Second, the opposite is true with the religion of works. There

is never any real peace in the hearts of those who trust in their own
merit to earn God's favor. When is their effort to satisfy God good
enough? In their hearts, they still know they are sinners. When is
the good they strive to do enough to offset the sins they have
committed? This is especially true when people are honest enough
with themselves to include the selfish thoughts (greedy, lustful,
vengeful, hateful, etc.) of the heart, the unkind things they say and
their sins of failing to do what they know they should have done
(sins of omission). The Bible recognizes the reality of such an
unsettling spiritual state. “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the
wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). Not when you are relying on your own
efforts to save yourself.

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 There are a few other points which can be made to understand
the troubling nature of thinking a person can save himself by
works. This applies both to those who in organized religion are
taught to please God with their works and those who may not
belong to any organized religion. In the last times, God says about
people, “There is no fear of God in front of their eyes” (Romans
1:18). Many have no use for organized religion. As a result, instead
of guilt, modern man is often content with “good enough” to earn a
place in the afterlife if there is an afterlife. Either way, organized
religion or not, “good enough” still comes down to “works.” Yes, it
is also true in the last days there are some who don't even care
about their works or an afterlife and live only for the pleasures and
successes of this life. Because of their unbelief, their sins will still
condemn them. For those who do rely on their works, however, there
is more to be said.

Balancing the scales

To even the balances of God's justice there are those who hope
doing enough good works can offset the bad things a person has
done. How does that work in real life? Does shoveling your
neighbor's driveway make up for the tools you stole from his
garage? Does paying most of your bills faithfully make up for the
ones you didn't pay? Do car dealerships and mortgage lenders say
they will forgive your failure to make payments because you
sometimes paid the balance due in the past? Or do they repossess
and foreclose and file lawsuits for what is still owed them? Past
societies had the debtor's prison for those who couldn't pay. So it is
with God's justice according to the law. One missed payment (a
failure to do what the law requires – sin) still makes a person a
debtor no matter how many good things he may have done and the
debt of that sin must be paid. “In fact, whoever keeps the whole

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law and yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking all
of it” (James 2:10). If you're going to rely on your works to save
you, all the works required by the law must be produced. People
understand this. But in many cases they try to circumvent this
reality with other arguments. The atheist claims there is no god; so
why should anyone think I have to answer to a god who doesn't
exist? Answer: It is foolish to deny your natural knowledge of
God and your conscience which says you are accountable to God.
“The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'” (Psalm 53:1a). The
agnostic says he doesn't know if there is a God, so he shouldn't be
held accountable for things he doesn't know. The answer: He is
accountable; ignorance is no excuse. If you truly don't know, act on
the impulses of your natural knowledge of God and conscience and
seek to find him.

Many people will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the

mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.
Then he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in
his paths.” For from Zion the law will go out, and
the LORD’s word will go out from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3)
See also Acts 17:27.

God is love
People claim God is love. They have been deluded by Satan's
lies into thinking God is just a loving, tolerant God who accepts
everyone for who they are. “Love doesn't judge. Who are we to
judge? Just be true to yourself, etc.” And a God of love would
never condemn anyone to an eternity of suffering in hell. Answer:
They are right; God is love (1 John 4:8), and in his love, he sent his
Son to become true man and save people from their sins (so they
would not have to suffer hell). “This is how God’s love for us was
revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that

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we may live through him.” (1 John 4:9). See also John 3:16.
However, love does not condone what is sinful and unloving and
hurtful and rejects his loving sacrifice to save, but condemns it.
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does
not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). Sins are real; God
hates sin and condemns it. Loving other people and doing good
works will not make up for one's sins and save people. God's love
saved us from sin through Jesus Christ.

Sincerity
There are those who take the position there are many religions
in the history of the world. Who is to say which one is right? They
say if people are sincere in their worship of god, God knows this
and accepts them all. Think about that statement. What is it saying
about the way to be saved? It clearly implies it is not the particular
religion which saves a person, but the sincerity of his worship; if
he really believes what the religion teaches and lives his life
accordingly, he will be saved. That makes the saving factor the
person's own sincerity, namely, something he is doing – a work.
People should be sincere in the things they say and do. But since
when has sincerity by itself saved anyone? If a person sincerely
believes drinking plenty of water and taking aspirin will save him
from stage four cancer, how long do you think he will live? If a
patient truly believes the doctor who promises he can perform the
delicate lifesaving surgery necessary and entrusts his life to that
doctor's care, will it save him? Maybe, if the doctor is being honest
and able to do what he promises. But, what if the doctor is a quack,
his diplomas are forgeries, his promises are money grabbing lies,
and instead of a scalpel and sutures he uses a butcher's knife and a
staple gun, what then? Not pretty. The point is sincerity doesn't
save, but it is the object of one's trust that saves.

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 Which religions of the world can be trusted to keep their
promise of bestowing life to its followers? Which ones promise
grace and forgiveness and being saved solely by the doctor's efforts
and not by the patient's efforts to do something for himself (eat,
exercise, take medicines, follow weight loss regimens, take self-
improvement courses, etc.)? Answer: Only one, Christianity. Only
Christianity has the great Physician of body and soul who saves
from sin and gives eternal life. Only Christianity has the God who
saves and gives life by his work (redemption), not the patient's
work. All other religions rely on peoples' works to save themselves
by doing what their god demands in his laws, and if they fail gives
death.

To underscore – yes establish – the one-of-a kind supremacy

of Christianity over every other religion as the only saving
religion, consider this. Which religion of the world has been in
practice the longest and has established a spotless record of always
healing people? Which religions of the world have been in
existence from the beginning of time and will continue to exist
until the end of the world? Answer: Only one, Christianity. It
began with God's Promise of a Savior through a descendant of the
woman in the Garden and was believed by people throughout all
the years of Old Testament history until the second Adam came. It
has continued in the New Testament age and will continue until the
end of time in the hearts of all those who know Jesus Christ, the
second Adam, is the one who fulfilled God's promise of a Savior –
saved by God's grace through faith in Christ.“This gospel of the
kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew
24:14). Think about that. Christianity is the only religion to offer
life with God as a free gift to everyone who has ever lived or will
live. No other religion can make that claim. Every other religion
has come after God's Promise of a Savior was given and includes
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some aspect of merit/works based on keeping laws in order to have
peace and life with God.

To be technical, it could be said a religion of works has been

around ever since the fall into sin. Cain's offering, given the way it
was, showed he was trusting in his own work to satisfy God and
was the start of mankind's reliance upon works to stay on good
terms with God. But that's the point. Every other religion of man
that has arisen in history besides trust in God's grace to forgive
sinners through the Savior is based on man's hope he can gain
God's favor himself through works. Many of those ancient
religions have faded into the sunset of religious belief and are
gone. Others, whether centuries old or rising up in recent centuries,
are still around deceiving souls into thinking their works are
needed to gain God's favor and have eternal life. In our fallen state,
the natural religion of works (opinio legis) is rooted in mankind's
being. For further understanding on the subject of the opinio legis
and how it is a good thing, see Addendum Nine.

The Bible
Still, another observation should be made that is pertinent to
the subject of grace versus works. What is the source of teaching
for each religion? This is pertinent because the teaching of a
religion of grace – and everything else talked about in this book –
comes from the Word of God. The teachings of God's Word are
commonly referred to as the Bible (the book), the Holy Scriptures
(the writings that are holy because they come from God), and, at
least in the past, sometimes called the Good Book (because this
book is full of good news, truths that are good and important for
our lives). The frequency with which these pages quote passages
from the Bible to support points being made ought to make it
apparent this book trusts everything the Bible teaches as God's

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truth. But what about other religions? What is the source of their
teachings and beliefs? Don't the teachings of other religions
contribute to mankind's understanding of who God is, what he is
like, and what he expects of people? Who is to say their teachings
and beliefs are wrong, and only the Bible is right? Without getting
into a lengthy dissertation on the subject we make only several
basic points to consider. Not everything contained in other
religious writings is always wrong. When those writings contain
statements about right and wrong in accord with the natural
knowledge of God or established records of history there is no
reason to dispute them. The Bible, however, claims it is the
inspired word of God. According to historical definition among
Christians this means all the words of the Bible come from God
(verbal inspiration) and all its teachings are true (inerrant).

There is internal evidence for this claim (found in the Bible

itself). Consider the following points. The Bible is given to us by
God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:

“When you received God’s word, which you heard from us, you
did not receive it as the word of men but as the word of God (as it
really is), which is now at work in you who believe” (1
Thessalonians 2:13).

“In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men
spoke from God as they were being carried along by the Holy
Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

“What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given
to us by God. We also speak about these things, not in words
taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit,
combining spiritual truths with spiritual words” (1 Corinthians
2:12-13).

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 “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my
tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2).

See also how 2 Timothy 3:16 describes the Scriptures should

be used. The words of the Bible are all true:

“God is not a man, that he should lie” (Numbers 23:19a).

“I did not speak in secret, or from someplace in a land of

darkness. I did not say to the descendants of Jacob, “Seek me in
the midst of chaos.” I, the LORD, am speaking in righteousness. I
am declaring what is right” (Isaiah 45:19).

“Jesus answered them… the Scripture cannot be broken”

(John 10:34-35).

Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth”

(John 17:17). See also Psalm 18:30, Proverbs 30:5).

Also, the Bible makes clear God's word is the divinely

inspired truth of God which should never be added to or changed.

I give this warning to everyone who hears the words of the

prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add
to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if
anyone takes away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God will take away his share in the Tree of Life
and in the Holy City, which are written in this book.
(Revelation 22:18-19)

There is also external evidence for the claim the Bible is the
true word of God (external evidence means outside the pages of
Scripture). When read (and heard) with an open mind and not
preconceived ideas, a compelling conviction tells a person what he
is hearing/reading rings true. It is authentic. This makes sense
when we remember the Holy Spirit is working in peoples' hearts

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through God's word. The reaction of the two disciples walking on
the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday is an example of this
experience. When reflecting afterwards on what they heard, “They
said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he
was speaking to us along the road and while he was explaining the
Scriptures to us’?” (Luke 24:32). There are countless thousands
through the centuries who have testified of the same experience
numerous times in their lives. Consider also this: The words of the
Bible are contained in 66 books and were written over a period of
1,500 years by a collection of over 40 authors most of whom are
named, some are not. These men came from different walks of life,
lived in different times, with different experiences in life, wrote in
several different languages, with different styles of writing and
vocabulary and different types of writing (history, poetry, laws,
prophecy, letters, visions). Yet, amazingly, despite the wide
expanse of time and life experiences among them, there is no
contradiction in any of their writings. Any accusation of
contradictions has always been able to be refuted when common
sense and a full knowledge of all Scripture's teachings are used.

There is nothing else like that in all the rest of human

literature, secular or spiritual. There is nothing else in any other
religious belief which has been around for the entire history of the
world and will stand until the end of time – with the exception of
man's natural religion of works – the opinion of the law. And the
natural religion of man based on works will not stand the test of
eternity. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will
never pass away” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). How
can this be? The answer is simple. There are many writers involved
in the writing of the different books of the Bible, but only one
author. And that author is God the Holy Spirit who inspired men
to use their own vocabularies, life experiences, and sources to
write the very words he wanted written to accomplish his purpose.
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 The purpose God the Holy Spirit had in mind with the writing
of the Bible is clear. All the pages of Scripture unite and support one
common theme. The Apostle John stated it toward the end of his
Gospel. “…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in
his name” (John 20:31). The Bible says, “(God our Savior)…wants
all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, (1
Timothy 2:4). Paul continues immediately with that truth. “For
there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the
man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the
testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Jesus stated
this himself. “Jesus said to him, “I am the Way and the Truth and
the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me” (John
14:6). Read the entire section of John 14:1-7. He taught the same
truth throughout his life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have
eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
(John 3:16-17)

God the Son accomplished this when he was born into this
world, lived, suffered and died as the second Adam to redeem us
from our sins. See chapter 7, the Performance.

All of this is pertinent because this chapter lays before us the

work of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who brings God's blessing of
salvation to eternal life to us by bringing us to faith in Jesus Christ.
And the Holy Spirit uses the gospel in Word and Sacrament to
work faith in the hearts of all those who become members of his
body of believers, the Christian Church. It is this faith in Christ
worked in us by the Holy Spirit, which in turn works with our new
man to produce good works pleasing to God and enables people to
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enjoy a blessed life of peace, hope, and love. That is God's goal for
our lives, not only now, but especially hereafter when we are
completely free of our sinful nature and its consequences. Martin
Luther sums up these truths wonderfully in his explanation to the
3rd Article of the Apostles' Creed.

“I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe

in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has
called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified,
and kept me in the true faith. In like manner, he calls, gathers,
enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and
keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In which Christian
Church he daily and richly forgives all sins, and gives eternal life
to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.”

The greatest battle: grace versus works

However! However, indeed. To say Christianity is the only
religion of grace and the only way to be eternally saved from sin
and death is true. But that does not mean people who are Christians
are untroubled by a religion of works still tumbling around in their
brains and causing upset stomachs in their spiritual guts. After all,
all people still have the opinio legis as part of their human nature.
Christians also have their old Adam sitting at their meals,
contributing to their conversations and going to bed with them
every night. And everything the old Adam ever does in his belief
system always goes by the natural religion of law and works.

Think about this. Think about what a problem it is for our

human existence even as Christians. Christians always have a
religion of grace and a religion of works competing against each
other inside their being – all their lives. And the natural man inside
a person always sides with the natural religion of works – always.
The new man inside a Christian, the one reborn in God's image, is
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always there fighting boldly, valiantly, and powerfully to resist and
triumph over the will of our sinful nature, our old Adam. But our
old Adam has allies. The lies, deceits and temptations of the evil
one, the Liar, are constantly launching attacks against our new man
of faith. The world with all its charms, pleasures of sin, worldly
values, worldly wisdom, worldly priorities, and likable neighbors
(not saying always unbelievers, however) are always there all
around us all the time. It's like fighting our battle of faith and grace
is always being done in enemy territory where danger lurks
around every corner (friends' homes, family gatherings, business
workplaces, educational institutions/systems, governments seeking
to silence the Christian voice). The battle between good (God's grace
and mercy upon us through Christ) and what the evil man's sinful
nature wants (in a natural religion of works) is an ongoing battle
throughout life.

Note well: Critics have no right to take the sentiments of the

previous paragraph out of context and raise a charge of fanaticism
against the point being made. We are not saying everything in the
world, in business, education, government, arts and sciences, etc.,
is evil. Christians are the first to recognize governments – good
and bad – are instituted by God for our good. Even when bad,
governmental authorities can be used by God to accomplish
blessings for our lives and should be respected. Christians are the
first to recognize the advancements made through the centuries in
the way of medicine, arts and sciences, engineering, electronics,
psychology, biology, astronomy, etc. Education is a good thing;
who wants to live in a world where ignorance and lack of
understanding make decisions? Scientific investigation objectively
pursued without bias is a great blessing for life; who wants a world
that has no grasp of the world/universe we live in and how to
manage it to the glory of God?

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 But note this well, also: God's truth still rules over all. The
omniscience of God who made this world and knows all things is
to be believed above the ever-changing conclusions of a world
which does not know God and does not know everything. The
unchanging ethics, values, laws, and morality of a God who made
us and knows what is good for us are to be followed above the
constantly changing mores of people who want to decide for
themselves how they should live to accommodate their own
desires. Whenever the wisdom of the world is in conflict with the
wisdom of God, then it is foolishness to God and a great danger to
the Christian faith. “Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in
the Jewish law? Where is the probing thinker of the present age?
Has God not shown that the wisdom of this world is foolish?” (1
Corinthians 1:20). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom; all who do his precepts have good understanding” (Psalm
111:10). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the
knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).
(Note: Notice in the two passages above how Solomon – to whom
God had given great wisdom – quoted from the Psalms to show
where true wisdom is ultimately found. And how in the process he
combined both knowing and doing as part of the elements of true
godly wisdom)” … because the foolishness of God is wiser than
men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1
Corinthians 1:25). Christians live according to what God says over
what man may claim.

The previous paragraphs have expanded the battlefield of the

Christian faith to the big picture of life. It is not just the teaching
about God's grace and mercy to us in Christ, versus the teaching of
salvation by works that is involved in the battle between good and
evil. The big picture of war for our souls between God and Satan
includes life itself and how often even good works are abandoned
by people as a way of obtaining righteousness for God. Caught in
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Satan's snares and the darkness of worldly wisdom, people often
reach a point in which they despair of any hope of righteousness
before God. Often, without even realizing it, people follow the
path Satan has laid out for them which dismisses the reality of
spiritual matters. People reach the levels of darkness which think
there is no God, there is no afterlife, there is no right or wrong,
everyone leads their own life as they please, good becomes bad
and bad becomes good, and every level of obduracy, blindness,
degradation, and depravity ensues… until in the end, they find out
otherwise to their eternal regret.

This changes nothing, however, in the question of which

religion holds sway in peoples' lives when it comes to being saved
to eternal life. Is it the revealed religion of grace (gospel) or the
natural religion of works (law)? Specifically, in this section, we are
addressing the question of how much the religion of works still
infiltrates and undermines the faith of those who profess the
religion of grace. Without question, God is on the side of those
who profess faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. They are saved by
God's grace. He has made very clear on which side we are to stand
firm. “Now if it is by grace, then it is not the result of works—
otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6). Of
course, the opposite would also be true as some ancient
manuscripts comment, “And if it were the result of works, it would
no longer be grace – otherwise work would no longer be work”
(Footnote to Romans 11:6). And the Holy Spirit as he does his job
has given us the weapons to fight this battle of grace versus works.
Confer such passages as John 8:31, Ephesians 6:10-18 and 1
Timothy 6:11-12 quoted several times earlier in this chapter and in
this book. He has reassured us that if we listen to his voice and
stand firm on this teaching, he will keep us safely as his own.

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 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I
give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one
can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given
them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out
of my Father's hand. (John 10:27-29)

He has encouraged us to not stand pat in our faith but keep on

growing in grace and in God's Word. “But solid food (all of God's
Word, not just the basic teachings of Christianity) is for mature
people, who have their senses trained by practice to distinguish
between good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14). He has told us
specifically not to become lax in going to church regularly to hear
God's Word for our benefit and to encourage others in their life of
faith. The author of Hebrews writes,

Let us hold on firmly to the confession of our hope without

wavering, since he who promised is faithful. Let us also
consider carefully how to spur each other on to love and
good works. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some
have the habit of doing. Rather, let us encourage each other,
and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews
10:23-25)

The Holy Spirit has warned us not to take the blessings of

God's grace for granted and become complacent in our faith. “So
let him who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall” (1
Corinthians 10:12). He has also given us encouragement when we
do use God's means of grace faithfully and produce fruits of faith
in our lives, “…For if you do these things, you will never stumble”
(2 Peter 1:10b). Certainly, God has done everything needed not
only to bring us to faith in Jesus but to strengthen and preserve us
in the true religion of salvation by grace, not by works.

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 The hard lesson of history
We remind ourselves, however, God never forces anyone to
believe, nor does he force anyone to remain a believer. He has
done everything necessary to save us by his grace – not only by
saving us from our sins through Jesus Christ, but by bringing us to
faith in Jesus Christ by the working of his Holy Spirit and keeping
us in the true faith by the working of his Spirit when we use the
means of grace. How have people responded through the centuries
to God’s undeserved mercy and grace for our lives? Unfortunately,
there is a hard lesson to be learned. God will always be faithful to
His promises and will keep those who are faithful to Him safe as
His own, of that we can be sure. But, sadly, the record of history
shows there are many – tragically many – who do not want or keep
the blessings of God’s grace for their lives. They have either
rejected the working of God’s Holy Spirit and not come to faith or,
even worse, once believed but ended up falling away from the true
religion of being saved by God’s grace through faith.

God's heart still grieves over those who reject His goodness
and mercy and choose works over grace. Yet, so entrenched is
man’s sinful nature, so pervasive in people’s hearts is the natural
religion of works, so appealing becomes love of this life, many still
fall away from love and trust in Jesus, the Christ of God, the
second Adam. Examples? They are everywhere, through all of
history.

We have already alluded much on the subject of people falling

away from a religion of grace before the time of Christ in the early
chapters of this book. Rather than repeat many of the comments,
we will simply refer again to Cain, his descendants, and the great
increase in apostasy and wickedness among the descendants of
Adam and Eve before the time of the worldwide flood. After the
flood, many of the descendants of the believing family of Noah
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turned away from the true worship of God which led up to the
Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages. Finally, sometime
after the Tower of Babel, God chose a man who had remained a
believer in God’s Promise of a Savior to become the father of a
nation from which the Savior would be born. And yet, the history
of Abraham’s descendants known as the children of Israel was,
itself, rife with repeated examples of falling away into idolatry and
following the wicked ways of people around them.

Consider the nation of Israel. How often don’t we hear about

God’s people grumbling against God’s ways and wanting God to
do things their way? How often don’t we hear about God’s chosen
nation wanting to be like other nations, have their own kings, build
their own idols, worship like other nations, and enjoy the pleasures
and practices of nations around them, which were diametrically
opposed to worshiping the God of grace and mercy as revealed in
his Word? How often don’t we hear about God’s Old Testament
people rejecting and sometimes killing the prophets God sent to
them and incurring God’s wrath to punish them with famines and
wars and captivity to other nations? God was still merciful to them
and blessed them with times of restoration and spiritual revival, but
their overall track record of ignoring, distorting, and rebelling
against the truth of God’s grace continued. There were those who
remained faithful to the true God of grace and mercy in their
hearts. God be praised. But for the majority of Abraham’s
descendants, this was not the case. Even though they claimed to
remain true to God and follow His ways, they turned the religion
of grace and promises of a Savior God gave them into a religion of
works based on the very ceremonies and sacrifices God had given
them to remember his Promise. Astoundingly, in the name of the
true God, they gave themselves into idolatry. They had no true
repentance over sin and faith in the one God sent them to save
them from their sins. God himself would condemn them. They
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were a people who drew near to God with their lips, but their
hearts were far from Him. The hard lesson of history was repeated
in capital letters with many magic markers highlighting examples
of God’s own people turning away from the worship of the God of
all grace and following a harsh religion of works.

The Holy Spirit is still working

Israel’s overall apostasy did not stop Jesus from doing the
work his Father sent Him to do. As true man, He faithfully and
perfectly fulfilled every detail of what his heavenly Father decreed
to keep his Promise. That included Jesus’ death for all the world’s
sins. Through His death, God’s gracious deliverance from the
punishment of God’s wrath against sin was accomplished. Nor did
the religion of works and unbelief in God’s grace keep the Holy
Spirit from doing His work.

Grace had triumphed over sin and death, and now the message
of salvation by grace through faith in God’s Savior was to be
delivered to the world. This is the Holy Spirit’s work; and that
word went out. “But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course, they
certainly did. The sound of their voice went out to all the earth,
and their words to the farthest parts of the world’” (Romans
10:18). God’s religion of grace was proclaimed, and people
believed. The Apostles preached and the Church grew. Believers
praised God and enjoyed the favor of other people. And, “Day
after day the Lord added to their number those who were being
saved” (Acts 2:47).

Stephen was stoned, and Saul persecuted, yet the Church

continued to grow. When persecution in Jerusalem broke out,
believers fled and took their faith with them and shared it. Others
from Cyprus and Cyrene joined them and preached God’s Word to
Greeks also. “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number
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of people believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:21). Believers
in God’s religion of grace were first called Christians in the city of
Antioch. When Saul was converted to God’s grace by the bright
voice of Christ Himself on the road to Damascus, he became
Christ’s “…chosen instrument to carry my name before the
Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15). And he
did. His name was changed from Saul to Paul.

On three successive missionary journeys to regions of Asia

Minor and Greece, Paul preached God’s gospel of forgiveness of
sins in Christ and established churches based on God’s religion of
grace. His fourth journey was to Rome to stand trial for his life.
There he continued to witness to God’s grace. Even under house
arrest, he wrote letters to people and churches explaining the
doctrines of God’s religion of grace and encouraging Christians in
their lives of faith. The Word of God was going out; the good news
of salvation in Christ was conquering souls for the kingdom of
God and the gates of hell could not stand against it. Surely, now,
God’s religion of salvation by grace through faith in Christ was
triumphing over man’s natural religion of works. And it was.

This was the golden age in the growth of the Christian Church;
this was the spread of the gospel God had decreed should be
proclaimed. There was peace and joy in the hearts of thousands
upon thousands who before were filled with guilt and fear.

The errors of false teaching

Yet, not so fast. The gates of hell did not close their doors and
go out of business. This will not happen until Christ Jesus comes
again and (figuratively speaking) shuts the doors to everything
associated with life in this world, throws it on a heap, and burns it
all. The evil imaginations of man’s sinful heart did not evaporate
and disappear. The brutish world and its fleas did not run away
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with its tail between its legs. Tribulations will continue, violence will
increase, apostasy from the Christian faith will grow worse. Man’s
natural religion of works will continue to invade, harass, and do
damage in the church like never before.

On top of this, the errors of false teaching have troubled and

will continue to trouble and cause schisms in Christ’s Church. In
the early church, Judaizers claimed men still had to be circumcised
according to Old Testament law to be a true child of God. It’s hard
to let go of long-established deeds of the law (works), especially
when God himself had decreed circumcision for the Old Testament
people of Israel.

In the next several centuries, a number of heresies/errors arose

concerning the person of Jesus Christ. Arianism, Gnosticism,
Monarchianism (Modalism), Adoptionism, Nestorianism were some
of the more prevalent ones. Their names are not important; the
only remark we will make is they all involved some aspect of false
teaching concerning the person (divinity/humanity) or work of
Jesus Christ. They were Satan’s attempts to undermine the Holy
Spirit’s message of salvation by God’s grace through faith by
calling into question the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the
God-man, as our Savior.

More errors arose in the visible Christian church through the

centuries as Satan tried to confuse and mislead people concerning
God’s saving grace in Christ. In today’s world, such things as
ecumenism, pietism, rationalism, antinomianism, the theory of
evolution, and higher criticism all have contributed in greater or
lesser degree to the same goal. To be sure, it is Satan’s goal. He is
behind every proclamation of error to destroy faith in God’s grace
by turning people away from the truth and believing the errors of
the world instead.

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 Out of all of these modern errors, a brief comment about
higher criticism is in place. Higher criticism is the belief that man,
in his modern scholarship, can determine whether things said in
Scripture are true or not. It is, on the face of it, nothing more than
worldly wisdom. It is already discredited by God when the
conclusions of human reason (the creature) think they can overrule
the testimony of the Creator and declare the eternal truth of God’s
Word to be wrong and their unbelieving conclusions to be true. It
is, in essence, Satan going back to the same tactic he used in the
Garden of Eden when he succeeded in getting Eve to doubt what
God said, and instead believe the lie he espoused.
Why are we taking time to talk about errors in the church?
Because it is important to clearly condemn error. As Paul told
Timothy, the Holy Scriptures are useful “for teaching, for
rebuking, for correcting and for training in righteousness…” (2
Timothy 3:16). The Holy Spirit works faith in God’s grace to save
sinners through the truth of God’s Word, and the truth of God’s
Word in collaboration with the earthly elements used in the
Sacraments. God condemns error because it undermines the Holy
Spirit’s work. Error confuses, weakens, distorts, and, in many
cases, eventually destroys saving faith in God’s grace. Left
unchecked and uncondemned, error will continue to spread and
grow to confuse and harm the faith of more and more souls. “...and
their message will spread like gangrene” (2 Timothy 2:17). God
doesn’t just condemn error; He tells believers to be on the lookout
for error and avoid it. “But I urge you, brothers, to watch out for
those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the teaching
that you learned, and keep away from them. For such people are
not serving Christ our Lord but their own appetites” (Romans
16:17-18a). He tells us to hold on to his truth because the Holy
Spirit uses only his truth to sanctify believers (make them holy in
God’s sight through faith in God’s grace in Christ Jesus).
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

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 The most dangerous false teaching
All false teaching is condemned; all false teaching is to be
avoided; all false teaching hurts and, in some cases, destroys
saving faith in Christ. Yet, there is one error, one false teaching
more dangerous than all the rest. All other false teachings, for the
most part, have come and gone in the history of the church. Some
have, on occasion, been recycled and popped up again after years
of dormancy, only once again to fade away. There’s nothing new
under the sun.

