The Need for Forgiveness Part 2- Christology By Stephen Fields
If you missed it, check out Part 1 of this article.
For our purposes in this article, we echo and affirm the creeds of Chalcedon and Nicea: that Jesus is the Eternal Son of God, and is true God of true God [1]. Therefore we will not say any more in defense of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will argue briefly for His humanity or His incarnation, and the significance and good news that Jesus is fully human. Biblical Christology teaches that God the eternal Son, came in the flesh and assumed the very nature of the humanity He created (John 1:14; Hebrews 1:2-3) to accomplish redemption for his fallen image bearers and to fulfill the first Adam’s obedience (Ephesians 1:7-8).
God’s Promise and Method
In our text of Genesis 3, particularly from 3:15, God promised to crush the serpent’s head through the seed of the woman whom he had deceived.
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
The rest of the scriptures unfold how the Creator God will accomplish this promise. In Genesis 12 God calls Abram and his family out of Ur of the Chaldeans to a land He will show him. In Genesis 12:2 God promised to make Abram a great nation and bless him. Abram followed God’s summons and obeyed. The LORD then appeared to Abram and he worshiped Him. Later in Genesis 15:2 Abram questions God and asks how it was possible that he would be a great nation seeing his wife Sarai was childless, so at this time, he did not have a son of his own and his only heir was Eliezer of Damascus. God responds to Abram’s inquiry by saying “This man will not be your heir, but one will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir”.
God then takes Abram out to look into the sky and says that He would multiply his descendants as many as the stars in the heavens. Abram believed and is reckoned righteous. Then Abram asks for a sign that these things will come about, and 15:9-10 God cuts a covenant with Abram. During this covenant-cutting process, Abram fell into a deep sleep and God himself passed between the two pieces. Thus God obligated only Himself to fulfill the terms of the covenant. It was through the lineage of Abram that God is unfolding His redemption of His creation through the seed of the woman.
Genesis 16 begins with a statement that Sarai is barren and has not borne any children. This caused a panic for Abram and Sarai. They were not getting any younger and God had promised to make them fruitful and give them as many children as the stars in the heavens. But it was not happening! Sarai decided she would intervene and help God with this problem, and gave her servant Hagar to Abram. This action from Sarai was as if she said “If I (Sarai) can’t have children, maybe God will let my servant have children through Abram and that will solve the problem.” When we do not trust in God’s promises, thinking we can accomplish God’s promises better or bring them about more quickly, or we assume we know what God meant, it inevitably ends in disaster.
Hagar conceived and bore a son to Abram, his name was called Ishmael. Sarai was not happy (even though it was her idea and her plan to give an heir to Abram through Hagar is successful). Her unhappiness came because Hagar tried to press her advantage of having a son through Abram. Abram sides with Sarai and Hagar was exiled from Abraham’s household. Ishmael was not to be the promised son in fulfillment of God’s plan. God provided for Hagar in the midst of the broken situation. Human scheming was not the way God was going to fulfill His promise to Abram.
God appeared again to Abram and changed His name to Abraham. The change is significant. Abram means, “Father of a nation” (singular). With this new name, God was making clear he would work through Abram and Sarai to make Abraham the father of many nations (plural). Despite Sarai and Abraham’s unbelief God was graciously providing for Ishmael, though he was not the heir God had promised to Abraham. God then renewed His covenant promises to bless and multiply Abraham through a son with Sarai. He gives the command to Abraham of circumcision for all male children [2]. Any male child not circumcised would be cut off from Abraham’s seed (17:14). In 17:15-16, God confirmed His commitment to bless and multiply Abraham, through a son born to Sarah, who also has a name change [3]. Abraham was shocked and stunned into laughter and tried to persuade God that Ishmael should serve as heir. God says, “NO!” Sarah is the one to bear his son. (God’s chosen woman is Sarah through whom He was going to bring the seed)
In Genesis 18, it was Sarah’s turn to laugh. God visited Abraham and told him that in a year Sarah would conceive. Sarah, like Abraham, could hardly believe She was over ninety years old and way past time naturally for her to have children. Abraham himself was 100 years old. Conceiving and birthing a child was not humanly possible. The thought was so ridiculous it was laughable. God questions why Sarah laughed at His word, which she denies. However, the laugh is on Abraham and Sarah both, for in chapter 21 Isaac is born. Interestingly the name Isaac means, “laughter”. What a joyous occasion! The promised seed, (heir) had arrived. Will he be the one that God uses to crush the “Serpent/Deceiver’s'' head? The answer is no, but Isaac was a forerunner of the one to come through whom God would accomplish all His promised redemption.