This false teaching, this error, has been around throughout the
history of the world. It has plagued peoples’ souls from the early
beginnings of time after the fall into sin to this day and will
continue to badger human souls to the end of time. We are, of
course, talking about the false religion of works, which has
occupied our attention in much of this chapter. In the greatest battle
for control of the human heart, the fight between man’s natural
religion of salvation by works of man’s own doing versus God’s
revealed religion of salvation by the grace of God’s doing
everything for us has always occupied center stage. It is the
number one billing on the religious fight card all the time, every
day, every year.

And we are not talking anymore about the false religion of

works in all the other religions of the world. In those cases, man’s
natural religion of works is the only thing on the fight card. The
bad guy stands alone without any opponent, except for maybe the
pangs of the human conscience which still scream out saying,
“This can’t be right; this gives me no peace; there is nothing here
for me to cheer for; there’s nothing to celebrate; why do I feel so
hopeless and uncertain with him as my champion.”

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 No, we’re not talking now about the religion of works which
controls every other world religion. We’re talking about the
religion of works still finding a locker to use and attendants to
serve him in the Christian Church.

All other errors, for the most part, have been recognized and
expelled from the visible Christian church. At least it used to be
that way. This error, for many years now, has been embraced and
even pampered within the confines and cathedrals of the visible
Christian church. Think about that. The Church of Jesus Christ, the
body of believers who confess Jesus Christ to be the eternally
begotten Son of God who came down to this earth and became also
true man, born of the virgin Mary without sin, to live, die, and rise
again as our Substitute under God’s law, to fulfill the promise of a
Savior God made in the Garden of Eden and save us from our sins
– this church, this visible Christian church, has for centuries now
said, “No, that’s not enough, there’s still more that must be done to
be saved.” Even the leader of this visible church, the one who for
centuries has claimed to be Christ’s spokesman here on earth, has
spoken against Christ. He says Christ has only partially saved
people. This proponent of the works we must do in addition to
Christ is the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the
advocate and manager of the great worldly fighter on the fight card
named “Works.” He says we must recognize and crown “Works,”
also, as the one who helps us be saved. For that matter, since
“Works” is the champion of every other world religion, the papacy
proclaims that all who follow him sincerely in their religions can
also be considered God’s children.

Of all the other anti-Christian teachings and practices which

have been dumped on this world to lead people away from faith in
Christ, how can that not be the Anti-Christ teaching above all
others? And it comes from within the visible Christian church.

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Like the ancient people of Israel, modern Christianity is
committing the idolatry of works under the guise of worshiping the
true God.

How clever! How snake-like subtle of Satan to foster this false

teaching so successfully. Satan took the wonderful Scriptural truth
of grace and works together, the beautiful marriage between God’s
grace saving us from our sins and a believer’s works giving
evidence of saving faith, and twisted it, putting his own spin on it.
(Note: This is not the first time he used this strategy. Think the
Garden of Eden.) Satan changed the meaning of this important
teaching. Now, instead of God’s grace saving us through faith in
Christ and works following as fruits of faith, it became man’s
works to help save us, and faith in Christ is secondary. Or, to put it
more succinctly, the true Scriptural teaching is works have no
merit to save; they simply give evidence of faith, but Satan wants
people to think works are placed first and earn merit to save and
are added on to the grace of Christ to complete our salvation. Big
difference! It is an eternal difference. The eternal salvation of souls
hangs in the balance. That’s what Satan intended.

Don’t just trust in Jesus to save you (the religion of grace);

make sure you also do the things God expects of you in his law so
that you can be saved (the religion of works). In case it’s not
apparent, you can’t have both. It’s either grace or works. Either
Jesus saves you by God’s grace, or you save yourself by your own
merit. To repeat the passage quoted earlier, “And if by grace, then
it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be
grace” (Romans 11:6). Never mind the truth that if you could live
all your life perfectly without sin, you wouldn’t need a Savior (see
Romans 10:5). It’s a moot point; you’re born already a sinner; it’s
impossible for you to live without sin! (See Romans 3:9-12). You
need God’s grace in Christ to be saved.

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 Once the religion of works was codified into canon5 law
alongside—in reality, in place of—God’s grace in Christ, many
other decrees to earn God’s favor based on merit, deeds, penance,
payments, and pilgrimages entered the church. There was no end to
them. One wonders how many souls in Christ’s Church throughout
the centuries were misled by this religion of works to their eternal
loss. Since Christ was still confessed to be God’s Son and our
Savior, and God’s Word was still preached in some measure, how
many survived the error of religion by works and in their hearts
still trusted in Jesus to save them? We know there were some.
When preached, God’s Word does not return to him empty. We
pray there were many. And for those who did, we have God’s
reassurance, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to
shame” (Romans 10:11).

Many denominations within the pale of the visible church

on earth have also been plagued by errors creeping in and
undermining the saving gospel message of Jesus Christ. There is
no need to try to identify and critique them all. Some churches
have remained basically sound in their teaching according to God’s
Word based on God’s grace to us in Christ. We rejoice at God’s
goodness to save in their midst. Others have departed so far from
the teachings of God’s Word they actually welcome the wisdom
and morality of the world into their midst. One wonders how long
they can still fairly be called Christian churches. God knows those
who are his. The bottom line is the religion of God’s grace is what
matters. We know the Holy Spirit is the one who works repentance
over sin and faith in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins without
any merit or worthiness of our own. This is the truth which saves.

5
Canon law is the official governing law of some Christian churches. It
consists of the ideas and thoughts of Christian leaders handed down over
centuries and is often thought to be equivalent to God’s Word.

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Depending on a religion of works in which we rely on ourselves
and what we do, what we say, how often we worship, how much
we contribute, the good we have done for others, the charities we
have participated in, and our concern for the environment, etc.—
well, that is not relying on Jesus; it’s relying on our works. That
does not wash away our sins, and it does not bode well in the end
for those who think their works will save them.

Making it personal
How about you, dear reader? You can rejoice in knowing Jesus is
your Savior from sin. You have been saved by God’s grace, cleansed
from your sin through the blood of Jesus, and by trusting in him for
your forgiveness, you know you are a redeemed child of God.
Heaven is waiting for you when you die; in fact, it is already your
possession. It is your promised inheritance waiting for you as God
has decreed, which you can cherish in your heart. Hold onto that
hope, rejoice in it, and let no one tell you otherwise.

However, you know yourself that you are still a sinner. You
know in your heart you still sin daily and deserve God’s wrath and
punishment. God says this in his Word, in his eternal law, and you
know his Word is true. You also know—or should know—that
your inborn nature as a sinner, your old Adam, will always carry
around the natural religion of works. Trust in God’s revealed
religion of grace is found solely in your new man, the one reborn
in God’s image. The old Adam has no receptiveness to God’s grace
and wants no part of it. That’s just the way it is. Satan knows this,
and throughout your life will come back again and again to try to
use this to his advantage. He will work with his partner, your old
Adam, to try to get you to focus on the religion of works,
especially on your failure to do the works you know you should be
doing and giving in to the temptations of sin instead. His

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accusations and lies often sound like this: “How could you do that?
That’s not the way a child of God lives. Who do you think you are?
Will God still forgive you after doing that again? God has no
patience for those who sin like you do. You wretched man.”

It is not unusual for solid, God-fearing Christians, who know

Jesus is their Savior and trust in His grace to forgive them, and
honestly strive to live in God-pleasing ways, to have Satan return
repeatedly and stick his nose into their business and try to trouble
them in this way.

Particularly notable is when Satan uses his accusing tactics to

torment a child of God who is near death. It’s his last chance to
snatch a soul from God’s hands for his kingdom of darkness, so he
gives it his best shot. Satan goes back to the natural religion of
works still embedded in man’s sinful nature and hammers it home
with all his might. For example, he may try to throw dirt on God’s
grace in a person’s heart by saying, “Look back on your life and
how you lived. You said you were God’s child and believed in
Jesus, but you sure didn’t act like it. Did you do good unto others
as God wants? Not nearly enough, I can assure you. What about
those secret sins you committed and were so ashamed you never
told anyone about? You never confessed them like you should
have. And how about all those times you had it in for your
neighbor because you couldn’t get along? Was it right to talk about
him the way you did and treat him the way you did? And all those
other times you hurt people with your words and didn’t forgive
those who wronged you like God says and heartlessly ignored the
needy. You know yourself, you’re a hypocrite. How could a holy
God ever forgive you? You haven’t lived a life good enough to go
to heaven at all, you wretch!”

“…We are certainly not unaware of his schemes” (2 Corinthians

2:11) Paul wrote about Satan. When Satan starts to use these tactics
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on you, or on someone else you know is struggling with guilt, you
know what to do. As a Christian, you certainly don’t go back to the
religion of works and try to comfort yourself, or someone else, by
telling them not to worry. “After all, think of all the good you have
done in your life, and how you have loved and helped others.
Everything will be alright.”That’s playing right into Satan’s hands.
That gives no comfort at all, because was it good enough? What about
all his sins, and the things which trouble his conscience? The poor
soul probably knows in his heart Satan has a more accurate take on
his life than you do. Works save no one. Point them to the religion of
God’s grace in Christ; this is what gives true comfort. Point them to
the cross; that’s where Jesus paid for all those sins which trouble
them… and all their failures to do good when they should have.
“You’ve confessed faith in Jesus as your Savior, don’t let Satan trick
you into doubting Jesus now. Jesus doesn’t lie like Satan does; his
Word is true. You are God’s child. Whoever trusts in Him will not be
put to shame for their sins. He has forgiven all your sins. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. That’s what God
promises, and God keeps his Word. You are already a believer in
Jesus; you are already saved. God loves you and won’t let Satan
snatch you out of his hand. Be at peace; it will be alright.”

Whatever promises of God’s grace the Holy Spirit brings to

mind, use them. Even if someone you know is dying as an unbeliever,
still use them. The person knows they are a sinner and needs to hear
the gospel. If they smugly trust in themselves and man’s religion of
works, then lovingly but firmly preach the law and give the Holy
Spirit the opportunity to crack that hard shell. Then preach the gospel
of grace. The person may have hardened themselves against the Holy
Spirit and may seem resistant to what you’re saying. But you never
know—a single truth of the law may open a crack in that heart, giving
the gospel a chance to penetrate. The gospel is the power of God for
the salvation of everyone who believes.
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 If the person has been a sinner all their life, with no use for
God’s ways, but is now overwhelmed by the burden of their sins
and the fear of what awaits, point them to the cross where Jesus
paid for all their sins. Point them to the thief on the cross next to
Jesus who had no good works to offer but trusted in Jesus for
mercy. Jesus promised him paradise; that is the religion of grace.

Perhaps you are the wretched sinner troubled by your failures

to live as God’s child as you know you should. It’s grinding on
your heart again, and Satan is working hard to pull you into his
religion of works. Satan gets right into the kitchen of your heart with
reminders of your failures and accusations of “not worthy.” Look
away from yourself and your natural-born religion of works. Let
the Holy Spirit lift you up with God’s revealed religion of grace,
which your new man knows to be true. Look to the cross of Jesus.
All is forgiven.

Remember another wretched sinner who knew all about this

ongoing spiritual battle between his sinful old Adam and the new
creation of God’s grace. Listen again to Paul’s familiar words:

Certainly, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am

unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. For I do not understand
what I am doing, because I do not keep doing what I want.
Instead, I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to
do, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer I
who am doing it, but it is sin living in me. Indeed, I know
that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The
desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to
carry it out. So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the
evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. Now if I
do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing
it, but it is sin living in me. So I find this law at work: When I
want to do good, evil is present with me. I certainly delight
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 in God’s law according to my inner self, but I see a different
law at work in my members, waging war against the law of
my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is
present in my members. What a miserable wretch I am! Who
will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:14-24)

The words speak for themselves about the constant battle

between Paul’s sinful old Adam and his new man, reborn in God’s
image. And where did this wretched sinner struggling so mightily
to live as God’s child turn for help? It certainly wasn’t to man’s
natural religion of works within him and what he was able to
accomplish with his life. He simply said, “I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25). It was the religion of God’s
grace.

Paul summed up the religion of God’s grace in another place:

“This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: “Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” of whom I am the
worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). Thank you, God, for the mercy you have
shown me through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ my Lord to
save me from my sins. Now Paul had peace with God; now he
could enjoy life again as a redeemed and forgiven child of God.
Now he could go forward with his life again to serve the Lord in
the world, and to look forward to the precious prize of life which
waited for him in the world to come. And so can you. It is all
thanks and glory be to God. Thanks be to God and His grace for
saving us from sin through our Lord Jesus Christ. And thanks be to
God for the working of the Holy Spirit who has brought us to faith
in Jesus as our Savior. God continues to work in us with His means
of grace to build up our new man of faith, strengthen him, and
through him produce the good works that are fruits of our faith.

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 This is what this lengthy chapter has been about. The work of
the Holy Spirit is to bring to us the blessing of life and salvation
from sin that Jesus has gained for us, and through faith in Jesus
make it our own. More than that, this faith changes our spiritual
attitude and renews in us the image of God which was part of
God’s original creation. This was God’s plan in the beginning: to
create people in his image—good, holy, and loving—who could
share His blessed life with Him.
God’s plan has now been renewed by the working of the Holy
Spirit who changes us in our new man to be like Him as in the
original creation. This new man in us is real; he is the new person
in us who loves, serves, talks, acts, and lives like God does. This
new man in us is still guided by the Holy Spirit working through
God’s Word. This new man is the total opposite of the old Adam
we were born with, which constantly strives to serve sin according
to Satan’s wishes. Oh, we still have that old Adam in us, and he
still wins his share of the battles going on inside us. And we still
have the natural religion of works in us trying to regain control of
our lives—trying to usurp the working of the Holy Spirit and the
religion of grace by which our Savior rules in us. We know that,
and we know we will not be rid of that old Adam until we die. But
the real person in us is our new man, the one renewed in the image
of God, the one reborn with a spiritual life which is now like
God’s, the one the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, resurrected in us
when He brought us to faith. That is the person God sees when He
looks at you—the spiritually alive, redeemed child of God,
forgiven of your sins, producing fruits of faith, and sanctified—set
apart—to be His own.
When will that change? When will we finally be rid of our
sinful nature and be free to live our lives completely without sin, in
love, peace, and harmony with God and in loving service to God
and one another? Well, not yet—not as long as we remain alive in
this world of sin. But soon, and very soon!
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 Come, O come, Thou Holy Spirit, God from all eternity
May Thy power never fail us; Dwell with us constantly.
Then shall truth and life and light Banish all the gloom of night.

With our spirit bear Thou witness That we are the sons of God
Who rely upon Him solely, When we pass beneath the rod;
For we know, as children should, That the cross is for our good.

If our soul can find no comfort, If despondency grows strong,

And the heart cries out in anguish: “O my God, how long, how
long?”
Comfort then our aching breast, Grant it courage, patience, rest.

Holy Spirit, strong and mighty, Thou who makest all things new,
Make Thy work within us perfect, And the evil foe subdue.
Grant us weapons for the strife, And with victory crown our life.

Guard, O God, our faith forever; Let not Satan, death, or shame
Ever part us from our Savior; Lord our refuge is thy name.
Though our flesh would feign say: Nay! Be thy word to us still Yea!

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 11
Portends of the end
The signs before and the judgment at the
end of this world

How soon will it be when children of God are able to enjoy a

life of harmony and love with God without the heartaches of sin
ravaging our lives? The timeline of when we will be able to fully
enjoy God’s blessed life with him without sin will be addressed
shortly. First, however, we should acknowledge and thank God that
even in a life filled with the troubles and sorrows caused by sin, we
already partly enjoy blessed life with God. When the Holy Spirit
bestows on us the peace we have with God when we know our sins
are forgiven, the assurance we are still God’s children through
repentance and faith despite our sins, the comfort of knowing God
will always be with us and not let any troubles come upon us
which are greater than we can bear and gives us his strength to
bear them, the sure hope of a better life waiting for us in heaven
where there will be no more troubles of sin as God has promised,

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we are enjoying already a good life with God. In fact, no matter
how bad life may seem for us sometimes, even when we have to
bear the world’s contempt, hatred and threats because of our faith,
we still have it better than unbelievers. Don’t snicker at that
statement, it’s true. No matter how well off the rich and famous,
materially blessed, physically ripped and healthy, leisure time and trip
taking opportunities others may have, if they have no faith in
Christ, their life is not nearly as blessed as a child of God’s.
“‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah
48:22).

The wicked, here, are, by definition, “unbelievers.” Because

they have not believed in Jesus, they have not appropriated for
themselves the declaration of righteous before God, which Jesus
Christ earned for all people. Believers appropriate this status of
righteous before God for themselves when the Holy Spirit works
faith in their hearts. The wicked do not do that and so remain in
their sin. And with continued sinful living and the guilt of sin still
upon them, they have no peace with God. The inner turmoil of an
unforgiven life continues to plague them.

What would you rather have: A normal, everyday life with

needs provided, family and friends to enjoy, peace with God,
comfort and strength to face life’s challenges, the assurance you
are God’s child, knowing your sins are forgiven, and the certain
hope of heaven is waiting for you? Or, everything that the world
has to offer in the way of fame and fortune, power and influence,
and a life of ease and luxury, coupled with a lack of peace, a
troubled heart, worry about your future, and a fear of God’s
judgment. The answer should be obvious. Even the world with all
its success, wealth and fame admits that “Money can’t buy
happiness.” Do NOT think money is the problem. It can be a
temptation to forget about God. And Christians with wealth need to

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be on guard against letting money control their lives. But, it is
unbelief which is the problem and keeps the wicked from God’s
peace. Also, when a child of God is not blessed with an abundance
of earthly blessings, may even be struggling with hardships, he still
has a better lot with God’s rich spiritual blessings to enjoy, and the
perfect, indescribable glories of heaven to look forward to.

Our sinful nature stands in the way of the

blessed life

Having a new man of faith which exults in God’s spiritual

blessings does not change the fact Christians are still sinners.
While they are still living in this world, Christians will always
have a sinful nature clinging to them fighting against their new
nature in Christ and undermining their blessed spiritual life with
God. In chapter 10 we were reminded how the Apostle Paul
lamented this sad reality in Romans 7. He confessed how often he,
God’s child and God’s spokesman to bring the gospel to the
Gentiles, still repeatedly gave in to his sinful nature and did things
he did not want to do according to his new man. And the reverse

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was also true. He grieved over how often he failed to do the things
his new life in Christ knew he should be doing. How wretched it
made him feel. And rightly so. He was not always living the
blessed life of love and harmony with God’s will which the Holy
Spirit was striving to accomplish in him.

You and I are no different. How often don’t we grieve over our
wretched weakness giving in to a pet sin again? How often don’t
we hang our heads in guilt over our failures to be kind, patient,
loving and helpful to others like our new man knows we should
be? Even worse, how often in the spiritual apathy of our old Adam
don’t we fail to even recognize the opportunities to love and do the
good we could be doing? How often do we even realize how much
we are letting our old Adam happily skip along getting us to live
like the rest of the world in its sinful and unloving ways and think
nothing of it? The Holy Spirit’s voice will lead us as we listen to
the Word of God. We need to follow the will of our new man, in
order to enjoy in this life, the blessed life of peace, hope and loving
ways in harmony with God’s loving nature. We need to be diligent
in living our life of faith. We know our old Adam will constantly
strive to overrule our new man of faith and get us to stop loving
and keep on sinning. We know if our old Adam and his boss,
Satan, could have their way, they would like nothing better than to
kill our new man, push him off the cliff in our life and be rid of
him. If Satan could do this, he would win. We would end up being
spiritually dead, able to do nothing except keep on sinning, and
serving Satan, and dying. How long must we put up with this?
How long will we have to keep on fighting this spiritual battle?
How long before our new man can enjoy God’s blessed life
completely by living entirely in keeping with God’s perfect, loving
will? The answer, as stated at the beginning of this paragraph: as
long as we still live in this world of sin we will struggle like Paul.

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 When will our old Adam’s bad influence on our lives come to
an end? When we die, or when the Lord Jesus returns to put an end
to this world of sin, whichever comes first. Obviously, this world
has not come to an end yet. So, with the exception of two men,
Enoch and Elijah whom the Lord took directly to heaven, the
problem of our old Adam abusing our lives with the troubles of sin
and keeping us from enjoying a loving life in perfect harmony with
God has continued for everyone in the world until they die. The
lack of love, arguments, disagreements, fighting, worries,
suspicions, and accusations, to say nothing about the pains of
disease and the problems of crime, much less the heartache of
losing loved ones to death, are problems so common to all people
on earth there is no one who would claim this is a perfect life of
love and harmony with God. God himself says to those who are his
loving children, “We must go through many troubles on our way to
the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

Before Noah’s time, these conditions were especially true.

People lived for over 700, 800, and in many cases over 900 years
in a time when increasing violence, wickedness, and unbelief filled
the earth. It was extremely difficult for a person who trusted in
God’s promises to keep fighting the battle of new man versus old
Adam and remain true to the faith for such a long time. Most did
not. Finally, God had enough. In wisdom and mercy, he cleansed
this world of its wickedness with the worldwide flood. Only
righteous Noah and his family were spared. God’s promise of a
Savior through a descendant of the woman was kept intact, but the
way of life after the Flood was not. Climate changed, geography
was rearranged, and seasons were introduced. The lifespan of
people was only a tenth of what it used to be before the Flood.
Now, living 70 to 80 years and sometimes into the 90’s gradually
became the norm. Two things remained unchanged: God’s promise
of a Savior and the sinful nature of the human heart always in
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conflict with God’s goodness and grace. Life still had its problems
because of sin and a blessed life of perfect harmony with God was
still just a promise for those who remained true to God.

In the new age after the flood, life was a shorter race to run;
the finish line of death was closer. Many people whose hearts were
renewed in God’s image by the working of the Holy Spirit were
(and are) able to keep the faith all their lives. Those who keep
taking the nourishment of God’s Word offered in aid stations along
the way are able to sustain their faith and keep running. They are
able to resist the constant badgering of the old Adam to quit this
hard race, and make it to the end. And at the end, they can quit
pressing on in pain, shed the sweaty clothes of the race, and be
wrapped in the silvery mylar cape/white robe of victory, waiting at
the finish line to receive the prize. There are many who skip the aid
stations, try to keep going on their own strength, but eventually
give in to the old Adam and DNF6. Many more fail to even enter
the race of the Christian life because they only have a sinful old
Adam with no new man to inspire them. Instead, they stay fat and
lazy in their lives of sin, maybe even mocking those who do live as
Christians. For those who do run and finish the race in faith, the
prize finally won is the perfect life of love and harmony with God
forever in heaven. Their bodies get buried in the ground to decay
(or be cremated, or consumed by wild animals, or whatever), and
their soul goes to be with God in heaven. “…the dust goes back
into the ground – just as it was before, and the spirit goes back to
God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Unbelievers, however, receive no such prize. Their soul has

not been renewed in God’s image through faith in Christ. Since
they have no sinless new man living in harmony with God’s will,

6
DNF is standard road race abbreviation for “did not finish.”

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their soul is not able to enter God’s holy, sinless heaven. They
remain spiritually dead, and their souls go to the place of the
everlasting dead without any of the love, goodness, peace, and
harmony of God’s blessed life to enjoy. Just the opposite, their lot
will be a place of fiery darkness and decay, filled only with
suffering and regret. They will be thrown “into the furnace, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:50). See
also Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 22:13, 24:51, and 25:30 for the same
description of hell.

Jesus Christ’s return for judgment

The judgment of peoples’ lives throughout the history of the

world points us to the final judgment at the end of the world. There
will be a final judgment. The Bible is clear it will take place when
Jesus Christ comes back to this world. “…because he (God) has
set a day when he will judge the world in righteousness by the man
he appointed. He provided proof of this to all everyone by raising
him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). That man is the second Adam,
Jesus Christ, who after his resurrection ascended into heaven in
his exalted state of glory. From there he now rules everything
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happening in the world until the time comes when he who first
saved the world from sin by grace will return to judge the world of
its sin with righteousness. “When the Son of Man comes in his
glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious
throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence…”
(Matthew 25:31-32a). And the final judgment will take place. All
the dead will be raised. “…there is going to be a resurrection of
both of the righteous and the unrighteous.”(Acts 24:15b). “Many
who are sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to
everlasting life, and some to shame, to everlasting contempt”
(Daniel 12:2). It will not be a new judgment for those who have
already died. It will be a public declaration of what their judgment
was at death – whether saved, or lost – for everyone to see. Those
who are still alive on that day will be gathered together with those
who have been resurrected to be assembled before the Lord in the
sky while the world is being destroyed below. And their judgment
will be pronounced. Read Paul’s encouragement about these things
in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

When will all this take place? When will the end come? We
don’t know. “No one knows when that day or hour will be, not the
angels in heaven, not even the Son (Jesus speaking in his human
nature, not using his omniscience as God), but only the Father”
(Matthew 24:36). What we do know according to God’s eternal
timetable is it will be soon. “The one who testifies about these
things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon’” (Revelation 22:20). We
know Jesus’ coming will shock the world because it will not be
expecting him. “…for you yourselves know very well that the day
of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians
5:2). At the same time, we know God has given signs for when the
end is near and admonishes his children to be watchful and ready
for Jesus when he comes, even to pray for him to come soon.

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 But understand this: If the master of the house had known
at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have
stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken
into. You also need to be ready for this reason: the Son of
Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect him.
(Matthew 24:43-44)

“Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or

the hour” (Matthew 25:13). “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”
(Revelation 22:20b).

Signs of the end times

Scripture has given us signs of what will happen in the last

times to warn us the end is near. For the sake of brevity, we
categorize the many signs of the last times into four types of
calamities. There will be calamities of nature. “There will be great
earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be
horrifying sights and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:11). There
will be calamities among the nations. “Whenever you hear of wars
and rumors of wars, do not be troubled. Such things must happen,

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but the end is not yet. In fact, nation will rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom…” (Mark 13:7-8a). There will be
calamity among individuals. Because of lovelessness, people will
start acting with increasing frequency in mindless, murderous, and
atrocious ways toward one another. “Because lawlessness will
increase, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father, his child.
Children will rise up against their parents and put them to death
(also relatives and friends will do this)” (Mark 13:12 and Luke
21:16). And there will also be calamity in the church. “You will be
hated by everyone because of my name, but the one who endures to
the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). “For false Christs and false
prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders to deceive
even the elect, if it were possible. So be on your guard. I have told
you everything in advance” (Mark 13:22-23). Things will get so
bad that God will shorten the last days before the elect are lost.

For in those days there will be distress of such a kind as has

not happened from the beginning of the creation until now,
and surely never will be again. If the Lord had not shortened
those days, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the
elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened the days. (Mark
13:19, 20)

For further comments and examples of these calamities, see

Addendum Ten.

Pay attention people. For centuries, Christians have been

convinced the end is near. And it is near. We have been in the last
times since the time of Christ. On the day of Pentecost Peter
quoted the prophet Joel when he preached to the crowd, “On the
contrary, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: This is what
God says will happen in the last days: I will pour out my Spirit on
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all flesh.” (Acts 2:16, 17). Later, Peter doubled down on his
prophecy when he wrote to Christians everywhere, “The end of all
things is near. So have good judgment and, be self-controlled for
the sake of your prayer” (1 Peter 4:7). If, according to God’s
timetable, the end was near in the early days of the New Testament
church, how much closer is it now centuries later when the signs of
the times are increasing in frequency and severity like birth pains.
Don’t be like the five foolish virgins and the unfaithful servant in
Jesus’ parables (Matthew 25:1-30) and the rest of the world, and be
caught unprepared. But watch and pray and be ready.

Besides all these calamities, there is one other sign we can

watch for to know the end is near. It is one we rejoice to see. “This
gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole
world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”
(Matthew 24:14). The gospel of God’s grace in Christ has at some
point in time already been preached on every inhabited continent
on earth. At this point in time, the proclamation of the gospel
includes the programming of radio, television, live streaming and
the many other forms of electronic media which are available.
These are the signs the end of the world is near.

He told them a parable. ‘Look at the fig tree and all the
trees. As soon as they are sprouting leaves, you can see for
yourselves and know that summer is actually near. So also,
when you see these things happening, know that the
kingdom of God is near. (Luke 21:29-31)

For longer sections of Scripture which speak of these signs of

the end and also the end of the world read Matthew 24, Mark 13,
and Luke 21 in their entirety.

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 Jesus second coming – the last day
When the last day of this world’s history arrives and God’s
final judgment unfolds, two diametrically opposite reactions will
occur. We could predict what they will be. Uncontainable rejoicing
and praise will erupt for some, and horrific terror and despair will
overwhelm others. Here are two sections of Scripture which
describe Christ’s coming on the last day.

“Immediately after the misery of those days, the sun will be

darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will
fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be
shaken (This is not a description of an eclipse or the
‘falling stars’ of meteorites, but the total dissolution of the
heavenly bodies of the universe.) Then the sign of the Son
of Man will appear in the sky (the sign being Jesus himself
appearing in the sky accompanied by all the saints). And at
that time all the nations of the earth will mourn (because
they know God’s judgment is coming upon them). They
will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky
with power and great glory. He will send out his angels
with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather together his
elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to
the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those

who have fallen asleep (in death), (All the believers in
Christ who have died and whose souls have gone to heaven
will accompany Jesus when he returns to this world on the
last day.) so that you do not grieve in the same way as the
others, who have no hope. Indeed, if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, then in the same way we also believe
that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep
through Jesus.
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 In fact, we tell you this by the word of the Lord: We who are
alive and left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not
go on ahead of those who have fallen asleep (will not be able
to enjoy the benefits of heaven before all those who died as
believers – whose souls are with the Lord but whose bodies
are still in graves). For the Lord himself will come down
from heaven with a loud command, (perhaps something
along the lines of, “Rise up!”) with the voice of an
archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet
the Lord in the air (because the earth below is being burned
by fire and the elements are melting with ferocious heat).
And so, we will always be with the Lord. Therefore,
encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians
4:13-18)

All this will happen almost instantaneously when the Lord

comes. Paul writes,

Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep (die before
the Lord’s second coming), but we will all be changed, in a
moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the
trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians
15:51-52).

Believers who have already died will be raised with

glorified bodies. Believers who are still alive will not die but have
their bodies changed into glorified bodies.

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 The final judgment – saved by faith
When those who have risen from the dead, together with those
who have been gathered from the four corners of the earth by the
angels have been assembled before the Lord in the sky, the court of
God’s justice will be seated. And Jesus Christ will carry out the
final judgment of all people. As mentioned earlier, the judgment of
all those who died prior to the last day will not be a new judgment
for them. Their judgment was decreed by God on the day they
died, but now their judgment will be made public. Those who are
still alive on the last day will have their eternal judgment rendered
for all to see. On what basis will the final judgment be made? On
the same basis God has already made clear in his word. Jesus said,
“The one who rejects me and does not receive my words does have
a judge. The word which I spoke is what will judge him on the Last
Day,” (John 12:48). In other words, Jesus’ judgment of people’s
souls on the last day will be exactly the same as what he preached
about God’s judgment during his years of public ministry on earth.
It will be nothing different than what God, in numerous passages,
has already proclaimed in the Bible.

So that there can be no misunderstanding of what God’s

judgment is, Scripture explains it in two ways. First of all, and most
importantly, Scripture declares God’s eternal judgment of all people
will be made solely on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior
from sin – the religion of grace – whether there is faith or lack of
faith in a person’s heart. These passages are clear and numerous.
Here are some of the more well-known passages from the Gospel of
John.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the

Son of Man must be lifted up (on the cross to pay for our
sins), so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he
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 gave his only- begotten Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the
world through him. (John 3:15-17)
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes
him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he
has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).
“For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees
the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will
raise him up on the Last Day” (John 6:40).
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies (dies at the end
of earthly life). And whoever lives and believes in me will never
perish. Do you believe this’?” (Believers living on the last day
will not have to die first but will receive the gift of eternal life
immediately. Also, a believer remaining in the Christian faith
will never die spiritually.) (John11:25).
“…these are written (the words of Scripture) that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
believing, you may have life in his name” (John20:31).
From Acts: “And everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).
“Then he brought them outside and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I
do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will
be saved, you and your household’” (Acts 16:30-31).
From Paul: “Yes, everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
“ … and that from infancy you have known the holy
Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).
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 Many of these passages have been used before when
discussing the work of the Holy Spirit to make God’s gift of life
our own by leading us to faith in Jesus Christ. They are repeated here
to underscore the truth God’s judgment on the last day will be based
solely on the presence of faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. This
includes all Old Testament believers. In Old Testament times, Jesus
Christ had not yet come, but people still knew about God’s promise
of a Savior.
They had Messianic passages like Psalm 16 (especially verse
10) and Psalm 22 (describing the coming Savior’s suffering and
death and final victory over death good for both past and future
generations) and Isaiah 53 (describing the coming Savior’s
suffering, death, and victory over death as our substitute before God
in the punishment of sin) and Jeremiah 33:14-16 (the one who
will come from the line of David will be called ‘the Lord our
Righteousness’). These and many other passages describing the
person and work of the coming Savior nurtured people in their faith.
They knew forgiveness for their sins came to them only by God’s
mercy. God reminded his people through his prophets, “I, yes I, am
he. I blot out your rebellious deeds for my own sake, and I will not
remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).
Let the wicked man abandon his way. Let an evil man
abandon his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will
show him mercy. Let him turn to our God, because he will
abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)
Who is a God like you, who forgives guilt, and who passes
over the rebellion of the survivors from his inheritance? He
does not hold onto his anger forever. He delights in
showing mercy. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin
and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his
inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to
show mercy. (Micah 7:18 )

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 From all of these passages it is clear; Old Testament believers
also were believers in God’s religion of grace to save people from
their sins. But since Jesus had not yet come, in the Old Testament,
faith in God’s gift of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation was
often expressed simply by words of trust in God’s salvation. In the
Psalms:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear:

The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”
(Psalm 27:1).

“The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord. He is

their stronghold in times of stress, (Psalm 37:39).

From Isaiah:“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and will

not be afraid, because Yah, the Lord is my strength and my song;
and he has become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2).

“In that day it will be said, ‘Look here is our God; we waited
for him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we waited for him; let us
be glad and rejoice in his salvation’” (Isaiah 25:9).

Also, from Zephaniah, “The Lord your God is with you as a

hero who will save you. He takes great delight in you. He will quiet
you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing”
(Zephaniah 3:17).

What is the point of all these passages from the Old

Testament? The answer: The faith of Old Testament believers that
God would keep his promise of a Savior was the same faith as
people in the New Testament believing God did keep his Promise
of a Savior through Jesus Christ. God’s judgment on the last day
will be consistent for all people both before and after the time of
Christ: Saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our
Savior. He is our faithful God’s promised Second Adam.

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 The corollary to the truth – saved only by God’s grace through
faith in Christ – is therefore also true. Those who do not believe in
Jesus Christ as their Savior will not be saved. This does not need to
be proved. Nevertheless, God leaves no doubt about this and
repeatedly states it so there can be no question among skeptics. Right
after promising everlasting life to everyone who believes in him
(John 3:16), Jesus went on to say, “The one who believes in him
(God’s Son) is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is
condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the
only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

At the end of his Gospel, Mark records Jesus’ command to,

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
(Mark 16:15). Mark then goes on to say, “Whoever believes and is
baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be
condemned” (Mark 16:16).

In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul says this about

those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ:

When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful
angels, he will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who
do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus. Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal
destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his
glorious strength, on that day when he comes to be glorified
among his saints, and to be marveled at among all those who
have believed… (2 Thessalonians 1:7b-10)

To not obey the gospel means to refuse to follow God’s call to

faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. It is a command. People must
believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. To resist the Holy Spirit’s
working and refuse to believe is disobeying God’s command to

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believe in Christ. Such people will be lost, condemned to
everlasting separation from God in the darkness and fires of hell.

God does not want that for anyone; he takes no pleasure in the
death of the wicked. But there is no other alternative for those who
reject the forgiveness of sins and the blessing of eternal life God
won for them through the work of redemption by the second
Adam, Jesus Christ.

We can increase our understanding of the fairness of God’s

judgment upon faith and unbelief by recalling from Scripture other
things we know about faith and unbelief. Faith in Jesus Christ as
Savior includes repentance over sin and trust in God's forgiveness
of sins for Jesus’ sake. Jesus lived the sinless life of godliness we
should have lived according to the law and did so as our substitute
under the law. We do not have to keep the law of God to be saved.
He also suffered the punishment of death for sin in our place so we
could be spared. We do not have to die for our sins because our
sins are already taken away. That’s what God did for us in his love.
Through Jesus, the second Adam, the one whom God sent as the
descendant of the woman to keep his Promise, he saved us from
sin and death and hell. The unbeliever does not believe this. He
does not bow in humble repentance over sin before God but wants
to live his own life as he pleases. We could say he lives his life
believing Satan’s lie and thinking his sinful way of living would be
better than the blessed life God wants him to have. And even if
there are times of regret and remorse over the problems, he has
brought upon himself because of sin, he does not trust God to
forgive him. He only looks upon God as a harsh God who demands
subjection, obedience, and punishment like a tyrannical dictator. In
other words, the unbeliever does not know what God is really like
in his love. Instead of trusting God, he hates and fears God and
resists God’s ways.

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 Even if the unbeliever acknowledges his guilt, he does not
trust God to forgive him and thinks he must live his own life good
enough (a religion of works) to be saved. Since the unbeliever does
not trust God to forgive his sins, he remains in his sin. God’s
forgiveness of his sins is wasted, and the unbeliever must suffer the
consequences of sin himself. God does not want that for him or
anyone. Yet, God does not force anyone to believe, and so an
unbeliever is left with the only judgment which remains. You do
not know me, you do not trust me, you do not want my ways, you
want to depart from me, and stay away from me, and do your own
thing. So depart from me, stay away from me, and do your own
thing. Remain in your sinful ways and its consequences as you
choose.

In all this we remember, also, faith in Christ is truly a matter

of the heart. If the heart is not truly sorry for sin, and truly trusting
in God’s grace to forgive, then the heart does not have true faith in
Jesus as Savior. It is only an outward matter of words when a
person calls himself a Christian and not true faith. This is why
Jesus says in one place, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does
the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). See Matthew
7:22-23. And the will of the heavenly Father is for a person to
repent of his sins and believe in God’s forgiveness through Christ.
“Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God: that you believe
in the one he sent’” (John 6:29).

And, as emphasized in chapter ten, true faith changes the

heart. By the Holy Spirit’s working faith instills (renews,
regenerates) in a person’s heart a new man renewed in God’s image.
People desire in their heart to live a life in keeping with God’s will.
The new man will produce words, actions, and attitudes which
are humble, helpful, patient, and serving to others in harmony with

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God’s loving will because such things are inherent in the believer’s
new nature as God’s child. These are the fruits of faith Jesus was
talking about when he said, “So then, every good tree produces
good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit…So then, by their
fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:17,20).

He spoke this way because we can’t look into other peoples’

hearts to know if they are believers; we can only go by their words
and actions (i.e. the fruit that is produced from their heart). But we
can be wrong in our judgments. What we see as good fruit, may in
actuality be fake, plastic fruit which looks good to the eye, but is
not real fruit with any nutritional value. And what may be small,
unripe, or worm-eaten fruit which doesn’t look good to us at all,
may still have some nutritional value in the sight of God. This is
the reason God bases his judgment on the heart. “For the Lord
does not look at things the way man does. For man looks at the
outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel
16:7).

The final judgment will be according to works

God’s final judgment is determined by what is in a person’s
heart. Whether a person is a believer in Jesus Christ in his heart or
not is seen only by God. People can only see outward words and
actions when making their judgments about whether a person is a
believer. For this reason, God’s final judgment on the last day is
also recorded in Scripture according to how a person has lived his
life. God does this so no one can question his judgment of the
heart. If you want proof; if you want evidence, my judgment is
fair; look at how people lived their lives—good or evil. “Do not be
amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their
graves will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done

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good will rise to live, but and those who have practiced evil will
rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29). Paul wrote:

As a result of your stubbornness and your unrepentant

heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of
wrath, when God will reveal his righteous judgment. God
“will repay each person according to what he has
done”— eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and
immortality by persisting in doing what is good, but
furious anger to those who out of selfish ambition are
disobeying what is true and obeying what is wrong. There
will be trouble and distress for the soul of every person
who does what is evil… (Romans 2:5-9)

It is not just New Testament passages which warn of God’s

judgment against evil. Jude, speaking by inspiration of God, is able
to quote the warning of Enoch who lived before the Flood. Enoch
was one of the two men whom the Lord took directly to heaven.
Before that happened, Enoch was very distressed by the increasing
ungodliness and evil he witnessed in the pre-Flood world and
warned people of the last judgment. Jude writes,
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these
people, saying, ‘Look, the Lord is going to come with tens of
thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment against all
of them and to convict every soul concerning all their
ungodly deeds, which they did in an ungodly way, and
concerning all the harsh words that ungodly sinners spoke
against him. (Jude, verses 14-15)

Isaiah spoke of the day of the Lord’s coming when the world
and heavenly bodies will be destroyed and recorded the Lord’s
words against the wicked, “I will punish the world for its evil, and
the wicked for their guilt. I will put an end to the arrogance of the
insolent, and I will humble the pride of the ruthless” (Isaiah 13:11,

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taken from the section of 13:9-13). God will punish the wicked
who, in their unbelief, have continued to live sinful lives and do
what is evil in God’s sight.

To be fair, when speaking about God’s judgment against those

who do evil, God will be fair. There will be degrees of severity in
the punishments handed out to the wicked. Those who have
knowingly done more evil in their lives will suffer more than those
who, in ignorance, were less culpable. Luke writes, “That servant
who knew his master’s will and did not prepare or act according to
what his master wanted, will be punished severely. But the one who
did not know, and did something worthy of punishment, will be
punished lightly…” (Luke 12:47-48a). And who will get the most
blows? Whose everlasting condemnation in the final judgment will
contain the harshest sentence? Will it be the horrific atrocities of
the Hitlers and the Herods and the war crimes of tyrant rulers like
Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin who kill innocent civilians
including women and children? Will it be the disillusioned Jihad
terrorists, the demented mass murderers, the greedy slave traders,
the depraved serial killers who torture and rape their victims before
mercilessly killing them? No, it will not. You be the judge.
Consider this comparison: Who deserves the worst punishment? Is
it the underprivileged foster child who had no one to steer him
down the right path, grew up in poverty in a crime-ridden
neighborhood, and eventually turned to a life of crime, himself,
becoming a career criminal dealing in drugs, human trafficking,
grand theft, armed robberies and murder to satisfy his desires? Or
would it be the privileged rich kid who is raised by good parents
with a proper upbringing of right and wrong, well educated, gifted
with intellect, skills, and every opportunity to be successful, and
has everything he could ever want, but gives it all up to become an
alcoholic, addicted to drugs, a womanizer and a bully who treats
others with contempt and, also, engages in heinous criminal activity
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and murder to satisfy his sinful desires? What’s your verdict? Who
deserves the greater punishment?

God’s verdict in such situations declares he who has the most

has the most expected of him. Now, we are not talking about
earthly matters and blessings. We are talking about the spiritual
matter of faith or lack of faith, which is reflected in one’s works.
The worst place of hell is reserved for those who had the most, not
in earthly things, but in the more important spiritual matter of
eternal blessings. It is the one who gave up God’s spiritual
blessings in order to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season here on
earth who is more culpable before God. It is the former Christian.
The child of God who was once a believer in Jesus as his Savior,
but fell away and gave up the great spiritual blessings of
forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and the promise of eternal life
in heaven in order to return to a life of sin, unrepentant behavior
and love of the world is the one who will be dealt with most
harshly. The former Christian will receive the worst sentence on
the day of Judgment. The author of Hebrews wrote,

If we deliberately keep on sinning (evidence of an

impenitent heart), after we have received the full knowledge
of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins.
Instead, there is a certain, fearful expectation of judgment
and a raging fire that is going to consume the enemies of
God. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

The apostle Peter puts it this way:

Indeed, if, after escaping the defiling things of the world

through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled in them and controlled by them
again, they are worse off than they were at first. In fact, it
would have been better for them not to have known the way of

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 righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the
holy command passed on to them. They demonstrate the truth
of the proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and “a
washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud”. (2 Peter
2:20-22)

In the matter of eternal destiny, it would be better to have been

an unbeliever and be condemned, than to enjoy God’s gift of
forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith in Christ and turn
away from faith back to unbelief. Sounds odd, but it is true. This is
God’s serious, sobering warning against apostasy.

In this light, God’s final judgment on the last day will be one
in which everyone will be judged by the deeds they have done,
whether they are good or evil. Perhaps one of the best-known
sections of Scripture which describes God’s judgment according to
works is Matthew 25. The entire chapter deals with being ready for
God’s judgment and what will happen when that day comes. The
chapter concludes with these words:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations
will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate them
one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats
on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world. For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was
thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a
stranger and you welcomed me. I was lacking clothes and
you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was
in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will
answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed
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 you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a
stranger and welcome you, or lacking clothes and clothe
you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit
you?’The King will answer them, ‘Amen, I tell you: Just as
you did it for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you
did it for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart
from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, which is
prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry
and you did not give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you
did not give me anything to drink. I was a stranger and you
did not welcome me, lacking clothes and you did not clothe
me, sick and in prison and you did not take care of me.’
Then they will also answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you
hungry or thirsty or a stranger or lacking clothes or sick or
in prison and did not serve you?’At that time, he will
answer them, ‘Amen, I tell you: Just as you did not do it for
one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ And they
will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to
eternal life. (Matthew 25:31-46)

It is absolutely essential, however, we do not lose sight of

God’s reason for describing the final judgment as a judgment
according to works. It is to show all people who ever lived that
God is completely just in his judgments. It is not to place God’s
judgment according to works on the same plane as God’s judgment
according to faith in Jesus Christ. That would be false teaching and
placing man’s false religion of works on the same plane as God’s
true religion of grace. God’s description of a judgment by works is
built on the foundation of God’s final judgment of saved by God’s
grace through faith. To repeat, the pronouncement of judgment
according to works demonstrates to all people that God’s
judgment, according to faith in the heart, is just. The good works
people do are evidence of faith. They please God because they are
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done from a heart of faith (new man) in harmony with God’s will.
The Bible says, “…without faith, it is impossible to please God”
(Hebrews 11:6).

God can describe his judgment according to works on the last

day because God looks at the heart. If the heart isn’t right with God
(i.e. renewed in God’s image through faith in Christ), then nothing a
person does pleases him. It’s like the child who grumbles and
complains when helping Mom with the dishes and makes it clear
he’s only doing it because he has to (remember Cain). Such an
attitude doesn’t please Mom. But the child who is eager to help with
the dishes and wants to help Mom willingly out of love, that child’s
actions are pleasing to Mom even if the child unintentionally misses
a few spots and doesn’t get every dish completely clean. Salvation
by God’s grace through faith in Christ is something the believer
understands. Salvation, according to the works a person has done, is
what the unbeliever understands. And the unbeliever won’t be able
to argue with the evidence God presents on the last day. God uses
both descriptions (salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ
and salvation by works as evidence of faith) to communicate what
the final judgment will be like.

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Great God, what do I see and hear? The end of things created;
The Judge of man-kind does appear On clouds of glory seated.
The trumpet sounds; the graves restore The dead which they
contained before: Prepare my soul, to meet him.

The dead in Christ shall first arise At that last trumpet sounding,
Caught up to meet him in the skies, With joy their Lord
surrounding. No gloomy fear their souls dismay; His presence
sheds eternal day On those prepared to meet him.

But sinners, filled with guilty fears, Behold his wrath prevailing,
For they shall rise and find their tears And sighs are unavailing;
The day of grace is past and gone; They trembling stand before his
throne, All unprepared to meet him.

O Christ, who died and yet does live, To me impart your merit;
My pardon seal, my sins forgive, And cleanse me by your Spirit.
Beneath your cross, I view the day When heav’n and earth shall
pass away, And thus prepare to meet you.

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 12
Perfection Again

Enjoying a Blessed Life with God for

All Eternity

The transformation of all things

When God's judgment is complete or, more accurately, as part

of what is happening on the last day when people are raised from
the dead for the final judgment, a remarkable transformation will
occur. This transformation will affect all of God's creation. It will
be happening in human life, in the animal kingdom, on the planet
itself, as well as all the heavenly bodies.

The transformation God enacts in people is seen in their

bodies when they are raised from the dead. Concerning people who
have died in Christian faith, Paul writes,

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 But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for
a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (when he returns
to earth on the last day). By the power that enables him to
subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble
bodies to be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)

Jesus' body in his exalted state is best described as a spiritual

body. That sounds like a contradiction, but it is true. After his
resurrection, Jesus appeared to a number of people. He appeared to
two disciples on the road to Emmaus and, while explaining the
Scriptures, walked with them to their destination. When they
arrived, they urged Jesus to stay with them and sat down for supper.
When Jesus asked for the blessing and began to distribute the
bread, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus, but then
he was gone. He just disappeared like a spirit. However, Jesus'
body was not just a spiritual presence similar to angels who, on
occasion, can appear in bodily form. Jesus still had his body. Later
that night, Jesus came through the walls of the room where the
disciples were staying (if you want to think of it that way) and
suddenly appeared to them. They were frightened because they
thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus said to them,

Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Look at my hands and my feet (to see the nail prints). It is I
myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have
flesh and bones, as you see that I have. (Luke 24:38-39)

You can't touch spirits with your hands, but you can touch
flesh. And then he ate food in their presence. And spirits don’t eat
food. The same kind of thing happened a week later when doubting
Thomas was told to touch Jesus' wounds and believe. Later, Jesus
ate food with his disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

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 So, in his exalted state after the resurrection, Jesus is not just a
spirit but a person (God-man) with a spiritual body. This is often
referred to as his glorified body or glorified state. This is the kind
of body believers in Jesus Christ will have when they are raised
from the dead. According to God's power, their ashes in the ground
will be raised from death, reformed to their own body again and
given life. But it will not be in their old lowly state of flesh and
blood with a sinful nature. Their new body will be free of the old
sinful nature of their flesh, which is left behind, and with only their
spiritual new man remaining, their former bodies will be made
new, transformed to be like the glorious body of Jesus Christ.

Paul explains this remarkable transformation in chapter 15 of

his first letter to the Corinthians. The entire chapter is known as the
Great Resurrection chapter. The pertinent section, which speaks
about the transformation of our bodies, begins at verse 35.

But someone will object, “How can it be that the dead are
raised? With what kind of body are they going to come?
(The next six verses use comparisons to what happens
when seeds are planted, and the different types of flesh and
glory in earthly creatures and heavenly bodies. Then Paul
continues in verse 42) That is the way the resurrection of the
dead will be. What is sown (the body which is buried in the
ground) is perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in
dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is
raised in power. It is sown as a natural body; it is raised as a
spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So

also, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living
natural being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
However, that which is spiritual is not first; rather, first
comes the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is of the

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 earth, made of dust (the first Adam). The second man is the
Lord from heaven (the second Adam, Jesus Christ). As was
the man made of dust, so are the people who are made of
dust, and as is the heavenly man, so the heavenly people will
be. And just as we have borne the image of the man made of
dust, let us also bear the image of the heavenly man.
Now I say this, brothers: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, and what is perishable is not going to
inherit what is imperishable. Look, I tell you a mystery. We
will not all sleep (fall asleep in death) but we will all be
changed (The people still alive on the last day), in a moment,
in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet
will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we
will be changed. For this perishable body must put on
imperishability, and this mortal body must put on
immortality. But once this perishable body has put on
imperishability, and this mortal body has put on immortality,
then what is written will be fulfilled: Death is swallowed up
in victory. (1 Corinthians 15:35, 42-54)
Summary: When the bodies of believers are raised from the
dead on the last day, they will be reunited with their souls. These
souls, which had been renewed in the image of God, are sinless.
And in that reunited state their resurrected bodies will be instantly
glorified – changed to become sinless spiritual bodies fashioned
after Christ's glorious body. It's all according to God's eternal plan.
“And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also
justified. Those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).
The summary in the previous paragraph refers to believers.
They were the people Paul was writing to in Corinth. Being raised
with glorified bodies does not apply to unbelievers. They had no
spiritual life renewed in them while they lived on earth, and their
souls did not go to heaven when they died. When unbelievers are

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raised, they have no spiritual life renewed in God's image to
reunite with their bodies. Their souls in hell had remained
spiritually dead in sin, and that is the soul which will be reunited
with their bodies. Such a resurrected body reunited with a
spiritually dead soul is still in its natural sinful state, capable of
doing only sinful things. It cannot be allowed to enter God's sinless
heaven and spoil God's blessed life for everyone. “Nothing that is
unclean and no one who does what is detestable or who tells lies
will ever enter it, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s
Book of Life” (Revelation 21:27). All unbelievers must go to their
own place, the place of the spiritually dead where sin and their
master, the originator of sin (Satan), exist. In a sense, you could
say unbelievers' bodies are now imperishable because they will
never go out of existence into nothingness. But it is not the
imperishable meant by Paul when he referred to never dying in
heaven. The unbelievers' spiritually dead bodies will always go on
dying, will always be perishing, will remain mortal and corruptible
and susceptible to pain and anguish forever. “Where their worm
does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). That place
of darkness does exist. It is called hell. And it contains nothing of a
blessed life, only an unspeakably cursed existence to endure
forever. It is something God clearly warned would happen for
those who die in their sins. However, these spiritually dead souls
would not listen; they did not believe it.
Some people might ask, “If God is a God love, why doesn't he
just use his power to change the spiritually dead bodies and souls
of unbelievers into glorified bodies with spiritually renewed souls
in God's image like believers have? Why would he condemn
anyone to an eternity of suffering like that? The answer is God
doesn't use his power to force anyone to believe. He will not force
anyone to be changed against their will. He doesn't do so here on
earth. God doesn't use force, God uses the very opposite of force to
bring us to faith. He uses love to change how people feel about

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him. He uses the gracious working of the Holy Spirit working
through Word and Sacrament to call people to faith. Christians
repeatedly speak of God's “Call to faith.” God, in love, works in
peoples' hearts to embrace God's love and forgiveness and promise
of eternal life of their own will. This is the time of grace everyone
has here on earth.
And this is the way it will be also in the resurrection of the
dead. The time of grace is over. But God still won't use his power
to change people into something they refused to be here on earth.
That wouldn't be godly, that wouldn't be loving – to force someone
to do something or become something they had already made clear
they wanted no part of while they lived here on earth. So now,
God's love shows itself in another way. In the resurrection, he
won't permit those who remain in their sinful condition to enter
into heaven and, with their sin, spoil the blessed life of heaven for
everyone who has been renewed in his image. Only those renewed
in God's sinless image by faith will share God's sinless blessed life
with him. For that we are thankful.