Testing of Abraham’s Faith
In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham’s faith by telling him to take his only son, only heir, whom he loved and had waited so long for God to give him, up a mountain of God’s choosing and sacrifice Isaac to God [4]. There are many shadows from this chapter of Genesis that find their substance in Jesus Christ in the NT. We will only look at a few of these.
In 22:6 Abraham makes Isaac carry the wood that he is going to be sacrificed on. Is Jesus bearing the cross and carrying the very wood He will be sacrificed on the substance of the shadow (see John 19:17).
Isaac asks in 22:7 where the Lamb for the burnt offering is, to which Abraham replies “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” The prophet Isaiah spoke of the suffering Servant of God as a Lamb going to slaughter (Isaiah 53:7-8). John the Baptist, upon seeing Jesus cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the World” (John 1:29). The theme of Jesus as the lamb of God is continued in 1 Peter 1:19-20 and Revelation 13:8 which speaks of the Lamb appointed before the foundation of the world to shed His own blood and die and rise again for our redemption! Praise the LORD! The trip of Isaac and Abraham up the mountain was a preview of God’s full redemption accomplished in the person and work of Jesus.
In 22:9-10 Abraham and Isaac arrived at the place appointed by God for the sacrifice. Abraham built the altar and stacked the wood. He then turned and bound Isaac. Is the silence deafening here that Isaac is not said to struggle in any way to being bound, realizing he is the sacrifice? The New Testament scriptures emphasize the voluntary giving of His life by Jesus (see Matt. 26:39,42; Titus 2:14; John 10:17-18; Ephes. 5:2: Acts 2:23; Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 9:14). What a marvelous, humbling, and soul-rending truth to ponder! That in the Counsel of His own will before the foundation of the world God had appointed the Eternal Son whom He loved to suffer (John 3:16) and die the death that His rebellious creatures deserve and that He (Eternal Son, Jesus) voluntarily agreed and gave up His life for us!
God Provides a Savior
There is one more thing we should look at from this amazing chapter. When Abraham had placed Isaac on the altar, he seized the knife and raised it over his only son to slay him (22:10)! But God called out from Heaven, “Abraham, Abraham” (22:11-12) telling him not to slay Isaac. The reason? Isaac was not the one who would crush the serpent’s head nor could his sacrifice atone for the sins of the world achieving the promised redemption. Isaac could not raise himself from the dead in the defeat of man’s death penalty. Only Jesus, fully God, and fully man, perfectly righteous and obedient to God could achieve such a redemption. Isaac’s life pointed to the one who would crush the serpent’s head, atone for the sins of man, and rise from the dead in the conquest of man’s death penalty. Abraham, staying his hand, looked and saw God’s temporal provision stuck in a thicket and offered it “in the place of his son”. We read in Genesis 22:14 that “Abraham called the name of that place ‘The LORD will provide’ as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided” The Hebrew words for the phrase translated, “The will LORD will provide” is Yahweh yireh, which means, the LORD will see to it [5].
What a picture the scriptures give of God’s gracious and merciful provision for his fallen, sinful people. That He will in our place die and rise again from the dead. Jesus the Lamb, voluntarily suffered by coming in the form of those who sinned against Him to redeem them from the curse. There is so much more than the scriptures unfold through our Creator’s revelation of Himself throughout the rest of the sixty-six books, that the scope of this article does not allow [6]. We hope it creates in your hearts a burning to know more of our magnificent Savior, and you like the disciples in Luke 24:32 say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He(Jesus) was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us!”
We Need Reconciliation
All of God’s image bearers have broken and transgressed God’s commands, that is to say we like Adam and Eve before us have disobeyed and rebelled against God’s word. This leaves us needing reconciliation, or peace
with God, and redemption, which is forgiveness of sin. As we have seen above Jesus has voluntarily sacrificed Himself to fulfill and obediently keep God’s word as Adam failed to do. Thus achieving reconciliation and redemption for us with our Creator, Ephes. 1:7.