The new heaven and new earth

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 God's marvelous act of transformation on the last day includes
more than the transformation of believers' resurrected bodies to be
fashioned like Jesus' glorious body. The transformation will
include everything God made, which had been corrupted by sin.
The present order of the universe will be destroyed. Not just the
planet Earth, but the sun, moon, stars and all the heavenly bodies
in the galaxies of the universe will be destroyed on the last day.

The whole army of the heavens (all the heavenly bodies)

will fall apart. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and its
whole army will waste away and fall, like leaves withering
on a vine, like fruit that falls from a fig tree. (Isaiah 34:4)

Jesus said, “Amen, I tell you: Until heaven and earth pass away,
not even the smallest letter, or even part of a letter, will in any way
pass away from the Law until everything is fulfilled” (Matthew
5:18). 'Everything is fulfilled' means when God's entire plan of
salvation is accomplished.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day
the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be
dissolved as they burn with great heat, and the earth and
what was done on it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

Gone! No more mountains, no more plains, no more clouds,

no more rains, no more oceans, no more streams; no more
skyscrapers, or architect's beams, no more farms, fields, or Halls of
Fame with statues, plaques and famous games, no more anything.
Gone! Even the elements themselves will melt in the heat of God's
judgment fires. But wait, there will be more. What is gone will be
restored, what has been destroyed will be transformed. God doesn't
just destroy, he also renews. He doesn't just bring an end to the
bad, he also restores what is good. He doesn't just delete what is
sinful, he also reinstalls what is sinless. Right after Peter referred

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to everything being destroyed by fire in the verses above, he went
on just two verses later to declare,

That day will cause the heavens to be set on fire and

destroyed, and the elements to melt as they burn with great
heat. But according to his promise we look forward to new
heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
(2 Peter 3:12-13)

This is what the apostle Paul had in mind when he talked

about all of creation being liberated from its sin corrupted
existence of change and decay. It will be made new again free from
sin in the glorious transformation to a new heaven and a new earth
on the last day.

In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of

God to be revealed. (waiting for the last day of judgment to
reveal all the believers who are saved) For creation was
subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the
one who subjected it, in the hope that even creation itself will
be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in
the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-
21)

What does the phrase “by the will of the one” mean? Was it
Adam’s will – his choice of sin –which caused all of mankind’s
existence and environment to be affected by sin? Was he hoping
God would include creation also in the promise of deliverance
from sin and restoration to a perfect life again? Possibly. Adam
was keenly aware of how sin changed things and communicated
God’s Promise to save to his descendants. But, more likely, it was
God’s will which once subjected the created world to a sinful state.
The reason was sinful people living in a sinless world simply
wouldn’t work. If, for no other reason, sinful beings would never

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care about God’s promise of a Savior from sin and a better life in
heaven if they were still living in a sinless, perfect world. But now
that God’s plan of salvation was completed and a new, perfect life
without sin was beginning for God’s children, the created world
would also be delivered from its bondage of corruption to become
part of the sinless, glorious existence of the new earth.

Does God's creation of a new heaven and new earth mean he

will start all over, from scratch so to speak, to create an entirely
new heaven and new earth? Or does it mean God will take the
destroyed ashes of an earth laid bare and all the burned-out lights
of the heavenly bodies swept away and transform them into a
glorified new heaven and new earth on the last day – similar to the
way he will transform the earthly dust of our mortal remains into
glorified bodies on the last day? The Bible doesn't definitively give
us an answer. There is a passage in the Psalms which refers to this.

Long ago you laid a foundation for the earth, and the
heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but
you remain. All of them wear out like a garment. Like
clothing you will change them, and they will be changed. But
you are the same, and your years will never end. (Psalm
102:25-27)

The passage above seems to imply the old heavens and earth
are worn out and thrown away (discarded and burned) and then
people change into new clothing they have made (or purchased in
today's world). In other words, God starts all over to create
something entirely new “from scratch.” But the passage is phrased
with the word “changed.” The context of the rest of Scripture
would allow for the interpretation it is the sinful condition of the
world which is discarded, and what remains is changed into
something new and clean and sinless. That would be consistent
with the way God doesn't throw away our old sinful ashes from the
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grave but transforms them into something new without sin. This
interpretation also fits better with the passage in Romans 8 quoted
earlier. That passage seems to imply the existing order of creation
which is now frustrated by sin is waiting to be freed from its
slavery to death and decay and brought into the glorious freedom
of the children of God. It's not an entirely new creation which is
made, but a restoration of the old sin contaminated order of
creation into a new sinless one as it was at the beginning. Either
way, it will be God's doing, and God does all things well.

Does God's liberating the created world we live in now from

its sinful condition and bringing it into the glorious freedom of the
children of God include also other creatures? It would be odd to
talk about God's creation of the world without including the other
living creatures he created besides human beings. Paul's writing
about God's creation in Romans 8 (above) seems to imply, as a
given, all of God's creation includes the animal kingdom. So, the
logical, generally accepted answer is, yes, there will be other
creatures in heaven besides believers, angels and God. Will these
creatures be similar to the living things of land, sea and sky with
which we share our world now? Would they be like dogs, cats,
cows, horses, lions, tigers, bears, deer, elk, monkeys, apes, eagles,
robins, whales and any other creature one might name, including
those now extinct from centuries in the past like dinosaurs,
dragons, kiwi birds, etc.? Or with even more curiosity, might they
be the same creatures which had inhabited this earth throughout the
centuries whose earthly remains are also raised from the dead and
given new life in a heavenly state and will not die? To conjecture
an answer to these questions would be to forge ahead into
unexplored territory which God has not mapped out for us. One
needs to tread lightly and be careful where he steps lest he fall into
a crevice of man's wisdom being foolishness to God. It would be
best to venture an answer by simply acknowledging that fact. And
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then consider possibilities on the basis of what Scripture does say,
and what logic would conclude is most in harmony with what
Scripture says about God's will.

Scripture does speak about the animal kingdom being a part of

the new heaven and new earth in Isaiah 11. Albeit, what it says has
often, fairly, been understood as being figurative language to
communicate the levels of peace and harmony that will prevail in
heaven in ways we can understand. Referring to the Lord's rule in
his eternal kingdom Isaiah writes,

Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, and

faithfulness the belt around his hips. The wolf will dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together, and a
little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze
together, and their young ones will lie down together. The
lion will eat straw like the cattle. The nursing child will play
near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand
into a viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on
my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge
of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:5-9)

Is this figurative language assuring us God's kingdom in heaven

will be a place of peace, righteousness, harmony and a lack of
danger encompassing all the creatures inhabiting the new heaven
and new earth? Yes, it can properly be understood to mean that.
Does this support the possibility the creatures dwelling in heaven
will be animals like the ones we know now? Yes. If God's creation
being described in Romans 8 includes the biological diversity of all
the creatures God made at the beginning, then these verses at least
infer the creatures of heaven will be like the creatures we share our
world with now. We should add, however, Revelation 21:1 says in
the new heaven and new earth “there was no more sea.” If
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understood literally, then the creatures whose habitat is the oceans of
the world would not be a part of the new heaven and new earth. But
if “sea” refers to the vast oceans of the deep, does that allow for
former sea creatures to live in lakes and pools and streams in the
new heaven and new earth? Let's just wait and see.

Regardless of what the creatures will be like in the new heaven

and the new earth, what Isaiah says in these verses will be true. Free
of the frustrations of sinful corruption, all the creatures of heaven
will live at peace with each other and with people. No more
predators and prey; no more fear of each other; no more fear of
people; no more dogs that growl; no more snakes that bite; no more
insect bites that itch and infect; no more wild animals that attack; no
more need to butcher meat for food, or skin hides for clothing. There
will be perfect peace and harmony among all the inhabitants of
heaven. Do these verses support the idea the same animals which
lived and died in this world before the final day of judgment will
also be resurrected on the last and enabled to live in an eternal state
with God's saints and angels? We should be hesitant to answer such
a question with certainty. We know animals were not created in the
image of God as were Adam and Eve. They do not have souls which
go to heaven when they die. Nor, since they are not responsible for
keeping a moral law and are not guilty of sinning against God's will,
would they go to hell either. They just die and are devoured, or
decay, or have parts used for clothing and coverings and other
beneficial uses, and that's it. At least, that's it for now.

It would be in harmony with Scripture, however, to conjecture

that God will raise up animals which have previously inhabited this
earth and give them life for heaven also. If he can raise up all the
multitudes of human beings which lived during the course of
history, he could certainly do that also for other created beings if
he chose. “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). It is

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not wrong for us to wonder whether he who cares for the birds of
the air, the flowers of the field, the cattle on a thousand hills and
does not let one sparrow fall to the ground without his permission
would include in his heart the lives of all things he has made.
Consider this thought about God's justice expressed by another
theologically trained scholar of God's Word who helped proofread
this book:

Everything was made subject to death and decay - the entire

created universe, living and inorganic. During this sinful
time, animals feel pain, undergo disease and hideous deaths,
are even eaten. They were never created to undergo such
things, but they were subjected to them because they, too,
await a glorious future. They suffer for nothing they did,
they, too, will rejoice for what Christ did for the universe.7

Don't worry about having enough space for all these creatures
in addition to the people enjoying the bliss of heaven. The limits of
time and space are part of this earthly creation, not a part of God's
eternal domain. Imagine the expanse of a world now filled with all
the animals and plants that existed throughout history. Is this a part
of what the blessed life of heaven could be like? We don't know.
We'll wait to see what God has waiting for us in his wisdom.

There is another thought about the new heaven and the new
earth God will bring into being which overlaps the discussion
about God's creation and the creatures which will live there. The
thought begins with the conviction our loving God is not only
faithful to his word, but wise in his decisions, interested in our well-
being, desirous to share his blessed life with us, and consistent in
how he does things – how he rules in his kingdom with justice and
love. He isn't a fickle, unpredictable God who acts on whims and

7
John W. Zarling on July 21,2022

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changes what he thinks is best. “Certainly, I the Lord do not
change” (Malachi 3:6). He carefully plans, confidently makes
decisions, and successfully carries out what his all-knowing will
determines is good and right. When he created this world in the
beginning, he saw what he had made was good. It was a good
environment for Adam and Eve to live in which they were to
enjoy; it was a good home he gave them which they were to take
care of; it was a good relationship they had with the other creatures
he made which they were to rule. It was a good relationship they
had with God, who talked with them and had fellowship with them
in their perfect world of paradise. Life was indeed a good and
blessed life for Adam and Eve and was intended to be also for their
descendants.

The fall into sin ruined all the goodness of God’s perfect
creation, of course, for Adam and Eve and all their descendants.
But God promised to rescue them from the consequences of their
sin through the second Adam. He promised to reconcile people to
himself, and restore the blessed life they had with God again. The
final act of restoration will be completed on the last day, the day of
resurrection and judgment. On that day all the effects of sin and
death will be banished forever from the lives of those who believed
in him. Their own sinful nature, the difficulties of living in a world
cursed by sin, the influence of the sinful world around them and
Satan and his evil ways will trouble them no more. On the day of
resurrection and judgment, life will be restored to the way it was in
the very beginning before the fall into sin. It will become the “new
normal” for the way people live forever. What happens on the last
day of the first earth's existence will become the beginning of the
new heaven and the new earth.

Reflect again on what Peter says about the new heaven and the
new earth in his second letter. This time take note of the difference

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between “heavens” (plural) and “heaven” (singular) as he describes
the events of the last day. Normally we use the word “heavens” to
describe the atmosphere above the earth and/or all the heavenly
bodies of the universe. And normally we use the word “heaven” to
refer to the abode of God's existence – another dimension of life
not a part of the physical “heavens” of the universe. Peter writes,

And now, by that same word, the heavens and earth have
been stored up for fire, since they are being kept until the day
of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly… But the
day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the
heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be
dissolved as they burn with great heat, and the earth and
what was done on it will be burned up. Therefore, since all
these things will be destroyed, what kind of people ought you
to be, living in holiness and godliness, as you look forward
to and hasten the coming of the day of God? That day will
cause the heavens to be set on fire and destroyed, and the
elements to melt as they burn with great heat. But according
to his promise we look forward to new heavens and a new
earth, in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:7, 10-13)

In these verses, Peter is using the words heaven and heavens

the way we normally do. When this world is destroyed, the
atmosphere above and all the heavenly bodies of the universe will
be destroyed also. Then, when Peter talks about the transformation
of all created things into something new and righteous, he talks
about the new heaven NIV uses (singular) and the new earth. This is
more than just a coincidence, or imprecise use of the word. It leads
one to the conclusion God is taking all of his creation back to the
way it was in the beginning. If the old creation in its sinless state
was good, a wonderful variety of animals and nature to enrich the
life of Adam and Eve in their home (the world), then God will

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incorporate the same blessings in the new home of heaven which
God has prepared for those who love him. In other words, just like
God's children raised from the dead are transformed into new
beings, with new spiritual bodies made like Christ's glorified body
without sin, so also will it be with the new home of God's children.
Mankind's old home of this physical world corrupted by sin, and
destroyed on the last day, will be raised up from the ashes of its
former existence and be transformed to have a new spiritual reality
as part of its existence. Thus transformed, “even creation itself will
be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the
glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). It, also,
will be free from sin, and sorrow, and death (decaying) and all the
difficulties which by God's decree the corruption of sin inflicted on
the original creation. This new earth where, instead of sin
righteousness will always prevail, will be brought with God's
people into God's heavenly abode and made part of the new heaven
which Peter says God will make on the last day.

When Scripture speaks of a new heaven, to us it seems to

imply the “old” heaven will be replaced. A reference made in
John’s vision of heaven in Revelation 21 seems to support this
position. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no
longer any sea” (Revelation 21:5). However, to imply the old
heaven has been replaced sounds very strange and even wrong to
the way we have always envisioned the permanency of God’s
eternal abode. The issue requires a reminder of something said
earlier in this book. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Also,
remember something that has been stated a number of times. If
clear, definitive doctrines of Scripture are not involved, the
conclusions reached when reflecting on Scriptural truths need to be
categorized as conjecture. If the conclusions reached are in
harmony with other clear teachings of Scripture, then they may be
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viewed as possibilities, maybe even probabilities, but not as
teachings to be accepted in the same way as doctrinal truth. If the
ideas expressed in the conclusions can be shown to not be in
harmony with clear teachings of Scripture, then they need to be
rejected as errors. These are things we need to keep in mind again
here as we reflect on the issue of the permanency of God’s heaven.

“Note: In the final analysis, whether a word is translated

as heaven or heavens, the end result is the same as described in the
next paragraph.”

With the reminders above, we proceed with this thought: God

– from an earthly point of view -replaced his old heaven with a
new heaven on the last day by coming down to the new glorified
earth and spreading his “tent” over us. “He who sits on the throne
will spread his tent over them” (Revelation 7:15). That is, he
brought the glorified existence of the new earth into the eternal
domain of his abode of heaven. To use an earthly illustration,
envision your earthly home (residence) here and now. If you love
your earthly home and it is your earthly heaven, the place where
you always want to live because it's the way you want it to be, then
you wouldn’t leave it or destroy it to replace it with something
else. You would stay there, but as occasion permits add to it other
features and beautiful things you also enjoy. The former home has
Not been destroyed, but refurbished with more furnishings,
decorations, and things you love. It’s still the same home. So, also,
the old heaven remains the perfect existence of God’s abode, but it
has been brought down to this glorified realm of a new earth and
God has included it (the new earth) in his eternal heaven. Together,
they become the new heaven and the new earth, the realm of God’s
existence in which God dwells. He will fellowship with us together
with all his saints, angels, and glorified creation merged into one
everlasting domain of God’s presence. “Look! God’s dwelling is

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with people. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.
God himself will be with them, and he will be their God”
(Revelation 21:3). Note also the reference to “Look, I am making
everything new” in verse 5). For God – we dare to say – this has
always been part of his eternal plan. This is the blessed life he
wants to share with the beloved objects of his creation.

Combining God's existence with man's existence (and all of

the new creation) into one eternal realm for all is the big picture.
What about some of the details? What will we experience in our
new eternal existence of God's presence? From our point of view,
how do we understand what God's “old” heaven was like before
the events of the last day? What does the vision of heaven in your
head look like now? God has revealed a number of things to us
about heaven, but not as much as curious minds would like to
know. The reason for this, as has been stated often by many, is the
difficulty of the human mind/heart to grasp the eternal mysteries of
God pertaining to heaven. We are still afflicted with a sinful nature.
We are still influenced by how we experience life on this sinful
earth. It is hard to conceive of a blessed life so completely free of
sin it can be called perfect – and lasts forever. So, God has
revealed to us the things about heaven he knows we can
understand. This gives us peace now, a confident hope for our
future and feeds our desire to be there. The wonder of heaven
encourages us to keep on fighting the battle of faith in a sinful
world to obtain the prize of eternal life. Like Paul wrote, “I press
on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of in Christ
Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

So, what does this eternal future look like? What can we
expect? We can say we know what it will not be like. We know it
will not be like the humorous caricature of heaven you
occasionally see portrayed in the media. No, life in heaven will

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not be spent floating around in the clouds, playing a harp and
singing all the time. We will be praising God all the time in words
and actions and life style, including praising God with our voices
amid the choirs of angels. But a blessed life will not be limited to
harp playing sing-a-longs. And we know life in heaven will
certainly not include anything that is sinful. However, that's easy to
say, maybe not quite as easy to recognize. Given the fact our old
Adam is still with us affecting how we feel about things,
sometimes what we may think the pleasures of heaven will include
are in reality pleasures which appeal to our old Adam and will
definitely not be a part of the sinless life of heaven. To use an
extreme example, but an obvious one to make the point, think of
what may actually be a caricature of another world religion (and
not truly represent what is taught.) Nevertheless, how often haven't
you heard about the martyr who gives up his life in a suicide attack
against “infidels” being rewarded in heaven with seven virgins to
satisfy his desires for pleasure? How could it get any better than
that? Well, how could it get any more foolish than that? How could
anybody but someone whose mind and heart have been deceived
by Satan's lies believe a work of murder would be rewarded by
sinful lust and be a part of God's perfect life of heaven?

There are many wrong ideas of what heaven will be like, just
like there are many who believe the wrong idea their works will
earn them a place in heaven. What are your ideas of heaven? Let's
return to your perceptions about the old heaven Peter says will be
replaced on the last day with the new heaven and new earth. Is it
one of throngs of believers wearing white robes being gathered
around God's throne with the angels in joyful assembly giving
praise to God? If so, check! Check Hebrews 12:22, and such
visions of heaven in Revelation as chapters 4, 5:6-14 and 7:9-17
for validation of your impressions. Remember, however, visions
communicate truth and are not intended to be taken literalistically
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in every detail. White robes are intended to communicate the holy
righteous sinlessness of believers in God's presence. Does your
vision of the current heaven include angels coming down to earth
to escort the souls of believers who have died up to God's domain
of heaven? If so, check! Check the account of the rich man and
poor Lazarus with the angels attending to Lazarus when he died for
Scriptural support of such a heavenly journey. Does your vision of
heaven include joy, happiness, and celebration among God's
people? If so, check! Check Psalm 16:11 for verification of your
beliefs about heaven. Does your impression of heaven include a
city with a foundation decorated with precious stones, walls made
of jasper, gates made from pearl, and streets of gold? If so, check!
Check with the vision of such a heavenly city in Revelation 21:9-
27. But remember it's still a part of a vision. See further comment
on this example of the beautiful life of heaven in the next
paragraph.

Aren't all the impressions of heaven God has given us in

Scripture permanent? Won't things be the same in the new heaven
God installs on the day of resurrection and judgment? Well, not
really, yes and no. There will be no need for angels to come and
escort our souls to heaven when we die. There is no dying in
eternal life. Will we literally be walking on streets of gold, through
gates made of pearl, protected by walls made out of jasper and
examining precious stones on foundations? Not really. It is sound
interpretation to conclude a vision filled with images of precious
metals and stones (with which we are familiar) will be outshined
by the reality of what we now would have a difficult time
understanding. Gold, silver and precious stones will not be valued
and treasured nearly as much as what is really precious, beautiful
and pure in the glory and splendor of the new heaven. Nor, will
believers still think about going “up” to live with God in heaven.
On the final day of judgment and destruction of the old earth, God
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will “come down” from the old heaven to live among his people in
the newly transformed new earth. And he will incorporate the
sinless new earth into the way of life in his new heaven.

Do not forget, we are still talking in terminology which is part

of the way we understand things here on earth. Though this old
earth may be breathing its last and soon be giving up its life in the
birth pains deliverance of a new earth, it's still kicking for now and
its reality is all we know. In God's world, however, the old heaven
and the new heaven are one and the same in their essence. The
only thing different – from our earthly point of view – will be the
inclusion of the new earth in the new heaven of God's creation.
The old created earth will be delivered from sin's bondage of
corruption and transformed into a new and glorious sinless
creation. It will be brought into and become a part of all the sinless
wonders and beauty of God's ever eternal, always perfect heaven.

So, does your vision of the new heaven include animals,

trees, birds, flowers, streams and people of different skills and
gifts living an active lifestyle doing enjoyable, meaningful,
productive and loving things absorbed into the fabric of an
ongoing life of worship and praise to God? If so, check! You got
it right. Isaiah's description of harmony and beauty including all
of God's creatures being made new again in God's heavenly
kingdom appears to have merit.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie
down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the
fattened calf together, and a little child will lead them. The
cow and the bear will graze together, and their young ones
will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the cattle.
The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the
weaned child will put his hand into a viper’s den. They will
not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the
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 earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters
cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Though a literal interpretation cannot be forced upon these

verses, they fit well with what the rest of Scripture says about a
resurrection, and a judgment, and a transformation of all things.
As stated, several paragraphs earlier, the new heaven and the
new earth will be melded into one eternal home of God and
people, together with all the angels and all creatures which will
be sharing that blessed life with them. Remember, when God
originally created the old world in its sinless state, he “walked,”
talked and shared his presence with Adam and Eve. They lived
together in sinless harmony. His spiritual domain of heaven
overlapped, if you will, with the physical domain of Adam and
Eve’s perfect home on earth. The fall into sin separated earth’s
physical domain from God. God and his angels can and have
entered this physical domain to interact with people. But as a
sinful world it is now separated from their sinless domain of
heaven. The sinful world is not their “home.” When sin is once
again eliminated from life in the newly transformed earth, the
earth will become part of God’s domain again. The new heaven
incorporates the life of the newly transformed world with all its
creatures, beauty and goodness. Once again God will dwell
with us to walk, talk and share life with us in all its glory in our
joint home together.
And from the throne I heard a loud voice that said, ‘Look!
God’s dwelling is with people. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people. God himself will be with them, and
he will be their God.’ And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he
will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself
will be with them and be their God’. (Revelation21:3)

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 Blessings of heaven

What, specifically, can we say about the blessed life of

fellowship with God in heaven? What particular blessings will we
be enjoying? Many things can be said about what God has
revealed. And many questions can be asked about heaven for
which God has given us no clear answers. Let’s begin with the
familiar section of Scripture quoted in the last paragraph which
elicits warm emotions and eager expectation for the joys of heaven
which await us. In the last book of the Bible, in the second last
chapter, the apostle John was given this vision:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea no
longer existed. And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And from the throne I heard a loud
voice that said, ‘Look! God’s dwelling is with people. He will
dwell with them, and they will be his people. God himself
will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe
away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death

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 or sorrow or crying or pain, because the former things have
passed away.’ The one who was seated on the throne said to
me, ‘Look, I am making everything new!’ He also said,
‘Write, for these words are trustworthy and true.’
(Revelation 21:1-5)

The wonder of all nations.

We have spent considerable time discussing the new heaven
and the new earth, joined together into one dimension, as the
eternal home of God's people. In this vision, God's people are first
described as a holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven to be a part of the new heaven and the new earth. In the Old
Testament, God's earthly people were the Israelites. Their capital
city was Jerusalem where God's presence was with them in the
Temple. Many of the people of that nation were believers in God's
promise of a Savior and were part of God's spiritual children by
faith. Many were not. In the New Testament, the believers in God's
promise of a Savior from the physical nation of Israel are joined by
people from every nation on earth who also believe in God's
promise of a Savior; the promise now fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
This will be the new spiritual Jerusalem whose citizens are all
believers in God's promise of salvation through his Son. This is
exactly what Isaiah foretold.

The LORD said: It is too small a thing that you should just
be my servant to raise up only the tribes of Jacob and to
restore the ones I have preserved in Israel, so I will appoint
you to be a light for the nations, so that my salvation will
be known to the end of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6) See also
Isaiah 60:3ff.

It was what John saw, also, in another vision from Revelation.

“After these things I looked, and there was a great multitude that
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no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language,
standing in front of the throne and of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).
This is the way life in heaven will be – people from all over the
earth joined together in one common bond of faith in Jesus Christ.
“You are all sons (children) of God through faith in Christ Jesus”
(Galatians 3:26). There will be no racism in heaven, no
discrimination, no people of privilege based on fame, sex, wealth
or social status. “There is not Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or
female, for you are all one and the same in Christ Jesus”
(Galatians 3:28). Everyone will be treated the same in heaven, in
harmony with one another and with love and fairness to each other.
There will be no strife, friction, jealousy or favoritism. This is hard
to imagine considering how people now treat each other here on
earth. But it is true in God's glorious life of heaven. What a
wonderful blessing of heaven this will be.

The wonder of a beautiful life of love without sin

as the Bride of Christ
Everyone will be beautiful before God. Transformed with
spiritual bodies, resurrection bodies will take after Jesus. Sin and
its ravages on our physical bodies will be removed. Once more, we
will stand before God as he first created us - “very good,” only this
time with spiritual bodies, not the earthly beauty of physical
bodies. This is the beauty acquired for the bride by her husband.
Jesus is the bridegroom, and all believers are his bride. And he
loves us.

…Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to

make her holy, by cleansing her with the washing with
water in connection the word. He did this so that he could
present her to himself as a glorious church, having no stain

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 or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she could be holy
and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

It is Jesus who makes us beautiful before God by cleansing us

of our sins and bringing us to faith through Word and Sacrament.
Now, the Church can come down from heaven “prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband.” She walks down the aisle in
her beautiful white wedding gown of righteousness purchased for
her by her husband with his blood. She joins her groom before the
heavenly Father, presented to him in the shining beauty of her
husband's righteousness – now her righteousness - and the Father
is pleased. He welcomes her into the family, pronounces them one,
Bride and Bridegroom united together by faith, and blesses them
with a pledge of life lived together in love for all eternity. This is
the big day the Bride and the Groom have been waiting for. Let the
wedding reception of the Lamb begin – and it will never end. It is a
picture, of course. See Ephesians 5:25-27 above as the basis for
this illustration. But what a striking picture it is of Christ and his
Church. United together by faith, rejoicing and celebrating, they
share their blessed life of love together in a celebration of life
which never ends. It is done in the home of the heavenly Father,
their new home in the new heaven and new earth. What a
wonderful blessing of heaven this will be.

The wonder of life in God’s presence

In the new heaven and new earth, God himself will live with
us. God is omnipresent and is always with us. His ears are attentive
to our prayers. His angels attend to our needs. We are content to
not see him now because he is a spirit, and his domain is in heaven.
For that matter, we are sinful beings, and it would be dangerous for
us to see God. What is sinful simply cannot survive being in the
presence of the holy, sinless God. God denied Moses' request to

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see God in his glory and told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for
no human may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). Even when God's
angels appeared to people to bring messages from God, people
would fall to the ground and tremble because as sinful human
beings in the presence of God's holy angel(s), they were filled with
fear. But in the new heaven and new earth, God's people will not
be sinful anymore. They will no longer be filled with fear because
“There is no fear in love, but complete love drives out fear…” (1
John 4:18). And we will be able to see God as he is because he will
be living among us. “Now we see indirectly using a mirror, but
then we will see face to face…” (1 Corinthians 13:12). God will
live among us in the new heaven and new earth, and we will be
able to see him, and he will still be our God. He will still be
watching over us, caring for us, guiding us, blessing us with peace,
love, joy, guidance, fulfillment, fellowship, and a meaningful
existence. What a wonderful blessing of heaven this will be.

The wonder of a life of service in heaven

Another blessing we will receive from God in the new heaven
and earth is the certainty with which he will sustain our lives. And
we mean not just sustaining life, but a quality of life. An earlier
vision of life in heaven was given to John in Revelation chapter 7.
Reading the entire chapter will provide clear evidence that God
regularly used symbolic scenes and numbers to reveal to John and
us what life will be like in the future. We quote from verse 13 and
the following.

One of the elders spoke to me and said, ‘These people

dressed in white robes, who are they and where did they
come from?’ And I answered him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he
said to me: ‘These are the ones who are coming out of the
great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made

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 them white in the blood of the Lamb. Because of this they are
in front of the throne of God, and they serve him day and
night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his
tent over them. They will never be hungry or thirsty ever
again. The sun will never beat upon them, nor will any
scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will
be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living
water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
(Revelation 7:13-17)

What is it that sustains not only life, but quality of life? One
thing which keeps life going in a satisfying and fulfilling way is to
serve. When people live with meaning, purpose, and a sense of
accomplishment for contributing to society and the well-being of
others, it's a good feeling. It's a rewarding feeling which satisfies
the soul, provides a “good” self-esteem, and motivates a person to
keep on contributing, helping and serving others. With our sinful
nature still affecting how we look at life, we need to remind
ourselves this is so and not the other way around. The world thinks
receiving things is a blessing and it is and being served by others
reflects a status of prominence and importance which people
recognize, and it does. But if that is important to people, if it is
what they live for and think the more they receive and are served
by others, the better life will be, what is the focus of their life? It is
their “self” and what they want for “me.” And selfish thinking
doesn't come from the new man which lives in harmony with God's
loving selfless will, but from our sinful nature which thinks and
wants the same way Satan does. Nor does just being served by
others lead to happiness and contentment and the rewarding feeling
which comes from lovingly helping and serving others. How happy
do you think Satan is with his life? And how often haven't you
heard how dissatisfied with life the rich and the famous are when
their goal is to accumulate as much material things/respect/
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recognition for themselves as they can? And when they receive and
accumulate much, they want even more because they're still not
satisfied. And they fret and worry about losing what they do have.
That's not a happy existence. Ding, ding, ding – “Money doesn't
buy happiness.” And those who are served and, honored and
respected often think it is their due. They (not everyone – but those
who live according to their sinful nature) are not humble but
haughty. If they aren't served or respected as they think they should
be, they feel disrespected and become upset and, offended and
angry. “Don't you know who I am?” Those are not godly emotions,
and that's not a happy life.

God says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts

20:35). Don't let your sinful nature balk at this. Be honest; what
makes you feel better - to give a gift or receive a gift? To receive a
gift makes you feel good, that is natural. But does the gift itself
make you feel good, or is it more the fact someone else cared
enough and loved you enough to give you a gift? We're not talking
about automatic, pre-programmed, to be expected, gift exchanges
here. Nor is the young child getting more excited to receive a toy
he wanted badly than the clothes he doesn't care about at issue here
either. He's still a child, in the first stages of growing into maturity.
But even there, isn't it exciting to see a child get excited and jump
up and down watching Mom or Dad or Grandma or Grandpa open
a gift the child gave them? Giving, done genuinely from the heart
with a loving desire to please someone else, is the right call. It's the
same thing with serving. Actually, gift-giving is one form of
serving others. And serving others, like gift giving, when done
willingly from the heart, is directly in line with the way God cares
for us.

Think about what Jesus says about loving and serving others.
In the upper room, the night of his betrayal, before he was

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betrayed, tried, and crucified when others would have been
preoccupied with the terrible trauma they were facing, Jesus still
thought of others. When no one else lifted a finger to do it, he
washed his disciples' feet before they sat down to eat. And then he
asked them,

“Do you understand what I have done for you?... You call
me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You are right, because I am. Now if
I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also
ought to wash one another’s feet. (Not just wash feet, but
serve others.) Yes, I have given you an example so that you
also would do just as I have done for you. (John 13:12-15)

Later that night he said to his disciples, “A new command I

give you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you
are to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). See,
also, 1 John 4:7-12 as quoted earlier. Loving and serving go
together. They are like twins who think, dress, and do everything
together. Where one goes the other goes.

Apparently, the disciples heard, but did not let what Jesus said
about loving and serving sink in. They still looked at life the way
the world and our sinful nature does. Later that evening a dispute
arose among them as to which of them was to be considered the
greatest. So, Jesus elaborated on the point he made earlier.

The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who
have authority over them are called Benefactors. But it is not
to be that way with you. (That's not the way it is in God's
kingdom). Instead, let the greatest among you become like
the youngest (Normally, in the world, it's the youngest, the
rookie, the one who was the least seniority who has to the
menial jobs, the ones no one else wants to do, – like pick up

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 the donuts, get coffee and clean up afterwards, etc.) and the
one who leads like the one who serves. For who is greater
(in the world's eyes), one who reclines at the table or one
who serves? Isn’t it the one who reclines at the table, (in the
world's eyes)? But I am among you as one who serves. You
are those who have remained with me in my trials. (Luke
22:25-28)

As true God, Jesus is the greatest of all, together with the

Father and the Holy Spirit. And the Triune God loves and serves
others always. Throughout time, the disciples of Jesus are the ones
who have remained with Jesus in his trials and professed to be his
followers. In their new man of faith, they are willing to love and
serve others as Jesus does. That's the way it is in God's kingdom.
Do you understand? Are you willing to take to heart what Jesus
says and let your new man take the lead in how you love and serve
others?

What is the point in listing the blessings of life in the new

heaven and the new earth? It stems from the vision of heaven John
saw in Revelation 7. Those in white robes are “in front of the
throne of God, and they serve him day and night (always) in his
Temple (the body of believers living in God's presence)”
(Revelation 7:15). We have been reminded of the final judgment
described in Matthew 25 that serving Jesus' brothers and sisters
(believers) is the same as serving Jesus (God himself). So, when
God promises to sustain our lives in the new heaven and earth
(combined into one domain), it includes quality of life far above
the quality of life on earth now. There are those who love and serve
others in this life. Haven't you experienced this sense of fulfillment
and purpose in life already when you willingly served God in some
way in your church or served other people in some way with love
and compassion? But that's not true for everyone, and not all the

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time. In the new heaven and earth, loving and serving God and
each other will be true of all people all the time, forever. What a
wonderful blessing of heaven this will be.

The wonder of life in a heavenly environment

We can say God sustains life, also, in other ways. The vision
from Revelation 7 goes on to say, “They will never be hungry or
thirsty ever again. The sun will never beat upon them, nor will any
scorching heat” (Revelation 7:16). This describes life from a
physical perspective as we live on Earth now. Life in the new
heaven/earth will not be merely physical as before, but will be
transformed into life lived with glorified, spiritual bodies. But
even though it will be in our new glorified bodies the point of
comparison to our former physical bodies is still valid. To help
understand, compare it to life before the flood, based on previously
described convictions of what life on this planet was like before
the flood. This is not to diminish the violence, wickedness and
unbelief which prevailed in the world of that time and called forth
God’s judgment of the flood. But in many respects, physical life
was better before the flood. Because of the universally mild
(tropical) type of climate throughout the world with most likely
more land mass than seas, there was no limitation of growing
seasons. There was little or no need to transport food from one
region to the next. There was an abundance of food and healthy
nutrition available year-round everywhere from the goodness of
God’s original creation. People didn’t starve or go wanting for
food. Likewise, with the climate. Because of the protective water
canopy above the expanse (atmosphere – Genesis 1:6-7) the earth
was most likely shielded from direct exposure to the damaging and
aging effect of the sun’s rays. This is what contributed to the
universally mild (tropical) type of climate which supported the

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abundance of vegetation and nutritious, organic food without the
treatment of chemicals (insecticides, herbicides, pesticides,
fertilizers) and genetically modified strains. People lived to the
hard-to-fathom age of 700, 800, and 900 years.

Things changed after the flood. The changes affected by the

flood led to growing seasons of seedtime and harvest instead of an
abundant year-round food supply everywhere and to different
seasons of summer and winter cold and heat instead of a universal
year-round mild climate. See Genesis 8:22. And that, in turn,
affected people’s health and life span. Now, because of famines
and floods, hail and drought, wars and pests, transportation
demands, and costs to move food from one area to another, the
food chain has far less variety and availability. People do face the
possibility of crop failures because of weather, food shortages
because of war and devastation, food unavailability to some
because prices became too high to afford. Hunger and starvation
became a reality for many at some point in their lives. Cold and
heat also became a risk factor to health and life. Extremes of cold
can lead to health issues, and frostbite, even freezing to death.
Extremes of heat can lead to dehydration, skin-damaging sunburns,
heat exhaustion, and even heat stroke, leading to death. That is life
after the flood. That is what John’s vision was describing in
Revelation 7:6 and what God promises will be no more in the new
heaven and new earth.

Other things will be different in the new heaven and earth God
will install on the last day. Will there be a Temple in which to
worship God? No. Returning to the vision of heaven John recorded
in Revelation, chapter 21 we read, “I did not see a temple in the
city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple”
(Revelation 21:22). We won’t need a temple to come into the
presence of God and worship him. We will be living in the

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presence of God and his Son in our ongoing life. With the sun,
moon and heavenly bodies destroyed, how will they be replaced, or
will they be replaced in a new glorified state? We don’t know; it
would seem not. “The city does not need the sun or the moon to
shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is the
lamp” (Revelation 21:23). The purpose for the sun is to warm and
sustain physical life on the earth now, but that will no longer be
needed. He who is the light of the world now, spiritually, will be
the light of the new heaven and earth to sustain our spiritually
glorified existence forever. What a wonderful blessing of heaven
that will be.

The wonder of our spiritual bodies in heaven

In the new heaven and the new earth, our spiritually glorified
bodies will be different than our sin corrupted, mortal bodies now
on earth. Will we need food and drink to sustain our lives?
Probably not, at least not in the same way. We will be able to eat
and drink just like Jesus did in his glorified body with his disciples
after the resurrection. And we will eat and drink and enjoy food
and fellowship in heaven. After he instituted the Lord’s supper in
the upper room Jesus told his disciples, “I tell you, that I will not
drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I
drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29).
Though couched in the same figurative language as he uses to
describe the animal kingdom in chapter 11, something similar can
be said about Isaiah’s description of food enjoyment in heaven in
Isaiah 25. Since it is such a beautiful description of the blessings of
life in the new heaven and earth we will quote the entire section.

On this mountain (Mount Zion, one of the ways the Bible

refers to God’s people, the Christian Church) the Lord of
Armies will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a

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 banquet of aged wines, with the best cuts of meat, and with
the finest wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud
that covers all peoples (the burial shroud), the burial cloth
stretched over all nations (the sheet pulled up over a
person’s face when he dies). He has swallowed up death
forever! The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every
face. He will take away the shame of his people throughout
the earth. For the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:6-8)

There will be a comment on the abolishment of death coming.

Here we are talking about eating and enjoying food in heaven. As
we asked a moment ago, will we need food and drink to sustain our
lives in the new heaven and earth? It’s not merely physical bodies
we are talking about. Sustaining life in heaven will be focused on the
needs of our glorified, spiritual bodies. Adam and Eve had an
abundance to eat in the Garden of Eden, but it was eating of the Tree
of life in the Garden which God said would keep them living forever.
In our life here on earth, our spiritual life of faith is sustained by the
continuing nourishment of God’s truth in Word and Sacrament. At
times, Jesus calls the truth, which nourishes our souls (our faith in
him), the “bread of Life” (John 6:32-35, 47-51). And at times, the
truth which nourishes faith is called the “water of life” (Revelation
21:6, 22:1, 17). It is the truth of God’s blessings to us in Christ which
will continue to feed the spiritual life of our glorified bodies in
heaven. It’s not that we will need the truth Jesus is our Savior with our
sins forgiven to comfort us in the new heaven/earth. That will be a
reality we are already enjoying in heaven. But the ongoing well-being
of our spiritual life will continue to be sustained by all the truths of
peace, joy, love, harmony, strength, and fellowship with God and one
another, which God will bestow on us in heaven. It’s similar to what a
child feels when he knows his father well and knows dad will always
be there for him to love, care, and provide for him no matter what. It

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gives him security and contentment in life. What a wonderful blessing
of life this will be in the new heaven and new earth.

The wonder of the Church Triumphant in

heaven
The truth which nourishes our souls and sustains our spiritual life
will lead to another blessing in the new heaven. In fact, we might
move this blessing near the top of what we cherish when we share life
in the blessed fellowship of God in heaven. Fellowship simply means
sharing something in common with our fellow human beings. Here on
earth, believers have in common with other believers God’s blessings
of Word and Sacrament. These are the means of grace the Holy Spirit
uses to work, strengthen, and preserve faith in Jesus Christ as our
Savior. And with it comes other spiritual blessings of forgiveness of
sins, peace with God, the hope of heaven, and God’s promise of
everlasting life with him in heaven. These are things we share with
our fellow believers, and so it is called Church Fellowship. Further
explanation of the word “church” and the practice of church
fellowship here on earth is given in Addendum Ten.

In the new heaven and earth, fellowship among believers will

have been declared by God himself on the last day. He does see
peoples’ hearts and welcomes into heaven only those who truly
believe. No longer will believers have to fight the battle of faith
against sin, Satan, and unbelief. And there will be no contention or
disagreement on what God’s will is in heaven. There will be no
sections in heaven, one for this denomination, and another for that
denomination, and still another for a different denomination who
thought they were going to be the only ones in heaven. There will be
no denominations at all, just the confession of one name, the name of
the Lord God Almighty and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior. In heaven, there will be no false teachings, disagreements,
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arguments, or misunderstandings of what God’s good and gracious
will is. There will only be harmony, agreement, getting along, and
rejoicing in the fellowship we enjoy together with our gracious and
merciful God. What a treasure this will be to cherish in the blessed
life of God’s new heaven and earth. For this reason, the assembly of
believers in heaven is often called the Church Triumphant. What a
wonderful blessing of heaven this will be.

Heaven’s wonder described as the negative of the

life we know on earth
One of the best ways God communicates how blessed life will
be in the new heaven and earth, is to remind us of what will not be
a part of our lives anymore. Righteousness will be a part of our
lives. Peter wrote, “But according to his promise we look forward
to new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2
Peter 3:13). We understand the concept of righteousness. We may
refer to someone as a righteous person who lives a righteous life or
wants our justice system to be fair and just (righteous). But, even
then, how often do we think of righteousness as being completely
free of any stain of sin? Sin affects everything in this life, our
words, our deeds, and our attitudes, so much so that it's difficult to
relate to being perfectly righteous without sin. So, God chooses to
describe the righteousness of the new earth as the absence of
anything wicked. “Nothing that is unclean and no one who does
what is detestable or who tells lies will ever enter it, but only those
who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Revelations 21:27).

“Outside are the dogs, that is, the sorcerers, the adulterers, the
murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices
falsehood” (Revelation 22:15).

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 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually
immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor males who have
sex with males, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards,
nor the verbally abusive, nor swindlers will inherit the
kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9).

We can relate to what is written in negative terms. We can

relate to everything which affects our lives in a negative way
because of sin. Every consequence of sin will be absent from our
lives. No more prison time for crimes; no more pills because of
ills; no more sad for being bad; no more broken ties because of
lies; no more anything in the way of pain, suffering, hardship,
disappointment, negativity, hatred, arguments, vengeance, hostility
and a thousand other things you can think of because sin is a part
of our lives. No more of any of it because sin will no longer be a
part of our lives. We can appreciate such things no longer being a
part of our existence because we feel the sufferings and burdens of
this present world intruding on our well-being all the time. It is
such a constant in our lives, the apostle Paul saw it necessary to
remind us, “For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time
are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed
to us” (Romans 8:18). And James encourages us, “Therefore,
brothers, be patient until the coming of the Lord… You be patient
too. Strengthen your hearts because the coming of the Lord is
near” (James 5:7-8). The positive information of how good life in
heaven will be, like righteousness, is certainly true. And as a result,
“You have made known to me the path of life, fullness of joy in
your presence, pleasures at your right hand forever” (Psalm
16:11). But perfect righteousness, pure joy in God's presence and
eternal pleasures at his right hand, are things we can only try to
imagine for now. The difficulties and sufferings of life we face
because of sin are things we experience regularly. To know they
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will all be gone in the new heaven and new earth is something to
which we can really look forward. What a wonderful blessing of
heaven this will be.

Heaven’s most foundational wonder

The biggest and saddest burden of life, however, the one
everyone has to face is the one God zeroes in on the most to reveal
what a blessing living with him in heaven will be. It's the one thing
God said would happen if Adam and Eve fell into sin. It is the
burden which immediately appeared on the scene the moment
Adam and Eve did fall into sin. It's the antagonist which has been
fiendishly attacking God's blessed life all through history. Its
elimination is what God's entire plan of salvation was focused on.
This one thing – with all its surrounding attendants – God tells us
will be no more in order to help us understand what a tremendous
blessing life with him in his new heaven and earth will be. Listen,
again, to him speaking in this vision to John. “

And from the throne I heard a loud voice that said, “Look!
God’s dwelling is with people. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people. God himself will be with them, and
he will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their
eyes. There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or
pain, because the former things have passed away
(Revelation 21:3-4).

There it is. “Death is the last enemy to be done away with” (1

Corinthians 15:26). Many things in life cause tears, and sorrow,
and mourning over loss, and some of them can be hard. But death
is the champion. It is the hardest of all to endure. There is nothing
else which can compare to the pain in the heart, and the sobbing of
tears, and the groans from the soul, and sometimes the inability of
the body even to function, which accompanies the mourning over
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the death of a loved one. We have all experienced it, and if you
haven't, you will. Who of us hasn't started crying over the death of
someone we don't even know when the tragic death of a child or
mother makes national news?

The sadness of death can overwhelm Christians too. It is true

Christians ought not grieve the same as unbelievers who have no
hope. See 1 Thessalonians 4:13. Christians know their loved one is
now in heaven with Jesus, but it doesn't stop the pain of loss. And
sometimes the heartache can be heavy. It's not as if Christians are
crying for their loved one. They are hurting, and sad, and crying,
sometimes even angry over the bastard death itself. Yes, death is a
bastard. It's the illegitimate child born into this world as a result of
the rape of Adam and Eve's spiritual life, and it grew up to become
the worst terrorist mass murderer of all time. It spares no one,
sadistically enjoying it especially when it causes Christians to
suffer and mourn. Death does cause suffering in life. For Christians
it's the loss, it's the separation, it's the emptiness in their lives of no
longer being able to share life, and love, and the togetherness they
long for so much with someone they love. It's a reminder to all
people of the mortality of life.

Even Jesus wept over the death of a close friend. He wept

even though he knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
It wrenched his heart to see such pain and heartache and sadness in
the lives of so many friends of Lazarus. Death is always waiting
for people. Yes, there will be a happy reunion in heaven for the
children of God. But that comes later; this hurts now – for who
knows how long before the heart wounds heal. I miss Mommy; I
wish Daddy were here; why did little Johnny have to die? Oh, the
pain, the sting, the wretched hole in the heart of parents when one
of their children dies before they do. But God says, “That will
NOT be a problem when you're with me in my heaven. There will

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be no more death. “…Death is swallowed up in victory. Death,
where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1
Corinthians 15:54b-57). What a wonderful blessing of heaven this
will be.

We have listed different blessings which will be ours in the

blessed life God has waiting for us in the new heaven and new
earth. Here is a summary of what we have listed, admittedly, with
some of these blessings overlapping.

• People from all over the earth, saved by faith in Jesus

Christ, will share in God’s blessed life of heaven.

• The church, as the Bride of Christ, will be beautiful in

God’s sight because she has been made righteous by her
Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and will be united with him in a
loving union of God and his people forever.

• Life in heaven will be completely without sin, lived

always in the presence of God and his blessings.

• The quality of life sustained by God in heaven will include

people willingly giving, sharing, loving, and serving God
and one another with complete selflessness.

• The quality of life sustained by God in heaven will be

completely free of earthly adversities such as hunger and
thirst and the harmful effects of too much heat or cold.

• Life in heaven will have perfect harmony and fellowship

among all the saints, free of any disagreements, dissension,
or arguing over what God is like or what his word teaches.

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 • Life in heaven will be where righteousness and justice
always prevail with no prejudice, favoritism, privilege,
racism, special treatment, discrimination, or anything
unfair.

• Life in heaven will be free of death and all the sorrow,

tears, anguish, and pain caused by death or any other
earthly suffering.

• Life in heaven will be endless timelessness with the

blessed life God shares with his people continuing
unabated forever.

Are these descriptions of the new heaven and earth a case of

imagination running wild?

Some might think so, but it really isn’t, at least not completely.
They are a reflection on the truths of God’s Word reaching
conclusions which are in harmony with the passages discussed.
Nevertheless, they are still human conclusions not divine
revelation. It may well be these conclusions do not adequately
reflect the reality God will bring to pass in the new heaven and
earth. But if life in God’s new heaven and earth is not something
like this, it will be better.

More can be said about life in heaven, but much of it involves

speculation of what life will be like in the new heaven and new
earth which God has not revealed. For questions you may have
about heaven refer to Addendum number 12

There are nine wonders listed above to summarize all the

blessings the Bible says we will enjoy in the post-judgment day
transformed life of God’s new heaven and new earth. To close out
these eternal blessings of God we will add a tenth and last bullet
point to complete the list. And for this wonder, we will use the title

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of this last chapter and of this last section and, for that matter, the
goal of God’s entire plan of salvation: Perfection Again.

Perfection again
The utter perfection that God restored to his
creation
Most of the time people use the word ‘perfect’ (adjective) or
‘perfection’ (noun) to communicate a condition of sinlessness or
without any flaws. For example, we might say a diamond without
any flaws in its color, clarity, and the way it was cut is perfect (no
imperfections). Or, we might say to get into heaven by our own
works, a person would have to live a perfect life, that is, without
any sin. This is a common and well-understood way to use the
word perfect. There is another way of using the word perfect which
most people know. Besides meaning sinless, and in some cases
preferable to meaning sinless, the word perfect is used to
communicate something which is complete. For example, a
carpenter finishing a remodeling project might lay down his tools
and say, “Perfect!” Rather than implying there is no imperfection
or flaw in his work, he is more likely to mean, “Finished, I’m
done.” There is nothing he has to change or fix anymore. No more
improvements or adjustments are needed.

The job has been completed the way he wants. When an artist,
architect, or athlete is said to have perfected his craft, perfect is
used as a verb. It means not only has he or she done it well, but
they have also learned everything there is to know about doing it
well. Their mastery of their craft (in the eyes of the beholder) is
complete. One can imagine God saying at the end of each day of
creation, “Perfect,” meaning what he created on each day was both
good and finished - done just the way he wanted it to be. For the

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most part, we could put the blessings summarized in the nine
wonders of heaven into the category of perfect as in sinless. For
example, all the sinful aspects of dissension, conflict, and arguing
will be gone from our lives in heaven. All that will remain are the
sinless blessings of harmony, agreement, and not fighting over
things.

For the tenth bullet point of blessings in heaven, we will

reflect on some of God’s blessings in this life which are, of course,
good, but in a sense are incomplete. By taking those earthly
blessings into the new heaven and earth and transforming them,
God makes these blessings complete, finished, the way they were
meant to be all along. They will be perfect. Our time on this earth
is a blessing from God. However long it lasts, it is our time of
grace, but it comes to an end when we die. God did not intend
peoples’ sinless life to end when he created Adam and Eve. In the
new heaven and earth, our time of grace becomes complete, a
“time” of glory which never ends. We enjoy peace with God in this
life when we know our sins are forgiven and God is no longer
angry with us because of sin. In the new heaven and earth, we no
longer sin and need to be forgiven and reconciled to God. Jesus
perfected the work of redemption when he said, “It is finished,” on
the cross (John 19:30).

God the Father showed Jesus’ work of conquering sin and

death was complete when Jesus rose from the dead. The need to
overcome death is done. In the new heaven and earth, our peace
with God will not stem from the fact we are forgiven – that was
accomplished in this life. It will stem from the fact our new man is
without sin and lives in complete harmony and oneness with God.
What he wills, we will; what we want in life, he wants for us in
life. That is the way he wants it to be. In this life, we have the hope
of heaven which is a tremendous blessing. However, Paul says,

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“…hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he
already sees? (Romans 8:24). In the new heaven and earth, we will
see and enjoy all around us the blessing of God’s eternal salvation.
Our hope has been perfected and become a reality, which is what
God wanted for us all along. In this life, we have the joy of God’s
salvation to give us hope and bless our lives. But at the same time,
we rejoice in God’s salvation, we may also be enduring trial or
hardship of some kind. We may have feelings of sadness or
concern because we fear someone we love may not be saved. In
the new heaven and earth, our joy will be complete (perfect) with
no more sadness or regret of any kind, even over who is or who
isn’t in heaven. God promises it will be that way. See Revelation
21:3-4.

In this life, we can “…grow in the grace and knowledge of

our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). The more we
study God’s Word and ponder its truths, the more wisdom and
enlightenment the Holy Spirit will give us in the spiritual realities
of God’s ways. “If any one of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God,
who gives it to all without reservation and without finding fault,
and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). This is in keeping with
what the author of Hebrews urged his readers to do.

“Therefore, leaving the beginning discussion of Christ (i.e.,

Do not remain on the basic teachings of the gospel and be
content with just that), let us press on toward matters that
require greater maturity, not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works, of faith in God, of the
teaching about baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment and go on
to maturity (keep on building on your knowledge of the
gospel to learn more about God’s ways)…And God
permitting, we will do so” (Hebrews 6:1-3).

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 In this life, we will never reach a level of complete (perfect)
understanding of God’s ways. “O the depth of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his
judgments, and how untraceable his ways!” (Romans 11:33).
However, in the new heaven and earth, our enlightenment will be
perfect, that is, complete. “Now we see indirectly using a mirror,
but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I
will know fully, just as I was fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

God’s blessings upon us in this life are rich and beautiful, but
still enjoyed in an earthly realm where sin tarnishes everything. It
will not be so in the eternal realm of God’s new heaven and earth.
God’s desire for mankind to enjoy a blessed life with him will on
the last day be finally without any tarnishment of sin, perfect-
complete-forever. And as people enter into his eternal rest, God will
look upon all that he has done to fulfill his Promise and see that it
is good.

Chapter summaries
Finally, let us focus our attention on one last aspect of ‘perfect’
as it pertains to God’s entire plan of salvation. In essence, this is a
synopsis of this entire book as outlined by the chapter headings.

What God had in mind when he created the world was to share
the blessedness of his existence with his creation. In particular, his
goal was to share his blessed life with beings like him – made in
his image. Adam and Eve were made holy and sinless like God.
They had a free will in complete harmony with God’s will. Like
other creatures God created, they were given physical bodies to
live in this physical world. Unlike the other creatures God made,
they were also given a soul, a spiritual life like God’s existence as
a spirit. This included the attributes God possessed such as good,
kind, loving, patient, selfless – but not the divine attributes of
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almighty, all-knowing and present everywhere. In conjunction with
their free will, they were given an intellect and ability to reason far
above the other creatures. Because the earth with its creatures were
made to be Adam and Eve’s home, they were given the blessing of
managing the world they lived in and rule over it as their sinless
will and intellect directed them. It was God’s plan for Adam and
Eve to pass on the gift of life to their children, and their children to
the next generation and in turn to each succeeding generation
which followed. Created as sexual beings for that purpose, Adam
and Eve were given the directive to have children and fill the earth
with people. In this way the people he made in his image would
have the same loving fulfillment and joy of giving life to others
who were like them as God had. As beings made in God’s image,
Adam and Eve not only knew God, but could understand,
appreciate, and enjoy the fellowship they had with their Maker.
God could “walk” in the Garden and talk with them and enjoy the
company of their presence, just as they enjoyed the company of his
presence.