Peter in Matthew 18:21 comes up to Jesus and asks him a question about forgiveness. Jesus has been putting out the fires of arguing among the disciples about who will be the greatest in His kingdom. Feelings have been hurt and the need to forgive and be forgiven for hurtful and harmful words spoken in anger was great. Peter’s question in vs. 21 was, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and forgive him?” Peter then tries to answer his own question. “Up to seven times?” One can see the aggrieved Peter running up to Jesus, and not wanting to name the perpetrator(s) uses the word brother, possibly even eyeing the one he is accusing.
The answer Jesus gives is stunning, vs. 22: “Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” It is shocking even for us to hear Jesus’ words. First of all good luck keeping a log of all the times, and even if you were able to and someone say a wife, maybe sinned 490 times against you would you then not need to forgive her on the 491st time? Jesus seems to have anticipated this scenario because He begins telling them an earthly story with a heavenly truth, a parable. In vs. 23 he says, “For this reason the kingdom of Heaven can be compared….” The reason is the scenario given by Peter on how many times he is to forgive his brother.
The parable is of a king who is settling the debts of all who owe him. A servant comes before him owing 10,000 talents. The servant could work every day for the rest of his life and would not even come close to paying what he owed the king. So vs. 25 tells us he did not have the means to pay it. So the king demands the man and his family all be sold to settle the debt [7]. The servant begs the king to be merciful and allow him to work and promises to pay it all back in full. The King is compassionate and forgives the whole debt! Amazing right? In response to this unspeakable and unfathomable forgiveness the servant goes out and finds someone who owes him a debt that would take less than a year of working to pay it off and begins choking him and demands he pay it all back. The man does the same thing and begs for mercy and promises to work until it is paid, but the unforgiving servant throws the man in prison until the debt is paid back. The King hears about the servant who He forgave ruthless and callous treatment of the man who owed him, and is angry and calls him back before Him and asks, should you not have had mercy on the one who owed you like I was merciful and forgave you? And as merciless as the servant was to his fellow debtor the king hands him over to the torturers, vs.34.
Vs.35, Jesus explains for what reason he told them this parable. “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
We owe a debt to our Creator that we can not in a lifetime pay back to Him. In our Savior’s death and resurrection, He has forgiven that debt. Jesus was telling his disciples that we are to be as merciful and forgiving as God is with us. In the Lord’s prayer, Matt. 6:12: “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Ephes. 4:32: “Be kind to one another, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” Do you hear the Savior’s cry to the Father on the cross for those he is dying for, “Forgive them Father, they know not what they are doing.”, Luke 23:34. Or Paul to the church in Colossae, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having] forgiven us all our transgressions, [canceling] out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, and He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.”
Do you see and understand you are God’s debtor and owe Him more than you can pay?? Can you say with the old hymn: “O, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be” If you do know this incomprehensible forgiveness, then are you forgiving all who sin and are debtors to you? Please dear reader pray for forgiveness and turn from the sin that holds you and in turn forgive all those who hurt and harm you! When it is so difficult to be forgiving with those who are insulting and persecuting you, remember the Savior carrying your cross and being nailed upon it for you. He Forgave you your debt which is far more than anyone could be indebted to you.
Footnotes:
[1] See Chalcedon creed of 451 AD and Nicene creed of 325 AD
[2] This sign of circumcision distinguishes Abraham’s seed from the seed of the serpent. In the OT/ New Testament It is not “circumcision of the flesh” that distinguishes seed, but a “circumcision made without hands” that removes sin from our hearts. In the NT, baptism is the sign Christ gives the church that sin has been cut away, removed, i.e. circumcised, Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4; Rom.2:29; Phil. 3:3; Col.2:11-12.
[3] Sarai means “princess” or “lady” of a royal line. Sarah means “princess” but is now more specific to royalty, which like Abraham is broader to include many nations, Sarah connotes her standing in the broader sense of royalty for many nations.
[4] In reading Genesis 22, one of the most remarkable and powerful truths God is trying to help us understand is that He is in complete control, He is the sovereign Conductor of this symphony of redemption and there will be no sour notes. He is testing and proving and strengthening the faith of His chosen one. Nothing is going to happen to the Seed!
[5] Strikingly in the sermon Hebrews, the preacher describes the faith Abraham shows, and in chapter 11:17-19, says that he obediently and in complete trust and faith in the God who was asking him to kill the son of the promise was going to kill Isaac believing God would raise him from the dead.
[6] For more study on what the OT teaches about Jesus, read Edmund Clowney’s book: “The Unfolding Mystery, Discovering Christ in the Old Testament”
[7] This is an indebtedness that even selling him and his family and possessions would not cover. So the king is taking a loss.
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