It was a wonderful life Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of

Eden. The world they lived in was filled with a multitude of life
forms enriching their lives immensely. There was beauty in the
world around them with the flowers, fields, meadows, grasses,
bushes, and trees in all their vast array and variety. There were
creatures of every sort which added to the daily enrichment of their
life experience. Some simply provided joy and pleasure as they
lived life in all its marvelous variety while other animals were also
useful in domesticated ways, helping Adam and Eve with their work
and companionship. All the animals lived together in peaceful
harmony with each other and with Adam and Eve. Nature itself
flourished, like a finely tuned orchestra, providing food, habitat,
purpose, and beauty in a harmonious balance of interrelated life
forms playing their part in the wonderful symphony of life God had
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composed. Adam and Eve lived productive and meaningful days as
they manicured, cultivated, and took care of the Garden God had
given them as their home and the animals around them. On top of it
all was the Tree of Life. By eating from the Tree of Life, Adam and
Eve and their descendants could live forever. God saw all he made
on each day of creation and called it good. It was a time when Adam
and Eve enjoyed the goodness of this blessed life in loving
relationship to each other and in loving harmony with their God.
Does this sound ideal? Does this sound like a perfect life? It was. It
was Paradise. This was the way God planned it. It was complete,
exactly the way God wanted it to be.

We all know Paradise didn’t last. God’s good purpose in

providing the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was to enable
Adam and Eve to grow in their spiritual maturity and attain a status
of confirmed righteousness. It didn’t happen. Satan with his
treacherous lies was intent on ruining the blessed life of God’s
creation; and he succeeded. Before they reached the maturity of
confirmed righteousness, Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation
and disobeyed God’s command. Adam and Eve’s disobedience
brought sin into this world with all its consequences. Big problem!
Paradise was lost. Instead of life forever, now there was death.
Instead of a bright and glorious future in blessed fellowship with
God, there was only a dark and hellish future separated from God’s
goodness. Instead of love and harmony with God, there was enmity
and distrust of God. Now all of creation was subjected to the
devastating effects of sin. Animals feared people; some animals
preyed on other animals; other animals fled to save their lives or
defended themselves as best they could. Because of sin, many
species would become extinct. The rest of nature had problems.
Now, working the soil has become difficult instead of a joy. Weeds,
thistles, pests, and blights added sweat and pain to one’s labor. The
birth of children was affected. Now, painful labor and sorrow
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would accompany the blessing and joy of a new life being brought
into this world. Storms and fires of destruction disrupted the
harmony of nature’s growth and beauty. Relationships with other
people were spoiled by envy, jealousy, arguments, fighting, and
lack of trust. Was there still any blessing to life? Yes, by God’s
grace there was and still is, but not like it was in the beginning.
The blessed life was not perfect any longer, not complete by a long
shot – most notably of all when it ended in death.

God had a solution to the imperfect blessedness of life and the

problem of death which plagues man’s existence on earth. Though
his wrath against sin was and is real, he was still a God of love. He
was still a God who cared for all his creation, and loved especially
the poor, painful, doomed lives of sinners to whom he had given
life. In his love, God promised to rescue people from the problems
they now faced because of sin. He promised Adam and Eve in the
Garden he would send one of Eve’s descendants who would crush
Satan’s power and save people from sin and death. It was the first
gospel promise after the fall into sin and it still applies.

God knew how important it would be to make appropriate

preparations before the descendant of the woman would come.
God knew how corrupted by sin and wicked people become when
they don’t love him and listen to what he says. As evidence of this,
great violence and wickedness prevailed in the world before the
Flood. Any human being sent to keep God’s Promise as the
descendant of the woman would have an exceptionally difficult
time remaining uninfluenced and unscathed by the sinful ways of
the world around him if that was all he experienced. So, God made
preparations for the descendant of the woman to be born in a
society where the word and will of God were ingrained in their
culture, and his promise of a Savior was clearly taught. He chose a
godly man to carry out his plans and had his descendants grow into

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a nation who honored him as God, and had his word, law and
gospel, to guide them. It wasn’t easy because the people he chose,
blessed and nurtured into a great nation as they were, often didn’t
want him as their God. Time and again they didn’t honor him as
God, despised his prophets and turned away from him to follow the
sinful ways of the nations around them. God rebuked, warned and
chastised his people with wars, oppression and captivity to bring
them to their senses. And then he would forgive, heal and bless
those who returned to him. It was a hard task using people who
were so often stubborn and rebellious to accomplish his purposes.
But God is faithful to his promises and keeps his word. The
teachings of his word were preserved, the godliness of those who
believed his word and promises was kept alive, the history of
other nations and empires was controlled and used by God for
his purposes and after many centuries the time of preparation
was finished.

When God’s preparations among his people were complete,

and his rule over the rest of the world had accomplished what he
needed, the time had come for God to keep the Promise he made in
the Garden. God did one last act of preparation by sending one last
prophet to prepare the way of the Lord, John the Baptist. John the
Baptist did so by announcing the Lamb of God’scoming and
calling for hearts of repentance and faith to receive him. And then,
without earthly fanfare, God presented the descendant of the
woman to the world with the glory of angels singing, the honor of
shepherds kneeling and the humility of a lowly birth in a cattle
stable. The eternal Son of God became also true man by taking on
the flesh of a human being through the virgin birth. He became the
second Adam with his human nature made sinless in God’s image
like the first Adam. He was truly a descendant of the woman
whose mission was to save mankind from sin and death. According
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to God’s plan, he was to accomplish what the first Adam had failed
to do – pass on God’s gift of a blessed life to all the inhabitants of
the world.

The second Adam performed his mission in life perfectly.

From early infancy and childhood on, through three years of public
ministry spent teaching, healing, helping and training his disciples,
to his final journey to the cross and tomb, he completed every
detail of God’s work of redemption as prescribed in the Old
Testament Scriptures. As our substitute, he lived the sinless life we
should have lived in fulfillment of God’s law and died the death for
sin we deserved as demanded by God’s law. And as he died on the
cross, he spoke volumes of truth when he said, “It is finished”
(John 19:30). The work of saving people from their sin as God had
Promised was done. His resurrection proved he had conquered
death. Everything needed to save all people from sin and death was
complete.

God’s plan of salvation, however, was still not complete. The

precious gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life still had to be
delivered to people to make it their own. God’s plan was to restore
people to the image of God as it had been in the original creation.
God’s plan was renewed when the Holy Spirit was sent to do his
work of sanctification (making people holy).The Holy Spirit
accomplished this part of God’s plan when he called people to faith
through the means of grace (the gospel in Word and Sacrament).
Faith in Jesus Christ changes people. In their hearts they now
honor God, love and trust him again as the first commandment
requires. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance and strength working in
them through the means of grace, the new man of faith within them
moves people to live sanctified lives (holy lives, set apart for God)
in harmony with God’s will. Being declared righteous by virtue of
Christ’s work of redemption (objective justification) leads to

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creating faith in our hearts (subjective justification) by the Holy
Spirit’s working. This change of heart creates righteous living in
word and deed. However, God does not force people to believe or
continue in faith against their will. On a daily basis, people
renewed in God’s image give in to the will of the sinful nature still
clinging to them and live unsanctified lives like the world does. If
they do not turn from their sins in repentance, it is possible for
people eventually to resist the Holy Spirit’s working completely. It
is possible to turn away from God in impenitence and unbelief and
lose God’s gift of a blessed life. God urgently warns people against
this tragedy. Living a sanctified life, therefore, becomes an
ongoing process which continues until the day people die. Since
the world is still standing, this part of the Holy Spirit’s work is
ongoing. The work of renewing and preserving people in God’s
image to believe in Christ and live godly lives will continue until
this world comes to an end.

Unfortunately, as the world continues on after the time of

Christ history will repeat itself. The Holy Spirit will continue his
sanctifying work of bringing people to faith, and renewing peoples’
spiritual lives in God’s image to live sanctified lives and produce
fruits of faith as the Spirit leads them. But just like before the
Flood, the overall quality of life in the world will deteriorate as
many believing children of God fall away from the Christian faith
and unbelief, wickedness and violence will get worse and worse.
To warn people of God’s impending judgment God will send
warning signs in nature, wars, loveless behavior among people,
even false teachings in churches. But few people will take heed
and be prepared for Jesus Christ’s second coming.

When this world comes to an end on the last day, the Holy
Spirit’s work of creating and preserving faith will be finished. The
resurrection on the last day and the transformation of all things into

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the new heaven and the new earth will complete God’s plan of
salvation. God’s Promise was kept. What the first Adam failed to
do with the fall into sin, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, did do by
rescuing us from our sin and sending the Holy Spirit to renew us in
God’s image through faith in Jesus Christ. Pause to reflect on these
glorious truths.

The old world and its sinfulness will be gone, destroyed by the
fires of God’s judgment. Those who are not renewed in God’s
image through faith in Jesus Christ will be gone, sent to their own
place in the eternal fires of God’s judgment without the blessed life
of God’s presence. Those who are renewed in God’s image and put
their trust in God’s salvation will have a blessed life in God’s
presence. Their bodies, without the sinful nature still clinging to
them, will be changed completely into sinless, glorified spiritual
bodies just like Jesus’ glorified body. Their wills, free of the
contamination of sin, will always be exercised in complete
harmony with God’s will. This sinful world, destroyed by God’s
judgment, will be raised up from its ashes and transformed into a
new spiritual earth without sin. The plant and animal kingdom,
also, will be delivered from the bondage of death and decay and
brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Instead of a separate world and a separate heaven, the new

world will be brought into and made a part of the new heaven.
Now, once again, there will be no sin on the earth; it has been
made a part of the new sinless heaven. Now, once again, the
creatures of the new earth will live without fear, in complete
harmony with each other and people to enrich the lives of both.
Now, once again, people will rule over God’s creation with God, to
the blessing of all as it was at the beginning.”This saying is
trustworthy: Indeed, if we have died with him (in faith), we will

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also live with him; If we endure, we will also reign with him…’” (2
Timothy 2:11-12).

Now, once again, God will live with his people to walk among
them, talk with them and bless the life of his people as he did at the
beginning. God’s plan of salvation to restore blessed life to a fallen
world will be complete. Man’s blessed life with God in the new
heaven and the new earth will be perfect, glorious and forever. To
God be all praise and glory.

Jerusalem the golden, With milk and honey blest –

The sight of it refreshes The weary and oppressed.
I know not, oh, I know not What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory, What bliss beyond compare.

They stand, those halls of Zion, All jubilant with song

And bright with many an angel And all the martyr throng.
The Prince is ever in them; The daylight is serene;
The pastures of the blessed Are ever rich and green.

There is the throne of David, And there, from care released,

The shout of them that triumph, The song of them that feast;
And they who with their leader Have conquered in the fight
Forever and forever Are clad in robes of white.

Oh, sweet and blessed country, The home of God’s elect!

Oh, sweet and blessed country That eager hearts expect!
Jesus, in mercy bring us To that dear land of rest;
You are with God the Father And Spirit ever blest.

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 Addendum One:
Spiritual Growth
The Scriptures speak often about the subject of spiritual
growth. As much as parents want and expect their children to grow
stronger mentally and physically as they reach adulthood, God
directs his children (believers) to grow spiritually. In their new
man they are called upon to develop into mature Christians in both
knowledge and sanctified living. One of the many passages
commonly used to make this point is recorded in the Apostle
Peter’s second letter. “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 3:18). This growth was
something God designed and arranged to cultivate in Adam and
Eve when they were first created. By following God’s command
not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and
Eve would experience the spiritual growth God wanted for them.
As has been noted by others, God’s plan for them was to grow from
“created innocence” to “conscious holiness.” By experience, they
would grow more consciously aware of how good and blessed it was
to live in harmony with God’s will and more consciously determined
to continue doing so.

Starting with this understanding of created innocence to

conscious holiness, it seems natural to envision an expanded - or
more detailed - description of spiritual growth in Christian lives.
Just as we recognize the development of our physical lives
progresses through the stages of infancy, toddler, child, adolescent,
teenager, young adult, adult, middle aged, senior citizen, old age, it
is possible to recognize different levels of spiritual growth which
the Scriptures speak of (without naming them as such). However,
there is one noteworthy difference. Living in a sinful world, with
our mortal sinful flesh still clinging to us, the natural growth of

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earthly life peaks physically at some point in young adulthood
before it begins to level off and then gradually decline.

Mentally, the intellectual growth of a person doesn’t reach the

maturity of sound decision-making, some say, until about the age of
35. And it can continue to grow for a longer period of time even as a
senior (varying according to time, circumstance, desire and
commitment of the individual to do so) before old age finally starts to
take its toll in the decline of mental capacity. Spiritual growth,
however, is not limited by a person’s aging process. The spiritual life
of a Christian takes place in his new man and is not something
physically bound to aging. One can continue growing and becoming
more mature as a child of God all his life without spiritually declining
(even if the mental capacities of the mind start to wane).

The following list is one way of breaking down spiritual

growth into categories with a description and sometimes Biblical
examples of each.

• Created innocence Babies are not born innocent. All people

are born dead in trespasses and sin. See Genesis 8:21, Psalm
51:5 and Ephesians 2:1. However, when the Holy Spirit works
faith in the heart of an individual, that person’s new man is
innocent and sinless. And as long as the new man of faith is
alive in an individual it will remain sinless. But it still needs to
grow, spiritually, into greater understanding and practice of
God’s ways as a child of God. Infants, especially, need to have
the new man of faith in them guided and instructed early on,
lest unattended to by parents, the sinful nature of that child is
allowed to gain control. Adam and Eve are the first and only
people made completely in created innocence without any sin.
However, they needed to grow in their spiritual life to a
conscious holiness, just as baptized children (and adults new in

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 the faith) need to grow in their understanding and practice of
the Christian faith.

• Conscious holiness Every person is born with a conscience. A

conscience, is the voice of God speaking in a person which
approves or disapproves of a person’s thoughts and actions
based on the natural law of God placed in him (opinion of the
law) and whatever revealed law of God a person has learned
from the written law (summarized in the 10 Commandments).
The voice of a person’s conscience, however, can be deadened
by constantly going against one’s conscience or can be misled
by the misinformation a person believes which is in conflict
with God’s law.

The voice of one’s conscience may be in harmony with

conscious holiness, but it is not the same thing as conscious
holiness. Conscious holiness operates only in the spiritual life
of the new man. To repeat the thought expressed in the section
on created innocence, just as the physical and mental
capabilities of a newborn baby begin to grow by experience and
teaching, so the holiness of a person reborn in God’s image by
the working of the Holy Spirit (new man) begins to develop by
experience and teaching. Nobody is surprised by the naivety
and lack of awareness of danger, etc. by a newborn child. In
the same way the sinless holiness of the (born again) new man
in a Christian needs to develop and grow in its awareness to
become more conscious of spiritual realities. This was the case
with Adam and Eve in their creation. Eve had not yet
developed enough in conscious holiness to be alert to the
danger she was facing and was deceived, but that was not the
case with Adam. He had developed enough in conscious holiness
to be “conscious” of the fact that eating of the forbidden fruit was

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wrong and willful disobedience to God’s command. He had not,
however, grown strong enough spiritually to be committed to
holiness.

Every Christian begins growing in conscious holiness as

they are taught godliness by their parents, family, and
friends in various circumstances. This is true also in children.
Consider two cases. Moses was nursed in infancy and raised as a
toddler to know the true God of Israel and God’s promises to his
people. Later, as an adult, when he was faced with a critical choice
of living according to worldly standards of earthly royalty or
remaining true to what he learned as a child, the Bible says
he made a “conscious of holiness” decision according to his
new man.

By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s

daughter when he grew up. He chose to be mistreated
with God’s people rather than enjoy sin for a little
while. He considered disgrace for the sake of Christ as
greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, because he
was looking ahead to his reward. (Hebrews 11:24-26)

As a child of God, the same “conscious holiness” to do

the right thing can be said of the Israelite maiden in 2 Kings,
chapter five. She had been captured by a raiding party from
Aram and made to be a servant girl to the wife of Naaman, the
commander of the king’s army. In her awareness of God’s will
to accept whatever circumstances of life God saw fit to allow,
she did not rebel and complain about her lowly status as a
slave girl in a foreign land. And acting in keeping with her
knowledge of the true God of Israel, she even showed
compassion for her masters and encouraged Naaman, who had
leprosy, to go to the prophet in Samaria to be healed.

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• Mature discernment The reality of growing in conscious
holiness can vary greatly depending on how well an individual
follows the will of his conscious holiness or gives into the
sinful will of the old Adam. It does not progress according to
physical age. A child of God who listens to the voice of his
conscience (rightly informed according to the knowledge of
God’s will) can become more conscious of holiness and
live accordingly as a child than an adult who does not.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for adult Christians to
become lax in their commitment to growing spiritually
throughout life. Their thinking at times can become spiritually
unmotivated according to the urging of their old Adam. It is
not uncommon for some Christians to try to balance their life of
faith with living the way other people in the world live. They
feel as long as they don’t fall into open, unrepentant sin and
continue in it, they can pursue the priorities, interests and goals
of the world like everyone else. This, in turn often results in
some earthly interests (like sports, or wealth, or popularity, or
travel, etc.-things which are not wrong in and of themselves)
taking priority in their life over spiritual treasures. Some
Christians start to rely on the fact they know Jesus is their
Savior and that’s all they need to know to go to heaven. This is
true enough, in itself, let us be clear about that. But it does put
their spiritual life at greater risk.

Failure to keep on growing spiritually puts Christians at

greater risk of letting the cares of this life choke out their faith,
of letting human reason challenge their faith, of letting times of
adversity undermine their faith, of letting indifference to
spiritual growth lead to laxity in Christian, sanctified living, of
letting the joys, treasures and loves of this life choke out faith.
Taking seriously the danger of worldly ways competing for
ownership of their heart is lost. All of this is a sign that growing

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in conscious holiness has become unimportant in one’s life. The
Bible warns, “So let him who thinks he stands be careful that
he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).
Failure to grow spiritually in conscious holiness is
precisely the reason God also strongly encourages Christians
to grow to mature discernment in their life of faith. In
Philippians, chapter three, the Apostle Paul speaks about how
important it is to not let the ways of the world - including the
worldly idea that our works will be enough to satisfy God and
gain heaven-interfere with spiritual growth and obtaining the
prize of heaven. Halfway through the chapter he writes:
Not that I have already obtained this or have already
reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for
which Christ Jesus also took hold of me. Brothers, I do
not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet, but there
is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind
and straining toward the things that are ahead, I press on
toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in
Christ Jesus. Therefore, let all of us who are mature
continue to think this way. And if you think differently
about anything, God will reveal this to you too. Only let
us think the same thing and walk in line with what we
already have attained. (Philippians 3:12-16).
Paul also described to the Ephesians the degree to which
mature discernment can uplift a person in his spiritual life
when he wrote:
Then, being rooted and grounded in love, I pray that you
would be able to comprehend, along with all the saints,
how wide and long and high and deep his love is, and that
you would be able to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled to all the
fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19).
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 Easily the clearest passage of Scripture which calls for
mature discernment in the life of a child of God is in Hebrews.
This passage combines a stern scolding of those who have not
grown in conscious holiness to a state of mature discernment,
with the God directed admonishment to do so without excuse.

We have much to say about this, and it is difficult to

explain, because you have become too lazy to listen. In
fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you
need someone to teach you the beginning principles of
God’s word all over again. You have become people who
need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk
is not acquainted with the word of righteousness, because
he is still an infant. But solid food is for mature people, who
have their senses trained by practice to distinguish between
good and evil. Therefore, leaving the beginning discussion
of Christ, let us press on toward matters that require greater
maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works, of faith in God, of the teaching about
baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the
dead, and of eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God
permits. (Hebrew 5:11-6:3)

It is sad to think many Christians in these last days where

godlessness - and the danger to succumb to it - is on the
increase, need this admonition and encouragement. But,
certainly, spiritual growth to a state of mature discernment is
something which many in the past have reached. We could list
any number of examples such as Noah’s faithfulness to God
and obedience to God’s command at a time of great wickedness
before the Flood; Abraham’s grasp of God’s promise when
directed to sacrifice Isaac; Job’s committed faithfulness to God
in the midst of extreme suffering; Joseph in Egypt resisting
temptation; Moses in his leadership of Israel; Daniel and his
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 faithfulness to God and godly leadership in high office in
captivity; the widow of Zarephath and her trust in God as she
and her child neared death; the Syrophenician woman before
Jesus ready to receive crumbs from the masters table; Mary
anointing Jesus’ feet ahead of time in recognition of his
upcoming burial. Mature discernment can be said also of
Hannah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Simeon, and Anna in the
Temple, Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles,
Martin Luther and other reformers and many, many others
including fathers, mothers and everyday lay people in every
walk of life. It’s not as if reaching a state of mature discernment
is rare and hard to achieve by God’s blessing upon the
conscientious life of faith growing spiritually among God’s
faithful. This means, of course, that mature discernment is by
no means unattainable for the child of God today who takes
spiritual growth seriously.

• Secure in faith It may be difficult to grasp the concept that

being secure in faith comes after a state of mature
discernment. After all, all Christians would like to think and,
according to God’s promises, can think of being secure in
faith. This is because those who in their hearts know Jesus is
their Savior and trust in God’s promise of eternal life to
believers, can be secure in their faith. Heaven is waiting for
them. However, even in the state of mature discernment and
feeling secure in the assurance of God’s promise of eternal life
for believers, Christians still know they need to be on guard
spiritually. The appeal of the world, the cravings of our old
Adam, the conniving of the powerful enemy Satan who is out
to destroy God’s children, as well as love for anything else
before God, can still lead people astray. God does not want
any Christian to stop being on guard against the devil, the
world and our flesh and become self-secure in their faith in a

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complacent way. The stakes are too high. Giving in to
temptation, becoming impenitent in sin and falling away from
faith are still possible as long as we are alive in this world. For
this reason, God provides another encouragement for those who
continue to grow in faith and live ever-increasing sanctified lives
as a result of the Holy Spirit giving them mature discernment.
And this has to do with the assurance God gives in the matter of
not falling away from faith in Christ. Even here, it is still possible
for those who have reached a state of secure faith, as God
describes it, to fall away, for we are still sinners capable of
turning away from God’s goodness. But to those who genuinely
practice what God encourages in lives of Christian growth, not
done from a platform of having to obey God’s law, but sincerely
from the heart of faith (new man) which desires to live in
keeping with God’s will, God gives this assurance in the second
letter of Peter:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life

and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us
by his own glory and excellence. Through these he has
given us his precious and great promises so that through
them you may share in the divine nature, having escaped
from the corruption that sinful lust causes in the world.

And, for this very reason, after applying every effort, add
moral excellence to your faith. To moral excellence, add
knowledge. To knowledge, add self-control. To self-control,
add patient endurance. To patient endurance, add
godliness. To godliness, add brotherly affection. And to
brotherly affection, add love. For if you have these qualities
and they are increasing, they are going to keep you from
being idle or unfruitful in regard to your knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ. (God’s gracious gospel promises lead to
faith and, as a result of being renewed in God’s image by
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 faith, the new man in us is able to live in keeping with God’s
will and escape the corruption of sinful behavior which our
old Adam and the world advocate.) (2 Peter 1:3-9)

Following an interlude of one verse describing the

spiritual blindness and forgetfulness of those who do not live
Christian lives as called for by God, Peter continues;

Therefore, brothers, be more eager to make your calling

and election sure for yourselves. For if you do these
things, you will never stumble. In fact, in this way you will
be richly supplied with an entrance into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter
1:10-110)

“If” you do these things, you will never fall away from
saving faith in Jesus Christ. A person can fall from faith; there
are examples of this given in Scripture (Cain, King Saul, Judas,
possibly Demas who deserted Paul because he loved the
world, (2 Timothy 4:10). But if you continue producing fruits
of faith readily from a heart of faith desirous to do God’s will -
not because you “have to” - you will not fall away. From
God’s perspective, a Christian’s election to faith and eternal
life has always been sure, never in doubt in the realm of God’s
eternal kingdom. But, from a Christian’s earthly perspective, there
are times when - for whatever sinful weakness or behavior - a
person may wonder whether he truly is one of God’s elect. Here is
God’s assurance. Keep on producing fruits of faith willingly from
a heart of faith, and you can be sure you are one of God’s elect.

It is more difficult to identify those who produce the

evidence of continual spiritual growth and Christian living to
qualify for the description “secure in faith.” Do not question,
however, that there are many who do. To be safe, we will only
refer to a few who from our point of view would fit such a
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 description. Men like Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who
walked with God in wicked and violent times (Genesis 5:21-24)
and condemned the wickedness he saw in the world in no
uncertain terms (Jude, vs. 14-15) and Elijah, the faithful prophet
of God who carried out his ministry with zeal for God’s honor
when apostasy in Israel was rampant (See 1 Kings, chapters 17-
19 and 2 Kings, chapter two) are two examples of individuals
secure in faith. God took both men directly to heaven without
dying. God did not do this because they were better men than
others in their godliness and deserved heaven. Rather, we
conjecture that God, in his grace, chose to spare them further
conflict and grief, fighting for the faith at a time when
wickedness and unbelief prevailed all around them. They were
secure in their faith, so God took them directly to heaven. There
were others who were secure in faith and, at the time of death,
were escorted by angels to heaven. We feel confident enough
to suggest people like Moses, Job, Simeon, Anna, Mary and
Martha, John, Peter, Paul, Dorcas, John Hess, Martin Luther (to
name onlya few) and others like them were secure in their faith
as evidenced by the life of Christian sanctification they lived. Are
there Christians alive today who qualify as being secure in faith?
Yes! God knows who they are, as well as the individuals
themselves.

• Confirmed in righteousness The last state of spiritual growth is

possible only in heaven. As long as people are still alive on this
earth, including those who are secure in faith, they are still
sinners. They still have a sinful old Adam to fight against in
themselves. There is no state of perfect holiness without sin
possible for those who still have a sinful nature clinging to them.
Only when people die in Christian faith and go to heaven - or are
taken directly before God’s throne of judgment while still alive
on the last day - and receive the glorified bodies God promises
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when they are raised up or transformed on the last day, are they
finally free of their old sinful nature. Their new glorified bodies will
be like Christ’s glorious body, completely sinless. Though they will
have a free will to speak and act as they choose, they will not sin.
They have no sinful nature to lead them to sin, no sinful world
around them to tempt them to sin, nor any reason whatsoever to
cause them to go back to a life of sin. They have benefited from
their spiritual growth on earth to reach this state and will not be
deceived. All of God’s children will become like the holy angels
of God - confirmed in righteousness. To God be all praise and
glory.

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 Addendum Two:
The Man of God from Bethel
Reflect for a moment on a perplexing example of God’s
strictness in exacting death as a punishment for disobedience as
recorded in 1 Kings 13. It is the account of the man of God from
Judah sent to Bethel to prophesy against King Jeroboam for defying
God’s command not to introduce idolatry in Israel. God had given the
man of God from Judah a clear command. He was not to eat bread or
drink any water while he was on his mission and was to return home a
different way than the one he came. The man of God obeyed. After
carrying out his assignment, he refused any food or gift from
Jeroboam and started to return on a different road than the one he had
taken to come to Bethel. Word traveled quickly and an old prophet
from Bethel heard from his sons what had happened. So, he had his
sons quickly saddle his donkey, and he went to catch the man of
God from Judah and invite him to his home for a meal. The man of
God from Judah told the old prophet what God had commanded him
and once again obeyed God, refusing the invitation. But the old
prophet from Bethel lied to him. He said he, too, was a prophet and
God had sent him the word of the Lord by an angel with the message to
bring the man of God back to his home and give him something to eat
and drink. So, the man of God went with the old prophet to his home.
While they were at the table eating and drinking the word of the Lord
came to the old prophet. Now he was to pronounce God’s judgment
on the man of God from Judah for defying the Word of God and not
doing as he had been commanded. After the meal, the man of God left
to return home but encountered a lion on the path, which attacked and
killed him, but not his donkey. Passers-by saw the body of the man in
the road with both the donkey and the lion simply standing there where
the body lay. In town, the old prophet heard about this, went out to the
spot, and saw the body lying on the ground with the lion and the
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donkey still standing there. He took the body home, buried it in his
own tomb, and mourned over his death in fulfillment of God’s
decree, saying, “Oh, my brother!” Then he told his sons to bury him
next to the man of God from Judah when he died. It was to be a
testimony the word of prophecy the man of God from Judah had
declared against the altar in Bethel would come true.

Why the old prophet would lie to the man of God and
convince him to come with him to eat and drink is perplexing. He
obviously was acting on his own because nothing is said about God
commanding the old prophet to do such a thing, or why he did it. One
possible explanation is the old prophet had been greatly disturbed by
the idolatry Jeroboam had introduced in Israel. Jeroboam’s defiance
of God’s command to worship and sacrifice at the Temple in
Jerusalem and instead set up an altar of idolatry to lead God’s
people astray was an abomination. It was an absolute travesty,
repulsive to the old prophet as well as to God. It filled his heart with
indignation, but he was an old prophet, and nobody was listening to
him. Perhaps, he had even given up trying.

However, now he heard about the man of God from Judah

announcing God’s curse on Jeroboam’s cursed altar of idolatry at
Bethel. He was so pleased to hear what had happened and how it
supported how he felt he wanted to be a part of it. He wanted to show
his support for the man of God from Judah and his message. So, he
convinced the man of God to come to his home and be refreshed with
food and drink. The inhabitants of Bethel would be able to see how he
was siding with God’s ways and not Jeroboam’s way. But it was not
God’s way. He had deceived the man of God from Judah with a lie,
and for his punishment, the old prophet had to pronounce God’s
judgment on the man of God from Judah for not obeying God’s
command. How it must have grieved the old prophet to utter those
words and know he was the one who misled the man of God and

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brought this judgment of God upon him. He did mourn for him and,
no doubt, deeply regretted what he had done.

What’s more, now the man of God’s death in such a strange way
could be misinterpreted by the people of Bethel to mean God was
against what he had done at the altar of Bethel. How things can
backfire when God’s ways are not taken seriously. The old prophet
did mourn for the man of God from Judah and tried to rectify the
wrong impression he was responsible for giving to the people. He
directed his sons to bury him next to the man of God from Judah after
he died, to testify to people the man of God’s pronouncement on the
false idol at Bethel was God’s will and would come true.

The above paragraphs are a plausible explanation of why the

old prophet of Bethel acted the way he did.

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 Addendum Three:
They ear of Jubilee explanation for
Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus
The three sets of fourteen generations in Matthew’s genealogy
of Jesus’ ancestry add up to a total of 42 generations. The Peoples’
Bible volume on Luke (NPH, published 1996) speculates on one
possible explanation noting 42 is 6 x 7 (the holy number of 7). It
then opines one more (and last) set of 7 would equal 49. Forty-nine
years in Israel’s culture leads up to the Year of Jubilee (every 50th
year). The Year of Jubilee was the year when slaves would be set
free, and those who had lost their family’s inheritance of land
could reclaim it again. In a symbolic sense, then, Jesus’ life
ushered in the last and great Jubilee for the whole world. It would
be the celebration when all people would be set free from slavery
to sin and God’s children would be able to reclaim their eternal
inheritance in the heavenly Father’s home.

Bible scholars will also recall the number 42 is used in

Revelation 11:2 for the figurative 42 months Gentiles will trample
on the holy city before it is set free. That would represent the
control of Gentile nations over Jerusalem and God’s people until
Jesus came to fulfill God’s Promise. Forty-two months also equals
three and a half years, which some associate with the time, times,
and a half a time referred to in Daniel 12:7. There, the message
points to the end times when all the prophecies contained in
Daniel’s visions will be fulfilled. In the last times the power of the
holy people is finally broken by the wickedness that prevails in the
earth (when Satan is loosed for a season) and will culminate with
the final judgment (Daniel 12:1-6).

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 However, the numbers are to be interpreted; it seems clear the
coming of Jesus will usher in the fulfillment of all of God’s
prophecies. It will end with the judgment of the last day and God’s
blessing of eternal life for all who believe.

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 Addendum Four:
The role of the Old Covenant as it
prepared the way for the beginning of the
New Covenant when Jesus instituted the
Lord’s Supper
A clarification is helpful to understand properly the difference
between the Old Testament Covenant God established with Israel
at Mt. Sinai and the New Testament Covenant Jesus established
with his people on the night of the Passover Feast and later ratified
on Mt. Calvary. The Old Testament Covenant was a covenant of
law and is often called the Sinaitic Covenant because it was at Mt.
Sinai in the wilderness where God gave his civil, moral and
ceremonial laws to the people through Moses. This was right after
the people of Israel survived the tenth and last plague God had
inflicted on the land of Egypt by observing the Passover meal as
God directed and were delivered from slavery in Egypt.

It is fair to say observing the annual Passover meal to

remember their deliverance became the de facto national meal, the
centerpiece of remembering the covenant God had established with
them. The conditions of the covenant were simple. You keep my
laws and stay faithful to me, and I will be your God and will bless
you, God said. And the blessings were abundant. They included,
but were not limited to: blessings of fruitful family life, rich and
productive land with bountiful harvest, prosperity as a nation,
victories in battle, prominence among the nations, God himself
being their leader (later came kings), a God prescribed worship life
(ceremonial laws) and, most important of all, the prophets God
sent to guide them with his will and prophecy of the coming Savior
from sin – the anointed one – who would come from their nation.

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It’s not hard to see why God was so attentive to them, and so intent
on keeping them a godly people who knew his will, obeyed his
laws, and believed his promises. Hint, … chapter Five… God was
preparing the way for keeping his Promise in the Garden through
them. The fact is, however, Israel often did not always follow
God’s ways and stay faithful to him. They wanted to be like the
nations around them. And, as God warned, they suffered the
consequences of his chastisements and judgments as a result. God
worked so hard to keep his plans in place to use their nation as the
training ground for the second Adam.

In all of this, it is important to remember God’s Old Testament

Covenant with his people – the Sinaitic Covenant of the law – was
an earthly covenant with one nation. It provided that nation with
earthly blessings as God’s people, but did not save them. That is
not to say the earthly blessing of sending prophets to teach them
God’s Word, law and gospel, wasn’t a great blessing which would
reap spiritual benefits when believed. God, very much, wanted his
people to believe his promise of a Savior and be his people also
spiritually in their hearts. They were the ones who received those
spoken and written prophecies before everyone else. They had first
dibs, to use a colloquial term, to hear the gospel and believe. Jesus
was sent, first of all, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

However, simply being a member of God’s Old Testament

Covenant people did not save them. Having Abraham, the father of
believers, as their father did not save them. Obeying all the
ceremonial laws “religiously” did not earn them forgiveness before
God. Dying as a good citizen of the nation of Israel did not get
them to heaven. The way of salvation to eternal life from the
beginning of the world, before Abraham was born, before Israel
ever became a nation, during all the time Israel was God’s people,
after Israel turned away from God and lost their status as God’s

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people, to the last day of this world’s history, has been and always
will be the same: faith in God’s promise of a Savior. It is the faith
which in the Old Testament trusted God would keep his Word,
looked forward to the “descendant of the woman” being born and
believed he would do what was necessary to save people. It is the
same faith which in the New Testament now looks back in time
and trusts what Jesus did millennia ago to pay for our sins and
deliver us from eternal death does save us.

Faith in Jesus Christ saves. That’s what his God appointed

name means: the one whom God anointed to save us from our sins.
It’s what the angel told Joseph to name him before his birth, “…you
are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from
their sins” (Matthew 1:21). It’s the truth every Christian church has
confessed every century since Jesus died and rose again, “Foreseeing
that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, Scripture proclaimed the
gospel in advance to Abraham, saying, “In you, all nations will be
blessed.” So then, those who have faith are blessed along with
Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:8-9). It’s the very center
of the good news that God has kept his Promise of a Savior. “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life”
(John 3:16).

That, in essence, is what Jesus was doing on the night of his

last supper on earth when he celebrated the Passover meal with his
disciples, the charter meal of the Old Covenant. He was replacing
it with a new covenant for whoever would be God’s people based
solely on faith in him as the world’s Savior from sin. And he gave
them a new meal to eat as the charter meal of the New Covenant,
the Lord’s Supper, so his people might remember him. They were
to eat and drink this meal so that they would remember how he
gave his body and blood into death to save us from our sins and

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Satan’s hell, and be strengthened in faith. This New Covenant is no
longer based on keeping the law to remain his people because he
fulfilled all the law for us. This New Covenant does not promise us
earthly blessings as part of our covenant relationship with God,
although God still bestows his earthly blessings measured to each
as he wills. What the New Covenant does promise us in the way of
earthly life is often the opposite of worldly blessings. As his
people, we often have to suffer trials and hardships (See Acts
14:22) and the hatred and persecution of the world because it hates
him and us who are his children (See John 15:18-20). What the
New Covenant promises us spiritually, however, is all good. All
that really matters in life he bestows on us in abundance: the
knowledge that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, peace with
God, the hope of heaven, comfort in all tribulation, strength to face
whatever we must in life, the assurance that we are God’s children,
confidence to pray and know that he will hear us and answer our
prayers with what he knows is best, and all other spiritual blessings
that God has bestowed on us because of the work of redemption
that Jesus completed for us.

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 Addendum Five:
Martin Luther’s Explanation of the
Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper
1. Holy Communion is a Sacrament

The Question: What is the sacrament of Holy Communion?

The Answer: It is the true body and blood of our Lord

Jesus Christ together with the bread and wine, instituted by
Christ for us Christians to eat and drink.

The Question: Where is this written?

The Answer: The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke,

and the Apostle Paul tell us: The Lord Jesus, on the night
he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given
thanks, he broke it, gave it to his disciples and said, “Take
and eat. This is my body, which is given for you; do this in
remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he
took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to them, and said,
“Drink from it, all of you. This cup is the new covenant in
my blood, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness
of sins. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of
me.”

2. The Blessings of Holy Communion

The Question: What blessing do we receive through this

eating and drinking?

The Answer: That is shown us by these words, “Given and

poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Through these
words, we receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in
this sacrament. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is
also life and salvation.

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3. The Power of Holy Communion

The Question: How can eating and drinking do such

great things?

The Answer: It is certainly not the eating and drinking that

does such things, but the words, “Given and poured out for
you for the forgiveness of sins.”These words are the main
thing in this sacrament, along with the eating and drinking.
And whoever believes these words has what they plainly
say, the forgiveness of sins.

4. Receiving Holy Communion

The Question: Who, then, is properly prepared to receive

this sacrament?

The Answer: Fasting and other outward preparations may

serve a good purpose, but he is properly prepared who believes
these words, “Given and poured out for you for the
forgiveness of sins.” But whoever does not believe these
words or doubts them is not prepared, because the words
“for you” require nothing but hearts that believe.

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 Addendum Six:
Thoughts about Simon of Cyrene and his
family after God used him as the cross-
bearer for Jesus on Good Friday
Little is known about Simon of Cyrene other than the
conjecture he was probably a Jew who lived in Cyrene and was
returning to Jerusalem at this time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
He was simply one of those persons who was in the wrong place at
the wrong time, perhaps even was reluctant to carry the cross of
Jesus for Matthew, Mark, and Luke report he was seized and made
(forced) to carry the burden of Jesus’ cross. In actuality, however, he
was in the right place at the right time as far as his soul was
concerned. Whatever his spiritual status was in regard to his belief in
God’s promise of a Savior is not told to us. But whatever it was at
that moment, we can safely conclude if he wasn’t a devout child of
God at that time, he became one. Mark adds the significant historical
note that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21),
undoubtedly because by the time Mark wrote his Gospel, those two
brothers were known to others as fellow believers. It is this author’s
opinion Simon of Cyrene was already a believer in God’s promise,
and God chose to give him the honor of carrying the cross of Christ
for Jesus. If that was not the case, what Simon of Cyrene did on this
day, and saw and heard at the cross and learned about afterward was
used by God to touch his soul and make him a child of God who in
turn shared his experience and his beliefs with his family. Later, Paul
also refers to Simon’s wife and one of his sons, Rufus, as those to
whom he sends his greetings in his letter to the believers in Rome
(Romans 16:13).

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 Addendum Seven:
Jesus' “seven words” spoken on the cross
1. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing” (Luke 23:34).

2. “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”

(Luke 23:43).

3. “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is

your mother” (John 19:26-27).

4. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? —which means, ‘My God, my

God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46; Mark
15:34).

5. “I am thirsty” (John 19:28).

6. “It is finished” (John 19:30).

7. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

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 Addendum Eight:
An illustration from the business world to
depict how all three persons of the Trinity
worked in harmony to accomplish God’s
plan of salvation
Salvation Incorporated

There is a company which has been in business for a very long

time. In fact, it was in operation before the world began because it
was responsible for bringing the whole universe into existence.
The rich and powerful ownership group of this company was
called the Trinity Network. The three partners of this company
were all of like mind; they were equal in their abilities and wealth
and united in the mission and objectives of what they wanted to
accomplish with their company. The company was called “Blessed
Life Incorporated” becausethat was the owners’ goal. They wanted to
create beings who could enjoy with them their blessed life of peace,
oneness and glory. The Father of the Trinity Network was the head of
the Design and Engineering Division of Blessed Life Incorporated.
His wisdom and counsel took the lead as he consulted with the other
members of the ownership group to design the universe and
engineer how the foundations of the earth would be laid. Therefore,
God the Father is given credit for creating and preserving the world
and all the life in it. “(The Lord his God (is) the Maker of heaven
and earth, the sea and everything which is in them” (Psalm 146:6;
read also Psalm 145).

The head of the company had a son who was put in charge of
the Production Division. As the words of creation were spoken, the
son went into action and made everything the plans called for. At
the start of his Gospel John writes, “In the beginning was the

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Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
with God in the beginning. Through him everything was made;
without him not one thing was made that has been made” (John
1:1-3). This passage helps us identify the wisdom who is
personified in Proverbs 8. “The LORD possessed me at the beginning
of his way, before his works of long ago. From eternity I was
appointed, from the beginning, from before the origin of the earth”
(Proverbs 8:22-23). In Colossians, Paul writes of God’s Son, who
became true man, “…for in him all things were created, in heaven
and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him
and for him. He is before all things, and all things hold together
in him” (Colossians 1:16-17). The Son’s work of producing
everything God the Father called for included the different ranks
and authority of heavenly beings called angels.

The head of the third division of Blessed Life Incorporated

was the Holy Spirit. His responsibility was to deliver a spirit of a
life to the world the Son had made according to the Father’s plan.
The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters of the deep on the first
day watching over everything being created, ready to give life to
God’s creation. On the sixth day, all the plans for God’s creation
culminated to bring into existence the highest form of life for
which God had been preparing. This was the being the Father had
designed and the Son had formed from the dust of the earth (Adam
means from the earth or ground). God then breathed life into the
nostrils of the creature made from the dust of the earth and man
became a living being (Genesis 2:7). The breath of life was the Holy
Spirit working. He made Adam come alive by giving him the
physical ability to live with lungs to inhale and exhale air and a heart
to pump blood, transporting life and giving oxygen to every member
of the body. But that was not all, not even the main thing. More

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importantly, the Holy Spirit also made the man come alive
spiritually by giving him a spiritual life like God’s called a soul.
Then God took one of the man’s ribs and made a woman and
brought her to Adam to be his wife. Done! The blessed life God had
was given also to the creatures God made in his image. And God
saw everything he made was good.

It was good – the world and life God created. Everything

Blessed Life Incorporated manufactured was only the highest
quality, and life in Paradise was good. But, as things often go now,
it didn’t last. It didn’t last because one of the disgruntled servants
of the company tried to usurp the authority of the Trinity Network
by instigating a hostile takeover. His name (after the fact) was
Satan which means adversary, or enemy. Satan had been created to
be perfect together with other spiritual beings called angels
sometime at the beginning or during the six days of creation.

Side point: God’s creation of life seems to follow the principle

everything in the physical realm of life is patterned after life and
truth in the spiritual world. In other words, first, the reality of
spiritual life and then physical life are built on the blueprint of
spiritual life. Think of God creating man in his own image. So, it
seems fair to conjecture angels were made in the same way. The day
on which the angels were created is not stated in the account of
creation. There is a hint, however, to suggest it was possibly on the
very first day of creation. Concerning the foundations of the earth
being laid in the book of Job, God records, “Where were you when I
laid the foundation of the earth... Who determined its dimensions…
Who set its cornerstone in place… when the morning stars sang
loud songs together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job
38:4-6). First, there was spiritual life on the first day according to
their different ranks of power and authority as angels, followed by
the beginning of the physical world’s foundation. Then, on a later

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day, God created the different categories of physical beings based on
the blueprint of spiritual beings (angels) created earlier. And then,
finally, came the highest point of God’s creation, the beings made in
God’s own image with a body and a soul, Adam and Eve. As stated
above, this is only conjecture. Regardless, in the spiritual world
Satan had been blessed to receive a lofty position as one of the
highest-ranking officials in Blessed Life Incorporated.

Satan was created in a perfect (sinless) state, but he had not

yet matured into a perfected (completed) state of being confirmed
in righteousness. Instead of being thankful and faithful, Satan was
filled with pride and wanted more. Why should the ownership
group of the Trinity Network have all the authority and get all the
respect? In his pride, Satan led other angels to join him in a rebellion
to take over the company. But he failed, and he and his co-
conspirators were fired. They were expelled from the company
headquarters never to enjoy a blessed life with God again. Filled
with rage, Satan went down to earth to try to get back at God by
ruining the blessed life of God’s creation on earth. His goal was not
only to ruin the blessed life Adam and Eve enjoyed with God, but to
win them over to his side. He intended to get them to join him in the
rebellion against God he had started. And he succeeded. He ruined
the perfect life Adam and Eve had with God. He separated them
from the blessed life of God’s love which God had designed to last
forever and succeeded in getting them to join his side. Only they
were not loved employees, they were tricked into becoming his
slaves with death now brought into their existence. Satan had started
the first dark web company working behind the scenes with evil
intent to defraud people. He worked very hard to get people to buy
his product of fake life, glitzy and sugary at first bite, but soon bitter
and filled with deadly poison—instead of faithfully using the
product made by Blessed Life Incorporated which the Trinity
Network freely distributed to them. Satan’s long-term goal was to
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engage in human trafficking. He wanted to deceive, enslave,
oppress, and rule over people to make life miserable for them and
ultimately deprive them of a blessed life with God forever. Yes,
Satan succeeded in destroying the blessed life which God had given
to the first people. And by virtue of passing on their now corrupted
nature to their descendants, the first Adam and his wife passed on
also the genetic disposition of enmity against God—and death.

Fortunately, evil does not defeat good, not permanently, not

forever. Mighty is not stronger than almighty. Hatred does not
overcome love; it can only oppose and oppress it. Darkness cannot
overcome light. Darkness may employ walls, curtains, and clouds
to block out light, but it must always flee when light shines forth.
Put darkness and light into the same room and light always wins.
Put foolishness and arrogance into the same classroom with
wisdom and compassion, and foolishness always fails, while
wisdom passes with highest honors.

So, it is with the Trinity Network and their charitable

company, Blessed Life Incorporated. The ownership group of the
Trinity Network was in full possession of all the resources needed
to withstand the attempts of Satan’s dark web company to steal
their customer base. They had the know-how, and the compassion,
and the ability and the determination to not only withstand Satan’s
efforts to destroy life but to flourish in spite of him. The
environment in which they had to do business, however, was
drastically changed by sin. They had to use new strategies in order
to compete with the dark web Death Demon, and in the end put
him out of business. Fortunately, they had their backup plan
already in place when they started their business of Blessed Life
Incorporated because they had foreseen what would happen. And
they rebranded their product accordingly. To reflect the new
emphasis on promoting their product of life, they renamed their

526
company and changed it from “Blessed Life Incorporated” to
“Salvation Incorporated.”

The basic product the ownership group produced remained the

same: Life. But there were new steps and procedures needed for its
production in view of the new normal on earth. Their focus shifted
from giving a blessed life to people, to saving people from death so
they could enjoy a blessed life with God again. The responsibilities
each member of the ownership group had to accomplish this
new goal remained the same as in Blessed Life Incorporated.
The Father was still the head of the Design and Engineering
Department; the Son remained in charge of the Production
Department, and the Holy Spirit was still in charge of Sales and
Delivery (of the blessed gift of life). The backup plan the Father had
designed to update the Blessed Life they produced was now released
as ‘Blessed Life 2.0—The Saved Life.’ To implement it a lot of hard
decisions had to be made. The first was shelving the plans for
propagating the good life put in place in the original version of The
Blessed Life. After much trial and hardship this was finally
accomplished by destroying the original order of creation with a
Flood and starting over to repopulate the earth.

The contingency plan designed in the beginning was now

implemented. It included drafting plans to choose someone who
could be used to become a nation and provide a God-fearing culture
in which the second Adam could be raised. And it was not just one
nation on which the Father focused his attention. He saw to it other
nations were included in his plans to liberate his people. These other
nations were dispatched to do what was needed in the world to enable
Salvation Incorporated’s goal of saving lives to go forward. During
the centuries after the Flood, the Son continued his role of faithfully
doing the work the Father had designed to make salvation of life
possible. Among other things, he carried out his assignment to
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strike down the firstborn in the tenth and last plague upon Egypt
(See Exodus 12:1, 12, 23, 29). He was the Pillar of Cloud and Fire
and the spiritual Rock which led and nourished God’s people in the
wilderness (See 1 Corinthians 10:4). He was the angel of the Lord
who interacted with God’s people on numerous occasions in Old
Testament history (See Genesis 22:11, Exodus 3:2, Judges 13 entire
chapter, especially verses 17-23, 2 Kings 1:3 for only a few
examples). And he was the one who fought against the prince of the
Persian kingdom (Satan, in the realm of spiritual warfare) and who
was supported by Michael the archangel in the struggle between
good and evil in Persia.

This was the time Satan tried to use the secular rulers of the
Medes and Persians to keep God’s people from returning to their
homeland (See Daniel chapter 10). During these years the Holy
Spirit was still the life giver who instilled and preserved faith in God’s
Promise so Old Testament believers might be saved (See references
such as Psalm 51:10-12, Isaiah 63:11, and Job 33:4 as well as the
connection between the breath of the wind and the Spirit of God
giving life in the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37:1-14).

In all these ways the three Persons of the Trinity Network

continued to carry out their roles in the rebranded company of
Salvation Incorporated and labored faithfully at their respective
duties in the centuries before Jesus Christ was born. Their combined
efforts kept the company goal of saving lives for all people on track.
They were laying the groundwork for the time the descendant of the
woman would be born to fulfill the Promise God made in the
Garden of Eden.

The time finally arrived. After centuries of working toward the

goal of saving peoples’ lives, the combined efforts of the Trinity
Network came to fruition. The time was right for the second Adam
to be born. In a well-known passage from his letter to the
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Galatians, Paul writes, “… But when the set time had fully come,
God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born
under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we
would be adopted as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

All by himself the head of the Manufacturing Division followed

all the eternal blueprints and instructions the Design and
Engineering Division had developed and produced the product of
salvation. He made it a reality. In this way he restored the blessed
life for people which the first Adam lost in the Garden. People now
have the full right to inherit, enjoy, and share with others all the
blessedness of life that God bequeaths to his children. And, as is the
case when one is the beneficiary of a will, Jesus’ death had to occur
in order for the blessings to be distributed. In a similar way, we will
receive the perfect version of God’s blessed life, untainted by any
remnants of sin when we die and go to heaven. For now, there are
boxes containing eternal salvation, one each for every person in the
world, stored in the warehouses of Salvation Incorporated, waiting
to be delivered.

This is the Holy Spirit’s business – the Sales Department. He

had been working faithfully in Old Testament times to bring life to
people by inspiring the Holy Scriptures to be written and, through
it and the preaching of the prophets, bring people to faith in God’s
Promise. Now, the Holy Spirit expanded the target market of
Salvation Incorporated dramatically. It was time to branch out and
operate all over the world as the big mammoth spiritual company
whose goal was to get the life-saving product of eternal salvation
into the hands of everyone - to whomever they could convince to
buy it. Only this product took so long to develop in the planning
stages and was so costly to produce in the production stage no one
could afford it; the cost was prohibitive. And so, as they intended all

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along, the ownership group of Salvation Incorporated, called the
Trinity Network, graciously resolved to give it away.

The Holy Spirit has his distribution centers scattered

throughout the world called churches. And his volunteers operating
out of these churches go out into the world and do not sell this
product of eternal salvation, but give it away. They tell people
about it and show them how it has changed their lives. They
encourage people: “Take it, it’s free; try it, you’ll like it.”“Here,
read the label on the box: ‘This will give you peace!’” Not only
that, when they do try it, when people take and use this gift of life
the Holy Spirit delivers to them, their whole lives will be changed.
It’s like a new medicine enters their body and changes who they
are and how they live life. Not only do they have peace with God,
they have a new attitude toward God. They become new people who
are like God in the way they think, act, and love others like God
does. They enjoy life more, even though there are still hardships,
trials, and sorrows to face in this world of sin. This is the blessed life
of peace, hope, love, and oneness with God which people have
when the Holy Spirit has succeeded in working faith in Jesus Christ
in their hearts.

The eleven paragraphs above are a lengthy illustration of

God’s plan of salvation. They weave into the illustration Scriptural
passages and personal thoughts to aid in understanding the points
being made. To simplify the entire illustration the following outline
can be used.

As part of the original order of creation, the company can be

referred to as Blessed Life Incorporated.

After the fall into sin, the company is renamed to reflect the
new emphasis to Salvation Incorporated.

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 In both cases, the divisions of the company and work of the
Trinity remain the same:

1. God the Father – the Design and Engineering Division

2. God the Son – the Production (or Manufacturing) Division

3. God the Holy Spirit – the Sales Division (product delivery

and support)

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 Addendum Nine:
The good opinion legis (opinion of the
law)
Much has been said throughout the pages of this book about the
“opinion of the law,” commonly referred to in theological circles
with the Latin words, the “opinio legis.” Much of what is said leaves
the impression the opinion of the law is a negative thing, but it is
not. From the very beginning of creation, starting with Adam and
Eve, the opinion of the law has been written by God into the hearts
of all people. And that is a good thing; God does all things well.
Sometimes it is referred to as the natural knowledge of God because
by it God gave Adam and Eve a knowledge of God’s good and holy
will and made it as part of their nature (the law written in people’s
hearts). It was a good thing because this natural law gave Adam and
Eve (and their descendants) a natural built-in guideline to what is
good for our lives. By following it and living in harmony with God’s
will, people would be blessed with a perfect life with God. And,
secondly, if they did turn away from what is good and did not follow
the opinion of the law written in their hearts, things would be bad.
Their lives would be worse off, missing out on the benefits of God’s
goodness, culminating finally in no life at all - death.

Warnings are a good thing. It is good to be warned of the sad,

painful, fatal consequences when a person turns away from the good
and gracious will of God, and brings bad things upon themselves by
doing so. Of course, Adam and Eve did go against the holy will of God
embedded in their hearts. In disobedience o his specific command, they
ate of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and bad
things happened. They lost their perfect loving harmony with God,
became estranged from God and his goodness, and had all the
consequences of sin become the reality of their lives. This included

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spiritual death (no longer like God) and eventually the sentence of
eternal death (separated from the goodness of God’s presence
forever).

Now, the role of God's law in people’s lives (the opinio legis
and the written law of God in the Bible) has changed. It is still the same
law of God- blessings for goodness in keeping the law and curses for
going against it - but the emphasis has changed. If people could live in
perfect harmony with God’s law all their lives, always doing only what
is right and good in their thoughts, words and actions, they would still
enjoy a good and blessed life with God, forever. That is impossible,
however, since all people are born with a sinful nature, and are a slave
to sin’s influence on them. Nobody can live a perfect life in keeping
with God’s good and holy law. And so, all people face the
consequences of their sins (which ends in death). And, if they keep
trying to earn God’s favor by keeping the law - according to the opinio
legis which they know (natural and written), they will fail and be
doomed to die eternally.

As a result of the fall into sin, the role of God’s law has
changed. Now, what was originally the secondary purpose of
God’s law - to warn perfect, sinless Adam and Eve of the
consequences of turning away from God’s goodness and love - has
become the first purpose of the law: to show us our sin. That’s now
true for everybody since everyone is born in sin and commits sins of
thoughts, words, deeds, and negligence. In this way, the opinion of
the law in us is still a good thing as God intends it to be - to warn us
of the consequences of our sin. But, if people keep trying to achieve
favor with God according to the law, they will fail and be doomed
to die. It is natural for people to do so, however, since the opinion
of the law is still written in their hearts. And if they do not know
about or believe in God’s love and mercy to forgive everyone their
sins because of the redemption of Jesus Christ as our Savior, all they

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are left with is the opinion of the law within them. And they never
do have real peace with God because they know they are sinners,
and they always are (rightly) concerned whether their lives will be
good enough to be saved.“‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for
the wicked’” (Isaiah 48:22).

This purpose of the law to warn people of their sin is still

needed, also, for the Christian. They, too, like everyone else are
sinners. They, too, need the opinion of the law to be reminded and
admonished for their sin on a regular basis lest they become
complacent, indifferent and calloused against the danger of sin. If
they do become lax in their faith, they are in real danger of taking
the grace and promises of God for granted with no real repentance in
their heart or legitimate effort to turn away from sin. If, however,
they do take God’s warning to heart and recognize the seriousness of
their sin, the opinion of the law has done its work as God intended.
The opinio legis in them is still a good thing. And, by the grace of
God, the faith in Jesus Christ worked in them by the Holy Spirit will
give them the good blessing of peace and hope and the promise
of a never-ending life in harmony with God once the trials and
tribulations in this veil of tears is over. Such faith, of course, is
worked in them NOT by the demands of God’s law shouting loudly
to their hearts by the opinion of the law, but by the sweet promises
of the gospel - the wonderful good news spoken lovingly to their
heart that God has graciously forgiven their sins through the life,
suffering and death of Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin. He is
the one who has faced the wrath of God against sin for all people
as our substitute under the law.

For the people who are renewed in God’s image by the Holy
Spirit giving them a new man of faith in Christ, the former first
purpose of the law can be used again to bless them. Now, we would
call it the second purpose of the law, but it is still valid and very

534
helpful. Now, once again, we can use God’s law as a guide for
Christian living, as a rule for the new man to follow willingly to have
the goodness, and love and blessedness of life God wants people to
have. It won’t be perfect, of course, because we are still living in a
world of sin with all its aches, pains, troubles, and sorrows. Nor will
it help get us to heaven, because we are still sinners. But the law is
no longer needed to help get people to heaven on their own merit
because Christians already have heaven given to them as a free gift.
It is given to them immediately when the Holy Spirit leads them to
faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. And that gift of heaven is sealed
safely in their heart of faith as God’s promised inheritance, waiting
for them until the time the blessings of God’s will are read for them.
Until then, the good and blessedness of God’s life for people as they
strive to live as God’s children here on earth can be found in the
peace, comfort, hope, strength, and confidence which is theirs
through faith in Christ. In the physical world, it also comes to people
in the freshness of every spring rain, and the helpfulness of every
friend, and the satisfaction of an honest day of work well done, and
the joy of a loving family reunion, and everything else people learn
to appreciate as a blessing of God’s goodness because he is a loving
and merciful God who is pleased to bless his children with foretastes
of heaven.

To all of this, we add, briefly, that God’s law - the opinion of

the law in everyone’s heart - can also serve a third purpose. Since
we are still living in a world of sin, and many people are not
Christians seeking to follow God’s law as a guide for upright, godly
behavior, God will also use his law as a curb. Some people will
refrain from doing the evil they intended because the threat of
punishment according to the law looms before them, and they want
to avoid it. This is not true of the Christian who is living according
to his new man. He does not need the law as a threat of punishment,
for the new man never wants to do evil. If a Christian is giving in to
the temptations of his old Adam, however, that is another matter.
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Either way, the opinion of the law is still a good thing when God
uses it to suppress the outbreak of evil in a world that is so given to
being evil. Mirror, rule (or guide), curb. Mirror, curb, rule (guide).
Some people list them in different order. But, regardless, showing
people their sins (and, thus, their need for the Savior), guiding
Christians in godly living to bless them in their earthly lives, and
keeping in check some of the sinful behavior which is harmful to
life are all ways in which the opinion of the law is a blessing for
our lives.

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 Addendum Ten:
Signs of the Last Times
Scripture has given us signs of what will happen in the last
times to warn us the end is near. To consolidate the differing
passages of Scripture which speak on these things, we will
categorize the many signs of the last times into four types of
calamities.

There will be calamities of nature. There will be great earth-

quakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be
horrifying sights and great signs from heaven” (Luke 21:11). Think
of all the tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, mudslides, out of control
fires, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, pandemics like the black
plague, Spanish flu and Covid 19, and other natural disasters
happening in increasing measure in recent years. You’ve heard of
climatologists expressing alarm over what they see as global
warming and what they foresee as rising of the seas and damage to
the continents. God foresaw their fears. As part of the warnings of
the end, Jesus said, “And on the earth nations will be in anguish, in
perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the surging waves”
(Luke21:25). Hardly a day goes by without the evening news
including some reference to a natural disaster which has inflicted
devastating damage, and often death, in the world.

There will be calamities among the nations.

Whenever you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be

troubled. Such things must happen, but the end is not yet. In
fact, nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There
will be famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. (Mark
13:7-8)

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 Like a woman going into childbirth when her contractions
begin, the calamities of nature and the tensions and conflicts among
the nations will signal the world has started its birth pains. Years
ago, after the ongoing hell of countless wars through the centuries,
people hoped the First World War would be the war to end all
wars. But then came World War II and the Korean War, and
Falkland Island, and Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Desert Storm,
Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, Israel vs. Hamas in Gaza to name
only some. Who knows whether man’s godless selfishness and
brutal lack of respect for human life and freedom will escalate into
a third world war with even more devastating destruction of
property and life? Like birth pains, the world’s calamities will
become more frequent and more severe as the world gets closer to
its end on Judgment Day.

There will be calamity among individuals. With increasing

frequency, people will act in mindless, murderous, and atrocious
ways toward one another. Because of wickedness, human behavior
will become increasingly loveless. “Because lawlessness will
increase, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child.
Children will rise up against their parents and put them to death
(also relatives and friends will do this)” (Mark 13:12 and Luke
21:16). Think, also, of all the rioting protests, street gangs, drive-by
shootings, active shooters, rapists, serial killers, bullying and
domestic abuse situations escalating to injuries and murder. Person-
to-person relationships will fray and unravel. This calamity is
especially felt in the unraveling of marriages. It is way too common
to hear of separations, divorces, and loveless marriages when love,
commitment, and patience with each other are replaced with
mistrust, anger, bitterness, and arguing. For many reasons –
political, religious, morals, priorities, etc., people will be
vehemently pitted against each other, even in their own families.
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 And there will be calamity in the church. “You will be hated
by everyone because of my name, but the one who endures to the
end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). Persecution against the Christian
faith will increase. False teachings will increase. Apostasy will
increase. “For false Christs and false prophets will rise up and
perform signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if it were
possible. So be on your guard. I have told you everything in
advance,” (Mark 13:22-23). Things will get so bad God will shorten
the last days before the elect are lost.

For in those days there will be distress of such a kind as has

not happened from the beginning of the creation until now,
and surely never will be again. If the Lord had not shortened
those days, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the
elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened the days.
(Mark 13:19-20)

When things get so bad that you start wondering why God
hasn’t put an end to this world like he says, think of this passage.
God is shortening the days left on his eternal calendar so his elect
will not be lost.

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 Addendum Eleven:
An explanation of the word church and
how church fellowship is practiced
In order to understand what is meant by God’s church and the
fellowship of believers, it is important to know the distinctions
made in the way the word “church” is used. The word “church”
comes from a Greek word (ekklesia) which means “called out.” It
refers to all the people who have followed God’s call to come out of
the darkness of sin and unbelief in this world and have come to the
gathering of God’s people through faith in Jesus Christ. In other words,
the true Christian Church is not identified as one particular church
denomination or by all church denominations together who call
themselves Christians. It is in reality only true believers from every
Christian denomination where the gospel is proclaimed and the
Sacraments rightly administered. It is also true that a person who hears
the gospel message of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus
Christ becomes a member of God’s Church the moment he believes,
before he joins any particular congregation of believers. Faith is a
matter of the heart which only God can see. Therefore, this invisible
grouping of everyone with faith in their hearts is often called the
invisible Church. It can also be called the universal church or catholic
church (whole body of believers throughout the world). Those terms
can be confusing if someone thinks they mean all Christian
denominations together, or one particular denomination. They do not.
The visible church is simply all the people who we can see and call
Christians. We can see them walking into church services; we can see
their names on membership rolls, and we can hear them confess their
faith and read the confessions of faith they subscribe to by virtue of
membership in their church. No one would deny it; however, that some
of those people may not be true Christians. They may have joined or

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remained a member of the church for wrong reasons such as pressure
from spouse or parents, hoping for business connections, appearances
sake among their friends or, even though they hear the gospel, they
may still think they are Christians because of how they live their lives
– good enough to earn heaven, the religion of works. Such people are
not true believers in Jesus Christ as Savior and are only hiding behind
a mask pretending to be Christians – hypocrites. We can’t read their
hearts, however. God is the one who judges hearts, so we still call
them Christians. So, to differentiate, the visible church is the
membership of all people who belong to Christian churches and call
themselves Christians. The smaller group of true Christians in the
eyes of God who judges hearts are the members of the invisible
Church.

We recognize many people often use the word “church” also

to identify the building where Christians gather to worship. To help
identify which meaning of the word church is being used, it is
customary among most Christians to capitalize the word “Church”
when referring to the invisible Church. There are, therefore,
several different ways the word “church” is used:

The invisible Church - all true believers in Jesus Christ as

Savior which only God knows. Sometimes both words are
capitalized - the Invisible Church.

The visible church - all the different Christian church bodies

or denominations together.

A visible church - one specific Christian church or denomination.

A church - the building where Christians gather to worship.

God wants all people to be true believers, members of the

invisible Church. Faith in Jesus comes only through the message of
the gospel. “So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and

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the message comes through the word of Christ (the gospel)”
(Romans 10:17). All of God’s Word is written to support the
message of the gospel. “These are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name” (John 20:31). God wants unity in the
Church based on what his word says. “So Jesus said to the Jews
who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you remain in my word, you
are really my disciples’” (John 8:31). Remaining in my Word does
not mean holding to “some” of God’s teachings. All of God’s Word
is important. “All scripture is God breathed, and is useful for
teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in
righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). “Every word of God has been
refined. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add
to his words. If you do, he will correct you, and you will be shown
to be a liar” (Proverbs 30:5-6).

Therefore, claiming to be in fellowship (having the same faith)

with other visible Christian churches here on earth is not to be
done by trying to look into the heart and seeing faith. Only God
can do that. It is to be done on the basis of unity with what a
person says he believes, his confession of faith. The confession of
the church to which a person belongs is his or her clearest
confession of faith. When people agree on what they confess to
believe, then they share something in common – their belief on what
the Word of God says. They are in fellowship with one another. When
they do not agree on what they teach and believe about the Bible, they
are not in fellowship with one another here on earth. This does not
mean one visible church is saying all their members will be saved and
the members of the other church not in fellowship will be lost. The
presence of faith, or lack thereof, will be identified by God on the last
day. What it does mean is the two church bodies are not in agreement
on the teachings of the Bible. And what God wants is unity of

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teaching based on what his Word says, lest false teaching creep into
the church and faith is undermined.

You can imagine how much dissension has taken place in the
church as a result. The practice of church fellowship has often
become a contentious matter of who is teaching God’s Word correctly
and who isn’t. History has shown splits in church bodies, splits in
families, individuals excommunicated, some burned at the stake,
thrown off cliffs or killed in other ways because of what they
confessed to believe. In today’s world, there are those who believe the
Bible is not God’s inspired word, or not entirely true, or believe
disagreement on some teachings of the Bible should not keep
churches from practicing fellowship together. After all, “We’re all
Christians,” they say. Those who insist agreement on the clear
teachings of God’s Word is necessary before claiming to be united in
fellowship are often accused of being divisive and causing trouble in
the church. Whereas, unity based on what God’s Word says does not
divide churches; false teaching and the harm it does to souls which
hurts faith does divide the church. The scriptural practice of
church fellowship is often looked upon as a negative thing because
of the false idea it divides churches. Just the opposite is true.
Maintaining scriptural fellowship practices is a great blessing when
it preserves the true teachings of God’s Word which is the only thing
God uses to nurture, strengthen and preserve faith.

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 Addendum Twelve
Questions about heaven
The questions people have about heaven are legitimate
questions. It is not wrong to wonder what heaven will be like. Some
questions come from references in Scripture which we don’t
understand completely. Some questions stem from the silence of
Scripture on things not revealed to us. We will list a few of the more
common questions with a few comments on each. We will start with
two questions for which we do have answers.

1. Will there be degrees of glory in heaven? Yes. Just as there

will be degrees of condemnation and suffering in hell for
unbelievers according to their wickedness, so there will be
degrees of glory in heaven for believers according to their
works. “…you, Lord, have mercy. Surely you will repay each
person according to what he has done,” Psalm 62:12. See also
Jeremiah 17:10, Matthew 16:27, Revelation 22:12.

Building on the foundation of faith in Christ, Paul wrote to the

Corinthians,

But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver,

costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each person’s work will
become evident. The Day will make it plain, because it is
going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each
person’s work to show what sort of work it is. If what
someone has built remains, he will receive a reward. If
someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself
will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire.(1
Corinthians 3:12-15)

The interpretation of the passage refers only to believers.

Some believers live more sanctified lives on earth and, by the
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gracious leading of the Holy Spirit, produce more fruits of
faith than others. The fires of judgment on the last day will
reveal what kind of works a person produces. Just like
precious stones and metals like silver will survive earthly
fires, but wood, hay, and stubble will not, so the lives of some
believers will be more sanctified and produce more fruits of
faith than others. See the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13,
specifically verses 8 and 23, and the parable of the Talents in
Matthew 25:14-23.

All fruits of faith are pleasing in God’s sight—even those

imperfect in God’s sight because they might still be tainted by a
person’s weakness or lack of understanding. See Isaiah 64:6.
Repeating an example which has already been used, consider the
child who is eager to help her mother with housework. She
willingly does the dishes and vacuums the rugs. And even though
she accidentally dropped a dish and broke it and wasn’t strong
enough to move some of the furniture for vacuuming, her mother
was still pleased and gave her a hug. So is God. All fruits of faith
are pleasing to God in whatever vocation a person lives. Whether
it is faithfully preaching God’s Word as a clergyman, or supporting
God’s work with service and offerings as a layperson, or raising
children in a God-fearing household as a parent, or running a
business ethically and treating employees fairly as an owner, or
simply faithfully doing one’s job as a janitor, God knows what is
done from the sanctified living of a believing heart. And God will
recognize it in heaven according to the degree of faithfulness and
selfless service shown.

Not everything a Christian does in his life, however, is

done with an eye on heaven and the goal of gaining the prize of
heaven through faith in Christ. (See Philippians 3:12-14 for
Paul’s comment on running the race of life with the goal of

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holding onto and growing in Christian faith in order to receive
the prize of heaven.) In other words, not everything a Christian
does proceeds from having an eye on the eternal prize of
heaven.

Some things, seen as good and worthy of praise and glory

by the world, are certainly possible for a person to strive for as
a Christian. A Christian who dedicates himself to staying in
shape, and trains hard to achieve success in running road races,
and win medals, recognition, and the glory of setting records, or
the football player who practices hard and is determined to
improve himself, and ends up earning MVP awards, and being
elected to the hall of fame may gain “prizes” and glory in the
world’s eyes. We are not saying those goals are wrong for a
Christian to pursue. And what Christian has not rejoiced at
another Christian giving glory to God and thanking his Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, for blessing him with success when he
is being interviewed afterwards. But it is his confession of faith,
service to others in faith, and praise for God’s blessings upon
him that are recognized by God as valuable to God’s kingdom.
The gold medals, championships won, and all-star status
earned does not qualify for glory in heaven. Like wood, hay,
and stubble, such medals, awards, newspaper clippings, and
plaques will be burned up in the fires of judgment on the last
day. They will mean nothing in heaven, even though the
Christian will still be saved and escape the fires of judgment
through faith in Christ.

The same thing is true for the businessman who runs a

successful business, makes a lot of money, achieves accolades,
and is nominated for a position on various boards, or the
billionaire benefactor who contributes greatly to worthy
charities and supports noble causes, or anybody else who is

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recognized as a great writer, poet, painter, songwriter, producer,
etc. Unless such things are produced from the heart by the new
man and are evidence of love and service to others as a fruit of
faith (See Matthew 25:31-40), the accomplishments will wither
in the flames of judgment and receive no glory for heaven. The
degree of glory for heaven is based on the degree of love and
service to others which come from a heart of faith.

When talking about degrees of glory in heaven, however,

it is important to remember that the bottom line is still
salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ. The good
works of believers do not help a person get into heaven; he is
already a believer saved by grace. Nor do they have merit
earning a higher or lesser degree of glory in heaven. The
reward of glory - to whatever degree – is still a reward
bestowed by God in his grace because of who he is, a gracious
and loving God. It is his doing when the Holy Spirit motivates
people to produce fruits of faith, not something people have a
right to take credit for themselves to earn glory.

And you can be absolutely certain those who receive

“higher” degrees of glory in heaven will be in 100%
agreement with the previous statement. They will be the first
to give all glory and credit to God and in all humbleness share
their blessed life in heaven as equals with everyone else. There
will be no sense of superiority, or better than thou attitude,
toward others. Those are sinful attitudes in this life and will
not be found spoiling life in heaven for anyone. You can also
be absolutely certain those who receive the “lesser” degrees of
glory will be 100% in agreement with the glory they have
received from God. They are still in glory; they are still
enjoying all of God’s love and goodness and blessing in
heaven. They will be enjoying the blessed life of the new

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 heaven and earth with everyone else in whichever state of
glory they live without any envy or jealousy. Sinful feelings of
envy and jealousy are found only here on earth, not in God’s
glorious heaven. Rather, those in the “lesser” degrees of glory
will rejoice and be happy not only for their own existence, but
also, they will rejoice and be happy for the degree of glory
others enjoy. If you want a comparison, it will be something
along the lines of how a man who has been honored and
decorated for his achievements, will feel about his son who
has been awarded even higher honor and praise for his
achievements. He will not be jealous and envious, but rather
proud of him and rejoice with him for what he has received.
That is the way it will be with the degrees of glory God
graciously gives in heaven.

2. Will we still be married in heaven? No. Marriage will not be a

part of life in heaven. “In fact, in the resurrection people neither
marry nor are given in marriage. Instead, they are like the
angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). The reason God
made Adam and Eve male and female for the procreation of
children is no longer applicable. There will be no sexual
intimacy and children born in heaven. Our intimacy in heaven
will go far beyond a mere physical joining. It will be the
spiritual joining of many hearts of faith into the one glorious
union of Christ and his Church. Side note: Neat word –
procreation – revealing God’s plan. God is the creator of all life
including the life of a new person at conception in the womb.
God made Adam and Eve male and female and made marriage a
part of our existence in this world for (pro) creating life with
him. They were to be used by God as his instruments for
bringing life into this world. It’s also why those who believe in
God support Pro Life on earth in contrast to those who support
ending a life God has created by abortion. But all God’s
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 eternally elect are born in this life. There will be no marriage and
no new life created in the new heaven and earth.

3. Will we know each other in heaven? Probably, if not definitely.

There are a number of references in Scripture which lead to
this conclusion. In the account of the rich man and poor
Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the rich man in hell knew who
Abraham and Lazarus were. We should note, however, the
account is recorded to emphasize the importance of using
God’s Word to have and hold on to saving faith during our time
of grace on earth, not the ability to identify individuals. In the
new heaven and new earth, the inhabitants of hell will not be
able to communicate with anyone in heaven nor, we assume, be
able to see what is going on in heaven. When David’s infant
son by Bathsheba died, he said, “Now he has died. Why should
I fast? Am I able to return him to life again? I will go to him (in
heaven), but he will not return to me” (come back to life with
David here on earth, see 2 Samuel 12:23). The passage
certainly implies David would know his son in heaven. The
Apostle Paul wrote, “Now we see indirectly using a mirror, but
then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I
will know fully, just as I was fully known” (1 Corinthians
13:12). Does this include knowing each other individually?
Probably. However, the passage could be interpreted to mean
having a full understanding of God’s ways, and his plan of
salvation, not necessarily knowing every individual personally.

On the other hand, God also says in Isaiah, “I am about to

create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will
not be remembered. They will not come to mind” (Isaiah
65:17). Does that include not remembering who people were
on earth? Or does it mean not think about and spend “time”
remembering the past because the glories of heaven occupy

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 one’s interest? There are Christians who take the position of
not remembering other people from this life. Part of the logic
to their position is the conclusion that not remembering people
from on earth would remove the possibility of heartache and
sorrow (which will not occur in heaven) because some family
members/loved ones were not in heaven. Finally, to support a
positive answer to the question, we recognize the funeral
practice of Christian churches for centuries which told
mourners to look forward to a happy reunion in heaven with
their loved ones who died in Christian faith.

4. How can we be completely happy and rejoicing in heaven if we

know one of our loved ones is lost and not enjoying heaven with
us? I don’t know. We just know it will be so. This is probably
the most difficult aspect of heaven to grasp. It is very difficult
for people who know heaven is waiting for them through faith in
Christ to imagine not being sad and grieving over the eternal
death of a loved one who would not be enjoying the blessings of
God’s glorious heaven with them. Living with emotions still
affected by our sinful state, it seems impossible to feel otherwise.
It is still that way for this writer. Nevertheless, we accept as true
what God says. “You have made known to me the path of life,
fullness of joy in your presence, pleasures at your right hand
forever” (Psalm 16:11). The passage from Isaiah quoted in the
third question above may provide some insight. Perhaps we
simply won’t remember or think about people and events from
this life, or anything else in the way of difficulties, problems, or
regrets that would cause us sadness. Those former things have
passed away. Perhaps, the knowledge our God is both a loving
and merciful God and, at the same time, a just and righteous God
who does all things well will suffice our hearts which will then be
in full harmony with God’s heart and will. Trust God. Our joy
will be complete. A related thought: Unbelievers in hell will also
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 be in the presence of a God who is omnipresent. But he will not
be present to bless. Perhaps beyond our understanding, the very
love and mercy of God for his children brings increasing
torment and agony to those who have rejected it.

5. What will our glorified bodies look like in heaven? In other

words, will we look young, or old, or even like an infant as we
looked like at the time of death (Related question: Will we
have all the members of our body again even if we lost an arm,
or a leg, etc., because of some accident or illness here on
earth?) Best answer: It’s immaterial. Either way, life will be
good. Concerning lost body parts, it would seem likely God,
who has the power to raise our ashes to life, would also raise
the lost body part and transform our entire body into the spiritual
glorified body of heaven.

Concerning the appearance of age, most people probably prefer

everyone looking like they were in the prime of life, neither young
or old or infant. Maybe so. We should remember, however, a
resurrected body in whatever state will be a glorified, spiritual
body. It will be good. We should not retain ideas of better or
worse looking according to age as we would here on earth. There
was a time when, even here on earth, when an elderly person was
looked up to and honored because of their age, wisdom, and
experience. Concerning the mental capacity of glorified bodies
whether they appear young, old, or even babies, we would assume
the limitations of earthly life – having not yet acquired much
understanding as babies or starting to lose mental capacities
because of aging – would also be glorified in heaven to include a
full understanding and appreciation of the blessed life all
enjoy in heaven. See 1 Corinthians 13:12.

6. What about time? How can we conceive of life that goes on

forever? One is tempted to say, “Don’t worry your pretty little
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head about it.”It will be forever, even if we can’t wrap our
petty little minds around it. But we should not make light of the
serious matters of God’s blessed life. God has revealed
everlasting life is waiting for us in the new heaven and earth and
we believe it. Saying it will be “time without end” or “endless
timelessness” may help a little, but probably don’t completely
satisfy. Remember, God created time and space for this life when
he created the world. In his domain of heaven, there is no space; he
is omnipresent. In his domain there is no time; he is eternal.
When this world which was constructed with the operating
limits of time and space is destroyed, the realities of time and
space will come to an end. For that matter, interestingly enough,
“space” telescopes searching the universe cannot detect an end
to space. And our perception of time isn’t so constant either.
When we sleep or are unconscious or under sedation, we have
no perception of time passing other than waking up in the
middle of the night and looking at the clock. And as we age, we
seem to process time differently. Time just goes flying by.
Where did the time/years go? It seems like Christmas comes
twice a year, right? People have always been infatuated with the
idea of time travel as if it could be possible. A universe
constructed within the parameters of time and space would
seem to require such thinking to remain a fantasy. But maybe
the limits of time and space aren’t as concrete as we think.

Nevertheless, when this world is destroyed on the last

day, everything associated with it will be gone, including how
we experience time and space. The former things will have
passed away. The new earth God raises up will be brought into
the dimension of God’s heaven to establish a new heaven
where time and space also will be transformed. No more tick
tock runs the clock, another day on this old rock, one more

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year around the block. However, we try to express it, our
experience of time and space will be transformed also.

Maybe think of it this way. You’re at a family gathering

where everyone gets along splendidly. You’re eating fine food and
enjoying fine wine while celebrating a big occasion. Everyone is
happy, enjoying each other’s company and you wish the day
would never end. And it doesn’t. The sun never goes down
because there is no sun, there is no night. You don’t get tired,
you don’t get sleepy, you never run out of food, and you never
over eat. Maybe the party breaks up and you go on to doing
other equally enjoyable things. That includes working and
taking care of your new earth and accomplishing other
fulfilling activities. But all of this makes us think in earthly
terms as a succession of things. Could a person go back to the
point when the party began? See, we are thinking again in terms
of time passing. Does time just stand still while we go on doing
whatever things we are doing?

Timeless, to us, would mean the present remains the present

and never changes. Is that what God means with omnipresent –
an existence which is always present with no past to fret over or
forget, and no future to wonder or worry about in a domain not
defined by time and space? At any rate, in earthly terms the
presence of God and his light is “everywhere” and “all the time.”
(See, we can’t even express our thoughts without using
terminology related to time and space.) Your spiritual body does
not need food or sleep to survive because it is sustained by God’s
goodness, living and glorifying God in his presence. You can go
“anywhere” at “any time,” and live in harmony with “anyone”
because you are living the blessed life of God’s glorious, sinless
unchanging existence in the new heaven and the new earth,
forever.

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